"I think it's time for the Democrats to talk about reconciliation!!! "

All this crap because of a lost election

In Legal Insurrection's live chat about the Wisconsin recall election a commenter named Jim Temple posted the following, "I think it's time for the Democrats to talk about reconciliation!!!"

Mr. Temple is entirely correct in that sentiment. 

There is nothing wrong with fighting the good fight, but this was not a good fight: Democratic Senators precipitated a crisis by fleeing the State instead of accepting election results and doing their job; the Capital building was mobbed for days on end; teachers closed schools by skipping classes to protest; doctors filled out fraudulent excuse slips to protect protesting union members; the Union's threats and intimidation were disgusting; transparently partisan court decisions were issued from the Madison Circuit Court; and finally, enormous amounts of money was wasted on a recall over policy rather than malfeasance.

The voters of Wisconsin have spoken again, and they deserve humility from the Democrats, and an acknowledgement that the election results are legitimate, rather than more spin, more whining and more ill behavior.
 

Obama needs a better bus

Zzzzzzzzzz...

I see Obama is off on another one of his non-campaign bus trips. This non-campaign bus trip is evidently for him to tout his 'Jobs, Jobs, Jobs'  bill, sing the praises of Occupy Wall Streeters and point out what slime-wads Republicans are.

What strikes me is that the Presidential Bus is an ugly, uninteresting looking monstrosity. By God, if we're going to send bags of money to the Canadians to build our Made in (North) America Presidential Bus, the least they could do is provide us with something stylish.

For that reason, as a public service, I went to DieselPunk and found some snappy looking buses which are pictured below and after the jump. Any of them would be an improvement in my opinion.

Concept art for a futuristic bus

Look hard enough and you could probably find one of these babies on a used bus lot

Tragedy in Wisconsin

Picture from Display Fake Food

The following report out of Wisconsin is truly shocking. Not the part about a protestor confronting Rep. Robin Vos (R-Burlington) in a bar and berating him. This is Wisconsin after all, such hijinx are to be expected.

No, the surprising part is what happened next -- the protestor got so wound up that he poured a beer over Vos's head. 

A beer? Look, trashing the Capital building while banging on drums and chanting "this is what democracy looks like" is bad enough, but a Wisconsonite wasting a perfectly good beer by pouring it over somebody's head?

From JSOnline AllPoltics Blog post Protester dumps beer on Rep. Robin Vos' head:

The incident happened at the Inn on the Park, 22 S. Carroll St. Witnesses said a man came into the tavern and swore at three lawmakers, calling them criminals. A bartender said the man used the words to the effect of "money" and "damn Republicans," according to the police report.

Another man was recording the incident with a video camera when the bartender asked him to stop. That's when the person who had been yelling dumped the beer on Vos' head, according to the report.

The police report says beer splashed onto two other lawmakers, Rep. Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford) and Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette).

Vos told police that the man has been harassing him since February, though previous encounters had not involved physical contact. The representative did not know the suspect's name, but a female State Capitol employee, who was with the group, gave police a name and said Capitol Police would have his contact information, according to the report. Police believe he's a 26-year-old.

Yeesh, and I thought the zombie protest  and the boat protest were off-the-rails, but this is beyond the pale. The protests in Wisconsin are truly getting out of hand if the Cheeseheads are disrespecting their Official State Drink. 

Oh the horror, the horror!
  

The promulgation of gaffes

"He who warned, uh, the…the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms, uh, by ringin’ those bells and um by makin’ sure that as he’s ridin’ his horse through town to send those warnin’ shots and bells that uh we were gonna be secure and we were gonna be free…and we were gonna be armed."

The story making the internet rounds today is about Palin's rather incoherent answer to a question about Paul Revere (quoted above -- from Sully, hence all the dropped 'g's and what-not). To her credit she doesn't just repeat the mythology of the Wadsworth poem [ED: D'oh, speaking of gaffes, that should be the Longfellow poem], but she certainly makes a hash out of her answer. Whatever her train of thought was, she lost track of it and the answer became a muddle. Let's be honest, if those words had flown out of Obama's mouth we would be happily snarking away about them.

In fact, it reminded me of the time when, while tugging at the heart strings over Little Billy needing his asthma medicine during a stump speech, Obama lost his teleprompter (above video). He tried to string the story out while waiting for it to be fixed, but for some reason the word "inhaler" wasn't on the tip of his tongue and he drifted into incoherence. He actually mimed squirting an inhaler into his mouth as searched for the right word. I remember it because I had great fun mocking him when the video came out.

The difference is that you had to search YouTube for Obama's derailed train of thought, while Palin's will no doubt be played again and again on the networks and the late night comedians will have a field day with it. Further, we all know she is going to be asked, again and again, stupid and condescending questions about Paul Revere. That's just the way it is -- the media is their megaphone and they use it. 

My suggestion is not to try to untangle her muddled paragraph to counter that megaphone. They won't much listen, and to the extent that they do you'll just end up sounding muddled yourself. Instead, the counter should be asking the media, again and again, why they budget so much print space and air time to carrying the Democrats' water. Why is Palin's stumbling answer on the evening news while Obama's gaffe about Little Billy's breathalyzer shunted directly to YouTube?

Slowly but surely chipping away at the media's editorial judgement has worked, and it is reducing the volume of their megaphone in the process. Keep at it.

Finally, speaking of Paul Revere, remember these goofballs?