The President's STFU Address

President Obama's address to the nation last week was Castro-esque, in length if not in tone.   This is a divide and conquer, in you face, agitator President. 


Cross him, and he'll call you out publicly just like Chairman Mao used to do.

QandO does a good summary of AP's fact checking, giving it an overall thumbs up:

Surprisingly, AP does it (credit where credit is due).  They cover the “spending freeze” (it would amount to less than 1% of the deficit) [...]  They also point out that the nonsense about the health care plan preserving the “right” of Americans to keep their doctor and their plan isn’t exactly true [...] And they take on the claim about lobbyists...

But the Stalin-worthy coup de grace was Obama's disgraceful denigration of a co-equal branch of government:

“Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests – including foreign corporations – to spend without limit in our elections.”

QandO Continues:

And I have to say, trying to humiliate the SCOTUS in a public speech with them sitting right there open to such ridicule is a politically stupid stunt. [...]

They’re not underlings like the JCS who have to sit there and take it. They are members of an equal and separate branch. I don’t think we’ve heard the last of that little bit of political stupidity.

Politifact says that if it’s true, it is “barely true”. They have a very fine write up which I encourage you to read about why Justice Alito may have been absolutely justified in his silently mouthed “not true” as Obama took that shot.

The President's Demagogic Breach of Decorum was also "Factually Incorrect"

Foreigners still can't contribute to US Political Campaigns:

Foreign nationals, specifically defined to include foreign corporations, are prohibiting from making "a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State or local election" under 2 U.S.C. Section 441e, which was not at issue in the case.

Foreign corporations are also prohibited, under 2 U.S.C. 441e, from making any contribution or donation to any committee of any political party, and they prohibited from making any "expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication." (Bradley A. Smith, Professor of Law)

A Mixture of Religion and Politics

I find it heartening to see religious people of different denominations in this country lay down sectarian sniping to make common cause on important social and moral issues.  

Mike Potemra plumbs a little-explored area of the Scott Brown phenomenon:  His ecumenism.  Brown is a Protestant but enjoys hearty Catholic support.  They don't agree on every issue, but he doesn't pander and they don't stomp their feed insisting that he toe the line.  Refreshing.

Embedded in his interesting and short article, I  found this gem that reminds us that we are in no danger of a theocratic takeover:

As my friend Paul Mankowski, S.J., once remarked, the Catholic Church’s moral agenda would be much advanced if every Catholic in Congress was replaced with a Mormon or a Muslim. (First Things - Joseph Bottums)

Catholic Politicians can't even get it right on Social Programs

What about individual almsgiving and acts of personal charity—concepts that greatly predate the existence of the modern welfare state? Indeed, the seven corporal works of mercy, which are included in the Catechism, are directed toward individuals, not governments.

We’re not saying that there shouldn’t be any government programs, but, at the same time, we recognize that the Church is open to different means on how to achieve important goals for alleviating human suffering.

As Doctor Tom Coburn, Republican Senator from Oklahoma has observed, "spending other people's money is not compassionate."

Why Federal Tax Dollars are Paying for a Train in Florida

In answer to your question, a little story, and I have to give credit where credit is due... I got this from my brother in an email:

It's a slow day in a little east Texas town. The sun is beating down, and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit......

On this particular day a rich tourist from back east is driving through town. He stops at the motel and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.

As soon as the man walks upstairs, the owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel.

The guy at the Farmer's Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit.

The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.

The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, picks up the $100 bill, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.

No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is conducting business today.

Wish I knew the author... he is obviously quite astute.

~Finntann~

Why are federal tax dollars paying for a train in Florida?

Tomorrow, Today and Yesterday

 

 

And now for something completely different...

I LIKE PIE!

I like pie, and it's a problem.

I eat a lot of pie... at least one whole pie a day, 365 pies a year.

My problem is I am obese, some people even say "bloated".

Lately people have become dissatisfied with the amount of pie I eat, they say I eat too much, not only of my pie, but of their pie too.

I've decided to make major changes in my diet... I, am going to eat less pie.

For the next three years I am only going to eat 361 and a half pies a year.

Some people trumpet this as a "major change"

Other's ridicule me and say I should only eat a little pie, and less of theirs.

I like Pie!

The Congressional Budget Office reports that the 2010 deficit is only going to be 1.3 trillion dollars, down from 1.4 trillion last year.

The Obama administration is expected to announce a three year freeze in spending on certain government agencies and programs that congress specifically funds, and exempt security related budgets and entitlements.

The government is going to eat less pie, roughly 3 and a half less pies a year, just like me.

Sure I'm fat, bloated, and eating every pie in sight... but the problem isn't that we are eating too much pie, the problem is that we are eating more pie than we could ever bake ourselves. I'm eating Chinese pie, Saudi Arabian pie, pies from every corner of the world. Sooner or later people are gonna stop giving us pies...

But Hell, I like pork too....and I eat tons of that.

Colorado Reaction to Dem Health Care? Revulsion

People from both sides of the political spectrum — and apolitical consumers — said they were deeply skeptical about the health care bill being put together by Congress and the White House.

About 800,000 Colorado residents, representing one-sixth of the state’s population, are uninsured. The state’s politics are mixed and somewhat unpredictable. Colorado has a sizable contingent of people who want a single-payer government-financed health care system, as well as libertarians and Tea Party protesters opposed to big government.

Few of those interviewed here expect to see direct benefits from the legislation. Many complained of sweetheart deals done to win votes in the Senate. Liberals and conservatives alike said Congress was too influenced by special interests.

Here is a typical Colorado woman:

Tamara L. Kirch, who is uninsured and stands to benefit from the legislation, bristled at the proposed requirement to buy insurance.

“We have a frontier mentality,” Ms. Kirch said. “I don’t want the government telling me what to do.” (She feels the same way about abortion: “The government should not tell a woman what to do with her womb.”)

Continue reading, and you see even Democrats are upset, although they blame "Corporations" and "special interests."  The common reaction seems to be disgust at the DC Democrats' embarrassing display

The final part of the article inadvertently makes the case for congress dropping the whole failed project and leaving it to the states to innovate and develop unique solutions that work for them:

Colorado has been an incubator of innovation. Denver Health is considered a model for public hospitals. Health economists point to Grand Junction, Colo., to show how collaboration by doctors and hospitals can produce high-quality, low-cost care.

Bottom Line:  This is bad for Democrats in Colorado.

NY Times

Quote Of The Week from California

From Columnist Burt Prelutsky:

"Frankly, I don't know what it is about California, but we seem to have a strange urge to elect really obnoxious women to high office. I'm not bragging, you understand, but no other state, including Maine, even comes close.

When it comes to sending left-wing dingbats to Washington, we're number one.

There's no getting around the fact that the last time anyone saw the likes of Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi, they were stirring a cauldron when the curtain went up on 'Macbeth'.

The three of them are like jackasses who happen to possess the gift of speech. You don't know if you should condemn them for their stupidity or simply marvel at their ability to form words."

HT to blogger buddy James Shott at Observations

What do Che Guevara and Saddam Hussein Have in Common?

Che Guevara:  T-Shirt Salesman to the Tards 

"Why do we have a picture of Che Guevara in this house?" Mrs. Silverfiddle demanded of me when I got home from work Friday.

"Because it's part of my Latin America memorabilia collection," I answered weakly.  I also have a postcard with a Hitler stamp on it that I got while in Germany, but I would no sooner wear a Hitler T-shirt than I would one with El Che on it.

It's been hanging on the wall for years, why all the fuss now?  My wife had been watching Glenn Beck's program on history's little known facts.  Although never a fan of Guevara, she had not realized just what a twisted murderer he was, and I caught the brunt of it.

In case you missed Glenn's show like I did, Nick Gillespie lays down the truth about The T Shirt Salesman to the Tards in his Reason Magazine article, Exorcising Che...

If his younger admirers study the historical Che--the one reputed to have declared "I feel my nostrils dilate savoring the acrid smell of gunpowder and blood of the enemy"--they will understand that Che's original influence was indeed tragic, not just for Cubans but for many others as well.

And they just might skip the farce phase, out of deference to the many victims of the butcher of La Cabaña.

My wife, reasonable woman she is, backed off, but I can tell she still doesn't like it.  The Che poster stays, as does the jacket from Noriega's defunct defense forces, the Argentinian Mauser and the Afghan Scimitar.

Want more truth about Che?  Humberto Fontova brings it in bloody black and white... 

From Quieting Corporations to Banning Books

President Obama is angry at the Supreme Court for upholding free speech

"the government maintained that the Constitution allows the government to ban distribution of books"

The Washington Post reminds us that the ACLU fought on the winning side of this decision.  Why?  Maybe it was the specter of government book banning.  Maybe this will convince the angry anti-corporatist liberals that there's more to this than meets the eye...

Implicit in its briefs but laid bare at oral argument, the government maintained that the Constitution allows the government to ban distribution of books over Amazon's Kindle; to prohibit a union from hiring a writer to author a book titled, "Why Working Americans Should Support the Obama Agenda"; and to prohibit Simon & Schuster from publishing, or Barnes & Noble from selling, a book containing even one line of advocacy for or against a candidate for public office.

As David Barry would say, "I am not making this up."
The Court said "no," and the only shocking thing about the decision is that the four liberal justices said "yes."
 
The next time you download a book on Kindle, buy a Michael Moore screed at Barnes & Noble, or order up a political movie from video on demand, remember that it is the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United that guarantees you the right to do so. (WSJ - Bradley A. Smith)

Modern-day legislation is an embarrassing congeries of capricious fiats and clawing usurpations.  The Supreme Court just knocked one down.  

Lady Liberty won this one, but we must remain vigilant.  The progressives' Long March will continue, this time with more louder propaganda!.

Steve Chapman also has good commentary on this

The Left's Invented Rights

It is easy to declare a new "right."  The challenge is paying for it.  For every "right" declared by an enlightened progressive, some other party has a duty to provide it

Consider the invented rights of modern-day leftists: 

Right to food, housing, healthcare, to violate internationally recognized borders, a "living wage" (whatever that is).

Now look at the rights mentioned by the founders: 

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, free press, free speech, free worship.  Even the Bill of Rights is not so much a list of what you are entitled to as it is a an admonishment to the Federal Government stating what it must refrain from doing to you.

Liberal "Rights" Cost Money, God-Given Ones Do Not

See the difference?  The founders did not draw up a contract that binds the government and taxpayers to give you anything.  Your government and your fellow man owe you nothing but to leave you alone to your lawful pursuits.  Your rights, given to you by God and guaranteed under the constitution, cost me nothing.

Liberals Have it Bass-Akwards (as usual)

Liberals have stood this concept upon its head:  Government must be left alone to do whatever it pleases in pursuit of what it thinks the populace needs.  Rights don't come from some invisible, unfair meany in the heavens, they come from government!

I'm tired of progressive do-gooders trying to erase every ill and wipe away every tear with my money.

If you want to guarantee those who refuse to work three squares and a roof over their heads, great!  Start a charity and collect voluntary contributions.  There are enough soft-headed people in this country that you could probably make a go of it.

Life's not fair!  I'll never make as much money playing the fiddle as Charlie Daniels

A good government doesn't guarantee you decent housing and a good job.  It provides an even playing field where you can go as far as your own efforts and initiative take you.  Picking favorites and wasting taxpayer money on chimeric programs narrows that field and fills it with potholes.

The referees are now tripping some players while pushing others over the goal line.

Salon - Economic Rights

Can We Please Start Letting Crises Go To Waste Again?

Will Wilkerson longs for the good old days when a crisis was just something to solve, not an excuse for another trillion dollar government enterprise.  He's really down on Former President Bush, but I agree with his larger point, which could simply be put as "Enough Already!"

The Aughts began in crisis when the second plane hit the second tower on Sept. 11, 2001.

The Bush administration, loath to let a serious crisis go to waste, managed to parlay the nation's alarm and credulity into an ill-conceived invasion of an entirely unrelated country, wasting over a trillion dollars and many tens of thousands of lives, all while losing control of the fight in Afghanistan and failing utterly to bring down Osama bin Laden.  (The Week - Will Wilkerson)

He accuses Obama of the same crime:

Bush's botched attempts to capitalize on crisis—the ugly aftermath to which Obama is heir—might have made an alert leader wary. But instead, Obama set up shop in the Oval Office and proceeded immediately to use crisis as (Emanuel's words again) "an opportunity to do things you'd think you could not do."  

Similarly, the Obama administration could have focused narrowly on getting the economy back on its feet, on getting the unemployed back to work, but it didn’t. Instead, it has followed Bush’s lead, pushing its most ardently desired policies through the window of crisis. A prolonged economic quagmire may be our reward.

A "Marriage of Incompetence and Craven Opportunism"

This marriage of incompetence and craven opportunism is so much in the familiar spirit of the age that one must conclude that the age itself remains unchanged.

Nostalgia for Bush

Critics foreign and domestic are suffering wistful nostalgia for the Cowboy from Texas

Love him or hate him, at least you knew where he stood.  Others may have quibbled over the moral standards he set, but at least the standards were clear.

Europe in a Dither
Why?  Because America is supposed to be the publicly reviled bad cop.  That scary cop who will beat the crap out of you when the ACLU lawyers ain't around, then deny it all in court. 

Our president is not supposed to run around the world coddling bad guys, cosying up to troublemakers and currying favor with emerging powers.  He's supposed to be brass knuckling the bad guys and taking public scoldings from finger-wagging Europeans who privately egg him on because they are too cowardly to take care of things themselves.

Castigate us publicly, but thank us privately, that's the dysfunctional dynamic between us and Europe.  Well, now the bad cop is playing global social worker while little Hugo and crazy Mahmoud go wilding on the Jews and threaten to burn down the neighborhood.

Democrats miss The Decider as well 
The object of their hatred gone, the nutroots turned on Obama.  Their pent-up anger simmered and seethed for almost a year, building like a swollen red pustule until finally it exploded all over their messiah.  Note to future saviors:  If you're gonna promise socialist salvation, you better bring it.

Dems actually have to govern now, and they answered the challenge by setting up a Soviet Style Politburo, but the wall is falling and the proletariat ain't cooperating.

Nature abhors a vacuum, and chaos loves ambiguity 
President Bush provided moral clarity.  President Obama promises hope and change.  The O is empty, and Virginia, New Jersey, and now Massachusetts are filling the void. 

BS may get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

Our Bloated Bureaucracy

It's not just the politicians, it's the government employees and their union-protected gold plated benefit plans.  Steve Greenhut details how government workers are cashing in at the expense of private sector tax payers.

Above Average Pay

According to a 2007 analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics by the Asbury Park Press, “the average federal worker made $59,864 in 2005, compared with the average salary of $40,505 in the private sector.” Across comparable jobs, the federal government paid higher salaries than the private sector three times out of four, the paper found.

Gold-Plated Pension Plan
Here is what is breaking the states:

Public pensions have swollen to unrecognizable proportions during the last decade. In June 2005, BusinessWeek reported that “more than 14 million public servants and 6 million retirees are owed $2.37 trillion by more than 2,000 different states, cities and agencies,” numbers that have risen since then.

State and local pension payouts, the magazine found, had increased 50 percent in just five years.

He goes on to detail how many pension plans allow a worker to retire at 50 after 30 years and collect 90% of final salary, or over $60,000/year. 

In contrast, an E-9 with 30 years in the military retires at around $55,000 annually.  But that is the top-end exception.  Less than 5% of enlisted folks retire that good.  Most get out at E-6 to E-8 with less than 30 years, so these men and women who risked their lives for their country are looking at $25K-$35K per year, or about half of what the average desk-bound bureaucrat gets.

Government employment has grown three times as fast as the general population

The United States had 2.3 state and local government employees per 100 citizens in 1946 and has 6.5 state and local government employees per 100 citizens now.

Government now consumes almost half of the national income

In 1947, Hodges writes, 78 percent of the national income went to the private sector, 16 percent to the federal sector, and 6 percent to the state and local government sector.

Now 54 percent of the economy is private, 28 percent goes to the feds, and 18 percent goes to state and local governments. The trend lines are ominous.

If you didn't just gasp, go back and read that again.  From 1947 to now, government payroll's share of national income has doubled from 22% to 46%!

Government is necessary, and it takes people to man it, but how much is too much?  I think we've passed that point.

Congress Shall Make No Law... Let Free Speech Ring!

 
Echoes of FDR in Obama's attack on the Supreme Court


Is anyone else besides me worn out listening to this constitutional ignoramus of a president rail against some God-given freedom or another?  

Despite what his slobbering lefty sycophants say, he's not a "constitutional scholar." He merely taught constitutional law at a college for a few years, so we can drop the fancy honorifics, especially in light of his bald constitutional ignorance

"This ruling opens the floodgates for an unlimited amount of special interest money into our democracy," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.

Unlimited Amount of Special Interest Money?  Has he looked around lately? 
He and his fellow hogs at the DC trough are wallowing in special interest money.  Mr. Obama is the All-Time Special Interest Money Gathering Champion.  His shakedown skills are unmatched!  

"It gives the special interest lobbyists new leverage to spend millions on advertising to persuade elected officials to vote their way -- or to punish those who don't. This ruling strikes at democracy itself," Obama said.

But it's OK when unions do it.  And a liberal press can sing the praises of a hope and change candidate all day long up to and through election day without incurring government wrath.  Your argument is BOGUS, Mr. President! 

Scrape the constitution off the sole of your $500 shoes and read the First Amendment!

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press...

What part of "Congress shall make no law" don't you understand? 
It says nothing of citizens or corporations or special interests.  Free speech is a God-given right and the constitution says government cannot abridge it. Maybe liberals are too stupid to think for themselves and must be protected from "dangerous" speech, but We the People are not.  

This is about Power and Control
Like FDR, Obama has a great progressive agenda he must advance in spite of the unenlightened simpletons standing in the way.  Like FDR, he is now excoriating the Supreme Court for daring to reassert a constitutionally-guaranteed right.  He wants the power to control who says what and when they can say it.  It's how they rig the game in their favor. 

Well, Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Kennedy, Alito, Scalia and Thomas just patched over the constitutional rat hole created by McCain-Feingold, Mr. President.  You and you progressives will have to find another way to undermine the foundation. 

Excerpts from Chief Justice Roberts:

"This careful consideration convinces me that Congress violates the First Amendment when it decrees that some speakers may not engage in political speech at election time, when it matters most."

Roberts warned: "The fact that the law currently grants a favored position to media corporations is no reason to overlook the danger inherent in accepting a theory that would allow government restrictions on their political speech."  (Source:  WaPo)

Here is the money quote:  

Roberts also pointed out that an exception in the McCain-Feingold law for media companies was "simply a matter of legislative grace."

A grace that congress has no right to grant, since they also have no right to take it away in the first place.   This is what liberals do.  They confiscate our freedoms and then dole them back out as favors for good behavior. 


Modern-day legislation is an embarrassing congeries of capricious fiats and clawing usurpations that cry to be knocked down.

The Supreme Court has ripped one board off of the creaking, rotten House That Progressivism Built.  That is why Obama and his followers are howling so loudly.  Time to grab hammers and crowbars and finish knocking the damned thing to the ground.

Love is Stubborn

I love it when women sing about their less-than-perfect men!  Maybe it reminds me of something. Hmmm... No, Mrs. Silverfiddle doesn't sing.

Saint Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13 that...

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 

Love is also stubborn.  Who else besides a spouse would put up with us?

Tracy Ullman is a creative genius.  I love this video from the 80's.  It is kitschy, heartwarming, funny and brilliant...

The Dog Ate Barack's Homework

It is alarming when the Federal Government becomes so intellectually bereft that they start stealing excuses from my kids (I didn't get my homework done because the computer's too old!)

From The Hill:

A big reason why the government is inefficient and ineffective is because Washington has outdated technology, with federal workers having better computers at home than in the office.

This startling admission came Thursday from Peter Orszag, who manages the federal bureaucracy for President Barack Obama. (The Hill)

What's next? Spokesmouth Gibbs coming out and saying the president had a jobs plan but a conservative dog ate his homework?

Oops! The Himalayas Aren't Really Melting After All...

The Global Warming Fraud Continues to Unravel

The scary Himalayan glacier prediction (all melted by 2035!) was not based upon any scientific study, but someone's very unscientific interpretation of a telephone interview.

As Gomer Pyle would say, Surprise!  Surprise! Surprise!

Excerpts from Times Online:

A WARNING that climate change will melt most of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035 is likely to be retracted after a series of scientific blunders by the United Nations body that issued it.

In the past few days the scientists behind the warning have admitted that it was based on a news story in the New Scientist, a popular science journal, published eight years before the IPCC's 2007 report.


It has also emerged that the New Scientist report was itself based on a short telephone interview with Syed Hasnain, a little-known Indian scientist then based at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.

Hasnain has since admitted that the claim was "speculation" and was not supported by any formal research.

For more information, follow the links below:
Google Search
Times Online
Watts Up With That

I Went to My First Political Event!

As most of you know, I am a career military man, recently retired.  I don't mention it too much because I wasn't a hero or anything like that.  Having been in the Air Force my entire adult life, I had always avoided political events.

Well, I'm a private citizen now, so I put on my ostrich skin boots, American eagle bolo tie, and with the sexy Mrs. Silverfiddle on my arm, I went to a candidate's forum featuring Republican US Senate hopefuls Jane Norton and Ken Buck.

Buck is the underdog, but I came away a fan after initially leaning towards Norton because she is the establishment candidate with Reagan administration and Lieutenant Governor experience.  Nothing against Jane.  If she beats Ken in the March Caucus I'm voting for her, and the praise I heap on Ken Buck is no way is a slap at her.  The only bad thing I can say about her is she sounded "canned," like a well-polished politician, while Buck had a more sincere and populist patina.   

Ken Buck for US Senator from Colorado

Ken Buck's unrehearsed but articulate and candid manner really impressed me. I got to look him in the eye and shake his hand as we discussed the ACLU and La Raza attacks against him for going after illegal aliens involved in identity theft.  He's a sincere man with a populist streak.  Here are some random thoughts from the evening:

The woman sitting next to my wife announced that she recently abandoned the Democratic party!  We welcomed her warmly into the Republican Party bosom as a church would welcome a reformed drunk.

The Moderator Led Off With Two Of My Questions!

Amy, the ResistNet District Coordinator for our congressional district, was the moderator, and she started off by asking the candidates two of my questions!  One concerned the 9th and 10th Amendments to the constitution, and the other invited their views on Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution, specifically the enumerated powers and how broadly the candidates interpreted the interstate commerce and the general welfare clause.

Both candidates gave good answers, but Buck specifically mentioned housing and schools as issues the federal government should not be involved in.

Mr. Buck also spoke eloquently of avoiding foreign entanglements, citing George Washington.  No more ambiguous congressional kinda sorta approvals of some type of presidential action.  Declare specific objectives, get the troops in and then bring them home.  No more endless commitments.

To hearty applause, he gently poked at John McCain as one of the Senators he would not be seeking out.  Jim DeMint and Dr. Tom Coburn are more his style.

He stated flatly that George Bush spent too much and grew government too much (more applause), and then added on that Barack Obama is expanding upon this madness at a frightening pace (applause increased).

I could hear echoes of pre-17th Amendment days in his vow to meet with Colorado's state representatives at least quarterly to get feedback on how federal policy was affecting the state.

The evening was capped off  by the exciting announcement that Scott Brown had been declared the winner in the Massachusetts senate race.

I urge each of you to get involved in politics in your state and congressional district. 

The Lib Grip is Slipping

Congratulations to Senator Scott Brown (REPUBLICAN! from Massachusetts) !

Liberals everywhere are curled up in a shivering, blubbering little ball in the darkened corners of their stinky dens...  This is the beginning of the end for them.  God Bless America, (and I never thought I'd be saying this)  God Bless Massachusetts!

More Reasons for Conservative Optimism

More Americans than ever before identify themselves as Conservative

The Telegraph, a British paper, has published its annual lists of "Most Influential Liberals" and Most Influential Conservatives."

Our Top 20 is Better Than Their Top 20

The Liberal Top 20
The liberal list is peppered with dynastic repeat names people have grown weary of (Obamas, Clintons), flash in the pan lightweights who will be forgotten in a few years (Napolitano, Geithner) and tired old political hacks (Axelrod, Gore, Emanual, Frank, Kerry, Pelosi).  This is not a young, hip list.  It is an old, entrenched, creaky, stodgy list.  Liberals are so yesterday...

The Conservative List
The conservative top 7 is dominated not by elected officials, but articulate media figures.  Liberals continue to scream about these people, but they're not running for anything!  And they provide a brilliant counterweight to the Hollywood-MSM-Liberal DC axis of progressive evil:

1-7 
Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge, Sarah Palin, Robert Gates, Glenn Beck, Roger Ailes

8-20
Has some clunkers that we've been trying to trade in:  George W. Bush, John McCain,  Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee. 

But the top 20 is also full of future promise
David Petraeus, Paul Ryan, Tim Pawlenty, Eric Cantor, Mike Pence, Bob McDonnell.  There are no comparable figures on the left.

Democrats are driving a clapped-out, backwards-looking, one-size-fits-all, statist agenda. They are fueled by taxpayer money and constitutional ignorance, both of which are in diminishing supply.

The Conservative Agenda of the Young Guns is a small-government, constitutional one.  It is about liberty and a brighter future unencumbered by tangles of progressive we-say-so regulations and bloated debt.

 We've got the youth, the mojo and the ideas.  The future looks bright.

No Honor Among Liberal Thieves

"They're in the bank, they've got their guns out. They can run outside with no money, or they can stick it out, go through the gunfight, and get away with the money."
-- A Democratic operative describing why liberal lawmakers continue pushing the unpopular, pork-laden, bribe tainted health care bill

Gangs of DC

Sitting down with a lawyer buddy of mine over Sunday morning biscuits and gravy, he remarked that the most important thing to remember if you're going to pull off a robbery is to wear a mask.  It's surprising how many criminals are too stupid or too brazen to follow that simple rule.

The next most important thing is to remember that your fellow thieves will give you up in a heartbeat to save their own skin.

Dems are turning on one another

It is with a smug and giddy glee that conservatives watch the dems run like scaled dogs from the electorate, and those left behind are turning on one another like the criminals they are.

Uber Liberal Robert Kuttner is mad as hell that the whole health care issue, like a failed bank robbery, has gone south for the Dems.  He goes after Rahm Emanuel with knives drawn in his HuffPo Piece.

So, how did Democrats get saddled with this bill? Begin with Rahm Emanuel. The White House chief of staff, who was once Bill Clinton's political director, drew three lessons from the defeat of Clinton-care. All three were wrong.

As a resident of Massachusetts, in the last two days I've gotten robo calls from Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Martha Coakley, and Angela Menino, the wife of Boston's mayor -- everyone but the sainted Ted Kennedy.

In Obama's call, he advised me that he needed Martha Coakley in the Senate, "because I'm fighting to curb the abuses of a health insurance industry that routinely denies care."

Let's see, would that be the same insurance industry that Rahm was cutting inside deals with all spring and summer? The same insurance industry that spent tens of millions on TV spots backing Obama's bill as sensible reform?

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  Sit back and pop open a beer, 2010 looks to be an entertaining year...

Cruise Ships Dock at Haitian Ports

While Port-au-Prince is a heart-rending scene of death and destruction, tourists are dining beach side on rich fare and fruity cocktails on the other end of the island.

No, this isn't a sick joke...

Sixty miles from Haiti's devastated earthquake zone, luxury liners dock at private beaches where passengers enjoy jetski rides, parasailing and rum cocktails delivered to their hammocks.

The 4,370-berth Independence of the Seas, owned by Royal Caribbean International, disembarked at the heavily guarded resort of Labadee on the north coast on Friday; a second cruise ship, the 3,100-passenger Navigator of the Seas is due to dock. (Guardian)

This brings up a moral dilemma:

The decision to go ahead with the visit has divided passengers. The ships carry some food aid, and the cruise line has pledged to donate all proceeds from the visit to help stricken Haitians.

But many passengers will stay aboard when they dock; one said he was "sickened".

"I just can't see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water," one passenger wrote on the Cruise Critic internet forum.

But you can sit on a luxury liner and do it?

Another passenger goes even deeper:

"It was hard enough to sit and eat a picnic lunch at Labadee before the quake, knowing how many Haitians were starving," said another. "I can't imagine having to choke down a burger there now.''

It's hard on the guilty conscience, but they still do it.  Now, it's not just the grinding poverty that plays on the minds of the vacationing revelers, but dead people stacked up like cord wood.  

They paid good money for this? 

"Friday's call in Labadee went well," said Royal Caribbean. "Everything was open, as usual. The guests were very happy to hear that 100% of the proceeds from the call at Labadee would be donated to the relief effort."

Yes, it all went well.  No desperate Haitians scaled the resort's 12-foot walls demanding food and water from the sunning vacationers.

"In the end, Labadee is critical to Haiti's recovery; hundreds of people rely on Labadee for their livelihood," said John Weis, vice-president. "In our conversations with the UN special envoy of the government of Haiti, Leslie Voltaire, he notes that Haiti will benefit from the revenues that are generated from each call

We firewall ourselves off from so much human misery, in our own cities and in faraway lands.  Every now and the the wall is breached and we come full face with humanity in crisis. 

You can take a vacation from reality, but reality is still there...

Do you miss Bush yet?

-- Hugh Farnham

Demonizing Constitutionalists in the Military

Every year those of us in the military get herded into a large room and then preached to about "Workplace Relations". I simultaneously hate and yet look forward to these meetings. Hate, because it takes time out of my valuable workday. Love, because I can skewer these politically correct freaks in uniform in front of their peers.

This year's theme was - you guessed it - extremist conservatives!

The briefer took heavily from Morris Dee's Southern Poverty Law Center materials to show neo-nazis behind every bush... then dipped her brush in that and began to paint constitutionalists and conservatives with broad strokes.

The message between the lines was that if you actively participated in conservative / constitutional groups your supervisor might watch you like a hawk.

No mention of La Raza, or of extremist Muslim groups (didn't a couple of those guys go unhinged recently, one on a military base??!!)

This isn't the first time the Administration has painted protesters as enemies. Last year the military Counter-Terrorism training had protesters as possible enemies. Let's see, who were the major protesters last year? Tea Parties, anyone?

The Southern Poverty Law Center has about as much truth as ITAR-Pravda, and so I confronted the briefer on her source of the data. You should have seen the anger in this poor E-6. It was like I told her a joke about the Virgin Mary in church.

What happened next gives me hope about our Republic. Several military members chimed in, bringing up "So you are talking about racist organizations - where's La Raza in your slides?" And sarcastically, "What about George Washington - that terrorist!"

In Eastern Europe the Communists didn't take all the dissenters and load them up to Siberia. They were a bit more subtle, having learned from the mass purges in Russia years before.

The Marxists had community organizers that hosted local talk-groups (much like workplace relations) where the crowd was salted with loyal Communists. The whole idea was to present the feeling that everyone was on board with the progressive changes which were happening, so that those who would normally speak up were left to feel they were the only ones in the meeting who disagreed - and therefore did not speak up.

I kick that in the crotch every time I go to these meetings and encourage you to do as well. Be a stand-up American!

-- Hugh Farnham

Love and Haiti

Scenes from Haiti
Machete wielding gangs fighting in the streets, corrupt and dysfunctional government, looting, people starving to death, rampant disease and dysentery...  And that's on a good day before the quake hit!  The earthquake just magnified X10 that poor country's squalor. 

Large Role Seen for US in Haiti
We need to get in there, stabilize it, and get out.  We can't get control of corrupt, dysfunctional crime-ridden areas like Chicago, LA or Detroit; what makes us think we can do any better on foreign soil?

In the case of Haiti, we have a chance to pause and consider before jumping in with another long-term troop presence.  The UN has a mission there, with Brazil playing an admirable lead role, and armies of charities and aid organization are permanently stationed there.  Once things have stabilized, we need to pull the troops out.

Where's France?
They jacked the joint up in the first place, turning it into a Caribbean slave colony back in the 1700's.  Haitians speak French as well as the local Creole dialect, so France should be taking the lead here in rebuilding, providing aid on the ground and in accepting refugees. 

Undocumented Democrats
Heimatlandsicherheit Kommissar Janet Napoleonitano just granted de facto asylum to 80,000  Haitians who are here illegally, giving them visas and work permits for 18 months.  We know the "18 months" part is a joke.  These people are never going home again.  Would you if you were in their shoes? They are home now.

Here come the boat people
Only those here before the quake are eligible for the visas, and our government has warned people to not try to come here in boats.  Yeah right.  We've just triggered a new flotilla of misery heading for the shores of Florida.  They're undocumented, so how do you prove when they arrived? 

Prediction:  This will become a racial issue

You can't help people more than they want to help themselves, and you can't want it more than they themselves want it.  I encourage everyone to give money to charities helping Haitians.   It will alleviate suffering and feed people.  But don't expect their broken society to heal until Haitians themselves pull it together.  Nobody can do it for them.

US "Safety Valve" is Immoral
Immigrants pouring into the US robs poor countries of the young, the strong, and the smart ones who are full of initiative.  Liberals think this is humane?  What about those too poor, too feeble or too old to make the trip north?  

Our safety valve does Satan's work by providing comfort to selfish ruling oligarchies who are uninterested in building a just society within their borders.   For a more detailed discussion of this, see Killer Compassion.

Neologisms for 2010

I love The People's Cube!

They've got a list of new words for 2010.  Here are a few:

Dimprovement: A bad, dimwitted improvement that isn't better, often worse. (Can you say New Coke, Vista operating system or nationalized health care?)

Preachable Momement: pompous blather masquerading as wisdom

Changle: a con game where the mark is duped into believing some condition has changed when it hasn't (see "hopeable")

Hopeable: susceptible to false or unfounded hopes; idealistically gullible 

Go there and have an officially-approved laugh, comrade!

America Rising

Republicans screwed up big time, ballooning the deficit and ignoring the constitution just like Democrats, so we threw them out of power.  Americans got a taste of unvarnished liberalism, and we don't like it.

This video is good...

US INTERVENTION UNJUSTIFIED

US INTERVENTION IN WWI, WWII, DEEMED UNJUSTIFIED

A secret US Congressional committee that has been meeting since 2 September 1945 has determined that US intervention on behalf of Europe in both WWI and WWII was completely and utterly unjustifed and in violation of international law.

US returns Austria, Sudetenland, Bohemia, Moravia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Yugoslavia, Crete, Libya, and Egypt to Germany, as well as apologizing and returning Albania to Italy.

The US State Department released a statement that given the illegality of US actions in Europe and the subsequent illegality of the Dutch Parliament, the findings of the Dutch Committee of Inquiry on Iraq was quite frankly irrelevant and it was waiting to hear what the Third Reich thought.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8453305.stm

Also quite frankly, the Dutch can go pound sand!

~Finntann~

Global Warming, Free Health Care, and Other Liberal Fantasies

Liberal Belief in Fairy Tales is not Limited to Global Warming

Liberals live in a fantasy bubble where all us conservatives are lowbrow wife beaters or slack-jawed hicks with tobacco juice dribbling down our chins.  We're uneducated and superstitious; just look at how many of us go to church!  Meanwhile, enlightened liberals constitute America's cognoscenti and intelligentsia.

Well, Michael Graham has written a brilliant article that bursts that irrational bubble.

If you thought the “fire never melted steel” crowd was nuts, check out the new study from the bipartisan Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

They find that liberals and Democrats are far more likely to believe in ghosts, psychic powers and astrology than their conservative/Republican counterparts.

About 50 percent more Democrats than Republicans say they have spoken to the dead.  Or as it’s known at Democratic Party headquarters, “voter outreach.”

He goes on to catalog Obama and Dems talking out of both sides of their mouths:  Speechifying about deficit reduction while ballooning the deficit, saying "no more earmarks" while passing bills that contain thousands of them, laughable claims of slashing medicare spending while adding more people to the program...

He concludes:

Even if their math is right today, who is naive enough to believe this trillion-dollar government program will come in on budget?

I know people who believe in leprechauns who aren’t that gullible.

This would explain why the Democrat politicians want to treat us all like children.  They think we're all as naive as their liberal democratic constituents.

Uncontrolled Immigration Upsets Societies

** CAUTION:  Unhinged DeviledEgg Rant! **  

The west has grown slack, and the vandals are dismantling our culture...

Anti-Immigration anger got out of hand in southern Italy, as all situations do when governments fail to carry out their responsibilities.  While we should condemn the (relatively tame) violence in Southern Italy (BB Guns were the weapons used), can't we also open our eyes and see the logical progression that led up to this lamentable event?

Unbridled Immigration is a Recipe for Disaster!

Cultures do clash.  The wider the cultural differences, the bigger the clash. I respect Pope Benedict's defense of immigrants.  We must defend their human rights, and any violence against them is way out of line and should be criminally prosecuted.

But where is the respect for the host country, its laws and the cultural norms of its citizens?  It's not a fundamental human right to breach borders and upset the traditional order.  Immigrant invasions end up satisfying no one, producing cultural strife and anger on all sides. 

Welcome to the 7th Century!

Unassimilable bigots have brought us honor killings, cartoonist menacing, and enraged rantings over religious slights that Christians and Jews simply shrug off on a daily basis.  Their criminal treatment of women leaves the average American male chauvinist pig blushing with inadequacy.

Are we supposed to passively stand by as our cultural rug is pulled out from under our feet?  Hell No!

A Nation has a Right to Set its Own Immigration Policy

It is not a fundamental human right to invade my country, and it is not racist or bigoted to pick and choose who comes in.  It's self preservation.  If you're foaming at the mouth and hate our freedoms, you can't come in!

Our refusal to do our own dirty work contributes greatly to this problem
Real welfare reform would see those on the dole doing jobs "Americans just won't do."  Take away the food stamps, and hunger will become a great motivator.  Also, there was a time when college kids did farm work and bussed tables to pay for their education instead of daddy and Uncle Sam going into hock to pick up their tab...

Uncle Sam in Your Attic

Liberal screamed about government being "In our bedrooms" during the Reagan years.  Well, now we have Obama and Biden in our attics 

"Insulation is sexy," said the president.  Oh, yeah?  Obama has never gotten within 10 feet of the stuff, let alone installed any of it in a sweaty, cramped attic.  He has no idea what it's like to be itching your ass off for weeks on end afterwards...

Democrats:  Lobotomizing Americans one Government Program at a Time

Anyway, according to VP Biden, Americans are just too stupid or too broke to embark on home improvement.  Here are the barriers to weatherization he cites in his report, "Recovery Through Retrofit" [PDF].:

Consumers do not have access to straightforward and reliable information on home energy retrofits

Has he heard of the Internet?  A previous Vice President invented it.  You can look up products and research their prices and energy efficiency ratings.

Homeowners face high upfront costs and many are concerned that they will be prevented from recouping the value of their investment if they choose to sell their home. The upfront costs of home retrofit projects are often beyond the average homeowner’s budget.

No duh...  This is a calculus every homeowner must make.  If you're selling your house, you don't blow money on upgrades that provide no return.

Home Ownership is not for the Stupid
Home improvements are not cheap, so you save up for those big projects, or do it a little at a time.  I spent one year replacing all the windows at the old Silverfiddle homestead.  Every payday I bought one window and installed it because we couldn't afford to do it all at once.

Are there really that many homeowners so stupid they need Obama and Biden to take them by the hand?  If so, they have no business owning a home.

Tea Party: A Genuine Small Government, Free Market Movement

Tunku Trumpets Tea Parties

Tunku Varadarajan provides an heroic defense of the Tea party movement, while dissecting the psychology of those on the left and right who sneer at the movement.

His article is a thing of beauty.  Go read it, memorize it, copy it and distribute it.  This man has summed up our sentiments better than any DC GOPer ever could.

Is the Tea Party Movement anti-elitist, as the critics charge? 
Yes, Tunku concludes, but what's wrong with that?  Especially when the elitists have made such an abysmal wreck of everything (Wall Street, Washington), while arrogantly maintaining an air of superiority?

Big Business is not Synonymous with Capitalism or the Free Market

Yes, the populists fear and hate the big businesses and Wall Street; but—and this is the heartening thing—they have not let this turn them against capitalism and the free market.

They seem truly to have taken in the point, long emphasized by libertarians and others, that big business is not the same thing as capitalism or the free market, that it is in fact often their enemy.

Perhaps the Obama administration has finally driven this point home, as it has been an object lesson in how the party of big government is really in bed with big business, giving it all the bailouts and favors.

A Genuine Anti-Big Business, Anti-Big Government, Free-Market Party

So by this reckoning, the Tea Parties would be a very serious development in which anti-big business forces would finally join with anti-big government forces to create a genuine free-market party that would maximize the opportunities of the little guy.

God bless Tunku Varadarajan and let freedom ring!

Time for US to Butt Out

Yemen Intervention Would be a Fool's Errand
Marc Lynch, who is no conservative, has written an excellent article on Yemen that I wholeheartedly agree with.  Unlike the thumb-sucking bedwetters at the Guardian, he provides reasons for his opposition to any US intervention in that Hell's half acre at the ass-end of the Arabian peninsula.

No Easy Answers
There are no easy answers to the problems infesting our globe's many intractable hot spots.  Yemen looks like another situation where an oppressive, decrepit regime will invite us in to do its dirty work, while we think we're fighting for freedom.  They paint their enemies as "terrorists" and unleash the awesome American firepower against them.  

Lynch warns against both military intervention and development assistance.  The former would be a quagmire and the latter would be sucked up by greedy, corrupt officials.  He posits that no realistic option offers even an outside chance of success, so we should simply manage the situation as it suits our national interests. 

Marc Lynch's Conclusion:

It's never as satisfying as a morally pure call to battle, but the administration shouldn't over-react or under-react.

Be patient, build intelligence and CT assets, strike against clearly AQ targets when available but only where the civilian costs will be minimal and the rewards high, search out local partners... the usual.

But the administration shouldn't fall into the trap of thinking it must "do something" to fend off political harping from the right and end up over-committing... or taking steps which ultimately make the situation worse.

Amen!  And ditto for Iran   
I pray we are covertly funneling millions to the Iranian opposition, but we should not send one American soldier or bomb.

Bring Iraq to a good end (and they are on their way in a land where Saudi Arabia or Turkey is considered "good").  Bring Afghanistan to an acceptable end, and assiduously avoid future "big footprint" operations like the money-wasting plagues that they are. 

Middle East:  The World's Nuthouse
These people have been bombing, shooting and stabbing and stoning one another since time immemorial, what makes us think that we can change them?  If we merely stay out of the way, they will start attacking each other over ancient, still simmering feuds instead of going after us.  Remember the charnel house that was the 10-year Iran-Iraq War?


Europe, Saudi and the rest of you who no longer share our values, you're on your own!

And while we're at it, we need to fold up the Western European security umbrella as well.  Time for our cousins across the pond to man up and learn to live without the bossy hyperpower on their backs all the time.

Sounds isolationist, but I'm not.  We just need to pick our battles wisely.  Too often we've been suckered into petty parochial struggles where the craftiest side was able to demonize the other, wrongly rousing Uncle Sam's sense of righteousness, always with unintended consequences.  Israel is the only country in that region worth fighting for, and they can take care of themselves.

No Happy Endings
Everything can't be tied up neatly with a nice bow on top.  Poverty and violence abound in most of the world (what Thomas P.M. Barnett calls The Gap).  Some societies do not cohere well because of the nature of the people, the terrain, lack of resources, whatever.  These fractious conditions spawn congenitally weak governments...

"... where every man is Enemy to every man... And the life of man [is], solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."  -- Thomas Hobbes

Real Conservatives Heed Washington's Admonition Against Foreign Entanglements

A forgotten component of traditional conservatism is wariness towards foreign entanglements.  That doesn't mean withdraw from the world; it means don't get suckered into the internal affairs of other countries, and don't get sucked into fights between warring factions.

And this isn't a "be nice so the bed people will start liking us" argument.  Bad people will always hate us because we stand for good.  We should reserve the right to unapologetically smack them at the time and place of our choosing based on our national interests, not some foreign power.