A Distraction Wrapped in an Enigma

John Kass, Daley watcher and Obama chronicler from Chicago has the best take yet on the whole birth certificate thing.  He's the man who coined the term "hopium," as in "liberals need to put down the hopium pipe and see what a failure Obama is."   You can read his article here:  Birth Certificate?  We Don't Need No Stinkin' Birth Certificate.

He manages to lampoon Trump for the buffoon that he is while simultaneously providing a hilarious chronicle of how The One came to be in Chicago.



Obama's Citizenship:  Final Thoughts
That Obama was not born in Hawaii always seemed shaky to me.  How did they fake the newspaper out, since the hospital provided the names of the newborns?  Also, for this conspiracy to work, the state of Hawaii, or people in the records department had to be "in on it."   You don't think Hillary's private dicks didn't throw some money around trying to get someone to chirp?

There remain some interesting threads.  Did he claim to be an exotic foreigner to ingratiate himself with American radicals and to gain entry into prestigious universities?  Did his parents at some point renounce his citizenship?  Did he possess a foreign passport?  And what's up with the social security number he used on his selective service registration?  Investigators claim it is from Connecticut, but neither he nor his parents ever lived there.

And the layers in the birth certificate released by the White House?  What if an Obama operative did that on purpose?  Do you really think someone perpetrating a fraud at that high of a level would be so amateurish?  The certificate placates all but a small, hard-core group convinced it's a fraud.  Perhaps Obama operatives did the layering on purpose to keep the conspiracy theorists baying and yapping, perpetuating a cheap and easy smear of everyone to the right of Obama.

This also allows hopium smokers on the left to perpetuate their cheap psychological projections, insisting "birtherism" is a sneaky manifestation the sub-rosa racism that lurks in the hearts of all conservatives.  The leftwing wackadoos insist this is a stealthy racist plot to demean and marginalize the most powerful black man in the world. 

It's a never ending descent into madness, as are all conspiracy theories.  You could spend the rest of your life on any one thread.  But the election is less than two years away, and I am encouraged to see conservatives, especially my fellow Right Blogistanis, focus in on this man's disastrous policies.

Now, if we can just flush liberal democrat Trump, we can get on with nominating the next president of The United States of America

Obama's Birth Certificate

A naive little Denver University freshman dimwit took the bold and original step of calling me a racist in a post over at Sue's Place. To the credit of Sue and her regulars, they just ignored it and pressed on.

Here is how I handled it:

Oh No! You've called me a racist! Great Godwin's Law! How original. Racist is the new fascist among lobotomized lefties left stuttering when confronted with their own illogic.

As my blogger buddies know, I was never a "birther," but I didn't poo poo those who were.  The problem I have is with those on the fringe who dream of an Obama Exposed!  Frog marched out of the White House to his and the Democratic party's great shame, and every piece of legislation he signed instantly repealed.  Ain't.  Gonna.  Happen.

Finding an inconsistency with birth documents or some other funny business would not bring an immediate end to his presidency, nor would it lead to the immediate repeal of any laws.  I think this is a low-percentage approach.  Sure, let the investigators dig, but this is not a political strategy.


A Few Thought Now That The Birth Certificate Has Been Released

* Donald Trump is full of crap.  Remember a few days ago when he told us the birth certificate was missing, and according to his investigators on the ground it didn't look good for Obama?  All of you naive Trump chumps were played by The Donald, who was a registered democrat in New York during the tenure of Rudy Giuliani and George Pataki.

* Lt Col Terry Lakin sits in Leavenworth for refusing a deployment order because he challenged President Obama's status as commander in chief based upon the absence of a birth certificate.  This president, who dispatches his wife to pretend they care about military families, allowed this good soldier and doctor to be court martialed when he could have simply done what he did this past Wednesday.  Obama is a petty man wielding way too much power.

* This will not satisfy the "Birthers."  No evidence can appease people who believe in conspiracies.

Anyway, I listen to Peter Boyles on KHOW on my morning drive to work, and he really pounds the Obama birth thing.  It's too much for my taste, but he posted this on his website before the birth certificate was unveiled, and I think it's hilarious, made more so by the text to voice technique and the stock phrase talking points and buzz words.

Instant Karma's Gonna Get You

Who says God is uninterested in our lives?

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) — A man was hospitalized Wednesday evening with life-threatening, third-degree burns after somehow catching fire inside a San Francisco porn store, authorities told CBS 5.

CBS – Man Bursts into Flames While Watching Porn

John Galt's Streaming Internet Radio

If you've got time, check this out:
http://johngalt.streamingradioguide.com/.

It's a guide to thousands of radio stations. You can use it to find your favorite talker and listen over the internet.

I've been using streamingradioguide for years to get my Michael Savage fix in the evening after work, and I was saddened to see a blog post from owner Art Stone saying he was packing it in.  Lots of outpouring of "please reconsider," etc (including me), but to no avail.  He lamented that no one even visited the blog part of the site until he announced it was closing at the end of the week.  It really saddened me.

For whatever reason, I decided to click the link on Monday just for old times sake, and he's posted a trailer for Atlas Shrugged.  Go to the blog, and follow the right links, and you end up in a new domain, where he laughingly says "Welcome to Atlantis!"  Atlas Shrugged fans will get it immediately.

He's doing the opposite of what bloggers normally do.  He shut down a popular site and set up a new one that only the curious and persistent could find.  He delisted the site from Google so it won't show up in searches.  He's up to something, I don't know what, but you should probably jump in before he shuts down new membership.

China's Raising Prices, US Prints More Money

Anyone who supports Obama has no right to cry about Reagan's deficits

“The President's own budget documents project as well that by next year more debt will be run up in one term under President Obama than under all other Presidents in history -- from George Washington to George Bush -- combined.” (Peter Ferrara – A Big Question)

Pimco, the largest bond fund in the world, announced it will no longer buy US debt.  Pimco founder William H. Gross explains why...

Unless entitlements are substantially reformed, the U.S. will likely default on its debt; not in conventional ways, but via inflation, currency devaluation and low to negative real interest rates. (Pimco – Skunked)

That 70's Show:  Stagflation!

This was not America's worst recession, but it is the worst recovery.  Following closely on the heels of economic stagnation comes inflation.

Communist China can’t rely on slave labor forever.  The peasants have caught a whiff of prosperity and they want more. China's Communist Politburo is raising wages, and we're printing more money.  This is a silent tax, we all pay more for everything.

Even worse, our government allows China to blatantly manipulate its currency, putting our domestic manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage. This would be much harder for them to do if we did not need to borrow money from them.

Anyone who frequents local shops and restaurants already knows that mom and pop can no longer hold the line.  Prices are going up...

Still reeling from the recession, most mom-and-pop shops have held off on raising prices for fear of losing more customers. But business is finally starting to pick up, and after years of being squeezed by cost increases, a growing number of small businesses are hiking their prices.

"They've been squeezed so badly for the last two years, any uptick in demand means they're going to try to raise prices a bit," said William Dennis, senior research fellow with the National Federation of Independent Business. (CNN – Inflation Pressures Grow on Mainstreet)

Walmart to the Rescue

In the face of this economic misery, retail giant Walmart will fight heroically to continue to bring us low-priced goods. Imagine if there were no Walmart or other big box giants, and instead our nation was dotted with scattered and sundry mom and pops. They could not marshal the bargaining power of a Walmart or Target, nor the supply chain efficiencies. We’d be paying frightfully more for everything!

Just as John D. Rockerfeller brought cheap kerosene to the masses, big chain retailers help shield us from the stupid policies of our government.  We should outsource the federal government to Walmart.

When Feral Humans Attack

By now we've all seen the horrible video of the two-legged feral beasts attacking the transgendered person at a Baltimore McDonalds.







I'll spare you the moralizing and get to my point.  The violence will only get worse, and you must be prepared to protect yourself.

I have been in some of the most dangerous places in the world, and I'm not just talking Baghdad or Kabul (where I was in the safety of fellow armed Americans), or outside the wire in some small village in Southern Iraq.  Juarez, Bogota, South Quito, and other scary places...  I've been there, including some rough areas here in the US where as soon as I was in, I knew it was a mistake.

Get a Gun
The most obvious comments concerning incidents like this involve concealed carry.  Owning and carrying a gun is always a good idea, but you must understand the legal ramifications.  Had that poor woman shot those two cavewomen, she would be the one up on charges; that's how it goes in liberal states like Maryland.  Cops nowhere in sight, cowardly girly-boys stand and film your murder while a hooting crowd gathers to watch, but you can't use lethal force to stop the attack.

A related note:  Don't carry any weapon you are not prepared to use.  Be it pepper spray or a gun, if you can't use it, you're just providing a convenience to your perpetrator.

Get an ASP
If you don't like the prospect of shooting an attacker, carry an ASP.  An Asp is a collapsible tactical baton.  I have one that can be carried in the front pocket of my jeans without being noticed.  You deploy it, it extends into a metal rod, and you bring it crashing down on your attacker.  As with all weapons, get training.

Learn Krav Maga
Krav Maga is an Israeli fighting system that really works.  I have used it to great effect.  It's principles are simple and repeatable, meaning you can employ them even when you are under extreme stress.

Watch these ugly ghetto-hags in action again, and you see they really have no technique other than raw brute force.  Had the victim possessed even rudimentary fighting skills, she could have at least slowed down the attack enough to get out of there or fend them off until help arrived.

The simplest technique is fists up and pressed against the side of your skull, elbows out with your forearms blocking the blows.  From this position, you can fire off quick straight punches as you maneuver yourself so you are not between your attackers.  Giving up your back, as anyone who watches MMA knows, is condemning yourself to a death sentence.

The lesson from that video is to fight back with all you've got.  Curling up in a ball, while it protects vital organs, can be lethal.  As videos like this show, "surrendering" doesn't stop the attacks; it just encourages the attackers to kick and stomp you until you're dead.  In a situation like that, your only option is to fight like hell, using anything and everything.  When your life is at stake, nothing is out of bounds and there are no rules.

Don't Go There
The real lesson here is to do your homework.  Don't hang out in bad neighborhoods, avoid potentially dangerous areas and situations at all costs.  Trust your instincts; If something doesn't "feel right," get the hell out of there.  If you don't know the area, stay out.  Do not frequent clubs, bars or other establishments known for violent incidents.

Man is the most dangerous animal.  People who have nothing, don't have anything to lose, and a person with nothing to lose is the most dangerous of all.  You don't belong there.

You may be a good fighter with good technique, but a person with a small hidden palm knife will slash you open before you even realize it.  There are street fighters out there who are impervious to pain, they've battered literally hundreds of victims, and they have grooved their technique.  You don't stand a chance.

The absolute best book out there (I have read it and used what I learned), is Gavin de Becker's "The Gift of Fear."  It is not a self-defense book per se, but a book that teaches you how to predict danger, how to spot it early, and how to avoid it.

It's a jungle out there.  Learn to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Muslims, Neo Nazis, defile Easter and blame it on the Jews

White Supremacists & Islamic Extremists:  One in the Same

A little-noticed event happened in the comments thread of my Happy Easter post.  Anon from England (an Islamic extremist) posted a link to a YouTube of an Israeli TV show given to irreverent humor.  The particular episode mocks Christ's crucifixion.

Islamists and white supremacists (they are indistinguishable) have seized upon this video as a propaganda opportunity.  They hope to stir up anti-Jewish hatred among American Christians, who are by and large big supporters Israel, which is the only democracy in the Middle East and the one nation in that region where a Muslim can enjoy peace and prosperity.

I went to YouTube and engaged with a few comments, but it turned out to be a stinking sewer of white supremacists and angry jihadis (one in the same).  One commenter hurled anti-Semitic insults at me and threatened to throw me in an oven, to which I replied "good luck, you'd probably get tangled up in your burka."

Here's my Response to the cowardly anon who posted here yesterday: 

Your anti-Jew, pro-Palestine propaganda ploy won't work here.  We are not ignorant, sweaty hordes of bug-eyed religious fanatics easily stirred up by Imams waving cartoons and news of burned Korans.

I will thank you for beautifully illustrating that neo-nazis and islamic jihadis are one in the same, sharing a virulent hatred of Jews and of America.

Here's my favorite observation about this video. Read it and learn something. It is from Fish Eaters Traditional Catholic Forum:

Your blind hatred of all things Jewish has obviously kept you from looking at this rationally.

It's obviously not a kids show. It's intent is obviously to be rude, crude and uncivilized. It obviously was broadcast on whatever the Israeli version of Spike TV is.

So some Jews hate and make fun of Christians, so what? At the end of the day, it was a tv show, but the Jews didn't burn down any churches, they didn't rape and murder Christian women, they didn't gather in the streets in huge crowds to scare and beat all the Christians out of the village.

Oh, wait, who does that? You're beloved muzzies.

I have never met a Jew that has been disrespectful to me about my Catholic beliefs. Does that mean all Jews are respectful? Of course not. But you see one example of such crudity and you sensationalize it as if every last Jew was exactly the same. You're an ignorant person, at least when it comes to Judaism, because you let your emotions lead you around.

So, yes, even after seeing that, I'd still vote for Israel on the Israel vs. Palestine thread, because if I were a Christian in Israel, if all I had to deal with was some disrespectful tv satire around Easter (um, history channel anyone? at least their tv is mocking it as an obvious joke, our tv mocks it and tells us if we're intelligent people we would never believe the claims of Christ.), it would be much better than what I'd have to deal with in Egypt or Palestine.

We are not so stupid to fall for this propaganda.  So Anon, pack your Jew-hating, hitler loving, Jihadi-supporing, cowardly, lily-livered ass on down the line.


Tell Children the Truth

Happy Easter!

“The most beautiful thing we can experience in life is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: for his eyes are closed.”  -- Albert Einstein

Today is the high point of the Christian Calendar.  Christ's death, burial, and resurrection is a mystery.  It inspires believers and renews our faith; while atheists scoff and say it is an impossible fairy tale.  But C.S. Lewis reminds us...

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word "darkness" on the walls of his cell. -- C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Anthony De Stefano wrote a nice article in USA Today yesterday about Christianity in America amid a rising number of non-believers (1.6 million atheists).  He takes a page from C.S. Lewis in answering the charge that Christianity is a made-up religion, a wishful thinking "fantasy" sprung from a weak and fearful psychology.

But is it wishful thinking to believe in hell, the devil and demons? Is it wishful thinking to believe we’re going to be judged and held accountable for every sin we’ve ever committed? Is it wishful thinking to believe the best way to live our life is to sacrifice our own desires for the sake of others? Is it wishful thinking to believe that we should discipline our natural bodily urges for the sake of some unseen “kingdom”? (USA Today)

Like Lewis, De Stefano concludes that if it's all made up, we sure did a crummy job.  We could have made ourselves feel better by codifying lust, greed, gluttony and hating our enemies.

But that would go against what we know instinctively to be true:  That there is more to life than this material world.

Happy Easter!

Christ Crucified, drawing by St John of the Cross

To reach satisfaction in all 
Desire its possession in nothing,
To come to the knowledge of all
Desire the knowledge of nothing.
To come to possess all
Desire the possession of nothing.
To arrive at being all
Desire to be nothing.
To come to the pleasure you have not
You must go by a way in which you enjoy not.
To come to the knowledge you have not
You must go by a way in which you know not.
To come to the possession you have not
You must go by a way in which you possess not.
To come to be what you are not
You must go by a way in which you are not.
When you turn toward something
You cease to cast yourself upon the all,
For to go from the all to the all
You must possess it without wanting anything.
In this nakedness the spirit finds its rest,
for when it covets nothing
nothing raises it up and nothing weighs it down,
because it stands in the center of its humility.
-- St John of the Cross

You Can't Make This Stuff Up...

Fellow Right Blogistanis:  I'm off the grid over the Triduum (it's a religious thing.)  I'll be back and blogging next Monday.  

Here is a little news wrap-up...

We on the right can be forgiven a schadefreude-induced chortle as we read this headline…

California Begs Texas for Job-Creating Recipe

The pointy headed statists who blew up the state of California playing with their liberal chemistry set are now visiting Texas to ask the conservative cowboys for help.  It's not a joke.  California has sent a delegation to find out what Texas is doing to create more jobs per capita than any other state in the nation.  There may yet be hope for the sunshine state.

Further reading:  Steven Malanga - California Dreamin' About Texas Jobs

I Saw this headline…

Michelle Obama: I Want to Embrace the Country that I Love

The news article didn't say what country she was talking about…







  4 out of 5 Mass Murderers Support Green Energy

And surprise, surprise! The Nissan Leaf is experiencing technical glitches. The recall will be small, since almost no one has bought the damned things. Seems only a few thousand suckers could be found who were willing to shell out $45000 for a rolling science experiment.

Government Motors sold a paltry 281 Chevy Volts in February. Were it not for Obama-approved Government Electric stepping up to buy the US version of the old East German Trabant, the assembly line would probably be shut down. BTW, Obama will take $6,000 from your pocket and give it to GE for each of these battery-powered crapboxes they buy.

But Charles Manson Would Approve!
Leftists are starving and impoverishing millions with their green policies, so it’s only fitting that mass murderer Charles Manson gives them his wholehearted endorsement.

I pray you all have a blessed Easter.  See you Monday!

Stupid Debt Tricks

How does Obama propose to handle our Big Fat Greek-Style Debt?  Feed it, of course!

My solution involves stink bombs.  Please read all the way to the end.



Conservatives on Fire, a most excellent blog, recently posted about Obama's sneaky plan for automatic tax increases.  He disguises the plan as a "Debt Fail Safe Trigger."

Called a “debt failsafe trigger,” Obama’s scheme would automatically raise taxes if politicians spend too much.

Here's how the White House pitches it.  Note the Plouffian Newspeak...

A Debt Failsafe that will trigger across-the-board spending reductions (both in direct spending and spending through the tax code) (Whitehouse.gov)

Only a confiscatory progressive could come up with something that clever...  Calling a tax increase a "Spending reduction through the tax code."

Notice how with liberals it's never that we're spending too much?  For progressive statists, the answer is always that we're not stuffing enough taxpayer money into the insatiable maw of the soulless government beast.

Here's my idea for a "Debt Fail Safe Trigger."
  
The US Capitol will be rigged with noxious stinkbombs that automatically drop from the ceilings when the debt goes over the limit.  The antidote could be quickly triggered by pushing a button that automatically slashed government programs across the board to get us back under the limit.

* - For more in-depth analysis, see LD Jackson's post at Political Realities

Push Back on the "Give Back"

"Give something back" is a leftist rhetorical trick designed to shame people into pouring even more money into failed state enterprises.

President Obama delivered his official response to the budget crisis: those who have benefited the most from our way of life can afford to give a bit more back. (HuffPo - Rev Al Sharpton)

What an absurd statement.  But liberalism has become an eternal fount of absurd pronouncements.

Here is the statement straight from the emperor's mouth:

"It's a basic reflection of our belief that those who benefited most from our way of life can afford to give back a little bit more."  (President Obama - RCP)

"Give back" presupposes that someone took something.  That is why it is an absurd statement.  So until demagogues like Obama can give us details on just what exactly "the rich" took from us, (and which ones?  Name names!), I'll continue to ignore them. 

Speaking of "Taking..." and "Giving Back..."

What have all those recipients of government-subsidized student loans and government grants given back?  How are welfare recipients, government housing residents and food stamp users paying us back?

At the next DC-NY taxpayer-funded orgy, Obama should ask GE CEO Jeffrey HeMelts when GE will "give back" all the damned tax money they have scammed us out of.  When will Obama-owned GM give back the $50 billion he took from us and gave them in a fit of crony crapitalism that would make FDR blush?

And didn't effete millionaire jet setters Michelle and Barack Obama use government-subsidized student loans and grants to attend Ivy League schools?  And don't those schools receive millions each year in government funds?  Have the Obama's given it back?

If liberals really want to go down this road of "give something back," we conservatives and libertarians should take them all the way.

Give Something Back?  Statists Have it Backwards

Government should give us back...

Economic liberty; incandescent bulbs; drilling permits; freedom to travel through airports without being groped, raped, scanned, fondled and strip searched;  Sane immigration policy...

What would you like to see government give back? 

* -  For a more in-depth treatment, see Kook's excellent post, "C'Mon Time to Give Something Back"

Dump Trump

A bad joke is being played on the Republican party, and his name is Donald Trump

"If Trump is not on Obama’s payroll, he’s working for free, and I don’t think he’s that stupid"

OK, Trump fans, time to cut The Donald loose. I like how he injects some real talk into the political discussion, especially in the realm of international trade and diplomacy.  But he's also a Hollywood blowhard who will say anything to get attention.

So who does he really think is the worst president?  Obama?  Bush?  Carter?  He's claimed all three were at different times, and he's called Bush "evil."  Really...  Hitler was evil, Mao was evil, but George W. Bush?

And while his careening into the Obama citizenship sideshow is gaining him some FReeper fans, it is not presidential.  Savvy pols have attack dogs to do the dirty work.  There's plenty in Obama's past that is questionable or mysterious, and I don't begrudge people investigating it, but that's not what a presumptive presidential candidate should be focusing on.  We need to fire The Donald before his extreme unseriousness sinks the entire party, which is just now finding its feet again.

Donald Trump:  A Ross Perot for the New Millennium

Trump is not Obama’s worst nightmare—He’s the GOP’s guarantee of failure in 2012.   His hinting at a third-party run reveals his "I wanna be president" stunt to be nothing more than an egomaniacal road trip. The man is good at self-promotion, but he's got no chance to get elected president.

Entertaining a third-party run is an automatic disqualifier
He’s just told us that if he doesn't get the GOP nomination he will not honor the rules of the game and back the winner, so he’s disqualified. Supporting him is a waste of your money and voting for him in a primary is a vote for Barack Obama.   A Trump third-party foray will be a march of fools that reelects Barack Obama.

If Trump is not on Obama’s payroll, he’s working for free, and I don’t think he’s that stupid

Fuzzy Slippers has the best anti-Trump post in Right Blogistan.  She uncovers some convincing disqualifiers, like the traitorous Trump giving money to Harry Reid, when Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle was up in the polls.  She also links to an article describing how The Donald bribed the government to declare imminent domain in order to kick an old lady out of her house so he could build a parking lot.


If you’re looking for a real businessman to vote for, drop the infatuation with self-promoting wheeler dealers and go for a serious man who has the education, background and experience to be president:

Vote for Herman Cain

H/T Maggies Notebook - Dump Trump,  Fuzzy Slippers - Musing about 2012: Donald Trump,  Reaganite Republican - What are People saying about Trump?

Obambulating Towards Destruction

Obambulate v. 1) To wander or walk about in an aimless fashion. 2) To preside or lead in an aimless, backward, or downward fashion. 3) To conceive in hope but give birth to disaster.

Green Energy Update!

Progressives are sacrificing millions of starving poor people upon the altar of Gaia...

But with food prices rising sharply in recent months, many experts are calling on countries to scale back their headlong rush into green fuel development, arguing that the combination of ambitious biofuel targets and mediocre harvests of some crucial crops is contributing to high prices, hunger and political instability.  (NY Times - Food Prices Stir Concern Cars)

The World Bank has warned that rising food prices, driven partly by rising fuel costs, are pushing millions of people into extreme poverty.(BBC - Food Prices Driving Millions to Poverty)

Liberal compassion for the poor and downtrodden is a sick joke.  Grand schemes of the left have killed over 100 million people and continue to enslave millions more. 

Photochop courtesy of Chicago Ray

Hard Luck Woman

Despite being a bluegrass picker, I was a Kiss fan as a kid, probably because it really upset my parents...

Fast forward 10 years or so to dusty southern New Mexico, where I was invited to join a country-rock band because the lead singer/rhythm guitar player was on the run from the law and they needed someone to fill in...

The Kiss tribute CD  Kiss My Ass:  Classic Kiss Regrooved  was released with a mystery singer doing a freakin' awesome version of Hard Luck Woman.  I recognized that it was Garth Brooks immediately and almost went crazy.  My band mates would not let me do it on stage; our crowds were too traditional.  My Bob Seger renditions were about as edgy as we got.

Anyway, here it is, a classic rock ballad redone:  Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley*, Gene Simmons, and Peter Criss* on drums, with ...  Garth Brooks on vocals.  It's a great example of how genre really doesn't matter.  Good music is good music.  I love the acoustic guitar riffs...



Endnote:  Wikipedia reports that Giuliano Palma & The Bluebeaters did a cover version on their 2005 album "Long Playing".  Ain't the innerwebz just full of useful tidbits?

* Update from Bastiatarian:   Ace Frehley and Peter Criss aren't in this one.  "I think that's Eric Singer on drums and Bruce Kulick on guitar. (They were in the band in 1994.)"

Have a great weekend!

The King's Speech

No, not the Hollywood movie, I'm talking about our philosopher king, Barack Obama.  Although his Alinskyite Marx-channeling did make me want to scream the F-word more than once.

His central theme? 

"From each according to their ability, to each according to their need"

Like almost everything out of this man's mouth, his speech was pure excreta.  He took bricks of leftist dogma, mortared them together with BS, and built a house of lies.

President Obama has racked up more publicly-held debt that all previous presidents combined, and he has the temerity to lecture us about fiscal responsibility, shaking his finger at Bush and Reagan.

Progressive America:  Brought to You by Lies & Propaganda
Obama repeated the lie that tax cuts increased the national debt.  As always, he is wrong.  Every time we cut taxes, the economy grew and actual taxes collected by the federal government increased.  Revenue is defined as the money the federal government takes in from taxes.

To refute the shameless lefty lies told to us by our president, here are the facts on taxes, revenues and economic growth

Tax Cuts Resulted in More Revenue
Contrary to the unhinged liberal propaganda, the data show that revenue did increase after the Reagan tax cuts and the Bush II tax cuts. The chart below is for the Reagan years and it shows the growth in constant 2005 dollars.  The same happened after the Bush tax cuts.   You can go here and run the numbers yourself.

The data plainly show that revenue increased after each tax cut, and GDP also kept climbing. So clearly, the culprit in all of this is the spending.

So Reagan and Bush tax cuts resulted in more tax money pouring into the government coffers.   Unfortunately, this goaded politicians on to even wilder spending orgies, resulting in the growth of the national debt.

The Liberal Lie
This is where the mischief comes in.  Liberals scream and point to the debt chart, ignoring the first chart showing the increase in revenue.  To them, this "proves" that tax cuts cause debt.  They have to leave out the fact that revenue increased and the economy grew in order to "prove" their lie.  That tax cuts caused the debt is patently and provably false.  Too much spending is what exploded the debt.

I defended John Boehner a few days ago, and I retract not one word.  I think he's a good man.  However, I now stand with the torches and pitchfork brigade. We need to cut trillions, not billions from the federal budget and the money needs to be returned to the people who earned it.  If the progressives insist on buying votes, they can do it with their own damned money.

Cool picture yoinked from IntelBook

Afghanistan: Tactical Brilliance, Strategic Failure

Meddling in the Muslim world has poisoned us

The embers have gone cold from the latest holy roller Koran burning, but Muslim outrage still flares red hot.  We've bowed, we scraped, but all to no avail...

Our Middle East policymakers can no longer distinguish between evil and stupidity. They go out of their way to genuflect to the scriptures that catalyze our enemies while willfully ignoring bible burning, church burning and infidel burning, which are everyday events in Islamic countries. (Andrew McCarthy – No More Dhimmitude)

Our government is too weak to stand up for our values and too stupid to prevail in propaganda battles with 7th century obscurantists

I have been thinking for quite awhile now that Afghanistan is a failed project and we need to leave.  It pains me to say it; I served over there.

I like to check myself against Blackfive.net when I really get to thinking this way, and here’s what I found

Time To Leave Afghanistan?
Below the title was a link to a post at another blog.

There was some back and forth in the comments section of Blackfive, with no one really defending staying, but rather arguing over how to get out and how to deal with future problems emanating from that region. Here are a few typical comments:

"Agree. And if the Taliban miss-behaves or AQ comes back - that's why we buy bombers and drones and train Rangers and SF types. Just knock 'em down again, don't try to make Afghanistan into New Hampshire."

"Yeah, I am also coming around to the opinion that we need to cut sling on these idiots. There was never any nation to rebuild in the first place. (At least with Iraq, we had something to work with) I agree we need to have a plan for the aftermath but I think that almost anything would be better than this waste of our finest men and women and our treasure."

These are not college kids, bankers or angry leftists. They are patriotic warriors who’ve “been there, done that.”

I am not a warrior, but I served with quite a few. I can tell you that leaving that God-forsaken place to whatever fate awaits it would not be a betrayal to anyone who died or was wounded there. We kicked the Taliban’s ass and then we gave the benighted inhabitants a chance to improve their country.  They failed.  Our fighting forces, especially the Army and the Marines, fought like the heroic lions they are. Nothing to be ashamed of.  We win, they lose.  Our forces return to the greatest country in the world, and they remain stuck in the toilet we tried to pull them out of.

Here are excerpts from the original article, written by a libertarian/conservative, socially moderate Army Vet:

It’s time to leave Afghanistan. In fact it’s time to leave most of the Middle-East. We tried folks. We tried to help them. We tried to free them. But the plain facts are they aren’t ready for freedom. They aren’t worth our lives and money. We won the war in 2002 when we removed the Taliban and killed most of Al-Qaida.

Further Reading:
Mark Steyn – Re: Lindsay Graham and the First Amendment
Andrew McCarthy - More on Koran Burning

Big Ed has been Screwing Us for Years

College officials 'appalled' as fratboy and his girl are caught having sex on the roof of USC building... in front of hundreds of people

 

What a joke.  Higher education has been screwing Americans for years. Collecting the money of hard working parents, and extorting more filthy lucre from the rest of the taxpayers via government grants and student loan schemes.

"the nation's total student loan debt now sits at about $830 billion - for the first time surpassing the nation's credit card debt."  (Atlantic - An Anti-College Backlash?)

... And for what?

So government indoctrinators can churn out hordes of self-important youngsters who don’t know how to think or write, offended that they cannot start out on top. We are subjected to stories of graduates with degrees in cultural dancing and lesbian studies suing their alma mater because they couldn’t get a job. Imagine that! Meanwhile, we must import scientists, doctors and engineers because our vaunted education system cannot produce enough.

Our university system is a joke

If you can stagger through it drunk, spending more time partying than studying, it can’t be that hard, and obviously is not a valuable educational experience. If you come out stupid on the other end, unable to think critically or write a coherent paragraph, and still get a diploma, that's not an achievement--it's an expensive waste of time.

Parents: Four years in any branch of the military will do your young adult more good than four years at an “elite” American college.

Daily Mail – Trojan Sex

Angry Left Shoots itself in the Face

"When you have no coherent philosophy and are merely a oleaginous agglomeration of multifarious and clashing anger-fueled agendas, such self-defeating stupidity is the inevitable result."

I find it amusing when the left ends up shooting itself in the face or exposing one of its legion contradictions.  The latest inanity is the temper tantrum boycott of Koch Industries, which will only harm unionized workers.

As an American company, Koch Industries employs over 50,000 Americans. In total, the number of American jobs that indirectly supported Koch Industries is over 200,000. In Wisconsin, Koch Industries provides nearly 3,000 jobs directly and 11,000 jobs indirectly. More importantly, many of those jobs are good-paying union jobs. So, why all the hate?(United Steelworkers Defend the Koch Brothers)

Here are excerpts from United Steel Workers international vice president Jon Geenen defending Koch industries:

The company’s workforce is highly unionized. In fact, 80 percent of its mills are under contract with one or more labor union. It is not inaccurate to say that these are among the best-paid manufacturing jobs in America.

This presents a dilemma and a paradox. While the Koch brothers are credited with advocating an agenda and groups that are clearly hostile to labor and labor’s agenda, the brothers’ company in practice and in general has positive and productive collective bargaining relationships with its unions.

While some companies are running from investment in American jobs, The Koch brothers’ Georgia Pacific just reached agreements with its primary union in the paper industry to invest more than a half a billion dollars in capital to essentially create two state-of-the-art machines that conserve fiber and energy at two separate union mills.

His bottom line? He might as well scream out to the lefty nutballs, “What the hell are you doing!?”

The "working man" is just a talking point for the left
If you claim to be for the working man, trying to close down American manufacturing is a poor way to show it. When you have no coherent philosophy and are merely a oleaginous agglomeration of multifarious and clashing anger-fueled agendas, such self-defeating stupidity is the inevitable result.

Cloward-Piven from the Right

Angry anti-GOP mobs are rampaging across the internet, screaming that this budget deal is the worst betrayal in US history, right up there with Nixon signing the Paris Peace Accords, The Compromise of 1877, and Art Modell's betrayal of the city of Cleveland


We Have Not Yet Begun to Fight

How would these critics of Boehner and the GOP have reacted after the battle of Lexington that began the Revolutionary War?  Would they have gone home in defeat because there were still British left standing?  This is just an early skirmish in a long war to reshape the federal government.  We still have the debt ceiling fight coming up in May.

Republicans wrapped up a deal that takes us through 2011 while cutting $38 billion, and thank God for that.  It folds the tents on this nickle-dime DC circus sideshow (they were arguing over less than 1% in cuts) and clears the field for debate on Paul Ryan's long-term strategy for cutting Trillions from the federal government, and enacting fundamental reforms.

Don't be a Sore Winner
For reasons unfathomable, some on the right are angry with Boehner.  I'd like for someone to explain how a government shutdown would have helped the GOP, who the American people still view with mistrust.  Here is what he and the GOP did, despite Democrat control of the Senate, the White House and the news media:

The history of offers on this bill goes something like this. Democrats first offered no cuts, then $4 billion, then $6.5 billion, then $33 billion, then settled at $38.5 billion.  (Fox News)

The spending cuts amount to $78.5 billion below what Mr. Obama had requested for 2011. (Washington Times)

 "...an estimated $38 billion in reductions — represented the “largest real dollar spending cut in American history.” (NY Times)

With the DC kabuki agitprop out of the way, Paul Ryan can now conduct an adult conversation based upon stark facts.  This is harsh terrain for unserious liberals who rely on the usual freakshow histrionics.  Americans are ready for a serious debate on ending our profigate ways, and the Republicans are the only ones discussing it seriously.

Do you want to reform government spending, or do you just want to burn the damned thing down?

It's a serious question, and if your answer is the latter, you are in the camp of the libertines who turned the French Revolution into a violent rampage that forever knocked that nation off of her powerful and glorious perch.  Such a sentiment also puts you firmly outside the camp of the founding fathers.  They had righteous anger, but they channeled it into constructive projects that built the greatest nation in the history of the world.

By clamoring for a shutdown, we feed into the left's stereotypes that we are a rabble of anarchists with torches and pitchforks clamoring to burn down government.  The broad middle does not respond well to such wild displays.  Ask "Pitchfork Pat" Buchanan, the latest in a long line of failed American populists.

Fiscal conservatives on Capitol Hill need the support of patriotic Americans who follow the example of our original revolutionary patriots.  Screaming libertines and bloody guillotines provide propaganda fodder for the leftwing statists struggling to preserve the status quo, and end up working against government reformers like Paul Ryan and Tom Coburn.

UPDATE:  American Thinker editor and publisher Thomas Lifson declares, The GOP Did Just Fine.  It is a great wrap-up.


Tea Party Activists Give Boehner Nod of Approval
Lefty Ezra Klein is all Pouty
Fox News - Who Won the Shutdown?
Salon - Boehner Won
WaPo - Boehner Gets $39 Billion, Reid Gets Nothing

Stupid Statement of the Week

I love it when liberals slip up and reveal the truth...

It's easy to get a liberal to admit our growing debt is a problem.  It's the solution we differ on.

Like the Miller Lite commercials (Tastes Great!  Less Filling!) Conservatives and liberals shout at one another, "More Taxes!"  "Less Spending!"
 
Here's Uber lib Michael Tomasky making the case for taxing the rich (and inadvertently blowing it) :

If wealthy Americans were paying taxes at the rate they did 50 years ago, says former Clinton labour secretary Robert Reich, the government would be taking in $350bn more a year: budget woes over.  (Michael Tomasky – Guardian)

Hahahahahahahahaha! "budget woes over?"  Hardly!  350 billion would barely make a dent in Obama's 1.5 Trillion annual deficits.  Tomasky just proved the opposite: We cannot put our fiscal house in order by gouging the rich.

Thanks Michael!  And Thanks Robert Reich for blowing a humongous hole in your Soak The Rich argument!

When Winning Really Isn't Winning

Liberals were crowing about knocking off a conservative Wisconsin state supreme court justice, and the liberal candidate who stupidly declared victory before the votes were counted now has egg on her face.

The ballot count now shows the conservative incumbent with a probably insurmountable lead.  The results are not yet final, but even if the liberal Kloppenburg somehow wins, it is still not a liberal victory

Consider:  This election was held in the afterglow of the Madison liberal loon lollapalooza, the rage-filled teacher marches, trashing the capitol and protesting those union-busting meanies in the GOP who have the temerity to look after the interests of the taxpayer.  This election had an unprecedented turnout thanks to millions in union money and the rank and file marching in lockstep to the polling place.

And what does the left have to show for it?  50%.  Only 50% in the deep blue union stronghold of Wisconsin.  This is their high water mark.  Liberalism is a spent force in Wisconsin.  Sean Trend breaks down the numbers.

Finally, if those two little tidbits didn't start your weekend on a lighthearted note, this will: Uncoached - 10 Great Vintage Miller Lite Commercials

Republicans Lose in a Government Shutdown

It’s an old joke, but those who want a government shutdown should ponder its deeper meaning...

Two bulls stand upon a small hill, gazing down at a herd of heifers.  The young one shouts excitedly to the older one, “Let run down there and get us a cow!”  “No,” says the wise elder, “let’s walk down and get them all.”

Ryan's 2012 Budget is the Prize

Conservatives with torches in hand and blood in their eyes need to stay focused on the long game, which is Paul Ryan’s budget proposal for 2012 and beyond.  Running the government off of continuing resolutions for the rest of the year provides a predictable outcome favorable to Republicans; shutting down the government would be a wild crapshoot with an unpredictable outcome.
 

Conservative commentator Fred Barnes explains the advantages of running out the year with a string of CRs…

In the meantime, the incremental strategy is working. Republicans have passed two short-term measures to keep the government in operation since early March while slashing $10 billion in spending. At this rate, they would achieve the target of GOP congressional leaders of lopping off $61 billion from President Obama's proposed budget in the final seven months of the 2011 fiscal year.

The GOP, surprisingly, has done a good job so far framing this issue and controlling the debate. 

Even reliable liberal outlets like CNN, the NY Times and Washington Post are essentially saying, “OK Dems, you hate Paul Ryan’s Plan, and we are certainly not defending it, but what’s YOUR plan?  Where’s the president?”  The GOP had now moved the debate from If we should cut to How Much. 

The GOP is offering comprehensive solutions, but it’s also about tone and tenor

Republicans are proposing cuts of historic proportions, and a shutdown would provide an opportunity for liberals to level a charge of reckless irresponsibility on top of the current charges of cruelty, child-starving and geriatricide.  

I just don’t know if the GOP can overcome the blame game.  Liberals are really good at squawking and screaming, and the noiser the contretemps becomes, the better for them.  It distracts from the fact that we are in this mess because overwhelming democrat majorities failed to govern and pass a budget in the last congress.  It also distracts from the fact that the GOP only controls one half of one branch of government.  The blame clearly falls upon Democrat irresponsibility, but all of these facts would get drowned out in a noisy New York Times, MSNBC-fueled rage-fest.  

Reasoned debate will advance the conservative agenda, which is why Democrats want to avoid that at all costs.   

If the Dems are fer it, I’m agin’ it!

This is a PR fight the GOP does not need right now, especially since they are controlling the agenda.  This is a sideshow; Paul Ryan’s 2012 budget is the main event, he’s got the spotlight, and we don’t want him to lose it.  Serious Democrats like Alice Rivlin and Erskine Bowles may quibble with some of his details, but he essentially has their backing.  

A government shutdown would shift the debate back to the Democrat’s home turf of raw emotion and unhinged outrage.  This is the reason the Democrats are drooling over the prospect of a shutdown, and that is why I am against it.

We Have Met the Dhimmis, and They are Us

It's time to leave the people of Southwest Asia to stew in their own fetid toilet

Close interactions with the umma have poisoned our culture and goaded the Muslim world to even higher levels of purple-faced rage.

Despite our bowing and scraping, and our  military leadership slapping hijabs on our female soldiers, the Muslim hate meter is still pegged. I am tired of our government's spasmodic self-flagellation at every Islam-fueled temper tantrum, and the serial apologies are making me sick.

Our government has fallen all over itself paying obeisance to Islam over a koran burning, but has said not one damned word about an Afghan policeman killing two of our soldiers.

Mark Steyn Says it Best

I don’t like the wholesale reprinting of articles posted elsewhere, but Mark Steyn says it so much better than I can in his brilliant and succinct post at The Corner, Winning Hearts, Minds and Trigger Fingers…

here’s a headline from today’s New York Times:

Afghan Police Officer Turns Gun on American Soldiers, Killing 2
 
These are the Afghans who know us best — the ones selected, trained, and funded by us for a decade.

What did these soldiers die for? That their commander might offer even more abject prostrations of apology over “any disrespect to the Holy Qur’an”? Would it help if General Petraeus stuck a couple more apostrophes in the approved spelling and began his press releases with, “In the name of Allah the most merciful . . .”?

We have internalized our enemies’ psychoses — that we are the unclean ones.

Related:
Andrew McCarthy – No More Dhimmitude
Michael Graham - Fired Up Over Nothing

Taming Bedlam is a Fool's Errand

The Christian nutball from Florida and his fervid band of Koran-torching zealots did not cause the rioting, death and destruction in Afghanistan – Murder-loving mullahs and their wild-eyed Islamist nutball followers did.


The fiery hordes who beheaded innocent UN workers in Mazar-e-Sharif knew nothing of last month’s Koran burning until Afghan Mafia Don Hamid Karzai trumpeted the news for political gain.

Senator Lindsay Graham (Republicrat – Dingdongistan)

Senator Graham echoes the Left’s shrieking that Terry Jones has blood on his hands. He proposes to make federal law Sharia-compliant by punishing American citizens who burn the Koran, and he does so with a classic phrase that has launched a thousand tyrannies…

“Free speech is a great idea, but we're in a war.”

Fresh from the koran burning, Terry Jones now says his church will put Mohammad on trial. What’s Graham’s response to that? A ban on mock court proceedings?

Ignorant petty statists like Graham would give murderous religious bigots who live in third world toilets veto power over the God-given rights of Americans. His comments reveal a despicable mindset that has no place in the United States of America. The better answer is for the Unites States to stop messing with crazy people. Shit-canning our endless war doctrine would put a stop to such “we’re at war” Wilsonian jackbooting.

I can excuse General Petraeus’ comments; he has a war to fight and a political message to convey to the Afghanis. I understand the “putting the troops in danger” argument, since I was one of those troops in Afghanistan years ago, but I can’t help but think the real danger to our troops is to put them in a hostile environment with both hands tied behind their backs.

Thanks to the international left, CNN and pacifists here at home, we cannot fight a war the way it needs to be fought.  Our political establishment is too weak-kneed to stand up for our values, and too stupid to beat our ideological foes in the propaganda game, so we should just stay home.  We cannot crush the bad guys. Every bomb hits an innocent civilian or the ubiquitous wedding party, so every engagement is treated with kid gloves.  This spares legions of jihadis to fight another day, more emboldened than when they woke up that morning because they "beat" the United States by not being killed.

Breaking America's Addiction to Stability

An overemphasis on stability — and, perhaps, an erroneous definition of what “stability” even is — has begun harming, rather than helping, American interests in several current crisis spots. (Thanassis Cambanis – Learning to Love Change )

Precisely. We should have turned Afghanistan over to the Northern Alliance after toppling the Taliban and left it at that. Sure, it would have led to further turmoil, but who cares?  The place was never a Garden of Eden, and American dollars and blood will never make it so.

Welcome to the Third World, America

We're focused on rotten statist regimes in the Middle East, while ignoring the one that is growing right here in the land of the free and the home of the brave

I have lived in the third world (I know, it’s a politically incorrect term, so sue me), and this land that I love is starting to resemble it. It started before Obama, but he is hastening the downward swirl.

Our central bank, The Federal Reserve, handed out almost $100 Billion to Foreign Banks

We are too reliant on foreign bankers, as evidenced by the Fed handing out hundreds of billions of our tax dollars to them in the name of bailouts, economic stability, unclogging the system or whatever the latest alibi is.

Meanwhile, US owned mainstreet banks who weren’t big enough to earn a place at the DC-NY hog trough were left to die. Thank George Bush and Dirty Hank Paulson for that one. International fractional reserve banking is a shell game, and when the jig is up, the taxpayer bails out the cartels, who turn around and give the politicians their cut.

Government Grows, Private Sector Shrinks

Third world regimes are famous for a one-party state.  If you don't belong to the state-approved political party you get no job, no goodies, no nothing.  The more sophisticated regimes form a couple of parties to maintain the facade of choice, but the aim is the same:  Expand the power of the state by handing out government jobs and government assistance.

“Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government.

Even Michigan, at one time the auto capital of the world, and Pennsylvania, once the steel capital, have more government bureaucrats than people making things.” ( WSJ – We’ve Become a Nation of Takers, Not Makers)

This is a favorite game of rotten statist regimes:   Put 'em on the dole and put 'em on the public payroll!  Tax credits, legal exemptions, food stamps, welfare.  This builds a reliable voting block eager to pull the lever for more and bigger government.  It's a reliable scheme until the axles on the gravy train snap.

Crony Crapitalism is Another Hallmark of Third-World Statist Regimes

The GM bailout actually cost the taxpayer over $80 billion... 

"a March 16 Congressional Oversight report [...] estimates taxpayers will be out of $25 billion. Additionally, the report points out that “full repayment will not be possible unless the government is able to sell its remaining shares at a far higher price.”

That's only the beginning. Both the White House and the Congressional Oversight report omit the fact that during its bankruptcy, GM got a $45 billion tax break, courtesy of the American people.

Over one year after the promises President Obama and his administration made about the auto bailout, a February piece on AutoBlog also confirms that GM will also get a $14 billion dollar domestic tax break.  (Washington Times – Losing $84 Billion is Big Success)

With over $80 billion of taxpayer money sucked into GM’s corrupt, mismanaged maw, the state-sponsored Chevy Volt has become our version of the Communist East German Trabant.  Heavy government subsidies + anemic sales = Third-World Government Failure.  And the much ballyhooed GM bailout payback was a scam.

Government rewards failure with million dollar bonuses
Government pet projects Fannie and Freddie gave their executives tens of millions of dollars in bonuses while we were bailing them out to the tune of hundreds of billions...

The top six executives at the companies received $35.4 million over the two years. Since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over in September 2008, the companies’ mounting mortgage losses have required a $153 billion infusion from taxpayers. Total losses may reach $363 billion through 2013, according to government estimates. (MSNBC-Fannie and Freddie Bonuses)

At what point does venal and incompetent cross the line and become criminal?

I Paid More Taxes Than GE

April Fools Day!

The New York Times reports that GE made $14.2 billion last year, $5.1 billion here in the US.

Its American tax bill?  Zero.  $00000.00.

In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.  And Obama's cool with it, poking his head out of GE boss HeMelt's blazer pocket to tell us so.

Its extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore. (NY Times)

Are Corporate tax Rates Too High?

Such strategies, as well as changes in tax laws that encouraged some businesses and professionals to file as individuals, have pushed down the corporate share of the nation’s tax receipts — from 30 percent of all federal revenue in the mid-1950s to 6.6 percent in 2009.

Yet many companies say the current level is so high it hobbles them in competing with foreign rivals. (NY Times)

How do you reconcile this apparent discrepancy?

Easy. Tax avoidance ain’t cheap. This is how high tax rates can rob the treasury by resulting in less taxes. Businesses hide their money in unproductive pursuits and spend more on financial trickery. All money that could have gone to capital expansion that brings more jobs.

This is why many democrats and republicans are talking up tax reform that cuts out the swiss cheese exemptions and loopholes in exchange for a lower rate. It also explains why the move would be revenue neutral. At a certain point, it’s easier and cheaper to just pay the tax rather than pay skyscrapers full of accounting wizards and tax lawyers.

Crony Crapitalism

Unfortunately, too many people think "free market" means pro-business. It doesn't. Free market means laissez faire -- prohibit force and fraud, but otherwise leave the marketplace alone. No subsidies, no privileges, no arbitrary regulations. Competition is the most effective regulator. (John Stossel)

Government statists have a vested interest in the kind of crony capitalism that allows GE to pay no taxes.  You can't have your campaign sponsors wasting money on frivolities when you need that cash to finance your next election.