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World Net Daily Declares War… On Conservatives!

Not content with being the nutter news service that supports the nutter birther movement, they have set their sights on the conservative organization the American Conservative Union. The ACU is being investigated for embezzling $400,000…

OK, it’s unclear from the story if they ARE being investigated, but it IS true that they were caught embezzling…

By the ACU. They, themselves were the ones who caught the crime and reported the misappropriations to the IRS.  They handled it right. It’s important to remember that two other non-profits in recent years faced similar problems.  One, The Points Of Light Institute handled their problem in a similar fashion, and came out OK. The other, ACORN, did not chose wisely.

But this WND attack piece isn’t about the embezzlement anyway. That’s just window dressing. Here’s the real meat of the story.

“Founded in 1964, ACU represents the views of Americans who are concerned with economic growth through lower taxes and reduced government spending and the issues of liberty, personal responsibility, traditional values and national security,” the group says on its website.
But the ACU has been criticized within the conservative movement in recent years for its stands on “personal responsibility, traditional values and national security.”

Earlier this year, ACU welcomed as sponsors of CPAC a group called GOProud, which bills itself as a “gay conservative” organization.

That is the real crime here! This is just another in a long line of hit pieces on the ACU because it’s infected by “The Gay”. Here are the “Previous Stories” featured at the bottom of the page.

Previous stories:

‘This is the line in the sand’

Will the Right bring ‘gay’ agenda into the tent?

CPAC pays the price for gay embrace

CPACU changes sponsorship rules for GOProud

Criticism of CPAC turns racial

CPAC leaving conservative roots?

Conservatives alarmed by ‘gay’ sponsorship of CPAC

Oh, but there’s “The Muslim” infiltration too!

“Suhail is the firstborn son of the late Mahboob Khan, a founding father of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in America,” said Sperry, a Hoover Institution media fellow. “Suhail has been a consultant to CAIR [The Council on American-Islamic Relations] and served on committees at ISNA [the Islamic Society of North America], both of which the government says are fronts for Hamas and its parent the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Sounds very, McCarthyist to me.

It is, of course, just a coincidence that one of the guys leveling these charges just happen to be selling books about… Yep, you guessed it – Muslims infiltrating the Conservative movement! And did you know that WND has its own online bookstore? Pretty convenient, huh!

PS. I was certain that last year, supreme WND nutter Orly Taitz (you probably don’t want to click on the link), often amusingly described on the web as “the dentist-cum-lawyer-cum-Birther leader” (add to that failed California gubernatorial candidate, though in retrospect that might not be a bad thing) pulled out of a speaking engagement at the 2010 CPAC conference because of the participation of GOProud in the conference. But I can find no evidence of it. So I’m probably wrong.

To Any Radio Station In Columbus… Give This Man A Job… NOW!!!! UPDATE

I would like to do radio… But this guy MUST be on the radio. What a freaking spectacular instrument for a voice!!!!

You often hear so many stereotypes about the homeless… They’re lazy bums… They don’t want to work. Just goes to show that some very talented and capable people are not immune to bad breaks and fall between the cracks.

UPDATE: Job Delivered – Voicing for the Calves! I’m a bit teary-eye. I love a happy ending!

Sad News – Gerry Rafferty Has Passed Away

He had a number of really good songs, but this and “Stuck In The Middle” are ageless. “Baker Street” features one of the greatest sax lines ever laid down on a rock record. It came out when I was about 12. I was struggling with life, and the mood of that song so fit the place I was in. It shares a spot with Supertramp’s “Logical Song” as true representations of the emotions of my youth.

Good-bye Gerry Rafferty – RIP.

PS. I’m much more cheerful and happy now.

MMA – The New Hollywood Of Politics!

We all know how trendy it was (is) for the stars in Hollywood to bash G W Bush and call him an idiot.  Well, now there’s a new playa in town, the MMA! And they’re tough!!!

Hollywood… Obama.. You betta watch your back!

PS. And this gives me a perfect excuse to post this video!  Thanks for that! The fun starts at about 1:10 in.

Why Journalism Is Dying: Pt… Oh, I Lost Count.

Dana Milbank has written an article on the recent RNC chair debate, noting how the vetting process shows nothing more than an “ideological cleansing” of the Republican party…

Well Duh, I’ve been writing about that for years! And history shows that after a party loses power, as happened to Republicans in 2006 and 2008, they tend to sway toward their more polar political wing.  Milbank writes:

Instead, the debate turned into a series of litmus tests of Republican loyalty…. They demonstrated how ideologically homogeneous the party has become.

Isn’t that what typically happens at these things? Aren’t they SUPPOSED to be looking for someone that most closely represents the party’s mainline views? He notes:

Norquist and Carlson, serving as cardinals of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, administered a long series of loyalty checks, and the candidates were nearly dissent-free. Abortion? All opposed. Lower taxes? All in favor. Gay marriage? All opposed. Cutting spending? All in favor….

Asked what viewpoints should lead somebody to be evicted from the Republican Party, Wagner [one of the RNC chair candidates] offered several, including pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage and anti-gun rights. Anuzis [another candidate] said a Republican official should be excommunicated if he or she votes against the platform more than 20 percent of the time. “If you’re pro-abortion, pro-stimulus, pro-GM bailout, pro-AIG,” said Priebus, “guess what? You might not be a Republican.”

So – the big tent is dead. That’s not news as it died some time ago. At least they’ve stopped pretending. What strikes me about this paragraph, is that, if you put the shoe on the other foot, and examine the process for choosing a chairperson for the DNC, do you really think you’re going to end up with a winner, much less a viable candidate, who doesn’t tow the party line? Do you really think we’re going to see a Democrat chair candidate who is pro-life, against taxing the rich, against gay marriage, against the bail outs? Do you really think that candidate has a chance in HELL to win that contest?

And PS. Don’t look now, but the next generation of GOP’ers is not the homophobic crowd the press would have you believe.

PPS. Andrew Sullivan writes:

The RNC debate was like something out of Orwell, apparently.

I think that qualifies for one of Sullivan’s fabled awards, probably a Moore.

Failed Meme Alert – “2010… Hottest Year EVER!!!!!!” UPDATE 1

Nope.

Didn’t Happen.

2010 will not be the hottest year on record. As expected, due to the mid year fade of the El Nino and the establishment of La Nina conditions, temps took a late year nose dive and 2010 failed to beat the 1998 mark. As of this moment, average world temp is back to the decade average, meaning there is still no temp rise evident for at least a decade. As was 1998, 2010 temp was abnormally due to a strong El Nino, which pushed stored ocean heat back into the atmopshere. It wasn’t as strong as 98, but it was strong enough. I expect, if the ENSO / temp correlations hold to the usual pattern, the first few months of 2011 will be below average temp wise.

UPDATE:  UAH data is showing the same decline.

PS. GISStemp, run by Global Warming extremist James Hansen, will no doubt be warmer and give the record a run for its money. There temps charts are always higher than everybody else’s for some reason…

Hat Tip: WUWT

New Meme For 2011 – Act Like Grown-Ups!

“You childish Republicans… why can’t you act like the more mature Democrats!”…

Because “We need to pass the bill so you can see what’s in it” was SOOOO adult!

Johnathan Cohn isn’t the first to use the “grown-up” meme, but he’s happily amplifying it and passing it along!  He writes:

For a while now, Tea Party Republicans like Senator Mike Lee, who unseated the insufficiently conservative Robert Bennett in Utah, have been threatening to vote against the debt ceiling increase unless they win substantial reductions in government spending. Idle threats about refusing to raise the debt ceiling are nothing new, but the Tea Party crowd seems quite serious about it–in part because they’ve promised their base they’re going to do it.

“seems quite serious about it“…. Well Duh!!! If you’re going to make a threat, it probably works better if you seem serious, don’t you think? Because, in Cohn’s world, it’s only OK to make noise about something as long as you’re not serious…. Like the Senate Democrats, including Harry Reid, who voted “NO” on raising the debt ceiling in 2006:

The increase in the debt limit brought the total increase during the Bush administration to $3 trillion. Democrats said the rising debt was the consequence of what they described as a reckless Republican fiscal policy centered on tax cuts for the affluent.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, said Thursday that given Mr. Bush’s record, “I really do believe this man will go down as the worst president this country has ever had.”

Few Republicans took the floor to defend the debt limit request, and three — Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Conrad Burns of Montana and John Ensign of Nevada — joined all Democrats in opposing the increase.

Oops! But, since they were the minority party at the time, it was a safe, meaningless, non-serious vote. So it was OK I guess.

As many others have noted, the demand of going back to 2008 spending levels is radical and, not coincidentally, highly unrealistic…

So, cutting government spend to a level seen a mere three years ago is “radical and, not coincidentally, highly unrealistic“, but cutting CO2 emission to 1990 levels, or better yet, by 80% is perfectly acceptable, and completely realistic. It seems as long as government spending is concerned, something they’re intimately familiar with, Democrats understand the consequences of putting a cap on it, but when it comes to destroying economic growth via a cap in CO2 emissions….

PS. Because I know someone will come back and ask “Where were the Conservatives when Bush was accumulating all his debt?”. Here’s a reminder – It was there. It’s just know one listened.

Hat Tip: Dr. Dan @ Gay Patriot

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Happy 23!!! Happy Newt Year!!!!… And Happy Blogiversary # 6!!!!

For all my Geek Friends – Happy 010111!

Sonicfrog.net is 6 years old tomorrow! This was my very first post:

Hello All:

WOW!!! I can’t believe I am a netizen of the blogosphere. I just set this blog up tonight and, though its not too horribly late, I am tired from last nights New Years Eve gig and after hours social gathering. Any way this blog will start out as a forum for my scattered and misguided thoughts on anything that crosses my mind and causes a neuron or two to misfire. It will be heavy on music, with some news, politics, and a touch of science thrown in to make it interesting. All I have to say at the moment is “God, what am I getting myself into this time????”.

??? Is the spell checccccer working on this thing???? Seems not. I’ll fix it tomorrow.

Yep. That’s how it all started! It’s come a long way. Started on Googles Blogspot and now use a Word Press format. Along the way, I have been forced to learn a little HTML code. From here to there, I’ve been through a bazillion operating systems – XP, Windows 7, Debian, Ubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, Red Hat, Mandrake (like the old name better), Suse, Demudi, Mint, Peppermint, GEOS, 64 Studio, and so many more I couldn’t list them because… well… I can’t remember them all!

I have in the past done a retrospective, linking to some of my favorite posts. But I got to thinking, if I were visiting someone else’s blog, that is something that I wouldn’t take the time to read, so why should I expect someone to take the time to read mine. I may yet come back and re-post a few of my favorites, but I leave that option open. My blog did get a few more links from major blogs this last year – Instapundit, Ann Althouse, my friends at Gay Patriot, and even one from Andrew Sullivan. How’s that for diversity!

But that’s all in the past. What about the future?

Well, I’m not big on New Years Resolutions, but, that said, I do have a list of things in mind that I want to concentrate on more this year.

First and most important goal this year is increasing my income. It’s been pretty sparse since I finished getting my teaching credentials. The education system in California is in a budgetary mess, and, like last year, it doesn’t look like there will be much hiring this year. I’m going to broaden my job search outside the education field. Seeing that my finances are not up to snuff, I have no choice. Gotta do what I gotta do.

I have been immersing myself in the study of market system dynamics during economic downturns, and plan on continuing to increase my understanding of economics in general.

I need to spend more time with Miss Bird!

I’ve already started to go to the gym more… Continue with that.

Next is to increase the amount of time I spend on music stuff, especially recording. Last year was a good year musically. I moved beyond being just a bass player and expanded my musical repertoire – I can now play some mandolin, started to learn to play drums (Chris, I really need a new bass drum head), though I still have a long way to go I greatly increased my abilities on guitar, and as a result, I was able to performed on stage as a solo artist for the first time. I’m still pretty jazzed about that. Though I did start to record some of the songs I’ve written since I was thirteen, I haven’t spent nearly as much time on that project as I should…. Which ties into the next item.

I do enjoy my time surfing the web, posting stuff on my blog and on Facebook, and all that. However, the more time I spend on that, the less time I have to spend on recording, studying economics, and other things, such as finally learning a computer language (a classic opportunity cost dilemma). So, this year will see me spending less time on Facebook. The blog will continue to get attention. Not only is it a forum for my thoughts and rants, it also is an excellent tool used to improve and hone my writing skills. Plus, it provides an excellent outlet for my goofy urges!

That’s it for now. Everyone have a Happy New Year!

PS. I just realized I owe the blogosphere an album review… It’s coming in short order, I promise!