Gone Fishin'

Having survived Hurricane Irene, I will be taking the rest of this week off. I shall return next week, tanned, rested and ready for the battles ahead.

Dumb and Dumber

Today lefty website Politico has a headline story entitled, "Is Rick Perry Dumb?" It elaborates on the theory that the Texas Governor isn't too bright and not at all intellectually curious. He's just a dope who follows the instructions of his much smarter advisers.

Sound familiar? Gosh these leftists are predictable.

Ronald Reagan, Dan Quayle, George W. Bush, and Sarah Palin were all painted as dunces, great big dummies who didn't know much about anything. The so-called "intellectual elite" held them in deep contempt and ridiculed them at every turn.

Serious, charismatic conservatives always inspire this kind of attack from leftists, because those conservatives represent ideas that are so powerful that they have the ability to destroy liberalism for good. Therefore, those conservatives must be destroyed before they can gain any traction. And the leftists try to do that by first discrediting them as dumb.

Of course, all of their candidates are brilliant: Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were cast as genius boy wonders, and even losers like John Kerry, Al Gore, and Jimmy Carter were described as "thoughtful," "deliberative," and "intellectual."

If they're so smart, why are their ideas so catastrophically bad?

Perry should take this latest assault as a badge of honor. Let them think he's dumb. And then he'll show 'em how dumb he really is by wiping the floor with them.

Bubba, Unfazed

I guess if you have survived impeachment, nothing really fazes you.

Bill and Hillary Clinton are on vacation in the Hamptons this week. They decided to blow off the evacuation order and sit tight in their luxurious rented mansion. Other celebrities also decided to ride out the storm on the east end of New York's Long Island. Here is a story about them by New York's Fox 5 website. I've highlighted the particularly hilarious quotes. Enjoy!

Celebrities Stay Put In Hamptons As Irene Approaches
EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. - Celebrity visitors to the exclusive Hamptons area of Long Island were refusing Sunday to let Hurricane Irene cut short their end-of-summer getaways to the millionaire's playground.

Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Alec Baldwin, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel, Gwyneth Paltrow and Christy Turlington are just some of the famous faces who fled to Long Island for the weekend, according to the NY Post .

"We're staying," Bill Clinton said. "Hillary and I have been watching for the last few days, and we're just doing what we're supposed to do. I'm more worried about the people in the low-lying areas that could get flooding."

The Clintons are staying in a rented estate on exclusive Lily Pond Lane in East Hampton. The former President enjoyed a belated 65th-birthday lunch Saturday afternoon with his nephew Simon Rodham at Babette's, where the crowd sang for him.

Other celebrities were similarly unperturbed.

"I'm going to stay here," Baldwin said. He and his girlfriend, the 27-year-old yoga instructor Hilaria Thomas, spent part of the weekend stocking up on supplies.

"I bought some fish, and I'm actually going to cook," he added. "Which is a phenomenon. It's like a lunar eclipse."

Supermodel Turlington, who even went jogging along Lily Pond Lane, said that she and her family -- filmmaker husband Ed Burns and their two children -- were evacuated from their home in TriBeCa, where Paltrow and her husband, Coldplay rocker Chris Martin, also have a place.

"We figured we should come out here and ride it out," she said. "We're staying put."

Timberlake and Biel arrived in East Hampton on Friday night -- as some Hamptons denizens decided to take their leave, including longtime resident Paul McCartney.

Barack and Irene

What's the difference between Hurricane Obama and Hurricane Irene?

One of them is moving to the right.

Earthquakes of a Different Kind

Well, that was weird.

Those of us who live on the eastern seaboard got a little lunchtime shake, rattle, and roll yesterday when an unusually strong earthquake struck, sending a powerful shock from Georgia to Canada. Fortunately no major damage or injuries were sustained. It was bizarre, though, to see areas more accustomed to hurricanes experience a more west coast phenomenon. Speaking of hurricanes, we're supposed to get a major one of those at the end of the week. When do the locusts arrive?

The political plague has already struck President Obama. He was on the golf course on Martha's Vineyard when the quake hit and took the call about it from the White House on the green. For him, the more important temblor is the one seen in his poll numbers. Gallup now has him at a paltry 38% job approval with a 54% disapproval. Rasmussen has him with a Strongly Disapprove of 45%, which is his highest Strongly Disapprove level yet. Most of the disapproval stems from his gross mishandling of the economy, of course. But there is a strong whiff of Carteresque weakness wafting around Obama now, the stench of which is very difficult to shake. Just ask George W. Bush.

Meanwhile, the revolutionary earthquake continues to sweep the Arab world, with violence and chaos running rampant in Libya and Syria. Before we celebrate these alleged forces of freedom fighting for their "rights" in these places, keep in mind that the alternative to the murderous dictators could actually be worse: power vacuums, tribal warfare, humanitarian crises, the seizing of power by al Qaeda terrorists, other brutal extremists, and/or Muslim Brotherhood militants. This is what is unfolding in Egypt now. Hard tyranny can easily be replaced with a more "happy face" but just as ruthless tyranny. And Team Obama is doing little to nothing to guide these revolts toward successor regimes that would be pro-Western and pro-American.

Earthquakes are rumbling all around us. We'd better hold on tight.

The O'Reilly Factor---TONIGHT!

I'll be a guest with Bill O'Reilly TONIGHT at 8pm and 11pm ET on the Fox News Channel. Please tune in.

HOSTING The O'Reilly Factor---TONIGHT!

I am HOSTING for Bill O'Reilly on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News TONIGHT at 8pm and 11pm ET. Please tune in for the time of your life!

The Five---TODAY!

I'll be co-hosting "The Five" at 5pm ET on the Fox News Channel today! Tons o' fun. Please tune in.

Listening Tour, Indeed

The Bama just wrapped up a three day "listening tour" in the heartland. At the conclusion of his "One Nation, Under the Bus" Tour, he seemed pretty satisfied that he had heard the wishes of the people.

The problem? I looked at the transcripts of every public event he held while on tour, and with the exception of less than a handful of questions, all of them were planted or cleared by Team Obama. "Mr. President! What an honor to have you here!" "Thanks for being here, sir!" "Your stimulus really helped! Can you please spend more?" "Why are the Republicans standing in the way? How can you get things done?" "When will you walk on water?"

You get the picture.

There were two people whose questions truly stood out because neither one was an Obama toady.

The first was Ryan Rhodes, a Tea Party organizer in Iowa, who asked Obama why he tolerated Joe Biden referring to Tea Partiers as "terrorists" and why he opposes a balanced budget. Obama's reply? To say that people have called HIM names, so whatever. And as for the balanced budget question, Obama mumbled that he was late for his bus departure or something.

Then there was the farmer, who politely asked Obama about the suffocating regulations he now faces:

The man said that people would rather be farming than "filling out forms and permits to do what we like to do." Obama told the farmer "don't always believe what you hear" and blamed Washington for ginning up speculation. Obama added that, "Nobody is more interested in seeing our agricultural sector successful than I am, partly because I come from a farm state." Would that be Illinois or Hawaii?

The farmer was not simply "believing what he heard." The farmer was believing what he was seeing in terms of massive new regs that were killing his farming business. Obama blew him off the way he blew off Mr. Rhodes.

A listening tour only works when the person conducting the tour actually listens. But Obama has never intended to listen. It was all a PR move for the re-elect campaign.

And by the way: Obama's been president for over two and a half years. If he doesn't know what the American people are telling him by now, he's either not listening, or he doesn't care.

The Fight Continues

Last year, the people of Wisconsin elected a Republican Governor and a Republican legislature to fix the state's grave economic problems: major debt, high unemployment, way too much spending. Governor Scott Walker and the GOP legislature then proceeded to do what they promised: they began to bring the state's fiscal situation under control by eliminating some collective bargaining privileges for the government unions, and reducing taxes and some of the state's regulatory burdens.

Of course, all Hades broke out. The Left mobilized to protect their government patrons in the Democrat party and the unions who have been benefiting from the government gravy train. They trashed the state Capitol, hoisted signs calling Walker "Hitler," and imported professional left-wing ambulance chaser Jesse Jackson to scream about the unfairness of it all.

The Left even moved to recall Walker and six GOP stae senators. The Walker recall cannot happen under state law until November at the earliest, and recent polls show a lack of support for recalling the Governor. The 6 GOP recalls happened last week, and 4 of the 6 Republican state senators survived their races. Two Democrat state senators---who joined the rest of their caucus in fleeing the state rather than take the tough budget vote---faced recall elections yesterday and survived.

So: although the Republicans kept their majorities in both chambers, they lost their comfortable margin. They are now down to a razor-thin one vote advantage in the state senate.

The Left will not rest until they defeat the people who are defeating them, their corrupt lock on government and the public unions, and their sick ideology. That's why this battle is not nearly over.

Walker and the GOP are producing real economic results in Wisconsin. Thanks to their reforms, Wisconsin created 9500 jobs in June, over half of those created in the ENTIRE nation that month. Businesses are coming back. The economic environment is improving.

But again: results do not matter to a Left that is watching its ideology wither in front of its eyes. It will fight with everything it has to survive. They have already claimed 2 GOP state senate seats in Wisconsin. They will not stop there.

This is why we fight. This is why we do not let our guard down or rest on our laurels. The other side most certainly is not. And neither must we.