Here’s your dose of “New Tone” for the week.

At a rally in Palm Springs, CA last week, progressive loons from Big Labor, Common Cause and Code Pink got together to give psych majors everywhere some live study material. The gentle, non-racist lefties demonstrated their commitment for a new tone by calling for the lynching of Justice Clarence Thomas, complete with the comment that he should be sent “back to the fields”.

Curiously, our friends in the MSM haven’t been frothing all over this actual video evidence of racism at a progressive rally. It isn’t, after all, a contributor to the narrative that all of this kind of stuff happens at Tea Party rallies. So remember, John Lewis says somebody from a Tea Party group yelled a racial epithet at him and it gets months of news coverage despite no video evidence. Yet when a progressive cousin-breeder lets his true nature show at a lefty rally we get a collective yawn from the media brain trust.

Hope. Change. B.S.

Here’s somewhat of a palate cleanser from the same rally. Andrew Breitbart decided to throw on some rollerblades and check out the crowd. He’s since convinced me that I need to get out to more of these things with a camera just to mess with their heads. For America, people, For America. (h/t to Pat Dollard for the vid)

Image is everything

Since his impossible schedule prohibits Vice President Joe Biden from making it around to every stimulus spending project across the country, the government has come up with the idea of posting project signs to show your $787 billion of hard-earned future tax money at work.

Even if you no longer are at work because the national unemployment rate that was supposed to be capped at 8% by the spending is now 9.5% (higher west of the Mississippi).

The signs are an idea used widely across the country but perfected in Chicago Democratic politics, where everything good carries the name of the current mayor (but none near the unemployment offices or where traffic jams might occur).

Not that any of the bright orange signs are intended to remind potential voters which elected public officials should be remembered as taking care of things come election time.

Between President Obama’s shift to playground mode for the upcoming elections and this little Chicagoland political throwback, we’ve officially moved into the “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” portion of the Hope and Change era.

Remember, it’s not that things are really bad, it’s that we’re too stupid to understand the awesomeness as it’s happening, according to the president and his flying monkeys in the press corps. There seems to be a fervent, blind, desperate hope that the repetition of a wishful mantra can obviate the awakening of the electorate before November.

Despite the constant wailing from the unhinged left that this is all about race, an intellectual examination of the debate reveals that it is, and always has been, about the role of government. There are those who continue to ignore reality and believe that a hyperactive federal bureaucracy that ignores elementary school math principles can “help”. It might in the short run, the way one of those “payday loans” with usurious interest rates help. You feel better for a moment but the payback is a ten ton bitch with halitosis.

The federal behemoth can’t practice efficiency because it’s antithetical to its nature. Couple that with the fact that the people who advocate for greater federal action are also the least likely to ever seek accountability and it’s already a disaster before the ingredients are even mixed.

The insanity of these people is perfectly illustrated by none other than-SHOCKER!-President Obama’s home state of Illinois. Deeply in debt and unable to pay its bills, Illinois has nonetheless spent a cool $650,000 on these signs.

$4.4 billion in debt but able to piss away $650K with impunity-where’s the incentive to be efficient there?

Democrats of a bygone era operated somewhat within the rules of economic reality. The modern hybrid Progressive Democrats who dominate the left right now aren’t bound by anything other than short-term perception. Whatever they can shove down your throats in the name of feeding you what you need is acceptable. When choke on all that help they’re backs will have already turned to you and they’ll be moving towards the next “beneficiary” while you’re being quickly dispatched in the memory-wipe that’s necessary to maintain a Progressive point of view.

So, good luck with that, everyone.

I would say kazillions but President Obama might think it’s an actual number and try to work it into the next budget.

Here’s the deal, kids: after a year of being deeply involved in the Tea Party movement and following the psychotic disconnect that’s been parading as news coverage and commentary regarding it, I’m finally getting as angry as they’ve been saying I am.

Referring to the Left’s ongoing unhinged responses to Tea Party people as a “psychotic disconnect” is actually the last olive branch that I have to use. By letting them play the insanity card I’m giving them an out from being exposed as pathological liars.

Let’s be honest, I’m not exactly known as the calmest voice in any discussion. There’s even video of me from one early tea party where I’m quite animated. I was exhausted and the sound system was awful so I was yelling loud enough for the people in back to hear me. Not my finest moment but it also doesn’t define all of the other work I’ve been doing for the past year. Unless you’re narrow minded, of course.

Which brings me to the Left.

My frustration is this: how do we explain to the various blowhards on the Left that they are the embodiment of everything they keep accusing us of being? Finding the answer to this question has become my new mission.

Make no mistake about this: the Left (all, not just the fringe) side of American politics owns intolerance. They may not have exclusive rights but they’re far and away the majority shareholders. This isn’t speculation on my part. I’m a conservative who has been in the entertainment industry almost my entire adult life. I spent three years living in Maxine Waters’ district and I’ve been living in Henry Waxman’s for five. I know whence I speak.

Last Thursday, I spent an entire day co-hosting a tea party event in my hometown, Tucson, AZ. My co-host was James T. Harris, an African-American (he actually prefers “an American of African descent”). The crowd was so extraordinarily mellow that I began casting an eye about to see if someone was dealing weed at the back of the crowd. As with all protests, there were some really stupid signs but none that were racist or violent. The whole affair was so pleasant that I was emotional and sincere during my closing remarks. Anyone who knows me knows that borders on surreal.

After returning to Los Angeles I spent the weekend watching coverage and reading about Tea Party anger and racism. Ninety-nine percent of it, of course, coming from people who have never been within a short flight of a Tea Party or in the same room with someone who disagreed with them politically.

Then Bubba closed his zipper and opened his mouth.

When former President Clinton resurrected his whining about anti-government sentiment and the Oklahoma City bombing and weakly attempting to tie it to the Tea Party people, I began to approach a level of pissed off-edness that could almost lend some isolated credence to the crap coming from the Left.

Despite the robotic cool of President Obama, the American left is in a permanent state of hysteria at the moment and understandably so. They’ve been employing what used to be their most powerful weapon, repetition of a lie in the media until the lie sticks, for over a year against the Tea Party movement and it hasn’t worked. A decades-old model of suppressing dissent has been rendered impotent in an age where access to information increases every day. Predictably, Fairness Doctrine lust has been heating up lately. Since it won’t be enough to shut down talk radio, the FCC has been trying an end-around to increase its regulatory powers over Internet access under the guise of “net neutrality”.

The hysteria has been manifesting itself in some almost amusingly ironic ways. Endless parades of white people are whining about the number of, um, white people at the Tea Parties (see this week’s “Kruiser Control” for more on this). After a day where the only violent outbursts came from lefty infiltrators, the MSM continues to express concern about the “tone” of dissent on the right. This is the same MSM, of course, that was tone deaf during the entire Bush era. Lance Baxter called Freedom Works to accuse them of being stupid and was, let’s see, stupid enough to leave his phone number and end up losing his job. (naturally, Baxter is going the victim route and threatening to sue Freedom Works because he’s an unmitigated moron) It’s as if these people are staring into mirrors (see: actual violence at left-wing protests) and bitching about what they see but, in classic leftist fashion, assigning the blame elsewhere.

This contentiousness is easily broken down.

We oppose them on policy, they oppose our right to an opinion. That, quite simply, is un-American. President Obama himself has dismissively responded to dissent by saying, “That’s what elections are for.” Actually, Mr. President, the Constitution doesn’t assign free speech to a certain day of the year. We’re allowed to complain about our government (Hear me, Bubba?) whenever we want.

Modern American Democrats and progressives are terrified of anyone who disagrees with them. Yes, terrified. It’s the only explanation for the relentless virulence and lying about the Tea Party movement. Why, I can’t be sure and I won’t speak for them (another difference between me and them). This fear of differing opinions has been a hallmark of the post-Vietnam era Left, however.

If I had to guess about the reason for it I would have to look at the nature of most left-wing policy these days. It’s mostly emotional and not logical. When we peer too closely at the economic realities of something like health care reform and see inconsistencies it takes away from the warm gooeyness of it all. One of the president’s biggest selling points for it was that Medicare and Medicaid needed to be fixed. So, the government’s last attempt at “helping” is now so screwed up that it absolutely has to jump in and help again? Can I get a “WTF”?!?!?

That’s how we got to where we are.

Now, if I say, “I don’t think there’s a big historical record of government involvement introducing savings or efficiency,” they say, “You’re a racist!”

Then they’ll claim to be tolerant and open-minded while calling me a Nazi.

Surely somebody on the Left is going to get this sooner or later, right?

Or are they all Lance Baxters?

Two heartbeats away…

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged her colleagues to back a major overhaul of U.S. health care even if it threatens their political careers, a call to arms that underscores the issue’s massive role in this election year.

The Botox Hag, of course, is safe in her left-of-Castro congressional district so she’s not asking her colleagues to make a sacrifice that she herself would. She’s an arrogant, power hungry mad woman whose primary concern is enacting onerous legislation that will expand the federal reach into our lives.

And she’s very much aware that she’s representing the fringe.

Lawmakers sometimes must enact policies that, even if unpopular at the moment, will help the public

The single most grating aspect of progressive politics is the condescending “We know what’s best for you…” meme. To the Nancy Pelosis & Barack Obamas of American politics, the citizens are a mindless blob in need of full time bureaucratic supervision. Maybe it’s not that simple, they look at us as a cash hemorrhaging machine too.

Immediately after saying legislators should ignore voters and do what’s unpopular, Pelosi says:

We’re here to do the job for the American people.

Which is it, Grandma Nan? Ignore the people and do what you think is best or do what the American people want you to do? Are we having another one of your “episodes” here?

Pelosi and President Obama both know that any horrendous health care reform legislation they get passed will be almost impossible to repeal. We’ll be burdened with more government inefficiency that Democrats twenty years from now will tell us absolutely has to be fixed. That’s how the lefties stay in business. They get the federal government to create something then run it into the ground (Medicare, anyone?) then tell us that the only way to survive is to let them do it all over again.

We know the above scenario is not viable or sustainable but a group of people who couldn’t properly care for a pet hamster wants us to believe they’ve got it covered.

If they do get this passed, the freakin’ Xanax better be free.

After we pay for it with our taxes.

Or something.

If the elections were held today…

Republican candidates lead Democrats by nine points in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot.

The new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 45% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 36% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent.

But, of course, the elections aren’t being held today. We should never underestimate the ability of the GOP hierarchy to look so deeply into the gift horse’s mouth that they get stuck coming out the other end.

There’s a little news here for those afflicted with third party fever:

In a three-way congressional contest with a Tea Party candidate on the ballot, however, the Democrat earns 36% support. The GOP candidate comes in second with 25% of the vote, and the Tea Party candidate picks up 17%. Twenty-three percent (23%) are undecided.

The most nightmarish scenario would have the Republican higher-ups constantly backing the wrong (i.e. establishment and not conservative) candidates, thus alienating even more people and almost forcing a third party to emerge. Then the Democrats can bust out with the “Happy Days Are Here Again” crap.

UPDATE: Sarahcuda weighs in on the third party nonsense.

You see, it’s really not just about telling people what you’re having for lunch.

A study conducted by the Emerging Media Research Council out today found that Brown had a more effective strategy of using social networking tools including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to promote his campaign and connect with supporters.

Here’s a look at the numbers:

Facebook Posts since Jan. 1: Brown (128), Coakley (58)

Facebook Fans: Brown (70,800), Coakley (13,529)

Tweets since Jan. 1: Brown (142), Coakley (144)

Twitter Followers: Brown (9,679), Coakley (3,385)

YouTube Videos: Brown (57), Coakley (52)

YouTube Video Views: Brown (578,271), Coakley (51,173)

The study concludes that Brown’s use of social media helped in several ways, including boosting his name recognition both in and out of Massachusetts. They note that just 51% of Massachusetts voters had heard of Brown in a Nov. 12 poll, by Jan. 14 his name recognition was at 95%.

The name recognition outside of Massachusetts is probably the most important factor here. Back in olden times, candidates relied on cash flow that primarily came from the locals who were aware of them or the national party. We Internet loons will send our money anywhere, though. Even to candidates on the other side of the country who we didn’t know about a month ago.

The Twitter hoards have been going nuts for Brown in the past week and a half. While it can’t be measured directly, the social media activity was through the roof on the day Brown raised a million dollars after having set a goal of half that.

On either side of the aisle, social media networks provide an avenue for the power in the parties to return to the people. The old model of writing a check to the RNC or DNC and hoping they spend it wisely has largely been dismantled in the last eighteen months.

While the press was writing story after story about the demise of conservatism in America in the wake of Obama’s victory, we found a way to turn commiseration into action on Twitter (it was a happy accident, anyone who says it was be design is full of it).

Joe Trippi said today that this election is about “outsider vs. insider”. I would say it’s more about “old ways vs. new ways”.

The “change” that was so lusted after during the 2008 election may actually be on its way from a completely different direction.

Yes, it’s a stab at tying two stories together for one post.

First, how’s that “health care everybody wants” working out for you, Harry?

More than half of Nevadans are unhappy with Sen. Harry Reid, according to a new poll commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. It’s the worst “unfavorable” rating he’s received in the newspaper’s surveys for this year’s election, and it comes amid quiet speculation — or perhaps wishful thinking by his opponents — that it’s time for the Nevada Democrat to retire rather than lose re-election.

In response, Reid told the Review-Journal Friday he wouldn’t consider stepping aside as did Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, whose announcement this week prompted rumors that the Senate majority leader might think about ending his political career now that he’s the most vulnerable incumbent.

Get that? All of Reid’s effort on HCR hasn’t done anything more than render him the “most vulnerable incumbent”. Shouldn’t the fact that so many prominent Democrats are being asked to stand in the middle of the tracks with their backs to the onrushing train in order to get this monstrosity passed tell them something? Anything?

It’s gotten to the point that the GOP in Nevada can throw random Vegas showgirls’ names into the mix and Reid loses the hypothetical election.

Fortunately for Team Lightbringer, Reid isn’t the savvy politician that his Botox-frozen counterpart in the House is. He’s just a slobbering lap dog who rose to the top because of a complete dearth of talent on the Democratic side of the aisle in the Senate (I’ll see your Barbara Boxer and raise you a Roland Burris).

Of course, Reid can still be a money-gathering machine and make it a real fight. As we saw in Minnesota, any close election that can be turned over to the courts doesn’t bode well for the GOP. Judges know who wants to turn the entire legislative process over to them and are more than willing to oblige by manufacturing votes out of thin air to put or keep Democrats in power.

Reid’s swan dive in the polls shows up in tandem with the revelation that he’s kind of an old-school racist prick.

On page 37, a remark, said “privately” by Sen. Harry Reid, about Barack Obama’s racial appeal. Though Reid would later say that he was neutral in the presidential race, the truth, the authors write, was that his:

Encouragement of Obama was unequivocal. He was wowed by Obama’s oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama — a “light-skinned” African American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,” as he said privately. Reid was convinced, in fact, that Obama’s race would help him more than hurt him in a bid for the Democratic nomination.

What, no “well-spoken” in there too, Harry?

Naturally, if a Republican had said this it would be the lead story for the next month in the New York Times and over at MSNBHonkie.

Instead, I’m sure the MSM will now devote its efforts to explaining that there is actually a context in which its perfectly acceptable for a white guy to say “light-skinned” and “Negro dialect”. And we all know that context will involve nothing more than one’s voter registration.

At the very least, none of Reid’s challengers need to worry about campaigning too hard against him while he keeps campaigning against himself.

It all depends on what you’re seeing here.

For the first time, the US has more government workers than goods-producing workers

If you get a feeling of free-falling into the dark bowels of an unsustainable future, you’re a conservative.

If, on the other hand, “Happy Days Are Here Again” begins playing in the back of your mind, grab some Kool-Aid and group hug a delusion.

And Paul Krugman keeps telling us that FDR didn’t do enough.

The entire freakin’ country is turning into the DMV and the people currently in charge want to accelerate the process. Then again, I’m just fear mongering if I caution against an America full of unmotivated, impossible-to-fire, government types who blankly stare at the rapid demise of the tax base that sustains them.

Hope and Change. Feel it.

OK, I made that last part up.

Reporting from Beirut – Yemeni security forces killed two suspected Al Qaeda militants today in an operation that also left two alleged fighters wounded, the nation’s official Saba news agency reported.

Amid fears of Al Qaeda attacks against foreign targets, Japan, Germany and France closed their embassies to the public in Yemen a day after the U.S. and Britain ordered their missions closed.

“Groups claiming to be part of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula have issued threats against foreign representatives in Yemen,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters in Paris, according to Agence France-Presse.

Yemen has come under scrutiny following an alleged attempted by a Nigerian on Christmas Day to down a Northwest Airlines flight en route to Detroit from Amsterdam. Authorities say the suspect claimed to have received orders from a cleric in Yemen.

Western officials have vowed to step up aid for the impoverished country, which is already fending off a violent rebellion in the north and a separatist movement in the south. Dozens of nations are scheduled to take part in a Jan. 28 donors conference in London meant to boost Yemen’s security and bolster its economy.

I’d much rather see Western countries fork over money for this effort rather than pay Bangladesh a small fortune because they’ve watched “An Inconvenient Truth” too many times and fear all the pants-wetting will make the country disappear.

I only mentioned amnesty because the White House is bringing it up as a way to make sure the president isn’t lying when Obamacare begins covering undocumented lights in the universe illegal aliens.

You see? All the president has to do is wave the Scepter of the Unicorn King, POOF! the aliens into legal status and suddenly he’s doing everyone a solid.

These are truly magical times we’re living in. In fact, President Obama said in a recent interview that he’s considering taking a teaching position at Hogwarts when he leaves office in 2012.

To reiterate: in order to get one pretty unpopular piece of legislation passed, the Dems are resuscitating an even more unpopular idea as selling point to usher it through.

If only they believed in the representative republic as much as they do global warming.

I thought it was just the Republicans and the insurance companies who were dangerous.

A Nigerian man tried to ignite an explosive device aboard a trans-Atlantic Northwest Airlines flight as the plane prepared to land in Detroit on Friday, in an incident the United States believes was “an attempted act of terrorism,” according to a White House official who declined to be identified.

Usually “declined to be identified” is used in questionable or bombshell situations that people want cover from after bringing them to light.

Here we have a guy trying to blow up a plane. I’m not getting the nuance.

Federal officials said the man wanted to bring the plane down.

If by “federal” you mean “Republican” I can continue to pretend the New York Times is a news organization.

“This was the real deal,” said Representative Peter T. King of New York, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, who was briefed on the incident and said something had gone wrong with the explosive device, which he described as somewhat sophisticated. “This could have been devastating,” Mr. King said.

I’m with ya bro.

The incident is likely to lead to heightened security during the busy holiday season.

Likely?!?!?

Who does the American public have to blow to get some responsible protection around here?

“We’re trying to ascertain exactly what he had and what he thought he was doing, but our sense is he wanted to wreak some havoc here and was attempting to do just that,” the official said. “Whether at the end of the day he had the ability to do that is what I think we’ll be able to pull together over the next several days as we investigate this.”

The “official” is-SHOCKER!-one of the federal variety.

That’s the only way you can make “explosives+jet fuel”=”wreak some havoc”.

A senior Department of Homeland Security official said that the materials Mr. Abdulmutallab had on him were “more incendiary than explosive,” and that he had tried to ignite them to cause a fire as the airliner was approaching Detroit.

Once more, with feeling: “fire…jet fuel…”.

A federal counterterrorism official who asked not to be identified said Mr. Abdulmutallab was apparently in a government law enforcement-intelligence database, but it is not clear what extremist group or individuals he might be linked to.

And people want these diploids in charge of health care.

President Health Care was too busy basking in his own glow to care.

The real world is full of misogynist jihadi idiots who want to kill us because we’re…you know…us.

The Obama world is full of insurance companies WHO WANT TO CHARGE YOU FOR PAYING FOR YOUR HEALTH CARE.

You can clearly see who the real enemies are.

If you are a real American.