Po’ Dede’s a little confused

Dede Scozzafava, the Republican congressional nominee who dropped out of New York’s special election last week to endorse Democrat Bill Owens, said Wednesday night that the GOP is “really not based on any sort of substance.”

If that’s so, how’d she get booted out? Wait, Politico might be playing loose with quotes:

Speaking with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Scozzafava warned Republicans that “you have ideology that’s really not based on any sort of substance that can move an agenda forward, that can really help people in this country.”

What if you want to move an agenda back?

“You know, the original Republican Party was all about less government interference in the lives of individuals. It was about promoting self-sufficiency versus government dependency.”

That’s debateable. If subsidized railroads and harbors and opposition to polygamy qualify as “less government interference in the lives of individuals”, OK. Their first President sure interfered in a lot of lives.

Domestic terrorists accuse Hillary of racism

How sweet it is when the Left turns on their own!

Election wrapup

OK, there were things to be happy about last night: Virginia, the removal of the odious Jon Corzine, the defeat of the Communist Rick Nagin in his quest for a Cleveland Council seat.  The Cuyahoga charter amendment was a good thing overall. Yes, Hoffman losing in NY23 was a bummer, but it was a fair fight, and at least the liberal will wear the proper ID tag.

But locally, I’m not seeing any of the revulsion to government that I’ve pipe-dreamed of. In my county, both the Democrat-backed judges won (though at least my candidates came in 2nd in 3-4 man races). All 3 statewide issues passed handily, with the casino gambling issue coming in the closest. That’s not  a clear-cut issue of principle, but stupidity and veniality as usual.

The Rethuglicans will make much of their wins, and one can understand why. But one swallow doesn’t make a spring. We live in a country increasingly dominated by cheesesuckers, and it’s going to take years to repair the damage sustained to American culture in the last century.

Nevada LP Senate candidate shot by police

Via LRC, this sad story:

I was pulled over for driving straight through an intersection in a right turn only lane. I did signal for my lane changes to the left.

After exiting the vehicle at the officer’s request, I was standing with my back to the vehicle. The car’s open door was to my right. My hands were raised above my head. I was calmly speaking to the cop attempting to talk my way out of being taken to jail over an unpaid High Occupancy Vehicle ticket.

With my hands raised above my head, the cop shot me with a taser in the chest.

Duensing has a heart condition, so he freaked, pulled the electrodes, and ran.

Various figures have been discussing whether Jim was “resisting arrest”. What they haven’t addressed is this: why did the cop taze Duensing, presuming this is an accurate account of what happened? He wasn’t going anywhere or being threatening. They knew who he was. And in the midst of all kinds of finger pointing, this was one of the few commenters to nail it:

Brian S // Nov 2, 2009 at 3:35 pm

Let’s not lose sight of the real issue here – the cops shot a senatorial candidate multiple times, immediately before an election. How coincidental can this be, really?

I wish Jim a speedy recovery.

Bye, Dede

This isn’t so much about the Scozzafava suspension, as about Ace’s reaction to it.
He contrasts Limbaugh’s pragmatism with Beck’s purism (Glenn, not Billy…who really is a purist), and sides with Limbaugh. As usual with slaves of the Duopoly, he misses the point.

The Hoffman thing is a fluke, because it happened in one of the few states with a functional 3rd party system, because of the possibility of multi-line candidacy. It’s not going to happen somewhere like Ohio. Nobody was insisting on ideological purity in a Republican; a bunch of people just decided to vote ideology instead of party, in a rare situation where that was possible.

The way forward is not to arguable about successful electoral strategies within the Duopoly. That’s a non-starter, because the battle will always be about power instead of ideology. What we need is a free and open electoral system in this country, and instead of lobbying for short-term goals, Republicans and Democrats both need to work for a system where every party plays by the same rules. If a minor party needs 40K petition signatures to get on the ballot, so do the Democrats. If they can lose ballot access by getting too few votes, so can the Republicans. And get multi-line like in NY (you know, that right of free association?) Now, that will be a hard sell, because it isn’t in the interest of the Duopoly to do it. but if we make it in the interests of the individual politicians to make it happen, it could happen. At that point, with a lively spectrum of options, the Left will “split the vote” as often as the Right, and pragmatic, “what’s in it for me” voters will be choosing different folks from we ideologues.

3 narcs bite the dust

Since the DEA is an American civilian “law” enforcement agency, would somebody mind telling me what they were doing in Afghanistan? Were they “advisors” sharing their invincible expertise on ending drug production?

Apparently, the agency has been strong-arming their pilots into going over, with threats of demotion, and sending their “problem children” out of the country. I have a little sympathy for those who thought they were getting a domestic job.  But fundamentally, I have no more sympathy for the DEA than I have for your typical Waffen SS member, and for the same reason.

In the past year, the DEA has launched an ambitious plan to increase its personnel in Afghanistan from about a dozen to nearly 80, greatly expanding its role, particularly in military actions against drug traffickers.

So were these guys counted in yesterday’s “14 casualties”? Are they soldiers?  Sorry, I will never celebrate the death of an American soldier….but I’m celebrating now.

O noes! O-flags!

WND is all up in arms because folks are selling flags that look like the American flag, except that in the blue field there’s a picture of Obama in place of the stars. In some jurisdictions, it might even be against the law! Oh horrors…

Is it “the American flag” without the stars? What if there’s one fewer stripe? If Obama flags are illegal, what about Threeper/Nyberg flags? Do WND and its readers want to go there?

Do I think that Obama Flags are tacky as hell, and an insult to the country? Yes. So what? If the flag is worth dying for, it means free expression, even at the expense of the flag…and if it doesn’t mean that, why die for the flag? Do I think it’s un-American for the neo-conner WND and Atlas Shrugs to incite eBay to corporate censorship? Yes.

Let’s remember the primary practical purpose of a flag: to distinguish friend from foe. The Obama flag is eminently suited to that purpose. I would encourage Obama-worshippers to fly it in front of their homes, high, often, and proudly.

“Fluffy is my baby”

The allegedly proto-libertarian Rep. Thaddeus McCotter is sponsoring legislation to give up to a 3.5 kilobuck annual tax break for owning pets. That’s as much as a child is worth! Nice subtle way to equate critters and humans there. One could justify the child credit on the grounds that the state needs future cannon fodder and taxpayers. Does the state need more pet owners? Especially ones that don’t eat their pets?

Here’s how to keep the toilet lid down

It wouldn’t do much for my aim though.

POW!

For years, Americans have wondered if it was Eddie Murphy or Chris Rock who was the legitimate heir to Richard Pryor’s comedy crown, but now it is clear that all three of them were doing little more than prepare the way for the greatest black comedian America will ever know: Barack H. Obama.