The Snarky Files - Euripides' Views on the Week (September 17)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gets all choked up about 30 year old violence, bringing crass emotionalism into the political debate about the healthcare bill.

The Snarky Files. Snarky means several things. I prefer the definition of "sharply critical." Here's my take on some news stories this past week. No real news here, just snark.

All Choked Up
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got all choked up about perceived violent (or at least very vocal) "attacks" on the healthcare bill. Spoken like the true liberal she is, instead of appealing to calm emotions, Pelosi instead broke into crass emotionalism herself, comparing the rhetoric over the healthcare bill to the political climate in San Fransisco 30 years ago that culminated in the assassination of Harvey Milk.

“I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw … I saw this myself in the late '70s in San Francisco,” Pelosi said, choking up and with tears forming in her eyes. “This kind of rhetoric is just, is really frightening and it created a climate in which we, violence took place and … I wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made.” (Real Clear Politics)

For pity's sake. This woman is the Speaker of the House and has to resort to teary-eyed and oblique references to a homosexual politician and then compare that with those who protest against the current healthcare reform bill? Get a grip Ms. Speaker. (Watch the video here.)

Of course, the Republicans, not to be outwhined by the likes of Pelosi, quickly denounced the ploy.

"The Speaker is now likening genuine opposition to assassination. Such insulting rhetoric not only undermines the credibility of her office, but it underscores the desperate attempt by her party to divert attention away from a failing agenda," [Rep.] Peter Sessions [chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee] said in a statement. (The Washington Post)

The left, having overturned the establishment in order to recreate it in their own image, have now become the establishment. Leftists seemingly cannot stand up in the court of public (or even Republican) opinion, opting instead to such emotional arguments to try, once again, to silence the opposition.

The modern image of a pimp and his ho? Hardly. And is that the pimp's mom? She'd be the one who lent him that fur coat.

A CORN Tale
I am in serious danger of being amused by ACORN's recent misfortunes. You've heard the news about James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles "infiltrating" ACORN offices in not one, not two, not three, but four separate cities and getting ACORN employees to offer advice about how a pimp and a prostitute can buy a house, evade taxes, and hide importing underage girls from El Salvador to be used as prostitutes.

First of all, take a look at the couple in the photo. Can anyone look at these two and seriously think they are a pimp and a prostitute? That ACORN employees took them seriously doesn't help ACORN's credibility. At the least ACORN needs to provide better education and training for its employees.

Of course, the mainstream media avoided the entire "affair" because 1) the two young adults who scooped the story were not part of the elite media; 2) Fox News reported the story (so other agencies must ignore it by default); 3) the story interferes with the media's love affair with Obama.

Yet these two, along with Andrew Breitbart, have succeeded in creating a real, bona fide political controversy. The US Census Bureau has cut ties with ACORN over this. Governor Schwarzenegger urged the California Attorney General Jerry Brown to a full investigation of ACORN activities in California. (KCRA News) The US Senate voted 83 to 7 to deny housing and transportation funds to ACORN. (Reuters) And to top it off Nancy Pelosi said this about the Senate vote:

"I don't even know what they passed," Pelosi told The Post yesterday. "What did they do? They defunded it?" (New York Post)

Thus exposing Pelosi to further well-deserved public ridicule for her grasp of the current political scene.

Seriously amusing, yet sad at the same time, was this California ACORN employee caught on tape. If you haven't seen any of these videos, this is the best one....



Pressing Matters
Related to the previous story, Pew Research recently released a study that shows that public opinion of the news media's accuracy is at a twenty year low, bottoming out at 29%.


With news reported by the likes of Keith Olbermann or Katie Couric or Charles Gibson, is it any wonder so few trust the mainstream media?

Judging Obama
Jeremy Lott at Politico, took a look at President Obama's track record so far, assessing his success with such legislation as: cap and trade - in danger of serious neutering; The Employee Free Choice Act - called on the carpet for doing away with union secret ballots; and healthcare - with its hidden public option and implicit support of federally-funded abortions.

What was Lott's conclusion?

It’s entirely possible — nay, likely — that Obama will lose on all three big issues. He’ll probably take that personally. As he has pushed for the passage of his reforms, his public approval ratings have taken a beating, and voters have started to trust the Republicans more than his party on a host of issues. (Politico)

Unless President Obama finds some sort of middle ground with the Republicans, he may well become the most divisive president in recent history. And no, it's not the Republicans fault. Just ask George W. Bush.

Aborted Laws
Arizona recently passed legislation to require a 24 hour waiting period before obtaining an abortion, to require abortions to be performed by doctors, and to require parental consent for an underage girl to receive an abortion. Planned Parenthood, that bastion of abortion "rights," and the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights have challenged the laws, asking for a court block on their enactment. (AZCentral.com)

Of course, the news story pays no attention to any pro-life argument, or any argument based on anything not clouded by the unreasonable and senseless connection of uncontrolled abortion with "reproductive rights." The news can only concur with the radical abortionists:

"Here we have very strong evidence that this law will seriously impact a woman's ability to access abortion," said Suzanne Novak, a lawyer for the center. "It will prevent some women from getting an abortion at all." (AZCentral.com)

Well, isn't that the point of the new law? Has women's rights boiled down to the single issue of unlimited access to abortions on demand? And is there no place to give voice to the inalienable right to life of the unborn?

Mired
President Obama unexpectedly ran into Democratic opposition to his policies in Afghanistan. As Senator John Kerry put it:

“At the very moment when our troops and our allies’ troops are sacrificing more and more, our path and our progress seem to be growing less and less clear,” Kerry said at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. (Bloomberg)

Kerry sounds like he's talking to George W. Bush, except his remarks are too polite.

The problem remains: What is Obama doing in Afghanistan? What are his goals? What is the grand strategy? What is the exit strategy? And why does all this sound like Bush III?

Abuse of Power
During last year's election, much was made of George W. Bush's perceived abuses of power. From wire tapping to data mining, Bush was constantly called to the carpet for power handed to him by our Congress. Now, with the new guy in office, power seems too much of a temptation for Obama to pass up:

The White House is collecting and storing comments and videos placed on its social-networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube without notifying or asking the consent of the site users, a failure that appears to run counter to President Obama's promise of a transparent government and his pledge to protect privacy on the Internet. (The Washington Times)

Abuse of power is abuse of power. Statism is statism. It's time for We the People of the United States to take back control of an out-of-control government.