Alan K. Henderson's Weblog

Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park.

"We'll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails," Balzano told the council.

Balzano said Saturday he isn't targeting Boy Scouts. But given the city's decision in July to lay off 39 SEIU members, Balzano said "there's to be no volunteers." No one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path.

Terry Lee, a retired Army colonel who knew Hasan, told Fox News about a story he heard secondhand. He said a fellow colleague had told him that Hasan had made "outlandish comments" about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and US involvement in them and that "Muslims had a right to rise up and attack Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"[He] made comments about how we shouldn’t be over there – you need to lock it up, Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor," Lee added.

I caught a bit of Rush Limbaugh today and he pointed out a mistake that everyone should have caught: the candidate was selected by smoke-filled back room deal and not by primary. He’s absolutely right on that. Candidates must be picked by the party grassroots, not the party leaders. Legislators represent the public at large and not elites, after all. Voters resent being treated like children being force-fed their medicine.

I guess that’s why they call it the Empire State...

Hoffman didn’t have time to mount a decent campaign, but he’s got plenty of time for next year’s race. He should hold town hall meetings — especially in districts that didn’t vote for him. As any Republican should, [he] should seek to identify issues where those voters differ from Bill Owens, especially those that hit people’s pocketbooks.

In the meantime, the NY-23 grassroots should organize a campaign for new state GOP leadership. Do political parties have recall elections?

GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava has bowed out of the NY-23 race, leaving religious right/tea party candidate Doug Hoffman nearly tied with Democrat Bill Owens.

The far right (led by James Dobson, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, etc.) is testing its grip on the Republican Party with Hoffman’s candidacy. At this point it looks like a death grip.

One thing is for certain - the impact of the NY-23 saga on the fate of the GOP will have far more long-reaching effects than the simple question of who wins on Tuesday. The Republican establishment that at least pretended to speak to all Americans is deeply, deeply wounded, and a wild-eyed, exclusionist, birther religio-beast is taking its place.

Note how the MediaMatters video concludes [link to MM post cited in LGF, link here]:

Rush begins with a jab at MSM hypocrisy, opining that they'd never let him get away with employing the rationale of the race libelers and the Ratherites. Unlike those fake stories, Rush sez, the jumpingpools piece has an element of truth - Obama didn't write that, but he thinks that. Rush continues:

The conclusion of the segment also catches my eye:

Once again Rush satirizes MSM journalistic standards (where emphasis is added).

One thought: isn't this a weird topic for satire? Good satire combines truth with outrageousness, like Doug Adams' Vogons. [For the uninitiated: Vogons] The part of the jumpinginpools quote I heard wasn't all that outrageous. Aren't all welfare statists miffed that the Founders didn't put redistribution explicitly in the Constitution? Doesn't the alleged quote sound like something a lefty academic would actually write?

Then I remembered something: I hadn't read the original blog post. It turns out to be a mixture of newsy-looking stuff and gems like this:

The title should have been a dead giveaway - leftist central planners would never identify themselves as aristocrats (even though they are). The "plutocratic thugs" line also seems too honest to be real. [I mean that the line too honestly reflects leftist perceptions, not that those the left perceives as "plutocratic thugs" really are plutocratic thugs.]

There's also a line about the "single mother of four working three jobs" - that should also have been a dead giveaway.

She’s been attacked for extolling Mao’s political philosophy in a speech at a high-school graduation. But the critics miss the surpassing stupidity of her larger point: She was invoking Mao as support and authority for her impassioned plea for individuality and trusting one’s own choices. Mao as champion of individuality? Mao, the greatest imposer of mass uniformity in modern history, creator of a slave society of a near-billion worker bees wearing Mao suits and waving the Little Red Book?

You know, I think I was right when I said that there’s a Monty Python clip for everything this Administration does. . . .

But if they [the ADL] really want to combat the stereotype that Jews are good with money, why not publish a list of wasteful projects supported by Jewish members of Congress?

There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves. By not using earmarks to fund projects for South Carolina and instead using actual bills, DeMint is watching our nation's pennies and trying to preserve our country's wealth and our economy's viability to give all an opportunity to succeed.

In 1947, when Mao Tse Tung was being challenged within his own party on his plan to basically take China over, Chiang Kai-Shek and the nationalist Chinese held the cities, they had the army. They had the air force. They had everything on their side, and people said how can you win? How can you do this? How can you do this? Against all the odds against you, and Mao Tse Tung said, you know, you fight your war, and I'll fight mine, and think about that for a second.

What is even more pathetic is that the NFL has shown greater tolerance for murderers, drug dealers, rapists, and dog killers than a talk show host.

"There're now gonna be character tests for sports owners? There'll only be three of them left," Olbermann said. "Unless they beat the Vikings Sunday, as of next Thursday, it will have been a full year since the Rams won a game. My God, if Limbaugh wants to buy them, far be it for me to tell him he’s flushing his money down a rat hole."

[responding to metrolibertarian] That's not an accurate statement:

Ironically, Media Matters (who transcribed the cited quote) vindicates Limbaugh. The phrase "sport of gang members" would imply a sweeping generalization about basketball, that B's membership is dominated by G. Limbaugh said the reverse, that G plays basketball more than any other sport. And it's true - most American gangs are inner-city phenomena, and the sport played by most inner-city folks, criminal or otherwise, is basketball. There isn't room in the inner city to play any other major sport.

Limbaugh simply questioned the notion of using the gangs' sport of choice as a means of dissuading them from crime.

Has any element of Western civilization ever been this freakin insane? Where's my Oscar? Where's my Deming Prize? Where's my Heisman? You don't have to do a damn thing to win a prize. Pay up. I deserve it. Everybody deserves it.Prizes for everyone! A trophy in every garage!

“Seniors!” House minority leader John Boehner (R-OH) said. “Run for your lives! Obama is coming to kill you! He will kill all of you!”