Oh, boy! I've been threatened with legal action!

They're coming to get me!

Well, oh dear me. It seems that me, and this blog of mine, are currently embroiled in a legal scuffle.

What's that, you say? Do tell, good sir.

On Wednesday of this past week, the 21st, I received a Blogger Takedown Notice in my email. A what? I'd never heard of such a thing. It informed me that:

Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital

Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog

is alleged to infringe upon the copyrights of others. As a result, 

we have reset the post(s) to \"draft\" status. (If we did not do so,

we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless 

of its merits. The URL(s) of the allegedly infringing post(s) may be 

found at the end of this message.) This means your post - and any
images, links or other content - is not gone. You may edit the post to 

remove the offending content and republish, at which point the post in

question will be visible to your readers again.

Loosely translated, this means that someone pitched a fit over something in one of my blog posts and lodged a copyright complaint against me instead of just contacting me directly. Gotta love this asshole litigious society we live in now where every perceived butt-hurt is met with threats to sue.

Needless to say, I was a bit disconcerted by this accusation after over 760 blog posts and nearly 575,000 blog views over the past five-plus years without a problem.

They then  went on to explain  the DMCA was a US copyright law to provide guidelines for online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement and gave me a link to file a counter suit if I felt I had a right to post the content on my blog. Then they go on to tell me the notice they received was posted at some site called Chilling Effects and that I should use the provided link to Chilling Effects' database search engine to find my evil transgression.

They finished up with the thinly veiled threat that if they found out I went back & put the post back up without removing the material in question that they would remove the post completely and that I would have a violation listed against my account and that further offenses would result in "further remedial action" like my blog being taken down completely, and that if I had legal questions I should retain my own legal counsel.

SERIOUSLY? I need to get a lawyer over a frikkin' blog post and I need to go to some third-party site I've never heard of just to find out what I allegedly did wrong? Couldn't you have just TOLD ME IN THIS STUPID EMAIL?

Well, I gave it due diligence, kids. I have been trying for FIVE DAYS STRAIGHT to use the link provided by Google/Blogger to find out what I had allegedly done, and for FIVE DAYS STRAIGHT the search engine is mysteriously broken.

How convenient. Someone lodges an anonymous complaint against me and the tool I need to clear my name is conveniently broken. Meanwhile my blog post is being held in stasis, basically a hostage in all of this. By the way, the post in question was the one I did at the end of August deriding the city of Detroit as being a wasteland like Hiroshima after the nuking but minus the radiation and pointing out how cities under liberal control are in decay nationwide... A conspiracy-minded person would think that the intent all along is to slowly strangle & silence those who speak out against Liberalism by tying up blog posts with legal bullshittery.

Well, after five days, I decided I'd had enough and decided to use that counter file link to ask Blogger/Google itself just WTF was going on, and let them know I can't fix the problem because their partner site is screwed up and I can't find out what I allegedly have done wrong, and would they please kindly help me out here. I also told them I protested having to click that I agreed to their legalese provisos on the submittal form. These included:

I consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in
which I reside (or the Northern District of California if my address is outside of the
United States), and that I will accept service of process from the person who provided
notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person.

I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that the content
identified above was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification
of the material to be removed or disabled.

Your digital signature is as legally binding as a physical signature. Please note that
your signature must exactly match the First and Last names that you specified earlier
in this webform.









Yeah, seriously. All this bullshit just to find out what terrible offense I am accused of. A few minutes later I got a form letter reply in my email saying :

Hi,

Thanks for reaching out to us!

We have received your legal request. We receive many such complaints
each day; your message is in our queue, and we'll get to it as quickly as our 
workload permits.

Due to the large volume of requests that we experience, please note that we 
will only be able to provide you with a response if we determine your 
request may be a valid and actionable legal complaint, and we may respond 
with questions or requests for clarification.  For more information on 
Google's Terms of Service, please visit http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS

We appreciate your patience as we investigate your request.

Regards,
The Google Team

Well, a little more cordial to me now that I am standing up for myself, aren't we? But I still have to wait in line to be investigated in their own sweet time and my post is still suspended in stasis, a post that at last count had been viewed 3,770 times. Yes, I keep track of these things. Sure, I'm not a major site like HuffPo or Free Republic but dammit the Bill of Rights and Freedom of Speech still applies to me and my readers.

I'll keep ya'll posted.

Barry Came Home! The World is Safe Again!

Man, oh,man....I'm sure glad Barry Obama came home from his big Asia trip in time to pardon those two turkeys at the White House. I mean, we wouldn't be able to properly function without that important ritual to guide our nation in these turbulent times.

Yes, we paid actual Secret Service agents to guard the two turkeys to be pardoned AT YOUR EXPENSE.

As-Salamu Alaykum, turkey. I pardon you in the name of Allah the Benevolent.

We needed the Dear Leader's guidance while riots were breaking out over cheap TV's and DVD's. People were camped out in tents as early as Wednesday afternoon....one family in New York hit the sales just to stay warm because 3 weeks after Sandy hit, THEY STILL HAVE NO HEAT OR POWER. I thought you waved your hand and your kind benevolent smile saved the people who were displaced, according to Chris Christie as he fawned over you when he wasn't wilting like a teen girl over Bruce Springsteen and stabbing Mitt Romney in the back.

But back to Barry....

Islam: The Religion of Peace

Our Beloved Dear Leader (Blessed Be His Name) spent the early part of the week on another expensive trip overseas, because it was important to go wave the flag in places like Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand. Hmmm....Hamas is dropping rockets on Israel and dragging the corpses of murdered people merely suspected of sympathizing with the Israelis behind their mopeds, our own economy is 30 days from COLLAPSING and burning in flames, a major American company just folded and let go over 18,000 employees at the holidays due to union thuggery, and where is the newly re-elected UberMan? Bullshitting his way across Asia.

He's the first President to ever visit Myanmar!!!! (Oh, wait....they call it Myanmar, and Barry calls it Myanmar, but the official government stance is to still call it Burma. Barry does it His way.) Whoopty do. A place under military junta rule for decades with a miserable human rights record, recently trying to Do The Right Thing, which I do applaud but seriously, was now the right time for a visit? There are more pressing issues at hand, Barry O. Did you bring back some Wagyu Crab Rangoons from Rangoon for Big Momma?

He visited Cambodia, a place we've basically neglected since we pulled up our tent stakes at the end of the Vietnam War and went home, leaving murderous thugs behind to slaughter most of the civilian population. The Cambodian First Lady gave Barry the same type of bow reserved for servants.

He visited Thailand, a long time ally in the region, known worldwide for lush jungles, a massive industry of perverse sex tourism, being a safe haven for fugitive pedophiles, and for being the setting for The Hangover 2.

Barry can't resist a good bow.

But never fear.....Barry dispatched Saint Hillary to the Gaza Strip to quell the violence. Almost before her feet alighted on the ground, the Lamestream Media made reports that a ceasefire had been reached. Saint Hillary had saved the day! Give her a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping all the violence in the Middle East in time for the Blessed Yule Celebrations! Bring her Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh!!!

War is over if you want it, war is over now.....Everybody sing!

Seriously? They stopped fighting because a lame-duck woman, who is leaving her job in a month or two, representing a nation that one side hates and the other side no longer trusts because Obama keeps crapping on them, flies in and waves her magic wand?

Of course, while the newsies were touting the ceasefire, rockets were still headed to Israel from Gaza and small arms fire was popping like popcorn....."Celebratory Gunfire", the dicks at CNN called it. I guess that could be plausible, since the Muslim world just loves to celebrate and waste perfectly good ammo by firing indiscriminately into the air with no concern over where it lands or who it lands on...they even let the kids join in because you can never start hating Israelis too soon.

My guess is they knew Israel wasn't bluffing when they called up over 75,000 reservists and were fully prepared to roll into Gaza and raze it to the ground to dispatch the vermin within, and Morsi was distracted by uprisings against him at home in Egypt so he pulled back his visit to Gaza. All of this, of course, serves as a distraction while Iran, who backs Hamas, shores up their own defenses and continues working on nukes to launch at Israel and the USA. They probably told Hamas to start something just to test Israel's response time.

But....never fear, Barry O will scowl at them and say "Let Me Be Clear", tell them they acted stupidly,  and then do nothing.

Notice that Barry didn't offer to bail out Big Snacks and save 18,500 jobs? Nope. Moochelle said "Snacks be the Devil!!!" and Hostess was defying Union Thugs, so they had to die. The 5,000+ union jobs lost are just collateral damage. Never fear, some Mexican company like Bimbo will buy it all up and the unions will skulk in like rats and get their jobs back while the non-union people starve, and America will still have Twinkies to buy with their food stamps.

Bye Bye Jesse Junior

Bye guys. I have to be in my room for bed-check at 9:00

So, there's this guy, see? He's in Congress. He literally DISAPPEARS for weeks, misses votes in Congress & doesn't call, and is coincidentally under investigation for ethics violations and misuse of campaign funds....something about trying to PAY to take over Barry Sotero's seat in the senate when he magically became Emperor Obama......then re reappears, says he's mentally ill but everything's cool now, re-elect me.....

AND THEY DID. Seriously. If ever there was a doubt that Chicago, and Illinois as a whole, is beyond hope of redemption, they actually reelected by a healthy margin a man who is pretty much batshit crazy and spent time in the loony bin and is under House investigation. Then again, Chicago Liberal Democrats are used to people being investigated for fraud, abuse, and ethics violations. It's like a sport there. And his dad, Jesse Senior, is a loser as well, so the turd didn't roll far from the honey wagon here either. I'm surprised the good reverend hasn't spouted racism yet , couched inside a goofy rhyme scheme.

Well, on the day before Thanksgiving, Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) sent his letter of resignation from Congress to House Speaker John "Bonehead" Boehner, citing his ongoing treatment for bipolar disorder and admitting "my share of mistakes" while confirming publicly for the first time that he's under a federal probe and cooperating with investigators.

So I guess there will either be someone appointed by the Governor to take his place, or a special election will be held to replace him. Doesn't make a difference either way; he'll just be replaced by another Left Wing Liberal Democrat to keep the Benefit and Entitlement Train rolling through his largely urban and Democrat district.

Chicago is famous for three things: organized crime, deep dish pizza, and corrupt politicians, and Jesse, Rahm, and Obama don't come with extra cheese....you figure out the rest.

Fondle Me Elmo...hottest new toy this season?

Okay, sure, it's gratuitous but admit it; you chuckled...

I really couldn't care less that Kevin Clash, longtime puppet master of Sesame Street's Elmo, is an openly gay man. Good for him, more power to him, what he does with another consenting adult is his business and I'm happy for him. However...

Unless you live under a freakin' rock (or Fraggle Rock? Ugh, a Muppet pun!) then by now you've heard that a 23-year old man, one Sheldon Stephens,  contacted the Sesame Street people to say that he and Clash had been carrying on an intimate relationship since he was 16. Clash was shelved & put on basically the equivalent of administrative leave while the lawyers got involved, I guess. Spin control was put into place, Clash denied any wrongdoing, and the guy who operates Big Bird had the limelight taken away that he'd been basking in since the Romney episode.

Sesame Workshop insisted the scandal surrounding Clash does not mean the end of Elmo. "Elmo is bigger than any one person," the company said.

Translation: that fuzzy red bastard is a cash cow gold mine and if need be we will disavow Clash, cut his ass loose, feed him to the wolves, and then get someone else to stick his hand up that puppet's ass and talk on helium to continue making money before said wolves finish dining on his entrails.

Kevin Clash with his hand up a puppet's ass. Is your day job any better?

Fast forward a couple weeks and now the young man who made the initial accusation has suddenly recanted. How convenient. What, did he suddenly just remember that he was over 18 when he started  playing with Diddle Me Elmo? I call shenanigans & BS on this one.

Turns out Clash paid him off to recant. Reports are in that Clash paid his accuser the sum of $125,000 to recant his story, hush money to make this all go away. So, no one is really sure whether the recanting was true or not, or whether Clash was having relations with an underage kid for awhile...because the accused has been paid off to recant without any further ado. Hmmm.....Michael Jackson used to pay off accusers to make stories go away, too...but I digress. And one of the conditions of the payoff is interesting.
The settlement then provides the following:

"Stephens agrees that immediately upon execution of this Agreement, his counsel, Andreozzi & Associates, P.C., shall release the [following] statement ... 'He [Stephens] wants it to be known that his sexual relationship with Mr. Clash was an adult consensual relationship.'"

The settlement document goes on to say if Stephens is asked by anyone about his relationship with Clash, he must only repeat the statement [above] in the settlement that recants his story.
Translation: You'll get your money, and your lawyers issue a statement saying you recanted and if /when anyone asks you about it, your ass better stick to the story or else.

Sheldon Stephens is no angel. He's a wannabe model, actor, you name it, with a few miscellaneous arrests, including one accusation that he robbed a music manager in L.A. at knife point of a $250,000 “white gold necklace with diamonds” and a “white gold ring with diamond baguettes.” after being fired as the man's intern. He then boarded a plane for Harrisburg, PA, where he was arrested. Beverly Hills police contacted their counterparts in Pennsylvania, and two officers detained Stephens, who “was wearing the necklace and also the ring” as he exited the plane, reported an investigator, who added, “He made no attempt to hide either article.” and insisted they were gifts. Charges were later mysteriously dropped. Makes me wonder if Stephens made threats to take his former employer's dirty laundry public....

All that money being made blackmailing people and you get really bad tattoos?

The apple didn't fall far from the tree, either. His mother was charged last March with attempted murder after she allegedly repeatedly stabbed her husband with a pair of scissors. Free on bail, the elder Stephens, who is also facing a felony aggravated assault rap, is next due in court December 19.

So, we have a guy with a dodgy past who wants to live large & in charge and wants to run in powerful circles and makes a spurious accusation and then gets paid off. My guess is he just successfully blackmailed a guy he used to sleep with. And we have a guy who works in a kid-oriented industry, who keeps his sexuality quiet and private, who desperately wants to keep milking the cash cow that feeds him and was willing to pay to make it all go away. This about sums it all up.

Again, I don't care if Kevin Clash is gay. My only concern was that his affair with Sheldon Stephens started when the guy was an underage minor. That I cannot condone, especially not in someone who works around kids. I'd have the same misgivings if it was a straight puppeteer and an alleged underage girl. Or a female adult & an underage male. What consenting ADULTS do is between them and that's that, but I can't condone shagging minors. Sorry. Not gonna happen.

The truth is out there...we'll just never know it.

Also gratuitous, and this image will be forever burned into your soul.

The Greatest Generation loses two more true heroes

Hate to say but I have been sorely remiss as of late in marking the passing of American heroes, and since the maximum effective range of an excuse is zero feet, I best get to it.

On November 8^th, we lost retired Lieutenant Colonel Herbert E. Carter, one of the original pilots among the Tuskegee Airmen. The last surviving Tuskegee Airman from the state of Mississippi and one of only four surviving pilots of the original group of 33 trainees at Tuskegee, LTC Carter passed away at the East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika at the age of 95.

Herbert Carter, holding a picture of his wife Mildred

 

His accomplishments during service included 77 combat sorties with the 12th Tactical Air Force against German and Italian forces in North Africa, Sicily and Italy. 

 

Carter retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1969 and was a well decorated pilot. He was honored in 2006 with France’s highest honor, “Chevalier of the Legion of Honor,” by French President Jacques Chirac and in 2007, was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal with other Tuskegee Airmen by President George W. Bush. After the war, Carter went on to become the Associate Dean for Student Services at Tuskegee University. He  was preceded in death by his wife, Mildred L. Hemmonds-Carter, who passed away last year. A fellow aviator, she was the first female to receive a pilots license in Alabama. They had been married an astonishing 70 years.

Also passing this past week was retired Colonel James Lamar Stone, aged 89, in Arlington, Texas.

A native of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Stone studied chemistry and zoology at the University of Arkansas, where he was in the Reserve Officers Training Corps. He worked for General Electric before being called to active duty in 1948 and entered the Army at Houston, Texas .In 1951 he was a First Lieutenant in in the 8^th Cavalry Regiment, part of the First Cavalry Division in Korea when his platoon came under intense attack by Chinese troops. 

Stone’s 48-man platoon fought against a force of 800 enemy soldiers, and in the ensuing combat, sometimes hand-to-hand,  he was wounded 3 times. Realizing the defense was hopeless, Stone ordered those men who could still walk to leave and rejoin the rest of their company, while he stayed behind with the badly wounded to cover their retreat. Stone eventually lost consciousness and, just before dawn on November 22, he and the six remaining men of his platoon were captured by Chinese forces. The next day, advancing American troops found 545 enemy soldiers dead. 

After regaining consciousness, Stone was interrogated by the Chinese before being sent to a prison camp on the Yalu River. After 22 months of captivity, he was released in a prisoner exchange on September 3, 1953. Upon his liberation, Stone learned that he was to receive the Medal of Honor for his actions during the battle.

1LT Stone embraces his mother after being repatriated

A month later, on October 27, 1953, he was at the White House. President Dwight Eisenhower presented the medal to Stone and to six others. Then, looking around at the servicemen whose extraordinary exploits he had just discussed, Ike quipped to the audience, "I feel perfectly safe up here."

Stone's official Medal of Honor citation reads:
1st Lt. Stone distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and indomitable courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. When his platoon, holding a vital outpost position, was attacked by overwhelming Chinese forces, 1st Lt. Stone stood erect and exposed to the terrific enemy fire calmly directed his men in the defense. A defensive flame-thrower failing to function, he personally moved to its location, further exposing himself, and personally repaired the weapon. Throughout a second attack, 1st Lt. Stone; though painfully wounded, personally carried the only remaining light machine gun from place to place in the position in order to bring fire upon the Chinese advancing from 2 directions. Throughout he continued to encourage and direct his depleted platoon in its hopeless defense. Although again wounded, he continued the fight with his carbine, still exposing himself as an example to his men. When this final overwhelming assault swept over the platoon's position his voice could still be heard faintly urging his men to carry on, until he lost consciousness. Only because of this officer's driving spirit and heroic action was the platoon emboldened to make its brave but hopeless last ditch stand.

Godspeed, gentlemen. Rest in peace with the thanks of a grateful nation. The world is an emptier place without you.

Bloomberg bans feeding the homeless, goes home to warm mansion, film at eleven.

Just when you think you've heard it all...some new & improved brand of lunacy causes you to reconsider.

The entire New York/New Jersey metroplex gets creamed by a combination hurricane and nor'easter, millions lost power, thousands were displaced, hundreds lost their homes, dozens lost their lives, people are desperate for heat, shelter, water, food, clothes, winter is digging in, and that simpleton liberal asshat mayor of New York City drops his pants & craps on those in need and those who would provide.

It seems Bloomberg's food police is at it again and outlawed are food donations to homeless shelters because the city can’t assess their salt, fat and fiber content. That means that the average Joe on the street can no longer give food to the homeless.

Yeah. Exactly. Let that one sink in a second or two.

The ban on food donations was made by an inter-agency task force that includes the departments of Health and Homeless Services. That means a-hole bureaucrats from Group A teamed up with a-hole bureaucrats from Groups B & C and who knows what else, and decided to make it impossible for people who want to donate extra food items to homeless shelters & what not all in the name of Liberal Asshat Do-goodery and Nanny State Control.

The edict, issued last March by Mayor Bloomberg, is part of a larger move by the city’s Department of Homeless Services (DHS) that dictates serving sizes and other nutritional requirements. These include limits on calorie contents, minimum fiber amounts and condiment recommendations, because as grown-ass adults, in their all-knowing opinions you are incapable of feeding yourself without government intervention.

So, if you're homeless and starving, it is better for you to die than to eat something that might contain salt, or fat, or God forbid, be a large soda....

That's right, scumbag. Stuff that face.

First they make you destitute and reliant on government programs and then they force you to eat what they provide. Way to go, Democrat voters!

No soup for you. They'll let you starve rather than let you think for yourself.

An unvarnished view on the US elections from the Brits

You and I both know that there's really no way, apart from Fox News and The Blaze, to get news and information without an obvious left-leaning liberal slant. The mainstream lamestream lapdog media in this country sabotages the Right and pushes the Left. They don't even bother to hide it anymore. They're out in the open with no consideration whatsoever to being unbiased and neutral, so journalistic integrity these days is a joke. Of course one could say that Fox and The Blaze only give you the Right's viewpoint but I prefer to look at it as exposing the Left's true plans and schemes and showing us what's REALLY going on.

Half the people under 40 in this country get their news from comedy.....let that sink in a second......They're so stupid that they think Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are actual news outlets instead of liberal comedy shows and think their snarky sarcasm is the gospel truth.

So I turn to across the pond.

I read The UK Daily Mail on a daily basis. I started off reading it for the British news stories, to see what's going on outside the US, and to chuckle at their entertainment stories since they tend to be a bit harsher in their views on pampered idiot celebrities. However, I kept playing with their iPhone app and started reading their US news stories and their op/ed articles as well, and being not-American, they can give an honest unbiased appraisal without fear of pissing off the average American idiot. Granted, the Daily Mail has a bit of a reputation for leaning conservative whereas papers like The Guardian are liberal. I have both bookmarked on my laptop.

I found the following two articles at The Daily Mail the day after the elections last week, and I was blown away by their blunt & brutal honesty. You won't find stuff like this in our media over here.

Forget 'hope and change'- this was a victory for fear and loathing

by Richard Littlejohn

Mitt Romney was right about one thing. He was secretly taped back in May telling fund-raisers that half the country would support Barack Obama because they depend on the government for all or part of their income.

Romney correctly identified America’s burgeoning entitlement culture as a major obstacle to a Republican winning back the White House.

‘There are 47 per cent of the people who will vote for the President no matter what . . . who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe they are entitled to healthcare, to food, to housing, to you name it.’

Striking an almost defeatist note, he concluded: ‘I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their own lives.’

Romney’s leaked remarks caused a predictable storm of confected outrage, but his analysis was bang on the money. Just as Gordon Brown cynically constructed a client state in Britain to maximize Labor's electoral advantage, so the Democrats deliberately drain the public purse to feed their supporters’ insatiable appetite for handouts.

When 47 per cent of the electorate depends to a greater or lesser degree on government largesse, the Democrats have only to target another four or five  per cent of voters to secure a majority.

With the overall result pivoting on a handful of battleground states, Obama’s supporters concentrated successfully on turning out the Democratic base and convincing sufficient wavering independents that they  would be hurt financially by a Romney victory.

This wasn’t a ‘hope and change’ election like 2008. Obama’s campaign this time was based on fear  and loathing. 

Romney was portrayed as a ruthless predatory capitalist, hell-bent on grinding ordinary Americans into the dust, sending their jobs abroad and denying them even rudimentary healthcare provision.

One advert showed Romney pushing an old lady in a wheelchair over a cliff. Another even accused him of causing a former employee’s wife to die of cancer. It was garbage, but it was effective. 

By the time of the first televised debate, which Romney won convincingly, the damage had probably already been done — at least in the minds of enough voters to help Obama belly-flop over the line in the swing states that mattered.

Even so, it still went down to the wire, with Obama only just taking a smidgin over 50 per cent of the popular vote nationally. This was nobody’s idea of a landslide, despite the electoral college system giving the President an impressive victory on paper. Obama actually polled ten million fewer votes than he did in 2008.

Many voters told exit pollsters they had only made up their mind on the day of the election. Some pundits think Obama’s handling of Superstorm Sandy may have swung it for him.

The hurricane certainly allowed Obama to pull on his bomber jacket, visit the scene and look presidential. But the fact is that Sandy, which hit Atlantic City at a speed of 80mph, spent more time in New Jersey than Obama. And five minutes after the President had tweeted pictures of himself empathizing with storm victims, it was everybody back on Air Force One for another election rally in Nevada.

Meanwhile, the devastation visited upon parts of the North East remains every bit as awful as Katrina inflicted on New Orleans in 2005, and the clean-up just as patchy and poorly coordinated.

Yet while George W. Bush was held personally responsible for Katrina, Obama’s visit to New Jersey was reported in the same reverential terms the Pathe newsreels used to reserve for the Queen Mum’s morale-boosting wartime walkabouts in the bomb-ravaged East End of London.

Romney wasn’t just taking on the President, he was battling a hostile mainstream media every bit as biased in favor of Obama as the BBC is towards Labor. Of course, the BBC loves Obama, too. And plenty of British commentators suspend their critical faculties when it comes to America’s first black President.

This probably explains why a recent opinion poll showed that 80 per cent of people in Britain wanted Obama to win. They only know what they read and watch on TV, which for the past few years has been a constant fanfare of fawning praise.

But just to put this in perspective, it’s not that long ago that three-quarters of Americans wanted Tony Blair to be their President. 

For the record, I welcomed Obama’s election in 2008, although I doubted whether he would live up to the hype. From the ashes of race riots of the Sixties to a black President 40 years later is remarkable testimony to America’s genius for renewal and reinvention. Obama’s election was a milestone on America’s journey from its white European roots to rainbow nation.

I have life-long Republican friends who voted for Obama in 2008, proudly, not reluctantly, because they believed he might unite the country after the turmoil of the Bush years. On that score he hasn’t only failed, he hasn’t even tried. 

America’s most popular talk-show host, Rush Limbaugh, joked on Tuesday that they might just as well divide America in half along the Mississippi river and let all  the Republicans live on  one side, with the Democrats on the other. 

He predicted that it wouldn’t be long before self-styled ‘liberals’ would be clambering over the wall — like refugees from Cold War East Berlin — to escape the Democrats’ big government, high taxes and economic irresponsibility.

Limbaugh’s got a point. On the basis of Obama’s record, he probably didn’t deserve to get re-elected. The deficit has soared to $1.3 trillion. Unemployment remains stubbornly high. The country is teetering on the edge of a fiscal precipice. The election result has changed nothing.

But Obama’s fortunate that more than half of voters still blame Bush for the financial crisis — and just enough of them are prepared to give the President another four years to put it right.

The worry is that the drift from a dynamic ‘can-do’ nation to a dependent ‘something for nothing’ society continues to stifle economic recovery. The world needs America’s red-in-tooth-and-claw capitalism to fuel global growth.

What’s of equal concern is that under Obama, as in Britain, rampant hostility to private enterprise and ‘the rich’ has flourished.

That probably cost Romney the presidency. He may have had the credentials to kick-start the economy and prosperity. But he wasn’t a perfect candidate — simply the best of a deeply unimpressive bunch. 

His self-made $200 million fortune — which should have been a source of admiration, not resentment — left him exposed to accusations of being ‘out of touch’ and only caring about ‘the rich’. (Now where have we heard that before?)

So can the Republicans win next time, or is this as good as it gets? Romney actually polled fewer votes than John McCain four years ago.

It didn’t help that, despite his Mormon faith, Romney came across as one of those aloof, ‘born-to-rule’ WASPs who have dominated the Republican establishment since the days of Abraham Lincoln.

With minorities flocking to Obama and America’s demographics shifting, can a middle-aged white man ever get elected again? Some commentators think not.

(Mind you, Obama’s campaign featured so many white, middle-aged male celebrities that some of his rallies looked like TV adverts for erectile dysfunction medication.)

Obama’s victory wasn’t  entirely down to minority support, though. The swing states which took him over the line are predominantly white, which suggests whites are equally comfortable with the idea of sucking on the government teat.

In fact, immigrant communities are responsible for some of the most enterprising sectors of the economy, especially Hispanics and Asians, who should be natural Republican supporters. 

Hispanics increasingly form  a vital component of the  American electorate.
That’s why my money is on the Republican candidate in 2016 being Cuban-American senator Marco Rubio.

I watched Rubio electrify a Tea Party rally in Florida 18 months ago. He’s the most impressive young politician on either side of the Atlantic.

He could win and win big. But only if enough of his fellow Americans are prepared to start asking what they can do for their country, not what their country can do for them.

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New dawn? This looks more like a new dusk

By Simon Heffer

The next four years for America look bleak. It’s not so much a new dawn as a new dusk. And with 50 months left in power, President Obama, his hands tied by a Republican-controlled House of Representatives, is a lame duck already.

He was re-elected despite a majority of voters thinking the economy is on the wrong track. And with tax rises that could wreck recovery due on January 1 – the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ – experts fear a recession here in 2013.

The most sensible policy – which a Romney administration would have pursued – is deficit reduction. Instead, the second Obama term will increase the deficit, further diminishing America’s economic power and credibility.

Around $1trillion a year will be added to debt – bringing the total to $20trillion by 2016. This will drive up interest rates on US bonds, and hard-pressed Americans will have to pay more taxes to fund higher interest payments.

Meanwhile, the President is determined to push through his ‘Obamacare’ health insurance policy, which would account for a large part of that increase. 

But the Democrats are well aware that the pumping of federal money into corporate bail-outs and infrastructure projects in declining regions is the key to creating a state clientele that keeps voting them back into office.

The administration is already devising stealth taxes to help pay for the bribes it wishes to offer the coalition of minorities that comprise its supporters. Some will corrode the core of American self-reliance, such as taxes on any substantial capital gains made from house sales. Others are simply opportunist, such as a tax on tanning salons.

These are all measures of how desperate the financial situation is – a reality apparently kept from most of the American electorate, so far.

Washington observers speak of the incompetence of the Obama administration – not just its ability to waste money, but also to target funds so badly. There is very little to show for the $787 billion fiscal stimulus of 2009. A fraction of it could have been used to create serious sea defenses around New York and New Jersey, to avoid the devastation of last week’s storm, for example.

Swingeing taxes that fall disproportionately on wealth-creators and entrepreneurs will not be all that stalls an economic recovery. So too will a failing national infrastructure whose state of disrepair is beyond pork-barrel handouts from Washington to local communities, but requires a big federal program – and big federal money.

Roads, rail and airports all cry out for investment and improvement. But as long as money is thrown at failing industries – such as in the car industry bail-out that helped Mr Obama win Ohio and Michigan this week – the administration cannot afford to take big strategic decisions such as these.

The domestic economy is, however, only the beginning of Mr Obama’s problems. The Republicans will do all they can in the House to obstruct high-spending and socially damaging policies – creating legislative deadlock.

And as America subsides into a welfarist, subsidy culture, so will its paranoia about China – already running at near-hysterical levels in some manufacturing regions – grow. America increasingly fears China both as an economic and a military titan – the two components of being a superpower.

Defense cuts in America are inevitable once the borrowing binge brings serious damage to the economy – as it will by mid-term, if not before – and that will increase the nation’s sense of vulnerability towards the Chinese. 

And America’s intractable unemployment problem – it was 8 per cent when President Obama assumed office and is 7.9 per cent now – is increasingly perceived as the result of a highly disciplined and well-trained workforce in China that systematically undercuts over-regulated American business.

Mr Obama must choose a new Secretary of State. Hillary Clinton – who may well run for the Democratic nomination in 2016 – has signaled a wish to stand down. Whoever succeeds her – and a favorite is John Kerry, who lost the 2004 presidential election to George W Bush – has to deal with Iran’s determination to become a nuclear power, and that state’s continuing threats against Israel.

The human cost of such a conflict would be terrible, and American diplomacy might not be equal to preventing either Israel or Iran choosing to strike at the other.

Less widely appreciated is the catastrophic effect it would have on the global economy through oil prices, and especially on an America that is already hobbling.

Obama’s supporters claim the worst is over, and the best is yet to come.

Such clichés patronize not merely the American public who, by re-electing him, have chosen the soft option rather than a confrontation with economic reality. They also patronize a substantial part of the developed world that, even if it no longer looks to America for political leadership, relies for its standard of living on the US being economically strong.

On the evidence of the past four years, notably Mr Obama’s record of serial economic incompetence, the next four are going to be exceptionally trying – and, sadly, not just for Americans.

Yeah, the election nightmare happened.

I can see Sandy Victims from my golf course!!!!

I won't lie; I was absolutely destroyed by the Obamessiah getting reelected. I honestly thought America was smart enough to pull its head out of its collective ass and right the ship of state. However, the liberal maggot media and elite Hollyweird scumbags and the blatant ass-kissery by NJ Governor Chris Christie torpedoed the Romney camp.

I was so distraught Wednesday that I could barely function. My wife thought I was coming down with something. I was numb, zombie-like, sullen. Yeah, I know that sounds ludicrous and childish, like I was throwing a tantrum, but after fighting the Good Fight for four years and seeing victory waved at me like a prize, the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, we now have another four years of strife and struggle ahead of us in our war against the forces of socialism, Marxism, Obamunism, kowtowing to Islam and the Left, of economic ruination and higher taxes, of Obamacare and the collapse of the American health system.

In other words, we're basically SCREWED and we can thank the asshats of the nation for giving it to us yet again.

How many people just blindly voted STRAIGHT TICKET? I likes me some Obama; he looks like me.... or I likes me some Obama, he gives me free shit like phones and food stamps and rent and free medical so I'll vote for him. Or Romney's a rich white guy who wants to force me to have babies and give all my money to other rich white guys. Trust me, I HAVE HEARD SHIT JUST LIKE THIS. I had a coworker admit to me he voted for Obama in 2008 because he was black. And I know people who did it again this time. I know unemployed people sucking the government tit who smoke dope all day and refuse to stop because they don't wanna pass a piss test to get another job so long as the free money is coming in and the Liberals think we're the frikkin' devil for wanting welfare recipients to pass a drug test to get their benefits. They voted for Obama, straight ticket......

In my county, the blind straight ticket voters elected a Democrat candidate for Sheriff. Now, the guy who won is a decent kid with reasonable law enforcement credentials, but his Republican opponent crushed him in the debate (a debate sparsely attended due to voter indifference) and had more support among current local law enforcement (based upon my own observations). I wonder if the welfare crowd who voted him in knew his election night party was held at the local country club on the outskirts of town while my guy had an open house with free food & drinks at the local Farmer's Market co-op building near their subsidized apartments...The previous Democrat Sheriff chose not to run again based upon his piss poor standing in the community, his department rocked by scandals including his own alleged adulterous misconduct that resulted in his own wife dragging the other woman (his secretary) across the Burger King parking lot, one of his Lieutenants being indicted for ethics violations after an FBI probe, and rampant crime problems throughout the county, and the dumb bastards elect another Democrat to replace him.

The hurricane/superstorm shredded the New York & New Jersey metro areas and they just said, "Screw it, vote wherever you can. Fax it in; we won't verify it. Write it on a cardborad box in crayon...who cares?" The below picture was from a friend on Facebook who has no idea how her vote counted or if it counted at all.

Thousands without homes or power or heat, and no one blaming FEMA like they did under Bush during Katrina even though we have the same results, and where is Obama? GOLFING.

A Sandy refugee at a cold camp in NJ

Those two idiots Akin and Mourdock with their asanine rape quotes and Broun with his religious demagoguery, is it any wonder the average American thinks the Right is populated with kooks and unfeeling robots? We lost seats in the Senate. Progressive RINO squish Scott Brown was defeated by a KNOWN LIAR. We lost Allen West in the House, a HUGE blow against Conservatism. Mia Love lost her race in Utah, another blow against us and a victory for those who think we're all white supremacists.

We get the government we deserve I guess, because the masses are ignorant and the populace does what the media tells them to do.

"A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master and deserves one" --Alexander Hamilton

"Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and gave him triumphal processions...Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the 'new, wonderful good society' which shall now be Rome, interpreted to mean 'more money, more ease, more security, more living fatly at the expense of the industrious.'" -Marcus Tullius Cicero