Pat Sajak's Brilliant Tweet

I really appreciate those who have mastered the art of Twitter.  Occasionally you find someone who can be brilliant in 140 characters. I've read dozens of tweets I admire and a few I felt were brilliant. But Sajak's is pure genius.

I now believe global warming alarmists are unpatriotic racists knowingly misleading for their own ends. Good night.
— Pat Sajak (@patsajak) May 20, 2014

Naturally, many on the Left worked hard, strained and stretched their credibility to mount faux outraged attacks on Pat Sajak as if they were just too damned stupid to instantly realize Sajak's satire was aimed directly at them. I do not believe there is anyone who claims to be a Liberal that is actually that dumb. I just wish my fellow Liberals didn't feel compelled to insult the intelligence of their fans, followers and progressive supporters.

Sajak certainly won the battle of wits here, but he accomplished much more.  In 140 characters Sajac taught us a lesson about insults, racial and otherwise, that we all need to learn.

Destroying the Very Fabric of the American Healthcare System

I wish that the politicians in Washington weren't so busy building sound bites for the 5 o'clock news that they could actually get together and save America's Health Care System, but, alas, they are incapable of compromise or even intelligent analysis.

Group "A" are so determined to save the reputation of the President they will never admit they made a (gigantic) mistake or compromise to find a solution.

Group "B" is so determined to bring down the President a notch or two that they cannot offer intelligent or reasonable compromises that just might solve the problem at hand.

And the public is so caught up in the political rhetoric, many do not see the tsunami on the horizon about to drown us all.  

But make no mistake about it, the entire Health Care System in the United States, unarguably the finest health care infrastructure in the history of mankind, is months away, a year at most, from complete and utter destruction.

And it's all being caused by The Affordable Care Act, the single worst piece of legislation ever passed by the United States Congress.

About 200 million Americans will lose their current Insurance.  The replacements, if they can be found, will be significantly more expensive for most Americans (about 4/5th will pay several thousand dollars more annually) and they new insurance will have significantly higher deductibles and may well (or most certainly will) force Americans to change their doctors and hospitals.

The hospital infrastructure will collapse.  Some hospitals will be forced to close.  Others will greatly curtail services.  A few, perhaps fifty or less nationwide, will become hospitals for the super rich, those able to afford completely private care.

Sarah Palin's Death Panels of non-medical actuaries will decide on care and payments, effectively making the best care treatments unavailable except to the super rich.

The total economy is mere months away from a total collapse into recession or depression.  The ACA (or ObamaCare) is a nothing more than a hidden super-tax that will drain hundreds of millions of dollars out the middle class taxpayer's wallets, through increased (and unaffordable) premiums and deductibles. 

It's happening every day now.  Moments ago REUTERS reported that insurer UNITED HEALTH CARE is being forced to drop thousands of doctors form Medicare patients programs due to Barack Obama's ego driven theft of millions of dollars from Medicare to fund his ObamaCare albatross.

This was one hundred percent foreseeable and avoidable. Many Republicans and many pundits and analysts and blogger like me have been correctly forecasting this for three years.  But we are all branded by Democrats and media not willing to actually read the ACA bill, as anti-Obama haters.  Alas, that was never true, we were and are the lookouts, warning the people of the on-rushing waves of health care and economic destruction, begging you to save yourselves and get to higher ground.  

Every day a few more are swept away and a few more listen.  I fear it's too late.

I Blame Mitt Romney

Most of the sane and reasonably informed people, press, politicians and pundits have seen the unraveling of President Obama's lies and deception about the attack and murder of our Ambassador in Libya coming for a long time.  Now even the major media is finally investigating and reporting on a scandal worthy of censure, if not outright Impeachment.

Not only did Hilary Clinton and the Obama Administration refuse to send readily available aid to the Ambassador, they then engaged in the most bizarre series of lies and cover-ups in modern history.

Here are just a few of today's stories unfolding:

Benghazi whistleblowers allegations: US forces in Tripoli told to stand down on night of attack; Hillary cut department’s counterterrorism bureau out of the loop

Clinton sought end-run around counterterrorism bureau on night of Benghazi attack, witness will say

CBS NEWS: Diplomat: U.S. Special Forces told "you can't go" to Benghazi during attacks

NBC NEWS: Official: US Special Forces team wasn't allowed to fly to Benghazi during attack by Lisa Meyers  Here's a small snippet from Lisa Meyers report:

A small team of Special Forces operatives was ready to fly from Tripoli to Benghazi last year after Libyan insurgents attacked the U.S. mission there, but was told it was not authorized to board the flight by regional military commanders, according to a career State Department official scheduled to testify before Congress on Wednesday.

Gregory Hicks, then deputy chief of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya, told investigators for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that U.S. officials had persuaded the Libyan government to allow the Special Forces operatives to board the rescue flight from Tripoli to Benghazi. But an officer received a phone call telling them to stand down before they left for the airport, according to excerpts of his account made available to NBC News on Monday. That conversation occurred after the U.S. ambassador to Libya and another American had been killed in the initial attack, but hours before a second attack that killed two other Americans

What has bothered me since the attack in Libya is why candidate Mitt Romney failed to use this major issue in his campaign.  I wrote this in my blog on November 1, 2012:

Curiously Mitt Romney had a chance. Even more curiously, he decided to forgo almost certain election and pursue a genuinely bizarre last minute campaign strategy, ignoring the huge issue of the Obama Administration's cover-up of Libyan Ambassador Steven's torture and murder in Benghazi and opting instead to double down on a deceptive ad about Jeep moving production to China. 

Obviously had Mitt Romney been elected it wouldn't change the events that had already taken place.  But the cover-up, which continues to this day, would be over and the facts would be known.

In my opinion this event calls into question Barack Obama's fitness to be President.  There will be no Impeachment, nor should there be one.  But the facts, at least as known so far, certainly disqualify Hilary Clinton from becoming President.  That's a shame and a personal disappointment as I've been a long time Hilary Clinton supporter. 

As so often it is in the case of government scandals it's not the event but the cover-up that brings down the politician.  Sadly, this is beyond a doubt the stupidest and most unnecessary cover-up in history.

You Can Have My 32 Ounce Drink When You Pry It from My Cold, Dead Hands

I've already posted, over and often, that Mayor Michael Bloomberg is an ivory tower idiot. His bizarre, unjustified and Orwellian edict to prevent all restaurants, movie theaters and ball parks from serving any sugar sweetened soft drink in containers over 16 ounces was thankfully overturned by the courts.

However, my home state of Mississippi, in a genuine effort to not be outdone in the  unnecessary laws department, has passed "The Anti-Bloomberg Bill" which specifically prohibits any local governmental authority from creating any law or regulation which limits portion size OR requires the posting of calories.

The governor has promised to sign the legislation into law.

Of course it must be noted that Mississippi is the most obese state in the nation.

To paraphrase Charlton Heston, "You can have my 32 ounce soda when you pry it from my cold, dead hands."  And if we don't lose some weight here in Mississippi, that just might be sooner rather than later.

SOURCE: THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: Mississippi passes 'anti-Bloomberg bill,' banning local limits on portion sizes and requirements to post calorie counts

The Restless Gun

Here's one little news story from this week I find more than a little disturbing:

7 Year Old Maryland Boy Suspended for Nibbling His Pop-Tart into the Shape of A Gun

A 7-year-old Baltimore boy was suspended Friday for two days after he shaped his breakfast pastry into what appeared to be a gun, his dad said. Josh Welch, who suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, told Fox Baltimore that he was trying to shape the tart into a mountain. “It was already a rectangle, and I just kept on biting it and biting it and tore off the top and it kinda looked like a gun but it wasn’t,” Josh told the station.

“All I was trying to do was turn it into a mountain.” 

Josh said his teacher was “pretty mad.”

Josh’s dad, who was not identified, said he received a phone call from the school, notifying him of the suspension. “I would almost call it insanity,” he said. “I mean with all the potential issues that could be dealt with at school, real threats, bullies, whatever the real issue is, it’s a pastry. … Ya know?” 

A letter was sent home with Park Elementary School students Friday explaining that “a student used food to make an inappropriate gesture,” the station reported.

I wish this was some sort of weird isolated instance, but it's not.  It's happening again and again, all over the country.

- Feb. 8, 2013 - Yep - That's just yesterday, A student had his Birthday Party Cupcakes confiscated because they were decorated with small toy soldiers.

- Feb. 1, 2013 - A 9-year-old student was suspended for bringing a 2-inch toy gun on a key fob to school.

- Jan. 29, 2013 - A 5-year-old student could be suspended for crafting a Lego gun during an after-school program. We're told by school officials he is a repeat offender.

- Jan. 22, 2013 - Yet another 5-year-old is suspended because, well, those damned 5 year old's are so dangerous.  And there is certainly no sex discrimination in suspensions because this one's a girl. Her crime was talking about her Hello Kitty bubble gun.

- Jan. 2, 2013 - A 6-year-old in a Washington D.C. school was suspended for making a gun gesture with his hands.  Fingers and six year old's don't mix.

- August 28, 2012 - A deaf 3-year-old preschooler has been asked to change the American Sign Language hand gesture used to signify his name, Hunter, which he signs by forming a gun with his hands. Apparently, "saying" his name violates the school's weapon policy.

Part of what bothers me here is that our society in caught in a double think mentality that makes George Orwell's most nightmarish scenarios seem tame.  One minute we heap unparalleled praise on Director Quentin Tarantino for his bloodbath movies that glorify gratuitous violence and make heroes out of murderers and terrorists.  


The next minute we praise Kevin Bacon's new television series "The Following" whose hero, Dr. Joe Carroll, is a psychopathic mass murderer with a cult following of hundreds of like groupies who murder upon command.  Each week this new hit series has multiple graphic murders with maximum blood and gore in every episode.  Some murders are actually so graphic they are sickening.

Even shows and movies aimed at children like the Transformer Movies, are filled to overflowing with gratuitous violence.

Ahhhh, but the very next minute next we suspend 7 year olds from school for chewing their breakfast into a gun shaped biscuit.

When I was eight years old there was a hit television series called "The Restless Gun" that starred John Payne.  In this western Payne played a retired law officer, Vint Bonner, with great patience and restraint who always sought a non-violent path out of any confrontation.  Sadly, at least once each week, Payne was forced to use his signature gun, a pistol that could be transformed into a rifle.  it was the original assault weapon."

Since Payne's character, Vint Bonner, was a hero and the gun was so fantastic, I wanted the toy cap gun version!  And my parents bought me one!! It was the neatest toy ever, at least for an eight year old in 1957.

Sadly I no longer have this toy.  Sadly because these incredibly rare toys sell for many hundreds of dollars at auction, often as much as a thousand dollars for what was, no doubt, a ten dollar toy.  There are none available on ebay today or I'd post a link for you.

My point is that children always imitate their heroes from televison and movies.  It's called "playing,"  Doing so is called "using your imagination," a skill once highly prized and cultivated in children.  In fact, John Payne's most famous acting roll was playing the young lawyer, Fred Gailey, in the classic movie "Miracle on 34th Street."  In that movie Payne and the wonderful Edwin Gwenn, who plays Kris Kringle, try to teach a very young Natalie Wood to use her imagination. 

Back in the day I watched an old black and white television.  Today's 8 year olds sit before large screen, 3-D color televisions, especially good at portraying blood red.  Why do we think children won't imitate what they see in TV, good or bad?  

One last note, in 1958, when Vint Bonner always stood for up for what is right and always tried to avoid violence and every child had a toy cap gun, the murder rate in the United States was only about 4.3 murders per 100,000 people.  Since that year the murder rate in the United States has never been that low.

One last, last note, on April 23, 2013 all 78 original episodes of The Restless Gun: The Complete Serieswill be released on DVD.

Making Criminals of Law Abiding Citizens

Real Criminals are tough targets.  They run, they move, they hide.  Criminals cover-up their activities.  And they're good at doing it. Criminals tend to operate in the dark of night, and in the shadows.  They do not report their activities.  Criminals do not fill out forms.  They don't file taxes.  They don't seek out permits for their activities.  They certainly don't worry about compliance.

Law abiding citizens do all of those things and more.  Most go out of their way to obey both the letter and the intent of the law. They're good citizens, dependable and honest.

Government agencies who are charged with enforcing the laws have one hell of a tough time with criminals.  Law enforcement is dangerous work when it comes to criminals.  They are hard to find, harder to catch and it's dangerous to try.  Often it is life threatening work.

Getting law abiding citizens to comply is easy, simple and safe.  They follow willingly.

Laws that regulate activities of the law abiding citizens get excellent results, even if they accomplish no real good for society.  That's why we're seeing so many mayors in troubled cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York turn their efforts away from criminals and instead focus their limited budgets toward passing and enforcing laws aimed solely at law abiding citizens.  

Drug dealers, thieves and even murderers can breathe easier in New York beginning March 12th as the city, under the brilliant leadership of Ivory Tower Occupant and City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, focuses the attention of the entire city on eliminating soft drinks over 16 ounces from NY City streets.

The Mayor's massive bureaucracy has rolled out the details of the new regulations on sugary drinks to all the cities law abiding citizens and they are truly bizarre, indeed.

I'm not sure what frightens me more, the Mayor's regulations or the city's citizens who will willingly follow Bloomberg's yellow brick road all the way to Orwell's Animal Farm.

The New York Post reports:

Take a big gulp, New York: Hizzoner is about to give you a pop.

Nanny Bloomberg unleashes his ban on large sodas on March 12 — and there are some nasty surprises lurking for hardworking families.
Say goodbye to that 2-liter bottle of Coke with your pizza delivery, pitchers of soft drinks at your kid’s birthday party and some bottle-service mixers at your favorite nightclub.

They’d violate Mayor Bloomberg’s new rules, which prohibit eateries from serving or selling sugary drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces.
Bloomberg’s soda smackdown follows his attacks on salt, sugar, trans fat, smoking and even baby formula. 

And consumers, especially families, will soon see how the rules will affect their wallets — forcing them to pay higher unit prices for smaller bottles.

Typically, a pizzeria charges $3 for a 2-liter bottle of Coke. But under the ban, customers would have to buy six 12-ounce cans at a total cost of $7.50 to get an equivalent amount of soda.

“I really feel bad for the customers,” said Lupe Balbuena of World Pie in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

Domino’s on First Avenue and 74th Street on the Upper East Side is doing away with its most popular drink sizes: the 20-ounce and 2-liter bottles.

It will also trash more plastic into the environment.

Deliveryman Philippe Daniba said he had brought countless 2-liter bottles of soda to customers over his 19 years at the restaurant. The ban, he said, “doesn’t make sense.”

Dallas BBQ at 1265 Third Ave. will retire its 60-ounce pitchers and 20-ounce glasses, manager Daisy Reyes said.

“We have to buy new glasses,” she said. “We’re in the process.”

Notice in the above excerpts how every one of the city's law abiding citizens are doing their level best to comply even as they protest the silliness of the regulations.

How about a boycott of New York? Perhaps not as much to protest the Mayor's actions as to protest the citizens willingness to go along with this absurdity.  

POST SCRIPT: Doug Powers wryly observes, "Bloomberg is still going to allow pizzas to be delivered?  Unbelievable. It seems like the obesity from the pizza combined with the global warming from the delivery vehicle would be enough to convince The Nanny to put a stop to it. Maybe that’s next."

You Must Read "We Must"

I realize the Convention Cycle is well underway. I realize that Former President Bill Clinton spoke last night and said some very important things.

I realize Sandra Fluke spoke last night and said some of the most inane, insulting and stupid things ever uttered at a Convention. [Fellow Democrat Kristen Powers saw it the same way I did]

I realize President Obama will speak tonight and his speech might just determine the outcome of the election.

But I want you to direct your attention to Lee Kiester's brilliant analysis of the entire 2012 election cycle and why this may be the most important election of our lifetime.  I'm not going to reprint one word of his analysis here, but I strongly urge you to follow this link and read his entire essay (it's not too long).  It WILL change your opinion about this election.  That is a promise!

LINK- - - - ->   We Must

The One Thing Absolutely No One Wants: "More Civilized Public Discourse"

The Rush Limbaugh Controversy rages on and on and on. If you've lived under a rock for the last few weeks, Limbaugh called Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke a slut, among other things.  See my previous blog post if you'd like more information.


Right now the Progressives and Liberals seem to have the upper hand.  The brilliantly orchestrated advertiser boycott is working and at least 13 advertisers and two radio stations have jumped off the Limbaugh ship.  Limbaugh has been forced to apologize.  And while the conservative loyalists are attempting to bail water, the progressives have hit Limbaugh with a broadside torpedo.


Again and again and again and again we heard President Obama, Limbaugh's departing advertisers, Democratic Party operatives and pundits,television hosts and even comics all exclaim, "All that we want is a more civilized public discourse!"


This is, of course, pure unadulterated BULLSHIT!  No a single one of them wants "more civilized discourse." They just want to cower their opponents and, if possible, silence them.  They would be pleased if their opponents were civil, as long as their allies were as vile, hateful and uncivil as ever.


My PROOF?  I dare you to find a single person, advertiser, corporate entity, pundit, commentator or comic that is condemning the hate speech coming from his or her side of the aisle.  Find me one that condemns both sides equally.  Don't worry, you're not going to find one, because their isn't one!


Today, in another of this episode's most bizarre moments, President Obama inserted his two daughters into his attack on Rush Limbaugh.  Below are the quotes from The Hill Briefing Room story this afternoon:

President Obama said he called Sandra Fluke, the college student at the center of the latest Rush Limbaugh controversy, after thinking about how his own daughters would have handled the criticism.

“I thought about Malia and Sasha,” Obama said Tuesday at a news conference. “And one of the things I want them … to be able to do is speak their minds in a civil and thoughtful way, and I don’t want them attacked or called horrible names when they’re being good citizens.

I want to tread lightly here and carefully respect both Malia and Sasha.  But the President's comments raise a serious question.  Is it possible that while he wouldn't want Limbaugh to his beautiful daughters "sluts," it would be perfectly OK if Bill Maher called them "T***s" or "C***s?"  I only make this assumption because President Obama has yet to even mention these misogynistic slurs from his million dollar campaign donor.  Limbaugh's slurs were mild compared to Maher's.

But certainly President Obama isn't alone is his one sided outrage.  David Friend, CEO of Carbonite(r) actually set the stage for President Obama when he, too, invoked his two daughters as a reason he cancelled advertising of the Rush Limbaugh Show.  Here is his statement (from an interesting essay on this issue on Red State):


"No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this courageous and well-intentioned young lady. Mr. Limbaugh, with his highly personal attacks on Miss Fluke, overstepped any reasonable bounds of decency. Even though Mr. Limbaugh has now issued an apology, we have nonetheless decided to withdraw our advertising from his show. We hope that our action, along with the other advertisers who have already withdrawn their ads, will ultimately contribute to a more civilized public discourse."


Gosh! And look. Friend used the patented "more civilized public discourse" excuse, too!  Wow! He's covered all the bases!


Except for the base called "truth." Friend missed that one.  For many years Friend has made heavy political donations for President Obama's election and re-election campaigns.  Curiously he was and remains a heavy advertiser of the Ed Schultz Show.  Schultz, if you remember, was suspended by MSNBC and forced to apologize for calling Laura Ingram a "slut," the exact term Limbaugh used to refer to Fluke.  Friend, exactly like everyone else, is only offended when his political opponents use vile speech.  He's super cool OK when his allies use the identical speech.


This works on both sides of the aisle.  No one in politics has been the subject of more hate speech than Michelle Bachmann.  Amazingly Bachmann appeared on MSNBC this morning and was grilled relentlessly as to why she won't condemn Limbaugh's hate speech.  Bachmann correctly pointed out that no one had ever been the victim of more hate speech than she has, BUT, she still refused to condemn Limbaugh.   The MSNBC announcer certainly never apologized for the hate spewed from her network associates, either.  STALEMATE.


Here's where I stand. Either it's wrong 100% of the time or it's not.  I don't like today's hate speech, but I've never said speech should be censored.  I'm from the school that says you can and should argue the points, but I don't think you should ever silence the critics.


In other words, I don't need the pig to get out of the mud, but I feel no need to climb in there with him.

Obama's Bone Headed Tax Strategy

STORY ONE:  Obama Plans to Triple Dividend Tax Rate to nearly 50%

STORY TWO:  Britain's 50p Tax Rate Hike Backfires - Revenue's Drop Dramatically

While Republicans Mitt Romney and especially Rick Santorum attempt to hand President Obama his reelection on a silver platter, President Obama continues his tone deaf and strangely self destructive approach to governing with a massive proposed tax hike that would hit vulnerable senior citizens hardest.  And, history clearly shows, it's a plan that will not work or raise revenues for the government.

As all my Twitter friends are saying, "WTF!!!"  (I'm sure they mean "Win the Future." Yeah, that's it.)

Been there, done that.  By raising Dividend Tax to an insane rate without also raising Capital Gains Tax, companies simply stop issuing dividends and instead plow the same money into stock repurchase plans, effectively turning the returns into Capital Gains.  The graph to the right shows the actual history of this effect in reverse.  Once we dropped the dividend tax rate in 2002, dividends increased dramatically as did tax revenue.

In STORY TWO above, we also see this type of tax increase in the "rich" also always backfires, driving investment, earnings, citizenship and tax revenues downward.  Instead of raising revenue, Great Britain has learned such tax rate increases actually reduce revenue.  There is plenty of historical evidence in the United States that proves the same thing.

Now (and I'm bracing for the attacks I will receive), we are actually harming the country more by totally exempting 50% of Americans from paying any income tax at all and reducing further their contributions to social security and medicare.  All of this is a plan to fail.

Today's it's hard to see how President Obama can lose in November, but he certainly is working to find a way.

P.S. No matter what the pundits are saying today, the gas price increases are absolutely killing the economy.  I'm on the front line and I can see it clearly.  Remember, you heard it here first.

The Growing Layers of Failure

The irony is so thick here it could be used as mortar to cement bricks.


STORY ONE (via National Public Radio): Kansas City's Failed Schools Leave Students Behind


STORY TWO (via The Blaze): North Carolina Food Police Replaces Nutritious Homemade Lunches with Deep Fried Processed Chicken Nuggets

PHOTO BY TOM BULLOCK OF NPR

The tragedy in Kansas City schools in story ONE above is simply heartbreaking.  The Kansas City failure is a story of a revolving door of administrators, an incompetent school board, middle class flight to private schools and suburban districts, and a teachers union deeply invested in a system that assures failure.  Scott Simon of NPR will continue this series next Saturday and I hope you will all tune in or visit the NPR Website.


I've written often here that Government does absolutely nothing well.  There are some things that only Government can do, the military is the most often mentioned example.  But even then the waste, incompetence, the inefficiencies and corruption is staggering.  


I'm guessing next week, Scott Simon will at least mention the state is considering Charter Schools or even privatizing the entire failed Kansas City School System.  This is exactly what should happen.


Meanwhile, via story TWO above, we have our government taking on another task that it will mismanage completely.  The well meaning North Carolina Legislature wanted to make sure children in the pre-kindergarten program had the proper nutrition to help them prepare for school.  Unfortunately, they only created a bureaucracy of food police following bureaucratic guidelines without even a modicum of logic or intelligence.  


So we have nameless inspectors not allowing children to eat a homemade meat and cheese sandwich on a whole wheat bun with fruit and fruit juice and instead forcing the child to eat in the school cafeteria.  Because the inspector is only "doing his job" he has no idea what the school cafeteria lunch actually is.  His job is to simply inspect the homemade lunch to be certain it has two fruits and vegetables. He doesn't care his actions forced the child to eat deep fried processed chicken nuggets with white bread and milk and ABSOLUTELY NO VEGETABLES!!!.


Somewhere along the line the mission of schools to teach got lost and their new mission is monitor homemade lunches.


As Liberals we should not ever be invested in the process, but only in the results. By definition Liberals should think outside the box, love alternatives and innovation.  We should not be invested in methodology of the past.  We should always strive for new, groundbreaking solutions.  It's time we realized that government is virtually never the solution.


Our goals and dreams must never change, but we must be willing to follow new paths toward achieving those goals.

The Silly Super Committee Blame Game

Thank God Joe Scarborough gets it, because I swear not one other commentator, left or right, sees the truth of the Super Committee's failure.  For today's politicians, it's all the blame game.




Joe Scarborough said, in part:


“Blaming Grover Norquist for this collapse is the lamest Democratic fiction since the Tonkin Gulf incident [used to justify American intervention in Vietnam]. Like LBJ said a couple of years later, they were shooting at ghosts or whales, and yet that was his excuse to go into Vietnam.


"Grover Norquist, for anybody that works in Washington, D.C., understands that, like a lot of people in Washington, he’s got his own point of view. But Grover holds no magical power over anybody. … He’s not really a powerful guy. His idea may be powerful to conservatives, but he in of himself is not a powerful guy.”


“Democrats have the president of the United States, right? They’ve got the United States Senate — the world’s most deliberative body, the upper chamber. What else do they call them? America’s most exclusive club. They haven’t produced a budget in over 900 days."


"The president of the United States, a Democrat, appoints a commission to take care of the debt. And then he ignores everything that commission says."


"Anybody today trying to blame Grover Norquist or to suggest that Grover Norquist is somehow more powerful than the president of the United States and the United States Senate, which everybody in Washington knows runs Washington. It’s not the House. It is the upper chamber. And the Democrats own it. They are close to a monopoly of Washington, D.C., but to blame this on Grover Norquist is laughable.” 


"This is a straw man to end all straw men.  Grover Norquist has been a straw man. Republicans haven’t even been in charge of the House of Representatives for a year. It’s as if 2009 and 2010 and the massive deficits that were accumulated then didn’t even exist. But, again, I’m blaming both sides today. Both sides have their feet in ideological cement. But Grover Norquist is a straw man."


"These same Democrats that said that George W. Bush abused the powers of office and, ‘Oh, the executive branch had become too powerful,’ are now suggesting Barack Obama, who, by the way, has been completely AWOL on this issue, is powerless? A man who put a debt commission in — he put Simpson/Bowles together and then completely threw them under the bus."


"Mika, you and I, if I ever come back, then I’ll shut up, we have to get Senate Democrats on this program and start asking them exactly why, in the midst of America’s greatest budgetary crisis in 235 years, they have refused, stubbornly, to produce a budget for over 900 days.”


“The president of the United States is still president of the United States. Democrats still control the United States Senate. Grover Norquist’s idea may be a strong one. Grover Norquist has absolutely no power in Washington, D.C. other than the idea he carries. And I am so surprised that Democrats really believe that the presidency is as weak as they believe it is now. That this president couldn’t step forward and show at least a little bit of leadership. He has been AWOL since he and [House Speaker John] Boehner failed on the debt ceiling. He better engage quickly or else we’re going the way of Europe.”


The above is an abridged transcript of Scarborough's comments taken from Jeff Poor's excellent article in The Daily Caller. Read it all here: Scarborough scolds MSNBC colleagues: Stop blaming Grover Norquist

The Myth of the Tea Party

I like and I admire Thomas Friedman. And I certainly like and greatly admire former President George H.W. Bush. But Friedman's Op-Ed in today's New York Times, "Bring Back Poppy," may be the most stunningly stupid article I've ever read.

Friedman's error certainly wasn't his praise for former President H.W. Bush. His comments about Bush were spot on correct. Instead his fatal lapse into stupefying moronic idiocy was to somehow give total credit to about 60 neophyte Congresspersons for blocking common sense Tax and Spending reform. Somehow, amazingly, Friedman forgot there are 200 Democrat Congresspersons, not to mention 150 or so mainstream Republican Congresspersons, that could have stopped this madness at any time.

It's convenient and maybe even fun to blame the 60ish Tea Party Republicans for events they had absolutely ZERO control over. But you have to pretend that the entire Democrat caucus and their leader, Nancy Pelosi, don't exist or have forgotten how to vote. In reality it is the Democrats and the huge majority of Republicans that Speaker John Boehner DOES CONTROL, that have forgotten how to compromise. One tiny drop of real bipartisanship by the supposedly reasonable 365 members of the House and this all ends.

If Boehner and Pelosi were actually willing to do their jobs the Tea Party would be the irrelevant minority caucus that they really are.

What's happening here is that the Democrats have cleverly used the Tea Party as cover for their own failure. And Thomas Friedman and most of the mainstream media have fallen for the ruse.

Political Parties Are Our Biggest Enemy

I'll admit that Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) is an idiot, but that is quite beside the point. Still, by making one of the most absurd speeches on record, she illustrates just how totally dysfunctional our two party system has become.

Jackson Lee said: "I am particularly sensitive to the fact that only this president — only this one, only this one — has received the kind of attacks and disagreement and inability to work, only this one."

Then Jackson Lee decided to jump completely off the cliff: "Read between the lines. What is different about this president that should put him in a position that he should not receive the same kind of respectful treatment of when it is necessary to raise the debt limit in order to pay our bills, something required by both statute and the 14th amendment?"

Here is EXACTLY WHY Jackson Lee is wrong. During the last (ultimately successful) attempt to raise the dept ceiling during the tenure of President George W. Bush, NOT ONE SINGLE DEMOCRAT SENATOR VOTED TO INCREASE THE DEBT CEILING. EVERY DEMOCRAT VOTED AGAINST THE BILL TO, as Sheila Jackson Lee so eloquently put it, "raise the debt limit in order to pay our bills, something required by both statute and the 14th amendment."

So, in spite of Jackson Lee's faulty memory, Barack Obama is, in fact, being treated exactly the same way President Bush was treated. It could be argued Obama is being treated with more respect.

This entire Washington debate is just bullshit! If you are against raising the debt limit, you should hold fast to that position. If you believe it is necessary, you should support it. Period. False rhetoric,, race baiting (as Jackson Lee just engaged in), and political posturing should be stopped.

If the political parties would get out of the way we might actually get something done in this country.

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No doubt I'll get replies stating "Well, the Republicans did it, too." YES! THAT IS, OF COURSE, EXACTLY MY POINT!

MSNBC Suspends Keith Olbermann Indefinitely

In what has to be the most stunning move in recent media history, MSNBC has suddenly suspended its only major star, Keith Olbermann for making financial contributions to three Democratic Party campaigns.

Phil Griffin, president of the MSNBC, said he “became aware of Keith’s political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay.”

Whoa!!!

What is ironic is that Olbermann isn't financially capable of making a monetary contribution even remotely worth the value of his on-air shilling every night for progressive candidates. An endorsement from Keith was worth a fortune in motivating the Democratic base.

What's even more ironic is that MSNBC had no problem allowing the completely biased, partisan and fact-challenged Olbermann anchor their election night coverage. Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell and Ed Schultz turned the election night coverage into a joke, a pathetic frat boy party of snickering, mockery and revelry. There was literally not 30 seconds of journalism all Tuesday night from the crew who ran the coverage like it was an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 rather than a news event of historic proportions.

Phil Griffin himself should have been suspended without pay for allowing the once proud Peacock Network to fall to these lows.

It really makes me wonder why they would even bother to have a no financial political contribution policy.

CNBC Rick Santelli, The Last American Hero

I can't quite figure out why 90% of the reporters and analysts on television can't or won't ask the really tough questions.

Thank god Rick Santelli doesn't suffer from this disease. Santelli teed off on Rep. Paul Kanjorski’s (D-PA) claim that Democrats’ couldn’t reform Fannie & Freddie in their financial regulation bill because it was “too complicated.”

SANTELLI: “It’s too complicated? You think taxpayers that go to work to pay the money you are subsidizing, it will end up a half a trillion, do you think they think complicated is an excuse?”



Our Members of Congress and our President SERIOUSLY DON'T GET IT. Just read my next post immediately below (or click this link, if you as reading this as a single entry in my blog) to see the real consequences of their inaction.

You Vote Obamacare, We're Gonna Vote You Outta There...

This video has gone viral becuase the vast majority of the people identify with it. And agree with it. Why can't my fellow Democrats see the handwriting on the wall?



And, yes, we are playing this catchy little number on Wizard Radio.

Every Liberal SHOULD Oppose The Health Care Restructuring Bill

It is simply stunning to me that a single Democrat would vote for the convoluted, wasteful, bloated, complex and pork laden Health Care Restructuring Bill that is now in the early stages of reconciliation.

It is stunning to me that a President as bright and seemingly idealistic as President Obama would ever consider signing it.

This bill is a hopeless mess of bureaucracy that institutionalizes into law Sarah Palin's notorious death panels, fails to live up to President Obama's promise of being able to keep your current insurance, raises taxes through the roof and insures drastically higher insurance costs.

Worst, it will destroy the one part of Medicare that works so exceedingly well, the Advantage Program, that is a lifeline to many senior citizens.

It is literally a damned mess.

If we, as liberals, have any principles left, we cannot endorse a program that pays off the drug companies, actually prohibits or completely eliminates competition, rewards the insurance companies, taxes current health care programs, hides new taxes under every rock (most of which will hit low wage earners hardest), and fails to cover many Americans.

What the hell are the Democrats in Washington drinking. Virtually every American KNOWS this bill is a disaster that will completely destroy our current health care system, hurt the economy, hurt Medicare, raise prices, and ultimately ration health care. How is it that there are almost no Democrats in Washington that are as aware of the facts as the voters?

I am reminded of all this as I watch Senator Ben Nelson fight for his political life. Things are so bad in Nebraska that Nelson is going to be forced to air a political ad during the Nebraska-Arizona Holiday Bowl Game and, literally, beg his constituents for forgiveness.

I'm sorry to be the one to tell you Senator, but it ain't gonna work. When you sell out your principles for this load of crap, you will be punished by the voters who used to look up to you and used to respect you.

Nelson is just the first. You cannot vote for a bill so horrifically bad that every voter on earth knows is a failure and not pay the ultimate price.

Thoughts on a $1,118.00 Day

If it is always darkest before the dawn, daybreak must just be moments away. Because, on both the social and economic scales, it is a very dark time in America. Gold today hit a record high of over $1,118.00 an ounce as investors and governments around the world abandoned the US Dollar and other paper currencies in favor of the precious metal. Publicly and privately many say the see the collapse of the US Dollar and possible the collapse of the United States.

Misled and misguided by a President wholly unqualified and unready to lead this nation during an economic crisis, the United States is floundering. And the deaf, dumb and blind US Congress is leading the nation off the edge of the cliff as surely as the Pied Piper led the rats and then the children in the fairly tale to their potential doom. I'm not at all certain we can have a happy ending.

Clearly investors and foreign governments don't think a happy ending is in our future as they abandon on currency as if it were infected with Swine Flu (or, more likely, the Ebola virus). Death be to those holding US currency when the end times arrive.

President Obama's biggest mistake today is that he is ignoring the economy as he pursues a Health Care Restructuring Plan that is horrifically bad in its own right. He should be working on the economy and the deficit, but if, god forbid, he succeeds in forcing this Health Care Bill down the throats of a public that neither wants it nor needs it, it will bring on the collapse all by itself.

Poor President Obama has done virtually nothing right. Being naive in both the ways of Congress and in basic economics, he turned the Economic Stimulus Act over to Nancy Pelosi and give little or no guidance. Pelosi hadn't the slightest idea how to build a stimulus package, so she did what she does best, packaged up 780 billion dollars of pork and special favors for friends and supporters and called it stimulus.

Now some folks are surprised (or, at least, act surprised) to find the stimulus package isn't doing any good and the very slow economic recovery is exactly what would have been expected without a package.

The problem is the stimulus package is actually a time bomb and is ready to explode the deficit. Gold, therefore, is the safe haven for investors and other nations that are handling their economy correctly.

Three things need to happen. First, and perhaps most important, the Health Care Restructuring Bill must be stopped.

Second, the President needs a new economic team, a strike force if you will. He should ask Mitt Romney to head up this effort to, literally, save the United States.

Finally, Nancy Pelosi should step down as Speaker of the House and usher in a new spirit of true bipartisanship. Now is not this time to build walls and foster hatred. Pelosi isn't capable of anything else and she must go.

The Worst Bill Ever

The Worst Bill Ever.

That's how The Wall Street Journal characterized the House version of Health Care Restructuring introduced yesterday to a waiting world by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Last night on Bill O'Reilly's cable opinion show comedian Dennis Miller referred to Pelosi as "sub-reptilian." I couldn't agree with both characteristics more.

I've said before that Nancy Pelosi is the "worst Speaker of the House in United States history." I repeat that here again today. The woman, left unchecked, will destroy our country and never, ever realize what she has done.



I know I'm offending many folks and I usually don't get this emphatic, but the woman is a menace and this bill..... well, this bill is the worst bill ever.

Here are just a few of the key points from the journal article:

In a rational political world, this 1,990-page runaway train would have been derailed months ago. With spending and debt already at record peacetime levels, the bill creates a new and probably unrepealable middle-class entitlement that is designed to expand over time. Taxes will need to rise precipitously, even as ObamaCare so dramatically expands government control of health care that eventually all medicine will be rationed via politics.

All this is particularly reckless given the unfunded liabilities of Medicare—now north of $37 trillion over 75 years. Mrs. Pelosi wants to steal $426 billion from future Medicare spending to "pay for" universal coverage. While Medicare's price controls on doctors and hospitals are certain to be tightened, the only cut that is a sure thing in practice is gutting Medicare Advantage to the tune of $170 billion. Democrats loathe this program because it gives one of out five seniors private insurance options.

As for Medicaid, the House will expand eligibility to everyone below 150% of the poverty level, meaning that some 15 million new people will be added to the rolls as private insurance gets crowded out at a cost of $425 billion. A decade from now more than a quarter of the population will be on a program originally intended for poor women, children and the disabled.

All told, the House favors $572 billion in new taxes, mostly by imposing a 5.4-percentage-point "surcharge" on joint filers earning over $1 million, $500,000 for singles. This tax will raise the top marginal rate to 45% in 2011 from 39.6% when the Bush tax cuts expire—not counting state income taxes and the phase-out of certain deductions and exemptions. The burden will mostly fall on the small businesses that have organized as Subchapter S or limited liability corporations, since the truly wealthy won't have any difficulty sheltering their incomes.

This surtax could hit ever more earners because, like the alternative minimum tax, it isn't indexed for inflation. Yet it still won't be nearly enough. Even if Congress had confiscated 100% of the taxable income of people earning over $500,000 in the boom year of 2006, it would have only raised $1.3 trillion. When Democrats end up soaking the middle class, perhaps via the European-style value-added tax that Mrs. Pelosi has endorsed, they'll claim the deficits that they created made them do it.

Read the entire article.

Battles You Cannot Win

I've been reading quite a lot of different blogs over the last week. I've started with the blogs I normally frequent, then followed the links to other blogs many folks provide on their sidebars. I've also read the comments made on blog posts and followed the poster to his or her "home" blog.

To say our nation is divided is an understatement. I've read charges, accusations, attacks, slurs and hate speech. It's really quite ugly in almost all of the politically oriented blogs.

Lots of people are shouting. Nobody is listening.

Generally people do not venture outside of their own political spectrum. So they are free to feed upon one another. Readers seek out blogs with which they already agree. Then each comment plays one-upsmanship on the previous remark. "My hate speech is more hateful that your hate speech."

Often it's a race to see who can mention Hitler first. Charges of racism as sure to follow. Socialist! Communist! Fascist!

Don't get me wrong. These aren't any arguments. There is no opposing point of view.

No conservatives dare visit the progressive dens of hate. Why would they? Why should they? No one is going to listen. And no real issues are being discussed. It's not like there is a discussion of the merits of the public option of health care. Nope, the only discussion is how stupid.... or mean..... or cruel.... or evil.... or racist the opposition really is.

Many right wing blogs traffic is the same vacuous diatribes.

These bloggers are preaching to the choir. They are tilting at windmills, fighting battles they cannot possibly win. They are poisoning themselves in their homemade cesspools of hate.

There is one last unifying factor. Not one of them realize what they are doing. They will read what I've written and never realize I'm talking about them. That's why it's called blind hatred.