Rock and Roll Conservative

Usually the arrogance takes longer to manifest itself

When a party controls all political branches in the United States it is a fact of life that they sooner or later become arrogant. For the Democrats it appears to be sooner...much sooner.

Latest example? Democrats are going to launch hearings to investigate all the lies they've accused the CIA of telling since 2001. Why 2001? Come on, man.

Even the White House isn't completely on board.

Another day, another made up Harper controversy

There will be no federal election in Canada this summer but it appears that the media didn't get the message and launched its traditional anti-Conservative campaign. The latest controversy?

Stephen Harper showed up for the G-8 photo op about a minute and a half late.

Yup. That's it.

It would be even less of a story than it already is but Harper missed a similar photo session back in London so now the media has a "trend" its following. What most are overlooking is that Barack Obama was also late and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak actually missed it completely.

Silly season has indeed started early.

The next Saudi Arabia?

When you think of Hamas you think of anti-Jewish terrorism but the group may be expanding its repertoire. Apparently the terrorist group may be turning into a morals enforcer as well.

Sigh

As experienced media watchers know, it's not usually until August that the media begins reporting every idiotic story as vitally important. As every conservative politician knows, it's not long before someone gins up a fake controversy to attack you.

Stephen Harper has learned the hard way that silly season has begun early by being the center of a "controversy" over communion wafers. The prime minister was at the funeral of Romeo Leblanc last week and may -- or may not -- have eaten a communion wafer offered by the priest conducting the service.

The big deal? Harper is a Protestant and apparently if you're a doctrinaire Catholic it's A Bad Thing for him to have eaten the wafer.

Or did he? No one can figure out if he actually ate the damned thing. Harper says he ate it, others say he just stuck it in his pocket (Youtube video here). I for one can't wait to see how Wafergate turns out.

Afghanistan for Dummies

Over here at ESR we love Steven Pressfield and his novels (stuff here). So it shouldn't be a surprise that we also love his new five part video blog, War & Reality in Afghanistan: It's the Tribes, Stupid.

You can check out episode one here, and there are links to the other four episodes as well. You might not agree with everything that Steven says but he is well-placed to offer commentary and analysis.

What they have wrought

Gary Larson has some thoughts on the "election" of Al Franken to the Senate. Not surprisingly, he's not a fan of the outcome.

Everything is better with legos...

And bacon of course. There’s a cute little video over at Youtube which illustrates an essential point when it comes to universal health care: It’s expensive as hell and you’ll be waiting a long time to see a doctor.

It’s something we Canadians know well. The government shovels more money into the system every year—and every year we hear not enough is being spent—and our wait times never appreciably decline.

The real Al Franken

Al Franken probably likes to think of himself as a funny version of Dennis Kucinich but Anthony Gregory says Minnesota's newest senator is a fraud.

Someone finally said it

If you're a close acquaintance you know that this Princess Diana-ification of Michael Jackson has really annoyed me. This was a man, after all, who explicitly acknowledged molesting children when he agreed to a financial settlement. I don't know about you, but if I'm ever falsely accused of child molestation, but I'm fighting it until I'm broke and railroaded to prison.

Peter King apparently agrees with me.

New at Enter Stage Right

Another week, another super issue of ESR for you all. This week we look at California as a predictor of America's future, cap and trade, the Canadian conservative movement, the predictable crowd supporting Manuel Zelaya, how to live longer and what Barack Obama should say to Iran.

All that and more here.

Didn't see this one coming

For someone who was derided as a numbskull on a hugely losing presidential ticket, Sarah Palin continues to surprise people. The announcement today that she was resigning as governor of Alaska was unexpected and certainly seems to be part of a plan to run for the GOP nomination for 2012.

And she hasn't got a chance. Sure, she's not the first prominent presidential wannabe to be hated by the press. Barry Goldwater had his sanity questioned and his failed campaign prompted op-ed pieces arguing the GOP was finished for a generation.

The difference with Palin is that the jihad launched against he began about two minutes after John McCain named her his running mate and is continuing to this day. Palin could go on to cure AIDS and cancer and still be subject to a bitter obit by the New York Times. She may be popular amongst the conservative base but the GOP and the media isn't conservative. You can fight one or the other but both? Good luck.

In Atlanta? Got nothing to do?

The Atlanta Freedom Rally & Tea Party takes place tomorrow and among the guest speakers are ESR scribe Tom DeWeese and The Intellectual Activist editor and publisher Robert Tracinksi.

More info here.

The state of the American economy

ESR scribe and economist extraordinaire Peter Morici recently appeared on C-SPAN where he talked about the American economy and answered some questions from viewers.

Happy Canada Day!

Just wishing all my fellow Canucks a Happy Canada Day -- a worthy celebration of a land with the best looking women and the best tasting beer!

What do the Norks really have?

Over at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists they analyze a recent North Korean missile launch and what it may mean. I think their final conclusion is a little too sanguine given the unstable nature of Northern leadership but that's just my opinion.

You have to admire his stones

The key to being a successful autocrat is to be able to spin every story as an "Us vs. Them". Case in point: The killing of Neda Agha Sottan during the protests in Iran galvanized the world into briefly taking notice of massive vote fraud in the Persian nation.

Now for those of us with a conscience, we'd be embarrassed to be the Iranian authorities. Perhaps be a little conciliatory. Not Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Nope, the pint-sized tyrant announced that an investigation into Sottan's "suspicious" death would take place because it would appear that the "enemies of the nation" were responsible.

You have to admire his pluck.

Am I missing something?

Occasionally I'll miss some nuance and not get the gist of the story. That may be the case with the "coup" which took place in Honduras this weekend. As I understand it, now former president Manuel Zelaya attempted to hold an illegal referendum to pretend he was Hugo Chavez and hold on to power after his term was over. The courts ruled against him. In support of the courts, the military and congress moved against him.

So am I missing something? Where's the coup?

The only thing that surprises me is that Barack Obama is standing with Hugo Chavez in support of Zelaya.

Yeah, that last bit was sarcasm.

New at Enter Stage Right

This week at Enter Stage Right we urge you to take action, talk financial reform, tell Canada's government to get out of the nuclear industry, interview Harry Stein, contrast Ike and Obama, explore the effects of immigration reform and offer some advice to the GOP.

All that and much more here.

It's extreme...

To say that capitalism in the United States is taking some big body blows these days but that doesn't mean there aren't plans to try and save it. Daniel Johnson has one plan and it's a doozy -- dissolve the union and divide up the states.

I bet they're devastated

Canada has disinvited Iranian diplomats from Canada Day celebrations next week, joining the Americans who announced previously that diplomats from the Persian nation had their invitations withdrawn from Independence Day gatherings.

In the world of diplomacy this is apparently a strong signal.

Hey, I have an idea. Why not a Radio Free Iran that pounds that country with The Rolling Stones and news from the outside world? I heard something like that worked in Europe a few decades ago...but I might have heard wrong. Now that would be a strong signal. Damn, I'm clever...

And they are heroes

I'd say the men and women of business have gotten a bad rap lately but that "lately" happens to be a few millenia. At any rate, I accidentally came across this blog a few days ago and I thought I'd share it with you. It's called "Heroes of Capitalism" and as the name suggests, it celebrates the men and women of capitalism.

Given the war on business that Barack Obama has declared, this web site is needed now more than ever to recognize those principled soldiers of economic freedom.

It happened at Berkeley? I'm shocked

It would appear that the children of rich liberals in Berkeley love marijuana and hate capitalism -- at least at one school.

I'm shocked to hear that.

That's a lot of cake

We're facing a $50 billion deficit up here in Canada -- relatively modest by the standards of the UK and USA -- and the fact of a coming economic slowdown was known two years ago. So how does our cost-conscious Conservative government prepare for it? Toss out billions in corporate welfare and environmental projects, among other things.

The CTF reports the top 100 federal handouts for 2008-09 here.

From controlling the economy to controlling the questions

Now that I've praised Barack Obama I have to lay into him. Turns out that the White House arranged to have a leftist blogger at a press conference today to ask a softball question about Iran. It was obvious that the Bamster knew what the question was before it was even asked.

Come on, is Obama facing critical questions from the press? He could send them to Gitmo and be praised by the White House press corps for "daring" action.

Keep it up

The fact that I am no fan of Barack Obama should not be a surprise. Something about him being a socialist who's hastening America's economic decline. That said, today I stand with America's president. Why?

Everyone -- that is those people who can't get enough of being in other people's business -- is up in arms over the news that Obama is still smoking. Hell, if I'm ever in D.C. I'll treat the Bamster to a fine Canadian cigarette.

Keep lighting up big guy.