Patterico's Pontifications

4/1/2011

Sockpuppet Friday, Friday, Friday—the Obama 2012 Edition!

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 12:59 pm



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.  Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]

As usual, you are positively encouraged to engage in sock puppetry in this thread. The usual rules apply.

Please, be sure to switch back to your regular handle when commenting on other threads. I have made that mistake myself, a lot.

And remember: the worst sin you can commit on this thread is not being funny.

—————

Hey guys, you know what it is?  It’s Friday, Friday, Friday…

Honestly I don’t know why people got so worked up about that video.  It’s a vanity video.  Yeah, it’s not very good, but that’s how these vanity things work.  If you want to be annoyed at anyone, don’t be annoyed with this thirteen year old girl.  Be annoyed with the vanity company that takes the money from parents with too much money and just enough love to support their daughter whether she is good enough, or ready, to do this for a living or not.

I call it the Puritanism of non-suckitude.  They say a Puritan lays awake at night worried that someone somewhere is having a good time.  A “non-suckitude Puritan” worries that somewhere someone sucks and takes it as a personal offense that the suck even exists.  I prefer to just not pay attention to that which sucks in the first place, but hey if a bunch of mall-bopping girls buy this crap, what do I care? It’s not my problem.

But that isn’t the front and center frivolity for Friday.  It’s this, the first ad for Obama’s reelection…

And funny, I don’t think it’s making a very effective case. Heh.

Hammer him early and often, because this suckitude is definitely our problem.

Hat tip: Hot Air.

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

“Shame On Us If We Allow This Act to Stand Unchallenged Any Longer;” McClintock and Congressman Paul Fight the Good Fight on Libya

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 10:22 am



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.  Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]

In my last post on Libya, I said there was a bright light of hope in this debate over the Constitution and Separation of Powers, and here it is.  You might remember Tom McClintock from the recall election that took down Gray Davis, as the guy they should have chosen to be governor of California, rather than Ahnold.  Yesterday, Mr. McClintock gave a firey but firm speech on Libya, and really it is worth listening to the whole thing:

And for those who cannot watch teh Youtubes, Big Government has apparently a word-for-word text copy of it, here.  Just to give you a taste:

When the President ordered the attack on Libya without Congressional authorization, he crossed a very bright Constitutional line that he himself recognized in 2007 when he told the Boston Globe “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”

The reason the American Founders reserved the question of war to Congress was that they wanted to assure that so momentous a decision could not be made by a single individual. They had watched European kings plunge their nations into bloody and debilitating wars and wanted to avoid that fate for the American Republic.

And indeed, he sent a letter to similar effect, which concludes:

With all due respect, I can only conclude that your order to United States Armed Forces to attack the nation of Libya on March 19, 2011 is in direct violation of the War Powers Resolution and constitutes a usurpation of Constitutional powers clearly and solely vested in the United States Congress and is accordingly unlawful and unconstitutional.

Let’s hope this is a sign of a rising tide against this power grab.

And this wasn’t the only challenge. Senator Paul threw a shoe into the Senate works yesterday in a delicious way:

Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.), a Tea Party favorite, has boxed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) into a corner. After a quiet day of quorum calls and speeches, Reid abruptly adjourned the upper chamber Thursday and postponed votes until Monday. According to numerous Hill staffers, Paul deserves some credit for the impasse.

Here’s the back story: On Wednesday, Paul, with little notice, attached an amendment to the small-business re-authorization bill. The amendment, which chastises President Obama for his actions in Libya, urges members to adopt the president’s own words as “the sense of the Senate.”

To make his point, Paul quoted, in the legislative language, from Obama’s 2007 remarks on the subject: “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” According to Paul’s office, “the measure aims to put the Senate on record affirming Congress as the body with constitutional authority on matters of war.”

GOP sources tell National Review Online that Paul’s proposal flummoxed Reid, who does not want his members to have to weigh in on Obama’s dusty quote about congressional authority, even if the vote is only to table the measure.

“Paul’s Libya amendment has brought the Senate to a standstill because Reid doesn’t know how to handle it,” one GOP aide tells me. “If he allows a vote, Democrats are forced to either disagree with then-senator Obama or with President Obama. It’s possible that Reid just yanks the bill or files cloture, seems he may do anything to avoid a vote on Paul’s amendment.”

Still, during a testy floor exchange Wednesday with Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), the Kentucky freshman argued that his amendment deserves a vote, and fast. “In Afghanistan and Iraq, with all the complaints from many people on these wars that we were involved in, President Bush did come and ask for the authorization of force,” he said. “We’ve had two to three weeks of this issue. They had time to go to the U.N. They had time to go to the Arab League. They had time to go to everyone. I think you should be insulted the way I am insulted they never came to Congress.”

I’m not a big fan of Ron Paul, although I am willing to tolerate him in Congress because of his desire to radically reduce federal spending would exert a gravitational pull toward reduced deficits, if not toward reduced debt.  But I am starting to really like Rand Paul.

Keep fighting the good fight, gentlemen, and let’s hope other Congressmen join you. This is a willful violation of the Constitution on Obama’s part, as in he is doing what he knows to be unconstitutional, and it has to stop.

Read the whole thing.

————————

Previously I wrote on the legality of the war (hereherehereherehere, here and here).

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

Obama’s Defiance of Congress Somehow Manages to Get Worse…

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 9:08 am



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.  Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]

You might remember the post yesterday about the briefing before Congress and how much arrogant contempt Obama’s representatives showed for Congress?  Well, I guess I should correct the story.  The Obama Administration didn’t show as much arrogance and contempt as my sources implied.  They showed much, much more arrogance and contempt, if Talking Points Memo is correct:

The White House would forge ahead with military action in Libya even if Congress passed a resolution constraining the mission, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a classified briefing to House members Wednesday afternoon.

Clinton was responding to a question from Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) about the administration’s response to any effort by Congress to exercise its war powers, according to a senior Republican lawmaker who attended the briefing.

And it gets even worse.  You might remember how I wrote that Obama didn’t plan to seek an endorsement from Congress and that

indeed, this “pound sand” attitude toward Congress is not even consistent with the President’s asserted authority under the War Powers Act, because even if the initial start of hostilities was legal, the President can’t keep the war going for more than 62 days.

And I went on to speculate that maybe the President believes he can finish the war in less than 62 days, but in fact I was wrong.  Dead wrong.  He just doesn’t plan to obey the 60 day limitation at all:

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), who asked Clinton about the War Powers Act during a classified briefing, said Clinton and the administration are sidestepping the measure’s provisions giving Congress the ability to put a 60-day time limit on any military action.

“They are not committed to following the important part of the War Powers Act,” he told TPM in a phone interview. “She said they are certainly willing to send reports [to us] and if they issue a press release, they’ll send that to us too.”

Once again the stunning lawlessness of this administration is on display.

So to borrow a riff from Patrick, their response is this:

And as if that all wasn’t bad enough, it turns out that Ben Quayle didn’t even mean what we think he meant, either.

More seriously, on every front this story is getting worse.  For instance yesterday I mentioned a report that the rebels’ fighting strength was reduced to about 1,000 men.  And it turns out they are falling apart as a force.  Oh, and there was enough of a concern that they might start killing civilians that we had to warn them that if they did that, we would bomb them, too.  Indeed, Hot Air has much more on the issue.

But there is one encouraging sign, which will be a subject of a new post in a bit…

————————

Previously I wrote on the legality of the war (hereherehereherehere and here).

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

Issa Issues Subpoena to ATF re Gunrunner

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:19 am



From the press release:

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform today announced the issuance of a subpoena to the Department of Justices’ Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) for documents related to the highly controversial “Project Gunrunner.”

“The unwillingness of this Administration – most specifically the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms – to answer questions about this deadly serious matter is deeply troubling,” said Chairman Issa.  “Allegations surrounding this program are serious and the ability of the Justice Department to conduct an impartial investigation is in question.  Congressional oversight is necessary to get the truth about what is really happening.”


Above: Patterico

Glad to see they’re not messing around.

Is Obama Secretly a Scientologist? Really?! (Or, “In Which I Break the Embargo on Politico…”)

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 6:26 am



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.  Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]

Now those who have followed me for a while know that previously I have stated that I doubted that Obama was a Christian (language warning at the link), but rather than believing him to be a Muslim like many Americans, I suspected he was just an atheist and didn’t want to admit it.  But I have to admit when I saw this item yesterday in the Washington Post, I was a little stunned.

In private conversations with White House staff, President Obama has recently admitted that he is follower of Scientology.  “He said that he had purged himself of all of his negative thetans and was declared ‘clean’ in 2004,” said a senior official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, “he attributes his meteoric rise in politics to achieving OT3 status.”

I mean I will emphasize I read it yesterday, but when I read it, I thought “is the Washington Post getting started on April Fool’s a day early?”  So figuring this story had to be wrong, or a joke, I didn’t bother to share it and ignored the many tweets I saw on the subject.  But then in this morning’s Politico we get verification of the story, which I will talk about in a moment.

So…  does it matter?  Well, first let me start by saying that Scientology is truly a religion.  I mean you know that South Park episode?  Well, by all appearances that South Park episode was pretty much accurate:

Scientology – South Park Style

Vezi mai multe video din animatie

You can even watch where they match up the South Park summary with actual words straight from L. Ron Hubbard’s mouth, here.  So according to them we are all screwed up because of alien souls, which means it is not science, but religion (because souls are involved).  But let’s be honest, that has to be the dumbest religion ever conceived of (well, I mean besides the one that says that if you murder innocent people you will get 72 virgins in Heaven, as though God was some sort of pimp).  Now of course our law cannot take into account the perceived silliness of a religion and there is no religious test for public office…

…but none of that applies to me, as a citizen, when in the voting booth.  I won’t say I would never vote for someone who adhered to this silly religion, but it is a very serious strike against them, even if I have no reason to believe it affects policy.

Oh, and it might be affecting policy, too.  From that Politico article:

“The President has actually said that this was one of his concerns in commencing his military action against Libya,” White House Chief of Staff William Daley explained, “he has stated several times that he considers Gaddafi to be one of Lord Xenu’s agents on Earth.”

Really, read the whole thing.  Sorry, no proxies this time, just read it.  But the creepiest revelation is this:

(more…)

New York Times Punked Again?

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 4:00 am



That is . . . yet again?

If you have been paying attention in the past, you may have noticed that the venerable New York Times has been totally punked more than once on past April Fool’s Days.

So you would think they would be especially careful not to let that happen again. Wouldn’t you?

I’d direct you over to the New York Times Web site, but I’m afraid they’re now behind a pay wall. So you’ll have to get the story from Ted Frank.


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0729 secs.