Editorial Sketch of the Week: Money talks

© David Fitzsimmons, Arizona Daily Star

Sunday’s Quote: Conviction and fortitude

c/o Thy Black Man

There’s a lot to like about Allen West. Anything but a typical politician, this 22-year Army veteran has spoken frankly about Islam and the War on Terrorism more than once. His most recent statement is no exception.

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“I want to extend my sincere condolences to the families of the Army Colonel and Major who were killed by Afghanistan security forces over this ‘burning Koran’ episode. If we had resolute leadership, including in the White House, we would have explained that these Islamic terrorist enemy combatants being detained at the Parwan facility had used the Koran to write jihadist messages to pass to others. In doing so, they violated their own cultural practice and defiled the Koran. Furthermore, they turned the Koran into contraband. Therefore, Islamic cultural practice and Parwan detention facility procedures support burning the ‘contraband’. Instead here we go again, offering apology after apology and promising to ‘hold those responsible accountable’. Responsible for what?

“When tolerance becomes a one-way street it leads to cultural suicide. This time it immediately led to the deaths of two American Warriors. America is awaiting the apology from President Hamid Karzai.”

~ Rep. Allen B. West (R-FL, 22nd congressional district); February 27, 2012

Just Thinking Out Loud: A certain repeat of ‘04

From season 8, episode 8 of South Park

The ingenious, if not disturbed, minds of “South Park” compared the 2004 presidential election to deciding between a giant douche (John Kerry) and a turd sandwich (George W. Bush). This year, and no matter who gets the nod for the GOP, the American electorate will face the same options. The only difference now is that the giant douche will be a Republican and the turd sandwich will undoubtedly be the Democrat.

Original source unknown

Happy (belated) birthday, Mr. President

Our 40th President would have turned 101-years-old three days ago. Although the well-known pic below has been clearly photoshopped, it’s a nice way to remember one of our all-time finest anyway.

Original source unknown

And remember kids. . .

Original source unknown

Editorial Sketch of the Week: As Congress returns. . .

© R.J. Matson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Editorial Sketch of the Week: An indictment of the media-at-large

A closer look reveals that this is not a knock on Romney. . .

© John Cole, The Times-Tribune (Scranton, PA)

Sunday’s Quote: O’ the value of obscure sources

Note: Don’t bother reading if you’re of any Left-leaning orientation, as the following will almost certainly result in a convulsion.

I recently stumbled across a treasure trove of books I didn’t know were in my possession. By chance I turned to the epilogue of the first one I picked up, saw a 60-year-old picture of Ronald Reagan, and read a tribute that reflects the central thesis of what made our country special while validating how far the entertainment industry has fallen from the beaten path.

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“The American image is still one that celebrates freedom, space, and opportunity. It turns sour, as it has in contemporary films, when those virtues are denied or perverted. Today’s Hollywood is quick to exploit the sourness, the disillusion, and the cynicism, but for all that Americans still like to think of themselves in terms of John Wayne. Wayne took a rapping from youngsters in the seventies, but as those youngsters have grown older they tend to share the regret that the Duke is gone. The mood of America as it entered the eighties was markedly conservative.

“The election of Ronald Reagan to the highest office in the land is an affirmation of the American return to conservatism. Reagan himself was of the generation of the Hollywood macho giants. He came from that age of American innocence in which a man could make it on his way – without government help or hindrance, by God! Reagan was well in line with the good old American image. He came from a working family, worked his way through college, excelled at football, got a job as a sports announcer in small-time radio, and worked his way up.  . . .

“What could be more American? The story of Ronald Reagan is itself like a Hollywood movie of the Golden Age. The fact that the American public elected him is strong evidence of an almost desperate yearning for the images of the American past. The fact that such a yearning exists gives hope that all is not lost. The Spirit of ’76 may be battered, but it is not moribund.”
– from Hollywood and the American Image [1981] by Tony Thomas

Editorial Sketch of the Week: “Progressives,” then and now

© Bob Englehart, The Hartford Courant

Did You Know (or Care): From thriving to surviving

Various sources arrive at slightly differing conclusions. The figures below are somewhere between approximate and exact. Feel free to compare your numbers to mine.

Since Barack Obama’s inauguration on January 20, 2009, our national debt has swelled by just over $4.4 trillion – virtually the entire amount it rose during George W. Bush’s eight years in office. That’s an average increase of more than $4.24 billion per day since Obama took the presidential oath, which suffice it to say, is the majority reason for the 239% upsurge of this behemoth liability since the turn of this still young century.

On a more parenthetical note, who is our 44th President to call anyone “soft”? Perhaps no candidate ever benefitted more from such soft handling (by the press and media at large) than Obama during his “historic” run to the White House.

You’re not what most people wanted you to be, Mr. President. And nothing you do over the next year will erase your performance over the previous three.

Editorial Sketch(es) of the Week: Perfectly stated

I couldn't single out one (for the first time), so here are four for your viewing pleasure:

© Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News

© Brian Fairrington, Arizona Republic

© Dick Locher, Chicago Tribune

© Rick McKee, The Augusta Chronicle

Just Thinking Out Loud: Women and the Left

Sarah Palin isn't the first woman of the Conservative persuasion on whom the mostly Left-leaning press has taken a massive crap. But considering the almost clichéd accusations of misogyny levied against the Right, it seems fitting that Confidence Men, a new book by Pulitzer-winning journalist and best-selling author Ron Suskind, depicts the White House in an unflattering light by, among other ways, illustrating the current administration's intolerant brashness toward women.

My girl Sarah is lovely, but that doesn't necessarily make her presidential – even despite recent polling data that shows her within five percentage points of Obama. Perhaps fatefully, the reason(s) for which many would not likely vote for her are in stark contrast to the manufactured cult of personality that did wonders to convince an astonishing 69 million people to vote for the guy who became our 44th President.

No matter, as the dynamics that got Obama elected will not factor in getting him re-elected. "Obama girl" may as well stay home next time around.

Editorial Sketch of the Week: Labels

© Eric Allie, Pioneer Press and CNSNews.com

Sunday's Quote: Confidence, despite the insolvency

c/o Business Insider (via David Silver)

You know the overall political climate is in rough shape when people suddenly become nostalgic for the good ol' days of Clinton – who, like it or not, was the last to balance the budget – when the federal deficit was about $9 trillion less than it is now.  In fact Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) was on the Congressional floor last Friday night begging his Democrat counterparts for a course of action to bring the practically endless spending debate to a beneficial close.

Instead, 10-term Rep. James Clyburn (D-South Carolina) was busy goading President Obama to invoke an obscure clause from the Constitution stating that the government's debt "shall not be questioned."  Never mind that Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, on which Clyburn hopelessly camped, was a Civil War measure that retains no bearing on the current debt.  Implying otherwise, of course, would be racist.

Appearing all but deadlocked on a bevy of issues, the two warring factions – Donkeys and Elephants – arrived at an 11th hour agreement just as I was arranging to publish this post.  While both sides will claim victory, it's clear that Obama needed this settlement to curtail his diminishing approval rating among the electorate, which was in danger of dropping into the high 30s – once unthinkable – for the first time.

That's Bush country.

Although our current President is struggling, his defeat in 2012 is not imminent.  At present, conflicting poll data shows Obama losing to a "generic" GOP contender, but edging past all presently declared candidates, the latter of which appears to assert that many voters are longing for a certain kind of challenger who has yet to make himself known.

Whatever the next 12 months may bring, we can be certain the nauseam of sociopolitical partisanship will reach a fever pitch that is likely stretch far beyond the coming election season.  Indeed the drama that culminated with tonight's budget deal is only the tip of the iceberg.

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"In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant."
– Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), French general and statesman

"Truth is not determined by majority vote."
– spoken by many; most recently attributed to Douglas Gwyn, a Quaker pastor and author

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy."
– Sir Ernest Benn (1875-1954), British writer and political publicist

"If God had been a liberal, we wouldn't have had the Ten Commandments; we'd have the Ten Suggestions."
– Sir Malcolm Bradbury (1932-2000), English author and academic

Editorial Sketch of the Week: Tragic, but undeniably true

© Jerry Holbert, The Boston Herald

Sunday's Quote: When conspiracy theories cease being theoretical

Whether it's through a picture, a quote, or an audio/video clip of some kind, I sometimes find it better to have the pros do the talking for me.  So for today's Quote, I have radio host Michael Savage offer a quick four-minute lecture about one of the more unexpected elements in Obama's massive heath care overhaul (with evidence).  You just might be shocked:

Editorial Sketch of the Week (retroactive to Saturday): The detachable ceiling(s)

© Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News

People I Want to Fight: Rex Tillerson

Rex Tillerson, showing his pimp hand.

People I Want to Fight is new to this blog.  Not meant to be taken literally, this feature is intended only as a means of expressing dissatisfaction with those who, from the outset, appear to answer to nobody.  So in the interest of fairness, I've chosen to start with an individual from my own side of the geopolitical spectrum.

One of Glenn Beck's more noteworthy interviews occurred on the Headline News network (just prior to his departure for greener pastures at FOX) with ExxonMobil chief Rex Tillerson during the gas crunch of 2008 when the national average at the pump well exceed $4 per gallon.  Concerned that gas prices would continue to rise – and with a sufficient explanation nowhere in sight – Beck asked Tillerson if he could foresee a time in which prices would ever dip back to $2 a gallon.  Practically unmoved by the question, ExxonMobil's top dog merely chucked, almost proudly, and said "No," as if to also say, What are you gonna do about it?  Even now, some two or three years after I watched the interview, I am still taken aback by Tillerson's unqualified apathy to the plight of little people (like me) who are entirely responsible for his company's multibillion dollar profit margins each quarter.

Say or think what you want about Glenn Beck, who, in my estimation, is merely knocked for daring to assess and scrutinize a web of issues that many of our journalistic sentinels dare not touch.  In fact much of the disdain for the man himself is the result of the show he hosts which, for quite a while, drew more viewers than each of the competing programs on CNN, MSNBC and his former network, HLN, combined.

As for Tillerson, he has since backed off the laughter, stating recently that he believes the price for a barrel of oil should be around $35 less than what is being paid at present by most of the industrialized nations.  Though American "big oil" executives should not be held altogether responsible for the price gouging propagated by the 12 nations that control the near-monopoly OPEC has enjoyed for over three decades, Tillerson's impenitent brashness is a clear demonstration of an insolence that will most likely continue for the foreseeable future while the rest of us continue to reap the detrimental cost.

Sunday's Quote: Reagan & Generation X

Whatever the reason(s), generational shifts in Congress are usually attributed to the Left.  But not this time:

"These politicians belong to the first modern generation of Americans not expected to earn more money than their parents.  It's a generation purportedly defined by a distrust in institutions and, for many, a deference to markets.

"They've never been drafted to go to war and they've rarely heard a politician make the case that the federal government can provide the cure for the nation's ills.

"Many of the young Republicans formed their lasting political notions during the presidency of a man who was born 100 years before they were sworn in, Ronald Reagan.  The average age of the GOP freshman is 47, meaning many probably cast their first presidential vote when Reagan was re-elected in 1984.  'These are the children of Reagan', said Henry Brady, political scientist at University of California, Berkeley."

-- from "Reagan ideas inspire new lawmakers" by Chicago Tribune columnist Kathleen Hennessey; March 20, 2011

Sunday's Quote: Reagan

There have been six U.S. Presidents in my lifetime.  I've liked one of them.  Initially a Liberal Democrat who supported FDR's New Deal policies, Ronald Reagan ultimately turned Right when he declared, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party.  The party left me."  This was never more evident years later when then-Governor Reagan ordered more than 2,000 troops from the California National Guard to occupy Berkeley for two weeks to quell some of the characteristic rowdiness we have come to expect from many in the Bay area.

A Liberal rarely dares to do such a thing.  A Conservative rarely hesitates.

Reagan's two terms as our President -- both of which he won with unprecedented dominance -- saw a notable increase in our national debt, but dramatic decreases in unemployment, inflation and income taxes.  He also played a key role in winning the Cold War, once unthinkable, thanks largely to the "peace through strength" mantra of what became known as the Reagan Doctrine; a motto that is now central to the aircraft carrier that bears his name.

Over 100,000 people paid their respects to President Reagan (over a nonstop 34-hour stretch) as he laid in state in the Capitol Rotunda when he died over six years ago.  Over 100,000 more walked past his casket several days later as Reagan laid in repose in the lobby of his presidential library in Simi Valley, California.

He wasn't perfect; no President ever was.  But he was authentically American.  Possibly among the last of a dying breed -- Lord, I want to be wrong about that -- and some people hated him for it.  Today our 40th President would have turned 100-years-old, and part of me is glad that he's not around to see our current state of affairs.  So, for his committed detractors, I'll allow the Man to speak for himself:

"And how stands the city on this winter night?  More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was eight years ago.  But more than that; after 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm.  And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.

"We've done our part.  And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for eight years did the work that brought America back.  My friends: We did it.  We weren't just marking time.  We made a difference.  We made the city stronger.  We made the city freer, and we left her in good hands.  All in all, not bad, not bad at all."
-- from Ronald Reagan's Farewell Address; January 11, 1989

Just Thinking Out Loud: A couple of real blondes

When you're at your best, Britney, nobody's better.  And I do mean nobody.  But when you're at your worst, my dear... well, that's another matter.  But regardless of the now characteristic unpredictability, you will always be my favorite crazy chick.

Meghan McCain should make it official and jump to the other party.  Although John's daughter evidently has a lot to say, all anyone really hears when she opens her mouth is, "Blah blah blah ... The Right Wing is too conservative ... blah blah blah ... My dad lost because of Sarah Palin ... blah blah blah ... Obama is awesome ... blah blah blah ... The Tea Party is stupid ... blah blah blah ... My boobs are real ... blah blah blah ... I sold my soul to Satan ... blah blah blah."