Ted Kennedy is dead. I will not miss him.

Ted Kennedy wanted more and bigger government, because he did not believe in nor understand the true genius of America.

Ted Kennedy wanted to force Americans to have gun control, even as he used his family's illegally-acquired fortune to hire armed bodyguards.

Ted Kennedy wanted to force us into socialized healthcare, even though he would have died long ago under the kind of healthcare rationing he wanted to force on the rest of us.

Ted Kennedy wanted to force us to use expensive alternative energy sources, even as he shot down plans for a wind farm that would have spoiled his beachfront views.

Ted Kennedy is dead, at long last.

He will not be missed here.

Update: And I almost forgot... he was a treasonous son-of-a-bitch as well, conspiring with the Soviet KGB during the Cold War in an attempt to undermine President Reagan for his own political gain.

That merits it own post.

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The CIA sent out a press release today disavowing any knowledge of the President's upcoming fishing accident.

Hey, it could happen.

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By now you've all heard about how MSNBC doctored video in order to push the fabricated narrative that open carry advocates at health care events were racially motived. MSNBC had tightly cropped an African-American open carry advocate with a Carbon-15 rifle slung over his shoulder so that you could not see his race, in order to argue that "white people showing up with guns" brought racial overtones to these protests.

Americans for Limited Government called for those involved in "a blatantly racist broadcast" to be fired on Tuesday, at which point MSNBC offered a pathetically weak non-apology attempting to claim that they were talking open carry advocates generally, even though the shot was focused on the carefully cropped image of an African American man the majority of the time.

Brent Bozell of the Media Resource Center added his thoughts today, stating that MSNBC must apologize for fomenting racial discord:

"This goes beyond 'sloppy' reporting by MSNBC. This was a deliberate effort to brand conservatives as racists – and now as violent racists.

"Since the beginning of the presidential campaign, this so-called 'news' network has tried desperately to convince viewers that opposition to Barack Obama must be race-based. Now they are actually producing deliberately misleading stories to push that agenda. As a 'news' network, MSNBC is a disgrace.

"MSNBC owes this man and the tens of thousands of protestors a public apology. It should also extend that apology to its tens of thousands of viewers."

MSNBC is guilty of attempting to incite racial strife. They obviously hoped find some sort of political silver lining in labeling opponents as white racists, even when those that oppose them are black.

I do think Bozell must have misstated MSNBC's appeal, however.

Do they really have tens of thousands of viewers?

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Cults of personality are dangerous things. Those inside them develop strong bonds and a shared belief system that so distorts their world view that they create their own reality... or at least their own reality-based community.

Despite all the celebrity and cultism that has attached itself to the self-indulgent mythology of Barack Obama, and the bullet-proof Democratic majorities he has in the House and Senate, the President has utterly failed to unite the country behind his vision of government-run health insurance. The reason for this failure is quite simple: the majority of Americans have seen the kind of rushed incompetence that has marred every effort of the current Congress and President, and they do not want any part of more of it, thank you very much.

And so perhaps a smarter President and his supporters would be patient and try to implement an incremental approach toward achieving their. They could, with some little compromise just within the Democratic Party, get some of what they want. It would not take much; all they need is the support of their own. They do not need one Republican vote in the House or Senate. All they need to do is make the health care bill palatable to the moderates and conservative Blue Dogs within their own party.

But the frenzied cult of Obama on the far political left are dogmatic, and will not compromise.

While they claim the mantle of "liberal" and "progressive," their views and desires are fixed, inflexible, and (dare I say it?) conservative beyond all rationality. They are so rigidly locked into their belief system that they are willing to lose the possibility of even incremental changes if they cannot bully government-run insurance onto all of us. The fact of the matter is that they are anything but the free-thinkers they like to think they are, and cannot accept any deviation from their chosen path.

And so in the days and weeks ahead as town hall protesters continue to let their elected representatives know that they will not tolerate the radical shift that the far left wants, the left faces getting nothing instead of something.

The cult seems strong and powerful to those inside it.

Too bad the majority of us just think they're delusional nuts.

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The lefty blogs are beside themselves (indeed, Gawker John Cook seems like he is about to lose bladder control) over the fact that about a dozen open carry advocates attended the protest outside Barack Obama's speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Phoenix, AZ today. Much to the dismay of the commenters at many of those sites, openly carrying firearms is completely legal in Arizona.

It also appears that protestors on both sides may have been armed.

As much as I support the open carry movement in theory, I have a very hard time seeing open carry at a political event full of people as anything other than a very bad idea. It is needlessly provocative (and I suspect in many instances, purposefully so), and potentially dangerous.

While the protestors themselves may not have any intent to use the firearms they are carrying, open carry in dense, emotional crowds opens up a whole host of possible scenarios that could end in disaster. I'd be rather surprised if any were using holsters with any sort of locking retention devices.

The man who got the greatest amount of attention was carrying a Carbon-15 rifle with a 30-round magazine and an EOTech sight slung over his back; not the best way to retain and control your weapon in a crowd.

The people on both sides were of course well within their legal rights to carry at this event.

Whether or not openly carrying firearms to a political protest is intelligent is another matter entirely.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:27 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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...who is a radical left wing former journalist and Huffington Post blogger, at that.

Mark Potok has made quite the career for himself at the Southern Poverty Law Center finding right-wing hate behind every tree to ensure that donations to his non-profit keep rolling in. But as Sweetness & Light note in the link above, Potok bases his claims that right wing hate groups are exploding by his claims of online growth, even as web traffic to the web sites of hate groups remain remarkably constant and in some cases has regressed.

The truly pathetic thing about Potok is that "news" organizations know very well that Potok is a former journalist with an ideological axe to grind.

They have every reason to suspect that the quality and objectivity of his findings are hopelessly biased and are no doubt heavily influenced by his need to raise funds for the organization, which long ago ceased existing for any reason other than to collect money to regurgitate a continual stream of reports to bring in more donations. The SPLC's reports are nothing more than a vicious circle of predictable fear-mongering trotted out at regular intervals to raise funds.

It's a nice racket, I suppose. Potok gets to get his hate on and get paid for it. In doing so, the left wing radical gives reliably dim reporters like Brian Ross and his peers a canned story to run every so often that validates their own biases and preconceptions. They consider it a "win-win" I'm sure.

And it all comes from one guy, who quite his job as a report and declared himself a civil rights expert.

Must be nice work, if you can get it.

Update: Some of that right wing hate. Dave Chapelle would be proud.

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A protester on private property well outside the security perimeter established for Barack Obama's town hall meeting yesterday carried a pistol in an exposed "tactical" thigh rig hours before the President arrived in New Hampshire. He got quite a bit of attention for his rather foolish effort.

There was absolutely nothing illegal about his actions, much to the consternation of the media, but it was still a pointless bit of provocation. In addition to being armed, he was holding a sign that said "It's time to water the tree of Liberty," an obvious reference to the famous Thomas Jefferson quote, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

So who and what is William Kostric?

The sign itself provides the first clue about what kind of person Kostric is and who he associates with, with the URL to restoretherepublic.com printed prominently at the bottom. The site clearly identifies itself as part of the fringe "free state" movement, and actively promotes various conspiracy theories... and of course, Ron Paul.

A left-wing blog claims to have found his MySpace page, and it appears to confirm that Kostric is—well,—what most of us would call nuts.

All that aside, like Gaius, I'm curious...

...Why is Captain Conspiracy wearing an earpiece?

The possibility of him being a purposeful diversion seems legitimate, if you factor in that another man, Richard Terry Young, ended up being arrested at the same event for having an unlicensed, loaded handgun in his vehicle. Young was first stopped because of a pocket knife he had as he tried to enter the event, and the gun was discovered in his vehicle in a subsequent search.

It is quite possible that both men were acting independently, but if I were in charge of the President's security, I'd want that verified for certain.

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While there isn't a smoking gun as of yet, it is very hard to see where else this might lead.

I tend to like what I've seen of Sarah Palin as a person even if I've not agreed with every position she's held. Quite frankly, I don't understand why so many progressives (including most of the media) and RINOs attack her like she's such a threat to all they hold dear. If she really is the ditzy Caribou Barbie they constantly make her out to be, then why are they even bothering discussing her?

The fact that they treat her like a lethal threat does more for her mystique than anything she's actually done, and I suspect it is going to eventually backfire and give her some sort of underdog status if they don't learn to control their attacks a bit better. I don't think that she's a great politician, but I do love the way she's a catalyst to bring out the crazies.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:41 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Project much?

ABC News' Kirit Radia reports: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost her cool Monday after a Congolese student, speaking through a translator, asked her what "Mr. Clinton" thought about a Chinese trade deal with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"You want me to tell you what my husband thinks?" Clinton replied, clearly irked by the thought of being her husband Bill's spokeswoman.

"My husband is not secretary of state, I am," she replied. "If you want my opinion I will tell you my opinion. I am not going to be channeling my husband."

The only problem? Apparently the translator made a mistake and the student had wanted to know what President Obama thought of the deal.

Make sure to watch the video clip at the link to get a full appreciation of the venom Hillary directs at this poor student because of a botched translation.

Yikes.

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Via Ace, who questions our President's honesty... as you should.

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Free Republic is going absolutely bonkers over a document claiming to be an official copy of his Kenyan Birth Certificate, posted at World Net Daily.

It's a poor forgery.

If you look at the document and scroll down to the bottom, you will see on the left side the reputed embossed official seal, and under it, "Office of the Principal Registrar, Coast Province, Republic of Kenya."

Directly to the right of that seal is the issue date of the document, the "17th day of February, 1964."

The was no Republic of Kenya in February of 1964.

From December 12, 1963 to December 12, 1964, the Dominion of Kenya existed under Queen Elizabeth, with Governor General Malcolm MacDonald in charge.

The Republic of Kenya did not exist when this document was supposed to be issued.

Details, details...

Update: Some in the comments are still attempting to argue that the certificate might be legitimate because the link's above to Wikipedia aren't good sources. That's fine with me.

Here's what the Encyclopedia Britannica had to say about the creation of the post-colonial government of Kenya:

A coalition government of the two parties was formed in 1962, and after elections in May 1963 Kenyatta became prime minister under a constitution that gave Kenya self-government. Following further discussions in London, Kenya became fully independent on Dec. 12, 1963. A year later, when Kenya became a republic (with Kenyatta as its first president and Oginga Odinga as vice president), most KADU members had transferred their allegiance to KANU, and KADU ceased to exist.

Just as I said, the nation ceased to be a British colony on December 12, 1963. A year later, on December 12, 1964, it became the Republic of Kenya. Any document released in February of 1964, 10 months before the Kenyan government decided to call it a republic, is a fake.

The Definitive Evidence: From the Parliament of Kenya's official web site:

Uhuru Day
The interim period of Internal Self-government, did not witness any major constitutional changes. The constitutional provisions finalized in February, 1963 remained virtually the same.At midnight on December 11, 1963 , Kenya regained Independence from the United Kingdom.

Kenya remained a dominion within the British Commonwealth , with a Governor-General representing Her Majesty locally and a Government headed by a Prime Minister.

Again, establishes beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Dominion of Kenya was established in 1963... unless you think they Keyan government doesn't know their own history.

And there is more, again from the official web site of the Kenyan Parliament:

The composition to the Legislature and the framework of the Government at Independence remained in place until the first anniversary. Arising from close negotiations between the Government and the Opposition, a merger of all the parties represented in the House, under the Kenya African National Union - K.A.N.U. and under the leadership of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta was concluded and took effect on December 12, 1964 with the voluntary dissolution of the Kenya African Democratic Union - K.A.D.U. and the African Peoples Party - A.P.P. This merger meant an unanticipated de facto one party status. On December 12, 1964 , Kenya declared herself a Sovereign Republic within the Commonwealth.

Read that last line one more time.

The document is a fake, kids.

Give. It. Up.

Stick-A-fork-In_It Update: Via the Washington Independent, strong evidence that the original "Kenyan" birth certificate forgery is based upon an Australian BC of David Jeffrey Bomford.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:07 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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