Democrats Sent a Message: Jindal Wins

Captain Ed says: 

Louisiana elected its governor on the first ballot for the first time in recent memory, and the voters sent a message to the corrupt Democratic machine at the same time. Bobby Jindal, who narrowly lost a runoff four years ago, becomes the first Indian-American governor of a state after prevailing against a desperate opposition that stooped low enough to smear Jindal over religion:

Republican Bobby Jindal won election as Louisiana governor Saturday, setting a string of firsts and leaving no doubt that the state’s voters strongly desire new leadership two years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.Jindal, 36, will be the nation’s youngest sitting governor. The son of Indian immigrants, he will also be the first Indian American governor in U.S. history, and the first nonwhite to hold the job in Louisiana since Reconstruction.

The election of Jindal, who is a conservative, underscores the fast-fading fortunes of the Democratic Party in Louisiana after the hurricanes. …

Democrats make up about half of the 2.8 million registered voters in Louisiana, outnumbering Republicans by nearly 2 to 1. But the number of registered Democrats has dropped by nearly 57,000 since the 2005 hurricanes. Residents have criticized the state government, which is dominated by Democrats, as incompetent and corrupt.

Jindal capitalized on that sentiment, making the fight to root out Louisiana’s corruption a central theme of his campaign. One of his commercials portrayed his Democratic rivals as crooked clowns with cash coming out of their pockets.

Democrats have used Hurricane Katrina to beat up on George Bush for the past two years, but that didn’t fool Louisiana voters. They saw the difference between the rescue and repair efforts in Mississippi and Louisiana, and knew the difference was the state and local government responses. The Democrats have run the state as corrupt incompetents, but their poor leadership didn’t cost lives until 2005. The voters have begun cleaning house in Louisiana.

It is important to note that Jindal isn’t the only winner, here. Democrat Charles Foti is now the former attorney general for the state.  For the first time in three decades he’s of a job.   There’s a runoff at this point between Republican Royal Alexander, and Democrat Buddy Caldwell.

This is really the first opportunity that voters outside the New Orleans area have really had in the voting booth, post Katrina, and the voters outside the so-called “Chocolate City” are in the mood for housecleaning, at last.  This is, without a doubt, yet another blow to the Liberal narrative of an uprising against the republicans because of Katrina… and Iraq, for that matter. The voters clearly feel, and I agree, that Louisiana as a whole, and New Orleans in particular has been long bereft of leadership.

It’s now down to whether not Jindal will meet expectations. Frankly, he’s going to get a letter resistance from Democrats, in doing his job.  Are there going to spend a lot of time trying to make him look bad.  On the other hand, given the performance the Democrats have been turning in for the last couple of decades, it seems clear that the bar for improvement isn’t very high.   at that stage, it becomes a question of how many Republicans will be able to coattail themselves in to office.

Of course, if you’re a liberal, this isn’t exactly the best of omens for November 2008.

The London Times reports a cat may end up getting between Hillary Clinton and the White House…

AS THE “first pet” of the Clinton era, Socks, the White House cat, allowed “chilly” Hillary Clinton to show a caring, maternal side as well as bringing joy to her daughter Chelsea. So where is Socks today?

Once the presidency was over, there was no room for Socks any more. After years of loyal service at the White House, the black and white cat was dumped on Betty Currie, Bill Clinton’s personal secretary, who also had an embarrassing clean-up role in the saga of his relationship with the intern Monica Lewinsky.

So, in fact, Sox was not a loved family pet, Sox was a prop… obtained so that Hillary Clinton could show a warmer side… so that Bill/Hill could show us how they’re just Joe and Jane Everyman.

Clinton’s treatment of Socks cuts to the heart of the questions about her candidacy. Is she too cold and calculating to win the presidency? Or does it signify political invincibility by showing she is willing to deploy every weapon to get what she wants?

“In the annals of human evil, off-loading a pet is nowhere near the top of the list,” writes Caitlin Flanagan in the current issue of The Atlantic magazine. “But neither is it dead last, and it is especially galling when said pet has been deployed for years as an all-purpose character reference.”

The story goes on to remind us that the other prop, a dog named Buddy, was reportedly run over by a truck soon after leaving the White House. Something of a trend, going, here.

At some point in the not so distant future, people are going to start seeing through this facade that Hillary Clinton has surrounded herself with.  The reaction, I suspect, will not be pretty.

From The Telegraph today :

A headteacher has defended her decision to investigate an allegation that a four-year-old boy was guilty of racism during a game of chase.

Anne Phipps acted after Rocky Smith spat at a 10-year-old black boy on the school’s playing field. She said she had no choice but to pursue the accusation, despite the child’s age.

Four years old?!!???!!

Mrs Phipps said: “When a child makes an allegation of any kind, whether it’s bullying, racism, or general unhappiness, we investigate by talking to them. We couldn’t dismiss this.

Ladies and gentlemen I give you the wussification of the west.

Mrs Phipps said: “When a child makes an allegation of any kind, whether it’s bullying, racism, or general unhappiness, we investigate by talking to them. We couldn’t dismiss this.

“A nursery nurse spoke to Rocky and I spoke to the older boy. We talked to them about what happened and why it might have happened. That’s what an investigation is in a primary school.

“In this case, a little boy did think something had happened and felt he had been singled out. But after investigating, I decided this was not the case – it was just naughty behaviour.”

Rocky’s parents, Sarah, 35, and Iain Smith, 37, are demanding an apology from the school.

Mrs Smith said: “After it happened, I said to Rocky ‘what is a racist?’ and he said ‘it’s when you have races with your friends and the person who wins is it’. I can’t believe they even called me. Rocky was wrong for lashing out and I’ve spoken to him about that, but how can a four-year-old be racist?

Perhaps somebody ought to have taken the ten year old aside and taught him how everything did not center around racism.  As it stands, that image is now reinforced in his mind, that white people are out to get him.  Even the four year old white people.

You know, at some point, we’re going to have to check the premise that everything centers around racism.  We may find that it’s not the case.

At which point we may actually start becoming race neutral.  Not, I think, until then.

Mark Steyn points out that the Democrats are using “for the children” as a sort of twisted version of Tourette’s syndrome.  [link added]

Gaius, Blue Crab Boulevard.

Pinch Sulzberger can not understand how having your child’s school giving your child blessings to be sexually active, with neither your knowledge or consent would upset you.   Katie Zezima, New York Times:

PORTLAND, Me., Oct. 19 — Carissa Porcaro, a student at King Middle School here, did not hide her feelings about the Portland school board’s decision to let the independently operated clinic at her school provide girls access to prescription contraceptives.

Wearing a sticker with the words “I’m against giving out birth control” written in black marker, Carissa, 13, said she did not think the school should make the drugs available. Her mother disagrees

So eager are SP’s ( secual progressivrs?)  to promote childhood sexual activity that they simply lie about the supposed benefits of birth control:

Making contraceptives more readily available to kids prevents unwanted pregnancies. Opponents of abortion should be pleased that women have birth control options that make abortion less likely. Instead, the Republican Party chairman in Portland, Maine echoes the right’s familiar response to governmental efforts to broaden access to birth control:

No program which promotes mating is capable of preventing pregnancies,  and promoting sexaul activity only promotes the spread of disease.

Besty Newmark schools Sulzberger in the facts of life. 

If a kid is sick at school, teachers aren’t allowed to give out any medicine at all – not any aspirin or Tylenol. You never know what allergies a kid might have. And for kids who have to take a prescription, even a pill for acne, they must have a doctor’s note and go to the office to take it in front of a designated secretary. They can get in trouble if they take medicine on their own. This is the world we live in.

[…]

I don’t know about Maine, but in North Carolina, I had to sign a permission for my daughter to get her ears pierced. But birth control pills – apparently that is considered less of a parent’s business. Gosh, I feel like an old fogey when I see stories like this.

Betsy, doesn’t know about Maine.  I don’t know about Pinch.

Hat tip:  Memorandum.

The Associated Press reports  non-news as if it were news:

NEW YORK (AP) – Harry Potter fans, the rumors are true: Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay. J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series that ended last summer, outed the beloved character Friday night while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall.

There is no Dumbledore.   There is no one to out.  There is no role model    There is nothing there Andrew.

Adkins is trying again:

As my “About Me” page tells, I am a Christian, Although, sometimes, I don’t act like it.

Anyway, I have started back to doing my Daily Bible reading. I stopped when I parted ways with the last Church I was in. I really allowed that situation to drive me away from the Word. I’ve been noticing a change in my personality too. and I don’t like it. So, I’m back to reading. and Yes, I am going to do it every day.

So, now he’s making a show of Christianity. After posting Michelle Malkin’s personal information. After all the shoe polish he’s been pulling, for longer than I’ve been taking note of it in these spaces.

How many times have we seen major criminals have a jailhouse conversion? This kind of thing is always struck me as a ploy for mercy. Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the first terrorist attack on the world trade center, is one example of such.

The situation here, really isn’t much different. He got himself backed into a corner with some degree of force, and now starts waving the flag of Christianity.  Is he being honest about this?  I don’t know.  That’s something that only God can render a judgment on, properly. And, he will.

However, I think I can be forgiven for being rather suspicious given that this ploy has occurred so often before.

The sharper among you will have noticed slow response times, and occasionally the look and feel of the site has been completely different for a few minutes.  The reasons are simple; I’m trying with the idea of changing the graphical look and feel of this website.

Some of my requirements are that it should take a minimal amount of fooling around to get it working.  I do like the general colors that I’m using, so I’d like to stay close to those if possible.  Ease of reading is a requirement , so the font can’t be microscopic like it is on some of the ones I see in the standard WordPress collections.

Frankly one of the reasons that I’ve been looking at changing the theme anyway, is a rather nasty bug in the way the current theme handles comments.  I’ll let you know what we come up with, or else if I come up with a really good one, you’ll stumble across it, yourself. (Chuckle)

Lie.

Nutrooters Crooks and Liars discovers that if you can’t possibly win an argument over the latest disgusting anti-military, anti-Bush remarks by a Democratic politician…
Then just lie about it.

They then go on to prove that they DID lie.

And of course, the Nutroots LIKE it that they lied.  And they also don’t thinkStark raving looney should back off.

Are you shocked?

Me, neither.

It’s clear that if the left understands the connection between religion and culture and in turn the voters who operate based on those , they’re not telling.

At some point, someone has to get them to publicly understand that soirees like this one  are not tests of religion specifically, but of cultural values, which are driven in large part by religion.  There is a major difference between those two situations.

And by the way, the reason that the Democrats never face such tests lately  is the overwhelming assumption that they’d never pass them.

BBCT: Memeorandum 

Observe with me the mainstream media fighting for its very life, in the form of a blog post at the CBS website by Matt Felling:

I’ve discussed in this space – though in the light and frothy context of inappropriate photos posted online – how once something is on the Internet, it’s in the public domain.

The same goes for legal rulings.

In a fascinating instance, a court’s opinion regarding torture and a coerced confession was posted online at a legal blog. According to ABAJournal.com:

A federal appeals court quickly withdrew an opinion issued yesterday in a case filed by a Sept. 11 detainee because of concerns it contained information filed under seal.

The opinion by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived a lawsuit by Egyptian student Abdullah Higazy who was detained after the attacks. Higazy claimed an FBI agent had coerced him to make a false confession.

The court was not quick enough for the blog How Appealing, which posted the opinion after a reader sent it along by e-mail. A clerk later called blog author Howard Bashman to ask him to take it down, but he has not complied.

In a conversation with the ABA website, Bashman defended himself, saying “In my role as a member of the news media, I determined that it would be inappropriate to take down my posting of the decision based on a general claim that the opinion, issued earlier in the day to the public over the Internet, referred to information contained in an appendix whose contents remained under seal.”

So not only is this a case of transparency, it’s also an anecdote begging the question “What makes someone a journalist?” Bashman called himself a “member of the news media,” yet as far as this writer could tell from a few clicks, he happens to be a Pennsylvania attorney who also operates a blog.

Feiling seems to feel, that Bashman qualifies for the title “journalist”. Though, I hasten to point out he doesn’t specifically say why. But then he goes on to attack this question on to the end of this post;

And another thing: Just why did the court decide to withdraw its opinion? The public statement said something about sensitive information. But then why post it online and make the decision look curious, like a legal do-over? Do we need to call in Miss New Jersey to advise federal judges?

Why are we now asking about the qualifications for somebody to run a web site? is this another example of trying to control the conversation? If the qualification for the title of “journalist” is the unauthorized reprinting of government documents, (something which CBS used to delight in, when the target was a war effort, or the right wing in general) than it would appear that Bashman does qualify. But is that really a defining qualification of “journalist”?

And here’s the point of this post; I would ask, who gets to make that determination? Who gets to decide what is a “journalist” and what is not? And why is it that we struggle with the definition of “journalist”? this may seem to be dancing on the head of the definition, but words are our craft, here, words and the concepts behind them, are all we have. If we let people redefine our words, they redefined the concepts behind them, and twist our meanings into something else altogether. So let’s start with some definitions.

As an example: Remember how it used to be ‘newsman’, and now it’s “journalist”? CBS and the New York Times have ever been at the lead of that ill-advised rush away from “newsman’. Why is this important? Time to refer to my trusty 1956 edition of Barnhart’s dictionary….

“Newsman” is listed as : “A man who gathers, reports, or edits news”; Journalist is listed as someone who keeps a journal, whereas a journal is listed as “The writings of what someone sees or thinks.” A very substantial change of meaning, which allows opinion into the supposedly unbiased “news”…. but enough of one to allow for partisanship without the overt appearance of it. Is it any wonder why the country moved to the left as we moved from “Newsman” to “Journalist”? All part of the ‘greater mission’.

And here it is, people; I am a journalist. So is DavidL. So are any of the literally millions of people who run blogs of all sorts. We opine on the news. We pass along what we think. Unless we are generating original news stories, we are dependent on, and frankly, parasitic on, those who (admittedly, quite loosely, these days ) fill the role of news gatherers… I hold by definition that there is a major difference between the two.

That position of being parasitic on the news gatherers, is not a new one. Pundits have had that relationship through the history of the free press.

The arguments that we see today over whether not someone is qualified to be a “journalist” is a concession to the idea that one who gathers the news has also the moral ability to render opinion as a part of the process. That is a concession that I am unwilling to make. In truth, sticking to the original definition of “journalist”, as I have shown you here, there are no real qualifications for that title. Whether or not there is a qualification for the title of “newsman ” is an open question in my view.

The elephant in the room that Felling refuses to acknowledge in his piece and indeed the entire argument surrounding what a journalist is, and who is qualified to be one, comes down to where the line gets drawn between newsman and journalist. And here’s the thing; it’s going to have actually get down to legal definitions. The government always gets involved in these kind of discussions. The ramifications of getting the definition wrong and then in casing that incorrect definition in law, and enforcing an incorrect definition with the force of government, are too dire to contemplate.

BBCT: Memeorandum

Addendum: (David L)

Nonconcur.  A courtesan is just a high priced whore.  I invoke the Don Surber rule.  I’d rather be known as piano player in a whore house than a journalist.

Some paid news whores have this absurd notion that because they call themselves journalists, they are endowed with some special set of rights.

I need no more rights than that of a citizen.  That all the rights I need, all that I have and all anybody has.  People who call themselvss journalists have no more rights than I.

I discuss that state of our republic, because that is what citizens do.

Addendum: (Bit) I think we may be talking past each other a bit.  I’ve added a comment to explain this.

Free Speech:

Sadly, Mr. Chuck Adkins of Lincoln Park, Michigan has now taken his rude behavior a step too far. Tonight I posted a respectful comment (no profanity or anything) to his blog asking him to explain to me how Limbaugh had “mocked” the Frost kid. I don’t listen to Rush, so I was curious. I hadn’t seen any mocking of this child taking place. I had simply seen people questioning the assertion that the public needed to pay for the family’s health insurance, as I question myself.

Unfortunately, Mr. Adkins doesn’t seem to be the kind of man who can answer simple questions about his beliefs without flying off into a violent rage. Within minutes of posting my comments, I received this email from Mr. Adkins.

Hey Idiot,

Don’t waste your damn time or mine commenting on my fucking Blog, I saw what you wrote, so, don’t come around thinking I will let your fucking comments stand.

obscure Blogger, FUCK YOU!

Goodbye dickhead

My, my! Aren’t we testy this evening. I certainly didn’t expect that kind of a response. I wrote him back saying that I assumed he would be too big of a pussy to let my comment remain on his site, which proved to be true since it is gone now, and stated that I assumed there was no mocking going on. I quickly received this threat in reply:

it was when he was imitating the fucking kid, ya fucking asshat… if you get your god damned head out your fucking ass or out of George W. Bush’s ASS you’d see that.
damned idiot, now go run your lame ass blog and leave me fuck alone, before I call a damn hit out on your ass. I know people in Georgia, ya know.

That, my friend, is called a threat of physical violence (murder in this case), and it is against the law in every state of our great Union. I’m sure the police in Lincoln Park will be interested to hear all about it..

UPDATE: I actually had the privledge of speaking to Mr. Adkins on the phone tonight. His mom was kind enough to go get him for me. I know you’ll have a hard time believing this, but he says it was all just some kind of misunderstanding and he wasn’t really threatening me after all. Imagine that!!

…

UPDATE 2: Low and behold we’ve just recieved the sad, sad news that within 45 minutes of my call to his mom’s house, Charlie has decided to “Take a break” from political blogging for a while! How sad! That just breaks my heart, Charlie! What in the world will we all do without you?

Well at least I won’t have to call you mom tomorrow and let her know what kind of sick and violent things you’ve been saying about people online using her Comcast connection. It’s probably for the best.

Now, in case you’re wondering why I basically repeated this entire post, more or less, this Chuck Adkins idiot was the same one I took to task last week with a screen capture of his blog where he complained bitterly about violence against Randi Rhodes…( which didn’t happen,) and yet in the same page had (bad) graphics encouraging people to shoot Ann Coulter:

To those of you whose sensibilities were ruffled by the contents of the quote, I am sorry that you were offended, yet I do not apologize for the act.  You should be offended.  At the person who wrote the words.  My hiding them, doesn’t change that.  I want you to see what it is we’re up against, with liberalism as it has devolved here in the US.

So, he’s still living with mom…. What a surprise.  I’ve been saying it for years… in fact, I’ll quote from the Quips page: Liberalism and Socialism are adolescent mindsets. Giving liberals and socialists the power of government is like giving a 944 Porsche to a 12 year old.  And here we have an example in Master Adkins.

I’ve left comment at his site, which we both know will never see light of day there.

In that comment, I told him:

Heh.
You came to this earthshaking conclusion, after of several minutes of intensive conversation with your mom, following that phone call, no doubt. (Chuckle)

There were several other indications that we were dealing with a somewhat underdeveloped teenage mentality, with you. Do yourself a favor; learn a little bit about the world… get some of the water out from behind your ears, before you try this again.

But just a word of advice; leave the physical threats at the door. You managed to get away with it to a larger degree than you imagine this time. The legal repercussions of actual adults making the kind of comments you’ve been making, on various sites, including this one, would land you in a jail term.

I consider the matter with Master Adkins closed, for the time being. My guess is, that once he grows up some, (In short coming to the point in his life he now claims to be… 35, instead of the actual 17 years old…) he’ll realize how foolish he has been, not only with his interpersonal skills, or the lack thereof, but his overt support of liberalism/socialism in general.  Particularly amusing, is his conflagration between populism and liberalism. Apparently, Mr. Adkins doesn’t own a dictionary, or he’d understand the difference.  But you have to wonder, how much of the Left-O-Sphere is inhabited with such creatures.  Certainly, from a mentality standpoint, you can’t fit water between Master Adkins, and most of the rest of them.

BBCT for the linky love: Cold Fury  Protein Wisdom

The politically correct bigots are still steamed about James Watson’s observation regarding race and intelligence.   Selwyn Duke, American Thinker, dares to take another bite out the poisoned apple:

And what is the Truth about racial differences?  For one thing, is it logical and rational to claim that, except for appearance and a few diseases and conditions of the body, every group is the same in every way? 

This is the left’s implication, and it’s absurd.  It seems especially odd when you consider that most of these inquisitors are secularists who subscribe to the theory of evolution. Yet, despite their belief that different groups “evolved” in completely different parts of the world, operating in different environments and subject to different stresses, they would have us believe that all groups are identical in terms of the multitude of man’s talents and in every single measure of mental capacity.  Why, miracle of miracles, all these two-legged cosmic accidents, the product of a billions-of-years journey from the primordial soup to primacy among creatures, whose evolution was influenced by perhaps millions of factors, wound up being precisely the same.  It’s really the best argument for God I’ve ever heard, as such a statistical impossibility could only exist if it was ordained by the one with whom all things are possible.

For the PC bigot’s theory to even hold water they need a pausible theory to explain that while populations have different means in some metrics, such as skin color and susceptibity to disease, in other metrics the means remain the same.   That is the PC bigot need to explain while some traits evolve, change over time, others do not.   Good luck.

Don Surber nails the drive-by media.

Why the Surber kids were told Daddy is a piano player in a whorehouse

Why do people absolutely detest the media? Is it the laziness? Is it the incompetence? Is it the bias?

This report from the ABC News blog shows all 3 elements. The headline: “Bidding Over $2M for Dems Anti-Rush Letter”

It is not until Paragraph 7 that ABC bothers to mention that Rush put the letter on eBay.

Now if Don just wasn’t an Cleveland Indians fan.

Has BET lost it’s mind? Green Mountain Politics thinks so, and I tend to agree. Then again, I never did believe them when they said BET would be color blind.

If anybody doubts, that this is a Class A number one example of racism on the part of BET, let’s try a little thought experiment; let’s imagine the thugs. that beat up the one kid, were white.  Let’s imagine further that the guy they were attacking was black.  Think those six thugs would be up on stage at the awards ceremony?

Fitting too, that the thugs would be paying homage to Kanye West, ain’t it?