The prez didn’t score any points here in Dog Country with tonight’s Oval Office address. More later after we gargle a little tonsil polish to take the taste of bullshit out of our mouths.
Category: Deep political thought
Our latest false prophet
Elmer Gantry, courtesy of Sinclair Lewis:
“Let me count this day, Lord, as the beginning of a new and more vigorous life, as the beginning of a crusade for complete morality and the domination of the Christian church throughout the land. Dear Lord, thy work is but begun! We shall yet make these United States a moral nation!”
And Glenn Beck, courtesy of (who else?) Glenn Beck:
“We are 12 hours away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America. And it has nothing to do with this city or politics. It has everything to do with God Almighty.”
The Gantry soliloquy comes at the end of the book. Let’s hope Beck’s tale is likewise coming to a close.
Bullish on stocks
As the last U.S. “combat brigade” leaves Iraq — some 50,000 other gun-totin’ troops remain, among them elements of Fort Carson’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team — let’s take note of some other good news.
Remember Capt. Michael Clauer, the Army Reserve soldier who lost his $300,000 home over an $800 debt while stationed in Iraq? He’s getting it back, thanks in part to a Mother Jones story.
As MoJo’s Nick Baumann notes: “If folks from the homeowners association had bothered to knock on May Clauer’s door, they might have avoided all this — the legal fees, the negative press attention, and the (surely large) settlement costs. But they didn’t, and they paid the price. Fred Rogers would be ashamed.”
A swift kick in the wallet pocket is too good for these swine. How about a little time in the stocks, too? If the debts pile up and their houses get seized and sold while they’re hanging around in the town square, well, perhaps they can find new homes somewhere — say, in the Army, in Afghanistan.
I got the blues
It’s not the right color blue, but screw it, I ain’t buyin’ a new helmet for comedy purposes.
The Trojan bicycle
Dan Maes is challenging Tom Tancredo for the title of Craziest Coloradan, and he’s making a pretty good show of it.
According to The Denver Post, Maes told a campaign rally last weekend that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper — whom Maes hopes to face in the governor’s race — plans to use Trojan bicycles to deliver the unwary residents of Denver into the Marxist mitts of the United Nations.
“This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed,” Maes told about 50 supporters who showed up at a campaign rally last week in Centennial. “These aren’t just warm, fuzzy ideas from the mayor. These are very specific strategies that are dictated to us by this United Nations program that mayors have signed on to.”
Maes said later that he was referring to Denver’s membership in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, an international association that promotes sustainable development. About half its 1,200 member communities are in the United States, according to The Post.
The smoking gun here apparently is Denver’s B-Cycle bike-sharing program, funded by private donors and grants, and Hickenlooper’s support for alternative modes of transportation, bicycling among them. Because nothing says socialism, atheism and one-world government like folks getting around by pushing two pedals instead of one.
• Late update: One of the systemwide sponsors of this commuting-for-commies scheme is Quiznos, a Denver-based sandwich chain — would you like fries with your Russian sub, comrade? — which also happens to be the title sponsor of the eight-day stage race Colorado is supposed to be getting next year. Arise, ye prisoners of starvation — you have nothing to lose but your chains. Just ask Andy Schleck.
