Excuse me if I don't calibrate my words too carefully tonight.

Tonight His Majesty actually enraged me to the point of throwing some low-fat microwave popcorn at the television. The quote that caught my ear from his speech in Raleigh, North Carolina, today: "You hand me a $1.3 trillion bill, and then you're complaining to me 6 months later that we haven't paid it all back."

Leaving aside Majesty's new lowest common denominator theme of starting to blame Bush right and left for everything, here's the thing: I DIDN'T HAND YOU ANYTHING, YOU RADICAL LEFTIST FREAK! I didn't vote for Bush in 2000 or 2004 (nor for the left-wing flunkies that your party stuck up there), so don't you tell me that I handed you anything. I'm not a republican. I hate those right-wing controlled freaks. But yeah, I do BLAME YOU for YOUR total and complete lack of any fiscal responsibility whatsoever in taking the B.S. exorbitant spending of Bush and then ratcheting it up manifold.

Same old tired, mindless rhetoric from people like you on the far left or far right. "Look at us, we're just doing the same thing they did previously!" Well, Sir, that bull$hit does not work on me, nor on a huge swath of this country, because we're not one of "them." "We're no worse than them" arguments are the domain of the idiot. And we Independents aren't the idiots running around this country trying to foist radical world views down the throats of the majority of Americans through the two extremes' complete control of the two political parties.

So let's tie this off (sorry Jeeves for ending a sentence on a preposition): Obama's mindless, unintellectual statement quoted above is ultimately connected to the points raised in my first blog post today. To these ideologues on the far right and far left, there exists nothing in the world but themselves, people on the other extreme, and (if necessary) mealy-mouthed "moderates." His Majesty showed that same kind of ignorance today, basically saying that if you dare to criticize your Royal Monarch, then you are necessarily a member of the republican party. That's so unenlightened. So anti-intellectual. On a different occasion, I might say so republican. But tonight I say, so Obama.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE56S4MA20090729

Conservative & Liberal Attack Tactics 101

That's sounds like the title of a great college class. Maybe I could teach it. At any rate, as I've addressed previously in this space, a favorite attack strategy of both conservatives and libs (often to try to evade addressing the substance of an argument) is to try to paint anyone who disagrees with them on anything as being a member of the opposite extreme. But when they realize that such argument would have no credibility in a particular instance, then the fallback position is to attack the person as being a creature known as the mealy-mouthed "moderate." And look no further than today for an example of each.

First, I had a comment on yesterday's blog post (where I accused His Majesty of being a hypocrite). The comment was simply that I'm obviously a right-winger falsely holding himself out as an Independent. By the way, even if I am a right-winger (which I'm not), what does that have to do with Majesty's hypocrisy? But I digress. So presuming that guy is a lib (and I'm sure he'll correct me if he purports to be something else), that's an example of the preferred tactic set forth above.

Next, we see an example in the news today of the fallback tactic. Yesterday (as referenced in my No $%&@ Sherlock feature in the right sidebar), Senator George Voinovich (R-Ohio) accused his own party of "being taken over by Southerners." Today came the conservative response from Senator David Vitter (R-La.) (the goof pictured above), who accused Voinovich of being a "moderate, really wish washy" (link below).

Folks, these people on the two extremes are so predictable so much of the time. See through it. And realize that libs and conservatives have no place for you in anything they do unless you're also a liberal or conservative.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/29/vitter-defends-southern-influence-in-gop-slams-voinovich/

H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E.

In an apparently newly discovered 2004 radio interview given by His Majesty, he criticized Bush for rushing massive pieces of legislation through Congress and "nobody has any idea what's in them and nobody has read them." (See link below).

Fast forward to 2009, when His Majesty and congressional dems have engaged (e.g., cap and trade) and are engaging (health care reform bill) in the exact same practice that His Majesty previously harshly ridiculed. Hypocrite. "Change We Can Believe In!"? Nope, just more of the same.

http://newsbusters.org/stories/obama-2004-bush-rushed-legislationthrough-congress-without-allowing-time.html?q=blogs/p-j-gladnick/2009/07/27/obama-2004-bush-rushed-legislationthrough-congress-without-allowing-ti

His Majesty needs to bring ME on as an adviser.

A thought came to me as I was watching His Bullyness, Bill O'Reilly, tonight. O'Reilly was opining that one of Majesty's major problems is that "he's out on his own without a net," completely surrounded by people schooled and grounded in the "Chicago way." I think that's a bit of an overstatement, but there is some truth to it. I personally believe the real problem is that Majesty has been surrounded his whole life by both mentors and Slimebaugh-like ditto-headed followers coming out of the radical far left. The same has completely skewed and slanted the world view of an otherwise good and very intelligent human being. But I digress.

Getting back to O'Reilly's theory that Majesty is being very much hurt by the fact that he has no voice of reason anywhere in his inner circle, I think Majesty needs to ask Yours Truly, The Rager, The Big Daddy D, to become an outside adviser. Hell, while I may not care at all for Majesty's radical leftist policies, I might actually say yes to such a request out of a sense of duty to my country. Because I think Majesty really needs a big dose of common sense and reasonableness added to his portfolio. So hey Majesty -- want a few words on how to connect with middle America, on how to connect with the Independents that you are losing right and left? Look no further than right here. By way of an example, I could have told you in 2 seconds how huge a political mistake the whole "Cambridge cops acted stupidly" comment was (although you did recover well). And I could give you two or three ways to make your health care reform bill acceptable to the majority of the country. Don't let it ever be said that I haven't offered my services for the good of the country.

Screw you, American people! I don't have to read the bill if I don't want to!

In the latest example of how the leftist dems in Washington are completely out of touch with the majority of this country, John Conyers (D-Mich.) (Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee) had these words of wisdom today with respect to the massive health care reform bill:

"I love these members, they get up and say, 'Read the bill.' What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read it."

We're sorry, congressman. You are absolutely right. We really shouldn't place such high demands on you -- expecting lawmakers to actually read the laws that they vote for and all. What were all of us poor, feeble-minded masses thinking?!?

(And nevermind the fact that if a piece of legislation actually would take two days and two lawyers to understand, then just maybe we're dealing with a fundamentally flawed piece of legislation in the first place? No?)

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=51610&print=on

Hillary's on Meet the Press for an hour today and not one question about Honduras?

You've got deposed wannabe dictator Zelaya hanging out on the Honduran border this weekend in a situation that could erupt into violence at any moment (see link below). But instead of thinking to raise that issue even once with Hillary (at least that I saw), MTP host David Gregory was able to find time for a variety of topics that a Secretary of State should always be asked about, such as (1) Sarah Palin, (2) health care reform, (3) the Cambridge police "acted stupidly" story, and (4) Hillary's future political ambitions. Excuse me for being so naive as to think that important foreign affairs issues like Honduras might actually be raised with a Secretary of State before the domestic panoply listed above. There are some good, tough questions that could have been asked about the Honduran situation, the Chavez connection, and the responsive words and actions taken by the U.S. thus far. But Gregory totally missed the boat.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124856537154881451.html

Here's how authoritarian dictators like His Majesty's buddy, Hugo Chavez, operate.

Despite the policy of appeasement followed by His Majesty (just like George W. Bush) towards Hugo Chavez -- which under His Majesty has been ratcheted up to the point of actually taking phone calls from Chavez and thereafter doing Chavez's bidding (see first link below) when it comes to restoring Chavez-backed Zelaya to power in Honduras -- Chavez spouts today that "what the government of the United States and its allies want is simply for the [Honduran] coup [leaders] to consolidate themselves and be recognized, if not by law, then de facto." Now, when I saw this quote, my first question was WHERE did Chavez say it. Since Majesty and U.S. are bending over backwards to help Chavez and Zelaya these days, Chavez could only possibly be making such statements in his own country, where beating the constant drum of anti-Americanism is a lot of what has driven him to (and kept him in) absolute power. And sure enough, I see (second link below) that such statements were made to his own Venezuelan national assembly, i.e. these were words meant for the ears of his own folks, not us. In other words, they were pure propaganda for the Venezuelans to digest -- because they certainly have no basis in the truth, not given how His Majesty has done about everything in his power (absent sending American troops or the CIA to help Chavez and Zelaya) to be a good little agent of Hugo Chavez. As stated previously in this space, and in contrast to the path taken by years of past republican presidents in this country, I would like us to stay the HELL out of central and south american affairs. Which likewise means that we don't follow policies of appeasement with respect to authoritarian dictators down there and we most certainly don't take their phone calls and then play their requests in the days that follow (first link below).

http://independentrage.blogspot.com/2009/07/has-his-majesty-officially-become-hugo.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN25298234

I have to give His Majesty credit for one thing tonight: He is one hell of a politician.

I'm not sure how complimentary that really is, because it's also about the best thing you'll hear come out of my mouth for Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan as well. But I digress. Majesty the other day did something that he basically never does. He made a stupid political mistake in commenting on the Massachusetts Gates arrest. Not only is commenting on such a local matter very un-Presidential (as noted in this space yesterday), but moreover Majesty made assertions concerning the propriety of the incident when he had no factual basis for doing so. (Additionally fueling the fire, obviously, was the fact that the officer is white and Gates is black.) In short, Majesty's comment on the event was just plain dumb. Initially, he tried to stand by the comments yesterday, but this thing just kept getting worse and worse for him yesterday and today. But, like any great politician, he realized that fact and he followed his rare dumb political act of the other day with what I think was a stroke of political genius today by (1) expressing some regrets about his earlier statements, (2) phoning the officer and Gates, and (hear's the real kicker) (3) getting them to agree to come together to the White House to meet him and talk this over. This story was turning very bad for Majesty today, but he has now likely diffused the situation almost entirely (we'll see) or at least to a significant degree. Yeah, this man is one hell of a politician. And that's a lot of what makes him so dangerous to the country I know and love, in my humble estimation.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/crowley_pleaded.html

Oba-ttoming Out, Part 3: Free Fallin' -- His Majesty hits 49%.

New Rasmussen polling reports that Majesty's approval rating stands today at 49% -- the first time it has ever dipped below 50%. Significantly, 63% of Independents now disapprove of Majesty's job performance. Simply put, you've lost us, Majesty, and it's highly unlikely that you'll ever get us back. The way these numbers are falling, it's little wonder that the dems are making noise today about forcing a House vote on the health care reform bill next week -- a health care reform bill that is highly unpopular with a majority of the country. Like I said a few days ago, His Majesty is essentially behaving like a tyrant, and the congressional dems are his "little dictators" (to borrow an FDR phrase), tasked with carrying out the tyrant's bidding. What's occurring in Washington these days is unprecedented, folks. I just hope you have your eyes and mouths open on it.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

Hey Majesty: Someone vandalized my car -- Care to comment?

Also, here in KC we have an ongoing feud between the mayor and the city council. Any comment, Majesty? And I saw the police arresting some dude on the side of the road as I drove to work today. Any comment on that? What about this local gas station that got knocked over last night? Comment? I forgot to renew my car tags. What say you?

"President Obama today stood by his comments that the Cambridge, Mass., police department acted 'stupidly' in its arrest of Henry Louis Gates."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Story?id=8153681&page=1

Please allow me to introduce, His Majesty the TYRANT!

As an Independent who despises more than anything seeing ultra-left or ultra-right politicians try to ram things down the throat of the non-agreeing majority of this country, I've finally reached my breaking point tonight with His Majesty. He is basically a TYRANT. It doesn't matter that in the polls a majority of the people in this country oppose such massive, huge government pieces of legislation as the health care reform bill and the cap-and-trade energy tax -- His Majesty the TYRANT doesn't give a rat's behind about the Will of the People. No, he only cares about his little, hateful, tiny-minority far-left world view that people are stupid, need to be taken care of, and need to have as big of a federal government as possible -- It's called liberalism. And folks, this ain't some conservative talkin' at ya -- those far-right freaks, Rush Slimebaugh and all the rest of 'em, can go **** themselves too. I'm as fed up with the Tyrant's crap as I can be. Enough! You don't represent any of us, Tyrant! Stop trying to dictate to us your far left world view and agenda! "Tell me something, it's still We the People, right!?!?"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32093704/ns/politics-white_house/

More ridiculous "Mission Accomplished!"-type rhetoric today from His Majesty's White House regarding the economy.

Today Rahm Emanuel proclaims that over the past 6 months, "We have rescued the economy from the worst recession!" This follows recent and multiple similar statements from His Majesty himself as well as Biden about how the stimulus bill has "done it's job" and other like sentiments. You know, the more I see these people operate, the more I'm convinced that apart from ideology, they are absolutely no different from George W. Bush -- just more of the same slimey, disingenuous politicians. As I like to say, hardly "Change We Can Believe In!"

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=upiUPI-20090722-062929-3861&show_article=1

Why is His Majesty being criticized today for admitting that he's "not familiar" with a key provision in the health care reform bill?

Hell, no one else has read this massive bill either, nor will any dem bother to read the entire bill before voting in favor of it. That's just business as usual in Washington these days -- the tragic result of complete one-party control of the entire federal government.

http://blog.heritage.org/2009/07/21/morning-bell-obama-admits-hes-not-familiar-with-house-bill/

Has His Majesty officially become Hugo Chavez's agent?

Follow me through the timeline:

4/18/09: His Majesty visits the Caribbean for the Summit of the Americas and is pictured (as above) glad-handing and yucking it up with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.

6/28/09: The Honduran Supreme Court has the military kick Chavez-backed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya out of the country and a provisional president was sworn in. Zelaya was given the boot because of Chavez-like (and inspired) violations of the Honduran constitution.

6/29/09: The very next day, His Majesty calls for the return of Zelaya to power.

7/9/09: With Zelaya still out of power, Chavez makes a personal phone call to His Majesty's state department in order to ask for further help in restoring Zelaya to power.

Thereafter, the U.S. continues exerting "enormous pressure" for Zelaya's return, culminating with today's statements from His Majesty's state department threatening cuts in economic aid to Honduras if Zelaya is not returned to power (the state department phrases it in terms of the provisional government reaching a "resolution" of the current crisis with Zelaya, but a return to power is the only "resolution" that Zelaya and Chavez would ever accept).

Now, if His Majesty is not truly Chavez's new agent (although you could have fooled me), then at the very least Majesty is doing his best impersonation of George W. Bush, who began this policy of appeasement towards Chavez during the Bush years. I'm not advocating that we go around sticking our noses or the CIA into the affairs of Venezuela and Honduras, or that some ill-conceived Neo-Con approach be followed in any way. But I do favor restraint in this situation (although the train's already left the station there), and I also know that the U.S. has no business doing the affirmative bidding of authoritarian dictators like Chavez or of apparent Chavez-clones and puppets like Zelaya. This is ugly stuff, folks.

http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed1/idUSN20129879
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124804541071763577.html#mod=djemEditorialPage

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124683595220397927.html

Obama-Loo?

Today His Majesty rejected Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-S.C.) recent comment that the defeat of the health care reform legislation being pushed by Majesty and congressional dems would be akin to Napoleon's famous Waterloo defeat. Two points here: First, I think that this kind of over-the-top rhetoric from a senator is fairly inappropriate. You should stick with the substance of your opposition to the legislation, senator. While bloggers like me might like to have a little fun with such comparisons (see above), we're also not elected officials.

Second, and much more significantly, if Majesty's health care reform legislation does fail to pass, my worry is that such defeat won't be Majesty's Waterloo in that other pieces of costly, massive legislation (or potential legislation) still loom on the horizon for Majesty and the dems to try to ram through Congress (e.g., cap-and-trade and a second stimulus bill). It appears now that there is a very distinct possibility that Majesty's desired health care reform legislation is either going to face outright defeat or else will not get through Congress before the absurd August 7 deadline that Majesty has purported to set for it. But do repubs like DeMint really think that's going to be the end of this stuff?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/20/obama-administration-sets-health-care-reform-blitz/

Hey Majesty: Instead of taking out ads against members of your own party who disagree on health care reform, why not actually try to talk to them?

Change we can believe in? Nope, just more of the same.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/18/obama-political-team-turns-its-sights-on-house-dems/

Very disappointing that Watson came up short after coming so close. But what a ride!

My hat's off to him.

http://www.cbssports.com/golf/story/11969455

Look at the old fart from Kansas City!

59-year-old Tom Watson leads the British Open after three rounds.

He would be the oldest major champion by eleven years. But even if he doesn't win tomorrow, what a great story. I don't care who you are or where you live in the U.S. -- tomorrow's final round is must-see TV.

http://www.cbssports.com/golf/story/11966806

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/britishopen09/columns/story?columnist=harig_bob&id=4338112

Oba-ttoming Out, redux; Current polls show substantial disapproval of His Majesty's policies.

Majesty's personal approval rating continues to tread water around 50% (today it's 52% according to Rasmussen), but his policies are taking a real beating in the polling numbers this week. A Rasmussen poll on Wednesday reported that 62% of voters say the country is moving down the wrong track -- the highest level since February.

Turning to the health care reform issue, Rasmussen's new poll today reports that 50% of voters oppose (and only 35% of voters support) the creation of a government health insurance company, as is now being proposed in the health care reform plan of His Majesty and congressional dems. A Rasmussen poll on Monday similarly reported that 49% of voters oppose the health care reform plan in general, while only 46% favor it.

On the cap-and-trade bill, we'll hopefully see a new poll in the upcoming days. On June 30, Rasmussen reported that 41% of Americans oppose the cap-and-trade bill, with only 37% of Americans saying they support it. I think there's a very good chance that such disapproval figure will be up even higher once some new numbers come out (sorry Jeeves for ending a sentence on a preposition).

So, to circle back to a point I made earlier in the week: This huge rush to ram the massive health care reform and cap-and-trade bills through Congress appears to this observer to be purely a reaction to the declining poll numbers of both Majesty and his policies. They want to get this stuff passed before most Americans ever know what hit them.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics

Party Time! On YOUR Dime.

Yeah, I've been critical of ABC News from time to time, but a good journalistic get on their part this week with the story about the Federal Government spending $700,000 of OUR money so that federal employees can go get all liquored up and party & dance it up in a big way in Arizona (check out the video on the below link -- the pic above does not do this outrageousness justice)! All on OUR tab, all in the name of a so-called "stress reduction conference." I mean jeezal peezal, folks, that's the worst false pretense I've heard since Weapons of Mass Destruction. And the dems want to turn over the health care industry to this Federal Government? That makes about as much sense as a potpourri burner in an Alabama $hithouse.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=8084663&page=1

D'OH!

Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Elmendorf testified today that the dems' health care reform bill "would increase, not reduce, the burgeoning long-term health care costs facing the government." Methinks Elmendorf better watch out he doesn't get sent to the Tower.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=news-000003168293

State of Missouri does its best impersonation of the deranged mayor from Jaws.

Missouri DNR officials for 4 weeks put the kibosh on releasing a report showing unsafe E. coli levels in the Lake of the Ozarks around Memorial Day. They did so "because they were concerned about the impact it would have on tourism and the public." As for the impact on tourists' better health and welfare? Not so important, apparently.

http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1327618.html

Our favorite flunkie sidekick mascot speaks! "Iran will bring down the West!"

Ooooh, Mama, me so scared over here. Now settle down and go get me another beer, lackey.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSDAH65258120090716?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Only a leftist could make the wealthy appear somewhat sympathetic.

"Terrifying 57% tax looms for biggest earners" if Majesty's health care reform legislation becomes law.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07162009/news/regionalnews/dem_health_rx_a_poion_pill_in_ny_179525.htm

And just for good measure, let's slam small business owners and entrepreneurs too -- we need to take what you've earned and let it trickle down (errrr!, restribute it), through massive spending and ultra liberal legislation, to us poor feeble-minded white men from towns of 9000 who listen to country music.