My Best To Everyone. Happy New Year!

UPDATE @10:35PM:  Fiscal cliff deal reached.

The PUK Awards Cage Match #6

Well, tonight I went down in flames against Big Fur Hat in iOwnTheWorld’s Cage Match No. 5.  He is an awesome opponent and is certainly deserving of the win.  I want to thank everyone who has been supportive of my entries.

iOTW continues to run cage matches to determine which website has created the best conservative agitprop for the year in an effort to present the winner with the coveted PUK Award.

The contest began with 28 finalists and now the contestants have been whittled down to 16.

Cage Match No. 6 is going on right now through 8PM ET tomorrow.  Each cage match begins at 8PM ET every night and will last for 24 hours.

Please go over to iOwnTheWorld, go the comments section and click the thumbs up icon and vote for the TOP IMAGE.

I hope you’ll help an ‘ol gal out.  Thanks in advance for your vote.

I’ll be returning to work tomorrow after a glorious week of Christmas vacation and the updates I’ve promised to give you will be later than usual, probably posted after midnight.  Please check iOwnTheWorld’s site for the next cage match.  If I have an entry, won’t you please give me a “thumbs up”?

Is There A PayPal Account Or Something?

Randy Hall, writing at Newsbusters opines, “Just when it seemed that the controversy over gun control based on remarks from Piers Morgan couldn't get any stranger, the CNN weeknight talk show host wrote a lengthy article for the UK's Daily Mail newspaper in which he made a bizarre threat.

“In conclusion, I can spare those Americans who want me deported a lot of effort by saying this: If you don’t change your gun laws to at least try to stop this relentless tidal wave of murderous carnage, then you don’t have to worry about deporting me.”

“Although I love the country as a second home and one that has treated me incredibly well, I would…seriously consider deporting myself.”

Your offer is accepted without reservation.  Is there a PayPal account where we can donate funds to send you on your way you big tease?

Of course Morgan and his softly-rated primetime show have to pass muster with incoming CNN boss Jeff Zucker who is expected to shake up the network’s lineup in pursuit of a ratings turnaround.

UPDATE:  Just for kicks and giggles, see The Guardian’s post, “More Faked Photos, Piers?”

WARNING:  You may need brain bleach if you decide to watch the video.

UPDATE II:  It must be hard living in a country whose very constitution you loathe.

Let’s Give Up On The Constitution

I was on Twitter this morning and ran across a tweet from Ari Fleischer and his pejorative about The New York Times caught my eye. “NYT op-ed runs hit pieces on Black Republicans and now the Constitution. The poor Gray Lady has grown senile.”

In a 1516 word screed penned by Louis Michael Seidman, we learn that the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University is lending his pedigree to a movement to subvert the Constitution by our sanctimonious betters.

A Harvard Law grad and clerk for former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, this well-heeled professor is entrenched in the Left’s paradigm that the Constitution is an obstacle to their desire to delegitimize the founding document blithely suggesting it is, “a poetic piece of parchment.”

“As the nation teeters at the edge of fiscal chaos, observers are reaching the conclusion that the American system of government is broken. But almost no one blames the culprit: our insistence on obedience to the Constitution, with all its archaic, idiosyncratic and downright evil provisions.”

[SNIP]

“Our obsession with the Constitution has saddled us with a dysfunctional political system, kept us from debating the merits of divisive issues and inflamed our public discourse. Instead of arguing about what is to be done, we argue about what James Madison might have wanted done 225 years ago.

[SNIP]

“What has preserved our political stability is not a poetic piece of parchment, but entrenched institutions and habits of thought and, most important, the sense that we are one nation and must work out our differences. No one can predict in detail what our system of government would look like if we freed ourselves from the shackles of constitutional obligation, and I harbor no illusions that any of this will happen soon. But even if we can’t kick our constitutional-law addiction, we can soften the habit.” 

“If we acknowledged what should be obvious—that much constitutional language is broad enough to encompass an almost infinitely wide range of positions—we might have a very different attitude about the obligation to obey. It would become cred text or our core commitments. Instead, we are all invoking a common vocabulary to express aspirations that, at the broadest level, everyone can embrace. Of course, that does not mean that people agree at the ground level. If we are not to abandon constitutionalism entirely, then we might at least understand it as a place for discussion, a demand that we make a good-faith effort to understand the views of others, rather than as a tool to force others to give up their moral and political judgments.”  

“If even this change is impossible, perhaps the dream of a country ruled by “We the people” is impossibly utopian. If so, we have to give up on the claim that we are a self-governing people who can settle our disagreements through mature and tolerant debate. But before abandoning our heritage of self-government, we ought to try extricating ourselves from constitutional bondage so that we can give real freedom a chance.”

Incidentally, Professor Seidman has a book nearing publication entitled “On Constitutional Disobedience.”  Not having the text before me to read, I can imagine his sincere aim will be to persuade, by leftist pretzel logic, that it doesn’t matter what the Constitution says. Undoubtedly  a certain Mr. Marx would have been thrilled to sit at his breakfast table this morning and read such bilge.

Karl Marx had a vitriolic distaste towards a bourgeois capitalist society and fervently endorsed a future communist society.  The Communist Manifesto begins with the assertion, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." Marx argued that if you are to understand human history you must not see it as the story of great individuals or the conflict between states. Instead, you must see it as the story of social classes and their struggles with each other.

The greatest risk to our Constitution does not come from foreign governments, terrorism or unscrupulous politicians. The greatest risk is ignorance. Ignorance of how it was conceived, what it says, and how crucial it is to our freedom. To quote Benjamin Franklin, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

Yet Another Reason Why Real Christmas Trees Are Better Than Their Artificial Counterparts

Via Gizmodo:

“Christmas is over. Chances are you still have your tree up, but sooner or later you're going to have to get rid of it. Sure you could unceremoniously toss its naked corpse into the street, but you could also turn it into a crazy rocket. Then again, you probably shouldn't, but if you did it might go something like this.”

Way cool!

Right Jabs For December 31, 2012

Politics is not a playground, it’s a battlefield.  Here are a few links from conservative bloggers who are waging a war of words against the misanthropy, priggishness, prejudice, luddism, illiberalism and irrationalism of the mainstream media bobble-head dolls and groupthink poodles of the press corps.

Law enforcement implementing revolutionary new blood alcohol testing for suspected DUIs.

With this president—always cliffs, never deals.

Errand boy sent by grocery clerks ponders inspiration for coming year.

…it is the perfect allegory for Americans living in the Age of Obama.

I see horrifyingly evil “opinions” expressed by fellow Americans every day on Twitter, and in comment sections of blogs. They don’t just disagree with conservatives—they want us to shut up, lose our jobs, be financially ruined, or to drop dead. They actually root for Republicans to die, and when they do die, the ghouls celebrate their deaths.  Not just one or two weirdos engage in this behavior—huge packs of them do.

An interesting “open thread”.

Good to the last drop.

Most monumentally idiotic quotes of 2012.

Watch as Ted Nugent owns CNN’s foreign subversive.

France doesn’t often get it right…

The culture that we are stuck with now has mostly been one bad investment after another, tracts of smelly swampland where nothing can grow pawned off by sleazy weasels wearing too much polyester and more gold chains than the pharaohs, who haven't even had to work very hard to pull off their malignant scam. Good has been traded for bad and then for worse.

Oh? Sloppiness?

New Year’s resolutions for liberals.

Supposedly the Russian GRU is circulating a report that the recently Navy and non-availability of the Secretary of State are related.

Climate change is unlikely to be so lucky.

Note to self: reassess home area defensive perimeter, because if there are people out there in possession of rocket launchers, what the hell else do people have?

Only in America.

Not since the demise of the Alanis Morrissette lyric generator have we been so diverted.

You know, for a Democrat, this Booker fellow is one smart dude.

Glenn Beck is a thief.

In pictures: Icons lost to the world in 2012.

That Thing About A Free Country. All Lies.

Candy cigarettes, bubble gum cigars and bubble gum made to look like chewing tobacco have been among a host of vintage sugary treats that a St. Paul “back-in-the-day” soda shop has kept in stock since it opened in April.

According to the Star Tribune, Lynden’s Soda Fountain pulled the fake smokes after officials said the store would face a misdemeanor citation and a $500 fine for noncompliance.

How would a pencil pusher from the city’s Safety and Inspections Department flush out the offending shop owner’s candy cigarettes?

"Somebody from Bloomington called and reported us," the shop’s owner Tobi Lynden said. "The whole thing is pretty weird."

What about the sale of Aunty’s Spotted Dick Pudding?  I understand Ace and his merry band of morons and moronettes have a running gag about pudding.

You know what they say, “When they outlaw pudding, only outlaws will have pudding.”

The PUK Awards Cage Match #5

For the last couple of days I’ve let you guys know that  iOwnTheWorld is running cage matches to determine which website had created the best conservative agitprop for the year in an effort to present the winner with the coveted PUK Award.

The contest began with 28 finalists and now it’s down to 18.

Yesterday’s cage match was between my friend The Looking Spoon and me.  TLS creates some of the very best graphics in the conservative blogosphere.  I consider myself very lucky to have won Cage Match No. 4.  It would not have been possible without your support and The Looking Spoon’s generous linkage.  I’d also like to thank Dave Blount at Moonbattery for linking to my work in Cage Match #5.

Cage Match No. 5 is going on right now through 8PM ET tomorrow.  Each cage match begins at 8PM ET every night and will last for 24 hours.

Please go over to iOwnTheWorld, go the comments section and click the thumbs up icon and vote for the TOP IMAGE.

I hope you’ll help an ‘ol gal out.  Thanks in advance for your vote.

See you tomorrow with another update.

Elitist Mayor Bossypants Wants New Yorkers To Keep Lethal Subway Shoves In Perspective

New York City Mayor Nanny Bloomberg warned city residents not to feel unsafe after a suspected murder at a subway station, claiming one sensational event does not negate the downward trend of homicide in the region.

"It's a very tragic case, but what we want to focus on today is the overall safety in New York," Bloomberg told reporters following a police academy graduation. The Associated Press reporter covering the news conference characterized his statement as a call to keep the incident in "perspective."

Apparently at no time during the presser did El Bloombito demand that guard rails be installed or discuss the possibility of taking other precautions.  He was more interested in hyping the new historic lows in the Big Apple’s annual homicide and shooting totals.  Are you paying attention Mayor Emanuel?

You can be certain that the wee billionaire mayor doesn’t give a fig about his city’s subway riders.  After all, he rides comfortably in a bullet-proof limo surrounded by armed guards.  The subways are for the little people.

I guess the good people of New York are stuck with ‘ol Bloomers as long as he can buy the office of Mayor.  The poor things.

Neither Ki-Suck Han nor Sunando Sen could be reached for comment.

The PUK Awards Cage Match #4

Yesterday I let you guys know that iOwnTheWorld was running cage matches to determine which website had created the best conservative agitprop for the year in an effort to present the winner with the coveted PUK Award.

Cage Match No. 3 saw two of my friends go head-to-head:  Diogenes’ Middle Finger and the Looking Spoon.  Yesterday’s competition yields The Looking Spoon as the winner of that match.  Congrats.

The contest began with 28 finalists and now it’s down to 20.  I had been hoping one of my creations would make the cut.  Lo and behold, today that burning question has been answered.  One of my entries is in Cage Match No. 4.

Cage Match No. 4 is going on right now through 8PM ET tomorrow.  Each cage match begins at 8PM ET every night and will last for 24 hours.

Please go over to iOwnTheWorld, go the comments section and click the thumbs up icon and vote for the TOP IMAGE.

I hope you’ll help an ‘ol gal out.  Thanks in advance for your vote.

See you tomorrow with another update.

Hillary And Bill: Grifters Mix With Jetsetters in Punta Cana

Dominican Today and Human Events are both reporting that Cigar Boy and Billary will be “enjoying their year-end vacation in Punta Cana, in the eastern coast of the Dominican Republic.”

Press reports state that the recently ill (ahem) Hillary and the perpetually randy Bill will be staying at the well-appointed Puntacana Resort & Club, home to the Caribbean’s ultimate beach and golfing experience.

It is rumored that they may both attend a fashion show held in honor of “famous Dominican designer” Oscar de la Renta.

Besides the Hillbillies, other jetsetters who will be at the resort are the lisping dimbulb Barbara Walters, Vogue editor and possible Ambassador to Paris Anna Wintour and Spanish actress Mar Flores and her hubby Javier Merino.

There’s nothing like the salt air and tropical breezes to help you forget your troubles.  Oh, wait.  She’s already forgotten them.  Convenient concussion, you know.

Enjoy yourselves kids and remember, don't drink the water.  We’d hate for Hillary to contract another nasty “stomach flu.”

UPDATE 12-31-12:  Hillary Clinton hospitalized after doctors discover blood clot

500 Murders In An Elitist Cesspool Run By Crooked Politicians And Union Mobsters

At the stroke of midnight in the toddling town of Chicago, will the sounds of celebration that ring in 2013 be the sound of firecrackers or the sounds of a thug drilling someone full of holes?

The Windy City passed the unfortunate marker of 500 murders on December 27th when Nathaniel Jackson, a 40-year-old man with gang affiliations and a rap sheet longer than your arm, was shot and killed just months after finishing time in the crowbar hotel.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who had pledged to address the city’s crime problem when he took office in 2011, attributed the rise in homicides, in part, to a broader problem with illegal guns.

"Chicago has reached an unfortunate and tragic milestone, which not only marks a needless loss of life but serves as a reminder of the damage that illegal guns and conflicts between gangs cause in our neighborhoods," Emanuel said. [Not Rahmbo’s pithiest statement to be sure, but it seems this is a crisis he fully intends to let go to waste.]

Mark Wachtler has a hard-hitting piece at the Examiner in which he contends that Chicago officials are deflecting blame for the city’s epidemic of murders.

“It’s ironic that the city’s highest ranking official would lay 100% of the blame for the spike in murders on two inanimate objects, when statistics are suggesting the murder rate may be at least partly tied to corruption inside the Mayor’s own City Hall.” 

“It wouldn’t be the first time. One example is when Chicago transitioned from “the bloody ‘80’s” into the 1990’s, a decade even more deadly. The spike in homicides also coincidentally correlates with the election of the city’s new Mayor at the time, Richard Daley. As corruption spread, the homicide rate skyrocketed.” 

[SNIP] 

“Mayor Emanuel and the city were just humiliated over the past two weeks when a separate trial ruled that the Chicago Police Department is corrupt to its core, from top to bottom, and enlists a mandated “code of silence” that exists specifically to protect crooked cops and criminals within the city’s police force and City Hall.”

In the aftermath of the Newtown school slayings, there have been incessant and verbose discussions about gun control.  Rahmbo and his corrupt police department can blame gun and street gangs for the mounting murder rate, but it is the mayor himself who has added to problem.

The moment he took office two years ago, he split up the gang crimes special units and put them on street patrol.  Rather than hiring additional cops to fill a shortage of law enforcement officers he transferred crossing guards and office workers to patrol the streets.  By doing so, Rahmbo’s City Hall could boast that it had increased the numbers of the Chicago Police Department.  Police union officials came to call this deception the “Emanuel Shuffle.”

The “Democratic Machine” went to work in early 2011 when then-Mayor Richard Daley refused to renew or extend the contract of Jody Weis, who two years before had been hired by Daley to “clean up the corruption in Chicago’s police department.”

Weis, a former FBI police officer, did what we was hired to do.  He demoted corrupt police commanders and replaced them with officers he believed were honest. To show just how rampant the corruption was, Weis removed 21 of 25 district commanders, as well as a number of top brass. And while the rank and file officers complained about his crime fighting within the force, Chicago’s murder rate dropped to the lowest level since 1965.

This put Weis at odds with the entire police force and City Hall.  He was replaced by Terry Hillard, the former Police Superintendent and a favorite of the police force and “The Machine.”

It seems appropriate to quote famous Chicago mobster Al Capone who once said, "I got nothing against the honest cop on the beat. You just have them transferred someplace where they can't do you any harm. But don't ever talk to me about the honor of police captains or judges. If they couldn't be bought they wouldn't have the job."

Big “Farma” Or Who’s Milking Whom?

The failure of the 112^th Congress to pass a new version of the farm bill which expired on September 30 of this year is going to cause the price of milk to go through the roof.  We could be seeing the price on grocery shelves double to $6 or $7 a gallon.

I guess this news is only good if you’re lactose intolerant.

Washington Post Columnist Charles Krauthammer has suggested that going over the "dairy cliff" might have an upside:

"I do think if we went over the milk cliff it would actually be a good idea. [If] people actually saw the milk price double, it would be less abstract than watching a debt clock. They would finally understand that we have the insane laws that acquire barnacles over the decades. And the farm laws are the worst. They are all kind of pressure, special interest favors, pay offs which make no economic sense. I'd like to wipe them out and start all over again, and it would be good if the law expired. People would actually be awakened to how insane our system is and how much we really need tax reform. It wouldn't be an abstraction, it would be real."

Federal law puts a giant safety net under the dairy industry by promising that if the price of milk collapses, the government will swoop in and push it back up by buying mass quantities of dairy products. The goal is to make sure that the farmers are paid somewhere close to what it should cost them to produce the milk, a figure that's determined by a complex formula. 

Usually, dairies can earn plenty selling their product on the open market, and the government doesn't need to intervene. But the 1949 law getting ready to kick back in, bases its formula for the cost of milk production on how the industry worked in the early 20th century, when it was far less efficient than today. As a result, it will automatically force the government to start paying a giant premium for milk products, which will then cause prices to jump for everyone else as well. 

Don’t think for a moment you can avert the so-called “dairy cliff” by stocking up on powdered milk or almond milk or soy milk.  It’s all milk-based.

What’s next?  Oreos?

That giant sucking sound you hear isn’t just the milking machine hooked up to the udders of cows; it’s going to be hooked up to our wallets relieving us of its contents.  Thanks you miserable POS congresscritters.

Happy New Year, citizen.

UPDATE 12-31-12:  Deal could prevent spike in milk prices.

The PUK Awards Cage Match #3

I promised to keep you up-to-date on the cage matches going on over at iOwnTheWorld for the best conservative agitprop of 2012 that will culminate in awarding the best example with the vaunted PUK Award.

We are now in the throes of Cage Match No. 3 where two of my very favorites are going head-to-head:  Diogenes and The Looking Spoon.

Big Fur Hat won Cage Match No. 2.  I hope you’ll click on over and cast your vote for the one you think is the best.

The contest began with 28 finalists and now it’s down to 22.  I’m still hoping one of my creations made the cut.  That burning question will be answered over the course of the next two weeks.

Each cage match begins at 8PM ET every night and will last for 24 hours.

I’m rooting for my friends:  Diogenes’ Middle Finger, The Lonely Conservative, I’m 41, The Looking Spoon and Capitalist Preservation.

As I mentioned earlier, two of my faves are competing in tonight’s Cage Match No. 3.  Please take a moment to vote here.  Thanks for voting.

See you tomorrow with another update.

Does This Obama Lapdog Have Alzheimers?

Washington (CNN) —Less than two weeks after one of the nation's deadliest school shootings, the No.2 Democrat in the U.S. House, Steny Hoyer, compared Republican tactics for dealing with the nation's debt limit to someone threatening to shoot a child hostage. 

"It's somewhat like taking your child hostage and saying to somebody else, 'I'm going to shoot my child if you don't do what I want done.' You don't want to shoot your child. There's no Republican leader that wants to default on our debt that I’ve talked to" Hoyer said at a Capitol Hill press conference.

Obviously, the image associated with this post is a Photoshop™ of the profoundly foolish 73-year-old addlebrain bonehead dimwit pinhead cretin who’s been representing the Great State of Maryland for 31 years.  Hoyer provides the perfect argument for term limits and regular tests for signs of the onset of Alzheimers and, perhaps, an IQ test. Never take your eyes off the mumbling, bumbling bum.

I’m certain the parents in Newtown find Hoyer’s comments revolting.  I know I do.

Music To Soothe The Savage Breast

I saw this beautiful video posted by Illust8r at iOwnTheWorld:

The music is taken from the 1968 epic spaghetti western Once Upon A Time In The West.  The movie captured the spirit of the American West and was a perfect musical selection for the Yellowstone video.

I only wish the creator of the video had chosen the haunting vocals of Edda Dell’Orso performing the leitmotif of Claudia Cardinale’s character in the musical score known as “Jill’s America.”

Take a listen and see if you agree that it would have added immeasurably to the video’s grandeur.  French horns and violins simply cannot best the angelic Ms. Dell’Orso’s voice.

The PUK Awards Cage Match #2

Yesterday I told you guys about the Cage Matches that iOwnTheWorld was employing to help determine this year’s winner of the PUK Awards.

After they sifted through all the nominations they pared down the competition to 28 finalists.

The finalist in Cage Match No. 1 was Stilton Jarlsberg’s HopeNChange Cartoons.  Congrats.

Cage Match No. 2 is in full swing with Zappatrust and Big Fur Hat going head-to-head.

Each cage match will begin at 8PM ET every night for the next two weeks. Each cage match will last 24 hours.

I have no idea who the remaining 24 finalists are or even if my work qualified as a finalist.  I guess I’ll find out over the next two weeks.

I will keep you up-to-date on each cage match and hope you will vote for me and my friends:  Diogenes’ Middle Finger, The Lonely Conservative, I’m 41, The Looking Spoon and Capitalist Preservation.

American Hero General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. Has Died

In this July 4, 1991 file photo, President George H. W. Bush congratulates Desert Storm commander Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf after presenting him with the medal of freedom at the White House in Washington. Schwarzkopf died Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012 in Tampa, Fla. He was 78. (AP Photo/Doug Mills)

Biography of General Schwarzkopf from Military.com:

For H. Norman Schwarzkopf, West Point took phrases learnt at the knee of his father, an Army general, and turned them into principles. "When I began as a plebe, 'Duty, Honor, Country' was just a motto I'd heard from Pop," the two-tour Vietnam vet and Desert Storm commander later wrote. "By the time I left, those values had become my fixed stars.”

Born in Trenton, N.J. on Aug. 22, 1934, Schwarzkopf spent much of his high school years following his father's career around the world. After graduating from West Point in 1956, he embarked on the career that would earn him four-star rank and high distinction, including three Silver Stars, three Bronze Stars, two Purple hearts, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He moved up from platoon leader to corps commander, maintaining the common-sense attitude that earned his troop's plaudits as a "muddy-boots soldier.”

Vietnam forged his philosophy of war. In-country from 1965 to 1966 and again from 1969 to 1970, he was angered by the lack of support at home and "distressed by the war's toll on morale and morality," one journalist wrote. "Schwarzkopf felt shame when, under protest, he tallied “body counts’ he knew to be inflated.”

But the experience reinforced his determination to stay with the Army. Schwarzkopf wrote, "There were some times [in Vietnam] when I would think to myself…"how did I get involved in this?...And I came to understand that that's the thing I've been trained for all of my life.  And if I didn’t do it, who was going to do it?”

By 1988, he was a four-star general, appointed commander-in-chief of the U.S. Central Command responsible for military operations in the Middle East. When Iraq occupied the neighboring state of Kuwait in August 1990, Schwarzkopf directed a troop buildup of 700,000 U.S., European, and Arab troops. On Jan. 16, 1991, allied forces began a six-week air bombardment of Iraq, followed by a 100-hour ground campaign that retook Kuwait with low allied casualties.

By war's end, the familiar 6'3" bearlike figure in desert fatigues had become a national hero. But a second, very real victory was at home. Of the Washington victory parade, Schwarzkopf wrote, "I couldn't help but think to myself this is the right way to come home to your country. . .the country was paying us this wonderful tribute... and it tended to exorcise a lot of ghosts and a lot of wounds that all of us who were in Vietnam carried with us."

Today, we learn that “Stormin’ Norman” Schwarzkopf has died in Tampa where he was living in retirement.  The cause of his death has not yet been released.

Following is a statement approved by President George H. W. Bush, who remains in intensive care at Methodist Hospital, on the passing of General Schwarzkopf:

“Barbara and I mourn the loss of a true American patriot and one of the great military leaders of his generation. A distinguished member of that Long Gray Line hailing from West Point, General Norm Schwarzkopf, to me, epitomized the ‘duty, service, country’ creed that has defended our freedom and seen this great Nation through our most trying international crises. More than that, he was a good and decent man—and a dear friend. Barbara and I send our condolences to his wife Brenda and his wonderful family.” 

Thank you for standing guard over our liberties, sir.  Godspeed. 

The PUK Award Cage Matches

On December 12^th I put up a post about The 2012 PUK Awards nominations.  The award is presented to the conservative website with the best graphic creations, also known as agitprop, used to influence and mobilize public opinion.

As any regular reader of this blog knows, I loves me some Photoshop™ and I’m very excited about iOwnTheWorld’s PUK Awards competition.

The nomination period ended on December 17^th and now the folks at iOwnTheWorld have sifted through the nominations and have 28 finalists.

They’ve decided to have 14 cage matches—a head-to-head competition in which everyone can cast a vote.

Each cage match will begin at 8PM ET every night for the next two weeks. Each cage match will last 24 hours.

The first cage match is running now through tomorrow.

I have no idea who the 28 finalists are or even if my work qualified as a finalist.  I guess I’ll find out over the next two weeks.

I will keep you up-to-date on each cage match and hope you will vote for me and my friends:  Diogenes’ Middle Finger, The Lonely Conservative, I’m 41, The Looking Spoon and Capitalist Preservation.

Wet Nose Of The Week

David Gregory: “Subject Of A Now-Popular Police Investigation”

Dylan Byers, one of the groupthink poodles over at Politico (I refuse to link that site), priggishly wrote as only Dylan can, “NBC's David Gregory, the subject of a now-popular police investigation, is on vacation and will not host this Sunday's edition of Meet the Press."

“The Washington Metropolitan Police Department launched an investigation this week into whether Gregory and NBC violated city laws when he displayed what appeared to be a gun magazine on last week's show. Today, the police issued a statement, saying NBC had been told before last Sunday's show that it was ‘not permissible’ to show a high-capacity gun magazine on air.”

“Gregory's vacation was scheduled prior to last week's show, according to NBC. [Sure it was.] He is scheduled to host the Jan. 5 edition of Meet the Press." [He will if he’s not still on the lam.]

NBC News has declined to comment on the investigation.  Clearly the Peacock Network’s shyster lawyers are stalling for time to see if they can conjure up some sort of journalistic privilege loophole.  They can’t have their precious end up in prison wearing a red wig and being forced to be mindful when bending over to pick up the soap he dropped in the shower.

The bottom line on the Gregory swirl is the DC cops have every right to know how he got his hands on both of the magazines he waved in front of the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre and what has happened to them since the show.

I’m sure you already know that Mr. “Subject of A Now-Popular Police Investigation” sends his kids to a Washington-area school protected by armed guards; the same school, incidentally, that his O’liness’s kids go to.  Oh. The. Irony.

I’ll close this post with this thought from a fellow blogger and add that I wish I had said it:

“Mr. Gregory’s journalistic irresponsibility is one of the reasons why I’m pushing for a high-capacity magazine ban. No one has any legitimate reason to need a copy of Mother Jones, The New Republic, or Time with more than 10 pages.”

That is all.

Performing The Miracle Of Turning Unlimited Debt Into Unimaginable Prosperity

Alright gang, Christmas is over.  Time to face the music.

If you haven’t read Kyle Becker’s The Progressive Bible: Obama’s Genesis, you really should.  Here’s just some of his parody:

In the beginning Obama promised to create a heaven on earth. 

And his believers’ minds were without form, and void; and awe-struck looks were upon the faces of the asleep. And the Spirit of Obama moved upon the faces of the believers. 

And Obama said, Let there be debt: and there was debt.

We learn today that the Chicago Messiah plans to return early from his annual vacation to Hawaii in order to take part in talks to avert the fiscal cliff.  Congress is also due to return to the capital on Thursday.

“God only knows” how a deal can be reached now, said Speaker John Boehner.

If negotiations between His O’liness and Congress collapse completely, 2013 looks like a rocky year.

Taxes would jump $2,400 on average for families with incomes of $50,000 to $75,000, according to a study by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. Because consumers would get less of their paychecks to spend, businesses and jobs would suffer.

At the same time, Americans would feel cuts in government services; some federal workers would be furloughed or laid off, and companies would lose government business. The nation would lose up to 3.4 million jobs, the Congressional Budget Office predicts.

Several tax breaks begun in 2009 to stimulate the economy by aiding low and middle-income families are also set to expire at the beginning of 2013.  For example, the alternative minimum tax would expand to catch 28 million more taxpayers, with an average increase of $3,700 a year. Taxes on investments would rise, too. More deaths would be covered by the federal estate tax, and the rate climbs from 35 percent to 55 percent. Some corporate tax breaks would end.

If the nation goes over the fiscal cliff, budget cuts of 8 percent or 9 percent would hit most of the federal government, touching all sorts of things from agriculture to law enforcement and the military to weather forecasting. A few areas, such as Social Security benefits, Veterans Affairs and some programs for the poor, are exempt.

The New York Times has an article in today’s paper that cites noted research economists at the Bank for International Settlements, Stephen Cecchetti and Fabrizio Zampoli.  They say, “The United States, along with the rest of the industrialized West, has been on an unsustainable fiscal path for decades.”  They predict that unless radical reforms are adopted the public debt will exceed 400% of GDP.

Such debt levels are wildly implausible, as creditors would likely stop lending to Western governments long before such levels are reached. Some politicians and economists may want to put a fig leaf on it, but the projections by Cecchetti and others mean that the West is effectively bankrupt.

I’d like to personally thank all those f%#king low-information voters for perpetuating this financial morass by re-electing The Protector of the People as Long As They Know Their Place and Belong to The Right Unions.