The Worst Public TV Guest Ever....

The evening of May 27th, I watched "State of the State" show on WOUB, the local public channel in Athens, Ohio.

One of the guests on the forum type show dealing with multiple aspects of the unemployment problem in Southeastern Ohio was Mark Tatge, some sort of visiting professor at Scripps College of Journalism, Ohio University.

Tom Hodson is the moderator, and the other members of the forum were:

Angie Hawk Maiden: President and CEO of Appalachian Center for Economic Networks;
Perry Varnadoe: Director of the Meigs County Economic Development Office; and
Debbie Phillips (D-Athens) State Representative for the 92nd Ohio House District is also home to Ohio University.

"Mr." Tatge was the most unprepared, impolite and offensive guest I have ever seen on any real public forum/information show. My wife wondered if he thought he was auditioning for a bit on Colbert. I thought that he thought he was on the Bill "Blowhard" O'Reilly set and in some sort of gruesome competition with Ann Coulter.

I am a Libertarian, and I really tried, but I could find absolutely nothing redeeming about his appearance on a show that usually has a thoughtful and well-meaning discourse that seeks practical solutions to problems in our State and in our local area.

With his reckless, unfocused, arrogant "Faux News" style of blathering bloviation, he alienated the other guests on the show, and probably everyone watching as well. The other guests and the moderator were noticably shocked and embarrassed as they tried to politely interact with this pretentious fool.

Mr. Tatge had done no research, spoke in offensive and outlandish generalities throughout, frustrated and discomfited the moderator and belittled the efforts of the other guests by his lack of knowledge and interest in the causes, applicable questions and possible working solutions to the problem of local unemployment. It was a shameful example of ego combined with ignorance by a person who touts himself as an expert and is rumored to teach a class in professionally reporting on financial matters at Ohio University.

Mr. Tatge's one answer to everything (when he wasn't offending literally every single resident of Southeastern Ohio) seemed to be "You people need more help from State Government", which seems a strange proposition for a "Conservative" to espouse. He had the air of someone whose dog ate the homework and who has chosen feigned superiority and attacking in ignorance as his method of defense.

But that is not the worst. The worst is that for anyone watching the show that was still on the political fence, he singlehandedly did his best to make any low tax, small Government, Libertarian leaning political world-view as unsavory and unsympathetic as possible. Mr. Tatge was the onscreen epitome of that generalized view of the Big Business, money-grubbing, unsympathetic, me-first Conservative that the Far Left loves to put out there.

In short, Mr. Tatge is either a stone idiot or he cannot be a real Conservative, but some actor hired by the Far Left to spoof the good intentions of people who want lower taxes and less government, more individual freedom and responsibility.

This may be not giving some enterprising Liberal jokester enough credit, but I'm betting that Mr. Tatge is a stone idiot.

SCOTUS Pick: Obama goes for Demographic over Scholarship....

Noted lefty constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley thinks Sotomayor tends toward the lightweight edge of the scale of the available talent:

“She is not the intellectual powerhouse that many academics had hoped for.”

and,

“Advocates have struggled to cite a single opinion that could be viewed as a brilliant or extraordinary treatment of the law.”

And,

“Looking objectively at the body of opinions by Judge Sotomayor, one is not overwhelmed by their depth. There is nothing in this body of work that would scream out for the elevation of the author to the Court.”

Read the whole article here:

http://jonathanturley.org/2009/05/26/white-house-to-announce-court-pick-at-10-am/#more-11301

I probably wouldn't agree with Turley on anything. Especially individual rights, making law from the bench and US subjugation to International Law. But he seems to be quoted an awful lot by MSNBC, which is the Faux "News" opposite number in the war for the lemming mind -- and by NPR. So....

On the other hand, what the 0-Man has got going for him is the Harriet Miers nomination. That and Clarence Thomas.

But apart from Thomas, the rest of the SCOTUS, when nominated, seems to have been much more qualified than Sotomayor.

Consensus of those who worked with Sotomayor is that she’s intelligent, but an intellectual lightweight and not patient enough to take the time to understand complex issues.

One wonders whether there will be a shock to the court's system, giving up a quiet, very polite Justice who is known for listening, for one who often comes across as rude, pushy and domineering of discussion from the bench, and who's opinions often are viewed as overly simplified, short and dismissive.

In an added note, three out of the five Sotomayor ruled cases that have been accepted on appeal to the SCOTUS have been reversed, and they are working on what may be another right now.

That does not speak well of her ability to get it right -- or at least right enough for the SCOTUS. It also brings up the question of how many of her rulings were probably wrong, but SCOTUS chose not to hear them... and it amounts to a lotta "bad justice" out there.

GM = Government Motors....

Does this mean that I have to pick sides when the UAW goes on strike and the 0-Man calls in his Brownshirt strike-breakers?

Whew… tough call.

Nothing more deserving or entertaining than Union Thugs beating and getting beaten by Government Thugs!

It also means that Chevy will have to change its ad tune from “Like A Rock” to Neil Young’s “Welfare Mothers (Make Better Lovers)".

Much, much better song anyway....

The Halliburton/KBR/Cheney/War/Money Machine....

You know, looking back on it, the incredible, interwoven web of deceit and corruption that was the Halliburton/KBR/Cheney/War/Money Machine, may go down as the costliest bit of political and economic deception (that term does not do credit) ever foisted on America's conscience and wallet.

Remember, the "cost" of the War was not included in the Bush Jr. era budgets, so we really have no way to grasp the size of the scam and how much was siphoned away like so much stolen gas -- but if we really could see it, I bet it could make AIG and Madoff look like one fall purse-snatchers.

Oh, and one more thing: I wonder, did Halliburton/KBR execs get little happy chills all over every time an IED blew up a HumVee, knowing full well that the deaths of our soldiers were providing the smokescreens for their robbery?

Things must be made Right.

How do you not believe in a Righteous and Vengeful God?

Cops Lie...! Surprised?

The very idea of "probable cause" has been eroded so far that it is a joke. LEOs lie all the time. If they are looking to pull someone over, there will definitely be some judgment for probable cause, real or not.

A lot of "solid" arrests for other crimes start with a suspicion -- NOT real probable cause. If any charges go to court, many LEOs don't have a problem lying under oath. It's "part of the job", and also well referenced under the term "testilying".

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123319367364627211.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testilying

Biden and Pelosi....

Joe Plugs don't lie!

He's always reaching out with both versions of the truth, what didn't happen and what he said!

The truth is shorter than Joe and he just has to stoop a little!"

Hey, wadda-ya expect from a proven exaggerator and a thief (plagiarist)?

I have always said that Biden was a dumber version of John Kerry. Remember Kerry's war stories, especially about his hat?

Only in just deserts for his poor judgment does the 0-man deserve every bit of diarrhea that gushes out Joe Plugs' mouth.


As for Pelosi, we get what California deserves.

As usual.

What's new.

"Click It Or Ticket" -- Wave bye-bye to your 4th Amendment....

It is amazing how many people who proclaim their support for the 2nd Amendment tend to not read any further.

Evidently the right of the many to own guns is higher on their list than the right of the many to be safe from unlawful search and seizure. They don't realize that the continual encroachment on their 4th Amendment rights will eventually result in their right of the 2nd vanishing, along with their privacy and any pretense of freedom.

That is evidenced in the well-documented abuses of "probable cause" by our LEO community.

All for our protection, of course.

So here we come to "Click It Or Ticket", the latest waste of taxpayer dollars and supposed revenue generator forced on the states by the Fed: Millions of taxpayer dollars spent to collect (hopefully) even more millions in revenues.

Yessiree folks, it's highway robbery by our "finest" -- and at its finest.

I am going to start with an issue that concerns me: personal liberty. And here is one that may surprise all you ACLU-card-carrying supporters of personal freedom: The Dems are for letting law enforcement pull over citizens JUST because the officer THINKS THEY MAY not be using their seat belt.

Look at states where they have a majority Dem representation, and most of them have given police the right to use just the suspicion of no seat belts as probable cause to pull a driver over.

Right now, 26 out of 50 states list seat belt violations as a "primary enforcement", which means that an LEO just has to suspect that you don't have your seat belt on to light you up. Out of those 26 states, 20 have the State Senate controlled by Dems.

This is just another step in the progression from Freedom (with a framework of not harming others), to Nanny State, and on to the goal of a Totalitarian State.

But now, with the "Click It Or Ticket" revenue program, the Feds are helping your local police violate even more of your civil rights than normal.

Do you know how hard it is to determine if someone has their seat belt on when they are passing you at 65mph?

Btw, if you are pulled over for anything else, DON'T take your seat belt off before you are staring him in the eye -- the LEO is trained to accuse you of not wearing your belt, and he has no proof that you were not. And here's a little secret that they don't want you to know: they are counting on you not taking it to court. I have had one say to me "I know you weren't wearing your belt", when I was -- he backed down after I looked him in the eye and said "Yes, I was. I do every time I drive... and, I'll swear to it in court."

Now why, when all supposed "liberal" causes (see ACLU, etc...) state that they protect individual rights, would the Dems be overwhelming in their support of this? It just gives LEOs another tool in their endless list of fake "probable causes".

I drive over 500 miles a week, and never leave my driveway without my belt on. My opposition to this is purely based on Civil Rights. It is another non-Constitutional intervention by the State, and should not be tolerated by citizens.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2009%20...%20seat+belts

Ohio Revised Code 4513.263(D) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, no law enforcement officer shall cause an operator of an automobile being operated on any street or highway to stop the automobile for the sole purpose of determining whether a violation of division (B) of this section has been or is being committed or for the sole purpose of issuing a ticket, citation, or summons for a violation of that nature or causing the arrest of or commencing a prosecution of a person for a violation of that nature, and no law enforcement officer shall view the interior or visually inspect any automobile being operated on any street or highway for the sole purpose of determining whether a violation of that nature has been or is being committed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Click_It_or_Ticket&oldid=214238694


Well, we're heading toward the totalitarian extreme really fast. And it'll end up being an extreme that puts any free-thinking person in a camp. For the "good of society", of course.

And the idea of "funding" public services from fines just lends itself to abuse of civil rights. Funny, but you'd think that the ACLU would be in there somewhere, biting and scratching. Uhhhh, nope.

All these little blurrings of Constitutional rights add up. Pretty soon they'll be stopping you on the road at checkpoints. Oh wait, that already happens. Doesn't that word "Checkpoint" have such a wonderful East German flair? Next they'll be taking your homes to build high revenue districts. Oh wait... that's already happening.

And we laugh our little self-conscious laughs and roll our eyes and adopt the PC, coweringly abject, subservient roll-over, show our bellies and hope that they don't think so badly of us that we are labeled anti-public safety child abusers as we say in a tiny, tiny voice "Wait, isn't that un-Constitutional? Oh, I'm sorry, I know... if we aren't "guilty", we have nothing to fear."

Woohoo. All for the "greater good".

Note to self about "Job Security"....

Remember, if your immediate bosses are not capable of understanding or doing your job, or of even assessing the effects of your efforts upon the end results (because they don't understand anyone else's job either), then they cannot accurately measure your worth.

Welcome to my world.

I'm guessing that this might have been the reason there used to be strikes....

Death Of A Nation....

Polarization is not the problem.

The problem is not that the 'pubs are too right wing, or even that they are too anything different from the Dems; it's that our country as a whole has largely become populated with people who expect the Government to be the end and answer for all ills. It is liberals and most moderates who tend to think that way, but also a surprising number of people who style themselves conservative.

The problem won't be solved by 'pubs trying to act like Dems. In fact, the problem has already reached the critical mass of users overbalancing producers and I truly believe our country is beyond saving -- in its current form. It's like watching a giant tree topple... slowly at first, and then faster and faster....

Gas prices at the pump are rising fast. It is the Oil companies and OPEC's aim to have gas at $4+/gal. by October/November. They are doing this by cutting production and storing oil outside the US.

Any business operating off of their P&L statement to get money has to be watching A&R very closely. They still have to keep inventory low and take absolutely no hits such as a big customer going under. It still will do no good. Any company not making products that people actually need, or companies that depend on "marketing" to drive demand are goners. Like most biz that operates on "buzz", they think they can create demand without products people need, but they are done. Cooked. They just don't know it yet.

I expect unemployment will pass 12-15% by the 2nd quarter of 2010, there will be across-the-board credit defaults, by both individuals and companies, and then it will become evident that we are in a full-blown depression.

And we will find out that the Government cannot save our economy or our souls -- if we still have either.

Here's exerpts from a great post by Old Hop:

... "Citing Murray Boochkin, Riggenbach shows how the conventional political appellations of “left” and “right” are turned on their heads:[A] brief look at the history of the relevant political terms – Left and Right, liberal and conservative – will persuade us that libertarianism has absolutely nothing in common with anything on the Right. For it is as the anarchist Murray Bookchin said back in 1978: “People who resist authority, who defend the rights of the individual, who try in a period of increasing totalitarianism and centralization to reclaim these rights – this is the true left in the United States. Whether they are anarcho-communists, anarcho-syndicalists, or libertarians who believe in free enterprise, I regard theirs as the real legacy of the left […].”

... And what about the socialists, the Maoists and Trotskyites, and the liberals of the Democratic party? Bookchin was asked. What about the people most Americans regarded as “the Left”? Those people, Bookchin replied, were “going toward authoritarianism, toward totalitarianism.” They were “becoming the real right in the United States.”

... In other words, one who believes in unhindered free markets and individual rights is really on the left side of the political spectrum. Those who favor government intervention in social and economic matters (thus considering themselves flaming liberals) turn out to be supporters of conservatism – unwittingly preserving the statist status quo that under different guises has dominated public affairs in this country for decades.

The GOP is the conservative party in American politics, the party that since Lincoln (and Henry Clay and Alexander Hamilton before him) has stood for mercantilism, welfare statism, and war. Libertarians are not conservatives; they are not on the Right. They are on the Left, the last remnant of the original liberals.

... And lest we forget that Barack Obama’s #1 campaign contributor was Goldman Sachs:

Though some true liberals remain in the Democratic Party of today, almost all of them have made the error of pursuing liberal goals by conservative means. And the majority in the party has been New Deal liberal – false liberal, conservative in liberal’s clothing – since the 1930s. In effect, the United States is now governed by one or the other of two conservative parties.

Specter lies, and fools are surprised....

UPDATE: "Arlen Specter" may now be the definition of idiot.

After he told everyone he would retain his "seniority", it seems the only "seniority" A.S. (as he is now known by da 'pubs) will retain is his ever-more-frequent "senior moments".


You know, why are we continually and repeatedly surprised when a politician lies?

Why do we get all offended but never seem to get even?

Just vote the liar out. Even if he has “The One’s” support. Or better yet, just burn the whole damn thing down. That option gets my vote!

“Politicians lie, fools ‘re surprised”; they take us for fools, time-and-again, and we never disappoint ‘em.

If you think taxes and government intrusion in our lives are bad now, just wait until one party has more than a 60/40 split advantage.

It's and oldie but goodie, but I wish we could connect shock collars to lie detectors and put them put them on Politicians.

I wish there was a mechanism in place to expedite impeachment....