The GOP – Who Owes Who?

The presidential election is a mess. Often, the election rhetoric is full of charges of false conservatism and allegations that non-Trump supporters are Hillary supporters. At times, it must rely on fatally flawed logic. Trump’s supporters, lacking substantive (and consistent) merits to praise, must rely on assumption, distraction, and name-calling. Alternating between anger, fear, and a complete lack of self-preservation, the GOP has backed Trump.

Somewhere, there may be a political ledger with the balances of each camp, I think a more intriguing investigation is who owes who support, or their votes. The want of loyalty by Trump supporters for their man grows tedious – but why should that be? They would claim conservatives owe our votes to the Republican candidate. Critical thought and principles, need not attach to the equation.

Image from thepoliticalinsider.com

What has happened to the simple action of heading to the ballot box, and pulling the lever for the Republican? When did this cease to be a viable reaction for voters? Was Trump in the wrong place at the wrong time? Was there actually a tipping point – a spot where voters dug their heels in, and said, “No – you move”?

We should reflect over the past ten years to gain perspective leading up to this moment. We could go further back, and use Bob Dole’s candidacy as a starting point, but I’ll start with John Boehner. Boehner, seeing his support erode in the House, sought to punish detractors. He removed “non-loyal” conservatives from House Committees where they could force fiscal responsibility. Representatives Tim Huelskamp, Justin Amash, and David Schweikert lost their committee positions. Conservatives raged, and said the GOP would pay.

GOP stalwarts like John McCain and Mitch McConnell often fought with conservatives. McCain called Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, “Wacko birds”. Mitch McConnell ran against a Tea Party candidate, and Trump donated to McConnell. And again, conservatives railed, and said the GOP would pay.

Donald Trump used friends in media, like the National Enquirer, to smear primary opponents. Unfounded rumors, ties to assassination, and marital infidelities were all used to tarnish opponents’ reputations. Those actions, echoed by his supporters, will only hinder promising candidates in future elections. Given an opportunity to walk back those claims, Trump refused, and said the Enquirer, “does have credibility“. And conservatives, knowing what kind of effect this would have in the future with those candidates targeted, knew an apology was due.

The GOP’s past actions, along with their steadfast support of Trump, has irritated conservatives. The final straw was Trump’s claim that, he doesn’t need conservative votes. And it was then, the conservatives finally realized they had a belief in common with Trump. And they had something that they would grant him.

Now, there is a history of the GOP taking conservatives for granted, and the GOP has spent as much political capital as they dare. Spending most, if not all of it, on big government types and otherwise non viable candidates. This election was finally where conservatives said, “No more”. Having spent, borrowed, begged, and promised – the GOP finds its base turning them away.

The idiom goes, “It’s easy to find a stick to beat a dog”, and the GOP and their recent leftward wandering candidates have no problem with sticks. But, they neglected to notice that the dog they beat isn’t chained – and it can simply walk away. And conservatives have.

An exodus from the GOP has boosted libertarian numbers, as conservatives now find more common ground with them. The conservatives perhaps see an ability to work together and build something with libertarians, where the GOP only needs their conservatives every four years. This leper-treatment by the GOP has no blame to lie at any place other than at their own feet.

For its taking, and never giving, its continual leftward march, and for its rejection of principles and critical thought. It is becoming clear that the GOP does not think it needs its conservatives, and having waged war against them, they may find it exceedingly hard to recover them. The GOP owes much to its conservatives -but to now demand their votes  while Donald Trump as the titular head of the party? It is a loan too far. And conservatives should consider the debts already owed to them as unrecoverable.

Joe Biden Goes to Kindergarten

CHICAGO (MU News) — Earlier Monday, Vice President Joe Biden visited a school in suburban Chicago, and spent the day with a kindergarten class. While the visit was originally scheduled to be a brief stop, at the opening of the year-round Bill Clinton School for Wayward Tots, VP Biden ended up spending the entire day with the children. Biden stayed so long, in fact, that he was nearly late for a dinner reception with business leaders and Chicago-area community organizers.

Joe Biden’s new favorite classroom

What kinds of trouble did Biden cause on his “educational field trip” today? Read the rest of the almost-news report here at: The Constitution Club

Russell’s Rules vs. Today’s Government Rule

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

This week, on Openculture.com, I stumbled onto a reference of a Bertrand Russell column from 1951. In the New York Times Magazine article, Russell shared his “10 Commandments for a Healthy Democracy”. Now, dismissing for a moment whether he was a classical liberal, a neo-liberal, an English liberal, or American liberal, I would like to allow the commandments to stand on their own.

I propose to take Russell’s rules, and use them to give a simple zero to two grading scale for each of the majorities in the houses of Congress, and for the President and his administration. Along with the grades, I will also list the most significant reasons for assigning the grades that I have. At the end, I will tally the scores, and reveal who has been the most misguided, and most ignorant when it came to Russell’s advice. So, here is Russell’s commandments vs. the United States government’s behavior.

Read the entire piece here, on Conservative Daily News:
“Russell’s Rules vs. Today’s Government Rule“

Thank You, America

(This post is written primarily with the goodie-receiving, hook-line-and-sinker, Obama voter. With that being said, I hope the people who didn’t vote for him think differently after reading too.)

Uncle Sam has work to do…

Thank you, America. You have made it abundantly clear to this blogger, that the America we read about in books, the “Shining City on a Hill”, is no more. What happened? Well, with last night’s doubling down on the most unprepared, ill-mannered, and financially irresponsible president ever, we as a country, continue to move into uncharted territory. You have sought to receive something for nothing, America, and many of us realize that those positions and beliefs are completely untenable. Everything we receive from government is paid for – usually at an astronomical mark-up. And you would like more.

You simply cannot continuously bleed a source, and government’s been a very sick patient for a while now. You might remember not too long ago, the government needed another debt-ceiling raise. The debt ceiling was raised again, as the Republicans in Congress signed off, rather than risk a government shut down. (The media told us it is for the best) We cannot have the government shut down – soldiers and old people would be placed in bad situations. Is this why you actually believe the right is irresponsible? Is that why you think they politic too much – that they sought to slow or stop the unsustainable growth of government, rather than just keep spending like the left?

In your drive to keep up with the Joneses’ (who live next door, and receive the same goodies and Obama-phones as you do), did you really think that the president gave a damn about you? Didn’t it seem awfully convenient of him to turn the charm on again – after four years of non-stop whining and golf? I know, I know, “he seems like the kind of guy you might have a beer with,” right? I wonder if he also struck you as a guy who would pick your pocket and steal gas from your car?

You have your phones, you have your EBT cards, and now, with the election wins last night, you seem to have it all. I wish you the best of luck with it all. The government is perilously close to a financial cliff, and when the benefits (shiny trinkets) you prize so much stop arriving in the mail – who will you blame? The government of Barack Obama, who promised you the moon? Or, because you are his supporter, and that it could not possibly be him (and you) that made such poor decisions – will you move onto another boogeyman?

The refrain from voters, such as yourselves, is that we will just soak the rich – just tax the hell out of them, and they will happily sit there and take it, right? It’s not like they have the money to pick up and move, right? Your problems are many and your solutions are absent. The solutions that you think you have come up with, will not have much effect at all of keeping your goodie-train rolling. Last evening, you sought fit to abandon the best chance we had at seriously reforming the spending mentality of this government, only to continue with more of the back-breaking regulations and taxing-and-spending of the Obama administration. Basing your vote on your stomach (EBTs), your ears (Obama-phones), or lady-parts (the bogus contraceptives debate), in casting the votes you did last night, you probably did more to end those programs than Mitt Romney ever could have, and you have probably greatly sped it up too. Basing the Obama “goodies-math” on false numbers and projections that are not even close to where actual numbers are right now, will have results that become apparent soon enough.

I cannot say I am really that shocked, that such shallow and self-centered folks would vote this way – after all, who cares about the neighbors, so long as your checks keep coming, right? The easy amused sort do not shock me either – their lack of foresight is no as well. So, go back to your couches (or graves) whichever the case may be, and live in the moment, from goodie to goodie. You have cast the die…

The Nonsense Nobel Winner

Paul Krugman

I found Friday’s Op-Ed column in the New York Times, by Nobel Prize winner in economics, Paul Krugman, both misleading and trite. While I do not know how much he might be paid for this column, he makes the case this week that he is overpaid, no matter the amount. He has used his personal soap box in this column, repeatedly to attack what he believes are Mitt Romney’s beliefs, impugns the GOP’s belief in small business creators and owners, and repeats the progressives’ favorite lie, that the GOP just does not care about the common-man, the middle class in America.

Krugman mentions the newly released video of Mitt Romney, where Romney says that 47 percent of the country is now “unreachable”. Romney says he is not interested even trying to reach 47 percent of voters, not because they are middle-class working stiffs, as Krugman would have you believe, but because that 47 percent have already decided who they are voting for. There are 47 percent of people who buy into the Obama message of dependence and victim-hood. To Romney, it would be a matter of wasting time and resources, going after a demographic that simply is not interested in Romney’s philosophy. Perhaps that is a novel concept – getting a good return on an investment – for progressives, having seen the past three years of waste after waste perpetrated on the American people by Democrats, while they swear that any time now the economy will sputter to life once again.

Krugman goes on to say the GOP should think better of the 47 percent, setting up a false dichotomy – that either the GOP should love them, as the left does, or that the GOP hates them. To Krugman, there are no other options. I find it funny, though, that the left’s love for them means giving them healthcare bill that saddles them with a crippling new tax, and that will necessarily raise their insurance premiums by allowing their children to remain on the parents’ policies until age 26. The left are also the ones that think a lifetime dependent on the government is a wonderful thing. That is a warped type of love…

Krugman goes on to bemoan a tweet by House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, on Labor Day. Krugman’s issue is that Cantor praised people who took chances to build their own businesses, and did not quite give organized labor the due deference Krugman thought it should receive on “its day”. The horrendous tweet Krugman named?

“Today, we celebrate those who have taken a risk, worked hard, built a business and earned their own success.”

— Eric Cantor (@GOPLeader) September 3, 2012

That is pretty terrible. Eric Cantor had the gall to compliment people who have worked hard, and built their own businesses — and he did it on Labor Day, too! Doing far more damage was Krugman’s pointing it out, and then warping what Cantor meant, to fit into Krugman’s own purpose. Krugman found fault with Romney’s RNC speech too – the mortal sin? Romney never once said the word, “worker”! Obama, in contrast, said “worker” many times, Krugman tells us – and apparently that, and not the actual effects of policy mean something to Krugman.

Krugman also took Romney to task for his opinion about immigrants. Romney said in his remarks that immigrants have come to America “…in pursuit of ‘freedom to build a business’.” Krugman criticizes Romney for not mentioning the workers again. So, according to Krugman, unless Romney mentions them, he cannot stand them – again, another false dichotomy.

Eventually, Krugman stumbles onto a decent point, but then he becomes guilty of drawing a false conclusion from it. He blames big money for the Republican’s “disdain for workers”. He claims that the big money has “bought” the entire right-wing, and are now running it as they please. Krugman goes on to blame also Ayn Rand and adherents to her philosophy. It is the owners and operators of businesses, Krugman tells us, who are all responsible for economic activity.

While Krugman spews forth many points, and many things that he considers self-evident “facts”, he is off base most of the time, and even when he approaches what might be considered a cogent point, he seems to swerve suddenly back into the left-wing weeds. He does little more than attack Mitt Romney with false issues (citing Romney’s lack of mentioning a group as some sort of failing or sign that he hates the unsaid group). At other times, Krugman projects the actions of the left onto the right (big money buying sway? I wonder if Krugman’s ever heard of George Soros?) Finally, Krugman tries to tie the whole column together with the hackneyed point that the entire right-wing has become a party of wealthy, non-thinking, idiotic, drones – if that is not projection, I do not know what is.

The inane Op-ed column can be read here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/opinion/krugman-disdain-for-workers.html

The Administration Of Death

Barack Obama

While I recognize that the title seems hyperbolic, I aim to make the case that the Obama administration runs the most anti-life, and pro-death, government that the United States has ever had. I think the government’s last three-plus years, have given rise to the most lackadaisical support of life, we have ever seen. Many times, over and over again, we have seen the president and his sycophants either endorse death, or attempt to excuse away the death of others, both innocents and people who have lost their lives as a direct result of the administration’s policies.

One of the most flagrant disregards for the ultimate sacrifice of others, was the slap in the face delivered to some fallen soldiers’ families. As Commander-in-Chief, and the person who has the ultimate say on military matters, one might think that having a soldier under your command lose their life, one of the very least things you could do would be sign a condolence letter to the soldiers’ families. Not Obama. He has repeatedly been shown to use an auto-pen for form letters of condolence to soldiers’ families.

Obama has also authorized, and carried out, the assassination of an American citizen by drone. Granted, the assassinated had aided and abetted terrorists, but he was still an American citizen, with the supposed rights of a trial by his peers, and due process. Whether or not Obama actually felt bound by these rights, seemed not to matter – he sent the drones anyway, and gave the go ahead to kill, without trial. A step, with which even Salon, taken aback, actually said was a “…step beyond where even George Bush would go”.

Should I bring up the “Fast & Furious” scandal, which the administration is still hoping will somehow, just, go away? Giving his testimony before Congress, Attorney General Eric Holder, bluntly refused to apologize to or to even acknowledge, slain border agent, Brian Terry’s family. As he sat before the House Judiciary Committee, wriggling and struggling for words that would somehow allow him to tell the truth, and avoid any blame, Holder was given an opportunity to provide documents and evidence to the Committee, which it had requested for months, and he repeatedly offered nothing. Even though memos and other documents implicated Holder and his lieutenants in the scandal, instead of finally taking responsibility for the thousands of Mexican deaths and the death of  Brian Terry – Holder merely offered excuses.
Sidenote: Holder’s testimony was in the late Spring of 2012, and as of late Summer 2012, there still has not been an apology or acknowledgment of responsibility over the failed gun running operation.

We were witness to one of the most recent, and telling examples of this seeming pre-occupation with death,  at the Democratic National Convention. A party platform that relished the thought and promise of widespread, and easy, on-demand abortion was center-stage. While some pundits tried to defend this with the thought that, “Well, the democrats have no record to run on, and the economy is atrocious – let the Democrats turn to social issues…” And so, from all the social issues that the Democrats could have turned to, and supported – from the poor, the homeless, bettering care for returning veterans – the Democrats turned to the snuffing out of lives to build their platform. A spokeswoman from NARAL (Nancy Keenan), Planned Parenthood, and the infamous Sandra Fluke, were only a few of the participants at the DNC, proud to trot out the “right to” abortion, masquerading as a human-right. Maybe we should have expected this when a president who supported infanticide won the last election?

Finally, in the newest flirtation in the left’s macabre and twisted relationship with death, awareness was given to the administration of a threat against embassies and consulates in the Middle East. Approaching the anniversary of September 11th, and with warning of Muslim backlash against a movie about their Prophet – despite as long as a 48-hour window of warning – the Obama Administration did nothing. Rumors of unarmed and massively under-gunned security at the American facilities fell on deaf ears, and  led to the deaths of an ambassador (and his body’s subsequent desecration) and deaths of numerous other personnel. Despite the raising of an Arabic-language flag, espousing the aims of the Muslim Brotherhood, over an American embassy in Egypt, and the taking down, ripping apart, and burning of the Stars and Stripes, the administration still insists on continued billions of dollars in aid to the Egyptian government. Obama has issued an apology to anyone upset by Americans exercising their right to free speech, and the American media, still in love with the Obama administration, sought to excoriate Mitt Romney for issuing a presidential statement that Obama would not, or could not, bring himself to issue. A muted response has been the administration’s reaction to spreading violence and breeches at other embassies and consulates. In Libya, the post where murdered ambassador Chris Stevens lost his life, Obama has dispatched the Marines – 50 of them…This, as news sources report an angry crowd of hundreds threatening the American embassy in Yemen, and as warnings go out to other embassies to remain on guard.

So, what should we make of all this? Ordering an executive “hit” on an American citizen, an attempt to excuse away a federal agent’s death without taking any responsibility, a platform leaning heavily on abortion for support, and a very weak response to deaths of State Department personnel – it all points, to this author, to an administration that simply does not value life. This administration seems to use, squelch, or squander lives for whatever purpose, then toss them aside with their roles fulfilled. Life is nothing more than a means to achieve any number of ends. Use it for political gain, use it for votes, use it to send a message to our friends (or our enemies) – it does not really matter what the aim is, because there will always be more life to continuously throw at the problems. It is all so macabre and counter to everything we as Americans value, isn’t it? History books and our teachers tell us American men and women fought noble wars, and freed people from oppressive regimes, so that they could follow their own destinies and achieve what they could. Freed people from oppressive regimes, would no longer would have to worry that their lives would be used up or wasted by regimes who wanted the oppressed people’s’ blood and sweat for their own greedy and destructive purposes. Risking American lives, and losing so many, was ultimately worth it, so that others might enjoy the sanctity of life and personal freedoms that we Americans held in such high esteem. Now, it seems like such a sad day to see so much blood and destruction being wastefully used, for so little to show for it.

Third Time’s A Charm

In a stunning, and perhaps, ultimately fatal decision, for the Democratic party, a vote was held at the Democratic National Convention. The vote was simple, only consisting of two amendments to the party platform.

Amendment 1

We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values, and interests of working people, and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.

Amendment 2

Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel. The parties have agreed that Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations. It should remain an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths.

Amazingly, after calling for the first voice-vote, the chair, a stunned Antonio Villaraigosa, heard the amount of “no’s”, and sensing the fallout from a negative vote, actually uttered the words, “Let me do that again…” After the second vote, on the same issues, with the same negative vote, he began to look around anxiously, as though he was looking for another Democratic politician to coming running onstage to save him. The sponsor of the amendments, former Ohio governor, Ted Strickland, began to look around anxiously as well. Amazingly, a third vote was then held. An overwhelming amount of “no’s” were once again heard from the Democratic delegates. In the attached video, angry delegates, having voiced their disapproval three times, and finding themselves ignored, were left to shake their heads and boo, as Villaraigosa, claimed the motion passed by its required 2/3 majority.

Antonio Villaraigosa, and the infamous third vote

While politicians and pundits on the right, frequently mention the administration’s lack of support for Israel, to have seen such a flagrant display as we did this afternoon, was shocking – and I suspect not only to those of us on the right, but judging by his response, to Villaraigosa as well. The lack of support, or even a willingness to acknowledge God, was shocking as well. With so many speakers and guests at the DNC, seemingly supportive of a pro-abortion stance, should this really surprise anyone?

Perhaps, the overwhelming takeaway from these three votes, was the fact that the Democrats were so willing to blatantly called the vote as they wanted it to go – not as it did. After the claims of fraud and Black Panther voter-intimidation in the last presidential election, and even more recent events of the finding of 30,000 dead “voters” in North Carolina, and the Obama administration/Justice Department fighting Florida’s attempt to clean voter rolls, you might think that Democrats would be willing to try to rebuild their image, into something that is more respectable, and into something that resembles what the party was in its glory days. Or, do Democrats just not care about playing by any rules anymore? Are they content to just throw away even a semblance of fairness and the notion of considering any ideas differing with their own? With such flagrant and wanton disregard for rules of order and bulldozer-like tactics, will other Democrats seek to attach themselves to such a machine, that is bound to quickly burnout, or will they see the errors, and cut themselves loose, seeking ideals closer to their own, elsewhere?

(the video of the Democratic delegates’ votes can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8BwqzzqcDs via ABCNews and YouTube)

The Left: Vetting For Thee, Not For Me

In a total surprise of yet more media slant, early this week, a Politico blogger by the name Maggie Haberman (@maggiepolitico on Twitter), decided to run background checks on a gentleman featured in a Mitt Romney campaign ad! That is correct – the man was not a money donor or bundler, he merely appeared in an ad. That is the only tie he seems to have to Romney. While some people may think, so what, the guy agreed to appear in the ad, so he gets the fame with the fallout, right? The issue I have is that now instead of trying to show the candidates’ ethics and morality guided by  their long-term associations with unrepentant domestic terrorists, that they actually cultivated into close friendships (think Bill Ayers and Barack Obama), the left now the left sees a new tactic to use against candidates.

The left has never seemed to have any ethical hangups about jumping into the business of personal destruction, and the past few years have shown us a couple of good examples. With the aforementioned case with Politico, the “journalist” seemed to relish in the fact the man had a criminal history. The man paid his debt to society and had been a good, law-abiding citizen since the events, but the left saw him tied to Mitt Romney, and so, the man was a fair target for the snarling left’s destruction machine.

This all comes after revelation that the White House’s “Truth Team” shared information on eight donators to the Romney campaign. The men all seemed to have little else in common than donating to the campaign. But, as mentioned before, they showed themselves  allied with Romney, and rather than tackle Romney’s message or even dispute their own shortcomings, the left tries to intimidate those who would participate in the democratic process. Is this just another sign that the Obama campaign is in an un-savable nose-dive? The left cannot see the revulsion people feel, seeing under-handed acts like this?

Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher

This type of targeting is not the first time the left combed through a private citizen’s past, either. In 2008, Joe Wurzelbacher asked then candidate, Barack Obama, if he believed people were entitled to the fruits of their labor. One embarrassing reply from the candidate later, and the Head of Ohio’s Department of Jobs and Family Services authorized an improper search of Wurzelbacher’s history of unemployment records and child support records. Helen E. Jones-Kelley earned a suspension as a result of the inappropriate inquiries.  She was also later reprimanded for using her state email address to solicit donations for the Obama presidential campaign. A Toledo Police Department computer account had also been used to complete a search of Wurzelbacher’s driving history – an action which triggered another investigation.

The governor of the state of Ohio at the time was a Democrat – Ted Strickland, and Toledo is a liberal bastion, presently in Democrat Marcy Kaptur’s Congressional district. I am not saying that the left is the sole monopolizer of this type of destructive dredging up of past misdeeds, presently paid for, but – if the right had done this – the likes of MSNBC and Politico would be going apoplectic trying to “report’ on it. Perhaps instead of running background checks on political opponents and their supporters, Democrats could put those skills to better use vetting their own candidates – then perhaps the nation would not be able to laugh at their choices, like Kwame Kilpatrick, Gary Hart, and Eliot Spitzer.

Political Machination and the Middle Class

When I mention the “Middle Class”, I would suspect most Americans immediately think, “Hey, that’s me!”, and they pay attention. However, it is an over-used, hackneyed phrase in politics. Whenever a politician wants instantly to grab attention of the American populace, they bring up the “Middle Class”. Since it is usually used by politicians in a “threatened-species” manner, the Middle Class members sit up straight, and listen intently. The Upper Class pays attention, because they are out numbered by the Middle Class (and despite what some people claim, more votes certainly do still count). The Lower Class pays attention because they see the Middle Class as the destination that they are struggling to earn their way into. Politicians, belonging to a class all their own, notice these behavioral tendencies of the three main groups, and smell opportunity.

The government is NOT Robin Hood!

For the politicians to use the knee-jerk reaction of the Lower Class, I find their methods very insidious. Usually, what the politicians will do is tell the L.C. that their “gravy train”, their government-granted entitlements, or any other government-dolled goodies are in dire jeopardy because of the actions of the filthy rich. While this will not cause as large a reaction, because the L.C. is less mobile and likely to show up at their Congressman’s office. Anytime someone is given something, and then they are told it is threatened – watch the anger at losing that entitlement explode.

For the politicians to use the reaction of the Upper Class, they can threaten that the M.C. will push for higher wages or take a larger part of the Uppers Class’s wealth in any other number of ways. The U.C., then finding themselves threatened may decide to react by using their money and friendships in Washington to affect change in their favors. Most recently, I think that the more common method of trying to keep goodwill is for the constituents to offer to pay higher taxes (knowing that it will never come to that).  I find it interesting to think that a class so often seen as miserly and “above-it-all”, still seems to be so easily swayed by this type of rhetoric.

The dirty trick is, according to where the politicians put their measuring sticks, the Middle Class could be made to be any group. From an income of $30,000 up to $120,000? You are Middle Class. From $28,000 to $150,000? Boom – you are Middle Class. It is all about political expediency. The politicians constantly play fast and loose with rules, regulations, and our money, so why should their rhetoric be any different? If there is a political point to be made, or some “points” to be earned for their next election, they will paint you in any shade that they need to, to make their point (or to engage fully in their fear-mongering). The Middle Class has to be the most bandied-about segment of America.

These methods of politicians to get various classes to argue and fight with one another, while the politicians get away with murder, creates this huge positive feedback loop. Costs increase with every promise and entitlement given. While it seems to have been this way as long as this blogger can remember, I do not expect it to change (especially since blowing that class-dog-whistle works so well). The government has given goodies to pry support from certain groups, and now it is nearly impossible to reduce it. They need constantly to keep money flowing, while others, seeing these sweet deals, want their “fair share” too. Ever-increasing funds are needed as more and more people join the rolls. Where is it supposed to all come from? Sometimes, I wonder how much a little critical thought is worth – well politicians are attempting to figure that out for us all.

(This post took me forever, due primarily to the fact I started Tweeting, and that’s like Internet crack. I told those responsible that they’d be noted as my distractions): @tamale102280, @iteabellsingers, and @apologyispolicy
They’re good people – follow ’em if you don’t already!

Your Government’s Using You

In the past few years, we have seen an American government swing drastically to one direction. Then the winners  mistake that election for a mandate (instead of the rejection of the neo-conservative-right that it was), ram-rod legislation through the one-party Congress, and then see their own party’s even larger rejection, in the process, losing control of Congress. It is like the American electorate has a sudden schizophrenic temperament, swinging wildly from one political ideology to another. Is the electorate like a top, wobbling one direction and another, looking for a fine balance of both parties? If people are actually looking for some “fine-line” between the parties, then why is there so much angry rhetoric and complaining when we are told a compromise is in the works, and that it will benefit everyone?

In the preceding three years, this country has seen massive amounts of capital expended for saving this industry or that company. A few trillion here, and a couple of hundred billion there – pretty soon, it is real money (or so the saying goes). All the while, this administration continually tells us Americans, that the millionaires have too much money – far more than they will ever need, and that the government would  better utilize that money. The same government who squanders billions on uncompetitive solar panel companies, run by friendly money-bundlers would use the money better than the owners of it, who will either loan it to banks (as CDs or other accounts) or spend it, thereby stimulating the economy with said purchase.

Recently, instead of merely wasting public funds, we have seen the government and politicians actually committing and supporting other illegal acts. From going to war without consulting Congress, to trading on inside information (which amounts to stealing from other stockholders who do not have the same access to information), to strongly supporting the Occupy Wall Street trespassing and violence. The Occupy Los Angeles Occupiers were reported to have had plans to use violent bombs and other weapons against the police force, but the mayor finally reacted, and police cleaned up the camps. In a twist of irony, the politicians would have us believe that using non-lethal pepper-spray is akin to slaughtering those protesters, who were warned repeatedly if they did not move, the spraying would occur. Free speech is not without responsibility, and neither is any action.

Racist! (and other baseless dog whistles)

I believe that the continuously broadcast line by government, that Americans are being somewhat subjugated and “used” by big, bad corporations may be true in some instances (check the still growing MF Global scandal)– but the people pointing the fingers are far worse than any of their boogeymen. “It is the bankers and stock traders who are stealing – they are making tons of money, and they are holding America down while they do it”, we are fed daily. It is an everyday occurrence, and must be continually reinforced, or the sheeple may begin to question the rhetoric and think critically once again, ruining the carefully laid plans. What a perfect set-up the politicians have created, eh? Simultaneously, they: create a problem, identify and offer “solutions” to the problem, all while pointing to the creator of the problem as everyone but themselves. The politicians have even aligned themselves with various social interest groups (under the guise of “grassroots” movements and concerns for group members) to continually, reinforce the lies. Government causes the problems, government identifies the problems, but whoa – government certainly are not the ones to blame for the same problems!

This continual reinforcement of the incendiary rhetoric is not without costs. The Occupy movement has seen hundreds of protesters arrested, property has been trashed, defaced, and ruined — all because of what amounts to baseless finger-pointing. The politicians have failed at nearly every task that they are supposed to accomplish (is anyone wondering where budgets for the past 2-3 years are? They are somewhere in the black hole that is the Harry Reid-led Senate). Americans are not stupid, but when they are constantly told that something is not “fair”, and that somehow they are being forced to do more work than the Joneses – well, we cannot have that, can we? Everyone must pay their “fair share” as the code-words call for. What better way for politicians to “cash in” on a generation that grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, that is frequently referred to as the “me generation”? Of course, tell them that someone has more than they, and that they could have it so much easier if someone else could make it all even. You cannot incessantly stoke a movement with violent, unfounded rhetoric, and expect that you can also shut it down effortlessly.

The fact remains whether or not the democratic party can still control the greed- and unfairness-driven masses that they have created. In my eyes, it is very comparable to Dr. Frankenstein’s monster – once he was turned loose, he was uncontrollable. In cities where mayors finally chased away the Occupiers, the crowds vowed that they would return. So, where does the country move from here? Will the spring thaw also see the rebirth of the Occupy Movement? Will politicians see the errors of their ways?

Insider Trading; Not for the Hoi Polloi

I made HOW MUCH from that tip?! Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

So, beginning with a CBS, 60 Minutes exposé this past Sunday evening, politicians began scrambling to attempt to explain their habit of using inside information to make themselves rich. So far, the biggest names involved are: former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel, Senator Diane Feinstein, current Speaker of the House, John Boehner, and Representative Spencer Bachus. While the posts held by Pelosi and Emmanuel seem to lend the most leverage to playing the market unfairly, Bachus finds himself being held accountable by his own party. His seeming lack of knowledge of the stock market evaporated after he joined the House of Representatives.

Got a hot tip on how a new law’s fine print may affect a company, or how companies may benefit from pending legislation? Call your broker. While you are a member of the U.S. Congress, unbelievably, there is no rule against profiting. CBS.com notes, “Out of 975 federal entities, Congress and the Supreme Court are the only two that have no rules or laws prohibiting them from trading securities based on nonpublic information.” Things that have gotten traders on Wall Street hauled into jail, mean nothing to legislators in the United States. Raj Rajaratnam must be banging his head on his desk, knowing that he could have beat his insider trading case, if only he had run and won a Congressional seat first. For his efforts, Rajaratnam is estimated to have made somewhere around $19.7 million.

A simple trader, found guilty of insider trading. Serving an 11-year prison sentence.

The massive amount of backlash against these practices has lead to Rick Perry producing a new advertisement saying legislators guilty of these practices should be thrown into jail. Senators Scott Brown(R-MA) and Kristin Gillibrand (D-NY) have introduced legislation to prevent Congressman from partaking of the money-making activities. The “Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge” or STOCK Act of 2011, will be introduced today. It bars not only legislative members from profiting on their inside knowledge, but executive employees as well. That would apply to the former Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel, who made a bundle dumping Fannie Mae stock before the agency crashed and burned during the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

It is far from a partisan issue – everybody, it seems, is taking advantage of the inside info. Spencer Bachus is said to have shorted the market in 2008, just as the entire market fall hard. Andrew Breitbart has both lead the charge, calling for Bachus’ resignation, and closely monitored ongoing information about all the indicated, enriched legislators. Senator Feinstein invested $1 million in a biotech start-up, shortly before the company received a $24 million government grant. The following year, the company held an IPO where they netted $85 million.

Even putting stocks into a blind trust may not be enough of a bulwark against trading on privileged information – all a legislator would have to do is call up the holder of the securities, and tip-toe around subject matter that would affect the portfolio. A sort of “wink-wink, nudge-nudge”, buy or sell signal. Plausible deniability would be the order of the day. In the past, there has been legislation introduced in the House of Representatives attempting to ban Congressional insider trading. It never received more than 14 supporters.

Where, Oh, Where Has The Leadership Gone?

As I sit here, somewhat stuck for a reason to write a post this week, and bemoan the fact our “leaders” in Washington D.C. act so completely inept, I heard an update on the administration’s plan to release an additional $5.5 billion by this time tomorrow, to “green” companies (H/T CNBC). This, despite the previous fiasco with California solar panel manufacturer, Solyndra. The administration continues to spend massive amounts of taxpayer capital as what amounts to venture capital. Of course, as more detail comes out on how the deals and loan rearrangements for Solyndra were handled, it has become apparent that venture capitalists would not have been so careless with funds that were their own. This continued path of carelessness and ineptitude has this blogger wondering – is this administration really that clueless, that they would double down over again on failed policy, not realizing what was happening, all the while building a case for their naysayers to claim there was crony capitalism at play? Or, more frighteningly, the administration does know what is going on, yet does not care?

Examples of Missing Leadership?

Examples of the missing leadership of this administration grow by the day. In my mind, the first failure was failure to seize on the groundswell of the “Green Revolution” in Iran – the president waited and waited. Given the best opportunity the United States has had in some 30 years to press for Iranian regime change, and our president does nothing. The president waited so long to even issue a statement for the Egyptian uprising, that when he did, it amounted to little more than lip service. He refuses to reconsider any of his failed policies, and seems to want to double down on most. He is the poorest example of “out of sight, out of mind” we have ever seen in the Oval Office.

With leaders like these, who needs enemies?

He finally decided to commit NATO aircraft to the Libyan cause after Gaddafi threatened to blow up Tripoli and resist any threat to his despotic regime. While this seems like the president has finally made a tough decision to commit military power where he thought it was needed, in doing so, it resulted in two serious consequences: he broke the War Powers Act, having not gotten Congressional approval for the military action. Another, very serious problem, is that some 20,000 missiles may be missing from Libyan stockpiles. These missiles are the ground-to-air variety, that can be used to bring down passenger aircraft by terrorists, or perhaps even converted for use as IEDs in other theaters.

As a result of the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms’ “Operation Fast & Furious”, one Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was gunned down in Mexico, and a United States Border Agent was gunned down in Arizona. The brilliant idea behind the plan was to arm Mexican drug and gun smugglers, and then somehow track those guns via serial number. As of today, the only actions taken against the implicated parties in the administration have been some resignations, and reshuffling of the same personnel responsible for this plan. When Congress (Darrell Issa) tried to obtain documents to investigate the scandal, they were redacted to the point of appearing like a piece of black construction paper.

Finally, the president continually touted the benefits of green technologies, and how it would build the future, and raise us out of the economic downturn we are in. After being closely connected to the principal private investor of Solyndra, and even holding a press conference at the factory, he has high-tailed it away from ties to the company. Perhaps even more telling, is that he has now chosen a completely different tack, and is touting petroleum and chemical based solutions – that is, paving new roads (with asphalt and tars, of course), and rebuilding bridges (with various weatherproofing chemicals/paints).

With all this occurring, the president now attacks his own base – “Take your slippers off…put your boots on…”, and for their part, they attacked him back (Maxine Waters said she did not know who he was talking to). It seems like the left is bordering on mutiny, and it’s little surprise to me. After all, they have been without a leader of any sort for nearly three years now…

America’s Illogical Left

While the debt ceiling talks roll on, in the summer of America’s discontent, the left continues to suffer from serious cases of nonsense and double talk.  The various news sources do their best to put a positive spin on the impasse, continually assuring us that the parties involved are very close to a deal, only to have holes shot into their reports by John Boehner, who claims the president’s proposal and his own are light-years from agreement.  One side says that they simply must have tax increases to fund liabilities, or else Social Security check delivery cannot be assured (which I believe is nothing more than an easily checked, and debunked lie).  The left threatens that soldiers may not receive their pay or receive vital weapons and equipment they need.  The list goes on and on.  I am beginning to think democrats actually believe that if it weren’t for their presence in the chambers of Congress, the sun may not rise in the east one morning…It’s amazing to what lengths they are stretching rhetoric and rationality when they cannot get their way or get Americans to believe them.

Various left wing pundits have taken to using particularly vicious and vindictive slurs and attacks.  Whether it’s MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, Martin Bashir, or Keith Olbermann, the left seems all too willing to just say, “Hey, the hell with intelligent discourse – we on the left got nothin’, so let’s jump into the mud!”  Name calling and ad hominem attacks now seem to be the left’s standard operating procedure.  Targeting private citizens also seems to have become a tactic that they enjoy using – favorite targets include people like: Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin (who has still not entered the presidential race), the favorite boogeymen of left – the Koch brothers.  Apparently, targeting the people who they merely identify as threats somehow makes it alright to use the distasteful and disgusting methods that they do.

David Plouffe, advisor to the president, recently went as far as claiming that Americans will not vote one way or another based on the economy.  I will go as far as giving him credit that his belief may have worked in the 2008 presidential election (when the ambiguous “Hope & Change” ruled the day), but I doubt democrats will be able to spin fast enough to use tactics like those ever again.  Two years of empty promise and a pattern of disappointing results has killed the mantra “Hope & Change,” and it will be retired in infamy and disgust.  I wonder just what Plouffe and others believe will lead Americans to vote for the president’s re-election?  They should hope the electors either have poor short-term memories, or have been living in a cave for the past two years.

"Now, people when I say that look at me and say, 'What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt? The answer is yes, that's what I'm telling you."

The left’s nonsensical and indefensible positions on many issues run contrary to what most Americans thought they would ever see.  Things as simple as cutting spending to make the federal budget more tenable do not even seem to be subject to rational thought anymore.  Joe Biden famously claimed the way into the mess, is the same as the way out.  I know, I know – what?  To me, the lowly, typical, American idiot that the left must simplify things for, this is tantamount to shooting someone to cure their gunshot wound.  This type of belief and behavior seem to be endemic of the entire left.

I shudder when I think about the burgeoning scandal that the Attorney General Eric Holder and A.T.F. has committed.  Again, it’s the same rationale as Vice President Biden used: the way into the mess is the same as the way out.  Guns, purported to be bought from gun dealers and other sellers in the United States, were being smuggled into Mexico, for use by any number of warring Mexican drug cartels.  So, to stem the tide of guns into Mexico, did the Justice Department think it was smart to enforce gun regulations already on the books?  Of course not, it thought it was far wiser to start its own program of smuggling guns out of the United States and into Mexico, and tracking them via serial numbers, to find their exchange vectors.  Never mind that technology would allow them to implant tracking bugs into the stocks or other parts of the guns, or more significantly – that the whole plan is insanely difficult to complete and seemingly carelessly administered, they went ahead, and carried it out, self-assured of its brilliance.  Instead of learning of the tracks of the guns, they have found them all over the southwest, both in the United States and Mexico, and they have managed to get numerous United States agents killed.  It worries me if this program was thought to be a great idea – what in God’s name are they executing now, and how bad will the black eye it gives to America look?

Regarding the deficit and budget, and how “tough” we are told it is to do…

“A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.” – Groucho Marx
Huh, a five year understands when they run out of money, they cannot spend any more. It speaks volumes about the brain power in Washington D.C., doesn’t it?