Bill Seubert

Science/religion/semi-squish (“Crunchy Con”) Rod Dreher published a blog entry today on the “growler”. The “growler” is (typically?) a half-gallon jug that one can take to a bar and/or store (Whole Foods?) where you can get the bottle filled with tap beer to go. This is something I’ve never heard of around here in the Midwest, but apparently it’s quite common in some parts of the country.

It appears that these things weren’t legal here until 2009.

You know, this idea of half-gallons of draught beer to go is change I can believe in. Where’s my Schlafly Winter ESB?

Well, I finally got the guts to upgrade my Macbook Pro to Snow Leopard last night…the DVD has been sitting on my desk since before Christmas.  Since this is the laptop I use for work, I wasn’t eager to risk breaking it, but I figured I was safe if I took a CCC backup first.  Yesterday was my “screw around with computers” day, so after I got my old machine working with the 32″ TV monitor (to be used @ church), and reloading my wife’s old laptop for the kid to use until I can get THAT machine working, I did the SL install.

The install itself was pretty smooth…the install process did what it was supposed to – until the end.  After the progress bar finished its trip across the screen, it prompted me to click “Restart”.  So I did.  It restarted, and got to a blue screen.  And there it stopped.  And it sat there for a couple of hours (while I cursed at it periodically).  Convinced I was going to have to restore my backup, I disgustedly hard-powered it off and on.  And lo and behold, it rebooted (twice) and then came up to the normal login screen.  Wow.  It actually WORKED.  So, being the glutton for punishment, I went into Software Updates to try to update to 10.6.2.  And again ran into problems – it wouldn’t update.  So I went to apple.com and downloaded the combo updater and installed it by brute force.  This time, no blue screen stall.  It rebooted and came up fine.  So now – which apps are broken?

I have a Line 6 POD XT for my electric guitar and had installed the software that’s used to connect it to my Mac, and it is not SL compatible.  When I finished the install, it prompted me that it had moved that to some special folder for incompatible software.  I tried a bunch of other stuff that pretty much seems to work.  My Evernote install has lost all my notes (!!!!).  I need to boot from my backup and recover those.  Safari doesn’t support my extensions in 64-bit mode (1Password, AdBlock), so I had to go back to 32-bit, which works fine, although it’s slower to start up.  And Lotus Mobile Connect didn’t work at first, but a reinstall fixed that.  So far, everything else seems to work OK.  I installed a new release of Lotus Notes, since I was on a roll.  It, too, seems to work fine.

There are some interesting new features in SL.  I did buy back about 10GB of disk space, which paid for the $25 SL upgrade.  Now my touchpad supports 4-finger swipe…it’s pretty cool to be able to invoke Exposé using swipe instead of having to move my mouse to a “hot corner”.  I am anxious to try the built-in Cisco VPN, but haven’t gotten to that yet.

Overall it seems like a decent upgrade, even if there isn’t a lot of obvious on-the-surface improvement.

Teh Twitter is abuzz with posts on the rumor that Barack Obama will be announcing a “spending freeze” on discretionary spending during the State of the Union address.  Pay close attention to the words:  discretionary spending.  The word on the street is that his request will exempt “the Pentagon, veterans programs, foreign aid and homeland security” from this so-called “freeze.”  There are a couple of key items to consider:

1. What exactly does he mean by “freeze?”  Does it mean “freeze the level of spending at the bloated 2009 numbers”?  Or does it mean “don’t increase these programs any more in 2010 than we did in 2009?  Or does it mean “stick to historic growth levels, rather than Obama-caliber spending increases”?  Inquiring minds want to know.
2. Discretionary spending means non-entitlement spending.  When you subtract out entitlements:  Medicare & Social Security, and then you subtract defense-related spending, there is precious little left.  In fact, it comes out to less than fifteen percent of the federal budget.*  Barack Obama’s so-called “stimulus” program totaled around $750B – that’s almost 50% greater than the entire non-defense discretionary budget for 2009. Freezing 15% of the federal budget is a drop in the bucket.  (see page 8 of this PDF)

Note one other key item in that Federal Budget PDF document.  As of the year 2017, “Net Interest” – the interest paid on the national debt – exceeds ALL non-military discretionary federal spending.  If Barack Obama wanted to have a real impact on the federal budget, both now and in the future, he would cease and desist from these so-called “stimuli” that are doing little or nothing to fix the Obama Recession.

To propose a spending freeze of any sort is good political theater for Obama, but it will have virtually no impact on the financial standing of the United States of America.

To admit that I voted for a guy who has to do this:

He needs the TOTUS to talk to SIXTH GRADERS???

By the end of next year, the entire country will be wondering how he ever got elected, because no one will admit voting for him.

This past Thursday morning, St. Louis NPR station KWMU reported that Republican Scott Brown’s victory in the Massachusetts Senate race could be “a shot across the bow for Robin Carnahan”, the Democrat competing with Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt (MO-7) for retiring Senator Kit Bond’s seat.  The station said:

Speaking in St. Louis Republican Senator Kit Bond said Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts is further proof that voters do not support the President’s agenda, from bailouts, to cash-for clunkers and most of all the healthcare overhaul. “It should be a wake-up call,” said Bond. “People are tired of government takeover, government takeover, of government taxation. Anybody who is on the wrong side of this issue might want to consider it again.”

It now appears that the polls are agreeing with Senator Bond.  The Missouri Senate race is starting to move strongly in Roy Blunt’s favor, no doubt due in large part to a gradual increase in unease with the Obama/Pelosi/Reid agenda.  Today’s numbers from Scott Rasmussen shows that Blunt has gained eight points on Carnahan, with Blunt leading 49%-43%. Last month, he trailed Carnahan by just two points.

Policy positions are critical in a campaign, and name recognition is a key component of success.  Both the Blunt and Carnahan names are well-known around Missouri. But there is one name that’s known more around Washington DC than the other, and you may be surprised to know whose name that is.  Let’s take a peek…

Robin Carnahan’s grandfather, Albert Sidney Johnson (A. S. J.) Carnahan, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1944-1946, and again from 1948-1960. He lost in 1960, and was appointed as Ambassador to Sierra Leone by JFK. So A.S.J. Carnahan spent over 16 years as a DC resident and significant player in DC Democrat party politics.

A.S.J. Carnahan’s son, Mel Carnahan, was a prominent Missouri politician, serving as MO’s Lt. Governor and Governor. In 2000, Mel ran for Senate against then-MO Att’y General John Ashcroft. Carnahan was tragically killed in a plane crash weeks before the election, but won anyway, as MO law did not allow his name to be removed from the ballot. Then-Lt. Gov Roger Wilson appointed Carnahan’s wife Jean to serve in his place until a special election in 2002. Jean Carnahan lost to Jim Talent, who served the remaining four years of Jean/Mel’s term.  Mel obviously spent quite a bit of time in DC even prior to his Senatorial run, as he was a graduate of GWU, where he met Jean.

Mel and Jean Carnahan’s son Russ Carnahan is currently serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing MO-3 (south portion of the St. Louis area, through Jefferson Co, to Ste. Genevieve.  This is the same seat that Russ’s Grandpa A.S.J. held (and he also serves as the vice chair of the International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight subcommittee – his grandpa’s subcommittee).  Russ is known as a reliable left-wing vote in Congress, and one of Russ’s “Town Hall” meetings were the site of the notorious SEIU union thug beating of Kenneth Gladney.  Russ’s biggest accomplishment appears to be his nomination as “Porker of the Year” by CAGW.  His tenure in the House has shown him to be rather hapless.  He’s earned the title “Low Maintenance Russ,” a name supported by none other than Nancy Pelosi herself, based upon her comments that Russ is “not a high-maintenance type”.  Russ has a pretty solid reputation as one who blindly supports pretty much anything that Pelosi throws at him.

And that brings us to Russ’s sister – Missouri’s current Secretary of State, Robin Carnahan, the latest member of the Carnahan dynasty to seek office in DC.  Some might think that Robin has no background in DC politics, but they would be wrong.  Ms. Carnahan served as an “executive” with the Export-Import Bank of the United States and did work with the National Democratic Institute…both Washington, DC entities.  In fact, she joined the Ex-Im Bank in 1993 – four years before her Senate competitor Blunt was elected to the House.  We have a list of her addresses where she lived in DC, so she has had extensive presence there in the past.  So while Robin Carnahan is currently a Missouri state official, she is no stranger to the DC world and culture.

It’s surprising to hear accusations of Roy Blunt’s family as any kind of “dynasty” when Congressman Blunt is the first of the family to spend significant time in DC, beginning with his election to the House in 1996.  Contrast with the Carnahan family, who has significant DC presence back into the 1940s.  Now who is the dynasty?

Robin Carnahan has yet to reveal much in the way of positions on key national issues.  However, she’s already been endorsed by unions and groups such as Emily’s List, a pro-abortion political advocacy group.  While she (unsurprisingly) has not explicitly stated her position on the bills in the Senate and House, she spoke out in praise of the bill passed in the Senate in December.  She DID state earlier this year that we need to “get past Guantanamo” – a veiled approval of Obama’s generally unpopular policy of moving prisoners and treating them as criminals rather than terrorists.  She has held no campaign news conferences, issued no policy position statements, and has generally sequestered herself in the safety of her Jefferson City office.  No one knows where she is or what she thinks.  But based on her background, it is a pretty sure bet that she will continue to be an unfailing supporter of Barack Obama and his policies.  If elected, Robin Carnahan would soon become known as “Rubber Stamp Robin” – as much of a lapdog to Barack Obama as brother Russ has been in the House to Nancy Pelosi and Obama.

Judging from the outcome of the Massachusetts Senate election, Robin’s close ties to Obama policies and ideas during the election campaign will be a very bad thing for her.  To characterize Robin Carnahan as some sort of “DC outsider” who will bring a “fresh view” to the seat is ludicrous.  She is fully saturated with the DC mindset.  She’s lived it throughout her life.  But the Carnahan DC Dynasty is about to come to an end.

(originally posted at Redstate.com)

One of the reasons I hate winter is that I can’t ride my new obsession:

That’s a 2010 Yamaha V-Star 950. My bike is a 2009, but they’re almost identical. The Yamaha is my first “real” bike. We also own one of these:

but after riding the V-Star, the Vespa feels like a bicycle. It IS fun to ride every once in a while, though.

However, my real dream bike just came out from Harley-Davidson this year. Behold, the Fat Boy Lo.

I LOVE the V-Star…it has plenty of power, sounds great, and runs great. But the H-D is the ultimate. I want.

So, back to my whining about winter… I lament the inability to ride the bikes during the winter, not to mention the fact that I H-A-T-E driving a car in the snow.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I DETEST winter.  I hate fall only a bit less than winter, because fall comes before winter.  But this pic, shared by a friend, reflects my attitude pretty well:

News broke this weekend that a forthcoming book on the 2008 election will report Harry Reid making some incendiary remarks about Barack Obama. Specifically, Harry Reid said Obama has “no Negro dialect, unless he wants to have one.”

So now let’s take the Wayback Machine to 2002, shall we?  We’ll take a look at the Democrats’ responses to Trent Lott’s statements (and subsequent apology) about Strom Thurmond, which were widely condemned as “racist.” Lott had said “we wouldn’t be in the mess we were in today” had Thurmond won the Presidency way back when Thurmond ran as a Dixiecrat.

• ‘His apology does not take away the sting of his divisive words…‘ – Barbara Boxer
• ‘I can tell you if a Democratic leader said such a thing, they would not be allowed to keep their position,’ – Mary Landrieu
• ‘What he said was insensitive as hell; it’s very offensive,’ … ‘Race is serious stuff. It’s not something you kid about.’ – Joe Biden
• ‘…the GOP must decide whether Lott ‘represents the views of the majority of Republicans in the Senate and in our country.‘ – Hillary Clinton
• ‘We need political leaders who are healers, not dividers,’ … ‘I hope that Senator Lott’s apology will translate into action and that he will advance policies that bring us together as a nation rather than pull us apart.‘ – Dick Durbin
• ‘When connected to past comments and votes, this statement casts a dark shadow over Sen. Lott’s ability to be a credible party leader‘ – Diane Feinstein
• ‘Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat, described Lott’s comments as ‘outrageous’ and ‘completely inexcusable.’ ‘Those kinds of comments have no place in our society and should be repudiated by every American,’ Stabenow said in a statement. ‘At this point, the Republican caucus in the U.S. Senate needs to think long and hard about the kind of values they want their leadership to represent.‘ – Debbie Stabenow

(and there are many other classics from Senate and House Democrites at “Blogs for Victory“)

Climate cultist Algore and (surprise, surprise ) Jesse Jackson demanded that Lott resign:

But some Democrats were angry. Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson called for Lott to resign, and former Vice President Al Gore told CNN that the comment was “racist.”

Funny, Jesse has been strangely silent the last couple of days.

Then we have the pièce de résistance from The O himself:

Illinois Senator Barack Obama (D-13th), who hosted WVON’s Cliff Kelley Show, challenged the Republican Party to repudiate Lott’s remarks and to call for his resignation as senate leader.

“It seems to be that we can forgive a 100-year-old senator for some of the indiscretion of his youth, but, what is more difficult to forgive is the current president of the U.S. Senate (Lott) suggesting we had been better off if we had followed a segregationist path in this country after all of the battles and fights for civil rights and all the work that we still have to do,” said Obama.

He said: “The Republican Party itself has to drive out Trent Lott. If they have to stand for something, they have to stand up and say this is not the person we want representing our party.”

If Democrat hypocrisy was jobs, the Obama economic mess would be over tomorrow.

President Obama, I’m waiting patiently for your demands that Harry Reid resign.  Something tells me that I have a long wait ahead of me.

This is amazing:

More info can be found in this story:

“Snow Covers Britain From Head to Toe”

If Algore showed up in London today, they’d probably boot him out of the country permanently.

“Blame Bush” has been Obama’s favorite strategy for trying to deflect blame for his mishandling of virtually every challenge he’s faced since ascending to his throne almost one year ago.  But is this approach still resonating?  I think not.  Obama refuses to stop blaming his predecessor for his own shortcomings. The latest blame-fest came with the December 25th pantybomber incident.

Immediately following the Christmas terrorist attempt by Omar Abdulmutallab, the Obama administration sprung into action in an attempt to pass the buck to Bush.

“The idea was that we’d show that the Bush Administration had had far worse missteps than we ever could,” says a staffer in the counsel’s office. “We were told that classified material involving anything related to al Qaeda operating in Yemen or Nigeria was fair game and that we’d declassify it if necessary.”

“This White House doesn’t view the Northwest [Airlines] failure as one of national security, it’s a political issue,” says the White House source. “That’s why Axelrod and Emanuel are driving the issue.”

The official White House blog reflects the Obama strategy to place the blame on Obama’s predecessor.  How ironic is it that an official WH blogpost with the title “The Same Old Washington Blame Game” would be so focused on blaming another POTUS for the shortcomings of their own administration?

So, Obama’s entire strategy for responding to the terrorist incident has been to be Not Bush.  Byron York illustrates:

Obama’s first response to the incident, or nonresponse, did not surprise anyone who followed his 2008 presidential campaign. As a candidate, Obama repeatedly accused the Bush administration of using terrorism to spread fear among the American public for political gain.

“Since 9/11, we’ve had a president who essentially fed us a politics of fear,” Obama said at a December 2007 Democratic debate in Iowa. “We have been governed by fear for the last six years,” he said two months earlier in Philadelphia. “We’re tired of fear,” he said still earlier at a debate in South Carolina.

Obama pledged a new, quieter approach. He would improve America’s image in the world, reach out to Muslims and dial back the fear.

So when a radical Islamist Army officer shouting “Allahu Akbar!” murdered 13 of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, Obama’s response was so low-key it took him days to recognize it as a terrorist incident. And when a radical Islamist Nigerian nearly succeeded in detonating enough explosives to bring down a Northwest Airlines jumbo jet as it approached Detroit, Obama remained silent.

(and thanks to Mr. York for the title idea…)

Obama mouthpiece/DNC Chair Chris Van Hollen was a bit less vague about his part in the blame game:

“In general, we are facing the consequences of the Bush administration’s failures to deal with al Qaeda,” Van Hollen told Hotline OnCall. “The Republicans have no business in pointing fingers at the Obama administration on terrorism and national security.”

“The Obama administration has been much more aggressive about going after al Qaeda than the Bush administration, which turned its focus from al Qaeda to Iraq,” he added. The Obama admin has “been on the offense in places where the Bush administration had taken its eye off the ball.”

But perhaps the crowning glory of the O came during today’s meetings and brief speech, where he stated that the terrorist incident was “a screwup” by “U.S. intelligence”…and then proceeded to declare that there will be “no finger-pointing”.  Eh?  Is that not what you just did, Mr. President?

At what point does Obama start accepting responsibility?  After we boot him from office (probably not even then)?  I have frequently adopted Gerald Warner’s nickname for Obama – “President Pantywaist” – to reflect his utter lack of courage in governing.  The presidency is a big political game for President Pantywaist.  He does not possess the courage to lead and accept the consequences of failure.  Instead, he prefers to take the advice of Rahm Emanuel and “not let a crisis go to waste” – and he leverages these crises politically, rather than worrying about their impact on America.  The Heritage Foundation accurately describes Obama’s cowardice in this area of national security and dealing with terrorists, after previously criticizing Bush for his approach:

During the campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama often criticized President Bush for “going it alone” and just this past May, President Obama promised: “I will work with Congress and members of both parties, as well as legal authorities across the political spectrum, on legislation to ensure that these commissions are fair, legitimate, and effective.”

The Obama administration’s decision not to seek congressional authorization for military detention exposes a lack of political courage to stare down the extremists in his own party and do the right thing for American security.

I think we can safely say that Harry S. Truman’s famous sign “The Buck Stops Here” has been replaced in the Oval Office by one stating “The Buck Stops In Crawford, Texas”.