Michael R. Shannon

Republicans ARE Discouraging Voter Turnout

It’s a dream come true for hysterical liberals and their fellow travelers in the ‘unbiased’ media. Pesky Republicans ARE actively working to discourage voter turnout in the 2012 Presidential election!

Liberals Love Monopoly Taxis

Many DC–area residents have a taxi story. Few have happy endings. Mine occurred on a very rainy day at Union Station. I’d been shuffling along in an endless taxi line when my turn finally arrived. The cab pulls up and fortunately I happened to glance inside before I entered.

Abramoff Wants Congress to Come Clean

There’s nothing like spending 43 months in prison for fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy in connection with Congressional influence–peddling to make you an advocate of political contribution reform.

Playing Santa on Our Dime

One does not have to go to Washington to become an out–of–touch politician and it’s not required to be a Democrat. Local Republicans can lose their way quite nicely without all the bother of traveling to D.C. This summer, in Prince William County, VA, Jeanine Lawson ran a spirited challenge in the Republican primary against two–term incumbent Wally Covington for the Brentsville Supervisor’s seat.

Pepper Spray – A little dab’ll do ya

During this holiday season it’s very difficult to determine the socially acceptable method for serving pepper spray to ‘progressive’ class warriors on the front lines of aimless protest.

The Light Governor Gains Heft

The bad old volcano days are but a distant memory for Lt. Governor Bill Bolling. That’s when he was trapped in Florence Italy for almost a week during April 2010. European air travel was canceled after an Icelandic volcano, with a name no Virginian could pronounce, spewed ash and gas into the skies over Europe, canceling the Lt. Gov’s flight plans.

The KinderCare Generation

For those in two–income households who have been wondering what the long–term effects of parking children in daycare would be, the results are in and the news is not good.

Imagine. No Religion, too.

There’s a woman who lives near me with a personalized license plate that proclaims she’s a WICCAN. If her idea of theology is a penetrating discussion with a pecan tree and she wants to proclaim her lasting commitment to cellulose; that’s her right. Even though the sentiment appears on a plate issued by the Commonwealth.

The Second Time Since Harvard Obama’s Ridden a Bus

This week Obama is once again firing up his Canadian–built Magical Mystery Bus and driving through North Carolina and Virginia as his re–election campaign begins on the taxpayer dime. Somehow the symbolism of Obama back in the bus is supposed to inspire Congress to pass his contemptible “jobs bill” and at the same time convince the rubes that Obama has the common touch.

The Qwikster Joins the Dead

I’ve been wondering how many of the Occupy Wall Street squatters are actually enraged Netflix subscribers or retirees with Netflix stock in the 401K?

This Toll Tolls for You

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s successful effort to open the rest stops on I–95 was a very good idea. His current effort to open tollbooths on I–95 is not.

A “Safe” & “Legal” Procedure That’s Always Fatal

Here we go again, a bunch of fanatics disrupt a public hearing screaming “safe” and “legal” in an obvious effort to block sensible, long overdue regulations that protect health and are supported by a majority of the public.

The ‘Save Obama’s Job’ bill

Obama’s “jobs” speech was historic in one way: It was the first completely ‘green’ address to Congress. Every so–called idea in the speech was recycled from the extensive collection of failed Obama stimulus programs.

When Dry–Cleaning Attacks

The pre–Labor Day holiday run up was a good week for stating the obvious in the Washington Post. An area high school student, who shall remain nameless, concluded that outsourcing her science project to the parents was passé, so she decided to see if it would be possible to recruit an actual scientist to do the work.

Why some are more ‘illegal’ than others

Forty years ago he stepped across an imaginary line to make his home in Maryland. He married, worked hard, raised a family, sent his children to public school, paid taxes, saw one wife die of cancer and even played fantasy football. Placing him right smack dab in the mainstream of American life. No different from thousands, even millions of other hard–working Americans who were fortunate enough to be born in Maryland.

Note to Post: Cover Katie Perry, not Rick

Republicans won’t know for months how seriously voters in Iowa and New Hampshire will take the presidential candidacy of Gov. Rick Perry (R–TX), but right now the Washington Post takes him very seriously indeed.

A New Media Slant Detector

I formerly believed reporters don’t tell the public what to think. Instead, they tell the public what to think about — as if that made claiming “objectivity” while misusing your influence an acceptable practice. Experience disabused me of that erroneous notion. For as Martha Bayles observes, “What [the media] does is condition us, gradually and over time, to accept, or at least view as normal, attitudes and behaviors we might otherwise reject."

One man’s museum is another man’s menace

When is the last time you saw a McDonalds’ commercial ridiculing fat people? Costco checkers questioning the intelligence of bulk buyers? Or the staff at Ralph Lauren lecturing the clothes–conscious on the contents of their closet?

Dead skunk stinkin’ to high Heaven

Conservatives make a fundamental mistake regarding government employees. Frequently conservatives rail against lazy workers, using the enthusiasm–challenged as examples of all that’s wrong with government.

Hot town – summer in the city

I cheated death last Saturday. I went outside to work in the yard. No doubt, in light of the last week’s crippling heat wave smothering the East Coast, you think my decision foolhardy. Here we had Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Incompetano hovering over the DC area in her helicopter — Grope One — burning up the bullhorn batteries as she ordered people to have their ID ready and move into nearby shade.