November 23, 2009

“MSNBC TV, ‘The Place for Politics.’ Wear sunglasses and SPF 30 lotion. You’ll need protection from the blinding white glare.”

MSNBC host Chris Matthews, MSNBC reporter Norah O’Donnell, and MSNBC guest Joan Walsh shamelessly played the race card against Sarah Palin and her book-buying audience last week.

In Michigan, O’Donnell smugly noted that Palin’s fans were “largely white — almost no minorities in this crowd.” Matthews parroted the line, assailing the “white crowd.” Walsh likened the gathering to a “paranoid tea party.” Matthews hammered away at the “monochromatic” scene.

Ahem. Check out the masthead of MSNBC TV, “The Place for Politics.” Wear sunglasses and SPF 30 lotion. You’ll need protection from the blinding white glare:

From: The indelible whiteness of MSNBC

November 22, 2009

Memories Are Made Of This

Nov. 10, 2009

San Marcos, Texas- – The Texas State “T” Association recently announced that Bob Hackney has been selected to be inducted into the Texas State Athletic Hall of Honor on Nov. 20, 2009.

The Hall of Honor is the highest athletics honor given to former Texas State letter winners. Each person selected is nominated by their fellow letter winners and selected for induction by the “T” Association Board of Directors. The 2009 Induction ceremony will take place in the Sac N Pac Room that is located inside the End Zone Complex at Bobcat Stadium.

Bob Hackney was a two-year letter winner for the Bobcat Track and Field program in 1947 and 1948, and set a pair of school records that lasted over a decade. His first record came at the 1947 Drake Relays when he was a member of the distance medley relay team that place first. The second came at the 1948 Lone Star Conference championships when he was the high jump champion.

He originally enrolled at Southwest Texas State in 1943 as a member of the track and field team, but was called to serve his country as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps from 1943-47. After re-enrolling, he went on to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education while continuing to serve as a lieutenant, spending a total of 10 years in the USMC. In 1950, Hackney was wounded in action at the Chosen Reservoir, 40 miles from the Yalu River in North Korea. After leaving the Marine Corps, Hackney was a teacher and coach for 34 years in the Brazosport ISD and a past president for the Brazosport Teachers Credit Union. Currently, he is the co-owner of Buccaneer Apartments.

Hackney is a 60 year member of the American Legion VFW Purple Heart Disabled Vets organization. He has served as commander of the Caldwell, TX VFW Post 4458 for four years, chaplain of the American Legion Lake Jackson Post and Board Member at First National Bank of Lake Jackson.

He also continues to support the Bobcats with lifetime gifts totaling over $165,000, ranging from sport specific gifts to the Hackney Family endowed scholarship.

Hackney currently resides in Clute, TX, with his wife of 62 years, Bobcat alumnus Betty M. Hackney. There are three generations of Bobcats in the Hackney family, including Betty’s mother Nora Jordan who attended Southwest Texas Normal College in the early 1900’s. Bob and Betty have two sons, Gary (56), who is married to Bobcat alumnus Ruth Ann, and Greg (58). The Hackney’s have two grandsons, Carl Daniel (21) and Clint (19).


“Mr. Hackney” was a P.E. teacher at Brazosport High School where I graduated in 1961. He was teaching P.E. at Brazoswood while I coached there from 1969-1979.

He became a good friend and I had the honor of coaching his son, Gary, in one of the memorable games of my career. In a 7 inning Junior Varsity game at El Campo, Gary gave up seven hits, walked seven and the team committed seven errors. With some heroic defensive plays at the plate, the Bucs WON, 3-2. Unforgettable.

My three children all learned to swim at “Mr. Hackney’s Pool.”

November 22, 2009

Louisiana Purchase – Arkansas give-away

By Dana Milbank
Washington Post
Sunday, November 22, 2009

Staffers on Capitol Hill were calling it the Louisiana Purchase.

On the eve of Saturday’s showdown in the Senate over health-care reform, Democratic leaders still hadn’t secured the support of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of the 60 votes needed to keep the legislation alive. The wavering lawmaker was offered a sweetener: at least $100 million in extra federal money for her home state.

$300,000,000 Sellout

And so it came to pass that Landrieu walked onto the Senate floor midafternoon Saturday to announce her aye vote — and to trumpet the financial “fix” she had arranged for Louisiana. “I am not going to be defensive,” she declared. “And it’s not a $100 million fix. It’s a $300 million fix.”

It was an awkward moment (not least because her figure is 20 times the original Louisiana Purchase price). But it was fairly representative of a Senate debate that seems to be scripted in the Southern Gothic style. The plot was gripping — the bill survived Saturday’s procedural test without a single vote to spare — and it brought out the rank partisanship, the self-absorption and all the other pathologies of modern politics. If that wasn’t enough of a Tennessee Williams story line, the debate even had, playing the lead role, a Southerner named Blanche with a flair for the dramatic.

After Landrieu threw in her support (she asserted that the extra Medicaid funds were “not the reason” for her vote), the lone holdout in the 60-member Democratic caucus was Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas. Like other Democratic moderates who knew a single vote could kill the bill, she took a streetcar named Opportunism, transferred to one called Wavering and made off with concessions of her own. Indeed, the all-Saturday debate, which ended with an 8 p.m. vote, occurred only because Democratic leaders had yielded to her request for more time.

AINO - Arkansan in name only

Even when she finally announced her support, at 2:30 in the afternoon, Lincoln made clear that she still planned to hold out for many more concessions in the debate that will consume the next month. “My decision to vote on the motion to proceed is not my last, nor only, chance to have an impact on health-care reform,” she announced.

Landrieu and Lincoln got the attention because they were the last to decide, but the Senate really has 100 Blanche DuBoises, a full house of characters inclined toward the narcissistic. The health-care debate was worse than most. With all 40 Republicans in lockstep opposition, all 60 members of the Democratic caucus had to vote yes — and that gave each one an opportunity to extract concessions from Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) won a promise from Reid to support his plan to expand eligibility for health insurance. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) got Reid to jettison a provision stripping health insurers of their antitrust exemption. Landrieu got the concessions for her money. And Lincoln won an extended, 72-hour period to study legislation.

And the big shakedown is yet to occur: That will happen when Reid comes back to his caucus in a few weeks to round up 60 votes for the final passage of the health bill.

Republicans also knew that a single defection would kill the bill, so they tried to pressure the holdouts. “That’s what we’ve got to choose today: Do we choose life or do we choose death?” declared Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). “We just need one vote, one vote on the other side.”

But Landrieu had already made up her mind. She went to the floor during the lunch hour to say that she would vote to proceed with the debate — but that she’d be looking for much bigger concessions before she gives her blessing to a final version of the bill.

“My vote today,” she said in a soft Southern accent that masked the hard politics at play, “should in no way be construed by the supporters of this current framework as an indication of how I might vote as this debate comes to an end.” Among the concessions she’ll seek: more tax credits for small business and a removal of the version of the “public option” now in the bill.

That turned all the attention to the usually quiet Lincoln, who emerged from the cloakroom two hours later to announce her decision. Her attire was school-principal prim — blue suit with knee-length skirt, orange silk scarf tied tightly at the neck — and she was clearly uncomfortable in the spotlight. She spoke with the diction of somebody giving a dramatic reading, and she stumbled more than once as she read, botching the crucial line: “I will vote to support, of, the, the, will vote in support of cloture on the motion to proceed to this bill.”

She argued, a bit too strenuously, that “I’m not thinking about my reelection” in 2010. All the same, she made clear that Democratic leaders would have to give more if they want her to vote yes as the health-care debate continues. Specifically, she demanded removal of the public option. “I am opposed to a new government-administered health-care plan,” she warned, further cautioning that “I will not vote in favor of the proposal . . . as it is written.”

By the time this thing is done, the millions for Louisiana will look like a bargain.

Yesterday, Mary Landrieu closed the deal for a payoff to Louisiana in exchange for her vote to let Harry Reid’s health care restructuring bill go to Senate floor debate. The deal had been negotiated over weeks, with initial reports putting the price tag at $100 million, only to have Landrieu brag that the real price was $300 million.

Now, it turns out that Landrieu has agreed to hold a fundraiser for Reid in New Orleans:

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., will host a fundraiser for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in New Orleans next month, an event that comes on the heels of Reid’s assistance getting Louisiana a windfall of Medicaid money in the health care reform bill.

The event was planned “several weeks ago,” according to Landrieu’s office. She and political consultant James Carville will host a brunch on Dec. 12 at the St. Charles Avenue home of David Voelker, an investor who chairs the Louisiana Recovery Authority and was a supporter of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

I am sure the two are not connected. Just like Landrieu’s vote had nothing to do with the payoff.

Following From: So it Goes in Shreveport

Spinning Mary Landrieu

Talk about some serious spinning…Chuck Schumer denies the fact that Mary Landrieu was bought off by saying she has “exceptional legislative ability.”

This is what qualifies for an exceptional legislator, apparently. If you can hold out, if you can screw the rest of the country, if you can ignore the Constitution by voting for a bill that exceeds the powers of Congress, they YOU might be an exceptional legislator.

Yesterday, on Face the Nation, Schumer said, “One, she delivers the goods for Louisiana. She has constantly and I think the people of Louisiana respect her for it. Second she has real views on healthcare those are taken into account as well.”

I take issue with the word “respect,” Senator. “Respect” isn’t quite the word I would use.

Why Are Democrats Holding Louisiana Hostage?
from Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion by William A. Jacobson
Mary Landrieu’s deal for an extra $300 million in Medicaid funds for poor Louisiana residents has been hailed by Landrieu as a great victory for the people of Louisiana, and by just about everyone else as a shakedown of Harry Reid and the American people.

But there is another, equally unseemly, angle.

If the poor in Louisiana so badly need this assistance, why aren’t Harry Reid and other Democrats who control Congress giving Louisiana the aid without the string attached of Landrieu’s vote?

Why is Harry Reid using the poor of Louisiana as a bargaining chip? We know why, but let’s spread the blame around to all corners where it is deserved.

When it comes to passing Obama-Pelosi-Reid-care, it seems hard to distinguish between hostage and hostage-taker.

November 19, 2009

Barack Obama’s Seven Mystery States

November 12, 2009

…you tell them that a bunch of gay Hillary guys in Boystown, Chicago were wrong about the Bushes

Thursday, November 12, 2009

You Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Till It’s Gone

Great post from the Hillary Clinton supporters at HillBuzz about Dubya and Laura Bush. Here’s an excerpt, but read the whole thing (I can’t wait for the Obama supporters to chalk this up to the whining of sore losers), Thank you former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush:

As we will always be grateful for what George and Laura Bush did this week, with no media attention, when they very quietly went to Ft. Hood and met personally with the families of the victims of this terrorist attack.

FOR HOURS.

The Bushes went and met privately with these families for HOURS, hugging them, holding them, comforting them.

If there are any of you out there with any connection at all to the Bushes, we implore you to give them our thanks…you tell them that a bunch of gay Hillary guys in Boystown, Chicago were wrong about the Bushes…and are deeply, deeply sorry for any jokes we told about them in the past, any bad thoughts we had about these good, good people.

You may be as surprised by this as we are ourselves, but from this day forward George W. and Laura Bush are now on the same list for us as the Clintons, Geraldine Ferraro, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, and the other political figures we keep in our hearts and never allow anyone to badmouth….

The Obamas should have done that.

But didn’t.

Wouldn’t.

Thank goodness George W. is still on his watch, with wonderful Laura at his side.

Amen. You don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone.

From: Legal Insurrection

November 11, 2009

Your soul, sold to AARP

getimage.dll

November 7, 2009

faux pas

Main Entry: faux pas
Pronunciation: \ˈfō-ˌpä, fō-ˈ\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural faux pas \-ˌpä(z), -ˈpä(z)\
Etymology: French, literally, false step
Date: 1676

1: blunder; especially : a social blunder

2:

Gee, he’s so much smarter than G. W. Bush!

November 6, 2009

Turn on the sprinklers!

November 5, 2009

Captain Carbon Admits Inconvenient Truth: AGW Is A Religion

From: Soylent Green

November 4, 2009

Nat_Post_Al_Gore

Well if a hack like L. Ron Hubbard can do it, why not a hack like Algore:

Al’s Gore’s much-anticipated sequel to An Inconvenent Truth is published today, with an admission that facts alone will not persuade Americans to act on global warming and that appealing to their spiritual side is the way forward. (Gee, if the facts were against me I might resort to superstitious mumbo jumbo too, especially if it meant $Billion$ in my wallet.)

“I’ve done a Christian [-based] training program; I have a Muslim training program and a Jewish training program coming up, also a Hindu program coming up. I trained 200 Christian ministers and lay leaders here in Nashville in a version of the slide show that is filled with scriptural references. It’s probably my favourite version, but I don’t use it very often because it can come off as proselytising,” Gore tells Newsweek.

Come on down and be HEALED by the all the lies I continue to spread at the AGW Church of Al. Gee, coupled with this admission from July, he’s admitted AGW is not based in reality and is designed to control our lives. Wow, who doesn’t want to support that? Pass the plate.

November 5, 2009

I must study politiks and war … John Adams

In a May 12, 1780 letter to his wife Abigail, John Adams wrote a little about the beauty of France, but then explained that he didn’t have time to pursue them as he wished:

I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Painting and Poetry Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine.

The surface meaning is quite obvious. Adams must work hard in France in order to secure free and peaceful existence for the independent American colonies. This is a sacrifice he makes, not only for his own sons, but for all sons of America.

Notice how Adams originally wrote “Painting and Poetry,” but then he crossed it out because he had a better thought. Originally, he just thought to say that his sons would be able to do fun stuff. But then he probably came to his senses and realized that, even in France, only the rich got to enjoy all of the culture. In fact, his sons have to study subjects with practical commercial value so that his grandchildren have the freedom to indulge in luxury activities such as the study of painting and poetry. (Philosophy is, apparently, considered a practical subject.)

Even back in the 1700s, we see that study of art was considered a more fun thing to study than mathematics or commerce. Have times really changed all that much? I think what has changed is that Adams assumed that his grandchildren would study painting and poetry as a hobby and not because they expected to earn money doing that. Adams considered the study of painting and poetry to be a luxury, and not a way to prepare the student for employment. And that is where things are different today. There is a great sense of entitlement among our nation’s most intelligent youth. They expect to study fun stuff, and then they expect that someone will give them a job because they studied fun stuff.

From: Half Sigma