Blue Collar Muse

don’t be expecting a great deal of excitement when you show up in public. And please, DO NOT APPEAL TO OBAMA’S CHANGE MANTRA in your defense! Because you just have to know that there are people out there who would love to make the connection between a guy like you and Obama … Although one wonders how good a Nazi the guy can be if he appeals to a black man’s argument to support his Nazi sympathies. Well, it’s obvious the guy is confused … I’ll leave it to you to decide which guy …

Blue

Popularity: 63% [?]

Some things just have to be seen to be believed! Just when you thought the dilution of the Christmas season couldn’t get any worse, there’s this.

I just opened my email and found this email from the President-Elect.

SUBJECT:Your Obama Holiday Mug

Ken –

This holiday season, celebrate the historic accomplishment of our movement for change. Treat yourself or a loved one to a limited edition Obama coffee mug.

Make a donation of $15 or more right now and get an official Obama mug to mark an amazing year:

Celebrate our historic accomplishment

Items purchased by December 15th are guaranteed to be delivered before December 25th.

When you make your donation, you’ll be supporting the Democratic National Committee. The resources they invested in the 50-state organizing strategy made this movement possible — help us build for future victories together.

Share this amazing moment with your friends and family. Thanks to supporters like you, we all have the opportunity to bring real change to America.

Get your holiday Obama mug today:

But when you click through the link to see the mug, this is the picture:

Excuse me? What holiday are we celebrating with this? I guess we’re in for more change - evidently we’re changing from Christmas to Obamamas …

Blue

ADDITIONAL READING: David All emailed me to remind me the GOP is only marginally better … Meet Nick: The Symbol of What is Wrong With the GOP

Popularity: 87% [?]

CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) held its 14th annual banquet last night in Washington, DC. It was to be an elegant event, no doubt. As many such events are, it likely was to highlight past accomplishments, outline future plans and provide networking opportunities.

Keith Ellison (D-MN), the nation’s first and only Muslim Congressman, and North Carolina state Sen. Larry Shaw, D-N.C., a CAIR national board member were in attendance as CAIR’s plans went horribly awry. Instead of flashbulbs and newspaper tales of philanthropy and community service, there were lights helping video the very public serving of several subpoenas to top CAIR officials. World Net Daily reports

The dramatic surprise, caught on video, was a result of the research work of the Mapping Sharia Project, headed by Dave Gaubatz. He personally served CAIR Director Nihad Awad at the banquet tonight …

Four CAIR clients have filed a federal civil complaint alleging criminal fraud and racketeering against CAIR, a self-described public interest civil rights law firm. The lawsuit also names CAIR’s national leadership as individual defendants.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that Morris Days, the “resident attorney” and “manager for civil rights” at the now defunct CAIR MD/VA chapter in Herndon, Va., was in fact not an attorney and that he failed to provide legal services for clients who came to CAIR for assistance and who had paid for CAIR legal services.

The World Net Daily story also has video of the serving posted at their site.  Keep an eye on this story.  It’s only going to get bigger.

Blue

Popularity: 74% [?]

I started out commenting on a Lefty blog which strenuously disagrees with me on my stand that Obama is not my President. A commenter took exception to my contention

… Obama will be the President; but he will never be my President. Obama wants what he is unwilling to give. To get the job, Obama divided us. Now on the job, he yearns for unity’s strength. But leopards don’t change their spots. As he ran, so will he govern.

As proof of Obama’s unifying ability, the commenter, Ice, offered

“Obama divided us” — patently false, since Obama united us into a majority, the first majority to elect a Democrat since ‘76. Also demonstrably false, in that Obama’s rhetoric was uniting, and his plans and specifics were both appealing to the majority and specifically aimed at the majority.

I responded with the following and thought to bring it back here to get my readers’ take on the matter. I have edited my comment to keep it relevant to the discussion at hand. The offer I make Ice is open to any reader who disagrees with me. Any parties interested in adding support to my contention are welcome to do so as well. Discussion to take place in Comments. Please abide by the rules as outlined in the post.

Ice -

As far as Obama uniting or dividing us. I will grant you that he won the election. He even did so by being the first Democrat in 50 years or so to win with over 50% of the vote. Nice to finally have a majority on your side for once, I’m sure. But a 52-48 victory, while a majority is hardly evidence of Unity. It is still true that almost half of the country did NOT vote for him – tens of millions of people.

The reasons they did not, with apologies to your completely unsupported assertions that 5% of those voting against BO (more in some states) did so because of race, are grounded in issues and policies. It is here that Obama divides America. That divide is a scary one because a large portion of it is a divide between the “Producers” and the “Give me what you Produce-ers”.

Obama’s clearly Socialist leanings driving his “Spread the Wealth” ideology are divisive. And unnecessary. This is America (for a little while longer, anyway). Anyone can be whatever they want – isn’t that part of Obama’s draw? Why then shoot for the brass ring of “I’ll take whatever Government can coerce from Ken to give to me” and ignore the far more valuable gold ring of “I’ll work hard and make my own way and enjoy the fruits of my own labor”? Isn’t that what Barack, your hero, did? Why not emulate him, and by extension the Right wing principle of self reliance? Unless you believe the Left wing principle that you are not capable of succeeding on your own and have to be propped up by Government taking from your betters to support you in your inability.

I don’t happen to believe that. So many of BO’s supporters do. They voted “Gimmes” for themselves without considering the meaning of their vote. Or worse, because they actually agreed with the meaning of their vote.

Success is a heady thing. Once you’ve had a taste, it lingers for a while. You begin to play the “What if?” game. “I’ve done well in THIS area. What if I do as well over there? Or over there?” It is Obama that doesn’t want you thinking that way, not me or the Right. We want you taking counsel of your dreams! We want you to think about what could be instead of what is! We want you to be unsatisfied with your current state and strive for something better – as much better as you can imagine. We just think you should do it yourself – and then enjoy the fruits of your efforts knowing that you earned and deserved your success. It wasn’t taken from someone else who earned it and deserved it and given to you who has not.

To put forth effort, successful or not, to draw people to yourself based on that premise, sows division within the country that may take years or generations to wash out. Unlike most you may encounter, I am more than willing to debate you – on the issues, on the facts. I won’t be disrespectful or dismissive to you unless you treat me that way first. You interested? Be careful – the truth is not really on your side, here.

I’ve outlined one issue by which Obama has divided us. You can respond by showing how this is not divisive. But stick to the issue of how taking what is mine by force to give to someone else who has not earned it is not divisive. I’d be even more fascinated to see you turn this into something unifying.

Once we’ve finished this one, you can choose a point on which you believe Obama has brought unity to the country and we can debate that. Fair enough? (Editor’s note: This offer was made to Ice, elseblog. If this post generates intelligent debate without snark, I’ll extend that offer to some here.)

No more assumptions about my motives, no more making unsupportable claims, no more emotional responses with no factual foundations … just a discussion of the issues. If you think you can do that … I LOVE that sort of thing. I have to say it’s because most people end up finding they prefer the end results of Conservative principles more than Liberal ones. That’s not my fault … It’s just the nature of the discussion …

You game?

Blue Collar Muse

Popularity: 74% [?]

Eric Odom passed on this link to a story about a Michigan church service disrupted by Leftist whackjobs with an agenda. No doubt feeling frisky fresh from their election day victories, members of Bash Back Lansing erupted from various locations throughout the congregation to rush the stage, shout obscenities, engage in inappropriate behavior and generally try to terrorize Lansing’s Mount Hope Church.

Right Michigan reports,

On Sunday morning, amidst worshiping congregants and following unifying prayers that our President-elect be granted wisdom as he prepares to lead our nation through difficult global, social and economic challenges, the Michigan left declared open war on peaceful church goers.

They did it with banners, chants, blasphemy, by storming the pulpit, by vandalizing the church facility, by potentially defiling the building with lewd, public, sex acts and by intentionally forcing physical confrontations with worshipers.

Click through and read for yourself the entire story. These are the sort of people I expect to be proclaiming Obama as “their” President. I have no wish to be seen in agreement with them on anything any more than I would want to be in league with the Westboro Baptist bunch.

It sounds like they chose wisely, though. I can think of several churches I’m aware of that would not have permitted this to occur in their midst without bashing the “Bash Back-ers” back. It would seem Bash Back Lansing has a poor understanding of Scripture. The Book warns against seeking revenge and inappropriate responses to attacks. But nowhere does it say Christians cannot defend themselves. My guess is had they pulled this stunt in certain churches, a few 2nd Amendment supporters would have thinned their ranks before abandoning survivors to the uncertain mercies of husbands and fathers who don’t take kindly to even cartoon threats to their wives and kids.

I expect this sort of thing to be more common until people learn that yelling obscenities in a crowded congregation and defiling objects of worship are no more protected speech under the 1st Amendment than the proverbial cry of “Fire” in a crowded theater.

How long will it be before my repeating “It’s going to be a long 4 years!” gets old?

Blue Collar Muse

Popularity: 71% [?]

One of the biggest criticisms of Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign was he was long on empty rhetoric and short on specific plans.

That shortcoming seemed to be addressed when Obama included an “Agenda” section on hiis transition website Change.gov. It initially looked to be a great resource for determining Obama’s priorities and emphases would be. Indeed, the furor around his announced “civilian national security force” grew when this very “Agenda” page began to explain what it would mean.

The first change to Change.gov was to that “Youth Service” plan.  Obama altered his originally published intentions with a serious rewrite for America’s students. Now, Patrick Ruffini notes via Twitter that the entire Change.gov “Agenda” section is simply gone, replaced by meaningless drivel.

This probably doesn’t mean Obama has suspended plans to drive the country into the ground. More likely it simply means he has gone back to his original behavior of refusing to comment on the specifics of what his intentions are and how he will accomplish them. But we can hope, if only in our hearts, the changes signal a retreat from plans already laid out which thinking people realize are destructive. That would be change we could believe in.

Blue Collar Muse

Popularity: 52% [?]