“The harshness, self-righteousness and simple-mindedness of these responses belie the left’s self-image as intellectually sophisticated and tolerant of other viewpoints”

So writes James Taranto of the enraged lefty response in last night’s debate in “Why They Cheered” to Rick Perry’s assertion of justice in Texas at so many executions.

A recap:

Perhaps the most striking statement at last night’s Republican presidential debatecame not from Rick Perry or Mitt Romney but from the audience, which applauded the preface of one of moderator Brian Williams’s questions. Here’s how it looked in the transcript:

Williams: Governor Perry, a question about Texas. Your state has executed 234 death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times. Have you . . .

(APPLAUSE)

Have you struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of those might have been innocent?Perry answered: “No sir,” pointed out that death-row convicts are entitled to extensive appeals, and crisply declared: “In the state of Texas, if you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you’re involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice.”

Williams then asked Perry to explain the audience’s reaction to Williams’s question: “What do you make of that dynamic that just happened here, the mention of the execution of 234 people drew applause?”

Although Williams surely did not intend it as such, this question was a gift for Perry, who got to reiterate his position while flattering voters by praising their wisdom: “I think Americans understand justice. I think Americans are clearly, in the vast majority of–of cases, supportive of capital punishment. When you have committed heinous crimes against our citizens–and it’s a state-by-state issue, but in the state of Texas, our citizens have made that decision, and they made it clear, and they don’t want you to commit those crimes against our citizens. And if you do, you will face the ultimate justice.”

Leftists everywhere were aghast, agape and agog.

Brian Williams was far from alone in being vexed by the audience’s applause. “That crowd cheering for all of Rick Perry’s executions was truly creepy,” tweeted Glenn Greenwald, an expert on creepiness. “Any crowd that instantly cheers the execution of 234 individuals is a crowd I want to flee, not join,” wrote the excitable Andrew Sullivan. “This is the crowd that believes in torture and executions.” (Sullivan is hallucinating again. No jurisdiction in America employs torture as a criminal penalty.)

Blogger E.D. Kain adds: “When Perry is asked about the two-hundred and thirty some people he’s executed on death row during his governorship, the audience bursts into applause. Torture, war, and death, and this is the ‘pro-life’ party. I submit to you that this moment is perhaps the most telling since George W. Bush left office; that the modern Republican party is not only intellectually bankrupt, but morally bankrupt as well.”

Morally bankrupt, eh? We’re not the party of abortion on demand. It never fails to amaze that lefties will so easily condemn an innocent life to death for no reason save conception, while a cop killer deserves to live. Really? We’re the party of moral bankruptcy?

I will savor the righteous indignation on the left once abortion comes up–and you know it will–in another debate. How will they excoriate the cheers then? Damn those morally bankrupt people for cheering on a baby’s right to live! How dare these evil people imply that a fetus has any right to life? Cretins, every last one–don’t they know that the millions of babies who die annually deserve it?

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NYE Laundry

Darling pjHusband this morning: What do you want to do to ring in the New Year?

Tired Mom of sick toddler: I don’t care as long as it doesn’t involve vomit.  Fever-free would be grand, too.

Dare to dream.

News from my hung-head coffee perusing for your enjoyment.

Fun stuff happening at Potluck.  Just a Conservative Girl asks if a civil war brews for the GOP.  And Pundette asks if NYC unions did intentionally slow the snow clean up this week, resulting in the death of a newborn.  Another infant dies as a result, too.  Heads should roll.  But since these are union heads not private industry heads, the media won’t care, nor will Big Brother. 

A laugher: Democrat regrets “death-panel” language.

JWF: Our esteemed AG says the Black Panther case a “made-up” controversy.  I’m torn as to which will blow up for the O administration, Black Panthers or Pigford.  What say you?

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air ponders the green-induced government-backed destruction of jobs and food (and countless lives) in California’s Central Valley.  This is shameful.  Victor Davis Hanson writes about California’s self-induced woes regularly, and Ed’s column reminded me of this VDH gem on the Central Valley earlier in the month. Also related: Quite Rightly questions the government’s new role in regulating food “safety.” 

Pundette highlights the idiocy of the WaPo’s wizard of smart columnist, Ezra Klein.  Seems as though the boy-genius doesn’t understand the Constitution because it’s “old.”  Heh.

Katie Couric thinks we need a Muslim “Cosby Show” because we’re all so racist, and it would help build bridges of understanding or some such liberal nonsense.  Hey Katie: Here’s my vote for Cliff.  At least he wasn’t caught building bombs, no?

Never forget

I remember driving to work from school that morning.  I heard the news on the radio–Bob and Sherri to be precise–and couldn’t quite make sense of it.  I missed something, surely.  They spoke of the World Trade Center and a bombing, a fire, smoke in the sky.  Did I miss a court date with the first WTC bombers?  The rambling on the dial didn’t quite add up.

It still doesn’t when you think about it.

Fellow Potluckers participated in Project 2996.  See Quite Rightly’s tributes to Shuyin Yang and Yuguang Zheng and William J. Meehan, Pundette’s tribute to Sandy Bradshaw, Obi’s Sister’s salute to fellow Georgian Claude Michale Gann, and a toast to Christopher Michael Grady by Ruby Slippers.  Also see just a conservative girl’s tribute to Pentagon accountant Sharon Carver. 

2996 people–with families, lives, husbands, wives, children.  Some timely Dean Koontz:

“All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined – those dead, those living, the generations yet to come – that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity reses in every heart and in every pair of hands.”

Pray for their families.  Pray for our military men and women who have defended our nation in the nine years since.  And pray for military families who have borne great sacrifice as a result. 

May we never forget.

Saturday Potpourri

If you read one thing today, this is it from Andy McCarthy on the “Transformation” Obama hopes to  accomplish and why the statists could care less that ramming Obamacare through using reconciliation will destroy their party.  They have long term goals, i.e. single payer health care and punitive taxation forever. 

Today’s Democrats are controlled by the radical Left, and it is more important to them to execute the permanent transformation of American society than it is to win the upcoming election cycles. They have already factored in losing in November — even losing big. For them, winning big now outweighs that. I think they’re right. 

I hear Republicans getting giddy over the fact that “reconciliation,” if it comes to that, is a huge political loser. That’s the wrong way to look at it. The Democratic leadership has already internalized the inevitablility of taking its political lumps. That makes reconciliation truly scary. Since the Dems know they will have to ram this monstrosity through, they figure it might as well be as monstrous as they can get wavering Democrats to go along with.

Read Pundit & Pundette, Legal Insurrection, and Potluck for more. 

*

I can’t believe this made it in print, let alone the WaPo: The Green Jobs Myth . 

Awww…Lefties feel left out, heh, and have created their own party: a Coffee.  And they called us astroturfers, eh?  More from Fuzzy at the Potluck. 

This should anger everyone: Americans see US Military as #1 now, but not in 20 years. 

As should this, from Carol: Selective abortion and female genocide

Worth watching, H/T Hillbuzz.  So much for Leftie compassion, eh?

And to end on a high note, this made me smile: Bush jokes about intelligence, knocks Carter.

Various and Sundry

With all the Obama–as-Ahab talk, I’m tempted to pick up my old copy Norton Criticial Edition of Melville. 

You’ll need a strong stomach to read this, but The Great Recession of 2011-2012  over at AmericanSpecator offers a sobering take on the economy.  On real estate:

It will get worse. Of the 47.4 million home mortgages in place today, nearly 10.7 million are “underwater,” that is, the money owed on the loan is greater than the value of the house. And that’s not counting the 2.3 million other mortgages that are “near-negative equity.” Most of these latter will face sharply higher upward ratcheting of their interest rates in 2010 and 2011 and that will automatically plunge those debts below the surface.

In Nevada already the amount of mortgages outstanding is estimated at $132.6 billion against property worth $116.7 billion, a loan-to-value ratio of 116 percent. Even another slight decline in prices in areas such as California (loan-to-value ratio of 72 percent), Arizona (91 percent), or Florida (87 percent) will swamp Washington’s promised next round of mortgage subsidy relief. The government’s own rescue agencies, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA, are dead in the water, and the government’s bank deposit insurance agency, the FDIC, says it has no more reserves to offset the coming next round of failing banks.

Of course with Obama throwing more grown-on-trees money after bad, the real estate market won’t hit bottom any time soon.

Amusing: Obama had time to meet with Shakira this week.  Does anyone else remember The One was “so busy” last year that he had only spoken to the commander of efforts in Afghanistan once in 70 days?  During which he was supposedly revamping the strategy?  But McChrystal isn’t a rock star.  So it makes sense, right?  Priorities, priorities…

Sen. Jay Rockefeller “throws a wrench” in Democrat plans to pass Obamacare v.2 by declaring reconciliation isn’t such a grand idea.  Agreed: Republicans should warn Democrats that they’ll use reconciliation against them to repeal all this garbage after the elections. 

With all the Scott Brown bashing going on today, here’s a little sanity/perspective from Jules Crittenden. 

Carol makes a point at the Potluck re Obamacare: where will all the socialists come when they need to flee their own poor medical systems?  As a Canadian Premier who recently came to the States for surgery,

It’s my health, it’s my choice.

What a great bumper sticker, eh?

And speaking of potluck, if you’re in a cooking mood, a fabulous soup recipe.  When I whip up something and pjToddler asks for seconds, I take note.  Disclaimer: I would never serve this to my husband.  But pjToddler and I like it so much we made a second batch today.

Hordes of feisty women everywhere!

That’s Mark Steyn’s take on the Tea Parties.  (HT: Pundette). 

It’s true.  I’ve been to more than a few.  And among those feisty women, you’ll find a goodly number pushing strollers of the single, double, and triple variety.  With kids in carriers.  In slings.  In backpacks.  Kids crawling everywhere.   Feisty women lead the way.

And speaking of feisty women, the rumors are true.  I accepted an invitation to join ten other feisty conservative women blogging here, at the Potluck.  Come on over and check it out!