Every year it seems to mean more to me.

Last night’s election results have the Democratic spin doctors frantically checking their charts for bright lights and smiling pixies. I suspect that their midnight meetings will result in two related spins. I also suspect that these spins will be less truth and more forlorn hope.

Monday night’s Nightline on ABC ran a story on Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks. Some of the nuggets offered in the narrative were the organization’s “campaign to purge moderates from the Republican Party” and reflections on The Tea Party DC protest that “it was predominantly attended by white people” and a couple of pictures of the worse of the Obama signs. Spin number one, already in place and actively gyrating, is that Right Wing Purity is what this movement is all about and independents will see that and run, screaming … eventually. Expect to see the words “intolerant” and “fringe” used like crack in a Bedford-Stuyvesant den.

Spin number two will naturally fall off of spin number one, that being the upcoming “civil war” within the Republican Party between the sensible, almost likable K Street bunch and DIABLO’s and those Cah-Raizzy fringe Tea Baggers with Palin puppet heads. The narrative will be filled with Ginormous Tents and Big Houses and not a word about trailer parks. Republicans will eat their own, vomit them up on moderates and, again, send them screaming into the statist arms of fuzzy, friendly Democrats.

All of it is a big willful pile of projecting, ignorant crap.

Allahpundit has it exactly right. The smartest, savviest and most principled (no guffaws, please) Republicans (and, I have to admit, that includes Palin at this point) are going to beat the biggest political bass drum we’ve seen in quite sometime:

…the reason grassroots conservatives are animated about Hoffman is because he represents a return to fiscal conservatism. The big problem with Scozzafava is that she wasn’t socially or fiscally conservative, which is why all of us could credibly argue that she was no better than the Democrat. Many moderate Republicans are fiscally conservative, though; to the extent that a Hoffman win reorients the GOP towards a fiscal litmus test rather than a social one, it’ll actually end up expanding the tent by creating room for libertarian types who adamantly oppose expanding government while, for example, supporting civil unions or gay marriage.

That’s why independents flocked to Christie and the Virginia Republican. The principles that supposedly defined the Republican Party still resonate across the party! We’ve left behind (hopefully) the concept of “compassionate conservatism,” which was never more than a Democratic induced guilt trip, and stand at the brink of actually luring moderates to Conservatism/Classical Liberalism by defining the key issues in budgetary, governmental roles and individual liberty terms. That was the essential message of the Tea Party protests. COME ON DOWN! IT MAY BE SCARY BUT YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD!

Once we all quit making faux litmus tests from abortion, Gay Marriage (to a lesser extent,) civility and religion, we free ourselves to raise the flag for budgetary sanity, lower taxes, limited government, strong, pro-active defense and individual liberty. Those upcoming 2010 Republican primaries are the perfect place to hold candidates accountable for fidelity to those core principles. The rest will be Olberman spittle.

Jump on board and enjoy the ride the scary ride.

(cross posted from PW comments)

Who knew that monitoring the @glennbeck feed could provide such entertainment?

This morning, I was the one who initiated contact after seeing this:

a38176c4589d207 — Remember when Jesus saw a homeless man and said “A rising tide lifts all ships,” & the homeless man got up and found a job?

Yeah, that’s his handle. Claims it’s not a mistake. Thanks for using up all those characters, dOOd.

Couldn’t resist a bit of snark:

 dicentra63 — Remember when Jesus went to Herod and Pilate and told them to set up Welfare?

I’ve been waiting to use that line for a long time. However, the point was lost on this kid (whose avatar clearly shows him to be a kid), but I thought he was one of those Lefty atheists who quote scripture as an accusation of hypocrisy or otherwise to induce shame.

Turns out I was wrong.

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Earlier today, I Tweeted Glenn Beck, and a few minutes later I got this:

hannityhater — curious- does @glannbeck [sic] follow you?

I’d never heard of hannityhater. And I couldn’t tell from the nic if she was a winger who happened to dislike Hannity or what. I assumed she was a winger at first.

dicentra63 — I wish. I assume he gets a bajillion tweets so I don’t know if he even reads what I write.

hannityhater — I think he should follow you guys - Why wouldn’t he? isnt it sort of rude that he doesnt even follow any of his fans?

dicentra63 — He doesn’t have time to follow us. He does get the tweets we direct at him, though. Most celebs follow few people. Glenn answered @dahlhalla once, though, when she sent him a link. We were all very impressed and jealous.

hannityhater — he HATES me! He quoted me in his video ad/blog & then he blocked me so I know he reads his tweets! It’s easy enough to follow someone even if you dont have time to answer everyone. He should because you all seem very devoted

At this point I bopped over to her bio and found that she describes herself as “raging left-wing progressive who is no longer reasonable” and that she’s in NYC. So the conversation continued more or less as follows: (I’ve combined successive Tweets, done a little rearranging to compensate for leapfrogging threads, and done a little editing to clarify. )

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I promised myself after the November election of Barack Obama that I was not going to allow politics to make me angry. The whole point was to steel myself for what I expected to be the inevitable: The “mandated” attempt to socialize America. Sure enough our President has met or exceeded my expectations in most areas of policy. Even when I was writing fisking screeds about simpering “conservatives” I was laughing my ass off the entire time .. albeit with a large dollop of derision.

The following, however, Really. Pisses. Me. Off.

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Forgive me father, for I saw the latest “Curb Your Enthusiasm” on hotel HBO…

and laughed my fucking ass off.

Early this morning…

A dignified transfer is conducted for every U.S. military member who dies in the theater of operation while in the service of their country.

The official party this night consists of President Barack Obama, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz, DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart, U.S. Army Assistant Judge Advocate Maj Gen Daniel Wright, U.S. Army Special Forces Commander Brig. Gen. Michael Repass, and Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center Col. Robert Edmondson, who will serve as the Dignified Transfer Host Officer.

On the helicopter flight back to Washington, DC, President Obama thanked his military aide for arranging the trip, after which no one said a word for the remainder of the 45-minute flight.

I smell a policy shift.

One way or the other, this event provided a grow-up-now moment for our President, one that will likely influence his (hopefully soon to come) decision on General McChrystal’s request for 40,000 additional troops. Without a hostile congress threatening to withhold critical war funding (as was the case in 2007, when President Bush introduced The Surge), without an ongoing uprising from the recently domesticated Left (the Code Pink and related ilk who dominated the media with their protests and flag- and effigy-burnings), President Obama has smooth sailing for to do…something.

THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. In the life of all free nations, there come moments that decide the direction of a country and reveal the character of its people.

We are now at such a moment.

Durbin: Escalation of this war is not the change the American people called for in the last election.

…

I think today he understands not only the American Congress but the American people have real questions about his leadership on this issue.

Some things never change.

Another day, another arrest for attempted terrorism.In the article, we get the typical neighbor interview that you always get when they arrest a serial killer or someone else for a notorious crime.  The NYTimes got this quote to fulfill that obligation (emphasis added):

Neighbors said they were shocked by his arrest. Chafic Maalouf, 47, who lives down the block from the Mehanna family, said he thought the younger Mr. Mehanna, whom he sometimes saw mowing the lawn, had worked as a pharmacy technician at a Walgreen drug store in Marlboro, Mass.  “He was very sweet, soft-spoken — he seemed so harmless,” Mr. Maalouf said. “He has a beard and a dark complexion, so to the average American he fits the terrorist profile,” he added. “But if you looked in his eyes, he seemed to be a very genuine, kind, loving person.”

Hey, Mr. Maalouf.   Why don’t you try speaking for yourself, instead of making bigoted assumptions about the three hundred million people who share this nation with you, hmm?  I mean, it’s like you work for NBC or something.

Poor lil’ Meghan McCain is having a twitter breakdown. @Mccainblogette posted a twitter picture that’s roiled the service, resulting with Ms. McCain boo-hooing about the evils of Conservative Republicans who won’t accept her leftish ways. She’s even threatened to quit Twitter.

Meghan’s derided and abused Conservatives such as Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter (who hasn’t much responded to her young tarty tormentor, but when she does, I’m thinking Ms. McCain will be torn ragged and bloody, as Michelle Malkin’s already done for her).

So, what’s up with the pic that’s riled the Twitterverse? Here’s the original.

Ummmm, my take… as usual, clicky to embiggen.

She’s blocked me, the little Charles Johnson, but of no matter. This’ll leave a mark. )

But it is a gun, and it has a pack of cigarettes laying next to it.

Edit: Welcome Toby Harnden’s Telegraph readers! I should point out that this isn’t really “protein wisdom,” it’s like the Wiki-pw. But why not stop by the mothership and see what our hosts have cooked up lately.

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