Another Good Memorial Day Message

Lt. Col. (now full Colonel) Kurt Schlichter addresses the crowd at the 2010 Forest Lawn Memorial Day ceremony:

A Special Memorial Day Message

It is on this day we honor the sacrifices of those who have served our country in our military services.  One of those decorated veterans was my father-in-law, Roy Jennings, who came home from France after WWII with two Purple Hearts and a Silver Star, plus lifelong problems thanks to the trench foot that put him out of the war and the head wound that probably should have killed him.  Roy passed away on December 2nd, 2008, at the age of 83.

The battle in which he was wounded was the subject of a History Channel episode of "Shootout!", and Roy was interviewed on camera for the show.  I've excerpted the portion of the show that talks about the Battle of Vezon, France, and the moment in which he was wounded. What's still amazing to me is that all this happened when he was only 19 years old, younger than my own son.  Please take a few minutes and watch this, and then read the follow-up information below the video:


The show did not go into what happened after that fateful night in Vezon, France, but Roy put that in his own words in an article I typed up for him some years ago. He later wrote a privately-published book about his experiences as a soldier.

 Here's the rest of the story:

The next morning the forward observation post counted more than thirty dead soldiers being loaded into the German ambulances. As for me, at the time I got back to the Regimental Aid station, the doctors gathered around; inspected the wound and came to two conclusions; one it was a glancing hit, the other it was a clear penetration into the frontal lobes. Both agreed if number two were true I should be dead. It was here at the location of this august body that I was presented my Purple Heart Award.

Bets were made and placed in an envelope which was tied to my shirt button hole for safe travel to the base hospital at Verdun, where the true winner could be established.

Along the way I was checked and injected with Morphine so I was pretty relaxed when we arrived at the receiving area. Immediately I was rushed into X-Ray and a series of pictures were taken from various angles, then back out to join the long lines of occupied gurneys awaiting their turn of attention. As I was being wheeled into the big operating room (six stations in action), I was pulled back out to X-Ray for more photos and then returned to the operating room. Here I was placed in the hands of the most gorgeous Red Headed Girl I had ever seen. She tenderly strapped my arm to a splint, inserted a needle and lovingly held my hand instructing me to count backwards starting at one hundred. I was fuzzy from Morphine but I couldn't take my eye off that vision in a nurses uniform. I think it made it down to ninety three and awoke in a small ward with my bullet on a 3x3 gauze pad on the night stand. It seems somewhere along the line I had asked that it be saved. Looking at it I agreed it must have been a ricochet as it was badly smashed with the copper jacket missing, and had the jacket remained intact if indeed it had one, any hunter could assure you it undoubtedly would have exited out through the top of the skull.

The Chaplain had made the trip back from the front to Verdun to visit his boys and the others among the early wounded. I had maintained rather good Sunday attendance back at Indiantown Gap as a continuation of my Sundays as a civilian in Huntington Park, California. He was interested in the removed bullet and wondered what I intended to do with it. When I explained I intended to convert it into a watch fob or a unit to be hung on the chain of a tie claps, he laughed and agreed either would work. He left with both of us feeling the future held great possibilities.

When I was being discharged from the hospital I was carrying the bullet in my pants watch pocket for safekeeping. The pants were new hospital issue as my combat ones were gone. As I was leaving, and Officer looked at my pant legs which were rather short and said I would have to go back and be issued a larger pair. The whole activity was under extreme pressure as the truck was in the act of leaving the hospital parking lot at that moment. The long and the short of it was, my pant legs were now long enough but I was short one combat souvenir that was irreplaceable.

I was being returned to the front although totally night blind in the injured eye. The feeling at that time was, keep as many trained troops in action as possible. I was placed on night guard duty as others took part in patrol actions. This restricted duty was considered quite reasonable even though I was so night blind and vision restricted form the swelling there was no way I could distinguish friend from foe by observation. Everything was left to challenge, sign and countersign; it was a nervous time for all concerned.

My next combat patrol was our first daylight action some days later. I had my old job back as a member of the point along with Max Ellison, Jim Thayer, and some other fellow where we formed up behind Lt. Max Lewis.

A short while later Lt. Lewis was put out of action as a result of multiple shrapnel wounds. he never returned.

As for me, the bullet had entered through the skull 1/4 inch to the outside of the eye socket and had to be extracted out through the point of entry. So those number two theory doctors won their bets! The shock of the entry turned the eyeball to "the consistency of a boiled egg", the words of a later doctor. Another said on inspection "this eye in this condition is in no medical shape to see at this time".

It is true it has given me trouble through various operations but I still have two eyes to see with, for which I am eternally grateful.

The damage that was done to the frontal lobe of his brain did cause him some problems late in life as he developed a seizure disorder that was being caused by old scar tissue. However, it was not debilitating and he could usually tell when a problem was coming.

There are lots of stories like his out there and I encourage you to join me in honoring those who have served us so well.

And one of those who didn't come home was Sgt. Garrett McLead, the son of some friends of mine in Rockport, TX, who lost his life in a helicopter crash in Iraq in 2007.  I'll be thinking about his family today.

Cartoon of the Day

Sad, but true:

Religious Picture of the Day

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook with this description:

The gentleman who drew this is Joe Castillo. He went to Asbury Theological Seminary. He did this during a chapel service. It was fascinating - he told the Gospel story - each part of Jesus' life – and he was drawing the story as he told the story.

Look closely at the photo. Very interesting.

Mission Viejo Does Memorial Day Right

If you're anywhere in South Orange County I'd encourage you to drive by Mission Viejo City Hall (southwest corner of La Paz Road and Marguerite Parkway) to see the Memorial Day display on the lawn between the City Hall and the Library. Very moving:

It's one thing to see the name of a fallen serviceperson on a piece of paper, but another thing altogether to see their picture and information about their life on the big banners outside City Hall. Go see it.

1,100 Miles of Racing - No Time for Politics

Today's a day for racing.  The Indy 500 will run in the hottest temperatures on record for that race (it's supposed to be 97 in Indianapolis with higher heat indexes), and then tonight the Good Old Boys run 600 miles in Charlotte where it will also be warmer than normal.  Hard on engines, drivers and fans.

I think I'll spend my day watching and doing other stuff than politics.  Kind of sick of it right now.

Bonus Political Cartoon of the Day

From Facebook:

Political Graphic of the Day

Seen on Twitter:

The Fastest Way to Riches Is to Be an Obama Campaign Bundler

A bundler is someone to collects donations for a candidate from multiple people, gathering up two or three hundred thousand dollars or more to present to the candidate.  It's a lucrative business if you're bundling for Obama:

Picking Winners and Losers: Obama Gave Campaign Donor's Husband $1.2 Billion Loan

"New disclosures show that one of President Obama's bundlers is the wife of an executive at an energy company that received a more-than-$1.2 billion Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee for a solar power plant. Arvia Few is a bundler for the Obama re-election campaign who has promised to raise between $50,000 and $100,000. She began bundling for Obama in the first quarter of 2012. Her husband, Jason Few, is an executive at a company that has benefited handsomely from the Obama administration's clean energy spending, records show." 

How long until that operation goes bust? You know it's gonna happen.

Newport Beach Bills Obama For His Campaign Stop

Only seems fair, and we all know how important it is to Obama that everyone pay their fair share:

The city spent $35,043 on police officers when President Obama stopped in Corona del Mar in February for a campaign breakfast, and revenue officials have sent his campaign an invoice to recoup the costs.

City Manager Dave Kiff said the invoice was his idea.

"I think it is appropriate to treat it like a private event – if another private event that large and which required that much police presence occurred, we would bill the event sponsor," he said in an email. "If the president was here on presidential business, we likely would not have billed for that."

This was not an official presidential visit, but a high dollar campaign fundraiser. Why should the taxpayers of Newport Beach pick up the tab for that? It shouldn't hurt the campaign - after all, $35,000 is less than what one person paid to attend the Obama/George Clooney fundraiser a couple weeks ago.

Washington Post Fact Checks Obama's Spending Claims

And finds they're pretty much all hot air:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is aggressively pushing the idea that, contrary to widespread belief, President Barack Obama is tightfisted with taxpayer dollars. To back it up, the administration cites a media report that claims federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since the Eisenhower years.

"Federal spending since I took office has risen at the slowest pace of any president in almost 60 years," Obama said at a campaign rally Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa.

The problem with that rosy claim is that the Wall Street bailout is part of the calculation. The bailout ballooned the 2009 budget just before Obama took office, making Obama's 2010 results look smaller in comparison. And as almost $150 billion of the bailout was paid back during Obama's watch, the analysis counted them as government spending cuts.

It also assumes Obama had less of a role setting the budget for 2009 than he really did.

Read the rest of it here. Obama tries to have it both ways - blaming Bush for spending he didn't do and claiming credit for cuts that aren't going to happen. The Market Watch analysis that Obama has been touting is full of crap.

Political Cartoon of the Day

Elizabeth Warren, Pretendian.

Don't Think Popular Culture Twists Our Perception of Reality?

Let me disabuse you of that idea as you read this from Gallup:

U.S. adults, on average, estimate that 25% of Americans are gay or lesbian. More specifically, over half of Americans (52%) estimate that at least one in five Americans are gay or lesbian, including 35% who estimate that more than one in four are. Thirty percent put the figure at less than 15%.

What are the real numbers?

Demographer Gary Gates last month released a review of population-based surveys on the topic, estimating that 3.5% of adults in the United States identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, with bisexuals making up a slight majority of that figure. Gates also disputes the well-circulated statistic that "10% of the males are more or less exclusively homosexual."

Why do you think the numbers are so high? Let me give you four of probably many reasons:

1. TV
2. Movies/other entertainment
3. Mainstream media reporting
4. Public schools/universities

If you watch TV series today you'll see a disproportionate number of gay characters to the population at large.  Movies too.  The mainstream media spends far more time on gay issues than they should based on population percentage, and schools such as in California include "gay history" in their curriculum from kindergarten up.  That constant indoctrination into gay culture is bound to have an effect on the perception of reality, especially among people who aren't paying that much attention.

Now look again at the four items I mentioned above.  What percentage of characters on TV, movies or other entertainment are Christians?  How much media reporting is favorable to Christian or traditional beliefs?  How do public school and universities treat Christians?

Seventy-six to eighty percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians (either Protestant or Catholic).  Are 80% of TV characters representative of those beliefs?  Don't make me laugh.

There's definitely an agenda on the part of the people who control those institutions.

CHP Gets a New Ride

For years the familiar Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor has been the ride of choice for the California Highway Patrol.  I've developed a certain 6th sense about those cars - for some reason I can spot them a mile away whether in my rear-view mirror on looking out the front window.  The Crown Vic is no longer made, so the CHP has been trying out some other cars, but instead of going with a sedan they're going to buy these - the Ford Police Interceptor Utility:

Motor Trend has more:

With the legendary Ford Crown Victoria-based Police Interceptor no longer in production, it's no surprise that the California Highway Patrol (CHP) has been searching for an all-new vehicle to replenish its fleet. What is surprising is the vehicle the CHP chose -- the Explorer-based Ford Police Interceptor Utility. Look for it in your rearview mirror beginning early next year.

While a win for Ford, the CHP's selection of an SUV is a potentially troubling sign for the much-hyped cop car offerings the Detroit Three have been pitching hard to fill the void left by the departure of the Crown Vic. And there's a good reason why: payload.

While the old-school, body-on-frame Crown Victoria may have been a rolling tank, the suitors to its throne are all modern unibodies. That may make them lighter and safer, but it doesn't increase their carrying capacity. In fact, it seems to have lowered it, because while the Crown Vic had no trouble carrying all the CHP's gear, the Taurus-based Police Interceptor Sedan, Dodge Charger Pursuit, and Chevrolet Caprice PPV all lack the necessary payload capacity.

The CHP insists that its cruisers be able to safely carry all their equipment plus four fully equipped officers. In all, the CHP says that can add up to roughly 1700 pounds. That's a problem for the new crop of police sedans, because the beefiest of them, Ford's Police Interceptor Sedan, can only carry about 1200 pounds of people and gear. Simply put, the Gross Vehicle Weight Ratings of the sedans were too low to get the job done. What's a state trooper to do? Go big.

I'm glad they went with Ford. Ford still makes a great car (my Explorer has over 130,000 miles on it and runs like a top). It would have bothered me to see them buy cars from Government Motors.

Of course, I don't ever want to see one of these unless it's leaving me alone.

Disneyland Hikes Annual Passport Prices By As Much as $150

Back in 1987 I bought Annual Passes for the first time as a birthday present for my wife (we'd only been married a couple of months at that time).  They were pricey at that time - maybe $150 or so apiece - and for seven or eight years we continued to renew even as we added two kids who needed passes once they were 3 years old.  Price increases finally drove us away from the park, apparently along with a lot of other people.

Then about 1997 Disneyland suddenly dropped their Annual Passport rates to $99 and we once again joined in.  Over the next 11 years we continued as Annual Passport holders even as prices crept up.  In early 2009 I declined to renew because the price for the Deluxe Passports that we purchased had gone up to $329 apiece.  That same passport today costs $469 and regular Annual Passport holders are not happy.

Disneyland Resort parks have faced an unusual business dilemma in recent years: Too many regular customers.

Nearly 1 million people now have annual passes, prompting Disney to make changes to its program that could thin out crowds and possibly weed out some passholders, a Disney watchdog blog reports.

The company last week dramatically upped prices for annual passes by as much as $150 each, topping out at $649 for visitors who can come every day. Annual passholders visit parks an average of almost 10 times a year, reports Miceage.com, a Disney watchdog blog. A single-day, single-park pass now costs $87.

Disney declines to disclose annual passholder numbers.

At the same time, Disney for the first time is adding perks and special events for annual passholders, attempting to achieve a balance between the needs of regular customers and one-time tourists. By funneling annual passholders to come to events during less-crowded times, more space is open for visitors who come from afar.

“Disneyland Resort Annual Passports offer a tremendous value for guests to experience our world-class attractions all year long, and they pay for themselves after just a few visits,” said Suzi Brown, a Disneyland Resort spokesman, in a statement.

The beauty of the Annual Passport is you could attend the park without the pressure of feeling you had to see and do everything on that visit. We would often go on a Friday night, eat dinner at a favorite place, and then walk around and enjoy the scene. If lines weren't bad we might ride on something, but that was never a priority. It was just a chance to escape for a few hours to a magical place.

But $469...plus parking?  Not a chance.  I don't think I would feel like I was getting that good a value at that price.  And if you don't want any blackout dates the price jumps to $649.  Ridiculous.  It basically prices middle class families out of the Annual Passport market.  What used to be a little bit of extravagance is now an unaffordable luxury, and that's a shame.

I'm glad I had a chance to take my kids when they were growing up.  Those were wonderful family times I'll always cherish, such as having characters in the Main Street Electrical Parade come and shake my very young daughter's hand as they walked by, or seeing the joy on my son's face when he was finally tall enough to go on Space Mountain.  I'll always have the memories, but I'm sorry I probably won't be able to make any new ones.

Want to See a Private Equity Scandal? Don't Look at Bain, Look at Obama

The Washington Post hits Obama on what he hoped would be a campaign theme against Romney:

Despite a growing backlash from his fellow Democrats, President Obama has doubled down on his attacks on Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital. But the strategy could backfire in ways Obama did not anticipate. After all, if Romney’s record in private equity is fair game, then so is Obama’s record in public equity — and that record is not pretty.

Since taking office, Obama has invested billions of taxpayer dollars in private businesses, including as part of his stimulus spending bill. Many of those investments have turned out to be unmitigated disasters — leaving in their wake bankruptcies, layoffs, criminal investigations and taxpayers on the hook for billions.

The article then goes on to list example after example of the mess Obama has made with taxpayer-funded investments in private companies. It's a litany of bankruptcy and failures. Read it all.

I guarantee you Mitt Romney's record with Bain was much, much better.  He wasn't investing in liberal fantasies.

And one big benefit with Obama's attack on private equity - it's the first time in recorded history that Sen. Chuckie Schumer is afraid to get near a microphone and camera.  Thanks, Obama!

Justice Department Delays Stupid Swimming Pool Rule Until President Romney Can Stop It

I guess they didn't want to tick off millions of hot, sweaty people who just want to go swimming this summer in the middle of an election:

The Justice Department announced Thursday that it had again delayed implementation of a new regulation requiring existing public-access pools to be accessible to people with disabilities.

Implementation of the new Americans with Disabilities Act rule, which was set to take effect Monday, has been delayed to Jan. 31, after the election. The rule was originally scheduled to take effect on March 15, 2012.

“Newly constructed and altered pools must be fully accessible to people with disabilities as of March 15, 2012, by providing pool lifts, sloped entries, or other specified accessibility features. However, many pool owners had misunderstandings about how to apply the new accessibility requirements to pre-existing pools,” the department explained Thursday. “Therefore, the department has extended the compliance date for existing pools to Jan. 31, 2013.”

Failure to comply with the new regulations would result in a fine of at least $100,000.

That's 11 days after President Romney takes office. He can stomp that rule out while he's killing dozens of Obama executive orders.

The Tea Party Showed What a REAL Populist Movement Looks Like, but Wisconsin Lefties Didn't Learn

Moe Lane looks at the coming electoral disaster for the Wisconsin lefties and their union thug buddies:

I don't want to spend too much time on this -- if for no other reason than it's lunchtime -- but here's a pre-post-mortem on the whole sorry recall election situation. What happened here was the accumulated karmic backlash of forty years' worth of Establishment Democrats telling the Activist Left that they were the vanguard of, and spokesmen for, a broad American populist movement. For the longest time, such lies were simply an accepted part of the public policy debate; mostly because the country had no yardstick by which to judge the Left's turnout and activities.

But then came the Tea Parties -- which showed people what a real American populist movement looks like, and what it can do -- and its success stung the Activist Left at the exact moment that Scott Walker came along and not unreasonably decided that if he was elected on a platform of doing certain things, he had best start doing them. This infuriated the Left, but not as much as the refusal of Walker and the WI GOP to go weak-kneed at the first sign of push-back. So... the recall movement was born!

And... fizzled. The Left should have cut their losses when Prosser demonstrated that drum circles and illegal indoor camping in the Rotunda didn't translate into votes... and they definitely should have cut their losses when the first wave of recalls didn't live up to the hype. But they didn't, and now the people of Wisconsin are increasingly demonstrating that they're tired of all of this - and they're not blaming the Republicans, either. Such a shame, but that's what you get whe- hey! The bacon's fully cooked.
Kind of metaphorical there, really.

Current polling has Walker up 5-8%. One organization, We Ask America, did an automated poll that showed Walker up 12%. The most interesting thing about that poll to me was the subset of public union households in which Walker was only losing by 3%. We're supposed to believe that Walker is the devil when it comes to public unions and yet he was almost break even in that category. Could it be that many rank-and-file public union members still have jobs today because of Walker's reforms and they're planning to reward him for that on June 5th? I think so.

My guess is the race won't be that close. Walker's supporters will show up in large numbers, but the left, disillusioned by the sure loss that's coming, will probably just stay home. I think Walker will probably win by 10%.

Terrorism Headlines of the Day

A must read:

MEET SOROS-FUNDED DOMESTIC TERRORIST BRETT KIMBERLIN WHOSE ‘JOB’ IS TERRORIZING BLOGGERS INTO SILENCE

And this:

Convicted Bomber Brett Kimberlin, Neal Rauhauser, Ron Brynaert, and Their Campaign of Political Terrorism

Sunshine is the best disinfectant and today the sun is shining brightly on one particularly nasty virus.

Washington DC's Top Insult Comic

He used to be the mayor before a drug scandal got him in trouble, but lately he's been elected and re-elected to the city council. He's DC's top insult comic:

Extending his apology tour to a new day and a new ethnic group, D.C. Council member Marion Barry issued a seven-word statement Friday morning attempting to quickly clarify his reference to “Polacks.”

The statement, coming less than 24 hours after Barry’s gaffe, represents Barry’s attempt to more quickly respond to what has become his near weekly use of offensive or politically incorrect language.

Last month, it took 48 hours of mounting public pressure for Barry to apologize after he called Asian-owned businesses in Ward 8 “dirty.”

A few weeks later, Barry offended Filipinos when he said the District needs to “grow” its own nurses instead of having to “be scrounging around” to hire them from the Philippines and other countries.

After a “Say Sorry, Barry” campaign was launched, Barry pledged to work closely with Asian advocacy groups. During a meeting with Asian-American leaders Thursday in Southeast, Barry referenced “Polacks,” a term Polish Americans have historically considered offensive and derogatory.

Asked about the underlying sources of conflict between blacks and Asians, Barry said the United States “has had racial tensions since it was founded.”

“The Irish caught hell, the Jews caught hell, the Polacks caught hell,” Barry said. “We want Ward 8 to be the model of diversity.”

I'm sure Don Rickles could learn a thing or two from Barry.

Obama's Campaign Realizes They're In For a Fight

No, it's not going to be a walk like 2008:

Two difficult weeks for President Obama have shaken the overwhelming confidence of his campaign in Chicago and of Democratic leaders in Washington, and prompted a depressing realization: This is, at best, 2004, not 1996. At worst it's 1992.

Democrats had taken comfort for months in the Republican Party's seeming inability to get behind Mitt Romney, Obama's healthy lead in the polls, and equally healthy job growth. And for a few, fleeting, moments, Democrats thought the election might just be easy. But Republican division appears to have been merely an artifact of primary politics, and Mitt Romney has proved a consistent, if unglamorous campaigner.

And this week, amid poor economic indicators and continuing voter frustration, Democrats returned to the harsh reality that this election is going to be anything but a walk in the park.

"There was this sense maybe a month or two ago that Obama was really riding high - that he had gotten his base behind him and the economy was doing better and it had this Clinton vs. Bob Dole 1996 feeling - that he was going to cruise," said one 2008 Obama aide who does not work for this year's campaign. "And now it feels like it's going to be really tough - a 2004 race."

Indeed the campaign is shaping up to be a close-combat battle for one percent of swing voters in a few hundred precincts across three or four states.

What happened to all the hope and change? The rainbows and unicorns?

Bottom line: The mind-numbed robots that voted for Obama just because they wanted to be part of history have realized that being part of Obama's history sucks.

Another Suicide by Metrolink?

Looks like it:

A 51-year-old Fullerton man was struck and killed by a Metrolink train in Anaheim, police said.

Police were called about 10:10 p.m. Thursday to the southbound tracks between La Palma Avenue and Sycamore Street, Anaheim police Sgt. Bob Dunn said.

Officers found a man on the tracks. The man, whose identity has not been released, was pronounced dead at the scene, Dunn said.

The passenger train was en route from Fullerton to Oceanside.

The 800 block of Sycamore was closed in both directions for several hours as police investigated the fatality.

"The investigation is continuing as to what exactly happened that caused the collision," Dunn said.

This happens way too often and the poor locomotive engineers can't do a thing about it. They just have to watch it happen.

Breitbart Discovers More Evidence Against the Pretendian Elizabeth Warren

The folks at Breitbart continue to complicate Elizabeth Warren's candidacy:

Breitbart News has uncovered exclusive new evidence that in the spring of 1993, three years before Harvard Law School first publicly stated she was “a woman of color,” Elizabeth Warren likely made that claim while teaching at Harvard, and at approximately the same time the faculty was considering her for a tenured position. Warren, now running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, told Politico as recently as May 15 that she had “no idea” why a Harvard Law School spokesman called her a “woman of color” in a 1996 Harvard Crimson article and a 1997 Fordam Law Review article. However, a 1993 issue of the Harvard Women’s Law Journal suggests that she knew very well indeed.

An article, “Women of Color in Legal Academia: A Biographic and Bibliographic Guide,” which was published by the Harvard Women’s Law Journal (since renamed the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender) in its Spring 1993 edition (Volume 16), lists Warren as one of approximately 250 “women of color” in legal academia.

The surprising thing about all of this is the voters in Massachusetts apparently aren't concerned about someone faking their heritage for political gain. After all, Ted Kennedy told everyone he was Catholic all those years. Polling shows Warren and Sen. Scott Brown in a virtual tie.

I still think Brown will win this rather easily, despite the apparent willingness of voters to ignore character issues.

Political Cartoon of the Day

Yeah, let's blame capitalism:

Pathological Liar Headline of the Day

Unbelievable:

OBAMA: Cleaning Up After 'Wild Debts' Caused By Republicans...

The latest narrative is that Obama has not overspent wildly adding trillions to the debt. it's all Bush's fault. Even the dummies among the voters can see through that.

And a bonus entry:

Larry Flynt: 'Obama Has Overperformed; Done a Marvelous Job'...

Flynt probably isn't lying. He's probably just delusional.

Dem Candidate Reluctantly Says He'll Vote For Obama

In the race to replace Rep. Gabby Giffords, the Democrat is the race was rather reluctant to admit to supporting Obama. Apparently the party put the squeeze on him:

Arizona special election candidate Ron Barber, who talked around a debate question about who he's supporting in the presidential race, released a statement clarifying that he's an Obama guy. Here's the statement from spokeswoman Jessica Schultz:

Ron’s point last night was that the election on June 12 isn't about president Obama, or any other national figure--it's about who is going to do the best job fighting for middle class families in southern Arizona. While Ron does not agree with the President on everything, of course Ron has supported and will support President Obama in the election. His primary focus as a member of Congress will be standing up for Southern Arizonans.

You kind of have to feel sorry for the Dem candidates this year.

War On Women Headlines of the Day

Heh:

REPORT: Senate Dems pay female staffers less than male staffers...

But they're Democrats so no problem.

And this:

REPORT: DOJ Forces University To Allow Biological Male Into Female Restrooms...

And if he was a Mexican gang member Eric Holder would have given him an assault rifle too.

Brass Band

A little afternoon beauty from one of my Brass Band Roses:

It's Good to Be Cool

Victor Davis Hanson writes a great piece on the double standard existing today in which you can get away with anything if you're deemed "cool".  Read it here.

NYC Bans Churches in Schools on Weekends While Sending Schoolkids to Churches During the Week

Go figure:

While the city tries to exorcise the influence of religion from the public school system by evicting churches that rent school space for worship services, it’s sending thousands of children to spaces rented from parochial institutions, where students often walk past crosses and other religious images to get to their secular classrooms.

Landlords — including Thessalonia Baptist Church in the Bronx, Mission of the Immaculate Virgin on Staten Island and Yeshiva of Central Queens — rent to some 50 public schools to relieve overcrowding.

Many facilities no longer serve a religious function; Catholic schools, especially, have been closing at a rapid rate in recent years. But others still actively serve the communities they were built for.

You can read the rest at the link. Wouldn't it have been great if when the city decided to ban renting to churches, the churches would have banded together in protest to stop renting their space to city schools? Two can play that game.

People Who Don't Pay Attention Have Way Too Much Power in Our Elections

It's too bad we can't require some sort of test on current events and political news before we hand someone a ballot, because far too many voters cast their ballots having paid little or no attention to what's going on. Jim Geraghty has a piece on how quickly the mainstream media ignores a story once facts come out that contradicts their narrative (he calls is "strategic amnesia"), and includes these two paragraphs about low information voters:

Facts and issues pop up, and then evaporate into the media ether before we can grab them. I’m sure most folks in mainstream media institutions roll their eyes when Rush Limbaugh or others call them the “drive-by” media, but it’s easy to get the sense that articles are written, talking points are issued, and speeches are given just to get certain words in a headline – say, “MASSACRE” and “ROMNEY’S FAITH” — hoping the proper subconscious impression will be left with the low-information voters.

Ah, those low-information voters, the oblivious kings of our political system. They’re the remaining demographic in this close election, and so we’re destined to endure six months of everyone in the political world desperately attempting to persuade people who don’t pay attention to the news, politics, or government, who are astoundingly uninformed about news, politics, and government, who really don’t care about news, politics, or government, and who will have as much say about who the next president is as you or I.

Each side will try and appeal to these voters because their votes count as much as ours, and that's a shame. I've often heard pundits bemoan the fact that even in high profile presidential elections, barely half of registered voters bother to show up (and that's an even smaller percentage of the total adults). That's okay with me. I'd rather have people who are engaged in the process and know what's going on casting ballots, rather than encouraging these low information voters to show up. But every election you hear stories of people from nursing homes who don't even know who they are, or drunks off the street being bused to polling places or being given absentee ballots that are probably filled out by someone else.

And while all this is going on Democrats oppose voter ID because it will make it tougher for them to stuff the ballot box.  It's a broken system.

Want a Gun? You Can Win One From The Daily Caller

The Daily Caller is based in Washington D.C. which has some of the most ridiculous gun laws around and until recently banned the possession of all weapons by its citizens (except the thugs, gang members and robbers who have always been allowed to have guns in D.C.).  The Daily Caller thinks you should have a gun if you wish and they want to help:

The Great Gun Giveaway -- The Daily Caller (US!) will be giving away an American-made 9mm pistol every week between now and November 6th. Publisher Neil Patel has the skinny:

"’Like most Americans outside Washington, DC, New York City and most of our nation’s news rooms, large numbers of Daily Caller readers love guns. These people are already looking to our new Guns and Gear section for the latest product reviews and second amendment news,’ said Neil Patel, Publisher and CEO. ‘Thanks to Guns and Gear editor Mike Piccione, and the generous support of FMK, we are excited to have the opportunity to give those loyal and engaged readers the chance to win a new pistol every week leading up to the election.’"

The pistols come in three different colors and are engraved with the Bill of Rights. Click here to enter today.

Use it in good health.

Nice Convention Choice You Made There, Democrats

Good luck slamming Wall Street while accepting the nomination at Bank of America Stadium:

The Democratic National Convention could be meeting on enemy territory come September. The state that flipped for Barack Obama last election, making him the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state in more than 30 years, is increasingly at odds with the White House. North Carolina just banned gay marriage, only weeks before Obama came out in favor of it, triggering a petition from a gay rights group to move the convention. Conventioneers are also certain to face heated protests from union members angry the event is being held in an anti-union "right-to-work" state, and from the jobless in a state where the unemployment rate is above the national average, notes the Daily Beast.

Obama's remaining hope to woo the state may be to beat the populist gong, say observers. “If Obama can strategically place himself as the anti-Wall Street candidate, then that far exceeds the gay question,” Democratic strategist Dave Saunders tell the Beast. But the convention is also inconveniently being held in Charlotte, the world headquarters of Bank of America, which will also be a lightning rod for protests. Obama will be giving his acceptance speech, cringingly, in the Bank of America Stadium. “When North Carolina was picked, it was an excellent choice,” says one election expert. Now Democrats are loath to "admit the state is already gone, but it probably is."

North Carolina barely went for Obama in 2008. They won't make that mistake again and holding the convention there won't change anything.  The Democrats will be a pretty grumpy bunch in Charlotte because by then it will be obvious that they're chances of winning in November will be slim.

Walker Leading In Latest WI Polls

There are a couple of recent polls in Wisconsin showing Gov. Scott Walker up from 5%-8% over Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.  Barrett is on his way to another loss to Walker, and he's going to spend at least some of the rest of this campaign trying to explain this:

When Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn touted the city's fourth-straight year of falling crime in February, hundreds of beatings, stabbings and child abuse cases were missing from the count, a Journal Sentinel investigation has found.

More than 500 incidents since 2009 were misreported to the FBI as minor assaults and not included in the city's violent crime rate, the investigation found. That tally is based on a review of cases that resulted in charges - only about one-fifth of all reported crimes.

Yet the misreported cases found in 2011 alone are enough that Flynn would have been announcing a 1.1% increase in violent crime in February, instead of a 2.3% decline from the reported 2010 numbers, which also include errors.

The question is who was directing the police to misreport these crimes? Was it someone in the department or political pressure from the Mayor or his office? People already have enough suspicion about government statistics without having something like this come along.

I doubt an answer will be known before the June 5th election, but this will certainly complicate the remainder of Barrett's failed candidacy.

Swing States Have Dim View of Dim Bulb

Joe "It's a Big F'ing Deal!" Biden doesn't play well in middle America:

Joe Biden may not be much help to Barack Obama in key swing states this fall.

In a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, Americans split on whether they like or dislike the vice president – 42% said they had a favorable opinion, 45% said unfavorable – but the numbers are worse in key swing states.

In the 12 swing states likely to determine the outcome of the presidential election, only 40% of registered voters view Biden favorably, while 54% view him unfavorably. These numbers are worse than President Obama's who is seen favorably by 50% of registered voters in those same states and unfavorably by 49%.

The 12 swing states in the poll are Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. These states are all considered too close to call for the November election.

Independents are also down on the VP, with 50% saying they view him unfavorably and 35% holding a favorable view. The survey found the same pattern with voters who are not strongly committed to any candidate, with 52% viewing Biden unfavorably and only 33% holding a favorable view.

I'll bet we starting seeing more articles like this as the Obama campaign starts setting up the "dump Biden for Hillary" move that many now expect.

Dems Think The Only Reason to Vote Against Obama is Racism

Really?:

That President Obama lost roughly 40 percent of the vote in Democratic primaries in Arkansas, Kentucky and West Virginia over the last two weeks has drawn massive national headlines.

Those headlines have drawn a collective eyeroll from Democrats — and many others who closely follow national politics — who ascribe the underperformance by the incumbent to a very simple thing: racism.

No, none of these Democrats are willing to put their name to that allegation — either generally or for this story. But, it is, without question the prevalent viewpoint they hold privately.

They argue that conservative white Democrats — particularly those in the South and Appalachia — don’t want to vote for an African American for president and, therefore, are willing to cast a ballot for almost anyone else up to and including an incarcerated felon. (Keith Judd, we are looking at you.)

The problem with that theory is that it’s almost entirely unprovable because it relies on assuming knowledge about voter motivations that — without being a mindreader — no one can know.

They just can't believe that someone could oppose Obama because of his incompetence or his socialist policies. They're in for a shock because using their logic wide swaths of the country will turn racist in November.

Fight Climate Change! Use Giant Helicopters!

Clueless:

He has been picked as an expert judge to help find the nation's next biggest superstar on hit TV show The Voice.

But when Will.i.am arrived at a climate change debate recently, he showed a shocking lack of judgement.

The 37-year-old Black Eyed Peas star arrived for the talk at Oxford University in his private helicopter....

His trip from London was a total of 286 miles and used 71.5 gallons of fuel, ploughing three-quarters of a tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere, which is the same as the average UK person produces in an entire month.

He landed his enormous green helicopter in Oxford's University Parks and travelled to meet Mr Allen at the Radcliffe Observatory weather centre on a much more environmentally-conscious bike.

Guys like this just make me laugh because you just know he spent his time at the event urging others to conserve.

Political Cartoon of the Day

San Francisco to Name a Street After Nancy Pelosi: