HALF-FULL REPORT 07/23/10

Psalms 23:5.  That’s what comes to mind this week.  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

There will be weeks when our cup is bone dry.  This week is not one of them, for truly, our cup is running over the top.

We start with the death of the Great New Cause of the Left, its substitute for Marxism as a rationale for control of everyone’s life, Warmism.

Its insufferably sanctimonious champion had the final nail driven into his reputation’s coffin Wednesday (7/21), as two more women came forward with rape-abuse charges.  Algore is belly up.

That came on the heels of one of the liberal media’s most prominent mouthpieces, Newsweek, declaring (7/12) The Green Retreat – that Warmism is over as a major political force.

Confirmation came yesterday (7/22), with Reid and Kerry throwing in the Cap and Trade towel.  As the Wall Street Journal reported:

"Senate Democratic leaders Thursday shelved their effort to cap greenhouse-gas emissions as part of a broad energy bill, putting aside indefinitely a centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s ambitious effort to transform the way Americans produce and consume energy."

That should make any freedom-lover’s week. But there’s so much more.

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Of course, there is the delicious Schadenfreude over Charlie Rangel’s upcoming House trial on multiple ethics violations.   But this is much more than satisfying glee.  Charlie is now the poster boy for Dem corruption, a poster for all America to see during the entire fall election campaign.  The damage Charlie will do to the Dems in November is phenomenal.

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More phenomenal is the JournoList scandal.  You know the basics.  JournoList was a list-serve, a private email club for lib-lefty journalists set up by a WaPo guy, Ezra Klein, where they could share their innermost desires and conspire together to elect Zero in secret.

At least they thought it was in secret – but one among them leaked the thing (like the leaked ClimateGate emails) to Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller, providing thereby what Investors Business Daily on Wednesday (7/21) called The Smoking Gun For Media Bias.

Let’s ignore the disgusting distractions of JournoGate – like Sarah Spitz of NPR writing that if she saw Rush Limbaugh having a heart attack, she wouldn’t call 911 or help him, but instead she’d "laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out" – and focus on how JournoGate is going to devastate the Dems in November and beyond.

First, it reveals how the lib media cabal consciously conspired to prevent Zero’s candidacy from being wiped out by the Jeremiah Wright "God Damn America" video.

The biggest predictive mistake I ever made in my life was saying "Obama is toast" in God Damn Barack Obama (March 2008).  That any politician could survive the revelation he had attended for 20 years a racist hate-America church where his pastor-mentor preached God Damn America  was impossible – or so I thought.

When he did survive, I should have realized right then that America was in deep danger, that not only the media but a majority of voters had gone literally insane.  But I couldn’t make myself believe this, right up to election day.

Now, after 18 months of a Zero Presidency and a massive amount of accumulated evidence that Zero is indeed out to destroy his country, everyone is being reminded of the Wright video via JournoGate and is looking at it as confirmation that Zero really is a hate-America racist after all.

Second, JournoGate reveals the lib media conspiracy to trash Sarah Palin, which further confirms her heroic stature to TeaPartyers, but also redeems her in the eyes of millions who had reservations about her.  Which makes her 2010 candidate endorsements (here they are as of 7/18; she added Kelly Ayotte on 7/19) even more potent.

Third, legions of voters are increasingly embarrassed by their voting for Zero in 2008.  But no one likes to admit they suffered a spasm of temporary insanity or did something incredibly stupid.  JournoGate, as Jack Kelly pointed out to me, provides them with the perfect scapegoat.  "That rotten, nefarious, lying media tricked me!  The devil made me do it!" 

And they’ll vow not to be tricked again, like on November 2^nd.

***
Speaking of Sarah Palin’s endorsements… Well, before we do, here’s an announcement:  the HFR will no longer use the term RINO to refer to ersatz Republicans.  The term is hereby declared archaic, and is now officially replaced with Rinosaur.  Because they are a dying species facing extinction.

A primo example is septuagenarian Delaware Congresscritter Mike Castle, the Arch Rinosaur, who is anti-military, pro-abortion, voted for Zero’s Stimulus, and has vowed not to vote to repeal ObamaCare.

Because he’s also a former governor and very well-known, his election for senator this November has been seen as a shoe-in over the likely Dem nominee, a nobody named Chris Coons.

Last August, Senate Sitrep 2010 mentioned a "marvelously telegenic conservative," Christine O’Donnell who was running for Biden’s open senate seat and it looked like Castle wouldn’t run.  Then he jumped in and no one since gave Christine a chance.

Not any more.  A new Rasmussen poll shows Christine beating Coons 41-39.  She’s gotten endorsements from Mark Levin, Erick Erickson, the Susan B. Anthony List, and others. But where’s Sarah?  Christine O’Donnell is a perfect example of one of Sarah’s "Mama Grizzlies." 

The Republican primary is September 14, more than enough time for Christine, with help from Sarah and the whole TeaParty conservative movement, to beat Castle.  Come on, Sarah!

Sarah also needs to focus on the senate race in Wisconsin, where a solid conservative self-made millionaire from Oshkosh, Ron Johnson, is running even with incumbent Dem Russ Feingold.  This is amazing.  This is Wisconsin, the lib heartland.  If one of the most prominent incumbent Senate Dems is in trouble there, the Dems are in beaucoup deep kim chee everywhere.  Come on, Sarah, endorse Ron!

And she needs to get behind Gunny Pop.

That’s Marine Gunnery Sergeant Nick Popaditch – known to all Marines as Gunny Pop, whose detachment pulled down the statue of Saddam Hussein in downtown Baghdad, recipient of the Silver Star, wounded so badly in Fallujah he lost an eye (he wears an eyepatch), and author of the best-seller Once A Marine.

Gunny Pop is a true hero-patriot, and he’s running against his antithesis in California’s 51^st Congressional District (which includes the entire California-Mexico border) – a hyper-leftie Dem incumbent named Bob Filner whose only legislative accomplishment in 18 years has been a House resolution recognizing National Aviation Maintenance Technician Day.

On July 10, the Dems showed how low they can go with a cartoon in the Filner-supporting Imperial Valley Press making fun of Nick’s blinded eye.  Here is a photo of Nick:

Here is the Imperil Valley Press cartoon mocking him as "Uncle Fester with an eyepatch:

 
Let’s hope Sarah starts supporting Gunny Pop.  Let’s hope we all do.

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Sarah has now endorsed Sharron Angle.  And Sharron’s campaign is improving.  Take a look at her latest TV ad.  It’s great:

Sharron is still polling ahead of Lost Harry Reid.  She may pull this off.

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The HFR Hero of the Week is a woman – but it’s not Sarah, Sharron, nor Christine.  She is Charlotte Randolph, president of Lafourche Parish in Louisiana, which borders the Gulf of Mexico and is taking the brunt of the BP oil spill and Zero’s drilling moratorium.

Two days ago (7/21), some 12,000 people filled the Cajundome in Lafayette to protest the drilling moratorium in a Rally for Economic Survival.  There were great speeches, like Gov. Bobby Jindal’s, who related that when he explained to Zero how many jobs his moratorium was costing, Zero dismissed his concerns by saying, those affected would be getting a check from BP, and anyway, they could go on unemployment.

"We don’t want a BP check, Mr. President," Jindal said he replied.  "We don’t want unemployment.  We want to work!"

But the star of the show was Charlotte.  She began by reminding everyone that fully one-third of all domestic oil and 45% of natural gas in the US comes from the Gulf of Mexico and most all of that off Louisiana.  Port Fourchon in her parrish services 90% of these operations.  5,000 workers are at the port, and 15,000 offshore workers fly in and out each month.

She spoke directly to Zero, saying "Mr. President, you’re not in touch with real America" – then suggested that if safety and the inadequate resources to handle a second spill are the reason for the moratorium then perhaps Louisiana should stop the importation of foreign oil through the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port since over 11,000 tankers traverse the Gulf each year, each carrying an equivalent amount of oil to that spilled by the Macondo BP well.

The she dropped the bomb.  She asked her audience, "What would happen if we shut the valve?"  The audience responded with thunderous applause.

The vast majority of Americans have no clue as to what this means, any more than they have a clue as to the extent to which their lives and livelihoods are dependent upon the oil, gas, and petroleum products coming out of Louisiana.

All those thousands of  folks in the Cajundome knew exactly what she was talking about.  Just to the southwest of Lafayette is the town of Erath, location of the Henry Hub, a gas pipeline complex so critical that it’s where the spot price for natural gas is set.  Which means it’s a critical chokepoint for US energy supplies.

There are several such chokepoints in Louisiana.  Charlotte was talking about crippling the entire US economy by shutting off 30 to 40% of its energy – oil, gas, gasoline, electricity, the works.  That’s what she meant by "shut the valve," and everyone there understood.

The way it would be done is for Governor Jindal to order an immediate "safety inspection" of all the valves, pipelines, tanks, and pumping stations involved in getting Louisiana oil and gas out to the nation. 

This "safety inspection" would last, by coincidence only, exactly as long as the Federalies take to resolve their "safety" concerns and lift the drilling moratorium.

If Zero wants to play by Chicago Rules, wait ‘till he sees how Louisiana plays the game.

The moratorium would be lifted in a heartbeat, the nation would learn a valuable lesson about the importance of Louisiana to their well-being, and Jindal would be the greatest hero to Louisianans they’ve ever known.  I know Jindal is thinking about this because a friend of mine is talking to him about it.  We’ll see. 

Here’s the video of Charlotte’s speech.  Charlotte Randolph is a female John Galt.

***
There’s a lot of buzz about Angelo Codevilla’s article on America’s Ruling Class.  If you have some spare time this weekend, I recommend it – although be prepared for its length at over 12,000 words.

The Ruling Class is what Angelo has previously called the Court Party, as opposed to the Country Party.  While the latter seems obviously to be the Tea Party Movement, for some odd reason, in all of his 12,000 words he never once discusses TeaPartiers as such.

He also bends way over too backwards to pretend that the Ruling Class is a fully bipartisan Pub&Dem conspiracy which is about one-quarter true and three-quarters myth (see the 2009 Congressional voting record discussion in Rational Optimism this week.)

Those caveats (and the silly Darwin-bashing) aside, here’s a handful of quotes to show why it’s worth your time:

"Laws and regulations nowadays are longer than ever because length is needed to specify how people will be treated unequally… Nowadays, the members of our ruling class admit that they do not read the laws. They don’t have to. Because modern laws are primarily grants of discretion, all anybody has to know about them is whom they empower."

"Disregard for the text of laws — for the dictionary meaning of words and the intentions of those who wrote them — in favor of the decider’s discretion has permeated our ruling class from the Supreme Court to the lowest local agency… That is why legal words that say you are in the right avail you less in today’s America than being on the right side of the persons who decide what they want those words to mean."

"In general, the country class includes all those in stations high and low who are aghast at how relatively little honest work yields, by comparison with what just a little connection with the right bureaucracy can get you."

"The ruling class’s appetite for deference, power, and perks grows. The country class disrespects its rulers, wants to curtail their power and reduce their perks. The ruling class wears on its sleeve the view that the rest of Americans are racist, greedy, and above all stupid. The country class is ever more convinced that our rulers are corrupt, malevolent, and inept. The rulers want the ruled to shut up and obey. The ruled want self-governance. The clash between the two is about which side’s vision of itself and of the other is right and which is wrong… One side or the other will prevail. The clash is as sure and momentous as its outcome is unpredictable."

What Angelo does not say is that liberals, as animals of the pack, are cowards.  They hate us because they are afraid of us, afraid of anyone standing up to them, calling them what they are – fascists – and not apologizing for their principles or country.

That’s why Zero is their last hurrah.  That’s why we, as we stand up, will prevail.

***
Another reason why we will prevail is that the Lib Ruling Class lost one of its greatest weapons of intimidation this week.  Whenever any of us does anything they don’t like, they call us racist.  Don’t like Obama?  You’re a racist!  Want our border protected?  You’re a racist!  Against any Democrat program whatever?  You’re a racist!

The complete and absolute Racial Mess that Zero has made of the Shirley Sherrod debacle (described by Jack Kelly yesterday) hammers home to voters Zero’s utterly amateurish incompetence, and shatters their delusion that by voting for him we really would get a "post-racial America."

Finally, at last, folks are figuring out what they should have in 2008 – that Zero’s candidacy and election was about nothing but race.  It was the most racist election in US history.  The only reason anyone voted for him was because of his race.

As I said in O=Zero in June, 2008 – a portion of which went so viral Snopes had to verify that it was me who wrote it:

The O-man, Barack Hussein Obama, is an eloquently tailored empty suit.  No résumé, no accomplishments, no experience, no original ideas, no understanding of how the economy works, no understanding of how the world works, no balls, nothing but abstract empty rhetoric devoid of real substance.

He has no real identity.  He is half-white, which he rejects.  The rest of him is mostly Arab, which he hides but is disclosed by his non-African Arabic surname and his Arabic first and middle names as a way to triply proclaim his Arabic parentage to people in Kenya.  Only a small part of him is African Black from his Luo grandmother, which he pretends he is exclusively.

What he isn’t, not a genetic drop of, is "African-American," the descendant of enslaved Africans brought to America chained in slave ships.  He hasn’t a single ancestor who was a slave.  Instead, his Arab ancestors were slave owners.  Slave-trading was the main Arab business in East Africa for centuries until the British ended it.

Let that sink in:  Obambi is not the descendant of slaves, he is the descendant of slave owners.  Thus he makes the perfect Liberal Messiah.

He is a messiah to no one any longer.  His absurd racist election, and absurd fascist presidency have managed to so devalue the Liberal Race Card that its currency of intimidation is worthless.  The word "racist" has become a meaningless sound.  Libs might as well shout "macist!" or "tacist!" or "lacist!"  Liberal gibberish, nothing more.  Thanks for this gift to America, Zero.

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Let me close by thanking all of you so very much who have sent or are sending the Marine Care Packages to my son’s men in Afghanistan.  (The details are at the end of last week’s HFR.)  It means a lot to me – but it will mean so much more to Brandon’s Marines.  I really can’t thank you enough.  Neither can Brandon.