Category Archives: Politics

Update II: Annual White House Sycophants' Dinner

Barack Obama, Celebrity, Hollywood, Journalism, Politics, Uncategorized

It’s a sickening specter: some of the most pretentious, worthless people in the country—in politics, journalism and entertainment—get together to revel in their ability to petition and curry favor with one another, usually to the detriment of the rest of us.

Those gathered at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner are not the country’s natural aristocracy; but a group of people who make their living pretending to be something they are not. Poseurs and parasites.

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 were using their tushes and other assets to tell their betters (YOU) to be good and do your “duty.”

Like nothing else, the annual White House correspondents’ dinner is a mark of 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 event and the invited tell a great deal about the Association and its ethics and code of conduct.

The president’s performance was a little wooden. He had a few good lines. For example:

“I strongly believe my next 100 days will be so successful I will finish them in 72 days. And on the 73rd day I will rest.”

The dig at John Boehner’s tan: “We have a lot in common. He is a person of color, Although not a color that appears in the natural world.”

The dig at the sycophants: “Most of you covered me. All of you voted for me.”

On Rahm Emanuel on the eve of Mother’s Day: “It’s a tough holiday for [Emanuel] … He’s not used to saying the word ‘day’ after mother …”

On the other hand, this one captured how privileged Obama feels:

“Sasha and Malia aren’t here tonight because they’re grounded. You can’t just take Air Force One on a joy ride to Manhattan. I don’t care whose kids you are.”

Wanda Sykes, a talented comedian, began with some great material and then descended into vulgarity and sheer spite.

Update I (May 11): Glenn Beck gave into the temptation to join the high-flying toadies in Washington. It’s a shame; it damages this scrupulous soul’s credibility.

Written after attending the press palooza, Beck’s barbs would have rung truer had he watched the event from his bunker. For once, this is not a case of Beck bearding the proverbial lion in his den:

Glenn decided to attend the White House Correspondents’ dinner this weekend and called the atmosphere ‘slimy.’ Glenn said Obama did a good job with his delivery but was robotic, and he took issue with comedian Wanda Sykes’ routine. Typically this event serves as somewhat of a roast of the President (Imus bashing Clinton, Colbert bashing Bush) but apparently no entertainers these days know how to make fun of the Messiah, so instead Sykes made fun of Rush Limbaugh. Included in her hilarious (translate=crappy) routine were jokes about how she wished Rush’s kidneys would fail. Glenn imagines the things he can say with the new ‘kidney failure’ comedy bar set so low

Update II: Wanda Sykes’ gentle teases “ took a very ugly turn when she laid into Limbaugh.”

Updated: Meaningless Musical Chairs

Democrats, Elections 2008, Government, Media, Political Philosophy, Politics, Republicans, Science

The parties are exchanging spit:

MSNBC: “Republican Sen. Arlen Specter disclosed plans Tuesday to switch parties, bringing Democrats closer to the 60-vote supermajority they need to push Barack Obama’s agenda through the Senate.”

The imagery conjured by defections, or ideological spit swapping, between Republicans and Democrats, in my mind, is of two colossal, identical amoebas occasionally allowing their semi-permeable cell walls to open and merge with a biologically compatible, primitive organism. In fact, that’s the perfect, dynamic metaphor for our two-party system.

Although dyed-in-the-wool party parrots will disagree, based on fact, reality, and policy prescriptions, the differences between the parties exist along a continuum; are quantitative, not qualitative.

As I said in “The Commie Who Controls the Economy From the Grave”:

“How much to hand out; who to hand it to; which handout makes the best use of taxpayer money; do the Big Three submit a business plan with their bailout requisitions, or not—that’s the depth of the ‘philosophical’ to-be-or-not-to-be among Republikeynsians.”

Mercer in 2006: “What we have now is a cartel, the traditional ideological differences between the political parties having been permanently blurred.”

The solution?

Mercer in 2006: “Antitrust laws ought to be deployed, not against business, but to bust this two-party monopoly, which subverts competition in government and rewards the colluding quislings with sinecures in perpetuity.”

Update: Look at the bright side. The political developments have steered Commissar Keith of MSNBC away from lamenting, night after night, the damage water boarding has wrought on Abu Zubaydah’s bladder, to speculating how Specter’s defection will help his man Obama’s agenda.

Guess Who’s Pooh-Poohing Tea Parties & Touting The Political Process?

Elections 2008, libertarianism, Liberty, Media, Politics, Taxation, The State

Mr. Neal Boortz is a big fan of the political process, which is why serious libertarians consider him a serious statist par excellence.

Boortz admonished irate Americans to:

“Use your tea bags to make tea and do something meaningful. Go around your workplace or neighborhood and register voters who actually produce and contribute to our society. Trust me, there are enough people out there registering the parasites, find the producers who don’t vote – convince them that their vote is needed and would count – and sign them up. Then take a copy of their voter registration, put it with the other copies you’ve already collected, and send them to your congressman.”

The palsied haters of the liberal press are not covering the Tea Party movement. When they do, it is with the toffee-nosed contempt they reserved for Sarah Palin, the Moose hunting mama.

Newsweek’s latest cover, “The Thinking Man’s Guide To Populist Outrage,” could just as well have read “Those hick rubes are at it again.”

I’ve protested the diffuse, directionless nature of the rage animating the masses. The eruption of civil society, however, is a good thing; far better than registering people to partake in a rigged charade. (Presumably, Boortz wants society’s producers to vote for a Republican.) But, right now, with the exception of a few pockets, the populist uprising is a bit of a headless chicken.