Archive for October, 2009
Wednesday Open Thread: October 14th, 2009
What’s on your mind this Wednesday?
Here’s an article by Dick Morris on the costs of the Deathcare Bill the White House is trying to push through. If Morris is right, it’s going to be disaster for all of us, including — ironically — the people who are pushing this through (who will suffer the consequences at the ballot boxes once people realize what’s been done to them). According to Morris. the plan cuts Medicare by billions, denies healthcare to the elderly, causes rationing due to doctor and nurse shortages necessitated by the 30 million new people who’ll receive free healthcare, and cuts off the lifeline to cheap Canadian pharmaceuticals that has been keeping many people alive (or, at the very least, from killing others by soothing them with affordable Prozac).
On top of all this, the whole plan is ridiculous because it is cheaper for young people to pay the $1,000 penalty a year and NOT buy health insurance than to pay 7.5% of their income (average of $3,500 a year) for insurance the invincible, indestructable, never-ever-sick young (in their minds, at least) don’t believe they need. Under the proposed program, people can’t be denied insurance for any current or pre-existing conditions. That means people will go as long as possible without insurance, until they get sick, then they will buy it and suffer no penalities for higher premiums because the government will subsidize all costs above 7.5% of a person’s income.
And all of that means higher taxes for everyone.
It is an enormous disaster in the making.
The difference between Dr. Utopia and Jesus
A long time ago, there was a guy named Jesus who people thought was pretty special — until Dr. Utopia, the Lightbringer, came along and usurped and eclipsed him.
“Jesus who? He was like so five minutes ago,” as our friend Panda would say. “Oh, and don’t forget to say ‘bitches’, cause I would say, ‘That’s so five minutes ago, bitches,’ because that’s my trademark word. You bitches”.
Duly noted, Panda. Duly noted indeed.
Video pretty much spells it out…and further makes us wonder exactly when Dr. Utopia’s messiah complex will hit a mighty cathedral of a brick wall.
Something new for HillBuzz: Our Chicago
We want to start something fun and new around here — HillBuzz’s Our Chicago page.
Two things prompted this, really. One, during our fight to keep the Daley Administration from using the Olympics as its personal feed trough, we were interviewed by several foreign correspondents who thought we hated Chicago and didn’t feel proud of it (their words).
No. We love this town. We just didn’t want to see it destroyed by what would have been the single greatest orgy of graft and corruption the world has ever seen. We are thrilled to live here, and fight so hard every day to keep working and making enough to remain here, while so many of our friends have been forced, jobless, to return home and live with their parents again. Our lives here in Boystown are worth fighting for…and working two and three and (in one case here) FOUR JOBS for.
So, while we tell you about all the terrible things the idiots in local government do all the time, we don’t want to forget to tell you about all the wonderful opportunities for adventure to be had in this gorgeous city.
We also were prompted by several requests lately for restaurant recommendations and ideas for parties or nights out on the town here. One of our FAVORITE things in the whole world is when friends from out of town come to Chicago and we get to show this place off.
So, we thought maybe we should put together little walking tours, adventure day plans, restaurant reviews, and other little posts you can use as guides if you ever come here. Maybe these will encourage you to come vacation here, and pump some cash into our local economy. In a tiny way, we can, together, do what the Olympics was supposed to do (but we knew they really wouldn’t).
It’s also, now that we think of it, a way for us to force an adventure day into our own schedule every week or so, as we hit the pavement and head outside to do these walking tours for you, and then write about them. We long ago realized we never do much of the really fun stuff here unless someone from out of town is around…so this will be like having all of you out there visit us once a week…and we’ll take you somewhere fun that maybe you can add onto your agenda if you ever really do vacation here.
We encourage you to chime in and tell us spots we shouldn’t miss, or disagree with us if you don’t like a review. Together, we could make this a pretty valuable resource for visits to Chicago…and perhaps we could have some nonpartisan, nonpolitical, fun along the way.
Which we love.
What happens when you confront the Human Rights Campaign about its donations to Obama?
Here’s an experiment we’d like you to try out there, wherever you live, and see if you get the same response we get in Chicago.
Today on Halsted here in Boystown, the Human Rights Campaign was at it again, walking the street with clipboards trying to get people to sign up for sponsorships.
We have a rule: none of us will make a scene, shout things, or heckle these volunteers as they walk the street stopping people. It’s not our business. We write about what we think of the Human Rights Campaign and its blind support for Dr. Utopia and his Magical Nonexistant Unicorn Parade of Meaningless Promises. Thousands of people a day read what we think of the Human Rights Campaign. So, we don’t intrude on the interactions their volunteers have with random people in Chicago.
BUT, if these Human Rights Campaign volunteers approach US, and engage US, and ask US to support them, then we let them know, politely, just what we think of these idiots. Which sounds something like this:
“We will never again support the Human Rights Campaign, and on a regular basis tell everyone we know not to support you either, because from June to November 2008 you gave every cent donated to you to the Obama campaign. Clearly, you do not need money if you can so freely give it away. Clearly, you can’t be trusted with money if you lavish it on someone who has no intention of doing anything for the LGBTQ community. Do you know what Obama did on June 29th, 2008 instead of marching in the Chicago Gay Pride Parade? He got his hair cut and played basketball at the East Bank Club. He has done absolutely nothing for the LGBTQ community and pays only vague lip service to DADT and DOMA issues. He is not supporting marriage equality in Maine and Vermont…and he did not instruct his followers to defeat Prop-8 in California, which passed because of the enthusiastic support of black Obama voters. Joe Solomonese and the Human Rights Campaign will never again have our support because they put all their hopes into the world’s largest do-nothing narcissist. You should be ashamed to be out supporting an organization that is clearly so stupid and shortsighted”.
Without fail, these Human Rights Campaign people try to interrupt us at least 12 times during the above, but we plow through it. They weakly claim Obama didn’t march in any parades, but we remind them that he marched in lots of parades, such as the August 2008 Bud Billiken Parade in Chicago. He just doesn’t march in gay parades.
They also try to lie and claim the Human Rights Campaign didn’t give its donations to Obama…but we know damn well it did.
Then they claim “Oh, he’s supportive of gay marriage,” but can’t think of a single substantive thing he’s done in support of it.
These are very low-information and poorly trained volunteers — who almost ALWAYS storm off in a huff when challenged like this.
Like Dr. Utopia himself, these people are used to being praised and fawned over, just for existing. “Who doesn’t love the Human Rights Campaign? Who doesn’t love Obama? Who doesn’t love kittens?”.
Kittens don’t promise everyone the world, then laugh at how stupid they were to believe them, and occupy the most powerful office in the world for almost a full year without doing jack squat to keep any of the hundreds of thousands of promises they made just a year ago.
That’s why everyone loves kittens.
And why we think the Human Rights Campaign and its volunteers deserve every scolding they can get.
Obama is diluting the US Presidency
Here’s an interesting article from Israel about Dr. Utopia “diluting the US presidency”. It’s a great read that essentially says Dr. Utopia has turned the presidency into a joke — something not even George W. Bush achieved.
Yes, we were amongst those who ridiculed Bush in 2000.
We stood in disbelief in the aftermath of 9/11 when Bush was deifiefed for doing what we thought any president should do: going to New York and standing there with a bullhorn and giving the country something to focus on in those terrible, terrible days.
We were outraged at the Iraq War, because we maintained Colin Powell lied to the UN about the futuristic weapons Saddam Hussein supposedly had.
We were disgusted by the response to Hurricane Katrina — because the near-miss in 2004 should have given the government a full year to prep for the next hurricane.
But, during the 2008 general election, we started to reappraise President Bush…and this didn’t really become crystal clear to us until after Dr. Utopia was sworn in, but Bush was actually very good for America in a great many ways.
We no longer believe “anyone would have done that on 9/11″ in regards to Bush’s pitch-perfect performance on the ground at Ground Zero.
Great Merfiful Zeus, George W. Bush did the world a mighty service that day, by being the strong, determined, resolute figure we all needed right then and there. With that bullhorn, standing up straight, being strong — he held this country together.
We are truly horrified to think of what Dr. Utopia would have done in his place. Would he have stood there and said how much America deserved what we got…how we needed to be humble and understanding of Islam…how we are just one of many countries in the world and were wrong to be so strong and empowered? Would the apology tour have made a command performance that day…when we needed a leader, not an apologist?
People make fun of Bush as a cowboy, but cowboys are chock full of awesome in our book.
Look what we have in Washington now: an effeminate, professorial, TelePrompTer-dependent, narcissicist huckster who desperately wants the world to love him…and the only sure way to do that is to sell out American interests and weaken this nation to curry favor with the elitists of Europe and the ugly despots of Islam.
Why the Hell isn’t New Orleans being rebuilt now, with Dr. Utopia in office for 10 months now? Isn’t he supposed to work miracles? Isn’t that why we were supposed to elect him? If the failure of New Orleans was all Bush’s fault for not doing anything, then why isn’t New Orleans being repaired now, when Dr. Utopia essentially has all three branches of government under his control?
If Bush’s approach to other nations was so terrible, then why did the world feel safer when he was in office? Why did Putin in Russia, Kim Jong Il in North Korea, Chavez in Venezuela, and Aquavelvajad in Iran all tremble before what the MSM called “our idiot cowboy”?
Our enemies knew Bush would kick ass and take names whenever they stepped out of line. Now, our enemies know Dr. Utopia will send them flowers, chocolates, or possibly strip-o-grams singing kumbaya…and then apologize for it later.
It all feels like a strict teacher has left the classroom of unruly students, with a naive and hopey-changey substitute in his place. And the kids are going wild, throwing spit balls, setting desks on fire, raising general Hell. All the while, the lanky, fey liberal is pleading with them all to “remain ladies and gentlemen”, to “let me be clear, come together and settle down prompted only by my laboriously long monologue on the collective benefits of eliminating all spit balls in our lifetime”, to “stand in awe of me, because I went to Harvard and have been approved by all the big thinkers of the entrenched elite”.
All the while, the damn fool’s got a designer blue suit covered in chalk, with his $300 Hermes tie caught in his partially unzipped fly.
Major Steve Austin’s been replaced by Steve Urkel. And the only ones who really love the change are the brats up front who know they can now get away with absolutely anything.
We hope we aren’t the only ones who see the many disasters ahead because of this. Awarding this man the Nobel Peace Prize is more than just an enormous joke…it’s encouragement for him to carry on with the weakening of America and the diluting of the presidency. Europe will be thrilled, and could possibly give him great prizes for the next three years.
But what will America win?
Who will stand up for us like Bush did?
What mess will future presidents Clinton, Palin, and others inherit from this Lightbringer?
What think you?
Chicago Tea Party Rally October 17th: specifically addressing Democrats' epidemic of race-baiting
Kevin Jackson, author of The Big Black Lie, will be speaking at a Chicago Tea Party Rally at Millennium Park on Saturday October 17th. Specifically, this rally will call out the DNC, the White House, and the Henry Gates/Al Sharpton/Jesse Jackson Axis of Race-Baiting.
Can You Hear Us Now?
Chicago Tea Party Patriots Rally
Saturday, October 17
11am-1pm
Millennium Park
Michigan Avenue and Washington
Chicago, IL
Will Hillary Clinton run for President again? In a word, Yes.
For some reason, there are many of you who don’t know what an Open Thread means. There’s one posted every day, and that’s where you can put links to things you think are interesting. You can also email them to us, though we get a lot of spam each day so that’s not the fastest way to see something.
Every once in a while there’s something in the MSM that gets a lot of you worked up — and so you post it and post it again all over the place, in threads that have nothing at all to do with whatever you are talking about. It would be really nice if you’d use the Open Threads for random things…especially things the MSM is pushing for no particular reason. The American media likes to invent stories using as few facts as possible, just to amuse themselves. That’s basically what we do here, too, but we’re not professional journalists, but just a bunch of guys in Boystown who try to amuse ourselves and others each day.
A great example of the MSM inventing things is the story from Monday generated by Hillary Clinton’s appearance on the Today Show.
Hillary Clinton, for those of you who don’t know, is the current Secretary of State of the United States in a Democratic Administration.
For those of you who also don’t know, the current president still believes he not only can win a second term, but that it is mandated by Zeus himself and all the mighty Olympians that he has already been awarded that second term (at the conclusion of which Dr. Utopia will be raised up into the Heavens, Hercules-style, to become a constellation of burning gas in the firmament).
No Democrat would ever answer a question on the Today Show like “will you run for president again” with anything but a no.
There is absolutely no advantage to Clinton in saying anything but no at this point.
It is too far before 2012, and much too far before 2016.
Do you even hear any Republicans talking about 2012 or 2016? Nope. When asked about future presidential runs, they say no.
Hillary Clinton will run for and win the presidency at some point in the future. She kept saying she wasn’t running for president in 2004, 2005, 2006, and right up until February or so of 2007.
There are some of you out there who seem like you belong in that little Vermont town that Newhart was set in…where people believed everything the TV told them, and ran around terrified the sky was falling every time it snowed or rained. We shudder to think of what you will do when the Roland Emmerich disaster movie 2012 is released soon — we hate to think you will live in terror of the Mayan calendar ending, and taking the world with it, for the next three years. You are probably the same people who trembled in your basements for weeks surrounded by crates of bottled water and dried Mac & Cheese waiting for the world to end with Y2K as well.
There has to be a point where you start stepping back and asking if maybe CNN, NBC, and other MSM outlets take something and make it into a bigger deal than it is knowing you will run around like Chicken Little making a bigger deal of it than it really is.
Because just as it was frustrating for Bob Newhart to stand behind the desk at the Stratford Inn and watch the townsfolk overreact to things and carry on the way they did — it’s frustrating for us to see the same ridiculous article posted over and over again in multiple threads saying Hillary Clinton will never run for president again, when that’s all this woman has been doing since the age of 5.
What does she get out of never running again?
Does she REALLY strike you as someone who wants to retire and do nothing all day?
If she’s always been pegged as an 11th dimensional chess champion whose hobbies are plotting and scheming, then why does she suddenly want to stop now?
She will run again, but the operative question is when.
******
Here’s another article from RealClearPolitics saying exactly what we said: everything Hillary Clinton does is more preparation for a second presidential run. She is the second most high profile Democrat out there. The author of this piece assumes Dr. Utopia has a second term in the bag — which we disagree with. There is no way Republicans sit 2012 out and let this man have a second term…and there’s no way screaming RAAACIST! at people will work ever again to bully them into either voting for him or staying away from the polls. The only way Republicans lose in 2012 is by nominating Bobby Jindal, Charlie Crist, Mitt Romney, or Tim Pawlenty, the way the MSM wants.
But, the article agrees that Joe Biden won’t win the nomination in 2016. If he even runs for it.
There are ageists out there who claim a 69 year old Clinton would be too old. Have you seen Hillary’s mother Dorothy Rodham. The woman is in her 70s/80s and is a FIRECRACKER. One of our favorite people we met on the campaign trail. Hillary Clinton is a very young 61. She will be a very young 65 or 69, whenever she runs for president again.
And she will run.
More Proof NBC Is Run (into the ground) By Idiots
Did you hear what stupid thing NBC did now?
It’s like the place is run by Claire McCaskill, the most stupid and terrible member of the United States Senate.
If you aren’t watching Glee on Fox, then there’s just something wrong with you. Period. This is one of those things we’re not going to budge on, because the show is wonderful in a way few things in life ever are. It’s funny, sharp, playful, musical, and chock full of moments that tug at our hearts and lift us up, up, up.
And it’s worked its way into pop culture faster than anything we’ve seen in a long time. The musical numbers from the show pop up at Sidetracks on Showtunes night as soon as they air. People email and Facebook message those clips from YouTube almost instantly. It’s such a feel good show…so well acted…so expertly written…it’s like watching the “Once More With Feeling” Buffy musical episode for the very first time each and every week.
Love. This. Show.
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade wanted the Glee cast to ride in the parade and to perform a musical number at the end of the route. For the first time in history, NBC vetoed the invitation — after Glee already accepted — saying it did not want to promote a popular show on another network. Glee airs against Law & Order: The One Starring the Guy Who Was Naked A LOT on Oz and Jane Mansfield’s Daughter.
All of NBC’s dramas are hurting in the wake of the Jay Leno Show disaster…bumping the shows to different days and 9pm time slots has annihilated them in the ratings. So, this move is obviously NBC lawyers (idiots one and all), thinking that by kicking Glee off the parade they are helping Law & Order in some bizarre way.
Because NBC is stupid.
Glee, as Nikki Finch in the article above notes, isn’t even the same demographic as L&O. They aren’t even remotely the same sort of show. If anything, having the Glee cast at the Macy’s parade would have gotten a lot of people to turn the dial to NBC for the first time in a great while for may of them…because they would have wanted to watch Glee perform, and would have thus had to sit through endless NBC commercials…where they might have seen something else they wanted to watch on the peacock network.
Idiots.
GE’s shareholders are currently pressuring the company to selloff its NBC portfolio. Comcast appears to be the likeliest bidder, but there’s rumors that Rupert Murdoch wants to buy NBC…but may be limited by the anti-trust laws enforced by the FCC that would prevent him from owning both Fox and NBC.
And, of course, this is all happening while the White House launches an unprecedented war against Fox, claiming it is an arm of the Republican Party while NBC and its sister networks are very much wings of Dr. Utopia’s White House and the DNC.
What would happen if Murdoch really DOES manage to buy NBC. Would he keep it the same and thus control both the right and the left’s mouthpieces…or would he rein NBC in and fire the likes of Olbermann, Matthews, and insist shows like SNL become funny again by treating Dr. Utopia like every other president, and not an untouchable sacred cow Lightbringer?
It really does feel like NBC could be off the air in 5-10 years…or, at the very least, could exist in a very different form since the liberal playground it is currently seems to be hemorraging cash faster than the current White House can print it.
Tuesday Open Thread and Halloween Costume Ideas: October 13th, 2009
What’s on your mind this Tuesday?
What good Halloween costumes have you seen or thought about?
Post links and be as random as you want to in this Open Thread.
Here are some things we’re thinking about today:
(1) It would be funny to start a movement to petition the UN to rename “October” as “Baracktober”, because “almost no one knows who Octavian Ceasar was, and anyone who doesn’t love the current US president is a damn dirty RAAACIST! Besides, Ceasar already has August named after him too, and that’s two months for a white person and no months for the Lightbringer, which is RAAACIST!”.
(2) We wonder how well Obama masks are selling for Halloween. We see them in stores, and see people pick them up, but have never seen anyone actually buy one. Would white people feel comfortable wearing a black mask, or would they be afraid of being called RAAACISTS for it? During the campaign, we saw plenty of idiots wearing Bush masks, dancing around and acting stupid at all Democrat events we went to — maybe mask wearing to lampoon someone you don’t like is just a liberal left thing. We don’t remember ever seeing anyone wearing Clinton masks. We’re sure they did for things, but we just never saw them.
(3) Here’s an article from MSNBC about Dr. Utopia repeating the same phrases again and again, like “Let me be clear”. What’s interesting is how the article couches this observation. In the Bush years, we bet the author would have written it up as if Bush was an idiot using a Speak-n-Say wind-up toy to regurgitate canned phrases whenever he needed them. However, since it’s Dr. Utopia, and MSNBC is indeed very much on the White House payroll, the whole article is basically about how awesome it is that Dr. Utopia uses the same phrases again and again…because his followers love them so much and he is such a benevolent and caring Lightbringer so he gives his fans what they want. Like Cyndi Lauper singing some lines from Girls Just Wanna Have Fun for anyone who stops her on the street and wants to hear, “They just wanna…they just wanna…just wannnnnnna-a-a-a”. Let us be clear, when Dr. Utopia finally goes down and sinks below 40% in his approval ratings, he is going to take MSNBC down with him. These fools are so tied inextricably to the current president, we highly doubt they’ll be around by the end of Utopia’s single term.
HALLOWEEN COSTUME IDEAS:
We’re just asking everyone we talk to what they are doing for Halloween and writing it up here every day. Ultimately we’ll collect these into a thread unto themselves for easy use by you, but until then we’ll just assemble them as we go:
(A) The Seven Deadly Sins: two groups of people we know, one liberal and gay in Boystown and one young Republican are going as the Seven Deadly Sins. Which is funny because these people don’t know each other, and it’s the Dem group that’s going for the expensive, chic look. The other group is going vulgar/cartoony funny with it. For example, “Greed” in the former is going to be all in high-end black clothes, with lots of classy gold jewelry, a gold sparkly vest, gold hat, and gold glasses. “Greed” in the other group is going in a suit with fake dollars bills all over it and a George Washington wig with face painted light green (like he’s made of money).
(B) Rainbow Care Bears – another group of friends is going as a bunch of rainbow Care Bears…red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, you get it. It’s a good multi-use costume, too, because you can wear them again at Gay Pride…or at IML in Chicago or anything else that might need a “bear”.
(C) Science Fiction Party – some people we know are going to a SciFi party, with one of them going as Jabba the Slutt, which is interesting because the obvious sexy choice would have been a cliche Princess Lei Slave Girl outfit. Lots of Star Trek people, dressed up like the young cast from the new movie. One particularly handsome guy with Montgomery Clift (pre-car crash) good looks is doing a retro Adventure Guy look…parts Rocketeer, parts Sky Captain from the World of Tomorrow…with leather jacket, jetpack, aviator goggles, silvery space blaster, whatever. Just using his imagination not to mimic some established character, but to create something of his own. Which is what Halloween is all about to us.
(D) Someone going to the above party is planning on making a Klingon costume. We said, “So, you’re going to be making a Jason Wu inaugural gown out of old coffee filters, are you?”. He didn’t get the joke, but we trust you will.
(E) A lot of guys we know who like to dress up as ladies for Halloween (or, let’s be real, random Tuesdays) are honoring Bea Arthur, a fallen gay icon. Aside from doing a Golden Girls full on tribute, they’re going as Maude Bea Arthur…or Broadway Bea Arthur, with Angela Lansbury in tow from this musical number, “Bosom Buddies” (uh, can you tell we were interviewing people about their costumes at Sidetracks on a Monday night?):
(F) The Kardashian Sisters — there are three of them, so you need three friends. The smallest friend dresses like she is pregnant. All three should wear shirts that say “Vote for Kim”, and all should have padded big butts. We honestly have no idea who these people are, but two sets of girls are dressing up like them that we know it.
(G) Project Runway — great group costume. Heidi Klum, Tim Gunn, Michael Koors, Nina Garcia, and memorable designers like Christian, Chris March, Laura, Kenley, Uli, Jeffrey, and Season One winner Jay.
(H) Real Housewives of Atlanta — everyone fights over who gets to be Nee Nee. And who has to be Lisa Wu.
(I) It will be interesting to see how many Michael Jacksons are out for Halloween. Several Chicago costume companies are claiming people are making the phones ring off the looking looking for sequined gloves, etc. And it turns out this is the first year Jackson licensed his image for official outfits to be made as costumes of him. SO, there are much better quality costumes out there. We know of no one who is dressing up as MJ, but bet there will be quite a few zombies out there doing the Thriller dance. The MJ-Zombieland pop culture junction should be pretty big.
Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) crying about $300 million budget shortfall, despite stimulus money
One of the greatest mysteries in this world is what happens to all the money the government gives to the Chicago Transit Authority.
Every year, the CTA posts urgent messages on all its trains and buses claiming it will go out of business if people don’t call their representatives in government and beg them to give Chicago hundreds of millions of dollars more to make up for budget shortfalls.
It is Doomsday every day in Chicago with the CTA. Despite the fact it received millions in “stimulus money” from the federal government in March, when Dr. Utopia forced through ONE TRILLION DOLLARS in spending.
We were against that move and were hectored for it, but the reason we said it was a colossal blunder that would doom us financially for generations is because that money was largely put into the hands of spendthrifts and idiots.
Like the CTA.
Now they are threatening to raise train rides to $3, from the $2.25 they are currently (up from the $2 and even $1.50 we remember when we first moved here five years ago). That means an average working person would have to spend at least $30 a week just getting to work. $120 a month. It’s a lot of money to spend riding around in metal boxes homeless people use as toilets.
It’s also ridiculous when you think about how many millions the City of Chicago wasted on the failed Olympics bid. $60 million or so went into that. If the CTA really and truly claims it will go under without an infusion of $300 million…then they’d just need $240 million now.
What did Illinois’ share of Dr. Utopia’s spending free for all in March come out to?
Surely there was $240 million in that which could have gone to the CTA.
But, honestly, no matter how much money the CTA, or other similar entities in other cities, gets it will always want more, like that giant singing plant in Little Shop. Feed me Seymour. I’ve eaten and eaten but I still want more. For what, I don’t know, but I just want more.
That really seems to be the emerging motto of everything and everyone connected to government in the Golden Age of Obama.
Doesn’t it?
