It’s the free speech, stupid

The New Neo Posted on by

Like Iowahawk, I’m finding that the attacks on Joe the Plumber have made me angrier than almost anything else in this long and nasty campaign.

It seems to be the most naked example of the technique of crushing anyone or anything that might threaten Obama’s ascension to the Presidency. Never mind that Obama is winning in all the polls. Never mind that Democrats seem poised on the threshold of a sweep of all branches of government. This man must be destroyed because he had the audacity to speak in such a way as to elicit a response from Obama that made the candidate look bad. Continue reading →

Ignorance of government: the filibuster—who knew?

The New Neo Posted on by

When Republicans try to point out the efforts Bush, McCain, and other Republicans made to curb the excesses of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac back when it might have done some good, one of the responses Democrats offer is: “hey, Republicans were in charge of Congress until 2006, so if restraints on Fannie and Freddie didn’t get passed then it must have been the Republicans’ fault.”

This tells me that such commenters either are dissembling, or they are hugely ignorant about what used to be called “civics” back when I was in school.

Perhaps those Ayers & Company-engendered “reforms” about teaching “social justice” have persuaded schools to ditch the sort of courses that used to teach us how our government actually works. Or maybe the current ignorance of same has little to do with Ayers, or with schools at all. Maybe these things are taught but nobody’s listening and nobody’s remembering—after all, it’s dull and boring and has nothing to do with our daily lives, right?

Wrong. Continue reading →

How bout them Sox?

The New Neo Posted on by

The Red Sox just came back from a 7-0 deficit to tie it in the eighth and then win the game.

So the fat lady isn’t singing yet, and the Sox get another chance at the ALCS. It’s the second biggest comeback in playoff history.

The fans go wild.

Well, Joe may be a plumber, but at least he’s not a bitter clinger

The New Neo Posted on by

I don’t know what it will take to wake America up to Obama. It’s not as though ample evidence of his Leftist history, lying, close associations with shady/radical/hateful characters, arrogance, and elitism hasn’t been available for some time now. If the majority of people haven’t perceived him clearly by now, maybe nothing will cause them to do so by the time the election rolls around.

But if further demonstration of the last two characteristics in the list would help, I hereby offer up the following video of a sneering and condescending Obama, besotted with his own coolness:

[ADDENDUM: Revenge on Joe.]

I must be a glutton for punishment: liveblogging the third Presidential debate

The New Neo Posted on by

I must say my usual antipathy to debates has grown. And I don’t think these debates have made much of a difference at all so far—and barring some very strange and unforeseen circumstance, I don’t think this one will.

But duty calls, and I’m liveblogging.

So far it’s very wonky. I don’t know about anyone else, but I find Obama’s voice very monotonous.

“Spreading the wealth around”—McCain is wise to repeat that particular unsound bite.

If “Joe the Plumber” didn’t exist, they’d have to invent him. Continue reading →

The MSM still controls the message: change and hope

The New Neo Posted on by

We can talk all we want about the power of the blogosphere and the talk shows. But the fact is that most people’s view of facts—and their interpretation thereof—is shaped largely by the MSM. For young people, the ground has also been lovingly properly prepared and fertilized by an educational system increasingly dominated by liberal and even Leftist thought.

Add to this the propensity of most people to either be so heavily involved with their own lives that they have little time to dig beyond the headlines and the TV ads, and those who just have little interest and inclination to do so, and you have a recipe for a populace more and more susceptible to media manipulation. Continue reading →