Skinner Sphere

I was able to travel to the D.C. area for Thanksgiving with friends. The time was wonderful and I got to see a few places I hadn't visited in my previous trips. Before leaving we all went to one of the ubiquitous Starbucks for breakfast. On our table was a copy of the Washington Post. I've disregarded the paper for a long time. Many years ago I listened to G. Gordon Liddy's radio show. He referred to it as the Washington *BLEEP* because "the FCC has deemed the combination of those two words offensive". Yesterday I saw first hand the terribleness of the Washington Post.

Above the fold on the front page were three bad articles, two ripping on the war once again and one explaining how the success of the Republicans' prescription drug program was going to make it tough for the Democrats to implement socialized medicine. I pointed it out to my wife and she was disgusted, but it wasn't unexpected. The prescription drug article made me chuckle. How's this for an opening paragraph?

It sounded simple enough on the campaign trail: Free the government to negotiate lower drug prices and use the savings to plug a big gap in Medicare's new prescription-drug benefit. But as Democrats prepare to take control of Congress, they are struggling to keep that promise without wrecking a program that has proven cheaper and more popular than anyone imagined.

Damn those Republicans for providing something that works.

Labels: politics, war, Washington D.C., Washington Post

Bill O'Reilly suggested last year that San Francisco was beyond saving as they snubbed the military one more time.

"You know, if I'm the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium and I say, 'Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds,' " O'Reilly said Tuesday on his radio show as San Franciscans were approving the two measures. Perhaps, he didn't realize that he'd be speaking mostly to foreign tourists and suburbanites if he were standing in Union Square.

"Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead," O'Reilly went on. "And if al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."

At that time the list of reasons was long, but now they banned the Junior Reserve Officers Training Program from the city’s schools. Stanley Kurtz offers an interesting idea in the Corner, stop the Blue Angels from going to San Francisco. I didn't realize it was an almost permanent stop for them. "With but one or two exceptions, the Angels have performed in San Francisco for over 20 years." Stanley's reasoning makes sense.

The freedom the city of San Francisco takes for granted depends upon the protection, sacrifice, honor, courage, and commitment of the men and women of America’s armed forces. Up to now, San Francisco has been getting a free ride: insulting and expelling our military while taking advantage of its protection–and even taking advantage of military spectacle when that spectacle adds to the city’s prosperity. Now it’s time for this bad bargain to stop. There is something that can be done–small in itself perhaps, yet large in significance–to begin the process of exposing San Francisco’s free ride.

A great idea and one that should be done.

While we're at it, we need to stop San Francisco from becoming the home of Starfleet and the Starfleet Academy. I've wondered how such a Leftest, anti-military town would become home to the headquarters of a military organization. Although, Roddenberry's future is very rosy and Utopian. I don't know why he picked San Francisco, but maybe it has something to do with San Francisco being the site of the signing of the United Nations' charter.

Labels: Blue Angels, military, Navy, San Francisco

Scarlett Johansson criticizes President Bush. She says, "We are supposed to be liberated in America but if our President had his way, we wouldn't be educated about sex at all. Every woman would have six children and we wouldn't be able to have abortions." Wonder if she realizes The Island had a pro-life message?



(h/t the Corner)

Labels: babes, Scarlett Johansson

Look what I missed out on while watching the game. Stayed with the half-time show and missed Steve Brown bodycheck a drunken OSU fan. Beautiful!

Labels: Fox News, Ohio, sports

The Conservative Cat thinks up more possible titles in "If I..." series started by O.J.

Labels: O.J., satire

I might live in Ohio, but I really didn't care that much about the outcome of the game. I do hate the state of Michigan more than Ohio, so I was more rooting against Michigan than rooting for Ohio.

Everywhere I went yesterday, almost everyone was decked out in red. Ohio State apparel everywhere. I watched the game with friends and it was a great game. Truly living up to the hype. One for the ages. The only problem with the Ohio State victory is now I'm going to have to listen to Hugh Hewitt brag about it all week. He was insufferable last week during the lead up. The win is going to make it worse this week.

I loved learning about the rivalry during the week. Some highlights:

• It is true that the late Ohio State coach Woody Hayes, who did more to pump up the negative feelings in the rivalry than any man, refused to fill up his car in the state of Michigan.
  
  "I'll tell you why we don't," Hayes said, according to the seminal book, "Woody Hayes and the 100-Yard War." "It's because I don't buy one goddam drop of gas in the state of Michigan. We'll coast and push this goddam car to the Ohio line before I give this state a nickel of my money!"
  
• It is true that Michigan, leading 55-0 late in the 1946 game, lined up and kicked a field goal.
  
• It is true that Hayes sometimes bunked his team in Toledo on the night before a game in Ann Arbor so the Buckeyes could sleep on Ohio ground.

Labels: football, Michigan, Ohio, sports

Ronald Reagan, a.k.a. Ronaldus Magnimus, is famous for saying, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The party left me." For a long time I've been getting the feeling that the Republican Party is leaving me. They're turning into FDR and JFK democrats. One reason this is happening is because the Democrats have embraced the anti-American wing of the party and spun off way to the left. This left a vacuum in the strong national defense and large government programs field. The Republicans decided to fill this vacuum.

So now we have a Republican Party that wants to defend the country and lower tax rates, but also increase the scope of existing government programs, create the No Child Left Behind program, give prescription drugs to the Give-Me Generation. The party the won the House in 1994 with the Contract With America is gone. Instead of closing the Department of Education it has expanded and Teddy Kennedy was allowed to write No Child Left Behind. Instead of limiting the size of government, we get a Bridge to Nowhere. The party could have ran on the Fair Tax proposal and listened to its constituents and secured the borders. They didn't and lost.

bbeck collected a good list of the Republicans problems

McCain-Feingold
No Child Left Behind
Expanding federal government
Giving up on school vouchers
Tossing pebbles at illegal immigration
Prescription drug program
Permitting the MSM to define torture
Hastert's protection of Congressional offices
Abandoning Tom DeLay when he came under attack
Abandoning Karl Rove when he came under attack
Abandoning Scooter Libby when he came under attack
Letting Sandy Burger off the hook
Letting Richard Armitage off the hook
Refusing to indict treasonous behavior
Refusing to indict Katrina officials
Refusing to take the GWOT seriously enough

Ace asks "Do you really think they're [Republicans] smart enough to learn a lesson?" His answer, "Apparently not." Word is coming out that Mel Martinez will be the next chairman of the RNC. It was thought this weekend that Michael Steele was going on the short list for the job. I saw him on C-Span Sunday and was impressed. Word about Martinez does not thrill me. He doesn't even plan to step down as Senator. So when the Republicans need to focus on the job of regaining control of Congress and finding a candidate to replace Bush, they are thinking of treating it as a part-time job. This doesn't inspire confidence.

I think I'm through fighting for the Republican Party. I'm not leaving it, it is leaving me. I'll be waiting here for the party that will fill the small government vacuum left by the Republicans turning into the Democrats of old. If the Libertarians are ready to step up to the plate I'll help. They need to be stronger on national defense. There is a void to be filled and right now the Republicans don't seem to want to be that party. Good riddance.

Labels: politics, Republicans, RNC

Decision '08 enters the fever swamp so others don't have to. He finds Kos replying to Carville's comment at The New Republic with all the class Markos "Screw 'em" Zuniga is know for.

Carville needs to shut the f**k up. If he wants a war, we’ll give him one.

And it won’t be a war that DC can win.

How did your Freshmaker candidate do again? You stay classy Kos.

(h/t Ace)

Labels: DNC, Kos, nutroots, politics

I was so distressed about Tuesday's national results I forgot to look at the Los Gatos city council race. Dennis Byron's uphill battle against the incumbents was too much. He did get 3,200 votes but that was about 2,000 too short to get into the top three. Better luck next time.

And for the fans of his daughter, another gratuitous picture of her.

Labels: Kari Byron, politics

It seems odd. After all, the Dems won on Tuesday. However, the DNC must be afraid of our brown person. Mark notices James Carville saying, 'We'll see your brown person and match you with a slightly off-white one.', by putting Harold Ford Jr.'s name out to replace Dean.

Labels: DNC, politics, RNC

Frank J sums it up well, "I love the taste of penis in the morning. Tastes like... victory."

Dave finds great suggestions from Jonah.

Now the Democrats get to fulfill their prophecy about Vietnam. Just like in 1974 they can withdraw funding and Baghdad gets to fall one year later. Then Iraq will be like, Vietnam, a victory on the battlefield and a loss at home. Ten years later, the troops with get their own scar on the Mall.

Labels: politics

A wonderful picture of Samantha Brown I found to brighten your Friday and start the weekend right.



Although, she is marrying. Congratulations and best of luck. Her forum on the Travel Channel's site has a link to an announcement in the al Qaeda Intelligence Service, aka NYT. You can get to the link from there, but I'm not linking to them.

Technorati tags: babes, Samantha Brown

Labels: babes, Samantha Brown

Actually, you don't have to. He is running for town council in Los Gatos. More importantly, he is Mythbuster Kari Byron's father. This is just an excuse to post pictures of her.



Discovered on Fark.

Technorati tags: babes, politics, Kari Byron

Labels: babes, Kari Byron, politics

Seems this phrase needs to find its way into Google. Dave is doing his part and I'll tag along. Hopefully I can get it into Technorati as well. My tags have been flaky lately though. Asinine 90 is an interesting element. I wonder what asinine 90's half-life is. Asinine 90, asinine 90, asinine 90.

Technorati tags: asinine 90, John Kerry, troop slander

Labels: John Kerry, politics