Category Archives: Politics

UPDATE II: Sycophant’s Supper 2014 (Guffaws and Genuflection)

Barack Obama, Celebrity, Critique, Ethics, Government, Journalism, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Politics

The Hollywood Reporter tells of why there will be fewer wealthy, worthless people at one of the most sickening specters of the year: The annual White House Sycophants’ Dinner, where the most pretentious people in the country—in politics, journalism and entertainment—convene to revel in their ability to petition and curry favor with one another, usually to the detriment of the rest of us in Rome’s provinces.

The pretty people don’t want to be “pawed” by the politicians. That’s the official line. The real reason: this trashy Idiocracy is losing interest:

… one Hollywood insider, who asked not to be identified, tells The Hollywood Reporter that the lack of swoon-worthy A-list movie stars shows that the lure of the event has faded dramatically.

Those gathered at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner are not the country’s natural aristocracy, but it’s authentic Idiocracy—a group of people who make their living pretending to be something they are not. Poseurs and parasites all.

Granted, actors do not coerce the citizenry to patronize their (mostly) lousy flicks. However, when they use their celebrity to push unconstitutional, naturally unlawful policies—then they are acting as enemies of the people.

Mostly, I find Hollywood disgusting. Every time I turn around a “celebrity” is preaching and propagandizing for the leftist cause du jour. Some of these tarts and tards were using their tushes and other assets to tell their betters (YOU) to be good and do your “duty” to support this or the other of their pet policies.

Like nothing else, the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner is a mark of a corrupt politics. The un-watchful dogs of the media have no business frolicking with the president and his minions. This is co-optation. And when did the phonies of Hollywood become a fixture in this event?

The toxic “tradition” began in 1920, and, as far as I know, is sponsored by THE WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ ASSOCIATION. The “White House Correspondents’ Association was formed in 1914 as a liaison between the press and the president.”

The event and the invited tell a great deal about the Association, its ethics and code of conduct.

That aside, I happen to think Obama can be a very funny guy, but his political exploits have marred his ability to make thinking people laugh at any of his jokes, no matter how self-deprecating.

UPDATE I (5/4): On CNN, the SS (Sycophant’s Supper) turned into another excuse for a no-news, day-Long occasion to guffaw and genuflect to CNN “reporters” and to the Gilded Ones. In its broadcast of the SS 2104, CNN proved that it deserved to be the butt of jokes from the president and comedic host Joel McHale.

Speaking of whom, Obama’s writers were clearly better than McHale. The president’s routine was funnier. Bar a few good lines, I didn’t find McHale especially witty.

* I did like the McHale gibe at George Clooney: “Every year, the White House doctor checks the president’s colon for polyps and George Clooney’s head.”

* On Obama in a “Paul Ryan” sort of way: “yet another inner-city minority relying on the federal government to feed and house your family.”

* And every joke at CNN’s expense was grrreat. (The fixed, sour look on Wolf Blitzer’s face was worth it.) “On CNN’s Malaysia 370 coverage: 100 years ago, CNN was only searching for the Wright Brothers plane…CNN is desperately searching for something that’s been missing for months: their dignity.”

* CNN has been “desperately searching for something they’ve been missing for months: their dignity.” (It was at this moment the C-SPAN camera chose to focus in on a noticeably emotionless Wolf Blitzer.)

Funny Obama jokes:

* “And I’m feeling sorry — believe it or not — for the Speaker of the House, as well. These days, the House Republicans actually give John Boehner a harder time than they give me, which means orange really is the new black.”

* “Let’s face it Fox, you’ll miss me when I’m gone. It’ll be harder to convince the American people that Hillary was born in Kenya.”

* Obama on CNN’s wall-to-wall coverage of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 – a frequent target of the night’s jokes: He noted that he had just returned from a trip to Malaysia. “The lengths we have to go to to get CNN coverage these days,” Obama said, adding, “I think they’re still searching for their table” at in the Hilton ballroom.

* “MSNBC is here, they’re a little overwhelmed. They’ve never seen an audience this big before.”

Jay Leno’s routine at the SS 2010 was the best, because he’ was way smarter and certainly more politically astute.

UPDATE II: IT WAS BAD.

Politics And Its Perp-e-traitors

Crime, Government, Politics, Republicans, Taxation, The State

By all means, make former IRS official Lois Lerner do the perp walk, publicly. Please. She’s but one among many state-employed scum, but getting one is better than none. Freedom lovers must get their kicks where they can.

The Republican-dominated House Ways and Means Committee has voted today, Wednesday, to seek a criminal investigation as to whether Lerner misled investigators and released private taxpayer information. The same committee wants to hold this despicable woman in contempt of Congress for her failure to “comply with various subpoenas.”

Filled with bravado, JOHN BOEHNER (R-OHIO) told Megyn Kelly: “… I don’t care who is gonna be fired. I wanna know who is going to jail. The fact is that the IRS — there are specific laws that protect taxpayers and force the IRS to comply with the law. Somebody at the IRS violated the law.”

If it takes place, this unlikely prosecution will punish one perp when there are hundreds (maybe thousands) like Lerner walking around free. It will be late in the game, and it will be “political,” as that stupid saying goes (as if any other considerations are ever made by politicians).

Why “political”? Ask yourself why it is that Republicans have refrained form moving against the Transportation Security Administration attack dogs (TSA) and the National Security Agency (NSA), who violate American bodies and their privacy daily? Because the NSA and TSA are not Republican issues.

Republicans like the pervs of the Surveillance- and Security State; the taxwoman not so much.

American Patriot Explains A Russian Patriot

Media, Neoconservatism, Paleoconservatism, Politics, Russia

No wonder the brilliant Pat Buchanan is nowhere to be seen on cable news channels imparting his considerable knowledge of history and geopolitics to American media ignoramuses. Much like Henry Kissinger’s well-informed, balanced analysis on Ukraine and Russia, smuggled into the Washington Post over the ignorant din made by the likes of Chucky Krauthammer—Buchanan understands and knows stuff. That makes those egos in the anchor’s chair look even more idiotic.

Writes Buchanan in “Is Putin the irrational one?”:

… if Putin is not a Russian imperialist out to re-establish Russian rule over non-Russian peoples, who and what is he?

In the estimation of this writer, Vladimir Putin is a blood-and-soil, altar-and-throne ethnonationalist who sees himself as Protector of Russia and looks on Russians abroad the way Israelis look upon Jews abroad, as people whose security is his legitimate concern.

Consider the world Putin saw, from his vantage point, when he took power after the Boris Yeltsin decade.

He saw a Mother Russia that had been looted by oligarchs abetted by Western crony capitalists, including Americans. He saw millions of ethnic Russians left behind, stranded, from the Baltic states to Kazakhstan.

He saw a United States that had deceived Russia with its pledge not to move NATO into Eastern Europe if the Red Army would move out, and then exploited Russia’s withdrawal to bring NATO onto her front porch.

Had the neocons gotten their way, not only the Warsaw Pact nations of Central and Eastern Europe, but five of 15 republics of the USSR, including Ukraine and Georgia, would have been brought into a NATO alliance created to contain and, if need be, fight Russia.

What benefits have we derived from having Estonia and Latvia as NATO allies that justify losing Russia as the friend and partner Ronald Reagan had made by the end of the Cold War?

We lost Russia, but got Romania as an ally? Who is irrational here? …

… If the people of Eastern Ukraine wish to formalize their historic, cultural and ethnic ties to Russia, and the people of Western Ukraine wish to sever all ties to Moscow and join the European Union, why not settle this politically, diplomatically and democratically, at a ballot box? …

MORE.

Surveillance For Thee But Not For Me

Constitution, Founding Fathers, Homeland Security, Intelligence, Politics, The State

Remember when the The Transportation Security Administrator dared to manhandle Sen. Rand Paul in the same way these goons grab our privates daily? Rand responded by telling CNN’s Erin Burnett, essentially, that the TSA folks were good people bogged down by inflexible rules. He followed up with special pleading, suggesting a system of sectional privileges and rights, based on professional need and proximity to power.

But that’s the way the system was destined to work. I know: This nerd’s lasting infatuation is with the unsung heroes of the American founding: the Anti-Federalists. And one of the Anti-Federalist essayists said that the Constitution creates a city or district in which power is concentrated. Once the elected representative (too few to represent anyone meaningfully) reached Rome on The Potomac—they would act as a cloistered, privileged ruling class, impervious to the people’s pleas.

And this has come to pass.

That phony, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), is furious that the CIA “has secretly removed documents from computers used by her panel to investigate a controversial interrogation program.” Lo and behold this bitch has “discovered” the Fourth Amendment and is bemoaning its violation. “The Fourth … bars unreasonable searches and seizures, as well as various federal laws and a presidential executive order that prevents the agency from conducting domestic searches and surveillance,” Feinstein preached.

Man of the people whistleblower Edward Snowden said all there is to say. He “accused the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee of double standards on Tuesday, pointing out that her outrage at evidence her staff were spied on by the CIA was not matched by concern about widespread surveillance of ordinary citizens.”

Snowden said almost all there is to say about the premise of surveillance for thee but not for me under which Americans labor.

It is eminently reasonable to surveil politicians. Because of the special privileges and powers they are able to arrogate to themselves, they ought to be exempt from many of the so-called protections afforded to ordinary citizens.

And of course, they should be denied the vote.