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Sunday, September 28, 2008UK Economist: What if the Whole World Could Vote for U.S. President?Check it out! Looks as if Indonesia is voting 100% for Barack Obama! Not bad for a native son. Best catch ever?Absolutely.(h/t to BuzzFeed) Saturday, September 27, 2008The Mud Pit: Democrat bloggers are rabid attack dogsJohn Doe -- that most pseudonymous of all pseudonyms -- is taking shots at the Virginia leftosphere, comments to which I added my own US$0.02: It’s the echo chamber par excellence. What they are doing is simple psychology: create a bubble of "reality" that allows only for one version of events, repeat those events, and attack any opposition whatsoever.Sure, I've been keeping tabs on the back-and-forth. The good news is that the dynamic on the left is dying, and there's little the "splash and trash" set can do about it. They can't even adapt, because virtually everyone despises them. See? The conclusions of the Sorenson Blog Summits in 2005 and 2006 came true after all, didn't they? The last point is worth re-iterating: As readers, other bloggers, and journalists become more aware of how blogs inflate their importance, their stats, their comments through sock puppetry, and the fear of the blogosphere burns off, the MSM is going to quit referring to the Wild West and start homesteading themselves with reliable content that adheres to journalistic ethics. When that happens... perhaps the egos will die off. Virginia can get back what we had before the 2006 election. To some degree, the camaraderie hasn't gone away... the Democratic and Republican bloggers just aren't as vocal about their communication as they once were. It'll just be a bit more intellectually engaging than what we have today. Of course, we'll never get rid of those who look at the Democrats and Republicans as the political version of the Redskins and Cowboys game. Still, those folks have to be brought along in time... it's easy for a lazy person to identify what they are against. It takes a more rigorous mind to assert what they are for, and while that's tough for some folks, a dynamic blogosphere of interacting opinions would be a welcome replacement to the nonsense peddled by a few today. Missouri Governor Blunt Lays Out Obama's Hit SquadThis is beautiful, and Governor Roy Blunt deserves credit for succinctly and accurately blasting the Obama boosters and their defamation squads: St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouri campaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench of police state tactics to the Obama-Biden campaign.Damn straight. What's more is that Blunt very carefully lays out the leftist bloggers... ouch. The party isn't going to last much longer, and if the poll numbers (and long term results -- how many elections have the progressive bloggers won, exactly?) continue to hold out, the Democrats are going to have a handful of Kossacks and their brownshirted ilk to blame. Sooner or later, the conservatives are going to get tired of being pushed around -- and they're going to push back. Hard. Until the Democrats themselves put an end to the most extreme elements of their party, they continue to risk being defined by them. The voters aren't stupid.
McCain Won By Decision...If last night were a boxing scorecard, it would have been McCain by decision, and there would probably be a rematch. Probably. Because what I watched and listened to were two politicians afraid to engage one another directly for fear of being caught in any campaign-ending gaffe. Both debated well. Both talked past one another. But did the American people really learn anything, other than both candidates have two very different visions of reality (and facts)? If this were a boxing match, there'd be a rematch. But I doubt seriously if HBO would be interested in any pay-per-view deals. Friday, September 26, 2008Democratic analyst: The Party has been hijacked by secularist elitesMark Stricherz discusses how the Democratic Party has lost touch with it's base, and begins the process of analyzing how pro-life Democrats can take back their party: Asked about how to change the Democratic Party back to its original connection with average Americans, Stricherz said that is was critical to democratize the internal process, but added that, "I just don't see the constituency, the drive to bring that change... those with college degrees, who tend to be more secular are in control of the party, whereas more religious, working folks are kept out of the loop."I empathize with this sentiment entirely. There's just no room in the modern Democratic Party for pro-lifers, not because there aren't pro-life Democrats out there, but because the leadership of the party has been hijacked by its most extreme elements. Of course, this isn't to say that Catholics are entirely at home within the Republican Party either. Take any number of issues: immigration, living wage legislation, interventionist foreign policies, corporatism, and the death penalty. You'll find a lot of divergence, but the one issue Catholics cannot compromise on is abortion. Now true, Catholic social justice theory isn't ironclad. It sets the goals, not the methods. For instance, a living wage could very well be accomplished in a capitalist society just as well as it could be accomplished in a regulatory state, socialism, distributism, or a libertarian one. Provided the means are moral, there is plenty of freedom to explore alternatives. What often gets lost is that within a "culture of life" there are certain fundamentals that a Catholic holds dear, the right to exist among them. So long as the Democratic Party continues to reject that basic right, Catholic voters (or properly catechized ones, anyway) will continue to drift towards political alternatives more aligned with their morals and ethics. It's a question of conscience, and I'm glad to see there are some within the Democratic Party willing to have the discussion.
Thursday, September 25, 2008Óró, sé do bheatha 'bhaileIt's going to be foggy and raining for four days... so get yourself in the mood:I recently bought The Wind That Shakes The Barley on the recommendation of a friend, but haven't had the time to watch it yet. This weekend though... Wednesday, September 24, 2008Jefferson on Banks"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies." "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." "Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the Government at defiance." "The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." -- Thomas Jefferson, to Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin McCain-Obama can't be worse than McCain-Feingold (can it?)Here we go -- Senator McCain is suspending his campaign, and Senator Obama is making overtures for a joint statement from both campaigns just before a 9pm EST presidential address. Why is it that I get the feeling that I am going to be told what is best for me (and the economy) by my government? Monday, September 22, 2008The More He Talks, The More He Makes SenseWorth watching, folks... Sunday, September 21, 2008Rick Sincere: Constitution Day, 2008Montpelier recently reopened, and although Mrs. Kenney and the kids never quite made it to Wednesday's celebration, Rick Sincere has us covered. I am currently reading Ammon's biography of James Monroe, and there is a good deal of focus on the play between Jefferson and the rivalry between Madison and Monroe -- a rivalry most Jeffersonian biographers leave out when discussing the post-Jeffersonian era of Republican politics. I have always marveled at the differences between Monticello and Montpelier, and then the look of Ashlawn nearby. Sure, Monroe's property much altered property at Oak Hill is a beautiful home, but the modesty of Monroe's plantation home in regards to his peers in notable. Monroe has a solid history in the Fredericksburg area as being the location of his early law practice (though it would seem the most of his law career was spent in Richmond), and like myself, Monroe did a lot of travelling between Charlottesville, Richmond, and Fredericksburg. I have yet to read a biography on Madison... and I am certain that when I do, Madison's biographers will be as gentle on their subject as possible. Still, I seriously doubt that many Virginians truly understand the heritage of great minds handed down to them by such notables as Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Randolph, Taylor, Tyler, Harrison, and Lee. True, it is a heritage marked always by the enslavement of their fellow human beings (The Hemmingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed is next up on my plate, amidst the several books I am reading concurrently), but the dichotomy only serves to help intensify the conflict between their ideals and those ideals in practice. Wednesday, September 17, 2008Save the GOP: $900,000,000,000The price of the bailouts so far, beginning with Bear Stearns and most recently adding AIG. That's the price of socialism, folks. Friday, September 12, 2008FM 100 Hue TestMy color IQ was 4, with a very slight propensity not to be able to see in the blue spectrum. Interesting... nothing outrageous, but according to this test I don't have perfect vision. Wednesday, September 10, 2008Myron vs. The Hornets NestRepublitarian at his finest. Tuesday, September 09, 2008Obama on Palin: 'Lipstick on a pig'Obama's cage has finally been rattled, attacking Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin and calling her -- I kid you not -- a pig. In Lebanon, Virginia of all places: The crowd apparently took the "lipstick" line as a reference to Palin, who described the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull in a single word: "lipstick."What is it with Southwest Virginia and gaffes that end political careers, anyhow? UPDATE: The offending remark on video.The theme of "lipstick" has been an obsession with Democratic boosters attacking Palin over the last week. Obama staffers are denying a comparison, even though Obama followed up his comments with several sharp, direct attacks on Palin. According to reporters there in Lebanon, the crowd certainly got the joke (at Palin's expense). WSJ: Fannie Mae's Patron SaintHis name? Democrat Barney Frank, and the $200 billion bill stuck to taxpayers by the Fed: Taxpayers are now on the hook for as much as $200 billion to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and if you want to know why, look no further than the rapid response to this bailout from House baron Barney Frank. Asked about Treasury's modest bailout condition that the companies reduce the size of their high-risk mortgage-backed securities (MBS) portfolios starting in 2010, Mr. Frank was quoted on Monday as saying, 'Good luck on that,' and that it would never happen.This is total crap. Our friends at Save the GOP pile on: 200 years ago, our citizens would have burned down the Capitol if something like the Fannie/Freddie mess had happened. Now days, it just tells us all to become bankers, after all, no banker pays any price for their mistakes in this country.After having watched John Adams while Mrs. Kenney is reading the book, I can't help but come to the same conclusion. Jefferson is doing RPMs in his grave at Monticello right now... 750 Volts: Notes from the DNC FloorYes yes, I read 750 Volts. It's a guilty pleasure, mostly because the stuff written is so well thought out you can't help but notice. Kenton Ngo's opinion is worth considering, no matter the disagreements on politics. His post on the 2008 DNC Convention mirrors my own feeling about the RNC Conventions, and my reasons for not going to another one (unless my name is on the ballot or something): Finally, it bears no relation to any reality whatever: it is its own pure simulacrum. Floor fights and 1968 became distant memories as the confetti rained down. The convention itself made no pretensions otherwise–it was a four-day romp, but more importantly, a four-day infomercial.Simularcum and infomercial are two good words for the spectacle. Roman triumph is the phrase I prefer, only with no one is whipering "memento mori" to the triumphator. That, my friends, is the sad culmination of the American political process.
The Benching of the BlowhardsThere's a difference between news and infotainment. In the instances of Olbermann and Matthews, both have clearly crossed the line into infotainment, and MSNBC has wisely decided that enough was enough. Personally, I don't mind a Hannity and Conventions? I watch them on C-SPAN. Debates? The same. Thinking people shouldn't need the verbal garbage from commentators to explain what and how to think about what transpired. Monday, September 08, 2008Project Fakebar: Improvising a Google Toolbar Substitute for ChromeI really like Google Chrome. In fact, I'm even willing to let it date my sister. But unfortunately, I gotta admit that I really do miss the functionality of the Google Toolbar. Thankfully, I am not the only one who has missed our beloved Toolbar, and even better for the masses, someone is willing to do something about it! Two days ago, I mentioned that the wildly popular, extremely useful Google Toolbar didn’t work in Google’s Chrome browser. I said I missed it. So do legions of other people, judging from the thousands of Toolbar fans who have read that post, and the 140 who have commented on it so far. Who knew that a humble toolbar could be so beloved?Project Fakebar, you rock. McCain 54 Obama 44???So sayeth the latest USA Today/Gallup poll among likely voters. Sunday, September 07, 2008Large Hadron RapSheck it!Actually, if you have no idea what the Large Hadron Collider does (or will discover), the rap is worth IHT: Mortgage crisis has Washington putting aside free-market ideologyIf you're a frequent reader of these pages, then you know that I am an avid subscriber to the UK Economist. That publication had been trumpeting this move for weeks, with barely a squeak out of yours truly. "Never happen," I said, "this is America for crying out loud." Seems I was wrong. Despite decades of free-market rhetoric from Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Washington has a long history of providing financial help to the private sector when the economic or political risk of a corporate collapse appeared too high.Seems Professor Bruner was right, though I have to admit I am absolutely shocked that the federal government would bail out the mortgage giants at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. So much for the virtues of the free market. Wednesday, September 03, 2008National Journal: McDonnell a "Rising Star" Within the GOPFrom 30,000 feet up, it looks as if Virginia's very own AG Bob McDonnell is making quite an impression at the Republican Naitonal Convention: One rising star at the convention is Bob McDonnell, the GOP's best hope for replacing Tim Kaine, the one-term-limited Democratic governor of Virginia. While the Democrats have yet to coalesce around a candidate, Republicans have united behind McDonnell, the Old Dominion's attorney general, who was hustling between television interviews in the convention hall in St. Paul on Monday.Good stuff. Tuesday, September 02, 2008First Things: The Politics of BloodJoseph Bottom over at First Things takes a look at the rhetoric over at the Daily Kos. And shudders. "When faced with monsters, we have to be monstrous ourselves." Well, no, but even if it were so, think one step deeper: What happens when the monsters are merely in your mind? When they are ordinary politicians whose views you so strongly reject that you have to elevate them into monsters to explain to yourself why they could hold such mistaken views?As any brief perusal of the leftosphere will demonstrate, this is alarmingly the rule rather than the exception. It was easy to dismiss this as lunacy in 2004 -- has it gotten any better in the years since? I've Decided: YES WE CAN!..wait that is, for the new Google Chrome Browser, which is supposed to be due out today.
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JEFFERSONIAD POLL: Whom do you support for Virginia Attorney General?1) John Brownlee2) Ken Cuccinelli AboutShaunKenney.com is one of Virginia's oldest political blogs, focusing on the role of religion and politics in public life. Shaun Kenney, 30, lives in Fluvanna County, Virginia.ContactThe Jeffersoniad
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