38th anniversary

Old Soldier reminded me of this yesterday, so my apologies for being a day late (story of my life, huh?). Yesterday was the 38th anniversary of Chappaquiddick, where, as you all know, Ted Kennedrunk killed a woman in his car by allowing her to drown while he wandered up the road and pondered the political ramifications of his actions. Full details here, if you can stomach it.

I do not ever wish physical harm on an American politician simply because they are ideological opposites. As much as I detest Reid, Pelosi, et al, I do not wish ill upon them. Having said that, God forgive me but I find myself wishing ill on Ted Kennedrunk every time that pickled murderous windbag opens his ample cakehole and bloviates about anybody being morally bankrupt liars! The fact that many on the left gravitate towards this cretin is proof positive of the inherent depravity of those people.

Specter: All the rich people I know support amnesty, and they're the majority

You abso-freakin'-lutely must see the video on Hot Air of Arlen Sphincter droning on about the "silent majority". You know, those verbal 14% who supported the now-defunct shamnesty bill? Yeah, that "majority". Anywho, from Hot Air:

Video: The people at my gym told me they liked the bill, says Specter

Never mind those polls. What about the “silent majority” comprised of his gardener, the voices in his head, and the guy he works out next to on the elliptical machine at the local Bally’s in Philly?

This is why I scoff at threats that we’re going to bounce those who voted for amnesty with primary challenges. If we had any power to get rid of incumbents, don’t you think we would have sent this tool packing decades ago?

Sphincter may be somewhat immune from being deposed (though Toomey gave him a good run in the GOP primary a couple of years ago), and alas, likely so is Lott, but I firmly believe that others like Grahamnesty, Martinez, and Gregg are ripe for a challenge. Sam Brownback (now being referred to as "Switchback") "Kerry-ed" his vote, voting "Yes" for cloture then reversing course and changing it to "No" afterwards.

By the way, if you wanna see Ted Kennedrunk blow a gasket on the Senate floor, here's a link (scroll down to the video to play it).

Time to Tancredo: "Why do you hate Mexicans?"

Looks like Time is getting in on the Linda Chavez "if it walks like a duck" race-baiting act, too. From Newsbusters:

It's been eight weeks since Time magazine redesigned itself, and part of that refurbishment is handing over the "Ten Questions" interview inquiries to the readers instead of Time's reporters. In the June 11 edition, Time's interviewee was Rep. Tom Tancredo, a presidential contender and one of the nation's leading opponents of illegal immigration. Among the questions Time selected for Tancredo was a whopper from Ubaldo Padilla of Oroville, California: "Why do you hate Mexicans?" It wasn't the only snotty question Time picked. There was also James Smith of Phoenix, who asked: "I recently found out my family came from Holland without permission in the 1600s. Should we be sent back?"

Since Time Managing Editor Richard Stengel introduced the new format in the March 26 edition, there haven't been any Democrats interviewed. But in the March 12 edition, Time's Massimo Calabresi had ten (mostly softball) questions for Ted Kennedy, one of the nation's leading advocates of an amnesty for illegal immigrants. No one at Time asked him about immigration and why he supposedly hated Americans. Instead, Calabresi's list of questions included these soft touches:

-- Are you the only Senator to keep dogs in your offices?

-- Democrats have the country with them against the war in Iraq but aren't acting to end it. Why?

-- Do you intend to endorse one of the Democrats running for President?

-- It's easy to pick up a newspaper and see some comparison between your brothers and Barack Obama. Is there any validity to that comparison?

-- You know Mitt Romney pretty well.

-- Your long-sought minimum-wage bill is stuck in conference, thanks to a debate on the size of small-business tax breaks. What's going on?

-- Some on the left wing of the Democratic Party would like to see No Child Left Behind done away with. Are you going to deliver reauthorization this year?

-- You just celebrated your 75th birthday. Or rather the celebrations are ongoing.

-- You had a costume party. Who did you go as? (Captain Nemo? Aquaman? Jacques Cousteau, perhaps> - Ed.)

Since the 2006 midterm elections, Time's also offered Ten Questions to a pile of liberals: Al Gore, Rep. Charlie Rangel, newly elected Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, and Gore Vidal. None of them were painted as bigots by Time's selected staff interviewers.

Nope...no liberal media bias!

Night and Day

From Ace:

Ted Kennedy On Immigration

1965: "The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs."

1986: "This amnesty will give citizenship to only 1.1 to 1.3 million illegal aliens. We will secure the borders henceforth. We will never again bring forward another amnesty bill like this."

2007: "Now it is time for action. 2007 is the year we must fix our broken system." (With amnesty, like the one from 21 years earlier that he swore would never be brought forward again! - Ed.)

Kennedrunk's economic illiteracy

From Neal Boortz:

The Democrats class warfare minimum wage increased is now being debated in the Senate .. and Ted Kennedy is about to have a stroke. Did you hear this pathetic man screaming at the Republicans? "What is it about it (the minimum wage) that drives you Republicans crazy? What is it about working men and women that you find so offensive?"

Well ... of course .. most of you will recognize this as cheap demagoguery. There are two faulty premises to Kennedy's question:

1. The working wage has some meaningful connection to "working" men and women.

2. Republicans are offended by working men and women.

Both premises are false.

Let's deal with this "working men and women" line first. This rhetorical nonsense is now a basic part of the left wing class warfare arsenal. The goal here is to foster the idea that the more money you make the less you work. The reality is that there we have two resources we can use to make money, physical labor and mental labor. Most of us use a combination of the two. The ugly little fact is that, generally speaking, and professional athletes aside, the more of your mind you use the more money you will make, and the more of your muscle you use the less money you'll make.

Here's another fact. The more money you make, the more likely it is that you will vote Republican. The less money you make, the more likely you will vote Democrat. Bring this all together and you'll soon figure out that the more you use physical labor to earn money, the more likely it is you will vote Democrat.

Knowing that almost all Americans value the concept of hard work, the Democrats have worked to promote the concept that the only real work that physical labor. Working with your mind -- managing investments, for instance -- just isn't work. Therefore the only real working people out there are those who work with their hands instead of their brains .... or those more likely to vote Democrat. Once you've made this absurd concept a reality you have created a wonderful class warfare weapon. If you're smarter than the average bear, and if you realize that it is not the role of government to set wages, you then become an enemy of "working men and women."

This, then, enables Ted Kennedy's demagoguery. He first asks what it is about the minimum wage that, as he says, drives Republicans so crazy. Simple. First -- there are still a few Republicans out there who believe that in a free market economy it is not the role of government to set wages. If the government can set a minimum wage, what is to stop the government from setting a maximum wage? If the government can set a minimum wage, then why can't the government set a minimum wage based on family size? Why can't the Imperial Federal Government of the United States just pass a law saying that the minimum wage goes up by $2.00 per hour for every child born to the worker? Once you allow the government to have a say in establishing the value of labor ... the sky is the limit. Where does it stop?

Secondly ... Republicans realize that less than 20% of the people in this country who earn the minimum wage live in families that are anywhere near or below the poverty level. Over six out of ten people who begin work at the minimum wage have received their first raise within the first year. Only 15% of minimum wage workers are still receiving the minimum wage after three years on their job. What percentage of the full time work force is earning just the minimum wage? Around 1 percent.

So .. to answer Kennedy's screaming questions: The minimum wage drives (some) Republicans crazy because there is absolutely nothing in our Constitution that allows the government to set wages, and the minimum wage is used by Democrats as nothing more than a tool of class warfare. Around one percent of full-time workers earn the minimum wage, and most of them are part of families that are well above the poverty line. It just isn't an issue. Knowing Republicans are also upset because they know that the Democrats push for the minimum wage increases are just another way of telling unions "thanks for your support."

And to answer Kennedy's second question, there is nothing about "working men and women" that Republicans find offensive. What they do find offensive is the Democrat use of the phrase "working people" as a tool of class warfare through their attempts to convince lower income Americans that those who make more than they do aren't really working for the money they earn.

Considering that Ted Kennedrunk was born with a silver brandy sniffer in his mouth, one wonders if through his fermented stupor, he sees the irony of bashing those he does not consider to be "working people"?

By the way, for those of you who haven't been here long, please click here to read why Democrats really want to raise minimum wage. Hint: unions are clamoring for it, despite the fact that union workers don't make anything NEAR minimum wage.