A few words regarding this "War on Women"...

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...Including this tweet from @Iowahawkblog:

Remember gals, the GOP hates women. That's why President Obama treats you as hysterical, hormone-addled walking uteri.

And it's not just the President that views them in this light, also his staunchest defenders.

Behold the flappy folds of Code Pink going all Spirit Week at the Republican National Convention:

Ed Morrissey, writing for the Fiscal Times, notes the potential folly of the Democrats playing the "WoW" card thusly:

But it’s even worse than that. The strategy segregates women from other issues as if they only have deep concern in this election over the status of their genitalia. This theme came to ludicrous fruition in demonstrations by Code Pink at the Republican convention in Tampa, when activists showed up dressed as gigantic labia. The scene provided an unintentionally revealing portrait of just how progressives see women in modern American society.

That is the true risk for Democrats who pursue this strategy. After three nights of watching successful and accomplished women in the Republican Party discuss economic policy, job creation, and reform of the federal government for deficit and debt reduction, viewers will tune in the following week to see women considered as interested in little more than sexual reproduction. Voters might well conclude that there is a “war on women,” but that it’s not the Republicans who are waging it.

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Seriously. We don't get it. All that "You've come along way, baby" and "Keep your laws off my body" defiant, feminist sloganeering from decades past has been reduced to simpering pleas to a domineering, paternalistic super-state to provide free birth control. Correction: simpering demands to a domineering, paternalistic super-state which will pass that cost on to U.S. citizens whether they like it or not. Nice work, ladies.


And don't allow yourself to be deluded: this isn't about "access" - this is about "muscle". This is a power play, pure and simple. What better way to prove your bona fides as a true believer in soft-authoritarianism than to force institutions to violate their conscience by forcing them to provide contraception, gratis? And you don't even have to be a person of faith to realize the absurdity of all this and wonder why it is you are footing the bill for someone else's sexual habits.

So, color us confused. All this time we were told that what happens in the bedroom was strictly the business of the consenting parties. No longer. Now that we're all vested interests, what happens in the bedroom is not anymore a private matter but that of public policy and that does not sound like a feature of a constitutional republic devoted to the ideals of personal privacy and civil liberties.

heh. Paying for your own Pill: It's the civil rights issue of our time.


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Where pop culture phenomenas go to die

How do you know when this whole flash mob thing has jumped the shark? When Code Pink employs a bizarre Israel-bashing one of their own to protest the kickoff of the AIPAC conference last week in Washington D.C., that's how.




Apartheid? Racist?

Given Code Pink's context those are interesting terms given 20% of Israeli citizens are Arab and who also enjoy the full benefits of citizenship as well as being eligible to sit in the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

We are unaware of any Arab state where Jews are represented in this number and are afforded the same benefits of citizenship.





Addendum #1 (via Left Coast Rebel): Speaking of Code Pink, they decided to drop into Bibi's address to Congress earlier today and exercise their 1st amendment rights. And here's Bibi dropping the hammer, making a great point about democracies and getting the assembled eating out of his hand all in the span of 15 seconds.



Just reminds us of how far we've lowered the bar for great public speaking over the past few years.

Video clip of the day

At least they're consistent if a tad smaller in numbers - Code Pink at the White House and others taking in the OBL snuff high on the day after.

"It's very difficult to get peaceful people and people out on the streets to protest anything these days. I think it does have some relevance to Obama's presidency because during the Bush years we could get millions out."

"... but we both know the fact that what we are fighting for may not be (for) the best good but it's the best we've got right now".

Good to see some things never change

“Your son deserved to die in Iraq if he was stupid enough to go over there.”

It's with great relief we are able to report that the anti-war left that seemed to go into hibernation or at least appeared to have lost a little off their fastball coinciding with President Obama taking office is back.

Debbie Lee the mother of Marc Alan Lee (pictured)* is calling on Jerry Brown to return any money raised for his campaign by Jodie Evans and Code Pink.

The exchange between Lee and Evans occurred back in '08 when Code Pink infamously barricaded the Marine Corps recruiting office up in Berkeley. Our thoughts on the matter at the time, here.



*Marc was killed in action in Iraq back in 2006 and is buried down here at Fort Rosencrans in San Diego.

Video clip of the day

All the tell-tale signs: foul language. dangerous rhetoric. outrageous symbolism. Yep, it's a tea party, alright.

Release the Hounds!

When Medea Benjamin stood up in a Kabul meeting hall this weekend to ask Masooda Jalal if she would prefer more international troops or more development funds, the cofounder of US antiwar group Code Pink was hoping her fellow activist would support her call for US troop withdrawal.

She was disappointed.

Ms. Jalhal, the former Afghan minister of women, bluntly told her both were needed. "It is good for Afghanistan to have more troops – more troops committed with the aim of building peace and against war, terrorism, and security – along with other resources," she answered. "Coming together they will help with better reconstruction."

Code Pink, founded in 2002 to oppose the US invasion of Iraq, is one of the more high-profile women's antiwar groups being forced to rethink its position as Afghan women explain theirs: Without international troops, they say, armed groups could return with a vengeance – and that would leave women most vulnerable.

Though Afghans have their grievances against the international troops' presence, chief among them civilian casualties, many fear an abrupt departure would create a dangerous security vacuum to be filled by predatory and rapacious militias. Many women, primary victims of such groups in the past, are adamant that international troops stay until a sufficient number of local forces are trained and the rule of law established.

Mr. President, when you start losing Code Pink, it might be a signal that it is time for action regarding Afghanistan.

We never actually thought we would say this but we commend Code Pink for actually paying some lip service to the women of Afghanistan as the feminist movement as a whole has been an abject failure in defending the rights of women in the Islamic world due to their collective anti-American and/or anti-Western blind spots.

Trimming around the edges (UPDATED)

(please scroll to bottom for update)

So, why doesn’t the liberal-Left have nearly the image problem that the conservative-Right does with its disreputable fringe elements? Because the liberal Left doesn’t have any.

While the mainstream Right fights a constant battle to marginalize and otherwise disassociate themselves from the more unsavory elements that are rightly or wrongly ascribed to the conservative movement be they the Birchers back in the 50s and early 60s to the current crop of Birthers , the Left effectively marginalizes their own unsavory elements by… accepting them into the fold.

It’s a brilliant strategy, really. How can one be outside of the mainstream of the left when one is a tenured professor, a respected inner-city pastor, a political action group favored by the speaker of the House or even a registered Democratic poll-watcher?

B-Daddy, who has been blogging up a storm lately, has some thoughts on extremism and the paranoid style of the opposition, here.

Quick side note: Our brief flirtation with greenism (hey, beach chicks dug it) was dealt a mortal blow when some such HMFIC of the Surfrider Foundation admitted without any sense of remorse that we could detect to exaggerating and fudging on claims of damage to the environment in order to be heard above the din.

Sometimes you got to do some digging and perform a little homework of your own to rise above the din of demagoguery and lies.

(UPDATE #1):

Predictable.

Recall how the tea party movement was smeared in an ad hominem fashion with the presence of a few Birthers at rallies and townhalls. And recall how every reputable conservative outlet, including this one, worked to disavow themselves of this tinfoil hat brigade.

Now that the liberal establishment had an anti-government conspiracy kook, themselves, working in the White House, what has been the response? Since hypocrisy appears to be the only sin among the liberal-Left, disavowal is out of the picture. So, it’s bop-bop, co-opt ‘til you drop, baby.

From the New Republic:

Jones was wrong, actually, in disavowing his support for 9/11 conspiracy theory. He signed the document, which can only mean that he supports the idea that 9/11 was planned, or that the Bushies knew something more than they have said, or at least that the charge is plausible enough to require investigation.

But support for that idea is hardly unknown among people of the left – and often gestural in its own way; look one of these types in the eye and ask “Do you really think George Bush and his cabinet engineered the murder of thousands and have kept the secret for eight years?” and watch the nervous pause and the look off into the distance. Speculations in this vein hardly meant that Jones was not sincerely committed to working within the government to do good.

Awesome. Let's toss the Truthers now into the mainstream of the liberal political movement.

It has yet to have been adequately explained to us how any of this is any good

Folks, it’s all pretty simple. You want universal managed health care then someone is going to have to manage it.




And we suppose it was a journalistic nod to the freak show at the carny but Newsweek allowed Codepink cofounder, Medea Benjamin to chime in with respect to Congressional handling of the financial sector. It was standard boiler plate lefty populism that concluded with this paragraph from the bearded lady, herself:

The economic crisis, and the public's furor over executive pay and behavior, has provided Congress with an opportunity not just to rein in CEO compensation but also to remake the out-of-touch, irresponsible corporate system. Until that happens, we'll keep wearing our signs.

Out-of-touch… That’s an interesting phrase given the context. Just how out-of-touch does one have to be to believe that the most out-of-control, vindictive, disingenuous and unethical Congress in generations would effectively remake or rein-in anything?

H/T: Hot Air

Your Much-Anticipated Code Pink Update

When this whole thing first flared-up about 3 months ago, we were pretty confident the Marines would be able to handle it without any meddlesome “help” from Congress or anyone else for that matter. (Our thoughts on the subject at the time, here). Turns out, we were right because nothing says “flagging enthusiasm” like witchcraft. The 'Pinkers have resorted to casting spells and encouraging protesters to show up in pointy hats because.... because... they're running out of ideas to make asses of themselves? (no word yet on the appearance of mimes or magicians as that would certainly be the death knell for Code Pink as an organization).

And proving the adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity, this particular recruiting office has actually benefited from this harassment at the hands of the unwashed and unshaven. Here’s Captain John Paul Wheatcroft who runs the store:

"Ironically, it's actually helped us by putting our name out. We're now well known. And people know who we are, and where we are, and they come in to talk to us about enlisting. They've gotten us the publicity that we could've never afforded to pay for ourselves," Story here.

That is perhaps the most heartwarming and uplifting message we’ve heard in days. So inspirational, in fact, we post what is quite possibly the most excellent 5 minutes in television history. We saw it first over at Foxfier’s place and same video was forwarded to us just today by friends. It’s gotta be a sign, right?




Pax and Semper Fi.

You're All on the Clock

Seriously. If you can find more excellence packed into a 5 minute clip we’ll strip down nekkid and streak around the block. The sheer awesomeness contained herein nearly defies the time/space con… con… con… … time/space physics. Whew…

Do Burqas come in Pink?

The gentle lads at Weasel Zippers have an excellent photo essay here of the Code Pink demonstrations and counter-demonstrations up in Berkeley on Tuesday of this past week.

What jumped out at us in looking at the pictures is the overwhelming causal evidence of anti-Americanism and Leftism to Fugliness in its adherents. It was really quite remarkable.

Not to be outdone, we are sending the BwD photo staff out to the mountains and deserts in San Diego's great big backyard to see what all the recent winter storms hath wrought. Hopefully, we will be posting pix later tonight or tomorrow.

Y'all have a great day.