Yearly Archives: 2009

Media, Politics

aSide Order

Pelosi attacks CIA, claims it deceives Congress

Today marks a high point for the Obama administration and the ‘war on terror,’ as I still refer to it. Today House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said in a public statement that the CIA misleads Congress. She said this in trying to lie her way out of having any knowledge of waterboarding being used. It’s a defense we’ve all heard before. They lied. Or he lied. bla bla bla

Way to go Madam Speaker. You don’t know how much of a morale boost that gave the agency. After trying to ruin the careers of anyone who ever worked in the Bush administration that had anything to do with waterboarding, including the CIA, I’m sure they are saying right now, ‘thank you, may I have another.’

If President Obama is the Commander in Chief that he took the oath to be, he better make a statement in support of the intelligence agency, unequivocally.

Her accusation is preposterous, and provable no matter how she spins it. She’s a lying fool that needs to pass the gavel to Steny Hoyer (D-MD).

Speaking of Nancy Pelosi, this video will at least make you laugh.

The case for closed primaries

Who doesn’t like the idea of republicans nominating Republicans? KOS writer Markos Moulitsas, that’s who. Writing about Gov. Crist’s chances in winning the Senate seat of retiring Mel Martinez, Moulitsas says . . .

That is, if he makes it out of his primary. Like Pennsylvania, Florida’s primary is closed, giving the state’s conservative activists an outsized voice in determining their nominee. And like Pennsylvania’s Specter, Crist is seen as an apostate for supporting and campaigning for President Obama’s stimulus bill.

I happen to agree with his assessment that Crist becoming Senator isn’t a sure thing. People with memories saw him vote for the Obama Porkulus Bill and talk out of two sides of his mouth when it comes to oil and Florida. What they see is another Arlen Specter, only younger.

The downright fear that Markos holds for people who are conservative is worth noting. It’s not Republicans, it’s conservatives. Obviously, he prefers allowing democrats to have a say in who republicans choose to represent them. John McCain couldn’t have done it without them and the media behind him. It confirms my theory that conservatism is the antidote to liberalism.

If conservatism is dead, like the Left likes to claim, then what’s all the hostility and fear? A good rule of thumb about liberals is this, when they start attacking you and not your ideas, you know your are effective.  It is cause to make a conservative feel proud.

Politics

End Is Near For Social Security

News Flash! ‘Social Security’ is running out of money. A better example of an oxymoron cannot be made when it comes to ‘Social Security.’ And Wall Street is not to blame. The blame lies in the robber barons on Capitol Hill.

For years, the Social Security trust fund has taken in more than it spent on benefits, resulting in a cushion of billions of dollars that the government could spend on other programs while giving the trust fund an IOU.

Emphasis added. Notice the assumption that spending money from your retirement fund is OK because, hey, you’re not retired yet. You don’t need it now. In the private sector, its called a felony. Now the biggest Ponzi scheme in the world is about to collapse. The fact that the Johnson administration was taking retirement money from individual citizens didn’t seem to bother anyone.

It was in the Johnson administration in the 60’s that politicians thought it was a shame that they couldn’t use that money for things like his ‘Great Society.’ And the Great Society got us Medicare, Medicaid, and the War (without an exit plan) on Poverty.  Since then, politicians in both parties became drunk on spending from this big pot of gold which is now almost empty. It provided the seed money to greatly expand government programs and entitlement programs to levels that would, long term, be unsustainable on their own.

Warnings that this time would come have been sounded by economists and The elephant in the room.conservatives for years. Efforts to reform Social Security, to reverse the trend  to insolvency, fell on deaf ears during the 16 years of Clinton and Bush. The spineless in Washington lack the will to fix it as it was originally intended to be.

But have no fear. The good news is President Obama doesn’t think it is a problem. Have you heard him or his teleprompter say that the Social Security system needs fixing yet? In fact, the bad news coming out today about Social Security is playing right into his hands.

There is no need to try to save Social Security. Individualism, the very concept of saving for your own future, is so last century. President Obama’s fix for Social Security is to simply continue nationalizing those industries that the country depends on. Soon, the news of collapse will be so intense that America will look to him to save us from peril. Enter Barack Obama and his teleprompter, and Americans will succumb to Obama’s new and improved socialist America. Of course he won’t call it that. But that’s what we’ll get.

Trying to save the Constitution and this country as we know it is just too much work when half the population, Washington, and the media no longer take it seriously.  That’s the way it seems after continuing barrages of bad economic news.  It is Rahm Emanual’s ‘rule one‘ on steroids. Taking advantage of a crisis is one thing. Prolonging chaos to keep the crisis going to advance an agenda is quite another.

link: Annual report due for Social Security and Medicare

Media, Politics, War On Terror

Democrat Leaders On Waterboarding, Is It Enough?

More specifically, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va) were briefed on the extreme interrogation technique. Back then, it was fine. In fact, they wanted to know if there was anything more they could do to break the terrorists to give up information. Today it’s a different story. Today it is torture. Something we need to investigate.

For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA’s overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.

Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.

“The briefer was specifically asked if the methods were tough enough,” said a U.S. official who witnessed the exchange.

Now, the Obama administration is in a quandary. Their far left base is still calling for the heads of Bush and Cheney.  How to investigate the Bush administration over waterboarding at GITMO without including leaders of his own party?

The media didn’t make much of it then either.

Organized Labor, Politics

Chicago Politics Spreads To Washington

2 Comments

President of the United States Barack Obama, is engineering his fix for Chrysler, another ‘private’ corporation. The ‘fix’ is giving a 55% majority ownership of the company to the United Auto Workers union by putting the labor union AHEAD of secured creditors in a ‘White House’ recovery plan. Secured creditors are people and companies who invested in Chrysler, and likely part of someone’s 401k. Under bankruptcy, the secured creditors are always FIRST on the list to recover what they can.

But that is not what happened.  What happened is Obama publicly chastised the few creditors that did not want to go along, and used his Chicago-style political tactics on them to play along with his bankruptcy plan.

A leading bankruptcy attorney representing hedge funds and money managers told ABC News Saturday that Steve Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration’s Auto Industry Task Force, threatened one of the firms, an investment bank, that if it continued to oppose the administration’s Chrysler bankruptcy plan, the White House would use the White House press corps to destroy its reputation.

Obama did prevail, ending up with them settling for 29 cents on the dollar out of $6.8 billion owned by Chrysler. The labor union that invested zero dollars into the company gets 55% ownership, and the investors get 29%.

Returning the nation’s wealth to its rightful owners. It is what he campaigned on.

Update 5/7/09: I’m just dying to call this The Lunch Counter effect, but I won’t. Rush’s podcast from yesterday echos the point.

related links:

Media, Pensacola, Politics

Media Doesn't Care About The Constitution Either

7 Comments

I had a discussion with a local columnist, Reginald T. Dogan, over my amazement at the silence from the media in how our President is running roughshod over the U.S. Constitution.

Here’s the premise. The election is over, and what we are seeing is the fastest slide from freedom and free-market capitalism in history. Through legislation, this administration has trashed the very documents it is sworn to protect and defend. In less than 100 days, President Obama (the Constitutional lawyer) has managed to re-write the Constitution without laying a pen on it.

My question to him was simple. How can the administration be doing all of this with NOT ONE question from the media as to whether it is constitutional?

His answer was just as simple. He said, ‘nobody cares about the Constitution.’ To which I said, EXACTLY. After 233 years of constitutional government, this shift to expand government control by this administration isn’t news?

Surely the media sees this, likes it, and thinks nothing else of it. It’s Journalistic malpractice to watch this happen while half the country is either unaware or does not care. Whether they’re all idiots doesn’t matter. What should matter to the media, which has special protection under the Constitution, is to inform the people what this administration is doing, and to put it in the context of the last 233 years of our history. Not the last 100 days. Unfortunately for America, this shift to socialism isn’t Obama’s fix for our economic troubles. It is his plan.

Since ‘nobody cares about the Constitution’ any more, do you think the media would mind losing the constitutional protections given it?

related links: Obama’s First 100 Days | No Conflict Of Interest For Obama

NewsBustedTV

NewsBusted TV, 5/01/09

NewsBusted is a comedy webcast about the news of the day.

Topics in today’s show:

  • — The public reacts to President Obama releasing CIA memos on interrogation
  • — John Kerry wants to bailout newspapers
  • — Scientists now claim that fat people are a cause of global warming
  • — Susan Boyle receives praise far and wide

Starring: Jodi Miller
Director: Bruce Roundtower
Executive Producer: Matthew Sheffield

MRIOTD, Politics

Specter Ends Charade, To Join Democrats

It was a long time coming. Way too long. But Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) said he is joining the D’s. To which I say, good. It’s about time. Now Pennsylvania can elect a republican who will vote like one.

The fact that Specter is running 15% behind his republican challenger doesn’t have anything to do with it. Right. He claims the republican party has moved too far to the right and has left him.

That explanation qualifies for the winner of the Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day award. Today’s MRIOTD goes to Sen. Arlen Specter (Rino-PA)

The political consequence of this move means that, when Al Franken gets seated, Democrats would have a filibuster proof Senate and they can get everything they want without needing a single vote from the other side.

And that’s a good thing for Republicans. By the time 2012 comes around, Americans will have a better look at the change they got.

Economy, MRIOTD, Organized Labor, Politics

aSide Order

President Examines His 100 Days Himself

Tomorrow completes President Obama’s first 100 days in office. What happens on that day is that the news media focuses on his performance for those 100 days. Except for tomorrow. Tomorrow Barack is going to take care of this assessment and do it himself. He requested prime-time hours from the TV networks to put on his own campaign speech, and FOX is the only network that isn’t bending over.


President Delivers Chrysler To The UAW

GM Chairman (or is it BM Chairman?) and President of the United States Barack Obama, is engineering his fix for Chrysler. Another ‘private’ corporation. The fix is the quid pro quo for their unwavering financial support, giving majority ownership of the company, 55%, to the United Auto Workers union by putting the labor union AHEAD of secured creditors. Secured creditors are people who invested in the company. Under bankruptcy, the secured creditors are always FIRST on the list to recover what they can.

But that is not what happened.  And this is why the Obama administration doesn’t want them to declare bankruptcy. What happened is Obama publicly chastised the few creditors that did not want to go along, causing public pressure on them to play along. Obama forced them into taking less for their claim, that they paid for, and giving the remainder to the labor union, who paid nothing.

Returning the nation’s wealth to its rightful owners. It is what he campaigned on.


TOTUS Responds To POTUS

Feeling the need to respond to the tongue lashing he got yesterday from ‘Big Guy’ (the President), Barack’s teleprompter started up his own blog to discuss the incident where Barack lost his place and became speechless.

Here’s a portion of the transcript.

Big Guy: “In addition to John – sorry, the – I just noticed I jumped the gun here.”
TOTUS: “What? Why are you looking at those file cards? Who gave you those file cards? Ah crap.”
Big Guy: “Go ahead. Move it up.
TOTUS: “WT*! I am moving it up. When we get back to the office, we need to have a sit down …”

Fair Tax, Media, Pensacola

FairTax In Print And Online

Sunday’s opinion page of the Pensacola News Journal was like a page here explaining the Fair Tax. Then there’s this great video answering the question ‘What the FairTax would mean to you?’

Am hopeful the article will open some eyes and possibly attract more supporters locally. Must see, and share, this video.

They chose Paul Wizikowski and–wow!–does he know how to make a FairTax video. Paul’s an Oklahoma-based FairTax grassroots activist and his winning entry brilliantly answers our challenge question, “What the FairTax would mean to you.” As the top video in our contest, Paul’s work was shown to thousands at both “Save the Nation” FairTax rallies for Tax Day 2009.

My FairTax Story

related links:

Media, Politics, War On Terror

Dems Briefed On Waterboarding in 2002

More specifically, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was briefed on the extreme interrogation technique. Back then, it was fine. In fact, they wanted to know if there was anything more they could do to break the terrorists to give up information. Today it’s a different story. Today it is torture. Today the disposing of two tapes that supposedly show the technique in practice is called obstruction. Something we need to investigate, according to Joe Biden.

Which is exactly what they are doing today. Both Nancy Pelosi and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va) had been fully briefed on what the CIA was doing in Guantanamo Bay and neither of them objected, much to the dismay of the far left. Then, doing what they felt was the proper thing to do, the CIA notified Jay Rockefeller a few years ago that there were tapes of interrogations and that they intended to destroy them. The CIA was doing a CYA in letting those in oversight responsibilities, like Jay Rockefeller, know of the steps they were taking. After all, keeping secrets secret is what they do. What did Rockefeller do with that news? Nothing. He let it happen, as would anyone else on the side of America.

Enter politics and an election, and now it’s a whole different story. In the absence of core beliefs, it makes politicizing the war and the war effort easy.

Thank goodness that videotapes of interrogations that happened to a couple key al Qaeda bad guys were destroyed. You know that the identities of the real covert operatives would have been splashed all over the New York Times if they still existed and if Jay Rockefeller’s staff ever got their hands on them. For purely political purposes, there seems to be no current of opinion in the media and key democrats to keep the actions secret, including the identities of the covert agents involved. Contrast that to all the fake outrage of exposing the identity of Valerie Plame, a desk clerk analyst, who, at the time, was not a covert CIA agent. Protecting the identities of CIA operatives seem to be a selective, political concept.

editor’s note: It’s funny how short the memories are in Washington. This article could have been written two years ago. The MSM made nothing of it two years ago, just like they are again today.