What Is His Angle?

In 2008 then candidate Obama announced his running mate through a mass text message to supporters and bought ad space on virtual billboards in online video games.

Now he is saying this:

With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hcoyG-Ck3-VwZB7fqpUFXbffoObg

Arizona Governor Vs. The President.

Our Hope For The U.K. Election

A Tory led coalition formed with the minor Scottish and Welsh regional parties. Labour and Lib Dems hungout to dry.

Prager On Tea Parties, Race And The Left.

Los Angeles based talk show host Dennis Prager recently wrote a good article on the Left's obsession with race and the tea parties. Notably, Prager correctly identified one of the defining problems with all of modern liberalism:

The fact that the Left believes that the preponderance of whites among tea partiers invalidates the tea party movement tells us much more about the Left than it does about the tea partiers.

It confirms that the Left really does see the world through the prism of race, gender and class rather than through the moral prism of right and wrong.

One of the more dangerous features of the Left has been its replacement of moral categories of right and wrong, and good and evil with three other categories: black and white (race), male and female (gender) and rich and poor (class).

Therefore the Left pays attention to the skin color -- and gender (not just "whites" but "white males") -- of the tea partiers rather than to their ideas...

...As a Leftist rule of thumb -- once again rendering intellectual debate unnecessary and impossible -- white is wrong or bad, and non-white is right and good; male is wrong and bad, and female is right and good; and the rich are wrong and bad, and the poor right and good. For the record, there is one additional division on the Left--- strong and weak -- to which the same rule applies: The strong are wrong and bad, and the weak are right and good. That is a major reason for Leftist support of the Palestinians (weak) against the Israelis (strong), for example. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/05/02/why_left_talks_about_white_tea_parties_105317.html

A Devastating Use Of YouTube.

Watch the following video. Think of how much more effective this message is thanks to YouTube. In the dark days before 2005, this story line would have been relegated to mere anecdotes or traditional TV ads that would have only been broadcast a handful of times during commercial breaks.

Warning: It will become increasingly difficult to take Governor Crist seriously after watching.

A Quick Defense Of Federalism.

It is easy to downplay and ignore the unique nature of American federalism. So consider the following to be a quick lesson on its benefits.

In a recently published interview with The Independent, British Conservative leader David Cameron articulated his views on adding a new runway to London's Heathrow Airport:

Mr Cameron, acknowledging we are in an airport, guarantees that there will be no change in Tory plans to scrap the planned third runway at Heathrow. "It is so black and white. There will be no third runway," he says. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-camerons-view-of-a-hung-parliamentits-all-cleggified-balls-1960376.html

This man will very likely be the next head of government in the United Kingdom and he is being interviewed about growth managment at an airport. Imagine a presidential hopeful having to make campaign promises about plans for a new gate at Kennedy.

The Obama Zombies.

A New York Times profile of young White House staffers has been making the rounds this week and has provided us with more than our fair share of unintended entertainment.

First off, the article (and the staffers themselves) seem to view it as a good thing that well connected and influential up-and-comers would choose "gritty" hipster hangouts that ordinarily attract DC's greasiest and crunchiest over clean cut, politico-prepster havens:

Compare:
The young White House staff members have formed an unofficial enclave... with nightlife emanating out from the U Street corridor. The area, part of which was ravaged during the 1968 riots, is gentrifying but still has a gritty feel. Some of the staff members call it “campus.” Older journalists trying to impress their young sources sometimes suggest hip neighborhood places like Cork, the Gibson speak-easy and Marvin, a sleek bistro and bar that has a mural of the iconic Shepard Fairey “Hope” poster of Obama’s face painted in blue and red on its outside brick wall.

with:

Even so, Obama’s young aides offer a contrast to the ones who worked in George W. Bush’s administration only a few years ago...When they did go out, Johndroe says, they stuck to creaky haunts close to the White House like Old Ebbitt Grill or bars in the historically preppy enclave of Georgetown. “The Daily Grill was the place to go on Thursday nights, in Georgetown, and then people would go to Smith Point,” Johndroe said, referring to the basement bar known for sightings of the Bush twins and its unofficial uniform of popped collars, boat shoes (no socks) and salmon-colored khakis for the men, pearls and Lilly Pulitzer for the women. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/magazine/02obamastaff-t.html?pagewanted=1

Mark this as a win for the Bushies. We can begrudgingly concede that the "gritty" hipster scene has its place, but making such establishments your primary haunts while working at the White House is kind of like wearing jeans to church.

The coup d'etat of the article, however, is the following line:

...young staff members are nervous about upholding the Obama creed of modesty and discretion.

Yes, you read that farce of a coherent throught correctly. Twenty-five year olds whose social lives are being profilled in an uber elitist paper are worried that the guy pictured below will not think of them as modest enough.