Month: June 2013

Ed Snowden flees Hong Kong, goes to… Russia.

Told you he wasn’t legit.

This isn’t civil disobedience, by the way: civil disobedience is when you tell the cops to go ahead and arrest you, the legal system to go ahead and convict you, and the government to go ahead and actually put you in jail. Civil disobedience is about doing what you think is right and accepting the consequences. Otherwise, it’s presumption, arrogance, and the arrogant presumption of privilege (literally: “private law”).  Which is an excellent way to describe Ed Snowden, frankly. And Wikileaks, come to think of it.

No, what we have here instead is some good, old fashioned Lefty agitprop going on here:

The global cat-and-mouse hunt for Edward Snowden took a dramatic turn Sunday when the man wanted on U.S. espionage charges fled Hong Kong and may be in the air over Russia.

Snowden, who leaked top-secret details about U.S. surveillance programs, left Hong Kong on Sunday “through a lawful and normal channel,” the Hong Kong government said.

He took off with the help of WikiLeaks, which assisted with Snowden’s “political asylum in a democratic country, travel papers (and) safe exit from Hong Kong,” the group said on Twitter.

He’s gone to Russia.  Russia, where they kill uppity journalists.  Continue reading Ed Snowden flees Hong Kong, goes to… Russia.

Barack “Crazy Eddie”* Obama to announce plans to flip Senate in 2014.

No, that’s not a typo.

Obama to announce Tuesday he will regulate existing power plants as part of climate strategy

President Obama will announce Tuesday in a speech at Georgetown University that he plans to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from existing power plants, according to individuals who have been briefed on the plan but asked not to be identified.

Because, of course, all of those Democratic Senators drowning up for election in Republican states don’t have enough to worry about. Nope! Barry wants to throw them another anchor, bless his heart.  You know, it’s funny: the way things are going, I can totally see George W Bush being asked to campaign for candidates in 2016.

…Will Barack Obama? Continue reading Barack “Crazy Eddie”* Obama to announce plans to flip Senate in 2014.

‘Hastur and the Yellow Crayon.’ – No, not a book…

…but the thought of that made me gibber while reading Harold and the Purple Crayon for the ten thousandth time tonight.  I figure that H****r could be following the Yellow Sign around while looking for Carcosa, or something.  Gimme a break; I don’t usually come up with these.

George W Bush to visit Africa again! …And, oh, yeah: so will Barack Obama.

Two comments on this:

Mr. Bush, who made fighting AIDS in Africa a top goal of his administration, will take a trip there — his third since leaving office — as part of a program to combat cervical cancer. He will leave late next week for Zambia, where he will help refurbish a clinic, and then head to Tanzania, where his wife, Laura Bush, is organizing a forum for African first ladies.

Mr. Bush will overlap briefly on July 2 with Mr. Obama in Tanzania, the last stop on the current president’s itinerary after Senegal and South Africa. There are no plans for the two to see each other, but Michelle Obama has agreed to attend the first ladies’ forum with Mrs. Bush in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city, to promote women’s education, health and economic empowerment.

One is nice, one is… not so nice. Continue reading George W Bush to visit Africa again! …And, oh, yeah: so will Barack Obama.

Joe Biden(?) surrogates continue quiet internal war against Hillary Clinton surrogates.

Quiet, but deadly.

The decision to keep U.S. personnel in Benghazi with substandard security was made at the highest levels of the State Department by officials who have so far escaped blame over the Sept. 11 attack, according to a review of recent congressional testimony and internal State Department memos by Fox News.

Nine months before the assault that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others, State Department Under Secretary Patrick Kennedy signed off on an internal memo that green-lighted the Benghazi operation.

The December 2011 memo from Jeffrey Feltman — then-Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs (NEA) — pledged “to rapidly implement a series of corrective security measures.” However, no substantial improvements were made, according to congressional testimony to the House oversight committee from Regional Security Officer Eric Nordstrom.

Make no mistake about this.  Fox News is not being leaked this information because the State Department is a hotbed of Republican moles; Fox News is being leaked this information because that network is the only one that can be relied upon to publish damaging information about the State Department under Hillary Clinton.  You can see this by the way that they’re going after Patrick Kennedy, who was SecState Clinton’s assistant (and possibly cutout); and possibly by the way that they’re bringing in the paper-trail CYA warnings by Jeffrey Feltman, who in retrospect may have been forced out of his State Department gig last year for not being a good fit with Clinton’s New Order.  Either way, the implication is that things were not going well for Team Clinton over at State, after all… and while most of the Democratic party might not care for that particular message getting out there’s at least one sub-group who would be; anybody who wouldn’t get a nice job during the Hillary Clinton administration. Continue reading Joe Biden(?) surrogates continue quiet internal war against Hillary Clinton surrogates.

Why Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act may be going away.

Justice Anthony Kennedy is apparently spreading marmalade on his English muffins again:

During oral arguments in the Voting Rights Act case, a majority of justices appeared prepared to turn aside the solicitor general’s argument that the law’s requirement that jurisdictions with a track record of racial discrimination preclear any changes to their voting systems with Washington. Justice Antonin Scalia dismissed this feature of the Voting Rights Act—arguably the most important piece of civil-rights legislation in American history—as a distasteful “racial entitlement.” Justice Anthony Kennedy, the swing justice, recognized the historical value of the act but nonetheless suggested that the method of identifying which jurisdictions are subject to the requirement had become, over the years, “improper.” “Well, the Marshall Plan was very good, too,” he said, “but times change.”

Bolding mine.  This has always been the snag with keeping Section 5 of the VRA.  Today, very few people would argue that in 1965 the federal government would not have been justified in insisting that individual states respect the US Constitution, particularly the 14th and 15th Amendments.  However, it is almost fifty years later.  The people who were segregationists then are mostly dead of old age.  Their children and grandchildren get (rightfully) offended at the suggestion that they wish to suppress minority voters – because, you understand, integration WON.  These days Section 5 gathers its primary support from its beneficiaries: entrenched minority Democratic politicians, and slightly less entrenched Republican ones*.  I recognize the tactical advantages, but speaking as a good, classical Republican I’m happy to see that Anthony Kennedy is enjoying his marmalade. Continue reading Why Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act may be going away.

Longtime Obama supporter Paula Deen fired from Food Network for racist language.

NAME!
THAT!
PARTY!!!!!

In this day and age…

Paula Deen, the self-proclaimed queen of Southern cooking and a sugary mainstay of the Food Network, was dropped by the network on Friday, after a bewildering day in which she failed to show up for an interview on the “Today” show and then in two online videos begged her family and audience to forgive her for using racist language.

A network spokeswoman said it would not renew Ms. Deen’s contract when it expired at the end of June. Ms. Deen has faced a volley of criticism this week over her remarks in a deposition for a discrimination lawsuit by a former employee. In the document, she admitted she had used racial epithets, tolerated racist jokes and condoned pornography in the workplace.

…Yup, she’s a Democrat – a word that, inexplicably enough, does not appear in the New York Times piece. Neither does the word “supporter,” or the names “Barack” or “Michelle Obama.”  Guess that the Old Grey Lady was pressed for space, huh? Continue reading Longtime Obama supporter Paula Deen fired from Food Network for racist language.

Well, the good news is that the new computer works.

The bad news is that I cannot in fact access my old hard drive. This is only a mildly frustrating problem – I can eventually get somebody to yank the files I need – but it does mean that I will have to do quite a bit of pulling and yanking and finding stuff that I’ve forgotten that I had installed until the lack bites me on the tuchus.

Still. The new computer has definite advantages. Like USB ports that don’t disintegrate when you look at them funny.