Archive for January, 2011

Dan Calabrese

One of the dumb mistakes consistently made by the American left and its media allies, in their obsession over Sarah Palin, is to constantly put their focus on her even when there is no reason to do so.

They hoped to make the Arizona shootings a Sarah Palin story because they hoped they could convince the public Palin had some culpability. This is now backfiring on so many levels, it’s hard to believe people who operate in the public domain would do something so stupid.

First, the public rejected their nonsense out of hand. The public understands, if the media doesn’t, that only the shooter is responsible for his actions.

And now, because they insisted on making the fictional, cartoon Sarah Palin of their imaginations the key to the story, they have drawn out the real Sarah Palin, who is nothing like the character they want her to be. Smart, eloquent and sincere, Palin today released this video with her thoughts on the tragedy, and on the reprehensible spin that followed. I don’t how they’ll find fault with this statement – maybe they’ll complain about all the references to God – but I’m sure they’ll come up with something.

Sarah Palin: “America’s Enduring Strength” from Sarah Palin on Vimeo.

UPDATE: That didn’t take long. Tom Deimer of Politics Daily is saying that Palin used a “loaded phrase” in calling the accusations against her “blood libel,” which of course is exactly what they are. He justifies his spin by saying the phrase is most closely associated with anti-Semitism, and reminds us that Palin and other conservatives are strong supporters of Israel.

You see now how Palin can’t win for losing? Her critics make the most outrageous accusations against her, and when she accurately describes what they’re doing, she’s the guilty one because of the language she’s using.

Now watch as an assortment of easily manipulated conservative writers join the criticism of Palin, not for the shootings, but for “fanning the flames with her rhetoric” or some such thing.

Bob Maistros

Well.  Here I am in a quandary.  Emotionally, I do get a little worked up about college sports involving my alma mater – especially since I’m a University of Michigan letterman. (Once upon a time, a huge hockey player gazed upon my skinny track-guy physique as we waited for a required x-ray and wittily commented, “I didn’t know the chess team was having physicals this year”).

Big biz.

As such, I want to get excited about the fact (caution:  news hook) that Michigan has brought in a Michigan man – better yet, an Ohio native who coached in Ann Arbor – to coach its football team.  And even better, Brady Hoke is a former defensive line coach for Big Blue who presumably believes, unlike the last occupant of the post, that his teams should actually play defense.

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Dan Calabrese

Most of those who are trying to exploit the shooting in Arizona for political gain have become slightly – but only slightly – more nuanced in doing so. Since it became apparent quickly that it wouldn’t fly to actually blame Sarah Palin or the tea party for the shooting, most of them have now changed their argument to this: Palin and the tea party didn’t cause it, but you can’t ignore how they’ve fostered an atmosphere of anger in the country.

Gosh, why would anyone be angry?

Because of this, the argument goes, we need to have one of those famous “national conversations” about the tone of our rhetoric. Hoo-kay.

Here’s a thought: If the political mood of the nation is angry, what might be the reason for that? What might be some possible solutions?

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Dan Calabrese

Can this get any more embarrassing for Wolf Blitzer, Roger Simon, Jessica Yellin, Katie Couric, Keith Olbermann, Paul Krugman and the rest of the media nincompoops who have tried so hard to pin the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on Sarah Palin?

The Wall Street Journal reports today that the actual suspect, Jared Loughner, has been obsessed with Giffords since at least 2007, and was attending her public events and, in his own words, planning ahead, even then.

Maybe she used one of these.

Um, question: Did SarahPAC’s crosshairs map exist in 2007? Did SarahPAC exist? Had anyone even heard of Sarah Palin in 2007?

Another question: Did the Tea Party exist in 2007? I don’t recall that it did, but if so, it certainly wasn’t on anyone’s radar screen.

It’s tempting to say that the only object of angry political vitriol in 2007 was George W. Bush, but that would be as disingenuous as the actions of the people mentioned above.

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Brett Noel

cartoon

cartoon

cartoon

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Large version for newspaper publication.

Greyscale version for newspaper publication.

Herman Cain

Imagine what would have happened to the economy if Congress had extended the tax rates permanently instead of just for two years. Imagine what would have happened if the payroll tax holiday had been for a year for the employee and the employer, and for the full 12.4 percent Social Security portion.

Success.

Imagine if the Democrat-controlled Congress had lost its collective mind and actually reduced the top corporate tax rate from 35

percent to 25 percent. Imagine no taxes on repatriated profits that companies are going to just leave in other countries anyway to avoid double

taxation. Imagine a capital gains tax rate of zero!

Imagine an economy so robust that everyone who wanted to work could find a job, and some people could even find a new career, or start a business.

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David Karki

“To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction.”

So holds Newton’s Third Law of Motion. And the same could well be said of politics, and the polarization that has gripped us in recent years. This is especially the case in the wake of the horrific shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and a dozen others in Tucson, Arizona.

Equal and opposite.

To be sure, there is but one perpetrator of and one party responsible for this heinous crime:  Jared Lee Loughner, a 22-year-old man who by all evidence available thus far is a complete lunatic. He was driven by no ideology or agenda, at least not any that any rational person would have a chance of understanding in the slightest; his ramblings on the Internet were so completely incoherent and nonsensical as to be utterly incomprehensible.

But that hasn’t stopped the far left from doing what they all too often do with any tragedy like this:  finding a way to exploit it for political gain, even as they project their behavior onto their opponents. Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Calabrese

As we updated the news yesterday on the condition of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, as well as the other victims of the shooting in Tuscon, I made the decision that we would only focus on the facts of the incident and its aftermath. There would be no discussion of the political implications, because that simply wasn’t important, and we sure as hell wouldn’t get into attempts to a) blame one political side or the other; or b) make the case that the alleged shooter deserved to be connected to one side or the other.

Obsession.

Even after much of the mainstream media went down this road, we chose not to deal with the issue here, not even to respond to the idiots who were doing it. It was simply beyond the pale at a time when a woman’s life hung in the balance.

That was yesterday. Today, I unload.

There is some conservative culpability here, and we’ll get to that, but the mainstream media’s shameless attempt to tie the shooting to Sarah Palin represented some of the most disgusting crap I’ve ever seen from the media. These people deserve to be fired today. They deserve be punched in the nose.

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Bob Maistros

In the wake of the shooting in Arizona that left six dead and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords with a “devastating wound,” howls are naturally going up in liberal circles that the attack is the result of overheated political rhetoric.  One particularly reticent New York columnist even insists that Giffords’ blood is on Sarah Palin’s hands.

Happiness?

Well, now.  I find this complaint somewhat humorous that the same denizens of the far-left end of the spectrum who regularly fantasized about various violent ends for the 43^rd president and his vice.  However, unlike some conservative commentators, I’m not going to dismiss their arguments completely out of hand. Especially since, as an opinion purveyor who frequently uses colorful language and imagery to convey a point, I might well be considered to represent their remarks.

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Dacia Nichol

My colleague Bob Maistros seems to have billions on the brain. $100 billion to be exact. He claims, along with all GOP opponents, that Republicans are backtracking on a promise that $100 billion will be cut in fiscal year 2011. Um . . . where was that promised?

Not here.

See, trusting politicians at their word is always a silly thing to do, but trying to destroy their credibility based on something they haven’t done is just as unfair as MSNBC’s reporting. And yes, I take extra issue with the whippings Bob is doling out (no Bob Dole pun intended) because my boy Paul Ryan is at the helm this time, with some serious reins of power. And he’s a different animal with a different attitude. Just ask him.

“If people think we’re afraid of cutting $100 billion dollars, they’ve got another thing coming.” – Paul Ryan in “A Conversation with…Paul Ryan”, Economics 21 event, January 2011

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