Saturday, April 03, 2010

SATURDAY NIGHT JOE JACKSON, FAITH NO MORE, RUSH.

Reasonably good Joe Jackson hit, "Nineteen forever". What do I say? It's a brilliant song!




At some point in the mid-nineties these guys were real cool. Faith No More with Midlife Crisis. The cover is of Angel Dust, the album the hit was drawn off. I read somewhere sometime that singer Mike Patton used to drink one of his shoes full of urine on stage. Well, to each his own.




And because I am in such a good mood, Rush with Afterimage. That's one from the 1984 album Grace under Pressure.




Rush must be the biggest rock band that has forever eluded mainstream. No matter whether you like them, their craftmanship is undeniable. Geddy Lee is a wizard on the keyboards, Alex Lifeson I'd rate among the planet's five most proficient guitar players, and Neil Peart is the best drummer this side of Zeta Reticuli (period).


Good night. Tomorrow's Easter.



MFBB.

Thursday, April 01, 2010

RADICAL MUSLIMS DISRUPT ISLAM-CRITICAL SPEECH AT ANTWERP UNIVERSITY.

We've been talking about Benno Barnard here before. He is a leftist playwright who saw the light in 2009.

Now a speech he intended to give at the University of Antwerp was disrupted by radical muslim students. Police had to intervene. The speech was cancelled altogether, even before it begun.





A frustrated Barnard after the event:


"We are 2010 now, and if you say you don't want that islam and especially not in its extreme form, you need the police and a bodyguard."


Welcome to reality, Mr. Barnard.



MFBB.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

FOR GOD'S SAKE, GIVE US REAL CONSERVATIVES.

Sigh.





With regards to the RNC strip club scandal Hugh Hewitt calls a spade a spade.


"What is needed now urgently is a top-to-bottom accountability exercise on expenses: Who spent how much on what and on whose authority? The RNC's members ought even now to be scrambling to get to D.C. (flying coach) to address this story and decide whether or not Michael Steele stays as Chair. They may chose to keep Steele, but he will need a vigorous show of support if he is going to stay on, and almost certainly a new Deputy Chair for Management should be named and vested with the authority to oversee the finances and administration of an organization which, at best, has enormous blind spots.

There isn't a moment to spare, and at the same time the NRCC.org and the NRSC.org will have to spend effort to message that they are not the RNC, and that their practices are not the practices of the national committee. It would help a great, great deal if either or both of the Congressional committees actually posted an online target list with links to GOP candidates for competitive seats so that the energized base could decide where to direct money and volunteer efforts to most effect.

In this new age of speed in communications and total transparency, whether voluntary or forced, the D.C. GOP still seems incredibly slow to transform itself and tone-deaf to the urgency felt by its core voters and newly arrived converts. The leadership from John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Mike Pence in the House as well as from Mitch McConnell, Jon Kyl and Lamar Alexander in the Senate was excellent through the battle over Obamacare. The display of expertise by Congressman Paul Ryan and others provided the hope that a new architecture of ideas on how to repair the damage was emerging. Great candidates were appearing across the country to challenge incumbent Democrats or contend for open seats.

2010 could indeed be a watershed year, a "Black Swan" moment for Democrats.

But not if serious self-inflicted wounds are left untreated and a staff that is building a reputation for miserable judgment left undisturbed in its evident complacency."



It's bad enough that I have to see the pitiful transformation of Europes "conservative" parties into left of center outfits - David Camoron's Tories, Sarkozy's UMP, Spain's Partido Popular et al...

But having to acknowledge that across the pond the American "conservatives" of the Republican Party can't seem to be able to cash in on the bankrupt policies of the Democrats is even worse.

It is really very, very, very easy and it works for me. Conservative ethics. Cultural self-confidence. Capitalism. Christianity. In America, as in Europe and everywhere else in the western world, conservative leaders must STOP trying to look like less extreme leftists.

If Steele is unable to lead, and lead in a convincing and genuinely conservative way, he has to go.


MFBB.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

THE GREAT UNITER?

Very interesting post over at The Redhunter, a longtime colleague and "blogger in arms" of DowneastBlog. Tom investigates to what extent Obama has thus far performed as a Uniter, as he predicted he would reign during his presidential campaign. As we all know, during the latter three quarters of the Bush years George W Bush was scolded as the President who outdid every predecessor in dividing the country.


A.) LEGISLATION PASSED OR PROPOSED UNDER OBAMA'S WATCH.

All vote tallies are: Yes, No, Absent/Abstain

1.) The Stimulus - H.R. 1: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

House - January 28, 200, 244 - 188: Democrats 244-11-0 GOP 177-0-1
Senate - February 10, 2009, 61 - 37: Democrats 58 - 0 - 1 GOP 3 - 37 - 0 Indep(Leiberman) 1 yes


2.) Cap and Trade - American Clean Energy and Security Act "ACES", or Waxman - Markey Bill

House - June 26, 2009, 219 - 212: Democrats 211-44 -1 GOP 8-168-2
Senate - There has been no Senate action on this bill


3.) 2010 Budget

House - April 2, 2009, 223 - 196: Democrats 233-20-1 GOP 0-176-2
Senate - April 2, 2009, 55 - 43: Democrats 53-3-1 GOP 0-40-0


4.) Health Care - H.R.4872 and H.R. 3590 Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010

House - March 21, 2010, 220 - 211: Democrats 220-33-0 GOP 0-178-0
Senate - Because this is being done as a "reconciliation" bill it has not yet been voted on in the Senate, but given that all it takes is a simple majority it's passage is a fait accompli. More importantly, I think we're all aware that Zero Republicans would vote for the measure, where as Obama has to bribe Democrats into voting for it



B.) LANDMARK LEGISLATION IN HISTORY

Let's go through some of the landmark history of the past century and examine the breakdown in voting between the two parties (for the sake of clarity, and because it doesn't really matter for our purposes, I have not included the votes from third parties in this legislation)

a.) President Roosevelt

Social Security Act of 1935

House - August 8, 1935, 365 - 30: Democrats 284-15-20, GOP 81-15-4
Senate - August 9, 1935, 76 - 6: Democrats 60-1-8 GOP 16-5-4


b.) President Johnson

Social Security Amendments of 1965 (Medicare and Medicaid)

House - April 8, 1965, 313 - 116: Democrats 237-48-8 GOP 70-68-2
Senate - July 27, 1965: 70 - 24: Democrats 57-7-4 GOP 13-17-2


Voting Rights Act of 1965 ("Civil Rights Act")

House - August 3, 1965, 328-74: Democrats: 217-54 GOP Republicans: 111-20
Senate - August 4, 1965, 49 - 18: Democrats: 49-17 GOP 30-1


c.) President Reagan

Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 "Kemp - Roth Tax Cut"

House - July 30, 1981, 323 - 107: (I cannot find the breakdown, but the party breakdown in the House for the 97th Congress were: Democrats 244, Republicans 191, so clearly many Democrats voted yes)
Senate - July 1981, 89 - 11: Democrats 37-9 GOP 52-1


C.) CONCLUSION

While this is hardly an exhaustive list of legislation, I believe it to be a fair sampling of landmark legislation passed over the past 75 years. Before President Obama, in every single case the legislation was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

Obama's legislation, however, is opposed almost unanimously by the Republicans. Worse, he can't even get all of his Democrats to go along with him without virtual bribes that stink to high heaven and legislative tricks that are foreign to most people.

Obama is worse than partisan; opposition to his bills is bipartisan, while support is strictly partisan. Obama even divides his own party.



_________________________



Sorry, but no original material from moi today. I am absolutely and completely busted. Oh wait. It seems that Ricky Martin has come out of the closet. Ha! As if we didn't know!



MFBB.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

BELGIAN JUDGE GENEVIEVE DENISTY: ROBBED? CARJACKED? YOUR OWN FAULT. YOU LIVE IN A BEAUTIFUL HOUSE AND DRIVE A JAGUAR.

A Belgian judge in Belgium's crime-ridden Detroit-on-the-Sambre aka Charleroi has ruled that a banker who used a 6,172 EUR state premium to renovate his house and who left it again before the mandatory ten years he was required to keep living in it were over, has to pay back the sum. The banker had left the mansion prematurely because in a short span of time he had been carjacked and robbed three times. From Belgian daily Het Laatste Nieuws:


Photobucket



Judge Geneviève Denisty on banker Laurent X being targeted: it is your own fault, "since it is not very prudent to draw attention to yourself by driving a Jaguar, living in a beautiful house and exhibit a certain wealth in an economically poor and disadvantaged region like Charleroi".



A number of foreign news outlets were quick to pick the story up. Among them the UK's The Telegraph:


"The crime victim, a businessman named only as Laurent, had been living in a suburb of Charleroi, in Belgium's depressed French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. He moved north after a series of violent attacks and robberies on his family but was taken to a local court because he had not paid back a grant to renovate his house in 1998.

In 2001, the victim was attacked and his BMW car was stolen. Shortly after it was recovered, armed men stormed his home and stole it a second time. In 2006, his wife and children were threatened by armed raiders, who stormed his home at night and dragged him away in his pyjamas while his horrified family looked on. He was later freed and dumped on a industrial estate as the thieves made off with another one of his cars, a Jaguar.

Geneviève Denisty, a Charleroi civil judge, told the businessman that he must pay back over £5,000 in renovation grants because he had behaved "unreasonably" in leaving the region.

"It is perhaps not sensible to draw attention to oneself by driving a Jaguar and living in a big house, making an ostentatious display of one's wealth in a poor and damaged region like Charleroi," said the judge.

The businessman's lawyer accused the civil court of supporting "hooligans". "In Charleroi, you must drive in a Trabant, wear a tracksuit and live in a slum to be safe from criminals and above reproach from judges," said Clément de Clety.



Charleroi is a sad decrepit bulwark of the Parti Socialiste, the "Party of 1,000,000 scandals" - in all likelihood the most corrupt political party in the entire western hemisphere. The PS has been in charge in Charleroi since, oh, since Julius Caesar was playing with tin soldiers or something. Curiously, after spreading the wealth around and shifting incomes towards the poor for aeons, Charleroi remains dirt poor and a very dangerous place to live. The place is known for producing and exporting curious individuals. Below to the left you see Marc Dutroux, Belgium's notorious paedophile/killer who in the mid-nineties let four young girls he had sexually abused starve to death in a dungeon he had built under his house. If not with a renovation premium, then in any case with the monthly 2,000 EUR check he got for free from the Walloon government for being "handicapped".


Photobucket



To the right you see Muriel Degauque, who lived a life of sex and drugs, though presumably not that much rock 'n roll, until she met a salafist asshole who convinced her that blowing yourself up in zhe name of Allah is a cool thing to do. She became the west's first female suicide bomber, self-detonating in Iraq in 2005 upon the passing of an American convoy. Luckily, there were only a couple of scratches on the paint of one truck (don't say too quick it's again a chick). Or how, while the Parti Socialiste is adamant about not sending Belgian soldiers to fight alongside their American colleagues, its policies nevertheless ensure that at least some Belgians are in the thick of the fight. Madame Degauque is with Allah now, though, as she was not a virgin anymore at the time of her passing, her services are probably declined upon the arrival of likeminded males.


Yeah, spreading the wealth around and realizing income shifts to help the poor really helps man. This guy gets it.


Photobucket



According to Mr. Baucus, Americans can sleep safe and secure in anticipation of a prosperous and just society because his party just did a Charleroi to the US of A! Yeee-haw!!!



MFBB.