Ace of Spades HQ

January 21, 2013

The President's Hyper-Partisan Inaugural Address
— Ace

Many commentators -- on Fox -- noticed how partisan the inaugural address was. The typical inaugural speaks in the broadest themes about the core of America, those things which are not generally disputed; this speech was more like a State of the Union, with a partisan political agenda and Designated Villains.

See, for example, Joel Pollack's reaction at Breitbart:

Throughout his address, the President maintained his voice in a near-shout. This was not an historic address, a reflection on a moment in history; it was an exhortation to political action, in contrast to the political reality of a divided Washington, in defiance of the profound economic challenges still facing the American people.
It was a declaration of political war on individual liberty.

Even lefty columnist Eugene Robinson acknowledge it, stating "this might have been the most progressive speech he's given as President," and noting that the heavy implication was "there's more to come." Joe Biden further threatened:

Â“I want you to know something else about this guy Barack Obama Â— heÂ’s just getting started,Â” Biden added. Â“HeÂ’s just getting started.Â”

Obama has always considered himself the Anti-Reagan -- he would not only undo the Reagan coalition and the Reagan era, but do what Reagan did but for the left, create a semi-permanent liberal majority.

Obama is on the way to accomplishing that, but for one thing: Reagan's presidency was a great success. Obama's is not. Success tends to attract fans; that's why people ask celebrities for autographs and read biographies of superstar athletes and innovators like Steve Jobs.

Obama has had many political successes, but he's had no non-political successes except for the assassination of Osama bin Ladin (and that of course was built on the earlier efforts of Bush, and was a longstanding bipartisan goal).

There is nothing he's done yet that a non-political person, or someone opposed to his politics, can point at and say "That's a good thing."

He won't seal any kind of deal until he manages that, and I don't think he will. The trajectory of socialism is failure. And yes, Obama is a socialist. And so history says he will fail.

Buzzfeed's Ben Smith Thinks Obama Can Be Reagan Absent Any Actual Accomplishments... For liberals, Obama's unabashed liberalism is enough.

Not so for non-liberals -- and by non-liberals, I don't just mean conservatives. I mean the great swathe of less political voters who aren't ideological enough to have strong opinions one way or the other, but who can tell the difference between a recession and an expansion.

So, contra the liberals, no, Obama's not Reagan yet.

This may shock liberals, but Being Very Liberal is not in and of itself an accomplishment. They themselves believe that it is an accomplishment -- a great deal of their own self-worth is based on who they vote for every two or four years -- but the rest of us think that accomplishments are different from mere beliefs and bleatings.

Posted by: Ace at 10:27 AM | Comments (598)
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Kremlin to Begin Evacuating Russians Out of Syria
— Ace

I wonder if they'll be evacuating any interesting toxins, too.

There's always been a suspicion on the right that the Russians evacuated a lot of chemical and bio material out of Iraq, just before the invasion.

The Emergency Situations Ministry said two of its planes will fly to Beirut on Tuesday to carry more than 100 Russians from Syria.
Monday's announcement appears to reflect Moscow's increasing doubts about Assad's ability to cling to power and growing concerns about the safety of its citizens.
Russia's Foreign Ministry has said that it has contingency plans in place to evacuate thousands of Russians from Syria.

Posted by: Ace at 09:45 AM | Comments (180)
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February 16, 2013

Public Victim...Private Prick [CharlieBrown'sDildo]
— Open Blogger

Barack Hussein Obama has mastered very few things in his life. His vaunted oratorical prowess is a sham; just listen to him speak extemporaneously and you will cringe. His grasp of geopolitics is laughable, as is his knowledge of economics and finance.

But he has mastered one thing all too well: more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 06:53 AM | Comments (450)
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January 21, 2013

Wealth Cures All Ills. [CharlieBrown'sDildo]
— Open Blogger

An argument that many of us have with our idiot liberal friends is that they claim unfettered capitalism cannot protect the people from its own depredations. Evil corporations will enslave the masses, test experimental drugs on them, make them drive unsafe cars, bear unwanted children, eat unsafe food, and generally destroy their lives...all in pursuit of filthy lucre. more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 08:57 AM | Comments (162)
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For The Masochists Out There
— Pixy Misa

I present to you Obama's second Inauguration.

Live coverage below the fold. more...

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:09 AM | Comments (486)
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Two Awesome Takedowns Of Preening D-Bags
— andy

Excerpting these pieces really doesn't do them justice, so be sure to read them both in their entirety.

First up, Jeff Goldstein leaves Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall battered, bruised, and looking for the tag number of the truck that hit him.

... Marshall is overtly proud that heÂ’s surrendered his duty as a first responder for himself and his family and, in extremis, his community or nation, for the cheap grace of claiming no taint from the demon metal / polymer killing machine so fetishized by those who donÂ’t recognize that arms are for hugging (and aborting fetuses), not for the pleasure or yahoos who believe themselves some bulwark against imaginary tyrannical evil. Besides, everyone knows the best weapon is an ostentatious new law coupled to a good, hearty Twitter sneer campaign. Drop bon mots, not bombs!

Not to be outdone, Michael Moynihan dismantles the snotty Piers Morgan and leaves him stacked in nice, tidy little pieces ready for shipment back to whatever hole he crawled out of.

According to Politico, Morgan feels set upon, annoyed that his critics focus only on his interviews with conspiracy theorists like Jones and former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura. Â“Why donÂ’t people watch my interviews with Justice Scalia, President Clinton, President Carter, the Dalai Lama, Michael Bloomberg, any of the Republican candidates for the nominee race, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.Â” ItÂ’s a question that CNNÂ’s top brass would also like answeredÂ—his ratings have ticked up recently, though are still well short of his competitors at MSNBC and FOXÂ—but it also rather misses the point. The act of interviewing clever and important people doesnÂ’t, on its own, confer respectability. If The View were to spend twenty minutes discussing literature with Philip Roth, the only lesson to be drawn is that ABC hired a terrific bookerÂ—and that Roth was perhaps getting desperate in retirement.

Enjoy.

Posted by: andy at 06:02 AM | Comments (99)
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Monday Morning News Dump
— Pixy Misa

Follow me on the twitter.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:30 AM | Comments (129)
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Top Headline Comments 1-21-13
— Gabriel Malor

Happy Monday.

USA Today is dropping Gallup as its pollster after several notably inaccurate years of results.

Sen. Rubio is rallying votes for his immigration reform plan.

It's nice to know that even if I beat a guy, threaten to kill him, commit legal misconduct, go to jail, and get disbarred, I can always be a Democratic state legislator.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:46 AM | Comments (182)
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What we talk about when we talk about DOOM
— Monty

Walter Russel Mead has been beating "death of the blue model" drum pretty hard for the past year or so, and here are three recent pieces that deserve a mention: IllinoisÂ’s Blue Robin Hoods Stealing from the Young to Give to the Old; The Gray Lady Confirms Blue Civil War; Life After Blue.

Yeah, I'd like the New York Stock Exchange, please. And...I guess a milkshake. And fries.

A primer on contract law in Middle Earth.

THIS is how you say "screw you" to the taxman without going to jail. Petty revenge is sometimes the best we can do.

Teh Krugman announces that our financial problems are "already, to a large degree, solved". Monty declares that Teh Krugman's head is, to a large degree, roughly the same size and shape as Sputnik. Spherical, but quite pointy at parts. (That was offsides, wasn't it? He'll be cryin' himself to sleep tonight on his huge pilla.)

And while we're on the topic of problems that were supposedly solved but are just as big a disaster as ever: Greece asks Europe to please send more money.

I've long said that one of the biggest stories of the 21st century will be the demographic and economic implosion of Japan. China will be eyeing the Japanese closely to spot weakness, and the Chinese themselves face an unprecedented demographic and fiscal crunch soon. There's a lot of potential for bad things to happen in that part of the world.

California is boned: Moody's new pension rules could immediately bankrupt six counties. Or, rather, the new rules would make it clear that at least six counties are already bankrupt. If states and municipalities had to adhere to the same accounting rules as businesses do, two-thirds of the damned country would be declared bankrupt.

Inigo Montoya to Governor Moonbeam: You keep using the word "balanced". I do not think it means what you think it means.

Wait, wait, wait...I thought the Chinese were supposed to be bailing us out!

The Fed "underestimated" the 2007-2008 financial crisis in much the same way that George Armstrong Custer "underestimated" the forces arrayed against him at Little Big Horn.
more...

Posted by: Monty at 03:50 AM | Comments (234)
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