Looks like Barney is now doing his best impression of Marie Antoinette.

The Boston Globe’s Names Blog, an online gossip column, reports that Rep. Barney Frank found himself in an impromptu town-hall meeting on a flight from Los Angeles to Boston. A pair of ophthalmologist sisters wanted to air their grievances about ObamaCare, but Frank was having none of it:

“They wanted to talk to me, but I apologized and said I like to read and watch on planes,” Frank told us today. “They began to talk louder and that’s when Jimmy (Ready) [Frank's domestic partner] said, ‘If you’re trying to be bitchy, you’re doing a good job.’ ”Needless to say, the women didn’t appreciate the remark, and things got heated. (Attempts to locate or ID the women were unsuccessful.) [Passenger Brooke] Sexton, who’s an HR director for the UK-based retailer All Saints Spitalfields, said flight attendants weren’t working hard enough to defuse the situation, so she got involved.

“The women had been drinking, and they were crying and shouting,” Sexton said. “They were clearly the antagonizers, and Mr. Frank was kind of minding his own business.” (She said Ready also upset another passenger, calling him “Santa Claus.“) Finally, the parties calmed down and remained quiet for the rest of the flight. (Sexton was offered some complementary [sic] wine for her trouble.)

Barney Frank: Oh yeah, those annoying constituents are such buzzkills.  Especially those damn doctors who have to implement ObamaCare.  Just a bunch of drunk Tea Partiers, I tell you.  Now away with you while my partner Jimmy annoys other people on the plane — like having me here isn’t bad enough!

Keep it classy, Jimmy.  It is not a good idea to insult your Sugar Daddy’s constituents.

Guess what Barney: This is part of your job.  Take Harry Truman’s advice.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I have a feeling over the next 6 months, my blog posts will be heavier on the imbed-a-video than the type-a-whole-bunch-of-words method. Yes, you’re welcome.

Republicans are doing a great job with their political ads. And seeing as how they can be posted online and not necessarily cost air-time on TV these days, they’re making a shit-ton more of them.

Here’s today’s favorite (h/t to NRO), for Ben Lange, running in the Republican primary for Iowa’s first CD. If he wins the nod from the GOP, he’ll face incumbent Democrat Bruce Braley in November.

Anyway, here’s his video:

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from TML)

I’ve been terribly derelect in my duties to those members of the audience who reside in Florida’s 19th Congressional District. The race to replace retiringed Robert Wexler is taking place today.

The Democrat in the race, 2nd Amendment-Hating and friend of murderers Ted Deutch (hey, pronounce it any way you like) is, unfortunately, likely to win. But don’t let that stop you, if you live there, from running out and pulling the lever for Republican businessman Ed Lynch.

Or call your mother who lives down there. She’d like to hear from you anyway

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from TML)

UPDATE: Obama rudely points his finger at Canada’s PM, but bows to ChiComs.  What’s wrong with this guy?  Does our President have any understanding at all of history or any sense of loyalty or protocol?  Does Obama, as Roger L. Simon has suggested lately, have some mental health issues?

Oh wait… bowing to Communists — maybe Obama DOES have a sense of loyalty…

=========

Why does Obama hate being the American President so much?

What happened to that Obamacare passage bounce?

Gallup Daily tracking for the week ending April 11 puts Republicans slightly ahead of Democrats, 48% to 44%, in the congressional voting preferences of registered voters nationally. This marks the third week since the U.S. House passed healthcare reform on March 21 that the Republicans have tied or led the Democrats. . . .

The trend based on registered voters shows how rare it is for the Republicans to lead on this “generic ballot” measure among all registered voters, as they do today.

Emphasis added.

(H/t:  Jim Geraghty.)

UPDATE:  The ever insightful Michael Barone looks at these numbers and offers:

The Gallup commentary makes clear how extraordinary that is; since Gallup first starting asking the question in 1950, Republicans have led only in the 1994 and 2002 cycles, years in which they won the popular vote for the House by 52%-46% and 51%-46%. Democrats hoped that House passage of Obamacare on March 21 would energize their voters. It seems to have done so, but only temporarily.

He notes that Republicans have the same edge in voter intensity as they did before passage of this behemoth of a bill.

Via Jim Geraghty, we learn of this comment from Congressman Baron Hill, a Democrat from the Hoosier State:

If the Republicans win big in Congress, Hill said, gains like the health care bill could be lost.

Given the latest polling, that seems to be a rallying cry for electing more Republicans.

There are few things in the popular discourse today more dishonest than the narrative the mainstream media wish to peddle about the tea parties, that those of us who participate in such protests are mean-spirited, narrow-minded, racist and anti-gay.  We are neither interested in civil discourse nor the democratic process.

And much as many of those who malign us are peddling this preposterous notion, they’re busy smearing us with a sexual slur.

Now, even though we know that even the reality of such protests won’t disabuse some critics of the image in their heads, we still should try to show just how broad-based, how tolerant are the tea parties. Therefore, I instruct all blog readers who are free this coming Thursday, April 15 to attend the Tea Party nearest you and find some means to identify yourself as a gay person as did these readers at past such protests:

If you’re not gay yourself, please hold a sign that says something like, “Proud Reader of a Gay Blog & Opponent of Big Government.”

Take pictures if you can, send them in and let me know how the crowd reacts.  I daresay you’ll be as well-received a were those fine people above.

Although I’m not much of a fan of protest, I did have fun at the four tea parties I attended last year, meeting great people and promoting freedom.  Join me at the  LA Tax Day Tea Party Rally at Senator Dianne Feinstein’s office,  11111 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 915 in Los Angeles, CA 90025-3343, this coming Thursday, April 15 at 5:30pm.

As you all may know, my friend Matthew Berry was the first candidate this blog endorsed in the 2010 elections.  And this fiscal conservative provides the perfect test case to see how rank-and-file Republicans — as well as conservative leaders — react to a gay candidate who is solid on the key Reaganite issues:  fiscal conservatism, strong national defense, judicial restraint.

Well, so far, the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive; Matthew has racked up an impressive list of early endorsements, with his one-time conservative rival, Chris Hubbard withdrawing from the primary race  and backing Matthew Berry. Hubbard believes that “Berry will bring compassion, intelligence, and strength of character to the issues that we both care about.”

Seem that issues matter more to some conservatives than an individual’s sexuality.

While I still think Matthew’s race is a long shot, I have long been convinced that Matthew is the kind of man who should be serving in Congress.  He shares the Gipper’s belief that government is not the solution to our nation’s problems, but that government, by and large, is the problem.

If you live in Virginia’s Eighth Congressional District, make plans to attend his campaign kickoff event this coming Saturday, April 17, 2010 at 1:00 PM at Marymount University Conference Center, 1000 North Glebe Road in Arlington.

And join me in contributing to his campaign.

Today, after running errands on the way to see my tax guy, I stopped in a 7-11 to grab a snack and caught sight of the latest cover of Newsweek heralding what anyone who has studied economics knew as soon as the recession begin–that the economy would bounce back.  Yet, it seemed that the “news”-magazine wanted to suggest that the current Administration was responsible for the rebound.

The cover story (which I read while my tax guy fills out my Federal Extortion forms tax return) is surprisingly even-handed, including much about America’s resiliency and entrepreneurial spirit and this line:  ”But the long-term decline of the U.S. economy has been greatly exaggerated.”  Of course it had been.

The media seem to specialize in gloom and doom, particularly when a Republican is in the White House.  Shortly after reading the Newsweek piece, I caught this on Instapundit: “CATO: Did the IMF Deliberately Exaggerate the 2008 Financial Crisis?”  

So, recalling the media’s dour reporting back in ’08 and this report on the IMF, I wondered at the method to all the media, international organization madness.  Was it because they wanted to see a larger role for national governments and international institutions?

Or was it just that they wanted to make then-President George W. Bush look bad and increase the likelihood that he would be replaced by a Democrat–and that that Democrat would get credit for any recovery, even a naturally recurring one?

Wow. Epic fail for California’s Gay activist lobbying community.

(Reuters) – A challenge to California’s gay marriage ban failed on Monday to qualify for the 2010 ballot, leaving gay activists mulling a 2012 push and hoping a federal court will overturn the measure before then.

So much political capital… wasted for so long… with nothing to show… except backsliding.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

On Friday, while I had my nose buried in a fascinating book on the goddess Athene and the Odyssey (written by the daughter of the great Leo Strauss no less), I read through a report a reader had e-mailed about Tom Campbell’s Troublesome Record on Israel.

As I read it, learning of his contact with anti-Semitic figures (between reading chapters of Mrs. Clay’s opus), I dashed out a quick post, Tom Campbell & Libertarian Anti-Semitism, based on a thought that then crossed my mind.  Had I had an editor, he might have warned me that even though I had written, “I highly doubt Campbell himself is anti-Semitic”, in the post, the title might indicate otherwise–as did my reference to some bizarre things published by another celebrated libertarian.

When a friend e-mailed me to suggest I was engaging in “guilt by association,” I realized a clarification was in order.  I definitely should have given the post a different title.  The report merely called to mind the libertarians I have encountered who harbor bizarre conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic sentiments.  It did not indicate that Mr. Campbell harbored such theories or such sentiments.

The title was more indicative of my thought process than my conclusion.  As were the post’s contents, conflating the report on Campbell, with works edited (and possibly written) by Ron Paul.

I apologize for misunderstanding the title of that post caused.   I will try to be more careful in the future.

I’d take Bush’s recession over Obama’s recovery, any day.

Here! Here!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

According to the Heritage Foundation — The United States of America is not the leader in global Economic Freedom any longer.

The chart is based on Heritage’s definition of Economic Freedom:

Economic freedom is the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property. In an economically free society, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please, with that freedom both protected by the state and unconstrained by the state. In economically free societies, governments allow labor, capital and goods to move freely, and refrain from coercion or constraint of liberty beyond the extent necessary to protect and maintain liberty itself.

I think many of us know the reasons America is economically “less free” in 2010.  Massive government debt, incredible growth in public sector jobs and decline in private sector jobs, un-Constitutionally mandated healthcare, increased taxes on the middle class & small businesses.

Another sad legacy of President Barack Obama and the Congressional Democrats.  Hopefully it is not un-doable.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Last week, I finished up what may well have been the most difficult chapter of my dissertation where I wrote about the goddess Athene’s role in the Iliad where that owl-eyed Olympian is, well, not the most attractive of figures. She does have her moments, particularly at the beginning where she restrains Achilles from rash action, but on the whole, she’s pretty ruthless, wanting to destroy the city of Troy, largely because its prince found her sister Aphrodite to be fairer than she.

Difficult the chapter was because the goddess is not as appealing as I would like her to be, but I did enjoy the research, appreciating the epic much more than I ever had and agreeing, against my own wishes, that is it is better than the Odyssey, long one of my favorite books in all literature.

Almost immediately after sending that chapter in, I plunged into the final stages of research for the next chapter, one that much happier epic, the chapter I have most wanted to write since the idea for this project came to me. In this epic, that of Odysseus’ homecoming and his son’s coming of age, Athene is a far more appealing figure, helping that young man, Telemachus, shed his youthful insecurities, find his father and stand up for himself while guiding the hero home.

Anyway, all this work (but enjoyable work it is) coupled with tax season has, alas, prevented me from blogging at the pace I have been in recent weeks. Do expect to get back up to speed in a couple of days, once I have reached the point in my research where I am ready to continue writing the chapter. I say, “continue,” because I have already started writing the chapter, indeed, its introduction was the first part of the paper I wrote since I drafted my “Concept Paper” while still taking classes.

Dixie Carter, rest in peace. (h/t – Instapundit)

Television and stage actress Dixie Carter died Saturday morning at the age of 70. Cause of death has not been reported at this time. Carter was best known for playing wisecracking Julia Sugarbaker for seven years on the sitcom Designing Women. She has also been on the series Family Law, Diff’rent Strokes, and Filthy Rich. In 2007 she was nominated for an Emmy for her guest turn on Desperate Housewives. Carter married Oscar-nominated actor Hal Holbrook in 1984. They have two daughters, Mary Dixie and Ginna.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Okay, so far be it from me to criticize the president without his usually doting obsequious press-corps in tow. But for all the paparazi man-of-state cum cause celebre has carved out for himself, half a cheer to this guy for spending a few quiet hours with his wife and daughters, the two latter who likely are the only ones left in the nation with hero worship less than that of the White House press corps themselves.

Perhaps, a week past the holy time of Easter, we can give our First Father this one moment to himself to share with his brood.

Naturally, of course, those of us on the Right will be more prone to allow that to the man who, to us, doesn’t necessarily embody the salvation of mankind itself. To the Left, naturally, any moment away from the spotlight of their own desperate clinging to metaphysical greatness above their own selves will be tatamoun to a slap on the collective face.

All place idol-worship in the correct perspective, no?

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from HQ)

In the mid-1990s, when I was working on a Republican campaign in Arlington County and dating a Democrat, I took said Democrat to a social function for the campaign, a pot-luck dinner in a volunteer’s home.  My date had a good time and appreciated the warm welcome he received (both as an out-Democrat and an out-gay man).

One thing which struck me was his comment as we were leaving.  He said the gathering reminded him of similar such gatherings for Democrats in Denver (where he had grown up and first became active in politics).  Most of the people were decent folk, but there were a few overly obsessed with politics and burning with bile.  I try to keep that notion in mind every time I hear some harangue from an angry left-winger.  That person doesn’t define their movement, but represents its extremes.

This notion came to mind as I reflect on my post on Tom Campbell.  I probably should have given it a different title because I did not mean to suggest that the candidate is himself anti-Semitic.  There is no evidence that he is.  But, he does have some strange associations.

And said associations reminded me of some of the freaks and fanatics who frequent libertarian conclaves.  And now is that given the Tea Party’s prominence, Democrats have suddenly determined that such freaks in GOP circles define the party, yet they — and their media allies — were strangely silent about such freaks in the anti-war movement.

Now, there’s even a movement afoot to crash the tea party and “propagate their pre-existing propensity for paranoia”.   They define us by their prejudices and attempt to make them real by pretending to act on behalf of the movement by acting, not as do most Tea Party protesters, but as left-wingers believe we behave.   They need to crash the tea party to make it fit their twisted perception of the reality of our rallies.

Can you imagine how, during the Bush era, the MSM would have reacted (and with good reason) if right-wingers had attempted to crash the anti-war rallies?

At least since the 2008 Republican National Convention, where I had the good fortune to be present, when the then-Governor of Alaska, our party’s nominee for Vice President gave a stem-winder of a speech, I have compared that good woman to the Gipper.

Like that great man, she has a natural stage presence, a certain dynamism, an appreciation and affection for the ideas which define our nation, and a heart-felt optimism about its future.

Unlike Reagan, however, she lacks an education in the depth and breadth of conservative political philosophy.  Before his famous speech on behalf of then-GOP presidential nominee Barry Goldwater in 1964, he had spent years reading widely and reflecting on what he was learning.  Only after he had educated himself did he launch himself onto the political scene.

And now Palin, with great energy and incredible effect, is so launching herself.  She is doing a lot of good for the GOP, but she is also delaying her own return to a position of leadership.  She inspires us, she motivates us, but she needs better educate herself before she can lead us.

But, maybe that’s not her goal.  Maybe she relishes her role as the Reaganite rallying the rank and file around his ideas and vision.  Commenting on her appeal in his list of influential Republicans, Chris Cillizza writes, “There simply is no bigger figure in the Republican party than Palin. Where she goes, crowds and enthusiasm follow. But, there is a difference between enthusiasm and influence.”

I’m glad she’s out there, stumping for our team.  She is helping promote the ideas of Ronald Reagan.  But, if she wants to follow in his footsteps, she’s got some larnin’ to do.

In modern history, few nations have suffered as much as Poland.  Once the dominant power in east central Europe, the nation was carved up as Prussia and Russia expanded, its people persecuted.

Today, the nation suffered what law professor William A. Jacobson billed a “tragedy upon tragedy“; virtually the nation’s entire leadership was wiped out in a single plane crash:

The President of Poland and much of Poland’s military and civilian leadership were killed when the presidential plane crashed in Russia on the way to commemorate the massacre of 22,000 Polish officers by the Soviets in 1940.

It is as if that very forest where the plane went down harbors an animus to Polish leadership:

The crash came as a stunning blow to Poland, killing many of the country’s top leaders and reviving, for some, the horror of the Katyn massacre.

“It is a damned place,” former president Aleksander Kwas’niewski told TVN24. “It sends shivers down my spine. First the flower of the Second Polish Republic is murdered in the forests around Smolensk, now the intellectual elite of the Third Polish Republic die in this tragic plane crash when approaching Smolensk airport.”

Jacobson had really written about the Katyn Forest massacre, an event at the outset of World War II that often doesn’t get much attention–as it puts out Soviet allies in a bad light, a very bad light.

Our hearts — and prayers — go out to the Polish people.

Left-of-center number cruncher Nate Silver thinks it’s not of the question.

Right now, The Real Clear Politics average now shows Republicans with a 2.3 point lead in the generic congressional ballot.  Silver reminds us that

on average the generic ballot has overestimated the Democrats’ performance in the popular vote by 3.4 points since 1992. If the pattern holds, that means that a 2.3-point deficit in generic ballot polls would translate to a 5.7 point deficit in the popular vote — which works out to a loss of 51 seats, according to our regression model.

Only one pollster, who, in another, found the Democrats’ health care overhaul to be more popular than does the CBS News poll, has the GOP lead much higher:

Rasmussen has the Democrats losing the generic ballot by 9 points (and has had similar numbers for awhile). A 9-point loss in the House popular vote would translate into a projected 65-seat loss for Democrats. Or, if we adjust the Rasmussen poll to account for the fact that the Democrats’ performance in the popular vote tends to lag the generic ballot, it works out to a 12.4-point loss in the popular vote, which implies a loss of 79 seats!

Now, the only prediction I’ll make on the House right now is that Republicans will win at least the number of seats they need to regain the majority.  We’d have to do a district-by-district analysis to see if such a stupendous wing is in the works, but even then, we may not be able to see trends emerging at the grassroots or really measure the intensity of opposition to big government simmering all across the country.