I'm lying, of course.

They didn't apologize at all.

"Right-to-work is contentious legislation that stirs up the passions of people on all sides of the issue. While we are committed to working against these measures with every legal means available, Rep. Doug Geiss (Taylor) and the entire Democratic caucus stands against the use of violence and do not condone its use. We condemn violence, the destruction of property and all other illegal activity in the strongest possible terms. We urge our supporters and those who work for bargaining rights in Michigan to stand with us in our call for nonviolence.”

Then why did you say "There would be blood" given this issue "stirs up the passions" and given that unions are actually known to employ violence in service of political goals?

If You Do Not Submit To My Demands, I Vow There Will Be Blood*

* FYI and BTW, I do not support the vowing of blood.

This Is What Democracy Looks Like? Facepalm. Jeebus! Head desk. Union thug is thuggish.

Posted by: Ace at 10:43 AM | Comments (116)
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An exclusive from Kerry Picket, now at Breitbart.

Their weapons were in another building. After the attack started, some of them went to other building to get weapons, but all but one was prevented from re-entering the consulate.

“From the accounts I read, those guys were not ready. When the attack came that night, they had to go back to the other room and grab their weapons. Then the worse part about it was they never even returned to be with the Ambassador. One returned to be with the Ambassador with his rifle. The other two went back to where there were [sic] barracks. And two stayed in that same building where there were radios and other weapons and the safe and other stuff was there.

There were no shots fired in return. On the embassy property, just the embassy property, none of those security agents blasted a single bullet from a single pistol or rifle at all in defense of the Ambassador—nothing.”

And she has this solid. This isn't scuttlebutt.

This was the security situation Obama and Hillary engineered -- five dudes, with no time together to form any sort of group cohesion, without guns. The serious military security had been sent away in August, over the objections of the consulate's security chief.

BTW, Word geekery: Why did they add [sic] after "there were barracks"? I'm guessing it's because they think the noun doesn't agree with the verb, like the noun is singular but the verb is plural. But isn't "barracks" used interchangeably to mean both a barrack and a cluster of barracks?

If you're a military person with some word geek skills, let me know. I think Breitbart got this wrong.

Not be confused with "Barack," meaning "a stuttering cluster***k of a miserable failure," of course.

Oh, Here's Another Military Word-Use Question: "Bivouac" means a temporary camp, right? So is it used to distinguish between a more permanent, more structured camp (which is still pretty temporary)? Like a "camp" would be a more serious shelter you intend to stay in for a while, while a bivouac is a quickie thing you build overnight, en route to the place you intend to camp?

Or is it just jargon?

Posted by: Ace at 09:55 AM | Comments (169)
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That's not actually their title; I'm just ripping off one of their headline tropes.

It's just a sort of funny thing.

SEATTLE—Sad, pathetic local web developer and blogger Phillip Cathin, 34, told reporters today that he sees himself as “a brand.”

The pitiful man, who works in development and design at the Seattle-based software company Woot, told reporters he takes time out of every day to “promote and further [his] brand” and to extend his “social and online presence.”

“I am my own product,” the little worm said while staring at a laptop and depressingly shuffling between his Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and Tumblr accounts, which he claimed are “essential tools for growing [his] personal brand” on a daily basis. “I think of myself as the creator, developer, and marketer of Brand Phillip Cathin. And the ideas I come up with are products produced by that brand.”

“It’s sort of like I’m the CEO of the company called ‘Me,’” continued the sad excuse for a man, briefly pausing to check for any comments on his latest Tumblr post about the future of social media.

"Woot" got me.

Via @filmladd

Posted by: Ace at 09:06 AM | Comments (12)
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And here we go.

On Twitter, @stranahan is reporting some harrowing things. Americans For Prosperity had a tent up, which was torn down by union protestors; worse yet, he said there were people inside the tent when they took it down, and the "protesters" were armed with knives.

He says the "protesters" have also occupied the George Romney building, which is the Governor's main office.

Update: @scrowder (comedian Steve Crowder, who did the Bowie parody, and the "redistribution of Halloween candy" clip) was punched four times in the face during the fracas. See end of update.

Update: They broke his tooth in the beating.

Or, as the media calls it, "a mostly peaceful demonstration." That of course is JammieWF's joke.

Except it's not a joke. It's real.

Video: of the mob taking down the tent.

Gee, I wonder if Obama will caution the mob against violence. (Answer: No, he won't.)

Posted by: Ace at 08:20 AM | Comments (352)
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The things we do for Search Engine Optimization.

Posted by: Ace at 08:13 AM | Comments (51)
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I can't wait for the next rash of "funemployment" stories, and essays by doctrinaire materialist atheists instructing us that poverty is good for the soul, as it causes us to look beyond our immediate circumstances and ponder the metaphysical and eternal.

I Didn't Have To Wait Long: @comradearthur notes:

Sunday night on CBS evening news they had a segment on tiny houses and tiny apartments. 300 sq feet or less. Talked about how the occupants really didn't need all those material possessions. About how much fun it was to hang out at the coffee shop (since you couldn't fit your friends in your house).

Amusingly, the tiny apartments were $1,600 a month. The houses were around $20,000 and you weren't allowed to live in them full time (zoning or some other regulation).

Posted by: Ace at 07:38 AM | Comments (171)
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Part of the reason Monty gave up this gig is on vivid display inside the beltway right now. Namely, despite all the sturm und drang nothing really changes.

As Gabe mentioned in this morning's headlines, I sent the cobs links to some posts from the Summer of 2011 when we were debating the debt ceiling increase that led to the self-imposed EMERGENCY!!11! of the so-called fiscal cliff. Shocking no one, the arguments were virtually identical to the ones we're having now.

As was obvious at the time, we just kicked the can down the road. Anyone who thinks the outcome this time will be different, please raise your hand.

That's what I thought.

A fix to our real fiscal problems, including eye-popping deficits and mounting debt as far as the eye can see, isn't even remotely a part of the Kabuki Theatre playing out in Washington right now.

Meanwhile, we continue to run out of road (read the whole thing, h/t The Transom).

The root cause of the economic disaster that lies ahead is the kamikaze drive of democratic governments to displace the functions of the family, including the care of relatives in their old age. Since time immemorial, in every human society that ever was, and buttressed by social mores central to every religion ever practiced, children, grandchildren, and kin did what governments the world over now promise to do.

That's really it, isn't it? Since the New Deal, our federal government has taken on an ever-increasing role in performing the functions that members of a society ordinarily performed firsthand for themselves, their families and their communities. Through this process, all were enriched.

Now we vote for "the government" to do for us what we won't do for ourselves. Chief among these things is stealing the fruits of our neighbor's labor for our own benefit.

Like an addict confronting his addiction, the first step is admitting we have a problem. Based on November's election results, we're not there yet.

As a proponent of the Let It Burn argument, I continue to be amazed at people, especially those on our side arguing about the politics of whatever deal gets cut with an eye toward whether the GOP is blamed, who don't realize that the fire is raging out of control right now. Whatever small-ball agreement is reached that causes both sides to pat themselves and their friends across the aisle on the backs for their bipartisanship in a time of (self-imposed) crisis won't change this one stinkin' bit.

That which can't continue won't. And what we've done to our society simply can't continue if, for no other reason, than the old adage that sooner or later you run out of other people's money. Let It Burn isn't so much a comment on particular strategies or tactics as it is an admission that the fire can't be put out.

And on that cheery note ... more...

Posted by: andy at 09:08 AM | Comments (233)
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Sacre bleu!

The Socialist government under French President Francois Hollande has infuriated many ultra-rich in France by presenting a 2013 budget that would tax top earners at 75 percent over the first €1 million of annual income. Belgium's top rate is 50 percent.

Mayor Daniel Senesael of Nechin, about a kilometer inside Belgium near the French city of Lille, said that "in our conversation, his reasons were also other than those about taxes," RTL radio reported.

I'm going to guess that "avoiding socialist taxes" is not one of the permissible reasons for immigrating so of course he talked up Belgium's rich history of nothing at all. I don't want to call bias on nothing at all, but I'm wondering why AP included that claim.

Posted by: Ace at 06:36 AM | Comments (281)
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Crying racism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

By his own admission, Whitlock made a "mistake" in comparing the NRA to the KKK. But anyone else who notices that mistake is a "racist" for doing so.

O'Reilly invited him on to his show, Whitlock refused, and then O'Reilly knocked him as a coward. You can say whatever you like about this tactic of O'Reilly's -- but it's clearly not racist. He does it to everyone.

But Whitlock reaches for that Special Card.

But it appears I was summoned to testify before Speaker of The Big House Bill O’Reilly, the FOX News entertainer. O’Reilly is fixated on the mistake I made on the Tom Joyner show. O’Reilly spent part of his Tuesday show telling his viewers that I was afraid to come on “The Factor” and discuss my views on the NRA, the Second Amendment and gun culture.

I’m a grown-ass man and it’s 2012. I don’t have to shuffle off to the Big House when summoned. O’Reilly is not Boehner, Pelosi or Obama. He’s a TV entertainer who has spent the weeks after the election crying about the end of “white establishment” America, the end of the days when an upstanding white man felt entitled to summon whomever he wanted whenever he wanted to the Big House to dance.

I donÂ’t dance.

Racism is the new Ladies' Troubles. A general excuse for not doing stuff you don't want to do, and a sort of icky area no one's going to probe too deeply about.

Jason Whitlock may not dance, but apparently he plays tennis, goes horseback riding, and walks along the beach.

"That Broccoli Is Racist" is an old Andrew Breitbart joke, by the way. He suggested that as a name for a show starring Toure. The concept was that Toure would just point out random objects and accuse them of being racist. I imagine the credits would begin with him accusing the broccoli.

Posted by: Ace at 06:05 AM | Comments (154)
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• In Case You Missed It On The ONT, Matthew Inman Of The Oatmeal Responds To An Article Written By Jack Stuef Of Buzzfeed
  
• Six Weeks After Sandy, Rockaway Residents Decry Lack Of Help
  
• Tiny Coat Wearing Monkey Appears At IKEA
  
• Morsi Plays The Military Card
  
• School District In CA Owes 100 Billion On 100 Million Dollar Loan
  
• The Obama Phone Is Back
  
• No "Placeholder" For Jim DeMint's Old Seat
  
• Berlusconi Plots Comeback
  
• New Camo To Make Soldiers Invisible
  
• Is Soledad O'Brien About To Go Flyin?
  
• After Their 2012 Victory, The Media Is Preparing For Their 2016 Candidate
  
• Cuomo Passes On Supporting Hillary In 2016
  
• Chris Matthews Loses Debate With Veteran
  
• The Union Free-Rider Myth In The Right To Work Debate
  
• Preview Of India's Next PM
  
• UK Military In Talks To Help Syrian Rebels
  
• US Sending 20 More F-16's To Egypt Despite Turmoil In Cairo
  
• Scalia Discusses Gay Marriage
  

Follow me on twitter.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:05 AM | Comments (167)
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