The Political Class

Photo Evidence: Michelle Obama keeps socialist books in The White House Library

Say Anything reports:

I arrived in Washington DC today to cover CPAC and since I was in town, and since CPAC doesn’t really get rolling until tomorrow, I tagged along with some Scott Hennen Show listeners on an extensive tour of the White House as part of the Common Sense Travel Club.  One of the stops on the tour (which was wonderful by the way) was the White House library.

Now, according out the person who guided our tour, the library is stock with books picked out by the First Lady, Michelle Obama.  Being a bit of a bibliophile, I started to peruse some of the books on the shelves…and lookie, lookie what I found (click for a larger view):

By itself, this wouldn’t be that big of a deal.  But in the context of Anita Dunn saying Chairman Mao is her favorite political philosopher?  In the context of the Mao ornament on the White House Christmas tree?

In the context of Obama’s economic policies?

Well, I’ll let you make your own call.

Da - is good reading for cold Soviet Washington winter.

 

Technorati Tags: obama,books,white house,socialist,michelle obama,library

The iPad? Also available with wings? Apple falls flat with new product name.

All the guys at lunch laughed at the product name when the started to appear on our iPhones. I decided later to see what my wife thought of the new product. I pulled up the video of Steve Jobs doing the demo and sure enough she laughed at the name before the video even started. So it's not just men. 

Brietbart has some great responses on Twitter after the product announcement. Link here. CNN covers the jokes here. The comments match those that I experienced yesterday at lunch.

Twitter users responded snarkily Wednesday to the name of Apple's latest innovation the iPad, pushing the phrase "iTampon" to a number two "trending" topic on the microblogging site.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the new gadget amid high expectations, and Twitter users followed his announcement online, with both "Steve Jobs" and "Official Apple iPad" scoring high on the site's trending topics.

But by late afternoon, joking messages drawing attention to the connotations many associated with the name iPad were being uploaded by Twitter users all over the world, in a variety of languages.

"Dear Apple: Have fun trying to control all the teasing you're gonna get for the iPad name (i.e. #iTampon #iPadwithwings etc etc)," wrote user Emily McLain.

"I guess iTampon will be the smaller version to come out this fall," joked one user under the account name sTOOJ.

"Does the iPad come with wings?" wrote Justin Breese.

Twitter account user "thelampnyc" questioned why Apple's vast marketing resources hadn't made the connection.

"Really love that I have already heard the iPad called the #iTampon. Really, Apple marketing geniuses? Didn't see that coming?"

Are the Apple marketing folks really dead set on this name? If so do they think that people won't laugh out loud at the commercials? The writers at Saturday Night Live must be teeing up jokes already.

My answer is yes - the marketing team at Apple is tone deaf. Here's an example. In marketing their eBook store they selected Ted Kennedy's memoir. You know - that U.S. Senate seat that Massachusetts voters just replaced with Republican Scott Brown.

 

Technorati Tags: ipad,marketing,twitter

Justice Alito did not agree with Obama's analysis of The Supreme Court

Justice Samuel Alito mouths the words “Not True” when the Obama attacked the Supreme Court for defending the First Amendment in their campaign finance decision.

 

 

Technorati Tags: obama,campaign finance,supreme court,speech,alito,not true

Why liberal newspapers are failing: San Francisco Chronicle’s Jedi Mind Trick doesn’t work. Sarah Palin’s book #3 best seller in Bay Area.

This is too funny. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Bay Area bookstores that refused to carry Sarah Palin’s book “Going Rogue: An American Life” on November 19, 2009. Link here. Let’s see what kind of responses from bookstores that they decided to print:

The new autobiography by moose hunter and failed vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is harder to find in the Bay Area than a hockey mom. Some bookstores figure it's one of those grit-your-teeth First Amendment deals that principled booksellers must put up with from time to time.

But many nonchain bookstores won't handle it.

"Our customers are thinking people," said Nathan Embretson, a bookseller at Pendragon Books in Oakland. "They're not into reading drivel."

There's not a single copy on the shelf. Embretson said no one has asked for it except for one guy, who was kidding.

And:

There are no copies of the book at Cover to Cover Booksellers in Noe Valley, either.

"Anything like that we wouldn't carry," said clerk Emily Stackhouse. "We're a small store and it would probably gross us all out. Some things you carry because of freedom of speech, but a book like that is just gross."

And:

Sheryl Cotleur, the head buyer for Book Passage, which operates stores in Corte Madera and San Francisco, said the two stores have sold exactly two copies of the book. That works out to one copy per store. Cotleur said two other people have asked to look at the book but no one else has asked to buy it.

"Nobody around here is particularly interested in her politics or her opinions," she said. "There's a certain curiosity, sure. But I don't think that translates into what people are willing to pay money for."

Had she ordered 50 copies of the book, Cotleur said, she would probably wind up shipping 50 copies of the book back to the publisher in a couple of weeks.

"I would expect to take a bath on it," she said. "The job of a book buyer is to be something of a psychic. You have to know your community. I don't want to waste a lot of money and shelf space on a book nobody wants.'

And:

The large chains have got modest supplies of the book and, so far, the sales have been equally modest. At Borders bookstore in San Francisco Centre, a Chronicle reporter stood watch over two small stacks of the Palin book near the front doors. In a 25-minute period, only one person bought a copy. He turned out to be a visitor from out of state.

And:

Clerk Darron Smith, whose job it was to keep the small stack of Palin books in their place on the new bookshelf, next to the Stephen King horror novel and the James Patterson murder mystery, said Borders stocks the book because that's what responsible bookstores do.

"I would never read it myself," he said. "I also would never push it on anyone. But it's here, if somebody wants to ask for it. So far, I haven't had anyone ask."

I think we get the point that the SF Chronicle was attempting to get across to the readers – nobody in the Bay Area is going to buy this book.

Now let’s fast forward to the SF Chronicle on December 20, 2009. Just one month after their story on bookstores and Sarah Palin’s book. Link here to SF Chronicle’s Best Sellers list:

Bay Area rankings are based on sales in independent bookstores in the Bay Area during the week ending Dec. 20. Rankings are provided by the American Booksellers Association and the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association

nonfiction / bay area

1. Stones into schools, by Greg Mortenson (Viking; 420 pages; $26.95)

2. The Big Burn: teddy roosevelt and the fire that saved America, by Timothy  Egan (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 336 pages; $27)

3. Going Rogue: An American Life, by Sarah Palin (Harper; 432 pages; $28.99)

4. What the dog saw, by Malcolm Gladwell (Little Brown; 410 pages; $27.99)

5. Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall (Knopf; 304 pages; $24.95)

6. Where Men Win Glory, by Jon Krakauer (Doubleday; 416 pages; $27.95)

7. Open: An Autobiography, by Andre Agassi (Knopf; 386 pages; $28.95)

8. The National Parks: America’s Best Idea by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan (Knopf; 432 pages; $50)

9. Have A Little Faith a true story, by Mitch Albom (Hyperion; 272 pages; $23.99)

10. Superfreakonomics: Global cooling, patriotic prostitutes, and why suicide bombers should buy life insurance, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (William Morrow; 270 pages; $29.99)

Wait – did they just report that the #3 book sold in Bay Area independent bookstores is…gasp…Sarah Palin’s book? Did they not read their own story from just one month ago! Or maybe the people in the Bay Area are more interested in Sarah Palin than the SF Chronicle wants anyone to know.

So this liberal newspaper decided to “Solve a problem like Sarah” by attempting to convince everyone that her book was not in demand. Nice try with the Jedi Mind Trick  “Bay Area not maverick enough to read Pain book” story SF Chronicle. Didn’t you guys know that it only works on the weak minded?

 

Technorati Tags: sarah palin,san fransisco gate,bay area,books,best sellers,liberal bias,media bias

David McCullough on "1776"

A great holiday gift.

Amazon.com : Entertainment : David McCullough on "1776"

Sarah Palin surprises William Shatner by reading passages of his book on The Tonight Show.

Well done.

Eastman Kodak stands by GLSEN

 

Michelle Malkin is investigating the unfolding story of Kevin Jennings and the wretched handouts and “fisting” kits given to children at his conferences. Malkin contacted East Kodak regarding their sponsorship of GLSEN. Full story here:

Yesterday, I printed a list of sponsor companies and foundations that fund GLSEN, the radical gay rights group founded by Obama safe schools czar Kevin Jennings.

The full list is here.

A reader wrote to GLSEN sponsor Eastman Kodak about the group’s not-safe-for-school reading list and other explicit, extra-curricular activities. This is the response Eastman Kodak sent in reply:

Eastman Kodak Company is proud of its sponsorship of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Our support of this educational not-for-profit organization clearly reflects the five Kodak Values:

* Respect for the Dignity of the Individual
* Uncompromising Integrity
* Trust
* Credibility
* Continuous Improvement and Personal Renewal

When Kodak supports entities such as GLSEN, we demonstrate our commitment to honoring diversity, fostering community, and valuing each and every individual.

I am very proud to work for a company that embraces diversity and respect for individuals. We truly regret that these values offend you.

Sincerely,

Deborah A. Shuryn
Senior Customer Relations Specialist
Worldwide Customer Care

Eastman Kodak Company
343 State St
Rochester, NY 14650-0944

CustomerRelations@kodak.com
www.kodak.com

Question: Where do “Fisting Kits” and dental dams for children fit into the Kodak Values system?

Source: MassNews.com

 

Technorati Tags: eastman kodak,glsen,kevin jennings,fisting

Obama’s “Safe Schools” Czar passed out Gay Bar Guides to teenagers at his GLSEN events.

 

Gateway Pundit has the full story here. Now on to some simple logic. Why anyone hand out Gay Bar Guides to teenagers? The drinking age is 21 and bars do not let people in unless they are at least 21 years of age. So by definition why would Massachusetts teenagers need a guide to all of the gay bars in Boston? Anyone….anyone…Bueller?

Earlier today it was reported that Kevin Jennings’ Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) organization was distributing gay bar directories to high school students at the 2005 Massachusetts GLSEN conference.

This wasn’t an isolated incident.

Mass Resistance Blog today reported that GLSEN passed out directories to gay “leather” bars to teens at several of their events.

GLSEN organization also passed out guides to gay leather bars in Chicago to students in 2000.

Chicago gay “leather bars”? Are you freaking kidding me!

 

Technorati Tags: kevin jennings,obama,gay bars,glsen,fisting,Gay,Lesbian,and Straight Education Network,barack obama

Hollywood teams up with The History Channel to push communism on children. Has the History Channel sold out?

Has the History Channel sold out? Did the people that run the station not watch any of the programs regarding Russia, China, Cuba and Eastern Europe that they have run for so many years? After reviewing the contents of their latest venture, “The People Speak'’, I think something smells at The History Channel.

I noted an ad for this program a few days ago on the History Channel. The ad featured Matt Damon and it struck me as odd. Big Hollywood has the story here. Wretched.

Children are uniquely malleable beings, readily convinced of magically colorful tales – Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are the first that come to mind. This innocence is beautiful, but it is a quality that can easily fall victim to radically foreign ideas if taught consistently and pervasively at an early age. One need only look at the birth of fascism or socialism to see a recipe for how radical ideas become ubiquitous among a nation’s youth.

Enter Howard Zinn – an author, professor and American historian – who, with the help of Hollywood and the History Channel, intends to change the way our pre-K through high school children learn American history. His current curriculum suggestions, like introducing three-year-olds to the lynching of African-Americans, or quizzing seven-year-olds on which Presidents owned slaves, should be a red flag to parents.

Zinn has spent a lifetime teaching college students about the evils of capitalism, the promise of Marxism, and his version of American history – a history that has, in his view, been kept from students. His controversial 1980-book The People’s History of the United States paints traditional American history as a façade – one that has grotesquely immortalized flawed leaders and is based on principles that victimize the common man. In 2004, Zinn wrote a companion book entitled Voices Of A People’s History Of The United States, which includes speeches and writings from many of the people featured in The People’s History.

Here’s a great example of what your children will see:

Sarah Knopp, a Los Angeles high school teacher, is also on Zinn’s Teacher Advisory Board. Like Jones, Knopp is also a regular contributor to International Socialist Review, Socialist Worker, is an active member in The International Socialist Organization, and was also a speaker at the 2009 Socialist Conference. Here is Knopp speaking about the benefits of socialism, how capitalism destroys lives, and how she advocates workers taking over their factories:

Like I said. Wretched. Allowing a women like this to take part in teaching children is an insult to his history of mankind. Has society decided to cast logic to the winds and instead burry its head in the sand as an offering to the cult of Marxism?

The attempt to showcase Sarah Knopp as someone that is honest and well read ends during her opening statements. ANYONE that has spent even the slightest time researching the ecological habits of capitalist versus Marxist governments can shred her weak and false statements in mere moments. How embarrassing for the History Channel.

Is this what the History Channel is going to offer up to us now? I don’t think that the History Channel could have shown more programming regarding Hitler’s Germany than they did during the Bush administration. And now with the emergence of Barack Obama and his progressive allies such programming seems to have all but disappeared. In it’s place we have history as seen through the eyes of Marxists.

 

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: history channel,karl marx,howard zinn,marxism,kids,school

1,500 people stand in freezing weather to buy a signed copy of Sarah Palin’s book.

Over 500 people were in line before 5 AM. In which big city did she draw that kind of crowd? New York? No. L.A.? Nope. Not even Chicago or Houston. By 7 AM over 1,500 people stood in 30 degree weather in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Full story here via WZZM Channel 13.

KENTWOOD, Mich. (Detroit Free Press) - It was 4:55 when the first cheer went up.

"Sarah! Sarah! Sarah"

And that's 4:55 this morning when the thermometer had dipped into the 30s. But the 500 or so people in line didn't mind the sleepless night or the onset of winter.

"What she represents is what we're standing in line for," said Robin Case, 44, of Traverse City, who set up a chair and sleeping bag at 9 p.m. Tuesday to make sure she got the chance to meet Sarah Palin, former Alaska Governor and vice presidential candidate. "She's real and she's standing up for what we believe in."

Palin was scheduled to begin her "Going Rogue" book tour at the Barnes & Noble Booksellers at the Woodland Mall in Kentwood.

By 7 a.m., the line had swelled to more than 1,500 people as Barnes & Noble wrapped orange wristbands around Palin fans' wrists.

No wonder the left wing media asks “How do you solve a problem like Sarah?” News outlets like Newsweek are scared to death of her. RedState points out the obvious mistake Newsweek made here. 

Hot Air brings us word that Newsweek is declaring war on Sarah Palin. The magazine that has given up all pretense of objective news coverage and now caters to an ever shrinking Upper West Side Elite is making Palin the cover of Newsweek (PDF) with the title “How Do You Solve A Problem Like Sarah?” with the subheading “she’s bad news for the GOP — and everyone else too.”

There’s just one problem.

The title comes from “The Sound of Music” and the song “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?”

Maria, you see, was the hero and protagonist of the musical and, later, the movie.

And Maria was pursued by the Nazis.

Hmmmm . . . so if Palin is Maria and Newsweek is out to get her, perhaps Newsweeks’s red, black, and white masthead is appropriate.

*Sure, it was the nuns who sang the song, but the Nazis who were out to destroy her. And besides, we can’t really see Jon “God Supports Gay Marriage” Meacham as a nun.

Well done to Erick Erickson’s for his analysis at RedState. And well done to everyone that stood in line.

Technorati Tags: sarah palin,going rogue,kentwood michigan,book signing