30 Years Sounds About Right…

…with no parole.

Men Steal Bullet Parts Intended For Iraq, Afghanistan From Army

A couple of Lake City Ammunition Plant employees learned the hard way that it’s never a good idea to steal from the Army.

They face serious jail time accused of stealing thousands of pounds of copper parts used to make bullets.

Charles Dale Osborn from Odessa and Timothy Duane Langebin from Independence face serious federal charges. They’re accused of stealing more than 16,000 pounds of copper and selling it to a salvage company in Moberly.

Dave Fusselman said he wasn’t sure why the two men were bringing the pieces to his Moberly, Missouri salvage company every three or four weeks. He could have looked the other way, but instead he called police.

“They never suspected someone out here would take down their plate and watch them,” Fusselman said.

The US Attorney’s office said the two Lake City Army Ammunition Plant employees were stealing bullet cups used to make 7.62 millimeter rounds for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It’s not very often that someone dares to interrupt the flow of ammunition to the troops,” John Cowles, Asst. US Attorney said.

Cowles said the stolen copper would have made 1.5 million rounds of ammo, about two weeks worth of production at the plant. The suspects made more than $45,000 from selling it but now they face sabotage of war materials charges, which could mean as much as 30 years in federal prison.

“It’s very unique,” Cowles said. “I’ve never been involved with anything that had to do with such a direct impact against United States Armed Forces when they are conducting combat operations somewhere.”

“Those guys weren’t dumb so much as they came across the wrong operation,” Fusselman said.

Knowing now where the copper came from, Fusselman hopes the plant evaluates security.

“It’s amazing that many loads of copper came out and there’s no system in place to show they were coming up short,” he said.

Fusselman said he was concerned he’d have to pay back the Army for the copper but he got a letter from the US Attorney saying he could keep it. The plant felt it could be damaged and couldn’t make bullets out of it and the US Attorney said he should be rewarded for doing the right thing.

1: Kudos to the plant owner for speaking up.

2: WTF is wrong with the Lake City arsenal that they didn’t notice 16,000 lbs of missing copper jacket cups? (Rhetorical question. Yes, I know the answer – “Government.”)

3: Kudos to the Justice Dept. for not gigging the guy who fingered the thieves. Damned straight he should be rewarded.

4: I don’t know if I’m more impressed that 16,000 lbs of jacket cups are needed to make 1.5 million rounds or that it only takes the plant about two weeks to crank out that many!

Story h/t to Gandalf23.

Quote of the Day.

From George F. Will:

Barack Obama may be exactly what his supporters suppose him to be. Not, however, for reasons most Americans will celebrate.

Obama may be the fulfillment of modern liberalism. Explaining why many working-class voters are “bitter,” he said they “cling” to guns, religion and “antipathy to people who aren’t like them” because of “frustrations.” His implication was that their primitivism, superstition and bigotry are balm for resentments they feel because of America’s grinding injustice.

By so speaking, Obama does fulfill liberalism’s transformation since Franklin Roosevelt. What had been under FDR a celebration of America and the values of its working people has become a doctrine of condescension toward those people and the supposedly coarse and vulgar country that pleases them.

Not the QotD, but do read the whole thing.

This is the QotD:

I was appalled at last night’s debate and it further proves my point that we may not deserve someone like Barack Obama. One would think that that the first 45 minutes would cover important issues like the economy, Iraq, health care, and education. The four topics discussed?

-whether or not Obama is an elitist vis a vis his comments in San Francisco
-Reverend Wright
-William Ayers
-Flag pins.

If these are the issues that people want to focus on, our country is doomed. There is no other way to put it. I am hoping that voters in 2008 are smarter than that.

Discriminating

Remember when that word meant “discerning,” or “judicious?” Whereas now it means “bigoted” or “prejudiced.”

Well, I’m guilty of prejudice.

There are two documentary films out, or coming out, that I find interesting for different reasons. One I want to see. I’ve prejudged it, and judiciously discerned that it’s worth some of my time. The other, I don’t. I’ve prejudged it, and judiciously discerned that it’s not worth my time or my dime.

The one I want to see, and am willing to spend some of my hard-earned money on, is Indoctrinate-U by Evan Coyne Maloney. Regular readers of TSM will understand why.

The one I’m going to skip is Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed by and with Ben Stein. You know, I like Ben Stein, but I think as he gets older he’s getting further and further “out there.” This movie pretty much settles it for me – I can’t take him seriously any longer.

UPDATE, 4/20: WRT Expelled, quoth Professor Reynolds,

I hate writing about this stuff because — pardon me while I speak plainly — the people on both sides of this issue are assholes. I mean, even by the low standards of Internet discussion. I’m getting email calling me a “theocon shill” for mentioning Stein, and email telling me I’ll burn in hell for calling Intelligent Design “pernicious twaddle.” Frankly, the rabid atheists and the rabid creationists seem an awful lot alike, and no proper hell could be truly hellish without the both of them yammering away at each other. Feh.

Er, “amen”? I mean, I’m not getting the “fanmail” he is, but I certainly understand his position.

More Right-Wing Language Manipulation.

It’s getting to be all-Markadelphia-all-the-time around here (and that sh!#’s going to cease, soon) but here’s his latest comment on my previous post, which – once again – requires a response:

Alright, so I guess I am little perplexed here.

Surprise, surprise.

When you first posted on my blog, Kevin, it was in regards to the Zumbo affair. You assured me that the large majority of gun owners were not Nazis and that Zumbo was out of line for calling people who owned AKs terrorists.

They are not, and he was. But you skipped over the part where he called for a ban.

You also have assured me that gun owners , especially the ones that read and post here, are fighting for their individual rights. You have accused liberals of being fascists, insisting and demanding that their way is the “right” way, forcing people to think and believe their truth and that you are not like that.

And here we have the redefinition of terms.

Markadelphia’s “fascist” point is brought up by the recent discussion of Jonah Goldberg’s current bestseller Liberal Fascism, wherein Mr. Goldberg points out the philosophical underpinnings of the modern Liberal/Progressive movement, and that those underpinnings share – in remarkable lockstep – the same basic philosophic principles of actual fascism. Problem is, there’s no real agreed-upon definition for the word “fascism,” because it’s been abused to the point throughout the last seventy-plus years that it has simply become synonymous with “bad.” Mr. Goldberg presents his own definition, going back to Mussolini, which I think is an accurate one:

Fascism is a religion of the state. It assumes the organic unity of the body politic and longs for a national leader attuned to the will of the people. It is totalitarian in that it views everything as political and holds that any action by the state is justified to achieve the common good. It takes responsibility for all aspects of life, including our health and well-being, and seeks to impose uniformity of thought and action, whether by force or through regulation and social pressure. Everything, including the economy and religion, must be aligned with its objectives. Any rival identity is part of the “problem” and therefore is defined as the enemy.

Apparently Markadelphia’s understanding of the word “fascism” is limited to the last sentence of that definition.

He is, as usual, in error.

I listened to Schoenke on the radio today and he made it pretty clear that he is the enemy of NRA and gun bloggers like yourself. I have read the things that have been said about him, including the Confederate Yankee blog, and I have to say I see a pattern developing here that doesn’t jibe with what you have told me. I’m afraid I’m having trouble seeing any allowance for individuality at all. Instead, I see a group of people saying basically the same thing:

Think like us..exactly like us..ANY wavering and….you are against us, are our enemy, and do not support 2nd amendment rights.

Correct me if I am wrong (Glad to.) but isn’t this the very thing that you accuse liberals of doing?

If the reaction occurred with just the Zumbo thing…well…he did call decent people terrorists…but now Schoenke? Who will be next?

Here’s the difference for you, Markadelphia:

Mr. Schoenke and his compatriots want to use the government (“the state”) to take any action that they deem necessary to achieve “the common good.” You know: “The last law didn’t help, but the philosophy cannot be wrong. Do it again, only HARDER!

I, and those like me here, want the government to do only that which it is chartered to do, and part of that charter is to protect and defend the pre-existing right to arms. As you note, Mr. Schoenke has declared us his enemy, because we don’t want state power used against us in his quest to achieve that which they believe is “good.” We oppose his objectives. It just so happens that we all believe (largely) the same thing – that the state should not do what he wants it to do. Some of us (David Codrea comes immediately to mind) are far more militant than others, but what we all share is a common understanding of what our form of government is not supposed to have the power to do. It’s the niggling details on which we disagree. But David is not my enemy, nor am I his.

None of us want to use the government to “impose uniformity of thought and action.” Ray Schoenke does, and his excuse is the achievement of “the common good” according to his beliefs.

So which of us fits the definition of “fascist” better?

Re-read Mr. Goldberg’s definition of “fascism.” Read up on the history of Mussolini prior to WWII.

Then think very hard about your support for Barack Obama in conjunction with the sentence,

“It assumes the organic unity of the body politic and longs for a national leader attuned to the will of the people.”

I would ask: “Recognize yourself?” but I know that question would be futile.

I’m Not Fast Enough…

In comments to my previous post, Markadelphia proffers his “proof” that Barack (middle name shall not be mentioned) Obama is not anti-gun:

And now comes the comment that you all have been waiting for…demanding that I give you..I have to admit that even I was shocked when I heard this just a few short minutes ago driving home….

http://www.huntersandshooters.co…d=212& Itemid=70

Read and weep, folks. Could this group be part of the “millions” who were offended as Kevin says? And what could this piece of legislation be that Mr. Schoenke is talking about?

http://www.senate.gov/legislativ…on=2& vote=00202

So, could it be true? Did the “gun grabber” Obama actually vote in favor of gun rights? Are their some gun owners that favor Obama? Well, Unix and Ed asked for proof that Obama was not a gun grabber. There’s your proof, fellas.

According to Schoenke, he thinks the latest furor is “a bunch of nonsense.” He also went on to say that Senator Obama is a “firm supporter of 2nd amendment rights.”

Oh, but wait…according to other gun advocacy groups (and I am CERTAIN everyone here ) the American Hunters and Shooters Association aren’t a “real” gun advocacy group. They are anti-gun. Odd, because their web site sure looks like they enjoy guns quite a bit.

And you believe everything you see – as long as it matches what you expect to see. We’ve been all through this, ad nauseam, in the comment threads.

So, there you have it, folks. A group of gun owners who weren’t offended by Obama’s comments, have endoresed him, and actually listed key legislation that he voted for in favor of 2nd amendment rights. Shocking…appalling….whatever will you do?

As I’ve mentioned before, one of the “problems” with the growing gunblogging community is getting something posted before someone else does it first – and better.

I give you Confederate Yankee’s take. Please, go read.

Mark, don’t bother.

I Don’t Know Why, But This Still Astounds Me…

First, I discover that in July of last year, Senator Obama asked a crowd of Iowans:

“Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?” the senator said. “I mean, they’re charging a lot of money for this stuff.”

The New York Times helpfully informs its “hip, urban” audience:

The state of Iowa, for all of its vast food production, does not have a Whole Foods, a leading natural and organic foods market. The closest? Omaha, Minneapolis or Kansas City.

Mr. Obama, perhaps sensing a lack of reaction from the crowd, moved along to the next topic. After all, he never claimed to be a farming expert.

Just a guess, but I’m willing to bet most Iowa farmers are more familiar with iceberg lettuce than arugula, and most non-farming Iowans shop at the local Fareway which probably doesn’t carry arugula. The NYT covers his faux pas with its glib “He never claimed to be a farming expert” line, but what he illustrated was that he had absolutely no feel for (and I’ll capitalize) Middle America.

And he still doesn’t.

Nor is he alone in this, apparently obviously.

I was also not aware that his latest “guns and God, xenophobia and bigotry” gaffe was reported by none other than his acolytes at The Huffington Post by someone who supports him and who paid $2,300 to see him at that posh Hollywood mansion appearance that was otherwise closed to the media. Not only that, but the piece written by Mayhill Fowler was submitted for editorial review! And Ariana Huffington herself, while on David Geffen’s palatial yacht in Tahiti (probably eating arugula in her salads), gave it the go-ahead!

I am reminded of Bernard Goldberg’s analysis of Eric Enberg’s CBS Evening News “Reality Check” piece from the 1996 campaign of then-candidate Steve Forbes’ “Flat Tax” proposal. The piece was so biased that it drove Goldberg to write an editorial on it that was published in the Wall Street Journal. That op-ed cost Goldberg his job at CBS, and his book Bias grew out of his experience. In Bias he wrote:

Jerry Kelly from Enterprise, Alabama, spotted the bias in the Enberg report. Jerry Kelly spotted the wise guy and the one-sidedness. And Jerry Kelly is a general building contractor, not a newsman.

Who didn’t find anything wrong with Enberg’s piece?

First off, Enberg didn’t.

His producer in Washington didn’t.

The Evening News senior producer in Washington didn’t.

Jeff Fager, the executive producer of the CBS Evening News in New York didn’t.

His team of senior producers in New York didn’t.

Andrew Heyward, the CBS News president and Harvard Phi Beta Kappa, didn’t.

And finally, Dan Rather, the anchorman and managing editor of the CBS Evening News didn’t.

Not one of them spotted anything wrong with a story that no one should have let on the air in the first place.

Here, nobody saw anything wrong with what Obama said, in Hollywood, on Millionaire’s Row, at a $2,300-a-ticket fundraiser.

Mayhill Fowler didn’t.

Marc Cooper, editorial coordinator for Huffington Post didn’t.

Amanda Michel, another HuffPo editorial layer didn’t.

Editor Roy Sekoff didn’t.

Ariana Huffington herself didn’t.

But millions of Middle Americans did, and they’re not newspeople or politicians.

This was not a story dug up by Obama’s opposition, this was a story released by his supportersnone of whom recognized the bomb that Obama had built and that they were dropping.

And what is apparently worse is the report that Obama’s “aides tell reporters he is privately bewildered that anybody took offense” – thus his If I worded things in a way that made people offended…” non-apology.

What’s worse than that? Apparently a big chunk of the country thinks his characterization of rural America is correct, not just the “hip, urban” crowd and those who ride around on 425-foot yachts or pay $2,300 to see candidates in the multi-million dollar mansions of their most fervent supporters.

I said in a comment that I predict no matter who wins the Democrat nomination, the Presidential race is going to be the nastiest, dirtiest election this nation has seen since Andrew Jackson ran. Commenter Bilgeman, however, may have the right of it:

We can survive a Jackson campaign.

I’d be more worried about a repeat of the 1860 election.

The Great Divide between the Left and the Right in this country just keeps getting wider, and nowhere is that better illustrated than here.

BAG Day.

I didn’t buy a gun for “Buy a Gun Day” this year, I bought that back in November. Instead, I bought a scope for that rifle I bought back in November that, I’m ashamed to say, I have yet to put a single round through. To complete (mostly) the package, I purchased a Leupold 4.5-14x50mm Mk 4 LR/T M1 scope with Tactical Milling reticle, and I purchased it from fellow gunblogger USCitizen off his Commercial Site. This is what I bought:


(Click for full size)

I also bought a set of Burris Xtreme Tactical medium-height rings that I fervently hope will give me both sufficient barrel clearance and eye-relief. I probably won’t have everything in hand by this weekend, but I very much hope to get the assembled rifle to the range before the month is out, and I’ll post pics as soon as I can.

Markadelphia Defends Obama’s Elitism

This one deserved a post of its own. In response to yesterday’s Quote of the Day, Markadelphia responds:

About two weeks ago, Senator Obama was on Hardball and told the audience that he believed that marriage was defined as being between a man and a woman. There was little or no reaction to this comment, the “liberal” media did not cover it wall to wall for two days, and the gay community did not go ape shit.

Yeah, why is that? Could it be because he’s a Democrat?

Compare the reaction at that time with his most recent comment….hmm…we’ll come back to that in a moment.

So, why don’t we look at the FULL quote.

“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow those communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.

And it’s not surprising to me then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti immigrant sentiment or anti trade sentiment as to way to explain their frustrations.”

Based on the reaction he has received about the comment, I think his statement is quite accurate. The Qotd reaction (and Kevin’s) is quite typical of the “rock granite” stubborn refusal to look at who is actually fucking them over and continually blame the “other” which, ironically, is what Obama is describing. It’s a distraction from the serious issues of the day and it puts energy into something that will ultimately solve no problems–which works out perfectly for the people (Bush, Cheney and pundit machine) who supposedly are on their side.

I have a tradition of letting other people’s words say things if they can do it better than I, so here I will quote Marc Danziger, the “Armed Liberal” from Windsofchange.net on the full quote:

Here’s Obama’s original quote:

So, it depends on where you are, but I think it’s fair to say that the places where we are going to have to do the most work are the places where people feel most cynical about government. The people are mis-appre…I think they’re misunderstanding why the demographics in our, in this contest have broken out as they are. Because everybody just ascribes it to ‘white working-class don’t wanna work — don’t wanna vote for the black guy.’ That’s…there were intimations of that in an article in the Sunday New York Times today – kind of implies that it’s sort of a race thing.

Here’s how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long, and they feel so betrayed by government, and when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn’t buy it. And when it’s delivered by — it’s true that when it’s delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama (laugher), then that adds another layer of skepticism (laughter).

But — so the questions you’re most likely to get about me, ‘Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What’s the concrete thing?’ What they wanna hear is — so, we’ll give you talking points about what we’re proposing — close tax loopholes, roll back, you know, the tax cuts for the top 1 percent. Obama’s gonna give tax breaks to middle-class folks and we’re gonna provide health care for every American. So we’ll go down a series of talking points.

But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Obama believes that the people he’s discussing – poorer, gun-owning, church-going economic left-behinds in rural America are bitter and negative toward government because it hasn’t delivered.

There’s an alternate hypothesis, which is that they don’t think it’s supposed to. That there are a solid body of Americans who believe – with whatever justification or historical validity – that government’s role is to leave them alone. I’ll bet that people who believe those things tend to migrate away from major cities or never move to them, tend to go to church a lot, believe in guns, and in American culture. They are – wait for it – culturally conservative.

Marc thinks that liberals “can reach them, should reach them, and must reach them.

I disagree, because I’m one of the ones who believes that government’s role ought to leave me alone as much as possible. Here’s the Rev. Donald Sensing on the same point:

Let’s look at Obama’s laundry list of Pennsylvanians’ dysfunctions again:

  • bitterness
  • “Clinging to”

  • guns
  • religion
  • racism
  • chauvinism
  • anti-trade sentiment
  • Reading the full context of Obama’s remarks, it strikes me that he believes that all of these (presumed) symptoms spring from the fact that there is too little control of the economy by the federal government. Obama said that all of these dysfunctions began when the government let their jobs go away and then, through both Republican and Democrat administrations, did nothing to “regenerate” them.

    It is the lack of regulation of the economy, Obama believes, that makes people bitter, racist, religious, hunters, patriotic or protectionist. All these things are bad, and they all result from free-market, democratic capitalism. I know that many of you reading this will think I’m over-reaching here, but I stand my ground: Obama’s remarks are in fact as clear a declaration of cleaving to socialism as almost anything he could have said.

    Mrs. Clinton had a politically brilliant, though ideologically identical, rebuttal:

    “It’s being reported that my opponent said that the people of Pennsylvania who faced hard times are bitter; well, that’s not my experience,” Mrs. Clinton told an audience at Drexel University. “Pennsylvanians don’t need a president who looks down on them; they need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families.”

    Coming from a hard leftwinger like Hillary, this statement is easy to parse: the presumed reason those jobs were were lost 25 years ago was lack of federal regulation of corporations. Since Hillary has already said she wants to force mortgage lenders to freeze rates of existing and future loans for five years, it’s not hard to imagine that she might propose one day to forbid companies from firing people or moving jobs elsewhere in the country or the world. I mean, she actually did propose, back in the day, that you and I not be allowed to choose our own doctor. What level of coercive regulation could possibly be considered a stretch for her to embrace?

    It has been commented exhaustively across the blogosphere and the MSM commenti that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference in the political ideology of Hillary and Barack. True that, and it’s Euro-style socialism through and through.

    But what I find especially disturbing in Obama’s remarks, that I have not seen in Mrs. Clinton’s ever, is the ideal of the “perfectibility of man.” This is the hoariest socialist doctrine of all, explicit in Marxism and later, Marxism-Leninism. This is an idea so utterly vacuous and foolish that not even the Euro socialist governments cleave to it, if they ever did, except in Eastern Europe, and then only when they were communist. Clearly implicit on Obama’s remarks is the idea that since racism, religion et. al., arise from the lack of government regulation, they can be expunged by more of it.

  • You remember the “perfectibility of man,” don’t you? Obama’s going to “heal our souls” – he’s the only candidate that can!

    You see, we can all become virtuous if only the government controlled our lives.

    Not only are Obama’s remarks a clarion call to socialism, they also objectify the people he refers to. He dismissed them as free, moral agents in their own right. Gosh, it’s no wonder those white people hate blacks and Hispanics, go to church and buy guns and feel angry – they can’t help it. The government has let them down. But with proper government regulation, intervention, activism (oh, just pick your own name), then they won’t be racists, religious, xenophobic, or own guns.

    It gets worse:

    “It comes off very badly,” Democratic strategist Kirsten Powers said of the small-town America remarks.” They are things that I think in a liberal world sound totally normal, and outside of that world I don’t know that he appreciates how it sounds. And it just sounds very elitist, and it sounds like he’s looking down on people.”

    Emphasis added. (I except WOC’s own Armed Liberal from Ms. Powers’ observation, but that a Democratic “strategist” said it is pretty revealing, I think.) That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

    Yes, it does come off very badly. But Markadelphia doesn’t recognize that. He continues:

    The people they should really be pissed off at are laughing all the way to the bank…..the people that have manipulated their bitterness and their honesty into votes.

    Several here lament long and hard about how liberals are “sheeple” who follow along with whatever their side says. To a certain extent and with certain people, this is true. However, the art of getting people to become sheeple has never been more perfected than it has with the “stupid rednecks in flyover country who believe in God, guns and country.” This recent flap is an excellent example.

    Thanks, Mark, for telling us what you really think of us pore, ig’nant, Jeebus-freak gun owners! You sound exactly like Obama! (I’m shocked, shocked, I say!) You too believe that “it is the lack of regulation of the economy that makes people bitter, racist, religious, hunters, patriotic or protectionist,” so what Obama said rolls off you like water off a duck’s back.

    It illustrates how the “fake outrage machine” works in this country.

    Trust me – the outrage ain’t fake.

    A bunch of people will now get angry at Obama for being “condescending” or the terribly false belief that he actually looks at people as Kevin says he does.

    So, by all means, let’s continue to debate, ad nauseaum, how Senator Obama is an “elitist” or a hater of America. Meanwhile, Bush Co will dance with glee as it continues to pull several layers of wool over millions of eyes.

    Mark? Bush isn’t running this year. And all three candidates with any chance for the office are elitists who believe that they know better than everyone else how to run our lives.

    Hillary Clinton thinks of Middle America the same way, but she’s (so far) been smart enough not to say so in public. And McCain? I think he believes he knows how to do everything better than anyone. Take his “comprehensive immigration reform,” his “campaign finance reform” etc., etc.

    You don’t go into politics unless you think you’re better than other people.

    Here’s a clue for you, Mark: All politicians “pull the wool” over the electorate’s eyes. It’s been that way from the beginning. In Barak’s case, the mask slipped – very publicly.

    Quote of the Day.

    I found this one early Friday, but didn’t have a chance to post it. It’s via Kathryn Jean Lopez at National Review Online:

    It occurs to me that more and more that Obama is actually a political stem cell. He has the promise to become anything you want him to become and cure everything.

    I thought that was a particularly apt analogy.

    Until later that same Friday, when Barack (middle name shall not be mentioned) Obama let the mask slip in front of his San Francisco homies and said the words that whipped around the world in microseconds:

    It’s not surprising, then, they (small-town Pennsylvanians) get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

    Stem-cell? Not so much. Stereotypical liberal who panders to the hoi polloi for their vote? Yeah. Pretty much. Especially his absolutely typical non-apology:

    If I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that.

    “Because I meant it, but I would have rather said it in a way that kept you from understanding exactly what I meant. I regret saying it, but it’s what I think about you stupid rednecks in flyover country who believe in God, guns and country.”

    The news media is right, Obama’s comments do give Clinton an opening – and a warning: Keep your true thoughts to yourself, and above all, keep bamboozling the base! If the mask slips, if the façade cracks, it can all come crashing down in an instant.

    Oh, and here’s the QotD:

    Bite me. Lave my nethers, neglecting not the ‘taint, you effete, snobbish, socialist, class-war-mongering whore. The condescension drips off of your words, but here’s the thing: telling people that you think they’re backwards, inbred whiny rednecks with hard-ons for guns and Jesus is not the way to win their votes. We get it: you’re all enlightened, and here to lead us po’, ig’nant, heavily-armed, toothless Jeebus-lovers to Ye Olde Hope Village d’Changeville, where we’ll all get a unicorn that poops sparkly marshmallow rainbows.

    Far a candidate who is promising to unite us, you’re certainly playing the whole “politics of Othering” vote-mongering, balls-deep.

    Ayup. I wish I could have said it half that well.

    UPDATE, 4/13 via Instapundit:

    Seizing Moment, Hillary Totes Bible to Gun Range

    Sensing an opportunity to portray Sen. Barack Obama as elitist and out of touch after his remarks about “bitter” rural Americans who cling to guns, God and xenophobia, Sen. Hillary Clinton stopped after church today at an indoor gun range, where she fired roughly 300 rounds through a handgun she said she carries concealed everywhere she goes.

    Her lower lip bulging from a dip of Skoal, Sen. Clinton put her Bible in her handbag, and drew out her own Para Ordnance Warthog .45 caliber pistol.

    You know it’s Scrappleface because a real authorized journalist would never get the details of the firearm right!

    Another Pulitzer!.

    Michael Ramirez is my favorite political cartoonist. I’ve featured his pieces on here numerous times. Back in November of 2005 I was disappointed to learn that the LA Dog Trainer Times had let Ramirez go, Mike being the only good thing about that paper. He was rapidly snapped up, however, by Investor’s Business Daily where he’s been working ever since.

    Mike won his first Pulitzer in 1994. This years award was not for a particular cartoon, but:

    For a distinguished cartoon or portfolio of cartoons published during the year, characterized by originality, editorial effectiveness, quality of drawing and pictorial effect, in print or in print and online

    A sample of last year’s work is here, or you can peruse his stuff at CagleCartoons.

    Given the recent post on Hollywood, here are two of his that I really like:

    The ratio of lefty political cartoonists to righty ones is probably greater than 100:1. It’s nice to see one of the very best in the minority get some well-deserved recognition.

    (H/t to Mostly Cajun for the pointer.)