tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81701194684906493622024-03-13T08:07:04.013-04:00The PostliberalSending back received ideas.Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-38256962678552374952012-11-07T09:33:00.002-05:002012-11-07T09:33:17.112-05:00The Typical Obama VoterVoting for Obama is like being Jerry Sandusky's wife.Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-34394481172534687722011-03-10T14:27:00.004-05:002011-03-10T14:51:31.704-05:00Hands Off Cowboy Poetry!Leave it to Harry Reid to remind Americans why our artists and scholars can't survive without public support. If you're an academic like me and just assumed that the NEA and NEH funded only works of especial merit by "underrepresented voices," why it's time to revise your paradigm, pardner. Here's an example of the traditional Silent Majority folk lyric they call Cowboy Poetry.<br /><br /><div align="left"><strong><em>The Grant Searchers</em></strong></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><em>What makes a land to squander,</em></div><div align="left"><em>to squander all she owns?</em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em>She pines and pants</em></div><div align="left"><em>for federal grants,</em></div><div align="left"><em>but why, O Lord, o why?</em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em>N...E...A...</em></div><div align="left"><em>N...E...A...</em></div><div align="left"><em>U...S...A....A....A</em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><strong><em><span style="font-size:78%;">by The Unfunded</span></em></strong></div>Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-78138457350810664152010-08-20T19:11:00.005-04:002010-08-20T19:33:15.271-04:00Obama's Religion: PseudistYesterday the White House issued another resounding affirmation of President Obama’s Christian faith. Supposedly the statement came in response to a <a href="http://people-press.org/report/645/">Pew Research poll </a>claiming that some 18% of Americans now believe Obama is a Muslim, an increase from 11% a year ago. Pew’s release announced “Growing Number of Americans Say Obama is a Muslim.” Commentators on the Fox News panel seemed to agree that the poll did reveal a peculiar shift in the beliefs of Americans, and that the White House statement showed the President and his staff taking the trend seriously and trying to correct impressions that might harm Obama’s brand. <br /><br />Don't be suckered, citizens. As far as the White House and MSM are concerned, any poll that indicates Americans believe a “myth”, especially one about Barack Obama, is good news, because it provides material for them to change the subject from Obama’s failures to someone else’s, above all the American public’s. The entire liberal ideology is based on the premise that the public cannot think for itself and needs experts to do it for them. And the entire interminable Obama propaganda campaign has been built on the single go-to premise that dissenters are merely mental defectives and hillbillies whose views no college-educated person could even tolerate hearing, much less consider adopting. A poll suggesting that 18% of Americans think Obama is Muslim, with no demonstrable evidence and against reporting to the contrary by the professional journalists of MSNBC and the New York Times, allows the White House to insinuate that a growing number of Americans are in effect “at risk” of idiocy or psychosis, portending the equivalent of a mental health crisis requiring ‘round-the-clock attention from a task force of therapists and pundits. <br /><br />They only wish. The public doesn’t need MSNBC to know where the crisis is. <br /><br />As for public opinion, what the Pew Research headline reports is a factoid. The poll records nothing about what Americans <em>say</em>; it records the poll respondents’ choices from the given options when <em>asked</em> about Obama’s religion. All the <em>saying</em> was done by the researchers, because they provided the answers from which respondents could choose. The statistics tabulate the words respondents allowed Pew to put in their mouths. That's what polls are.<br /><br />If 18% of respondents chose “Muslim” and 43% chose “Don’t Know”, does this mean, as some commentators seem to assume, that 61% hold a belief that is incorrect if not delusional? <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/WN/pew-poll-18-percent-americans-president-obama-muslim/story?id=11437070"><em>Wrong answer, dummies!</em> </a>Here’s another interpretation: substantial numbers think Barack Obama isn’t telling them the truth. They may not believe that they know the secret he’s keeping, and they may not care what it is anyway. They’ve registered clearly enough what he says, and what the media says for him; but they just don’t believe he’s telling the truth. That’s no reason to grade their answers as incorrect. At this point it’s those who take Obama’s word uncritically who should be assigned extra homework. <br /><br />A better measurement of public views about Obama might ask a question like, <em>How often do you think President Obama tells the public the truth? A) Always B) Often C) Rarely D) Never (E) None of the Above.</em> My bet is that (C), (D), and (E) would get the bulk of responses. A poll question about Obama’s religion needs the option “Pseudism”. That’s the one principle Obama never wavers from. Unfortunately the Pew “researchers” didn’t think to offer that option. They should have. I’m neither surprised nor disturbed that people who didn’t find it may have chosen an available alternative.Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-77146604050576466782010-04-09T21:21:00.007-04:002010-04-09T22:18:44.508-04:00New Postliberal Haikus<div align="center"><strong>And Now This Word from Brussels</strong></div><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><em></em></strong></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>Peoples of Europe!</em></div><div align="center"><em>Bureaucracy's cause is yours!</em></div><div align="center"><em>Comply or be nudged.</em></div><div align="center"><em>***</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="center"><strong>Research Consensus</strong></div><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>The science is clear:</em></div><div align="center"><em>"Tests Show </em>New York Times <em>IQs</em></div><div align="center"><em>At Dangerous Lows"</em></div><div align="center"><em>***</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="center"><strong>Preexisting Condition</strong></div><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>Found in health care bill:</em></div><div align="center"><em>Obama plan won't cover</em></div><div align="center"><em>Race Card Allergy</em></div><div align="center"><em>***</em></div><strong></strong>Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-80270674963138058942010-04-03T10:25:00.001-04:002010-04-03T10:28:53.047-04:00This blog has moved<br /> This blog is now located at http://thepostliberal.blogspot.com/.<br /> You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click <a href='http://thepostliberal.blogspot.com/'>here</a>.<br /><br /> For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to<br /> http://thepostliberal.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.<br /> Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-74684049745544989362010-04-01T15:54:00.010-04:002010-04-03T22:54:17.532-04:00OBAMA FRIEND FOUND DEAD<div align="center">Sole Known Columbia Acquaintance Apparent Victim of Kool-Aid</div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em></em> </div><div align="center"><em>Stricken at Tea Party; Extremist Plot Feared </em></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span> </div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;">WH: "Shocked and saddened"; suspends further comment as President awaits briefing on former classmate's name.</span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:78%;"></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:78%;"></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:78%;"></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:78%;">(Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, and Jayson Blair contributed research to this article.)</span></div>Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-57712817157335091882010-03-26T20:37:00.006-04:002010-03-26T23:18:44.197-04:00Palin: Kiss Democrats GoodbyeLiberals have accused Sarah Palin of "inciting violence" on her Facebook site by marking a map of Democratic-held House districts with little gunsights. These pompous hypocrites are the people who for years have not only condoned and participated in unlimited abuse of presidents Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, and Bush, including facetious simulations of deadly violence, but who also laugh at anybody who so much as disapproves of the incitements to violence that are all over hip hop songs. They also have abetted or connived at provocateurs who have created phony incitements, like the Duke lacrosse incident that wasn't an incident.<br /><br />What can you do with these manipulative, self-righteous frauds? They have a fantasy that they are adults and the rest of us are children, and they can wash our mouths out with soap any time they think we need a lesson. Even if we were children, that would be child abuse. Let anyone try putting soap in my mouth. I'll bite them. So will Sarah Palin, I'll bet.<br /><br />But, you know, Sarah Palin could find subtler ways to get her point across. Maybe even kill (oops!) two birds with one stone. Instead of urging voters to "target" Democrats, why not urge voters to <em>kiss</em> the Democrats goodbye? Put a little lipstick kiss on each Democratic district on the map. A kiss from Sarah Palin is a lot better than what those misrepresentatives will get from their constituents this November.Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-15557443810881031522010-03-22T10:15:00.006-04:002010-03-22T20:55:23.947-04:00Mission AccomplishedLast night the Democratic Party succeeded in doing a very bad thing. Much has been written about why the Health Care Reform Act will damage our health care and our economy, and there will be more. Rather less has been written about how passage of the bill has damaged the national stability that rested upon the widely if not universally held faith that the laws and powers of the state ultimately flowed from the sovereign will of the people as expressed in elections (I stress "expressed"; "we won the election" could be a valid answer to defeated opponents, but never to voters unhappy with their representatives). This essay and some continuations will address the damage the MoveOn Movement and Democratic Party have done to themselves.<br /><br />As public dissatisfaction with the Obama/Reid/Pelosi threesome has grown I have often heard that the Democrats may have "misread the mandate" of the 2008 elections, that they deceived themselves into thinking Americans wanted policies that they really didn't, and in November they'll pay for their mistake. I never thought this hypothesis had much plausibility, and any it ever had disappeared after Scott Brown's election to the U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts. The sad and disgusting truth is that the class of political fixers (which includes many Republican "insiders" like Karl Rove, most op-ed product reps, and virtually all political scientists) thinks that one of government's permanent and essential functions is that of deceiving the <em>governed</em> in order to maintain their consent and quiescence. The Democratic leadership never even thought they had a mandate from the people, <em>or that they needed one</em>. They just thought they needed to develop a better formula or "program" for opinion engineering than the other side's, and that in 2008 they had achieved such optimal results that they might never have to worry about an opposition for a long time.<br /><br />As far as the believers in Maximum Administration are concerned, the express train to the future has merely experienced a inconvenient delay, because somehow a wagon train of reenactors was permitted to cross the track the train is on: in other words, because somehow the "Right" temporarily figured out a better way to deceive the public. Are highly educated lawyers and journalists supposed to listen to the public? I doubt it ever crossed a single liberal's mind. The political fixers don't believe there's any public to listen to. It's the public that listens. What else could they do? Anybody who took Psych 101 would know that the public is just a herd of animals that needs feed, shots and exercise like the other animals. The fixers and spokespuppets produce polls <em>telling</em> the voters what they themselves think! How many times since 2007 have they said "The public doesn't care about (this question you're asking); they're concerned about making ends meet, etc." And if the voters should perversely listen to anyone but the liberals, then that only means the liberals are due to update their opinion engineering software. They have experts working on it, the best, and in the meantime, they and their media bobbleheads will just keep shouting louder and more abusively in hopes of drowning out the voices that they insist must be "Right Wing" bobbleheads. And that's what Obama/Pelosi/Reid and their talking-points-talkers have been doing.<br /><br /><br />But the fixers were wrong. Liberalism succeeded in this country because people were basically satisfied with it, not because of its message. As long as the country was properous, safe, and secure, most Americans were content to have the government incrementally redistribute some of the prosperity in ways that did not appear to violate the general sense of how the good was achieved. Who could blame them? And that was liberalism's mandate from the people, one that Republican statesmen prudently respected, just as Democratic statesmen prudently avoided the appearance of infringing upon spheres of personal responsibility that Americans regarded as both a pleasure of citizenship and a source of prosperity and security.<br /><br /><br />Obama was elected in 2008 because at that time he appeared the more <em>reassuring </em>candidate. It was not particularly hard to reassure an American public that had almost never seen a president or presidential candidate who dared disturb the mood of public complacency intrinsic to the American Dream. American politicians know that enjoyment of the American Dream requires quiet, uninterrupted sleep. The Bush-Cheney administration had made, and given the liberal media excuses to make, too much noise. No Democrat had been been within earshot since 2000, and all the Democratic presidents and presidential candidates within memory--all since LBJ--had been much quieter than Bush-Cheney. A switch in parties was not even really a switch, but an automatic adjustment, like changing sides in bed. The two parties were like chocolate and vanilla, a choice of preferences. To voters who thought the job of a president was to keep the neighborhood quiet while the people were enjoying the American Dream, it was uncharacteristic to think of the presidential nominee of a Major Party as stealthy. Nobody had to convince them not to worry about Barack Obama. How bad could the Democratic nominee be? He seemed all right. He'd make the kind of history that could let everyone go back to sleep and forget about making history. <br /><br /><br />Well, to change metaphors slightly--"the honeymoon is over" is putting it mildly. The groom might as well have asked the bride one night if she'd be open to a polyamorous relationship with some of his friends from a nudist camp he'd frequented before he knew her--meet Harry, Nancy, and their son Michael Moore. YIKES!! This whole thing is abnormal. Don't get near me! I don't know you! Send my things to my mother's!<br /><br /><br />This madness of March 2010 is not a little misunderstanding between lovebirds that will be cleared up. It is a political STD. Even the supporters of health care reform realize that Obama is a fraud, because the whole point of nominating him was to let the voters sleep and complete the invasion without a struggle. No wonder members of Congress need such good health care--Obama had to break their arms, legs, backs and balls so that <em>he</em> wouldn't be a lame duck. That's <em>your</em> member of Congress whose teeth are on the floor. Good to know someone's working for you in Washington, huh? And who could sleep through all that racket? Never again will Obama seem "presidential" to anybody, nor will Speaker Pelosi be mistaken for a legislator. This is not, as their fixers will continue to insist, because they are African-American and female and their critics racists and sexists, but because Obama and Pelosi refused to heed the calls of Americans who said the noise they were making was waking up the whole neighborhood.<br /><br />Obama and Pelosi have even lost their aura of legitimacy as Elected Officials of a Major Party. How can that be? Weren't they elected? Aren't the Democrats a Major Party? Not the way they were before yesterday. The public that thought it was switching flavors got a cone with vermin in it. Yuck! Health code violation! Shut down that joint.<br /><br /><br />In the past liberals have successfully deflected attacks away from liberalism itself. Liberals didn't shield Communists, they were anti-Communist, or would be if there were any real Communists, just as they'd be real patriots if there were anything to be patriotic about. Liberals weren't anti-business, pro-crime, pro-terror, etc., etc. Liberalism was not the issue. There was nothing to worry about. It was one of the good things about America. Most people didn't worry. They turned over and enjoyed the American Dream.<br /><br /><br />Well, the American Dream has become less peaceful. "Richest Country on Earth" sounds like it might be somewhere else. And now, for the first time, liberals have made liberalism itself the issue. By undertaking more government intervention in one shot than the public could sleep through, they destroyed the camouflage that has been essential to their past success.<br /><br /><br />As a result, American political life has entered uncharted waters. To speculate about how many congressional seats the Democrats may lose and Republicans win in November is to imagine the politics of a different time, when the voters decided whether this year they wanted the donkey or the elephant, chocolate or vanilla. The Democratic Party has changed that: for many voters liberalism is now off the menu. Meaning: in passing social welfare legislation against the powerful will of many voters, the Democratic party has for the first time <em>legitimized</em> an effort to <em>repeal</em> an achievement of the liberal agenda. The question of whether this effort can succeed in the near future is much less important than its implications for the long run. As long as the Health Care law is in place, there will be persistent, widespread, and confident efforts to repeal it. It will be subject to constant criticism and evaluation. This criticism will get constantly worse, because the Health Care law will be a legitimate lightning rod for dissatisfaction about any aspect of the national economy. Moreover, it will legitimate, on purely economic grounds, many previously sacrosanct topics, such as immigration legal and illegal, because the cost and functioning of the program is inseparable from the population of the country. And as this repeal movement continues and grows, it will foster a new critical discourse from which no existing entitlement will be entirely exempt.<br /><br />None of this will require any stoking by Republican politicians. No "Great Communicator" will be needed. There will be no messaging and no issues. Liberalism has announced that its agenda is regime change. It has started a nonviolent war on American soil. It has told the American people that their role in democracy is to be seen and not heard. The American people will not take well to this. Liberalism has made itself a target for the American people. Liberals will win no further victories and suffer many painful losses. That will become clear through elections, but it won't be politics as usual. And in this theater of war, liberalism cannot pull out. It's a sitting duck.<br /><br /><br />The Democratic Party has placed itself in the position of being on the defensive and exposed to substantive attack <em>permanently</em>. The Guantanomo that opponents will use as a "recruiting tool" against liberalism is one the Democrats cannot even close: Washington itself. The full effects of this will not become immediately apparent, not even this November. The rate of losses may vary, but they will increase over time, and many will be <em>permanent </em>as in the past they were not. Republican and Democrat are no longer like chocolate and vanilla, they're like chocolate and cardboard. Democratic "strategists" will certainly "spin" the gradual death of the Democratic Party as illusory, temporary, and perverse. But they will never convince the voters. The Democrats are now the people who broke in while we were trying to get some sleep. And they're still in the house! Whoever isn't awake yet will be awake soon. And it will be a long time before it feels safe enough to get back in bed.Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-87254852164019418432010-01-28T17:12:00.004-05:002010-01-28T17:24:17.585-05:00Points of Lite<em>There once was a man from Nantucket</em><br /><em>who was told if he ran he could f*** it;</em><br /><em>but a critical mass</em><br /><em>gave a kick in the a**</em><br /><em>to the Democrats' seat from Nantucket.</em><br /><em></em><br /><em>Roses are red,</em><br /><em>Violets are blue,</em><br /><em>Crayons have colors</em><br /><em>Like states used to.</em><br /><em></em><br /><em>There once was a man from Nantucket</em><br /><em>who was told if he ran he could f*** it;</em><br /><em>but the party of nope</em><br /><em>was democracy's hope</em><br /><em>and now "He's the Man" from Nantucket.</em>Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-29915266438253273162009-10-10T20:06:00.009-04:002009-10-10T23:26:15.237-04:00No PrizeWhat should embarrass Barack Obama most about winning the Nobel Peace Prize? That it necessarily invites people to compare him to other winners whose sacrifices and achievements make his life seem flimsy? That it extends and magnifies his unbroken streak of unearned distinctions? That it proves more egregiously than ever the brazenly dishonest agenda of the Nobel Prizes?<br /><br />Barack Obama, who already seemed ridiculous bearing the title "President," has inspired even more laughter since breaking another historical barrier and winning a Nobel Prize for doing absolutely nothing, zilch, bupkus. But as the surprise wears off I find less and less in it to laugh about.<br /><br />Obama himself is something of an innocent bystander to this travesty. After all, he didn't choose himself. Was that Oslo committee simply swept off its girlish feet by the American president's charisma? Were they so snowed by his windy cliches, or rebounding so hard from their last presidential relationship, that they momentarily imagined that Obama's promises were accomplishments? Actually, there was nothing naive about the Nobel committee's choice of Obama. They didn't award the new U.S. President the Nobel Peace Prize because he's irresistible. They did it to influence him, by paying him in advance for his performance in the international play they have planned. Many commentators have mentioned the possibility that the award might influence the president. But so far only a few have used the correct word for it. Obama's Nobel Peace Prize is an open bribe in symbolic currency.<br /><br />As an American I am deeply insulted that the Nobel Peace Prize committee should even think that the President of the United States could be bribed with the offer of an honorary title. Do they think this is North Korea? Don't they know that the President is elected by the people and sworn to serve them and uphold the U.S. Constitution? Don't they know that the President's authority in conducting foreign affairs is shared with the elected houses of Congress? The president doesn't own the United States. He isn't even the CEO. The role of the U.S. in international affairs ultimately depends upon the wishes of the American people. So it is an insult to the United States and its people for the Nobel Peace Prize committee to imagine that they could influence the policies of this country by bribing the guy that we have entrusted with the nation's business. The nerve of them.<br /><br />Of course it was no compliment to Barack Obama either, imagining that a statesman lucky enough to have won the trust of the world's most experienced democratic citizenry would allow his head to be turned by a pompous-sounding title conferred by a pretentious little committee. They must think Mr. Obama's quite a sucker for prestige, as little respectful of the American people as they are, and easily corruptible. I'd hate to think our president could have done something to give them that idea.<br /><br />No doubt plenty of people and entities would like to exercise improper influence on an American president, and some have succeeded to one degree or another. But a president who accepts a bribe <em>openly </em>places his integrity under permanent suspicion. President Obama stated yesterday that he would accept the Nobel Peace Prize, but he should be encouraged to change his mind. Indeed there is a provision of the U.S. Constitution that subjects the President's acceptance of titles and gifts to the approval of Congress. If President Obama is not honest or smart enough to drop this bribe like a hot potato, members of Congress, including his friends, should slap his wrist before he burns himself even worse than he has already. I hope our representatives in Congress are keeping abreast of their responsibilities. For my part, I shall be writing to Senators Voinovich and Brown to point out that a foreign entity has offered the President a coveted title as a bribe to influence his conduct of the nation's business, and that the Congress has the power to prevent him from accepting it.<br /><br />Our president should tell the Nobel Prize Committee publicly that their prize is an insult to him and the people he represents, because it <em>is</em> an insult, and everyone knows it, including and most of all the Nobel committee itself. Of course there is little chance the president will do that, or that the Democrats in Congress, so deep in lies and corruption themselves, would suddenly decide to declare the nudity of their own emperor and prohibit him from accepting the poisoned gift from Oslo. But for the rest of us, it's important that we tell the truth, now, the next day, and often: the President of the U.S. has been offered a bribe, publicly, for all to see, and when he accepts it in December, he will have accepted a bribe. Let him spend the rest of his life explaining that it never influenced his conduct of the Presidency.Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-33080116953302720392009-06-17T17:20:00.004-04:002009-06-17T22:00:51.065-04:00Letterman's Late Apologies: Two Down, 59,948,238 To GoAs all the world knows, last week the CBS network broadcast sexually abusive remarks about the governor of Alaska and one of her teenage daughters on its popular TV program "The Late Show with David Letterman". Since then the hospitality-challenged host has made a tedious, almost nightly ritual of rendering forced apologies on camera to Gov. Palin and her daughter. Pundits have joined the "debate" about the gravity of the entertainer's offense, the adequacy of his apologies, and the responsibilities of the network. Today's paper carried the news that Gov. Palin had accepted Letterman's apology. I wouldn't doubt that Letterman and his staff of half-witty "writers" are combing the Milton Berle treasury for a joke about classiness to turn on Palin.<br /><br />It is frankly deplorable that the governor of Alaska should even have been put in the position of deciding when a television personality's abusiveness had been atoned for. After all, this was no accidental gaffe or "script malfunction", a joke that in a more tasteful era Bob Hope would just have passed up. Sarah Palin and her daughter, like Alex Rodriguez, were merely props Letterman used for an insult aimed at others and not yet apologized for. Does the CBS network attract millions of viewers to hear personal abuse thrown at moms and their daughters? Of course it doesn't. The real objects of David Letterman's abuse were not Mrs. Sarah Palin and her daughter, but the Republican nominee for Vice-President in the recent election, and those who voted for her. The message of Letterman's abuse was that the Americans who supported the Republican ticket cast their votes for a candidate so contemptible that she could be called "slutty" on network TV and nobody would have a right to complain. So they'd better not vote for white trash again if they want to feel welcome when they turn on the set. You and I, readers, are the ones that CBS and its employee David Letterman are deliberately abusing. They owe apologies to 60 million Republican voters, and indeed to all American citizens in what media-minds might call the <em>adult</em> or <em>non-immature</em> "demographic". I'm not holding my breath while I wait.<br /><br />As the governor of Alaska Sarah Palin has a serious job, which is more than anybody could say about the host of "The Late Show with David Letterman". And by all accounts Gov. Palin does her demanding job well, which also cannot be said of CBS's 11:30 attraction, certainly not this week. But the overmatched Letterman should ask himself this: when in his "career" as a standup did David Letterman ever <em>kill</em> the way Sarah Palin did in her address to the Republican National Convention? Face it, Letterman: you aren't either funny enough, or important enough, to be part of Gov. Palin's act.Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-11855356763370396602009-06-03T22:58:00.007-04:002009-06-10T23:20:33.999-04:00Backspin<div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;color:#660000;"></span></em></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">Want damage control?</span></em></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">Daily White House press briefings</span></em></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">minus Robert Gibbs.</span></em></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;color:#000000;"></span></em></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;color:#000000;"></span></em></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;color:#000000;"></span></em></div><div align="left"><em><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;color:#000000;"></span></em></div><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">The Postliberal</span></strong></div>Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-76820893907363979362009-06-02T19:38:00.004-04:002009-06-03T10:48:00.552-04:00Hu-Ku News June 2<div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>Latina Wanted</em></div><div align="center"><em>Experienced, Empathic</em></div><div align="center"><em>Customer Service</em></div><div align="center"><em>***</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>N. Korea fires</em></div><div align="center"><em>short-range ballistic missiles</em></div><div align="center"><em>above O's pay grade</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="left"><strong><br />The Postliberal</strong></div><div align="center"></div>Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-27554663443121418952009-05-23T15:28:00.009-04:002009-05-31T17:23:32.187-04:00Hu-Ku II: More Gems of O Wisdom<div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>Obama-Cheney:</em></div><div align="center"><em>Thrilla-in-Manila II?</em></div><div align="center"><em>Patterson-Liston.</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>***</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>"Ghostwriter needed</em></div><div align="center"><em>by blowsy liberal pundit"</em></div><div align="center"><em>Someone's cry for help</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>***</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>Barry's pompous lines</em></div><div align="center"><em>put Hardball's leg a-quiver?</em></div><div align="center"><em>My thought:</em> <em>What a jerk!</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>***</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>Our cherished ideals:</em></div><div align="center"><em>the press's sacred duty</em></div><div align="center"><em>to propagate memes.</em></div><div align="center"><em>***</em></div><div align="center"><em>Why "social justice"?</em></div><div align="center"><em>Unequal audience share</em></div><div align="center"><em>elevating souls.</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>***</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="left"><strong>The Postliberal </strong></div><div align="left">powered by catullus</div>Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-5604515718716378262009-05-22T17:16:00.010-04:002009-05-24T09:37:20.559-04:00Hu-Ku: Poems of the O DynastyOur cosmos in the Reign of O, reflected in original 5-7-5's from the sharpened reed pen of <strong>The Postliberal</strong>.<br /><br /><div align="center"><em>What's waterboarding?</em></div><div align="center"><em>Compulsory exposure</em></div><div align="center"><em>to Barney Frank's mouth.</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>***</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>Make friends in Europe:</em></div><div align="center"><em>confess American crimes</em></div><div align="center"><em>defeating Nazis.</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>***</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>Rule of law, says He;</em></div><div align="center"><em>but Supreme Court Justices</em></div><div align="center"><em>should listen to NOW.</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>***</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>Making history:</em></div><div align="center"><em>first minority POTUS</em></div><div align="center"><em>up from ACORN roots.</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>***</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>Our cherished values:</em></div><div align="center"><em>every liberal's sacred right </em></div><div align="center"><em>to ridicule spine.</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>***</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>Now liberals oppose</em></div><div align="center"><em>flag desecration: they want</em></div><div align="center"><em>to wave the white one.</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>***</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em>Ciao, Literati! </em><strong>The Postliberal</strong></div>Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-63208583304704340282009-05-21T23:23:00.009-04:002009-05-21T23:44:40.584-04:00Who Knew? Dick Cheney Inspires PoetryThe Muses still live! A certain <a href="http://hotair.com/archives/2209/05/21/cheney-haiku-cheneyku/">Jim Treacher </a>has created the C<em>heneyku</em>, Haiku in the persona of Dick Cheney. Sound unpromising? These were my favorites:<br /><br /><div align="center"><em>Look out, terrorists!</em></div><div align="center"><em>Obama's secret weapon:</em></div><div align="center"><em>Approval ratings</em></div><div align="center"><em>***</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="left"></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"><em>When you attacked me</em></div><div align="center"><em>I disclosed my position</em></div><div align="center"><em>All up in your face</em></div><div align="center"><em>***</em></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em>Kudos </em>to the bard! </div>Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-41836711335836574772009-05-19T22:33:00.021-04:002009-05-21T22:34:00.195-04:00New Slogan for "Paper of Record"<em>All the Thoughts You're Fit to Think </em><br /><em></em><br /><em></em><br /><br /><em></em><br /><em></em><br /><em></em><br /><em></em><br /><br /><em></em>Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-24124139783654577562009-05-17T22:49:00.005-04:002009-05-17T23:02:58.831-04:00Obama's Oscillationist StyleHe was for releasing CIA interrogation photos before he was against it. He was against having military tribunals for Guantanamo detainees before he was for it. And he was against taxing employer-provided health-care benefits before he was open to it. Ready to try another position? Maybe this is why it's a called a Presidential Honeymoon.<br /><br />Obama's team of communicators informs us almost daily that we're being led by a "pragmatist". Translation: he's so down-to-earth he's over our heads. But if the Ministry of Onomastics needs a pseudo-philosophical "ism" to dignify Obama's sketchy statesmanship, wouldn't <em>oscillationism </em>capture it better?Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-6806111436935661472009-05-12T11:47:00.007-04:002009-05-13T10:50:03.292-04:00Major Federal Grant To Fund The Slogan ProjectThe NEA (National Endowment for Awareness) has announced its funded partners for the year, and The Slogan Project proudly heads the list of innovative initiatives supporting a global culture of compliance. See today's <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Global Community World </span>for an article recognizing this outstanding achievement in excellence (Higher Education) by The Postliberal. Coming soon: a MacGenius Foundation-funded site installation, touring 1,000 specially selected campuses! <div><br /></div><div>Today's Slogan Project slogan has been adopted as the Official Slogan of the NEA and The Slogan Project:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-STYLE: italic">Canned Thoughts for a Canned America</span></div>Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-16977745482438673252009-05-11T23:05:00.002-04:002009-05-11T23:17:14.328-04:00Slogan Awareness Bulletin TuesdayDear Member of the Awareness Community:<br /><br />Celebrate today's Awareness by sharing today's Awareness Community Slogan with other members of the Awareness Community today!<br /><br />Your Awareness Slogan for Tuesday May 12 is:<br /><br /><strong>U</strong><em>nited</em><br /><strong>F</strong><em>or</em><br /><strong>O</strong><em>bama!</em><br /><em></em><br /><em></em>Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-64980786360751190652009-05-10T15:49:00.005-04:002009-05-10T17:53:54.722-04:00Stay in Step: Supporting Slogan AwarenessIn recognition of the contribution of slogans to our community wellness, The Postliberal will devote ten minutes of creativity a day to working for slogans that bring people together for sustainable outcomes.<br /><br />Global Community Slogan for May 10, 2009:<br /><br /><em><strong>Celebrate Female Parents on Female Parents' Pride Day</strong></em><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /><strong><em></em></strong>Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-28364008146343099062008-10-30T19:29:00.004-04:002008-10-30T19:48:58.728-04:00Ohio Citizen Alert--Big Sister is Watching YouThe <em>Columbus Dispatch</em> and other media have reported that the Director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Helen Jones-Kelley, approved records checks on Samuel Wurzelbacher of Holland, Ohio. Mr. Wurzelbacher, whose middle name is Joseph, is better known as Joe the Plumber.<br /><br />These records checks were clearly politically motivated and therefore completely improper. As the <em>Dispatch</em> stated in its lead editorial on Wednesday, "Access to such data is supposed to be restricted to official business of government and law enforcement....Such scrutiny could have a chilling effect on the willingness of people to stand up and be counted prior to elections. It also undermines the confidence of all Ohioans that their state government is serious about protecting sensitive information."<br /><br />Referring to the Ohio governor, the Wednesday editorial also stated: "Strickland, who...said there were no political motives in the data-checking, apparently is giving [Jones-Kelley] the benefit of the doubt."<br /><br />I suggest that Ohio citizens who read <em>The Postliberal</em> not give Gov. Strickland the benefit of the doubt. He should be inundated with mail informing him that Jones-Kelley's snooping was transparently political, and that he shouldn't be covering up for her. He should fire her. <br /><br />Gov. Strickland's homepage can be accessed by clicking <a href="http://www.governor.ohio.gov/">here</a>. Follow the "Contact" link to find a form for sending the governor mail. Let him know that voters feel personally affected by Jones-Kelley's abuse of her office to harass a fellow Ohio citizen and infringe upon his rights. We can watch too. Make sure Ted Strickland knows we're watching his administration, and that we care.Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-43119254605910516522008-10-30T09:16:00.003-04:002008-10-30T13:17:22.177-04:00Top Ten Titles for Friendly Leader's InfomercialAfter welcoming himself into our homes last night to tell Americans who we are, celebrity self-endorser Barack Hussein Obama seems well positioned to add more statuary to the Grammy he won for reading the audiobook of <em>Dreams from My Father. </em>(And every word he read was his own!) Will that be an Oscar gracing the Green Room mantelpiece? An Emmy? Golden Globe? Whatever. But Obama's cinematic masterpiece will need a title before Barbra can announce "the winner is". Hmmmm....The Postliberal has a few suggestions.<br /><br />1. "The Night the Earth Stood Still"<br />2. "A Convenient Lie"<br />3. "Dependence Day"<br />4. "No Sudden Moves"<br />5. "A Joe Named Barack"<br />6. "Barack Obama's Day Off"<br />7. "Invasion of the Money Snatchers"<br />8. "The Plot Against Amerika"<br />9. "Ocean's 14: The White House"<br />10. "Triumph of the Nil"<br /><br />Readers of The Postliberal are invited to submit their own suggestions, before the high wears off.Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-2429662516730910802008-10-29T21:56:00.002-04:002008-10-29T22:21:13.211-04:00Obama's October SurpriseNominee's infomercial leaves millions convinced Obama's ready to take the wheel. Younger voters ask: thanks for the lollipop, are we there yet, is anything else on, are we there yet, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..............................<br /><br />And maybe, Mr. Nice Man, where's my mommy?Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8170119468490649362.post-30615496222154371952008-10-28T20:49:00.004-04:002008-10-28T21:22:47.675-04:00Can Random House and Obama Be Sued? Ask Arista Records and Milli VanilliIf Barack Obama didn't actually write <em>Dreams from My Father</em> himself, could Random House and Obama be sued on behalf of consumers? I'm not a lawyer, so I wouldn't venture to say. However, the case of the early '90s rock act <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milli_Vanilli">Milli Vanilli </a>might offer some precedent. Here a promoter created a sound with certain performers, but since he didn't like their stage presence, he hired other performers to act as a front. The act became very successful (like Barack Obama they won a Grammy) but a technical malfunction during a "live" performance revealed that the guys on stage were lip-synching. Evidently the country wasn't ready for Milli Vanilli in the White House, since the media made much hue and cry about the deception, and the promoter eventually confessed. In the aftermath at least 26 lawsuits were filed on behalf of consumers (according to the Wikipedia article linked above) and substantial damages were awarded.<br /><br />In principle the cases of Milli Vanilli and <em>Dreams </em>would appear to be similar, <em>if </em>it could be shown that Obama was not the author of <em>Dreams</em>, which I deem reasonably suspected. In the Milli Vanilli case the promoter's confession made things easy for consumers and their advocates; but one doubts that Barack Obama will put the interests of consumers ahead of the royalties he's collecting. Anyone concerned about whether a President Obama will redistribute wealth need only consider how much wealth author Obama has redistributed from consumers into his own swollen bank accounts.Post-Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03230769443849381921noreply@blogger.com1