Thursday, May 31, 2012

Nanny State Alert: Mayor Bloomberg, Sugary Sodas and the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy to Take Away Your Freedom of Choice


Cross-posted at the the Left Coast Rebel

Freedom-obstructing road block ahead - beware the totalitarian nanny state!

Writes the New York Times (emphasis mine):
New York City plans to enact a far-reaching ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, movie theaters and street carts, in the most ambitious effort yet by the Bloomberg administration to combat rising obesity. The proposed ban would affect virtually the entire menu of popular sugary drinks found in delis, fast-food franchises and even sports arenas, from energy drinks to pre-sweetened iced teas. The sale of any cup or bottle of sweetened drink larger than 16 fluid ounces — about the size of a medium coffee, and smaller than a common soda bottle — would be prohibited under the first-in-the-nation plan, which could take effect as soon as next March.
I could go after every false assertion and misguided idiocy in this article (such as this being Bloomberg's effort to "combat obesity" or that even a ball-game soda will be illegal but beer won't!).

But I won't.

I'll just use this story as today's teachable moment in American Statism Gone Wild.

I'll start things with an honest statement: I don't drink sodas, sugary drinks, soft drinks, colas, root beer; in fact, save for a few spoonfuls in my morning coffee, I completely avoid sugar in toto as well.
I know, I know; I understand -- anything that deteriorates a penny in 24 hours can't be good for you. Soda rots your teeth, sugar in extreme amounts exacerbates diabetes and poor health.

But so what?

I will defend to my dying breath the freedom of my fellow American to drink as much soda as they wish. And shouldn't every American do the same?

When in the world did America go from our collective understanding and appreciation of, "that which doesn't interfere with my liberty or rights is none of my business," to, "hey look over there, a fat kid; it's time to ban soda!"
(Onion Image) If NYC's Mayor Bloomberg has his way, this guy could go to jail
Instead of becoming a freer society, America is heading in the precise opposite direction.

Instead of becoming more tolerant (real tolerance, not the mind-prison politically-correct kind), we are becoming more ready, able and willing to criminalize behavior that we don't like, or things, substances, behaviors et. al. that we think are damaging to our fellow citizens.

Instead of making societal judgement calls using individual liberty as our only guiding light, we castigate and legislate against those different than us. This has to stop. We have to regain the spirit of individual freedom and the freedom to fail or succeed that made America so great.


Nevertheless, if there is a silver lining to this story it is political for it demonstrates in Big Gulp-Red flying colors just what the progressive agenda is truly about.

In the 1920s, progressives gave us Prohibition and the mayhem that thus ensued. Among many other things, progressives then gave us the gift of failure that is the War on Drugs and the War on Poverty (both of which have done nothing to "solve" the problems they supposedly address, rather they have put into place multi-trillion dollar Industrial Complexes (untold incarceration costs, lost liberties and untold billions/trillions for the former and in excess of $9 trillion for the latter) that actually perpetuate the targeted issue. Dozens of additional government schemes fall into this category.

True conservatives abhor limiting individual. It is the progressive left (and progressive Republican types) that wish to do so. In their sense of nannyism and elitism and I-know-better-than-you-ism they will stop short of nothing in taking away our once-cherished freedoms.

 Until we say enough is enough.

Stop Worrying and Love The Bias

Some conservatives are fretting about the conservative bias in a video produced by Fox News. Um, okay....

I don’t think that any news organization should pretend to be unbiased. The veneer of neutrality is dishonest. Everybody’s biased.

Should news organizations be thorough and tell the whole story? Ideally, yes. Should they be fair? Yes. Honest? Yes. Professional? Yes.

Neutral? No.

Be upfront with your bias. Let them know what your agenda is:



If we didn’t live in a world where a major motion picture can be produced using White House talking points about a President’s “gutsy call” and originally set to be released right before the November election, I might be bothered.

And given the fact that Fox and Friends is an opinion show, and the other news channels are virtually running free Obama Campaign ads with their 24/7 sycophantic Obama-friendly coverage — it doesn’t bother me, at all.


Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Vote Ted Cruz #TXsen #ChooseCruz UPDATE: Cruz Successfully Forces Runoff

Polls open in a few minutes. If you live in Texas, vote Ted Cruz!

Polls will be open today 7 am to 7 pm.

Here are some Ted Cruz Updates:

TEA PARTY WAVE COULD CARRY TEXAS SENATE SEAT FOR TED CRUZ
Constantly underestimated by the Republican establishment, the Tea Party continues to prove its power in GOP primaries. First Indiana, then Nebraska. And now new polls show rising conservative star Ted Cruz potentially poised to beat ultra-wealthy Lt. Governor David Dewhurst for the open U.S. Senate seat in Texas in a classic David v. Goliath match-up.
Read the rest.


In Texas, a rising conservative star takes on the establishment
Hoping to build on momentum from Richard Mourdock's Tea Party-driven victory over Richard Lugar in the Indiana Senate primary earlier this month, the Tea Party is setting its sights on another possible win Tuesday, this time in Texas.

In Tuesday's Texas Republican Senate primary, Tea Party favorite Ted Cruz, a Cuban-American lawyer with strong conservative bona fides, is hoping to force a runoff against David Dewhurst, lieutenant governor to Rick Perry and the longtime establishment favorite.
Read the rest.

Texas election code stipulates that a candidate must receive 50 percent of the vote to win their party’s nomination outright. If no candidate passes that mark, the two top finishers will go into a runoff, which would take place on July 31.

Polls show Dewhurst, 66, in the lead and Cruz, 41, in second place, but Dewhurst is shy of 50 percent. A Dewhurst/Cruz runoff seems very possible at this point.
Read the rest.


UPDATE: Lt Gov David Dewhurst and Tea Party fave Ted Cruz will face off in a 7/31 Senate GOP runoff.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

The Persecution Continues, Another Conservative SWAT Victim: Erick Erickson

It's time for prominent elected officials from both sides to condemn this:

BREAKING: Bogus Call Sends Police to Home of Kimberlin Critic Erick Erickson

He and his family are OK. He just put up the tweet minutes ago:


I asked him if he was serious and he said yes. Again, he said that he is OK, though. After he started writing about Kimberlin, he told the local Sheriff’s Department to expect this might happen:


More at Red State.

Other conservative bloggers have been victimized by the same modus operandi. Patterico's story is probably the most horrific.


Update: The perpetrator has shown a frightening level of sophistication...


Update II: FORMER DOJ ATTORNEY: ERIC HOLDER COULD STOP SWATINGS 'IN 48 HOURS'

Update: III:


Update IV: Caller to Lee Stranahan Show Claims to Be My Swatter



More updates to follow.

Friday, May 25, 2012

More Predatory Harassment From Left Wing Terrorists: Brett Kimberlin, Neal Rauhauser et al.

Neal Rauhauser / Brett Kimberlin

CONTENT ALERT: Extreme content and vulgar language below (and at the links), absolutely inappropriate for children...


Back in October of 2010, I received a hateful message from a twitter account from Neal Rauhauser's network of online thugs:


This was part of a much larger, ongoing effort to bully and intimidate right-of-center bloggers and activists. The intimidation has been coordinated by a group of extremely violent and hateful left wing activists including Neal Rauhauser, Brett Kimberlin, Ron Brynaert and Nadia Naffe.

Neal Rauhauser is a far-left activist and "a consultant to Democrat Party officials, boasting Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva among his clients."

Convicted terrorist Brett Kimberlin receives funding from mainstream Democrats and the deep pockets of the radical left. As Proof notes, Kimberlin received $70,000 from the Tides Foundation, $10,000 from Barbara Streisand, $20,000 from John Kerry’s wife.

Just last week, blogger Robert Stacy McCain (The Other McCain) was forced into hiding after receiving threats from Brett Kimberlin.

Today we learn that blogger John Patrick Frey (Patterico's Pontifications) was the victim of a dangerous "SWATting" attack by the same terrorist.

To quote John Patrick Frey, "that’s just the tip of the iceberg, folks."

There's much more at Memeorandum.


UPDATE:

An eerie reminder:


Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Obama From Every Angle...



(By the way, if you're not on Tumblr, you should be.)

Saturday, May 19, 2012

The President of PETA as CEO of KFC?


Obama is proud of his third world roots. Fine. Whatever. But Obama is as embarrassed by "his country" as Michelle ever was. That's what bothers me. Making Obama president of the United States was tantamount to putting a card-carrying member of PETA in charge of KFC.

Obama should be thinking about getting another job. He's unsuited for the one he has.




Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Obama in History

Obama has inserted himself into the histories of U.S. presidents going all the way back to Calvin Coolidge. Conservatives on Twitter took it a step further:







Sunday, May 13, 2012

Blue State Ignorance Fuels Pertussis Outbreak?


The New York Times blames state budget cuts for a relentless outbreak of whooping cough (Pertussis), but a closer examination reveals that anti-science sentiments of the left wing fringe are a conspicuous part of the problem:
...Washington State tapped into emergency funds to help get a whooping cough outbreak under control.

A fairly high number of parents in the state have been exempt from having their children vaccinated, according to Reuters, and a spokesman for the state Health Department said that could be a contributing factor...
I can understand why the state Health Department would be coy, but high exemption rates are a recipe for disaster:
Ms. Selecky said immunizations were meant to protect not only individuals but also the broader population: the so-called herd immunity threshold. If a large enough segment of the population is unprotected from a disease — generally considered 5 percent to 15 percent, depending on the disease — even people with some degree of immunity through vaccination can have an elevated risk, she said.

...Washington’s vaccination exemption rate was more than 6 percent.
Why is the exemption rate so high? Along with other unsubstantiated concerns, parents fret about autism:
And a 2011 study, also by CDC, found that nearly 80 percent of parents surveyed felt uncomfortable about getting their children immunized for a variety of reasons, including the fear of the shot, concerns over safety of vaccines and the number of vaccines their children receive and worry that vaccination may be linked to autism.
Paranoia-fueled worries about links between vaccination and autism have been thoroughly debunked. However, among liberals, fashionable ignorance about the safety of childhood vaccination persists. So it probably should come as no surprise that the pertussis epidemic is hitting liberal states hard:
Vermont, Washington and Oregon all have high exemption rates, and all three states had had outbreaks of whooping cough.
California is also suffering from high rates of infection.

This won't serve as definitive proof of a link between left wing ignorance and the pertussis epidemic, but the circumstantial evidence is pretty damning.


More at Memeorandum.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Tragedy Strikes: Voters Reject Dick Lugar


Truly shocking and tragic: After only 36 years in the U.S. Senate, octogenarian Dick Lugar was sent to early retirement, against his wishes, by an overwhelming majority of those who voted in Indiana on Tuesday.

Back-scratching, big-government, business-as-usual statists were among the hardest hit:
Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Lugar's loss "a tragedy for the Senate."

"This is a tough period in American politics, but I'd like to think that we'll again see a United States Senate where Dick Lugar's brand of thoughtful, mature, and bi-partisan work* is respected and rewarded," he said. "That kind of seriousness of purpose should never go out of fashion."

Added President Obama in a statement: "While Dick and I didn't always agree on everything, I found during my time in the Senate that he was often willing to reach across the aisle and get things done."**
*bi-partisan work = capitulating to Democrats
**get things done = grow government, always moving leftward

Don't the voters know that even if their power-hungry Senator moves out of his "home" state, completely losing touch with his constituents' values, it's their patriotic duty to return the incumbent to his rightful position so he can continue make Mad Dealz™ with massive amounts of borrowed money? This is what responsible adults do!


Reactions from the Right:

Just a few weeks ago a Mourdock victory was considered, at best, highly unlikley. But a blowout like this was considered beyond the realm of possibility.

Indiana Republicans have concluded, wisely in my opinion, that [Lugar] is not conservative enough for them or for the State.

Any elected Republican that doesn't pursue a small government agenda once in office risks suffering the same fate as Lugar.

Lugar's much-vaunted civility is a courtesy he extends only to his left; turning to his right, he becomes a churl.

So you’re serving us, Senator Lugar, but you’re the one being treated like royalty everywhere you go?

Right now, politically speaking, the Tea Party seems to be a bullhorn, amplifying deep and abiding concerns of the American electorate.

Obama’s favorite Republican — Dick Lugar — is history, and the Tea Party lives.


The left freaks out:

The toppling of Lugar is a seminal event ... it is just as easy to see in it the frightening outlines of a future systemic crisis.

As today’s Indiana outcome shows, the Koch/AFP/Tea Party Axis of Evil can take down an insufficiently obeisant GOP Senator.


Outlier: Dick Lugar is Too Liberal For Indiana

To those who say Dick Lugar is "conservative enough," here's a little reminder. This is from Nate Silver at the New York Times:
...the dashed line represents how conservative we would expect a Republican senator to be, based on the partisan composition of her state. The further below the dashed line that the senator appears, the more liberal he or she is, relative to the state. Those far below the line, from a Republican point of view, are arguably not pulling their weight.


Five Republicans stand out as being especially far below the line — that is, they are more liberal than you would typically expect a Republican from their state to be. The list includes George V. Voinovich of Ohio, who is retiring, and Richard G. Lugar of Indiana...
Details on the numbers are here.

Learn about Richard Mourdock here.

Indiana votes today.


Monday, May 7, 2012

Obama's Favorite Republican Faces Defeat


Barack Obama's favorite Republican (also Eric Cantor's favorite senator) faces defeat tomorrow in Indiana.

Here's a roundup:
Richard Lugar has been in Washington since January of 1977 ... The federal debt was approximately $650 billion. The federal debt now surpasses $15 trillion. And you know what? The grown ups did it. The grown ups, the mature folks, the adults in the room were the ones who did it. Richard Lugar was complicit in this catastrophic balance sheet. He rarely stood in the way of an increase in debt, an increase in spending, a bridge to nowhere, and a future to bankruptcy.
Lugar getting desperate:
Most of all Lugar is hoping for an inflow of Democratic and independent voters to rescue him from the Republican base. "I'm not asking anybody to cross over," Lugar said. "I'm just saying positively, 'Register your vote, because if you do not, I may not be able to continue serving you.' At this point, help."

How the mighty have fallen. Six years ago, Lugar was returned to the Senate with 80 percent of the vote.
The inclination I’ve had to feel sorry for Dick Lugar that his career may reach an inglorious end is rapidly dissipating. Lugar demonstrates daily why it is time to defeat him.

Lugar still refuses to say he will support Mourdock, still seeks to have non-Republicans decide the Republican primary, and feeds the left-wing narrative that the Tea Party just shouts.

Lugar is insulting and arrogant...

Lugar doesn’t get it. He’s not being challenged because he spoke to Democrats. He’s being challenged because he has been co-opted by power.

Good riddance.
The predictable left wing meltdown:
When Indiana Republicans go to the polls on Tuesday, they will do more than choose a candidate for the Senate. They will choose between party and country.

That's a stark assessment, but true. On one side is a man who has made it his life's work to build a cross-aisle consensus for keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists and rogue states. On the other side is a man who mocks his opponent for such work and who talks more about fighting Democrats than America's enemies.
If you vote for the conservative, you hate America ... or something.




Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Don't Thank The Clown