Revealed Truth

Visit this site for verifiably accurate opinions on all things political - in contradistinction to the INcorrect opinions you are likely to find elsewhere. I'm an American Libertarian Nationalist Republican. Ponder that one a while. Almost all are welcome, but at the request of management: no vegetarians or soccer fans, please. We have our reasons. Thank you and welcome to: Revealed Truth.


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Saturday, January 01, 2005
 
Blessed are the Poor. So Let's Keep Them That Way.

John Ray maintains 497 blogs, one of which is entitled "Leftists as Elitists."

This particular blog this week features a very uplifting correspondence from a reader in Costa Rica. Honestly, this is the sort of piece that does my right-wing-libertarian heart good. Here's a generous sample:

"As I've told you, I'm in Costa Rica. And we get a lot of goofy leftist college girls vacationing here. Ultra granola wicca nature goddesses. And they don't like all of this globalization because they gripe that it's 'destroying cultural diversity with globo-mono-culture.' You'll find variations of this kind of thinking in Naomi Klein's book NO LOGO, which is mindless but an excellent description of the mindset. They are angry about the cultural imperialism that leads a peasant kid to buying a pair of nikes. Poverty is good, it keeps things as they are. Tradition. Diversity.

It's really a horribly patronizing outlook, which can be summed up as: 'these people shouldn't have money because if they have money they'll no longer be cute little zoo creatures for me to admire as something different than myself. They'll be like people anywhere.' Imagine a big nature reserve/zoo/park in the developing world where a bunch of native animals are kept in "their" natural environment. Now imagine the same with people. That's precisely what these leftists want.
"

BINGO! These leftist vermin don't care about the so-called downtrodden. Their motivations are infinitely more sinister. The Costa Rican correspondent has it exactly right; they want to have their cake and eat it too.

Actually, they want to have their cake, eat it, and then spit it in your face.

Think about it. They want to live off the fruits of capitalism, all the while bitching and moaning about its alleged inequities. Then they want to visit the "big nature reserve," where they can see life as it was lived in the good old precapitalist days.

They don't want to live it, mind you. They just want to brush close enough to the natives that they can tell their friends back home how they saw Life as it Should be Lived (except by them).

People like Ray's correspondent must scare the hell out of the Nancy Pelosis and the John Conyers of the world.

If not, those folks are even dumber than I thought.

Because they should.

< |
Friday, December 31, 2004
 
Feds to Declare Marshal Law in Ohio! Marines on Their Way!

That's what a group of forlorn dopes over at Democratic Underground seems to think, anyway. This is really priceless!

The thread starts with somone posting an excerpt from an Article in the Toledo Blade. The article talks about how a Marine unit will be conducting exercises in Toledo for about three hours on January 7th. The Major of the 130 man unit said they needed to train in an urban environment.

The DU dimwits take it from there.

--"Could this be the beginning of this martial law stuff that we have been fearing? Scary times, folks, scary times!"

--"There is NO REASON they need to train there unless:
1) They believe they will need to fight in American cities
2) They need to know how to control American cities
3) They want to prepare to subvert any protests stemming from the Election issues coming next week
."

--"Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming,... If you were told to shoot at your fellow citizens, would you do it? Just a rhetorical question."

The Spirit of the John Kerry Six lives on!

< |
 
The John Kerry Six

That's what Tim Blair has dubbed the pathetic gaggle of a "half dozen supporters of John Kerry are holding vigil in front of his house, still hoping for a Kerry presidency."

You can find the original article here in the Official Periodical of the John Kerry Six, the Boston Globe.

< |
 
Hey, Francis Porretto's Got a Blog!

Francis ran the former Palace of Reason, to which I used to occasionally contribute, and which I gather is no longer in existence. But now he's got a nifty blog called Eternity Road in which he offers his pronouncements as the Official Curmudgeon of the blogosphere. You can hereafter find his blog listed on blogroll on the left of the page.

Here's a particularly interesting (and scary) piece detailing the filth being offered on a particular Muslim web site called Iviews.com. Here's a sample of one post Porretto quotes:

"Above all, the question that the hijackers of 9-11 pose to their Islamic compatriots is this: 'What have you risked to oppose your own tyrants, your own ruling cliques, tribes and sectaries, who are so easily co-opted by foreign powers, who have worked so treacherously to enslave their own peoples, who sell off their national treasures, and who have secretly worked with Israel to complete the dismantling of Palestinian society?'

We engage in this violence against the United States because you force us to, because you have failed to act against the American surrogates in your own countries. Because you have failed to act politically and with courage, we send you this message of horror, of shame. We advertise your shame before the world. We announce the failure of a billion and a half people - keepers of the Quran and heirs to a moral civilization - to overthrow the craven ruling classes who commit treachery against their own societies, their own history, every day that they cling to power....Is America ready to fight a billion and and a half people in their own streets, their own squares, their own backyards
?"

Porretto then informs us that:

"The author, M. Shahid Alam, is a professor of economics—Marxist economics, no doubt—at Northeastern University.

What is this man doing within the borders of the United States, teaching American college students at taxpayer-subsidized expense? By what right does he continue to live in the near-utopian marvel we call the United States, if he considers it right and proper for his Muslim brethren to kill us for being Americans
?"

Which is correct, of course. Read the rest and you'll see why I'm pretty sure Porretto's comment about the professor's inclinations toward Marxism are almost certainly correct, as well.


< |
 
Cheese Postscript

After this, I promise, no more cheese posts. But if you're trying to kick the cheese habit, this posting from Francis Porretto might help. Who knew?
< |
 
Warning! This Posting Concerns the Economics of Cheese!

This may sound boring to you, but I find it fascinating. I'm sure that says more about me than it does about the subject of dairy economics, but I'm going to do this anyway.

This article in today's Chicago Tribune (free registration required) discusses how Dairy Farmers artificially raise the price they get from the government for their milk by manipulating the Chicago Cheese Exchange.

Bear with me on this one.

It seems that one of the key factors the government uses to set milk support prices is the "spot price" of cheese. The idea being that the price of cheese at market should reflect the supply/demand balance of the commodity and is as a good a proxy as any for what sort of prices farmers are able to get for their milk.

And how is the "spot price" of cheese set? By the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's Cheese Exchange (hereinafter CE) of course!

I've lived in the Chicago area my entire adult life and until today I've somehow remained unaware of the existence of the CE. Of course, it's easy to miss, seeing as how it only operates for 15 minutes a day. Be that as it may, the CE is still the only game in town when it comes to setting cheddar cheese pricing. Only cheddar. They don't do mozarella. I'm serious - read the article.

Now cheese is what's known as a "thin market," which simply means that there aren't a lot of trades and the few that are made tend to be made by a few key industry insiders. That is, it's what economists also refer to as an "illiquid market." Which is fortunate, since I'm not so sure I like the idea of liquid cheese.

So to get to the point of the article, it seems that an outfit called the Dairy Farmers of America and its Big Cheese, CEO Gary Hanman, habitually place large cheese Buy Orders at strategic times so as to keep the milk price support level artificially high.

Ok. Last cheese joke, I promise.

According to the article, Hanan boasted that this year alone, his group was able to add $1.3 billion to dairy farmer coffers.

Now here's the part that I find most interesting about the article. It alludes to several causes for the problem and hints at some solutions. First, there's the "problem" that being a cash market where goods are actually delivered, the CE isn't regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. And to the apparent dismay of the article's author, "No other federal agency regulates the cheese exchange either."

Imagine. Unregulated cheese sales! How has this scandalous state of affairs been allowed to stand for so long?

The article goes on to wonder whether the group may be engaging in illegal market manipulation as defined by the Commodities Exchange Act. It also talks about how the Dairy Farmers Association is being investigated for violating antitrust laws.

But there's one thing that doesn't seem to occur to the author for even a moment: namely, that maybe the government shouldn't really be providing dairy farmers with price support. No price supports means no need for wacky price proxies like the Spot Price of Cheese. No wacky proxies means no need to manipulate those wacky proxies. Then the republic could sleep easily knowing that the Chicago Cheese Exchange was functioning as it was originally intended: to provide Pizza Hut with price certainty.

Now admittedly, I'm no dairy economist. Oh, yes, that's one last thing I learned from the article. Such things as "dairy economists" exist. The Tribune article quotes THREE of these people.

By the way, here is a companion Trib article detailing the sordid history of cheese price manipulation, dating back to the infamous Wisconsin Cheese Price-Fixing Scandal of 1911.

That's probably enough about cheese for now. Admit it, though. If you made it this far you learned lots of stuff you didn't know. Feel free to use this knowledge at your New Years Eve party tonight.

< |
Thursday, December 30, 2004
 
Tee Hee

I think I'll do my first plug. I found this selection of "I Love Halliburton" products for sale on Cafepress.com via Kim DuToit's site.

What better way to annoy the leftist in your office than to walk around with an "I Love Halliburton" coffee mug!


I Love Halliburton Posted by Hello
< |
 
The Insipid Object Meets the Inane Force

If you reside in the Chicago area, you are well aware of our resident Unholier-Than-Thou atheist pest Rob Sherman. If you don't, though, you probably have a clone where you live. You know the type: he scurries about the metropolitan area looking for things to be offended about. Crosses in city seals, seals wearing crosses...that sort of thing.

Well, I'm happy to report that Mr. Sherman has scored a major victory for atheists everywhere!

You see, the city of Chicago, having solved the problems of crime, economic stagnation and urban blight, turned its attention to Christmas tree recycling. The city came up with a little scheme whereby residents who haul their Christmas trees to city-owned wood chippers, rather than just throw them on the curb for the garbagemen to pick up, are rewarded with recycling bags. Up to 53 of them! A belated Christmas gift for the good citizens of Chicago.

Yes, yes. I know what you're wondering. And I have no idea why they picked the number 53. My best guess is that the bags come in packages of 10.6 and they wanted to dispense them in five-package-increments. But I digress....

Now you might look at the city's little plan and see little more than an extraordinarily silly, but fairly harmless, waste of time and resources. Not Superatheist, though! No, Sherman - undeterred by the fact that he doesn't actually LIVE in Chicago but rather in Buffalo Grove some 20 miles away - saw a dangerous and offensive government endorsement of religion. And he went to work.

Thus spaketh His Unholiness:

"Although well-intentioned, it was a blatant situation where the government designed a program for the benefit of Christians. Atheists and others should not have to pay for the bags if Christians can get them for free."

At this point, the story gets a little unclear. I imagine that the city called an emergency meeting of its legal counselors and pest control professionals. What we DO know though, is that they came up with a compromise solution. The city changed its program so that anyone "dropping off a large bag of recyclables" can also get the bags. This made Sherman as happy as he ever gets, and he dropped his plans to do whatever it is he does in this sort of case.

Whew. That was close!

Oh, and one more thing. Rumor has it that you can get a good deal on recycling bags from the gentlemen making their homes on Lower Wacker Drive. Seems they had connections to a good pipeline of "recyclables."

< |
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
 
Ooops

Remember this report a couple of weeks ago?

"BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested in a German newspaper interview published Saturday that the Republican Party should move "a little to the left," a shift that he said would allow it to pick up new voters...."

Well, as Emily Letella used to say: "Never mind."

The reporter who did the interview now says Arnold never said that.

"Marc Hujer translated Schwarzenegger's English remarks into German and says he changed the phrasing to make the interview more understandable to a German audience. Schwarzenegger actually said he'd like to 'Keep [the Republican Party] to the right where it is, but ... cross over that centerline a little bit, because that would immediately take away 5 percent from the Democrats.'"

Found on Brit Hume's Political Grapevine.

< |
 
Jerry Orbach Dies

Bummer. The only tv drama I've ever really followed (I think I'm the only person on Earth, for example, who has never seen a single episode of either "ER" or "NYPD Blue") has just lost its central character, Detective Lennie Briscoe.

My favorite moment in every episode was Lennie's smart-aleck comment over the body of the murder victim just before they cut away to the opening credits.

Courtesy of an obviously no-longer-maintained page called "The Humble Page of Great Lennie Lines," here are a few samples of The Wit of Lennie Briscoe:

---

Lennie: We don't really give a damn about these people looting and bustin' up people's cars. That's not our department. We're homicide.
Suspect: So?
Lennie: So, your friend there is homicidin' somebody


---

Divorce lawyer: Do you know haw many matrimonial attorneys were attacked last year?
Lennie: I know one who should've been.


---

(Investigating the murder of an art/art history instructor)
Rey: An art teacher... Who'd she ever hurt?
Lennie: Yeah. An algebra teacher I can understand.


---

Oh well. So long, Lennie!


< |
 
Dueling Sontag Obituaries

Michelle Malkin compares MSM obits of Susan Sontag with the pithier version offered up by Washington Times editor Stacy McCain.

Here are the headlines of some MSM obits:

"A Rigorous Intellectual Dressed in Glamour"
"The Intellectual Risk-Taker Died in NY"
"A Celebrity Intellectual Who Provoked, Inspired"

Here's the start of McCain's version:

"Novelist, radical Susan Sontag, 71, dies in New York
From combined dispatches

Susan Sontag, a critic, novelist and essayist who blamed America for the September 11 terror attacks and once declared that "the white race is the cancer of human history," died in New York yesterday at age 71....
"

The rest of the Washington Times obit is here.


< |
 
Brogroll Addition

Do check out Keving Baker's interesting blog entitled "The Smallest Minority". The title comes from an Ayn Rand quote - though he says he isn't an Objectivist. I quote Rand a lot and I'm not an Objectivist, either, so we have at least that in common.
< |
 
Are the Proponents of Liberty Constitutionally Doomed?

For the record, I think not. But I'll freely admit that the question haunts me. This will be an uncharactertistically long posting, so I beg the reader's indulgence in advance.

P.J. O'Rourke, in one of the many books he authored that are sitting on my shelves, cited a conversation he had with a friend about the comparative propensity for protest by the Left and Right. I apologize for not taking the time to research the exact quote, but trust me: the following is close enough:

"How come when the left gets upset about something," O'Rourke's friend asked, "within ten minutes they have a hundred protesters on the scene with professionally made placards and coordinated chants - but when the right get upset about something, three kids from the Young Americans for Freedom show up waving hand-made posters?"

"We have jobs," P.J. answered.

True enough, I suppose. But Kim DuToit has, in his unique fashion, made the case that this state of affairs had best not remain the case. Ironically, he cites this posting on my humble blog approvingly. I say ironically, because he's also absolutely right when he says that I "touch on, but (don't) finalize...the ultimate truth."

Said truth being:

"Whether welfare, gun control, the environment, universal health-care, or trade unions: All the pet projects of the Left are simply part of a socialist / communist power grab. In each of these projects, the individual's rights, needs and wants are subsumed under the "greater good" of the community -- whether it's denying someone the right to develop their own land, to educate their own child according to personal standards, to provide for their own retirement, or to own the means to protect themself.

And it is incumbent on us, We The People, we free citizens, to fight against all this bullshit, no matter what format it may take.

Yes, I concentrate on guns on this website, because that happens to be my own battleground of choice.

But longtime Readers will know that I've also written, many times, about enviro-bullshit, public education failures, property rights and the failure of Social Security, to name but some of the Left's favorites.

To concentrate on only one is foolishness, because our enemies on the Left are working on all of them.
"

DuToit is absolutely right. The task for those of us who are passionate about the cause of liberty is to connect with other folk who may or may not be able to connect the dots as we do. We must make them understand that the diminution of even those freedoms they may not themselves care to exercise is a threat to all of us.

We must convince the man who faces the prospect of losing his home or business due to insane environmental regulations that he has common cause with the man who wishes only to own a firearm.

We must make the home-schooling mother of five see that her interests are intertwined with those of the "pornographer." At first blush, this may sound implausible - but I submit that it is no such thing. The Left, after all, has done this with great effect for over a century. This was Lenin's genius: translating theory into tactics in a language the common man could understand.

Yes, I remain optimistic. This should be a fairly easy task for us. We're right, after all. We need only create an Alliance of the Recalcitrant.

From the Christian who doesn't wish to have his children propagandized about "alternate lifestyles" to the businessman who doesn't wish to give more than half his income to the state. From the motorcyclist who - for reasons known only to him and his God - doesn't wish to wear a helmet, to the guy who just wants to light up a smoke in his corner tavern as his father and grandfather could years ago. From the woman whose life has been extended and enhanced by the products of the "blood-sucking pharmaceutical companies," to the little old lady who thinks it should be HER choice who she rents space to in her three-flat.

They're out there. They've been beaten down a bit, but they're just waiting for someone to connect the dots and tell the Objects of Their Disaffection to go to Hell. The time is drawing near.

It's either us or them.




< |
 
Blog, the Book

I think most of you in the U.S. will know this already; but I have a fair percentage of overseas readers (note that I said "percentage," not "number"), so I'll point it out anyway.

Hugh Hewitt has written a new book called "Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That is Changing Your World."

As far as I know, Hewitt's book is the first one devoted to the blogging phenomenon and its impact on the body politic. From listening to his radio show, I've developed an appreciation for Hewitt's intellect - so I look forward to reading the book.

< |
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
 
Dave Barry on April 2004

Barry has done a typically hilarious 2004 year-in-review. Here's his take on April:

"(T)he big entertainment news comes at the end of the two-hour season finale of the megahit reality show 'The Apprentice,' when Donald Trump, in the most-anticipated event of the year -- and quite possibly all of human history -- fires that one guy, whatshisname, and keeps that other guy. You remember. It was huge.

Meanwhile, in another blow to the U.S.-led coalition effort in Iraq, Spain withdraws its troop, Sgt. Juan Hernandez. As violence in Iraq escalates, critics of the Bush administration charge that there are not enough U.S. troops over there. Administration officials heatedly deny this, arguing that the real problem is that there are too many Iraqis over there. In the words of one high-level official (who is not identified in press reports because of the difficulties involved in spelling 'Condoleezza'), the administration 'may have to relocate the Iraqis to a safer area, such as Ecuador.' John Kerry calls this 'a ridiculous idea,' adding, 'I wholeheartedly endorse it.'

In economic news, the price of a gallon of gasoline at the pump reaches $236.97, prompting widespread concern that there is something wrong with this particular pump.

Congress vows to hold hearings
."

You can find his synopsis of the rest of the months here.

< |
 
Gary Collard, commenting on this entry discussing the Reuters piece blaming Global Warming (or its "synergistic effects") for the Asian Tsunami:

"You think they have a form of EnviroMadLibs book where a staffer just adds in the words for the relevant news story and it spits out the hysterical story right to the Reuters editor's desk?"

THAT was funny! I mean...you don't think it might be true, do you?
< |
 
"Ohio Recount Ends, Shows Vote Closer"

That's the headline. This is the AP article on Yahoo News.

Now if you don't read the story, you might think: "Gee, it got closer. Bush probably just about lost!" Or at the very least that the gap narrowed to a few hundred votes. Or maybe a couple of thousand.

Here's what actually happened. The final recount shows Bush leading by 118,457 votes. The original vote count had him winning by 118,775 votes. It got "closer" by 318 votes. Since the recount costs about $1.5 million, that's $39,473.68 per vote changed.

Awfully expensive windmills, those.


< |
 
"Teenager barred from prom for Confederate-inspired dress sues"

How delicious. Litigious leftist loons hoisted on their own petards!

I've written here before in support of southerners who believe the Stars and Bars are an important part of their cultural heritage. It seems to me that today's American social order deems all expressions of ethnic, cultural, racial and linguistic heritage worthy of celebration but one: being a Son of Dixie.

Knowing the gaggle of leftists who promulgate THAT little double-standard, I think it's important they be told at every opportunity to pound sand, bark at the moon, and generally mind their own business. Well here's another chance, with the added bonus that THIS time their hypocrisy might cost them some money!

" Jacqueline Duty's prom dress created a stir even before she showed up for the May 1 event.

When Duty came to the Russell High School prom in a self-designed red, white and blue gown with the Confederate battle flag as part of the design, she was told to leave.

School leaders, who had heard about Duty's plans to wear the Confederate-inspired sequined gown, wouldn't allow her to enter the prom or even leave her vehicle, her lawyers say.

'Her only dance for her senior prom was on the sidewalk to a song playing on the radio,' said Earl-Ray Neal, her lawyer.

Now Duty is suing the school district in U.S. District Court in Lexington, saying the school district and administrators violated her First Amendment right to free speech and her right to celebrate her heritage. She also is suing for defamation, false imprisonment and assault.

She plans as well to sue for actual and punitive damages in excess of $50,000
."

"Cultural pride for me, but not for THEE...."

The rest of the article can be found here.

< |
 
"American Zombies Blamed for Bulk of Spam"

I read this article three times, and I'm still not sure that I really understand it except that I gather most email "spam" comes from the U.S.

Mostly, I just posted this because I enjoyed the title, which induced visions of the creatures from Night of the Living Dead stalking the facilities of the Hormel Foods Corporation in search of their prey.



< |
 
OK....I just saw this on the local news.

Here in Chicago. On the local Fox News Channel. But I've Googled it to death and haven't found any other news reports on it yet.

Don Rumsfeld was asked a question today by a soldier that went very much as follows:

"Everything we see on the news is negative. But when we build a bridge or a school house, we can't get that on the news. We publish things on the internet, but the media isn't interested in reporting on it. How do we get our story out?"

That's very close to what he said. I'll stand to be corrected, but that was the essence of his complaint.

Rummy's answer was pretty funny. He said: "That sounds like a question that was planted by a member of the press."

For those of you who don't know, it turned out that the soldier who asked the (widely publicized) question about having to scrounge for armor was put up to it by a reporter from the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

I'll be interested in seeing if this new query is repeated from coast to coast ad neaseum.

< |
 
Presented Without Endorsement

Necessarily. It struck me as kinda neat, anyway. Here is a site that lets you "Bet on Iraq" by buying the New Iraqi Dinar, which celebrated its first anniversary in October.

Hey, if you're like many who thinks the US dollar is in for some more deterioration, look at this as a way to hedge against the dollar's decline! If not, maybe you want to buy a few bucks worth as a conversation piece.

< |
 
The "Scaremonger's Creed"

When assessing the efforts of environmentalists to turn the Asian Tsunamis into a cautionary tale about Global Warming (see the posting immediately below), keep in mind what the Dartmouth Review called the Scaremonger's Creed:

"To capture the public imagination, we have to offer up some scary scenarios, make simplified dramatic statements and little mention of any doubts one might have. Each of us has to decide the right balance between being effective, and being honest." -- Stephen Schneider, Discover Magazine, October 1989

< |
Monday, December 27, 2004
 
Didn't Take Them Long!

It took the Scum of the Earth all of a day to get their media minions to blame the Asian Tsunami on Global Warming.

< |
 


Three Cheers for Global Warming!

"Crude futures fell by more $2 a barrel on Monday as traders anticipated warmer weather in the U.S. Northeast later in the week...."

-----

Who Coulda Guessed This One?

"Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero who gained fame with routines about drugs and dirty words, said Monday he was undergoing treatment for excessive use of alcohol and prescription painkillers."

In fairness to Carlin, if you've never heard his bit about airline announcements, you should. If you do much air travel, I think you'll find it to be some of the funniest stuff you've heard in a while.

-----

Osama Stuns the World!

"An audiotape message said to be made by the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden called for Muslims to boycott elections there next month and endorsed the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as Mr. bin Laden's deputy in Iraq."

And here I'd been expecting him to endorse the Tommy Franks write-in effort.

What's next? George Carlin going into drug rehab?

-----

It Was a Very Good Year

That's the title of a nice year-end summary by Pete DuPont on OpinonJournal.com. DuPont reminds us that 2004 brought democracy to Ukraine and Afghanistan abroad and over 2 million new jobs at home. He also talks about how the Rathergate episode finally exposed Old Media's bias and hypocrisy for all to see.

But I especially like this part:

"...(T)he most important domestic happening of 2004 was the eclipse of traditional Democratic Party liberalism by the vicious left of Michael Moore and MoveOn.org. The best understanding of the eclipse is Peter Beinart's article in the current issue of The New Republic, explaining that the fundamental problem is the character of the party's far left base. 'There is no terrorist threat,' Michael Moore says, and Americans are possibly 'the dumbest people on the planet,' bringing 'sadness and misery to places around the globe.' Never mind the liberation of Afghanistan from the Taliban and American soldiers walking Afghan girls to school, or the new houses, cars and opportunities that are appearing daily in Iraq. So when Mr. Moore was seated next to former president Jimmy Carter at the Democratic National Convention, middle class Americans decided that the Democratic Party was not their party.

Mr. Beinart reminds us that 60 years ago liberal Democrats fought to expel supporters of communism from their party and reject totalitarianism, or as the reform Americans for Democratic Action put it, America should support "democratic and freedom-loving peoples the world over." Today that would be Afghans, Iraqis and soon Iranians. But the leftist core of the Democratic Party supports none of the above, and until it does the American people will not support its candidates
."

-----

Saint Ann on the Great Autopen Scandal

As only Coulter is capable of putting it:

"Since the attack of 9/11, we've won two wars, liberated millions of people from monstrous regimes, presided over one election in Afghanistan and are about to see elections in Iraq and among the Palestinian people. Focusing like a laser beam on the big picture, liberals are upset that, during this period, the secretary of defense used an autopen.

An autopen is a mechanical arm that actually holds a pen and is programmed to sign letters with a particular person's precise signature. Imagine a President Al Gore, with slightly more personality, signing all official government letters -- that's an autopen....

As president, Clinton sold burial plots in Arlington Cemetery and liberals shrugged it off. What really gets their goat is the autopen. Evidently, the important thing was that every one of those pardons Clinton sold for cash on his last day in office was signed by Bill Clinton personally
."

The rest is here.

-----

DuPont's right. It HAS been a good year. W won. The economy hummed. Leftists from Dan Rather to Tom Daschle to Viktor Yanukovych were discredited or defeated. Or both.

And most encouraging of all...

It still looks like lots of leftists might move to Canada!

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