New York Nannies Normalizing Denormalizing - Smoking

CIGGIES MAKE KIDS CARSICK: QNS. POL

"We want to continue to fight to
denormalize smoking," the Queens Democrat said yesterday.

Council Seeks New Ban on Smoking by Parents in Cars

If enacted, smoking in cars with riders under the age of 18 would join a growing list of activities barred by the city, including making too much noise at night, serving trans fats in restaurants, and allowing students to carry cell phones in school.

...

Mr. Gennaro's proposal calls for fines of $200 to $400 for a first
smoking violation, $500 to $1,000 for a second violation in a single year, and
between $1,000 and $2,000 for a third violation in a year. The New York Police
Department would get the task of enforcing the law.

I know smoking is bad for one's health and I smoke. I also drive fast, eat what I like and drink, but the whole secondhand smoke danger is based on junk science.

Many people do not like the smell of cigarette smoke. With those people I sympathize because for years non-smokers had little option in public places to get away from cigarette smoke and this was wrong and unfair.

Today local, state and nations governments desperate to show their uncontained compassion enact overreaching laws that are unnecessary, wrong and based on crap science. Should the owner of a private enterprise be told that patrons are banned from smoking a legal product in their place of business? No. Should the owner of a private enterprise be allowed to ban smoking in their place of business? Absolutely.

The legislature here in Ohio working hand-in-hand with that great republican Bob Taft enacted a statewide ban on smoking in public places. My wife and I enjoyed going out to lunch and dinner, especially since our children were grown and we had a little extra money and time. Many times I would telephone my wife and ask her out for a drink before heading home for dinner. No more. You do the math, average 3 times a week that we would have a lunch together, a dinner out and stop for a drink or some combination. Now we stay home and have friends over, but for how much longer before our compassionate leaders step the ban up to include abodes such and such feet apart.

Now these people are going after soft drinks, how we cook our food, banning perfume and on and on. Maybe next they'll ban bowling in a bowling alley because the bowling balls are a potential danger. The good Lord knows they have denormalized religion.

One of my sisters, a professor, told me that she couldn't wait for tobacco products to be banned completely. When I agreed she was surprised. Her smug smile went away when I explained that when they tried that with booze our uncle made a fortune smuggling and selling booze which is how his children got to go to Princeton. All tuition prepaid.

Let's see, a small step van, 2 trips a week......

Karl Rove and The Lost Generation

How Karl Rove lost a generation of Republicans
By James Carville

There is an old joke that campaign veterans toss around war rooms, bars and
BS sessions. We say there are people who have worked in campaigns who say that they have lost some – and we call those folks operatives, managers, strategists,
consultants; and then there are people who work in campaigns and say that they
have never lost, and we call them liars.

Yes, and there are also those we discuss that refuse to ever pick up a tab, are verbose and generally brag and pontificate. We call them liars.

Did Karl Rove make some bad decisions? Of course he did. He is human. He also was not the calculating controller that people like James Carville want us to believe. He is a human with his own set of values that George W. Bush trusted. As well, George W. Bush is human with his own set of values and Karl Rove trusted him. It has been a good relationship.

Carville is projecting falsely for his own perceived benefit.

Did Karl Rove lose a generation of Republicans? No, he didn't. No matter what the left believes, Karl Rove has never been that powerful.

Paul at Power Line puts it very well.

A master of the possible

Politics is the art of the possible. Therefore, the notion of the political
operative as magician or evil genius is nonsensical. Yet it's easy to see why
the image holds sway. First, most of us are prone at times to magical thinking.
Second, the press likes to write these kinds of stories. Third, it provides the
losing party with an easy excuse. Fourth, it can provide the winning party with
a sense of invincibility.

Power Line has this hilarious follow-up item.

In what seems certain to be the dumbest statement of the week, David
Corn of The Nation said on National Public Radio that, by leaving the White
House, Karl Rove was "cutting and running" on Iraq.

Cutting and running. Why are Democrats obsessed with it? Really. 35 plus years they have been hoping and saying it in various ways, but it always means one thing, American failure. Maybe Truman was their evolutionary Peter Principle ending point.

Karl Rove is off to make his fortune. Good luck to him. Just think how evil he can be without the spotlight on him. Hee hee.

UPDATE: Eric at Tygrrrr Express has a great post

Thank You Karl Rove

Run along, go read it. You'll be glad you did.

...

Beautiful Stone Carving in Armenia

Katchkar
Stepanavan, Armenia

anthony legg

Our European Allies

With friends like this...

Annihilated the Indians? Well, we still have Ward Churchill.

Wait a minute. These people are lecturing us about slaughter, mass murder and annihilation?

I wonder if that coat is from L.L. Bean. Maybe it will keep him warm in Jihad Stalag #72.

Ron Paul VS Dennis Kucinich

France loves Ron Paul.

The article is actually a waste of time covering a few people in France and other places around the globe with Ron Paul sites (Ron Paul rally in Bavaria), but the comments are where the superstars come out to play.

I love the atention Dr. Paul is getting. I hope he pulls off the stunning upset and gains the GOP nomination. He’s head and shoulders above the rest of them.

Kucinich vs. Paul would restore my faith in the American democracy.
— Posted by Thomas NYC

With that much faith to share why not just have a Paul/Kucinich ticket? I wanna hear the oval office confab about whether the fed has the right to control a Department of Peace, according to the constitution of course.

A healthy thing indeed for the Republicans, and for America, to have two
physicians each with unique potentially very large national constitutencies
which could swing the nomination and the general election challenge the
warmongers running today’s GOP.
— Posted by Mark Klein, M.D.

Healthy for who good doctor? The people of Iraq and Afghanistan? Healthy for the innocent people in the World Trade Center towers? My father was a "warmonger" doctor who healed people every day, believed in freedom worldwide and served in two wars to stop aggression. Crazy, eh?

Thomas, NYC comes back swinging, it seems his faith allows him to judge others harshly,

Kucinich is the best choice for President. Paul is a better choice than the
rest.

Anyone is better than the mainstream, war-mongering, business party
elite candidates like Hillary, Giuliani, Romney, Obama, Thompson, etc.
—
Posted by Thomas NYC

I guess Thomas is not a mainstream faith-based person.

Don from Tucson has no intention of ever voting Republican again. He's pretty safe on that.

I have no intention of ever voting Republican again but have lately
become interested in Dr. Paul and his calls to “freedom”.

It seemed as if a grass-roots frenzy came from his supporters
during the Iowa buy-off, and thus, his 9% showing appeared to undersell his
candidacy and those results have not been sufficiently explained?

Since then, I’ve noticed that Dr. Paul is seldom mentioned in the
mainstream media, not even in passing, which seemed strange at first; but upon
reflection, not unusual given that the mainstream media has long since been
bought and sold. But I’m curious about it.

I watched the candidates speak in Ames and felt the appeals to Patriotism by the “front-runners” were patronizing to the extreme and had a phoniness and apparent appeal to the same Republicans that elected Bush; but I learned a long time ago not to allow on a fascist
“Marine Mentality” to run life.

Since their own Revolution, the French have Championed the
qualities of “Liberty, Equality and fraternity” and probably see, more than any
other country, America’s desperate need for them and this is represented by Dr.
Paul.

has`America sunk so low that Americans are unable to see the
“truth” of Ron Paul’s philosophy? What is wrong with America? Why is Dr. Paul
not more recognized here???
— Posted by Don Tucson,AZ

Don must share the same faith with Thomas of NYC. Only a true believer could believe the French have personified "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity" since their revolution. Do they serve koolaid at these Churches?

...

My Conservative Identity:

You are a Free Marketeer, also known as a fiscal conservative. You believe in free-market capitalism, tax cuts, and protecting your hard-earned cash from pick-pocketing liberal socialists.

Take the quiz at http://www.fightliberals.com/Inside-the-Book/What-Breed-of-Conservative-Are-You.html

Via Right Wing Champ

Billy Idol Happy Holidays?

A silver bell with a rebel yell?

Oh, my.

John Edwards Got Permission From Wife to Be Pointed and Witty Today

Edwards Statement on the Resignation of Karl Rove

Chapel Hill, North Carolina – John Edwards today released the following
statement in reaction to President Bush’s announcement that his senior advisor,
Karl Rove, will resign at the end of the month:

"Goodbye, good riddance."

Come on John, can't you channel Karl's inner-child for a more meaningful comment? I know you usually make the big bucks for channeling, especially children, but you're rather lame here.

"Goodbye, good riddance." ?

Where is the pathos? We can all get to the logic and character subjects later, but dude, you have to sink your teeth into this pathos as an opening salvo. Where's the passion? If voters are a jury, you just tanked in the court of public opinion. Keep this up and there is no second mansion in DC waiting for you.

Rove? He is the dark lord of the other America that you saw when no one else did. Rove personally oversaw the forced poverty that crushed the hope of that America of ever having a mansion with an inside basketball court.

Rove? He was the evil man that personally stole your chance to really make two Americas in that election. Because of Rove you have had to get $400 haircuts in leased jets instead of Air Force II. That's gotta sting.

Rove? He personally planted Melissa and Amanda just to make you look bad. Come on, you know it. I mean what liberal would make vulgar, bigoted and anti-semantic statement? See, I told you. Rove. You gotta believe man. Give me an amen.

"Goodbye, good riddance." ?

Come on John, step up to the plate, wipe the hair outta your eyes and dig deep. (remember, pathos!).

...

Bill Plante Dumber Than A Potted Plant

Bill Plante's Having None of This Garden Party

As Karl Rove embraced President Bush today following an emotional
farewell announcement on the South Lawn, the solemnity of the moment was
shattered by Bill Plante of CBS, who bellowed to Bush: "If he's so smart, how
come you lost Congress?"

Besides being a rude little liberal, Plante also manages to show just how unqualified he is to be reporting on politics. No doubt that's why CBS hired him.

...

HUH?

I'm pretty sure if this was Laura Bush this picture would have gotten a tad more play.

Anti-Surgists Insurgents Still Make Provinces Dangerous

Though there has been an excess of attacks creating massive press coverage, the surge against the surge in Iraq appears to have failed, at least for now. Through attacks in major metropolitan areas such as LA, New York and especially Washington DC the rebels and their allies in the press had hoped to galvanize a majority of citizens to ignore reality and turn against further military involvement in Iraq. Even though the surge appears to have faltered, critics point to weak government progressiveness and an ineffectual political process by the American Congress as the likely culprit.

Despite critics, Congress went on a month long vacation after failing to reconcile partisan differences and to address the unwillingness of different factions to work together to form a functioning coalition that could drive the government to make some identifiable progress. Many Representatives of the far left coalition have stopped even appearing to work with Congressional leaders further opening a deep rift among anti-surge surgists pointing out that attacks against the administration have increased almost daily and the administration is unable to stop them pointing to a need for a new direction in Washington.

Leading anti-surge Democrat Rep. John Murtha of the Pennsylvania province has recommended that redeploying pro-surge surgists to a neutral corner could clear the way to “real political” progress in the fight. Anti-surge surgists point to the current administration’s continual need to address the realities of Iraq as proof that the surge has failed.

“The administration is aggressively engaged in shifting (public) attitudes. And our side has been less aggressive than it needs to be,” said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. “The administration has been making inroads on their Iraqi argument, particularly linking it to terrorism.”

Others in the anti-surge surge coalition have aggressively grasped for the gravitas needed to make failure a reality. Noting the public’s uneasiness with facts, Illinois province Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the anti-surge surge coalition, said Wednesday, “As our coalition show some progress, the government of this nation is moving in the opposite direction. This is really unsustainable with the American people.”

Many anti-surgists have pointed to the provinces, such as the uncontrollable corn-belt provinces, as dangerous and out of control. “We’ve failed miserably there. Those provinces are lost,” stated an anonymous aide, but they noted some success in urban areas such as Chicago, but admitting that Kansas City was lost, stating, “It will always be the wild west out there. What are you going to do?”

Michael Flourney, a former Pentagon defense strategist and now president of the Center for a New American Security, said that “The clock in Washington is running down pretty fast. There’s sort of a wall next March-April.” Bush recently extended tours of duty from 12 months to 15 months and the anti surge surgists were impotent to get a surge against the surge up and running.

Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, a Virginia-based think tank that follows defense issues, cites “significant progress” on the pro-surge front noting that, “There’s a backlash” against the anti-surge surgists noting a lessening of attacks in the belt around Washington, DC.

“The problem is that nobody in the United States sees any significant progress on the political front. The factions in the government don’t seem to be able to get along. And that makes Congress wonder whether we’re making any real progress. Because, even with better security, the country can’t figure out how to take care of itself.”

Reports from the capitol and from various provinces, including Massachusetts, California and Oregon have shown that anti-surge surgists and allied insurgents plan a “long hot August” culminating in massive attacks prior to General Petraeus’ testimony concerning the surge. A spokesperson for a small but violent group named Surge Haters In Texas, stated “Patraeus is a lackey for the administration and they have gone to great lengths to kill Iraqi freedom fighters just to make this surge look successful. We’re not buying that shit.”

Why Conservatives Are Better

The liberals like to talk about social conservatives and how “out of touch” they are. Well, liberals love social issues. They love abortion, multiculturalism, class warfare, racial leniency, educational indoctrination, income redistribution and many others.

What liberals do not like are the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage, the sanctity of law and the sanctity of individualism. In short, what it means to be an American.

Since I seem to be into lists this week, and I know all of you are as well, I have put together a list of what I am looking for in my next President and the Republican Party and what they represent and believe.

The United States first and foremost as a sovereign nation.

Balanced Budget

Reduced size and scope of government

Lower tax rates

Less regulation

Earmark transparency

Corruption rooted out and punished

Win the War on Terror including Iraq and Afghanistan

Immediate end to multiculturalism

Sealed borders

Illegal aliens and those that support them aggressively punished

Education control back in the hands of local communities

Get government out of healthcare, medicine and pharmaceuticals

Campaign Finance Reform reformed out of law

Federal and state bureaucrats found to be undermining elected officials fired

All amendments recognized, especially the 2nd and 10th

Privatize Social Security

Sanctity of marriage

No federal law regarding abortion

Smash the false “wall of separation” restricting the freedom of religion

Full sentences in criminal cases to be fulfilled as working prisoners

Oh, and free transportation for liberals to Canada and all illegal aliens elsewhere

That covers most of it I think, at least for now.

The least government is the best government.

...

Malveaux, Are You Stupid Enough?

Have you asked yourself whether Hillary is "black enough"?

Could Hillary Clinton also be a 'black' leader?

CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux pinned back the former First
Lady to explain how she could "sustain black support " while running against an
African-American. Ironically, thanks to Sen. Barack Obama's mixed white and
Kenyan parentage and campaign mischief, it is he who usually gets to field the
"black enough" question.

So, are any of the Democrat candidates "black enough", since hoaxer Al Sharpton isn't in the race?

Clinton said the problem is not a "moral crisis but an economic crisis,"
rejecting the "broad-brush" notion that paints the young black male "as a
threat, as a headache or as a lost cause. I reject it as a string of
disappointments, failures and casualties of a broken system. That's not who they
are and that's not who they can be."

That broad-brush of actual crime statistics tells us that families aren't broken, just their bank accounts. Where the hell do the rest of us get in on this broad-brush?

"We have to keep talking about race," she said, "because race is a very
significant issue for our country, for who we are as a country, for our role in
the world."

Well, as long as Democrats want to have any relevancy they have to keep talking about it, otherwise hoaxer Jessie Jackson is just another wannabe third world leader, not a premier American racist.

"I am really thrilled to be running at a time in our history when, on a
stage, you can see an African-American man, a Hispanic man and a woman."

There's a woman up there? Point her out.

In a moment of levity with the black columnists, Clinton joked about
how, as a flat-toned midwesterner, she sometimes lapses into a drawl in the
South and tends to drop her "g's" more around black audiences. In a snide
reference to author Toni Morrison's comment that her husband was the "first
black president," she mused:

"I do find myself dropping g's. I lived all those years in Arkansas,
and, you know, I'm in this interracial marriage."

Yep, going to Wellesley and Yale will do that to a person. All those pesky g's in Othello made for heavy sloughing as one wrestles with reading about interracial marry, but at least she can count on Bill to stay the coarse.

Sigh, it's not like we don't have enough time to find out if Clinton and the others are American enough, color blind enough, sensible enough, etc., but we probably won't because reporters like Malveaux aren't gutsy enough to ask these questions. They're afraid of being ostracized or fired.

...

Ron Paul's Wife Hospitalized

I truly hope and pray Carol is okay and will be released soon.

My Friday Blues Were Fun

Last evening the wife and I listened to the presents she “bought” me. Earlier in the day I had met a business partner of mine in Columbus. After the meeting, realizing I was in a metropolitan area, I searched out the nearest Barnes and Noble with the gift card my wife had given me in hand. Eagerly, I searched “History”, “Biography” and “Politics”. How appalling. “Politics”, bash Bush. “Biography”, Bush is a moron. “History”, future generations have already condemned Bush as the worst President in history.

I chose David McCullough’s “1776” and Walter Isaacson’s “Benjamin Franklin”. I am excited, but I have money left on the card and some “lady” is eying me a little too closely. I’m no rocket scientist, but if a “lady” is eying me, she is no lady.

Handily, this excuse made me to run to the music section of the store. Once there I made a beeline for the Blues Section. Heaven.

I held an exact album cover copy in a jewel case of THE man.

He was born in Mississippi. He was a draft resister in WWII, but also a monster of a man who won a Golden Gloves heavy weight championship in 1936 and played bass riffs as if God Himself was plucking the strings. He wrote music and lyrics, produced records and also sang.

This man influenced all music that followed. The Stones, Doors, Led Zeppelin, and Eric Clapton all did covers of his tunes. More importantly, so did the Yard birds, Koko Taylor, The Kinks, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Canned Heat, The Allman Brothers, Captain Beefheart, King Biscuit Boy, Shadows of Knight, Jimmy Witherspoon, Etta James, Long John Baldry, Sam Cooke, Big Mama Thornton, Paul Butterfield, Little Walter, The Spencer Davis Group, Mose Allison, Buddy Guy, Savoy Brown, and the great Jeff Beck and Stevie Ray Vaughn. This is just a small sampling of those that gave him credit for his work. Basically, all of modern rock and blues ripped him off shamelessly.

All of this wrapped in a suit, tie and a pork pie hat.

“I Am the Blues”, Mr. Willie Dixon.

If you only have one blues selection in you collection, this is it.

For an encore to our stroll down memory lane I chose Mott The Hoople’s “All the Young Dudes”.

We had a wonderful evening.

...

White Responsibility

Nearly half US murder victims are black: report

African-Americans are victims of nearly half the murders committed in the
United States despite making up only 13 percent of the population, a report
published Thursday showed.

And your point is?

More importantly, how dare leave us hanging with this!

Blacks were also at greater risk of rape or sexual assault than any other ethnic group except American Indians, the report showed.

...

UPDATE: Got an e-mail from Sitting Bull IV who informed me he was alone home last Saturday evening and has a maid who will substantiant his testimony.

developing...

...

Moron says hold the cheese, claims McDonald's didn't, sues for $10 million

"We're interested in seeing McDonald's take responsibility and change a
systemic quality control problem that endangers the lives of up to 12 million
Americans with allergies,"

Why didn't this moron take responsibility, lift the bun and take a gander? Before.

...

FUGLY Friday

European Parliament; Strasbourg, France

Murtha, Marines, Haditha and Mugger's Lies

“An untimely exit (from Iraq) could rapidly devolve into a civil war,
which would leave America’s foreign policy in disarray as countries question not
only America’s judgment but its perseverance.”
(From Rep. John Murtha's 2004 book "From Vietnam to 9/11"...
where Murtha advocates that the U.S. should
not pull-out or Iraq prematurely or create a timetable)

"Our military has done everything that has been asked of them, the U.S. can not accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. IT IS TIME TO BRING THEM HOME." (Rep. John Murtha on the War in Iraq, Congressman John Murtha website, November 17, 2005)

"Well, I say that the fight against Americans began with Abu
Ghraib. It began with the invasion of Iraq. That's when terrorism started."
(Murtha, Nov. 17, 2005, News Hour with Jim Lehrer)

"They [the Marines/Military] knew the day after this happened that
it was not as they portrayed it. They knew that they (marines) went into the
rooms, they killed the people in the taxi. There was no firing at all. And this
comes from the highest authority in the Marine Corps, so there's no question in
my mind,"
(Murtha, May 2006)

"There was no firefight. There was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood"
(Murtha, May 19, 2006)

''We can go to Okinawa. . . . We can redeploy there almost instantly.''
(Murtha, June 11, 2006, Meet The Press)

"We can't win this."
(Rep. John Murtha, Congressional Record, June 15, 2006, p. H4028)

"We are causing the problem."
Rep.John Murtha, Congressional Record, June 15, 2006, p. H4028)

"American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than
nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran."
(Murtha, June 24, 2006 South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

Concerning the Haditha Marines that Murtha mugged with a guilty verdict during an investigation. Mugger has little to say. In fact, it seems he is cowardly hiding from his false, but damning words.

Still Running for Cover

John Murtha. “Mad Jack”. “Mugger”. Possibly “Mothra’s Ugly Brother”. He has gained many names, but the assignation the Congressman likes the best is “hero”. Is he a hero?

Democratic Congressman Murtha is not a war hero
On the occasion of his attacks on the troops and the nation’s Iraq policy, I again took interest, as he was described as an injured war hero. John Murtha is not a war hero. I am certain if and when the truth comes out one will find that his awards were given long after he left Viet Nam. Murtha is, in my opinion, a phony and has used his veteran’s status to climb to the top of several committees where he can and does influence pork for Johnstown.

Read the rest and google “Murtha Marine Hero” and decide for yourself.
Me? I think he is an opportunist old hack having his past lies and duplicity coming full circle to bite him in the ass.

Throw him out.

...

New York Times & Jim Lehrer Report Confirm Leaving Will Push Iraq To Iran

Damien Cave of the New York Times just said on the The News Hour with Jim Lehrer that Iraq is being pushed into Iran's arms by their fear of America leaving Iraq.

Good job Democrats. Making Iran stronger is dusty work. Now you can relax and have a sip of wine for a job well done.

I know he's a useful idiot, but I wouldn't invite John "Mugger" Murtha. He's so rough around the edges being a hero and a Marine. He might clash with the delicate Chardonnay.