Tuesday, February 9, 2010
It’s Politics About Nothing!
Yesterday, it looked like the president’s pitch was for a Tribal Council on health care. Now we have the House GOP leadership holding out, counterpitching, like they think they’ll get a better offer. But it’s a George Costanza move … this is a show about nothing. Washington Post:
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:49 am Comments (2)
Brown’s Up
Scott Brown’s first vote is his first test … whether to plant an SEIU lawyer on the National Labor Relations Board … and he’s not saying which way he’s going. Boston Herald.
AP notes that Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska, is vocally opposed to Craig Becker’s appointment, which technically could give Brown a free throw to vote conscience or vote to please whichever aspect of his constituency or the body politic he cares to please. Which actually makes this a more interesting vote, in what it might say about Brownism. You know, the independent truck-driving thing. The truck’s now in DC, BTW.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:59 am Comments (0)
Some Nerve
Treacher updates his condition, post-SUV whack, post-surgery. It sounds like a long road ahead. He’s still apparently a blamed victim. Some nerve, those Metro cops and that State Department.
My own back condition has evolved. Up and about, in physical therapy, headed in to work for the first time today, freedom of movement largely recovered. Speaking of nerve, though, anyone taking offense at mine in that prior post re the late U.S. Rep. John Murtha and his gall can take comfort in the fact that some bizarre aspect of my condition now makes it impossible for me to lie down without burning pain, like molten lead, shooting down my leg. Some nerve. No shifting of position or heavy medication seems to affect it, so no, I’m not sleeping well at night.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:47 am Comments (0)
Pork No More
John Murtha, decorated American war hero and long-serving congressman, won’t be down to breakfast. Complications from gall bladder surgery. Washington Post does yeoman’s work describing his pork and ethics issues, the powerbrokering. Oddly omits mention of his unfounded accusations of murder leveled at U.S. Marines and skips lightly over his effort, in lockstep with the rest of his party’s leadership, to undermine U.S. strategic interests and U.S. troops in the field, render American battlefield sacrifices meaningless, abandon a nation to genocidal chaos, and make a new Vietnam of it. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:36 am Comments (2)
Monday, February 8, 2010
The Superbowl Of Reality TV Politics
Fourth Thursday in February. Mark it on your calendar. Stock up on guacamole, Bud Light and jalapeno poppers. Your president is suddenly interested in bipartisanship and actually discussing highly divisive matters of economy-changing magnitude instead of just handing off lefty agenda items to the Dem Cong to sort out and rubber stamp. But his call for a half-day televised health-care summit sounds more like the place where reality TV and the president’s hopes for a Saints-style turn-around come together.
NYT: “Obama Plans Tribal Council On Health Care.”
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:40 am Comments (4)
WhoDat And The Why?
Epic come-from-behind win for WhoDat from Katrinaville. It was a joy to watch. I’m only slightly less of a football ignoramus than Roger Daltrey, generally don’t watch games that don’t involve the Pats, and went into it not much giving a damn who won. Except that in those circumstances I’ll generally like a scrappy underdog, and the Saints were all of that, more than earning that trophy in a great game where both sides fought hard. The Saints were already doing it when my kid and I remarked that it was pretty impressive and it looked like they might hang onto it by their fingernails … mid-range respectful fives exchanged for the scrappy underdog … but I said I wanted to see something really big. A few minutes later Tracy Porter delivered 74 yards worth of it. Boston Herald: Bags off, they ain’t the Ain’ts anymore.
Speaking of Roger Daltrey, hate to differ with the Boston Herald’s Jed Gottlieb on The Who, but it was more like The Why? (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:15 am Comments (3)
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Update: Miracle Confidently Hoped For
Walked around the block with the wife this a.m. Back spasms have ended under a massive weeklong assault of painkillers, muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories. I have most of my movement back, but some evolving aches that wax intense and a lot of “don’t even think about it” warning twinges. Tiring easily, not only due to the drugs but probably from the muscle strain of trying to work around the trouble spots. But I have the confident hope of a miraculous recovery that, as doc and physical therapist promise, will restore me to full heroic, manly, Spartacus-like workout regime, though with some injury-specific modifictions.
Meanwhile, re confident hopes: (more…)
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Dog Bitten
Dawn breaks with a resounding crash over London for one senior Amnesty International official, who has decried the organization’s hypocritical truckling to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. So is this news? Times of London: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:29 am Comments (1)
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Timing Is Everything
Boston Herald’s Howie Carr gives Patches a quick comedy lesson. “Hey Patrick Kennedy, did you hear the one about … “ (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:40 am Comments (0)
The Confident Hope Of A Miracle
Neil Hanson pretty much had me at “Confident Hope,” and having just knocked out Charles Mann’s 1491, Hanson’s The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The True History of the Spanish Armada beckons. (more…)
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Friday, February 5, 2010
Dynasty Shaken
Save the “not stirred” jokes. That would be cruel.
One “Kennedy seat” taken, the GOP takes aim at another … Patrick Kennedy’s Rhode Island congressional district. Meanwhile, Patches leads the charge down the low road as post-election Congressional congeniality gives way to resentful partisan sniping. ”Dynasty Shaken,” Boston Herald:
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 3:07 pm Comments (3)
Sullexicon
Maguire masterfully dissects and describes an intellectual thought process so peculiar that I’d suggest it demands its own unique nomenclature. It’s Andrew Sullivan and the Sullivanian gestalt, in this case specifically the Daily Dish’s mealy-mouthed mea culpa on giving John Edwards’ complex and convoluted infidelity a pass on high moral grounds while viciously attacking a mentally retarded infant and the womb from which it was sprung with bizarre, unfounded aspersions.
I’m disinclined to attempt to improve on Maguire’s deconstruction of the matter at hand. The following instead is a tool for the serious Sullivanologist, those who have attempted to follow and find patterns within Sullivan’s expressive impulses and obsessions, a scholarly categorization of some of the moving parts, so to speak. So if what you’re looking for is some cheap laughs at Sullivan’s expense, please, don’t waste your time or mine. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 2:12 pm Comments (1)
Thursday, February 4, 2010
League Of Extraordinarily Lame Bloggers
Treacher gets whacked in a DC crosswalk by a black SUV, breaks a knee, says witnesses swear it was a Secret Service vehicle that apparently hit and ran. (His account is a tad vague on that last particular, whether it was hit and run or simply hit and disregard. An extraordinarily egregious example of your tax dollars at work in either case, if that is the case.) (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:59 am Comments (4)
Enough With The Idol-Worship Sopfest Already
Senator-elect Scott Brown decides to quit messing around and get down to business. Boston Herald’s Howie Carr, not without some exasperation: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:55 am Comments (6)
Many Thanks
To those who have hit the Paypal button, those making purchases through the site’s Amazon links, and for all the best wishes. Your generosity and patronage, but above all your readership and comments, are all greatly appreciated.
You’re an erudite and eclectic lot, with an eye to practical application of self-defense principles and figuring out the lay of the land, past and present. Forward Movement Readers’ Greatest Hits and some interesting individual buys for 2010 to date include: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:39 am Comments (1)
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Apocalypto Ahora
In thrall to dark forces, afoot in an other world, turns out to be a good way to contemplate Mesoamerican civilization, which while astonishing accomplished in many ways was also astonishingly weird, in many ways defying logic and conventional wisdom on the emergence of civilizations and still withholding many of its secrets. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:05 am Comments (3)
Monday, February 1, 2010
Give My Regards To Blogway …
Back from 2 days in hospital. Extreme back issues, result of a life fully if not necessarily well or responsibly lived. Currently enjoying a fine assortment of industrial strength drugs. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:17 pm Comments (31)
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Small World
After all. Boston Herald:
It probably shouldn’t come as a big surprise that both President Obama and U.S. Sen.-elect Scott Brown can count a politician among their ancestors.
But the same one?
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:08 am Comments (3)
Adolescent Angst-Free Curriculum
That was fun yesterday, speaking ill of the dead with a shout out for angst-free education and common sense vs. commie sensitivities. Here’s a working list. The Forward Movement Readers’ English Lit curriculum. No habla adolescent angst. Just say no to Kumbayaists: (more…)
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Friday, January 29, 2010
… Won’t Be Down To Breakfast
Two empty places at the table. J.D. Salinger and Howard Zinn. Well, we can sit here awkwardly silent, listening to the clink of cutlery, or we can have a cheery chinwag! I vote for chinwag.
Salinger first. I may be one of the few people to go through an American high school in the last 50 years who never read a word by J.D. Salinger. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:58 am Comments (19)
Thursday, January 28, 2010
About Last Night
No need to point out the irony of this president mercilessly dogged by the specter of all his failings, personified by an upstart, unknown state senator who was the elephant in the room, even though he didn’t show up last night. He was still the dreamy guy everyone was thinking about. Boston Herald, whose graphic that is above. (Grade the president’s speech at the link. It’s fun!) No shortage of irony in that state senator’s rise in Massachusetts, to the late Edward M. Kennedy’s seat in the first place.
But about last night … (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:22 am Comments (9)
Oratorical Impression Rapidly Regurgitated (Quick Take)
These are extraordinary and trying times, when things that must be done are hard, and too often tragically inherited. I know, I know, you’ve heard that one before. Ha ha ha! (Standing ovation, raucous cheers and laughter.) But seriously, we have just witnessed an extraordinary exercise in presidential oratorical animation that may be without peer or precedent. Can it be said that any American president has ever tried to blame so much on other people, or has been willing to so rapidly abandon his own principles for the betterment of his standing with the people, to seize up the banner against himself in our nation’s time of need, that this nation should not stand against him? For this, the president deserves our unabashed, gaga-eyed astonishment.
Wow, that’s really infectious. That meaningless important-sounding rhetoric thing, I mean.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:01 am Comments (1)
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Chug-Blogging The SOTU
Treacher had the right idea, to make a drinking game out of this. I don’t have a room full of people to do that with, but I do have a bunch of Rolling Rock … good, cheap Depression-era suds … in the fridge down in the basement. So here’s how it’ll be. He takes responsibility for something, I chug. He shrugs responsibility for something, I chug. He panders, I chug. He alienates his base, I chug. He tries to grab some of the Brown anger, I chug. I’m expecting to have a pretty good beer buzz before too long, as I’m pretty much expecting a lot of claiming responsibility while trying to pass it, pandering, and failing to impress anyone, plus a lot of trying to grab Brown anger. But that’s OK, because in Massachusetts, where we’re now wagging the national dog for a change, and at no time more than tonight, this is a festive occasion. OK, here goes. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:04 pm Comments (3)
Not Just A Status Quo-Overturning Political Insurgent
He’s also a pretty face. Lefties don’t have to hate Scott Brown just because he’s undermining Pres. Barack Obama’s agenda. They can hate him because he’s beautiful! Boston Herald re Brown’s modelling career: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:45 am Comments (2)
The Future Of Newspapers
OK, we’ve pinned it down to the exact time and place where it happened. Where the future of newspapers was decided, the fateful technology set in motion. San Francisco, 1981:
OK, here’s what needs to happen. We go back to this future, this “San Francisco, 1981.” We find these people, and we terminate their editorships.
You know what I’m talking about …
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 6:00 am Comments (2)
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Coffee Stroll With British Regulars
Finally cracked and finished another long-overdue read. 1776 by David McCullough. Like Philbrick’s Mayflower, a lot of the action takes place in very familiar places, which adds to the personal interest, though these are stories that have a direct bearing on all of us, how we live our lives today, not just in these United States that are the result of the actions described, but in the larger world that those actions ultimately have influenced to such a great degree.
But enough about world-changing events. This is about my daily coffee stroll through downtown Boston. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:44 pm Comments (6)
Aim High!
Obama, via ABC: “I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president.” (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:49 am Comments (2)
Road To Damascus
Keep an eye out for blinding flashes of light as Saul tries to convince you he’s Paul in tomorrow night’s SOTU. Latest sign of miraculous roadside conversion: NYT, Obama to propose domestic spending freeze. I liked this bit: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:48 am Comments (1)
Monday, January 25, 2010
Dr. Helen Does Violence
Dr. H’s PJTV interview with Lawrence Kane, the author of The Little Black Book of Violence: What Every Young Man Needs to Know About Fighting, on being smart and being stupid about violence: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:57 pm Comments (0)
The Browning Of America
Everything’s Brown now. Independents and not a few Dems. The GOP in 2010. President Barack Obama. Maybe even Brown will get to be.
Everyone wants a piece of Brown, has ideas for Brown. Here’s Carthage poli sci Prof Arthur Cyr on the Boston Herald’s op-ed page, advising Brown on his agenda, rather optimistically assuming Brown is going to be allowed to have one and craft it himself. Cyr counsels the senator-elect not to forget foreign policy, an area where Republicans have an edge, though health care is what propelled him to D.C. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:52 am Comments (3)
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Back To The Future All Over Again
Obama’s headed there, wants a do-over, with the people who brought you 2008 at the helm in 2010. But first, Howie Carr looks back at 2009, wonders where the hope and change went. Boston Herald: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:23 am Comments (2)
Helmet For My Pillow
Knocked out Robert Leckie’s Helmet for My Pillow yesterday. It was an odd experience. I didn’t much like the writing at first, a bit overwrought and dated in style, which made me appreciate the spare style of Sledge’s With the Old Breed more. Then, I started to discover I didn’t like Leckie much. In fact, I was finding him a little annoying. You end up stuck with people like that, you know. In the next desk over at work or in a trench or an armored vehicle somewhere. Not supposed to happen in a book.
(You might want to stop reading here, though I’ll try to avoid giving away too much. The short answer is, yes, this remarkable book is worth a read, especially if you plan to watch HBO’s upcoming series, The Pacific, and for the way Leckie with naked honesty emerges as a fascinating character in his own memoir. … Reading list updated below, BTW)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:43 am Comments (6)
Saturday, January 23, 2010
More Bitter Ironies
Two great reads from two great Boston newspapers, in the post-Brown election era.
Gray ladies* first. Boston Globe: “Liberal bastions lament as the blue fades.” (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:30 am Comments (9)
With The Old Breed
Excuse the absence. Out the last couple of days with a virulent stomach bug, wrenched the back in the violent course of which, and not done yet. Excruciating pain and difficulty of movement on top of intense discomfort and mild fever turns out to be a pretty good way to read With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by E.B. Sledge. The one creates an appropriate ambience for the other, which puts aches and gastro-intestinal issues into perspective. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:11 am Comments (6)
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Bitter Ironies
Gateway notes that, one year ago yesterday, the world’s greatest liberator since World War II left office. And he’s looking better all the time. It doesn’t hurt that the follow-on act’s greatest shot at any success to date comes from carrying George Bush initiatives forward. Surge strategy in Afghanistan. Hunt down and kill al Qaeda where you find them. Not that he asked, but I’d advise ditching that idiotic constitutional rights/propaganda ops for illegal enemy combatants initiative.
Meanwhile, here’s Krugman at NYT, rending his garments and bemoaning his dashed hopes for a false messiah. “He Wasn’t The One We’ve Been Waiting For.” No joke, that is actually the real headline. No little irony in Krugman’s harsh translation of President Obama’s remarks, “Run away! Run away!” Krugman whines on:
I have to say, I’m pretty close to giving up on Mr. Obama, who seems determined to confirm every doubt I and others ever had about whether he was ready to fight for what his supporters believed.
What did you expect from a surrender enthusiast?
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:32 am Comments (2)
Triumph Of Dad
For all the weird, distorted attacks on Scott Brown … He posed nude! He hates rape victims! “One dead intern!” (plus that disturbing Globe sex fantasy) … there hasn’t been anything to indicate he’s anything but a good family man. Even a slightly dorky one, to judge by that embarrassing gaffe about his daughters. Yeah, he’s paying for it. More on that later. Dad just won one.
Here’s the Boston Herald with more evidence of what a good family man he is: “He’s a man’s man with girly dogs.”
Of course Scott Brown has girly dogs. He lives in a house full of women. Notice who walks them … Dad. Sound familiar? Here’s more on the famous truck, BTW.
Meanwhile, this Boston Dem, a Brown tenant, voted for him. Because he is such a great landlord. Boston Herald: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:58 am Comments (1)
Scott Brown: Weird Magnet?
He’s good-looking, well-spoken, wildly popular, has an attractive family. Drives a truck, speaks to common people, struck a red chord in bluest Massachusetts. Yeah, he modeled to pay the law school bills. Big deal. All indications are he’s a pretty ordinary dad kind of guy.
So what is it about Scott Brown that unhinges people? Because America’s favorite new everyman isn’t just shaking up the political scene, inspiring millions, causing angst in the opposite camp. He isn’t just, as one Boston Herald headline writer put it, “hotter than hot.” He’s drawing out weirdness like the latest hot starlet draws stalkers. And it’s weirdness of the first order, from some unexpected places.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:28 am Comments (2)
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Republican Party Time
Brown roars to win! Boston Herald.
As the chatter in the early evening began to lean toward a double-digit win, the 5 percent margin that emerged almost began to look paltry, like less than it was … a total, massive landslide for a Republican in bluest Massachusetts. Well-deserved celebration on the right, much rending of garments and recriminations on the left.
Picking through the smoking debris of Democratic hegemony and Obama’s agenda … happy anniversary, Mr. President! … in the wake of that Republican juggernaut that just roared through the left’s left flank, here are some questions for today: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:28 am Comments (14)
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Democracy In The MA
Sometimes it feels like we don’t get a lot of it around here. Chances to vote in elections where there is an actual choice, where there isn’t a predetermined outcome. Where the outcome actually makes any difference to anything. An election where we actually get to influence events, where the rest of the country gives a damn what we do, and doesn’t dismiss us out of hand. That’s different. All eyes on Massachusetts, out-of-state lefties and righties flooding in all week to put their own thumb on the scale. But now it’s just us, me and my friends and neighbors, fellow citizens and taxpayers here in the Bay State.
Will be heading down shortly to Furnace Brook Middle School. Coakley sign-holders on one side, Brown sign-holders on the other on the way in. Rows of voting booths in the gym with the old dears checking off names and handing out ballots. Maybe see my buddy Quigs or Mike, town cops, working the poll details. A lot of neighbors. Fun-size Hershey’s chocolate bars and Jolly Ranchers after you vote! It’s wicked Norman Rockwell, New England citizenship tableau.
But I’ve got the opening riffs from that classic by those other great political artistes, the Sex Pistols, stuck in my head this morning for some reason: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:33 am Comments (6)
Election Day Brineworks
A little time before I need to head in, enough to knock out some quick Election Day pickling. It’s not only patriotic and your civic duty, but as Reynolds noted, it’s hip. Recipe:
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:30 am Comments (0)
Monday, January 18, 2010
Perfect Storm
Not exactly campaigning weather out there. It’s blowing rain, mixed with snow, and expected to turn to all snow. Tomorrow, 60 percent chance of more of the same. It’s almost as if, having heard Martha Coakley sneer at campaigning in the cold, this New England winter is giving her a chance to make up for missed opportunities. National Weather Service.
Pretty rough on a special election in January. But town clerks say they’ve seen absentee ballots coming back at presidential levels, leading them to expect turnout as high as 70 percent. I don’t expect in this one weather will be much of a deterrent … except to anyone easily discouraged.
Polls are now giving Scott Brown 5 percent to 10 percent. RealClearPolitics. They also give him the momentum and higher level of excitement. Public Policy Polling. He’s the one with the fired-up base, the state senator who forced the president of the United States to make a last-minute trip to Boston in January, the guy the president was talking about, in fact being forced to agree with, ”it’s not the Kennedy seat, it’s the people’s seat … “
In anecdotal evidence, friends have reported from north and west of the city, as well as within greater Boston, pretty much the same thing we’re seeing south of the city. A lot of astonishment at the rate at which Brown signs suddenly started popping up all over the place, a sense of engagement and excitement, everyone talking about it. With very little of the same from the Coakley camp, though I did hear among a couple of groups of friends, people are sharply divided and vocal. The committed libs, under assault, knocked a little off their feet, are hunkering down, working up a siege mentality, and are determined to fight as well. Something cited frequently in the casual reports is that people who normally don’t pay much attention or care much about this kind of thing are paying attention and give a damn. In a special election in January.
It could still be a squeaker for either camp, and remains impossible to call. But it is beginning to look like a rout in the making, something momentous that only happens when a lot of forces line up.
A perfect storm. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:43 am Comments (8)
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Home Stretch
Some news and views re the Brown-Coakley race as we await the arrival of the savior who helped put Martha Coakley in her current doleful position. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:58 am Comments (0)
Political Prescience Hurtfully Poo-Poo’d
Conservative Lesbian’s Cynthia Yockey rains on my parade! Poo-poos Neo-neocon’s inspired, dare I say brilliant recognition of my future-reading political genius. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:40 am Comments (4)
Saturday, January 16, 2010
In The Balance
That’s where it hangs right now … not just this race but so much more … and a weird balance it is, in bluest Massachusetts, where the barbarians have broken through the gates and Democrats find themselves backing up the stairwells in the desperate fight for Camelot’s castle keep. Never fear, once wildly popular President Barack Obama’s coming in to stump for Coakley! Be afraid, surging Republican hordes! (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:41 am Comments (7)
Friday, January 15, 2010
Bromentum?
via Boston Herald, WHDH/Suffolk shocker gives Scott Brown 4 points. High numbers of disgruntled independents expected to turn out Tuesday. But hang on a sec, how come this Blue Mass Group poll has Coakley up by 8?
Apparently this thing still has to be decided by an election … that’s another poll of sorts, and takes place Tuesday. The dynamic has definitely changed though, not least in the rending of garments, lamentations and recriminations on the left. And not a little crowing on the right. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:33 am Comments (9)
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Candygram For Mr. Taliban
Marines, continuing clear-and-hold operations in Helmand, telegraph a message to “Taliban-owned and operated” Marjah. Canadian Press:
“We’re going to go in big,” Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, told reporters travelling with Mullen in Helmand. “I’m not looking for a fair fight.”
Gotta love it when they talk dirty like that. Nicholson reportedly hopes to encourage the less committed to sit it out, while the Marines go to work on the more committed. Reuters adds: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:57 am Comments (5)
Pat Robertson, Devil’s Flack
Robertson: “Haiti … pact with the devil … cursed!”
Devil: ”Good work, Pat. Very Christian of you!” (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:04 am Comments (1)
Race On … Finally (Hurtfulness Alert)
Brown to Obama: “Stay Away!” Boston Herald.
Huh? Whatever happened to Republican family values like ”Bring it on!”? HotAir posits a “briar patch” strategy …
Speaking of stalwart Bush-era values, here’s Coakley blaming her people’s thuggishness on other people’s thuggishness: Boston Herald. Too bad we won’t get to see her sell that to a judge … and cross examine herself on the “I didn’t see anything” claim.
(Uh oh, GOP might shove back. Politico: campaign aide Meehan’s tussle “will be an issue” in nomination to federal post.)
The race gets ugly as the race tightens up. Though you might say, less than a week left, the race finally started. Abouttime. As a professional Tabloid-American, I say … bring it on! Roundup follows. Warning: There’s hurtfulness. 
(more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:20 am Comments (3)
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Remorseless, Incremental Surrender
Mark Steyn at NRO, “Darkness Falls,” notes it’s bad enough that even the American Association of University Professors is alarmed about the anticipatory accedence to Islamic extremism. As a result of academia’s pre-emptive self-goring of its own academic freedom ox.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:51 am Comments (1)
45-45
Split on whether Obama’s first year was a success or failure. Quinnipiac, which offers the following issue-specific approval-disapproval numbers:
41 – 54 percent for his handling of the economy; 34 – 59 percent for creating jobs; 35 – 58 percent for health care; 48 – 44 percent for handling terrorism.
He squeaks by … 35-37 … on whether the country would have been better off with John McCain. Don’t worry, there’s some good news. Even if 53 percent think he’s being irresponsible with our money, 43 percent think he’s a better president than George Bush. Wait a minute, that’s fewer than think his first year was a success. Surber notes hurtfully that’s comparing one year to eight years. Riehl meanwhile notes that O-anger has reignited secession talk … in Vermont. HotAir: Rasmussen is haram! Lefty jihad vs. Quinnipiac next?
Sounds like they could use some more strategic communication.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:24 am Comments (0)
