1. Karl Rove interviewed in the NYTimes. (I want the parts left out)

You’ve been booed off stages recently.
No, I haven’t. I’ve been booed on stages. I’m a little bit tougher than to walk off a stage because someone says something ugly.

Enjoy! (ht – JG)

2. Forget about politics and beliefs etc, it’s all about personality now. Because Obama won.
And don’t forget Reagan and Clinton. Um – what about George W.? Hmmm – while it fits my narrative, I suspect it doesn’t fit yours honey.

History shows that while ideas matter, personality trumps all. In the mass-communication era, voters flock to leaders who groove with the nation’s zeitgeist. Think of recent two-termers Ronald Reagan (who heralded “Morning in America”) and Bill Clinton (who felt our pain).

Now there is Obama, he of hope and change and perhaps even more important, postpartisan civility.

Seriously, how can you have a column stating absolutely that it’s all about personality without once mentioning 8 years of George Bush. Love him or hate him, 8 years!!!! Tell us how he fits your statement of facts here.

3. And Jesse Jackson gave me a chuckle or two.

Asked how Bush could help the incoming administration, Jackson replied, “A: Stop these damaging executive orders that satisfy ideology but not people,” and commit to helping the auto industry.

Kind of like Clinton. Remember him? He issued so many executive orders that when Bush came to office he had to freeze them just so he could read them all!

or how about Jesse saying this:

“All of that talk of bipartisanship begins now,” Jackson said. “And the new president deserves his vision to be implemented immediately.”

After accusing Bush of hijacking the election of 2000.

One can only laugh.

Everything Bad is good again.

Lobbyists, bad. Lobbyists, good.

Torture, bad. Torture, maybe not so bad after all.

Guantanamo, bad. Guantanamo, needed.

MSM – George W Bush is the devil incarnate what with all the torture and unlimited detentions and evil lobbyist ties.
MSM – Barack H Obama is a realist who sees that limiting interrogation techniques could limit information and that sometimes, some people need to be held indefinitely lest they roam the streets of the US of A and sometimes lobbyists are the experts that actually have knowledge of their subjects vs just being evil beings living off the greed in DC.

As cranky as all of this makes me, it will be fabulous to have a media that doesn’t automatically reverse spin everything coming out of the White House.

Is it unRepublican to say that I’d vote for anyone who legislates making that crap plastic packaging really go away!!
(don’t answer that. I know it is. I still hate that packaging and am glad to see it may be going the way of the dinosaur.)
………………..

The NYTimes has a story on Spam today. During these hard times, Spam is making a comeback.

Here’s the scary line. (I took a screen shot in case they make it disappear)

Hormel declined to cooperate with this article, but several of its workers were interviewed here recently with the help of their union, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 9.

Declined to cooperate?????

Excalibur has looked into it. I never have bothered because I don’t think it will really happen. The way Excalibur describes it though, I don’t disagree.

A bit of public service wouldn’t do any of us harm. Here’s a bit of thought put into how it COULD look like.

So, what could you do in three months? I’m thinking first aid training (ala American Red Cross), potentially disaster response stuff (debris clearing, fire fighting) possibly basic firearms training, especially weapons safety, which actually could be done with electronic weapons simulators. I think living in the outdoors to include starting fires, surviving severe weather, building shelters, etc. Basically, take parts of Army/Marine basic training (physical fitness, team work, firearms) throw in some first aid training, combine with some Boy Scout/Girl Scout outdoors stuff, this would be good for everyone. But, to put meat on the bones, I would make a final month (either in the 3 or add a fourth) and have these folks actually do things: fight fires in the west, disaster response (hurricane, flooding, and earthquakes) volunteer in hospitals, clinics, or as a volunteer first responders in rural America, or on the border watching for illegal’s crossing.

Michael Yon sees no reason to stick around Iraq anymore because, it’s over…we won.

Iraq the Model gives us the view from over there on our election results.

America presented a rare example that other nations aren’t familiar with — a magnificent case of bringing down the walls of partisanship and race for the sake of the country. In our part of the world, immigrants are refugees, and they and their offspring are destined to remain inferior and despised for as long as they live. Not so in America.

Even more amazing was the scene of losing leaders saluting the winner with utmost sincerity and graciousness. In my opinion, McCain’s speech was more powerful and moving than Obama’s. I wish our leaders in the Middle East enjoyed half the courage of America’s leaders to acknowledge loss when they experience it and respect the winners.

Finally, I would like to take off my hat for the man who’s leaving the White House: President George Bush, the liberator of Iraq. Invading Iraq was a sound decision in spite of the mistakes that were made. He and Senator McCain, whose surge strategy saved Iraq from slipping down the brink of civil war, will be remembered as heroes by millions of freedom-loving Iraqis.

I disagree with Mr. Obama on many issues, but I do trust America and I wish her people and my people all the best.

God bless Iraq and America.

I gave fair warning at a local drinking establishment last night that I love George Bush and am ready and willing to defend him. So if they felt they wanted to talk about him, I’d be happy to.

After a brief discussion of how Bush “completely screwed up the surplus left him by Clinton” they didn’t try again. Too bad, because I’d love to talk about Iraq some day.

Thank you to Mohammid and Omar Fadhil along with their other brother Zeyad and his blog Healing Iraq for giving us honest (both good and bad) updates of what’s going on over there from their perspectives.

Al Franken.

No I don’t mean he’s the author, though he is.

I mean he’s the Liar.

Al Franken’s campaign hit a new low when they tried to argue that they should get all of the personal information connected to rejected absentee ballots in order for them to determine the legitimacy of the rejection. They spun a sad tale of a Bemidji woman whose ballot got rejected because her signature had changed — due to a stroke. This touching tale had everything to pull on the heartstrings … except the truth (via Power Line)

What a %&^$#*

Today in the NYTimes, David Brooks writes on the bailout ideas being kicked around for Detroit. Very similar to the previous link to Megan McArdle he notes that not all businesses are meant to stick around forever and maybe ought to fail.

Good for him.

Then he says:

The second part of Obama’s plan is the creation of an auto czar with vague duties. Other smart people have called for such a czar to reorganize the companies and force the companies to fully embrace green technology and other good things.

That would be great, but if Obama was such a fervent believer in the Chinese model of all-powerful technocrats, he should have mentioned it during the campaign. Are we really to believe there exists a czar omniscient, omnipotent and beneficent enough to know how to fix the Big Three? Who is this deity? Are we to believe that political influence will miraculously disappear, that the czar would have absolute power over unions, management, Congress and the White House? Please.

ROFLMAO!!!

Obama said that with him in office the oceans would go down. In what way DIDN’T he mention that he believes government can fix everything??

Megan McArdle has a great post out on why we shouldn’t be throwing money at Detroit.

It’s a great post because she describes where she’s from and how all the money in the world couldn’t save it nor should it have. Upstate NY.
Which is where I’m from originally. Her descriptions are beautiful yet the place is pretty sad.

Read on

These vital towns, where generations of people lived happy lives and raised fat, burbling babies to a middle-class adulthood, are all dying. Should the government save these places too? Shall we support Eastman Kodak indefinitely, whether or not it can produce a product anyone wants to buy? And Xerox, and Carrier, and a thousand companies you’ve never heard of? Shall we make it illegal to make a better product than American corporations? Why not just ban new products that make old ones unprofitable?

Nice post Megan.