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Archive for May 19th, 2009

He didn’t leave the left, the left moved to the far left

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

This is an interesting article from the archives of my old blog. From four years ago, is the story of a former progressive liberal, a campaign worker for Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern and a staffer for hard left democrat Senator Howard Metzenbaum, explains why he is leaving the left, more precisely, the American cultural left and what it has become.

Here are some highlights.

I choose this day for my departure because I can no longer abide the simpering voices of self-styled progressives — people who once championed solidarity with oppressed populations everywhere — reciting all the ways Iraq’s democratic experiment might yet implode.

My estrangement hasn’t happened overnight. Out of the corner of my eye I watched what was coming for more than three decades, yet refused to truly see. Now it’s all too obvious. Leading voices in America’s “peace” movement are actually cheering against self-determination for a long-suffering Third World country because they hate George W. Bush more than they love freedom.

Susan Sontag cleared her throat for the “courage” of the al Qaeda pilots. Norman Mailer pronounced the dead of Sept. 11 comparable to “automobile statistics.” The events of that day were likely premeditated by the White House, Gore Vidal insinuated. Noam Chomsky insisted that al Qaeda at its most atrocious generated no terror greater than American foreign policy on a mediocre day.

These days the postmodern left demands that government and private institutions guarantee equality of outcomes. Any racial or gender “disparities” are to be considered evidence of culpable bias, regardless of factors such as personal motivation, training, and skill. This goal is neither liberal nor progressive

I smile when friends tell me I’ve “moved right.” I laugh out loud at what now passes for progressive on the main lines of the cultural left.

Who would have guessed that the U.S. senator with today’s best voting record on human rights would be not Ted Kennedy or Barbara Boxer but Kansas Republican Sam Brownback?

He is also by most measures one of the most conservative senators.

All of which is why I have come to believe, and gladly join with others who have discovered for themselves, that the single most important thing a genuinely liberal person can do now is walk away from the house the left has built.

HT to Ms. Malkin

Biden’s own aide calls him a liar

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

Personally, I don’t think Joey Biden, the democrat Vice-President of the United States of America, is a liar. Incompetent and highly prone to say things without even attempting engage his brain first, but not a liar in this case.

The case in point is Biden, who’s own party never trusted with a Senate leadership position that he couldn’t claim on pure seniority, leaked to the press the location of a secure safe room in the official Vice-President’s residence.

Leaked really isn’t the correct word to use here. Biden didn’t “leak”, he told members of the press over dinner at the Gridiron Club.

His staff is now spinning like a top on crack in an attempt at damage control. Biden’s aide Elizabeth Alexander had to officially deny Biden’s words to the press. The source of the story Ms. Alexander is denying is none other than the leftist pundit Eleanor Clift of Newsweek. Expect Obots to try and spin this latest Biden gaffee as yet another attempt by the right to smear Biden.

Ms. Clift, welcome to the vast right wing conspiracy. Your membership card and decoder ring will be delivered by secret courier as soon as he stops by Joe Biden’s “guest room” to pick up blank membership forms Vice-President Cheney left behind.

Update: Ace has some delicious snark on the subject.

Remember Cheney’s famous “undisclosed location”?

Somehow he managed to keep it undisclosed.

Joe Biden, who I am assured is much smarter than that idiot Sarah Palin, decided to disclose it, apparently.

He actually gives details. And the precise location. Which is right under his home.

Let’s be honest here. Biden is dumber than a stump. BHO picked him as VP for two very clever political reasons.
1. He helped bring Pennsylvania, an important state in the election.
2. The dude is better than bullet proof vest. The mere thought of President Biden is worth 20 Secret Service agents on the Presidential detail.