Campaign Against Sanity

If you believe in magic pixie dust, clap your hands and vote for Obama!

Obama begs the naive rubes, “I need you to keep believing in me.” The eternal plaint of charlatans, abusers and scam artists...

And then he lapsed into his canned stand-up snark routine and Romnesia references.  Bayonets, binders, and Big Birds, oh my!

His campaign is panicky and desperate, but he’s getting help from Republican politicians…

Danger Will Robinson!

When will old Republican men learn to stop talking about rape? Don't they know only liberal women and feminized Democratic men are allowed to address such hot button topics?  I’m not a woman, but I still find it creepy when old men on the stump talk about rape and women’s bodies. If you’re too stupid to understand that getting anywhere near this subject is political suicide, then you don’t belong in politics. I’m not a politician and even I know it’s a no-win situation for a man to start talking about that stuff. Stay away!

All it does is provide another opportunity for liberals to go into siren mode and scream self-righteous banalities like "Keep your hands off our ovaries," etc.  It is talking point fodder for an intellectually bereft party, giving them something to shout about in the absence of ideas and a record…

What do Mitt Romney and the Rock Band U2 have in common?

Both have filled Red Rocks amphitheater to capacity with cheering fans.  With tens of thousands more turned away.

Speaking of that famed concert venue outside of Morrison, my state might just redeem itself by rejecting Obama. Denverite Robin Abrams voted for him four years ago, but this time around she’s not so sure. She’s hip to the president’s killing babies in the womb stance, but she’s not too happy with his economic policies.

"Obama seemed promising—something new, something fresh," Abrams said Tuesday from a coffee shop in Englewood, a suburb south of Denver.

But this time around, she'd undecided. She's getting out of college in about a year and isn't sure she'll be able to find a job. She likes Obama's stance on social issues, especially women's health and abortion rights. But she's thinking about her pocketbook, too. (Denver Post)

What dim bulbs like her don’t realize is that abortion is the law of the land, and no president can reverse it, but the Democrat party gets a lot of mileage selling it to the suckers who continue to vote for them, so we’ll be hearing about it and other "women's issues" ad nauseum.

But here is what should really sink Obama's reelection bid...

We also learned that, in those first moments of the attack, a request for military back-up was made by U.S. staff on the ground but was denied by Washington. It had planes and special forces less than 500 miles away in southern Italy — or about the same distance as Washington to Boston. They could have been there in less than two hours.

Yet the commander-in-chief declined to give the order. So Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods fought all night against overwhelming odds, and died on a rooftop in a benighted jihadist hellhole while Obama retired early to rest up before his big Vegas campaign stop. (The Incredible Shrinking President)

Barack Obama is a dithering, blathering nincompoop. He's an un-serious man in a very serious time. His economy stinks, and it's time to fire him.

Liberal Lunacy, Progressive Poltroons

The Liberal Loony Birds, Boobies and Nuthatches are Cawing like Crazy

Madonna continues angering concertgoers by serially flashing her breasts and threatening them with her bare bottom. They became outraged when she went full monty and bared her Obama.

I feel sorry for old Madge. So much of her antics have a desperate, clutching “Hey! Look at me!” quality.  Reminds me of a certain president...

Rumor has it she is still hissy at Lady Gagme because the youngster wouldn't let The Matron of Pop mount her and tongue-kiss her on national TV like she did to Brittany Spears.

Poor Madonna also exposes the cruel irony that the more desperately one tries to hide her age, the older and more foolish she ends up looking.  The world’s first Golden Anniversary Rock Band (A 50 year old rock band, what an absurdity!), the Rogain Stones, proved it during the Bush years with their pathetic Top 1000 ‘hit’ “Sweet Neocon.”

 Remember that wildly popular and raucous song? Neither does anyone else.

Meanwhile, gurlz all over the US are dropping their panties in anticipation of getting it on with Barack in the voting booth. I have criticized that sex video put out by Obama’s campaign, but I see their point. America voted for Obama four years ago, and now we’re all screwed.

Why 9/11/2012 is not 9/11/2001

Dave Miller, a common sense liberal and all around good guy made some very sensible comments yesterday, and they deserve an answer.

Benghazi is different than 9/11 for the following reasons:

* 9/11 is an important anniversary always involving heightened security. Why were our embassies not postured securely?

* We have documented evidence of Ambassador Stevens asking for more security. The Obama administration failed to give it to him

* We have documented evidence that classified messages, flash alerts and finally cell phone calls were made by the people under attack. The Obama administration failed to act, leaving Americans to die a horrible death in a foreign hell hole.

* In summary, information leading up to 9/11/2001 was sketchy and imprecise. The Benghazi terrorist attack was predictable, falling on 9/11, with specific requests for increased security and specific, actionable information about the on-going attack, with US forces within reach.

We the People need to fire Obama

He is an incompetent poltroon, and senior military "leadership" are adopting his style.  President Romney's first act should be to fire every tinhorn general who failed to act.  And he needs to do it "Branded" style, publicly ripping the rank off of the disgraced cowards' uniforms, while breaking their swords over his knee.

A great nation does not leave its citizens to die!  It runs to the sound of the guns.

Under Comandante Zero, Al Qaeda is Alive and Americans are Dead

What did the President know and when did he know it?

The Benghazi attack laid bare Obama's rank incompetence. He left people to die in a foreign hellhole and is thus unfit to be commander in chief. This is what happens when inexperienced people who have no idea what they are doing are put in charge.

Think it's not his fault? 

Want to pin it on Little Leon Panetta, who said there wasn't enough information to act? Great. Then Obama should immediately fire Panetta, as well as the glorified wine stewards who call themselves generals who refused to act. And he needs to fire Hillary Clinton as well, since message traffic documents the security shortfalls and the fact that Hillary was aware of them.

As usual, Mark Steyn provides brilliant analysis. He has written a masterpiece that I recommend everyone read. Here are a few excerpts:

He deals with the video that supposedly touched off Islamic rioting, as well as the "Lose your virginity to Obama in the voting booth" one:

the Obama line that Benghazi had been a spontaneous movie review that just got a little out of hand was utterly false.

These two videos — the Islamophobic one and the Obamosexual one — bookend the remarkable but wholly deserved collapse of the president’s reelection campaign.

Obama, the dithering, blathering boob, has blood on his hands:

We also learned that, in those first moments of the attack, a request for military back-up was made by U.S. staff on the ground but was denied by Washington. It had planes and special forces less than 500 miles away in southern Italy — or about the same distance as Washington to Boston. They could have been there in less than two hours.

Yet the commander-in-chief declined to give the order. So Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods fought all night against overwhelming odds, and died on a rooftop in a benighted jihadist hellhole while Obama retired early to rest up before his big Vegas campaign stop.

Obama:  Unfit to be Commander in Chief

"We didn't have enough information" is a bullshit excuse to cover this administration's gross and now deadly incompetence.  A real leader would have put that quick reaction force on a plane headed for Benghazi and gathered information while they were in the air. 

Obama got bin Laden? Yeah, after years of hard grunt work by intelligence assets and months of practice by experienced special forces.  Competent professionals handed it to him on a silver platter.  No thought or bold leadership required on his part.  After months of dithering indecision, Comandante Zero pulled his finger out of his nose and gave the go-ahead.

Benghazi showed us the true Obama administration.  When left to his own devices, he is lost.  Clueless.  Dithering while people die.  He and his administration are are rank amateurs guilty of a negligence bordering on criminal.

Do we need any more evidence that Joe Biden is a moronic douche bag?

At the photo-op staged for the returning caskets, Obama et al. seem to have been too focused on their campaign needs to observe even the minimal courtesies.

Charles Woods says that at the ceremony Joe Biden strolled over to him and by way of condolence said in a “loud and boisterous” voice, “Did your son always have balls the size of cue balls?”

One assumes charitably that the vice president is acknowledging in his own inept and blundering way the remarkable courage of a man called upon to die for his country on some worthless sod halfway across the planet. But the near-parodic locker-room coarseness is grotesque both in its inaptness and in its lack of basic human feeling for a bereaved family forced to grieve in public and as crowd-scene extras to the political bigshot. 

Steyn concludes...

But a funny thing happened over the next six weeks: Obama’s own cue balls shriveled.

President Obama and Vice President Biden are unfit for office.  They and their klatch of ivory tower socialists, pointy-headed intellectuals, botched up bungling bastards and cocked-up cluster f**kers need to climb into their Klown Kar and get the hell out of our nation's capital before they get us all killed.

Democrat Party Binders Full of Stereotypes

So, let me get this straight.  Liberal Democrats love to bawl about the right's "War on Women," while calling us misogynistic cavemen.  Yet liberal democrats are the ones treating women like walking vaginas wanting to get their freak on while forcing the rest of America to foot the bill for their condoms, pills and abortions.

How condescendingly reductionist and demeaning is that?

Liberal Democrats are the ones objectifying and pornifying women, reducing beautiful and complex creatures  to feminist stereotypes, while simultaneously portraying them as helpless naifs in constant peril from the predations and dominance of paternalistic old men.   It's like one of those interminable Lifetime Network movies where the beautiful, beleaguered heroine is menaced by sinister men for four hours.  Doesn't sound very "Forward!" does it?

Obama has Jumped the Shark

Excellent bloggers like Bunkerville and AOW have covered that putrid Obama campaign video featuring the  young woman comparing voting for Obama to losing one's virginity.  They nailed it so completely, I don't need to cover it further, than to simply to say that the video is agenda-driven liberalism reductio ad absurdum.

I am heartened to see Romney has closed the gender gap.  A nation full of crazy women, horny for the president and squeezing themselves into the democrats' skin-tight, stereotypical agenda is a sad and scary thought.

Texas tells the UN to Get Bent

I Love Texas...

Finally, an American citizen stands up to the International House of Rape and Corruption known as the UN…

Texas Attorney General Threatens to Arrest UN Elections Observers

Here's what Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot had to say when he got wind of UN plans to send some representatives of tyranny to observe our elections:

"It may be a criminal offense for OSCE's representatives to maintain a presence within 100 feet of a polling place's entrance," he writes. "Failure to comply with these requirements could subject the OSCE's representatives to criminal prosecution for violating state law."

Then Rick Perry stepped up to the microphone, narrowed his eyes down to slits reminiscent of a gunslinger on a dusty street squinting into the noonday sun and declared he would personally hog-tie and drag behind his horse any damned UN bastard found in his state.   He then called the UN "Satan's tool," gave a hearty yee-haw, and shot out a chandelier with his .45 before telling reporters they had 30 seconds to clear out before he used them as target practice.

OK, I made that last paragraph up, but back to the story... 

Liberal Democrats have been trying like hell over these past decades to turn the United States into a third world country, and their latest gambit is inviting in UN election observers. This act alone should disqualify them from any responsible position in government. We are the United States of America, not some turd world hell-hole that needs international panjandrums and special rapporteurs gettin’ all up in our bidness. And despite the four year reign of King Obama, we are still a nation of laws. Antics such as this make a mockery of our system of justice and erode public confidence in our institutions.

The Poobah in charge of election observation for the corrupt international organization of torturers and despots was indignant at the Texan’s sovereign declaration:

“The threat of criminal sanctions against OSCE/ODIHR observers is unacceptable,” Lenarčič said. “The United States, like all countries in the OSCE, has an obligation to invite ODIHR observers to observe its elections.”

Just try coming into Texas, you pedophile-enabling kleptocrat. I hope they lasso your ass and drag you kicking and screaming into the Gulf of Mexico as they fire pistols in the air and shout “Yahoo!”

The Incredible Lightness of Being Obama

It's all hype folks. Obama is a spent force.

In a sign of increasing desperation, President Obama has finally, grudgingly produced a plan for his next four years.  It's a slick brochure, light on facts and heavy on emotional appeal, more worthy of an automobile dealership showroom, but it's got his dwindling fan base all excited.

I wrote a blog post a year ago saying that the dems were in trouble because Obama's all they got, and the Hope has been revealed to be nothing more than hype.

Romney Mindfreaked Obama

In that post I made fun of the Obama fanboy who said this about his man crush:

And he’s the same guy who will leave quarts of blood on the floor in the coming months to defend his office.

Obama likes to get into people’s heads. It might be a coincidence that Obama called Texas Gov. Rick Perry about the wildfires in the Lone Star State just hours before Perry was participating in his first debate. And it might not.

On the golf course, on the basketball court and even in the Cabinet Room, the president has shown repeatedly that he is a mindfreak, to use a term from the basketball courts. (Sam Youngman - I Want to be Obama's Love Slave)

I said it at the time, but Obama has now proven it.  That was all BS.  Obama's not a mindfreak, and it's his head that is rattled.

Romney got inside Obama's head from the first debate to the last, putting him back on his heels at the start, and leaving him scrambling to regain his pedestal, looking shouty and desperate while Romney calmly parried the President's wild punches.  Mitt zinged him good at the Al Smith Dinner, leaving the president outgunned and outclassed again.  In the third debate, Obama came armed for a Romney attack on the Benghazi terrorist attack, and Mitt did a misdirect, almost causing Obama to throw his shoulder out punching thin air. The president was quickly reduced to snide derision, which even his fans in the news media found out of place.

Romney is More Presidential than The President

Go look at the YouTube of the president's closing statement at the third debate.  It was the statement of an angry, losing challenger, not a president who had near total-control these past four years.

Romney has shown himself to be a cool customer who does his homework and goes about his tasks in a diligent manner.

Obama has shown himself to be a peevish, petty little man who is in way over his head.

Romney has clearly outclassed him, to the point where Obama's playground jabs made him look like the challenger and Romney the President.

As Mrs Silverfiddle observed, Mitt has shown us he can sit down and rationally and cogently present his point of view in a hostile environment.  Obama has shown that he cannot, at least without getting angry and sarcastic.  Mitt Romney is more presidential than the president.

Western Hero - There Will be Mud
White House Dossier - Romney's Brilliant Maneuver

"Why has the GOP become the freedom party?"

I love Camille Paglia. Few people analyze pop culture, think deeper about it, and write about it as well as she does. She is the rare liberal who can cogently critique her own side and honestly evaluate conservative phenomena without tearing her hair out, becoming unhinged or lapsing into cliché.  She defended Sarah Palin during the onslaught of unhinged leftwing attacks even as she vehemently disagreed with much of Sara's ideology.

 And most delightful of all, she is so venerable and respected that she can tell blasphemous truths to even a Salon writer and not get her eyes scratched out or get thrown down the memory hole. If her own side would listen to her, perhaps they could find their way out of the wilderness and put the disastrous age of Obama behind them.

She’s voting Green Party this time because she’s disgusted with Obama’s “endless wars” and “creeping totalitarianism,” among other things. 

On the media's love affair with Barack Obama:

The media’s pampering and protection of Obama over the years simply led to his weakening — which was on excruciating public display at his first debate with Romney, who landed blow after blow.

She cuts to the illogical core of Obamacare:

But the childish naivete of so many supposedly well-educated liberals was shown by their complete failure to notice or remark on the most glaringly obvious deficiency in Obamacare: You cannot possibly expand medical coverage to millions of people without also expanding medical training and funding new clinics and hospitals. The total absence of that in the bill was ludicrous. And you still hear mush-minded liberals saying all the time in the media, “Oh, what about this nice provision or that?” When any of those things could have been easily dealt with by free-standing bills passed with bipartisan support.

 She scolds her fellow liberals, who forget liberty is the etymological root of their shared moniker:

The way liberals lay down flat to accept this massive, totalitarian takeover of the American medical system was shocking to me.

Her interviewer goes on a mini tirade, blaming the GOP for the growing surveillance state, but Ms. Paglia stops him cold:

Wait a minute, hold it, no! Listen — a huge point I want to make is that the protest against the surveillance state has, with only a few exceptions, been mainly coming from the Right and not from the Left! Talk radio has been seething with this issue for years. A good example is talk-show host Mark Levin’s “Liberty and Tyranny,” which was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller three years ago and yet got very few mainstream reviews.

Democrats have got to wake up! This is why the Republican Party has gained and why the Democratic Party is in disarray — because the Democrats have lost one of their key signature issues from 1960s leftism. Why has the GOP become the freedom party?

The Left must retake this issue of personal freedom and civil liberties. Over the last 20 years, freedom has become a conservative watch word, and liberals have lost their claim to it. There is a huge difference between contemporary upper-middle-class bourgeois Democratic liberalism and the fire-breathing 1960s leftism that was the mood of my college years. After all, it all began with the free speech movement at Berkeley! But liberals have now been trained to be docile and obedient.

As someone who listens to talk radio, I must tell you that the issue of personal freedom and resistance to a swollen totalitarian government has become primary on the Right.

All Quotes from Salon

Children are our Future

All of this is a lead-in to a wonderful YouTube video made by liberty-loving youngsters, from California of all places! I thought Z was the last Republican in the state...

It’s short, sincere, and very well made. While the left is busy trying to snuff the torch of liberty, it is the right fighting to keep the flame burning brightly.

The Kingmakers

Scholar's Mate (C) Karophyr

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) was established in 1987 to ensure that debates, as a permanent part of every general election, provide the best possible information to viewers and listeners.  Its primary purpose is to sponsor and produce debates for the United States presidential and vice presidential candidates and to undertake research and educational activities relating to the debates.  The CPD is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501(c) (3) corporation.

 Pursuant to the criteria, which were publicly announced on October 31, 2011, those candidates qualify for debate participation who (1) are constitutionally eligible to hold the office of President of the United States; (2) have achieved ballot access in a sufficient number of states to win a theoretical Electoral College majority in the general election; and (3) have demonstrated a level of support of at least 15 percent of the national electorate, as determined by five selected national public opinion polling organizations, using the average of those organizations' most recent publicly-reported results.

Who is the CPD?

Co-Chair: Frank J. Fahrenkkopf – RNC Chair 1983-1987

Co-Chair: Michael D. McCurry - Press Secretary, Clinton Administration, Director of Communications. DNC 1988-1990

Co-Chair Emeritus: Paul G Kirk – DNC Chair 1985-1989

Board:
Howard G. Buffet: Eldest son of Warren Buffet
John C. Dansforth: Republican Senator, UN Ambassador
John Griffen: Who is John Griffen, International Man of Mystery?
Antonia Hernandez: President & CEO California Community Foundation a $1.24B  philanthropic organization, former Kennedy campaign coordinator.
Rev. John I. Jenkins: President of the University of Notre Dame
Newton N. Minow: JFK Campaigner appointed to the FCC, former FCC Chair. Senior  Counsel
Sidly Austin, recruited Barack Obama to the firm.
Richard D Parsons: Former Chair & CEO Time Warrner, Former Rockefeller and Ford
staffer, economic advisory staff for Obama
Dorothy S. Ridings: President & CEO Council on Foundations
Alan K Simpson: Republican Senator, Republican whip 1985-1995

Executive Director: Janet Brown – Republican staffer (John Danforth, Elliot Richardson)

At a 1987 press conference announcing the commission's creation, Fahrenkopf said that the commission was not likely to include third-party candidates in debates, and Paul G. Kirk, Democratic national chairman, said he personally believed they should be excluded from the debates

While rule 1, constitutionally eligible, and rule 2, on the ballot in enough states to actually get elected president (270 electoral college votes) make sense, rule 3, a 15% showing in an average of 5 national polls would appear to be solely to exclude third party candidates from the debates.  This leads one to the conclusion the the CPD is bi-partisan not non-partisan.

As far as third party candidates go, the only discussion on CPDs website is a fairly ambiguous paragraph titled Voter Ambivalence About Third Party Candidates: “The authors here focused on the first three-way match-up in a general election presidential debate.  Participant reaction to Ross Perot and James Stockdale's presence in the debates suggested that the dynamics, content, and tone of the exchange during the debates were distinctly affected by their presence.  Focus groups found this element impacted their attitudes about independent candidates.”

Catch-22: Until third party candidates can actually participate in the national election process, there is little chance of them ever meeting the participation criteria of the CPD.  How can the CPD claim to “provide the best possible information to viewers and listeners” when they exclude all but the Republican and Democratic candidates for office?

Can it be that the CPD’s true agenda is fostering the status quo?  In my humble opinion they do a disservice to the American people and Democracy itself.

~FINNTANN~

Political Potpourri

Biggest Laff Line of Last week:

"You know, Barack doesn't have a big ego," Michelle Obama said in an excerpt from an interview with CNN that aired Tuesday. (Politico)

Does she remember those grand speeches amid Greek columns and pompous pronouncements about making the seas recede and healing the planet? The Big O’s overinflated ego shows even in one-on-one interviews:

“I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.” (Obama WikiQuote)

Random Thoughts

Michelle has also said that multiple voting is key to her husband’s victory. Wait, maybe she said early voting… I can’t remember…

Many Americans are justifiably asking what Obama’s plans are for a second term. I know he’s hiring an army of teachers to go invade or attack something…

Is there some law somewhere that says all presidential debates must be moderated by liberal democrats?

Another Obama Oops

“We got back every dime we used to rescue the financial system.” -- President Obama

Except we didn’t…

“The cost to the federal government of the TARP’s transactions (also referred to as the subsidy cost), including grants for mortgage programs that have not yet been made, will amount to $24 billion,” said the CBO report, which was released on the same day Obama spoke. (CBO Tarp Report)

In fact, CBO reported that as of now $65 billion in TARP funds remain outstanding. (CNS News)

The statement from CNS can be verified by looking at page three of the CBO report.

His reelection prospects crumbling, he’s now resorting to bald-faced lies that can be easily fact-checked against published government documents.

More bad news for the venture socialist in chief...

Another green company that received Obama largess ($249 million) has gone bankrupt.

A123 Systems Inc. (AONE), the electric car battery maker that received a $249.1 million federal grant, filed for bankruptcy protection and said it would sell its automotive business assets to Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) (Bloomberg)

Bailing out the World

GM is spending more and more of its taxpayer-enhanced cash pile to shore up its faltering foreign divisions. In fact, according to an analysis of GM’s SEC filings, the company is likely to incur over $6.5 billion in losses and expenditures overseas in the 2011-2014 period, not counting over $1.6b in foreign potential legal liabilities or several other incalculable expenses that could add up to billions more.

Not only are these expenses a challenge to GM’s overall financial health at a time when it also faces billion-dollar expenditures on pensions in the US, it shows the basic problem with national bailouts of global companies. Taxpayers who were told they were saving an American company are now seeing their tax dollars flowing overseas by the billions. (The Truth about Cars)

Finally, Victor Davis Hanson has summed up Obama’s first term beautifully:

What, then, was Obama’s first term? Jimmy Carter’s ends justifying Richard Nixon’s means. (VDH)

Salve for our wounds: The Economic Case for Romney-Ryan

Twittorrhea

That Infamous Twitter Feed...

No, not the one about Romney’s “Binders full of Women” (more about that later). I’m talking about the one where all the grammar-challenged misspelling morons eagerly cheer for the assassination of Mitt Romney.

Twitchy captures the lowlights, such as…

@Gotta__Lov3it
If Romney win this election, he might as well wear a shirt that says "Assassinate Me Bitch"

#¢reamteam4sho™ @4shogbmg
I aint gone lie... Food stamps the shit! I mite assasinate romney my damn self if he get elected ! I fuxx wit free 99 on the eats

$Bl@¢kDyn@m!t3$ @WishaNiggaW00dz
Fck Romney.!.. soon as he break out the whips and chains...the mf murder rate goin up...caus ill b damned the bitch have me on my knees

Romney ole dumbasz! If he become president sumbody shud assasinate his ass soon as they say he won lol rs— Chanel (@Im_So_Sinqleee) October 17, 2012

A few thoughts…

First, we have no way of knowing how much of this is sincere and how much was done by agent provocateurs from the other side wanting to impugn the character of Obama voters.

We do have other anecdotal evidence (comments in other forums, YouTube posts), that there really are people who talk, write, spell and think this way. We also know there are certified racists and white supremacists who engage in this type of spoofing. I’ve tangled with some myself.

There are liberals who want to shut this down or enforce some kind of internet license that prevents anyone from posting anonymously. This is un-American. My solution is simpler. Ignore comments from anonymous nobodies and investigate and prosecute those stupid enough to post criminal threats.

I can’t help thinking back four years ago to a casual workplace conversation with a black coworker I am friendly with. He told me that the election of Obama would not heal race relations. He knew it would make them worse. He is a black man in a mostly-white world, so he has a keen understanding of both groups, and the past four years have validated his pessimistic prediction.

Twitter is Useless

The other thing that occurs to me is that Twitter is useless for anything other than allowing celebrities to pollute our lives with every little stupid thought that goes through their little pea brains. Eva Longoria, whose beauty far exceeds her brains, provided us a perfect example:

@evalongoria I have no idea why any woman/minority can vote for Romney. You have to be stupid to vote for such a racist/misogynistic twat

Now, if a conservative man used that kind of language against her, do you think he’d get by with it?

Liberal Democrats are in a Binder

Free Speech is a wonderful thing. Normal people are scratching their heads over the “Women in Binders” meme, but thanks to the multifarious liberal media outlets, there is an abundance of liberal loonies willing to explain it to us…

Obama tongue-bath provider Susanna Schrobsdorff explains why Mitt Romney is the most horribly misogynistic man to ever run for office.:

1. The image of a bunch of men leafing through “binders of women” is just icky. It evokes catalogs, porn magazines, mail order brides.

3. In our paperless society, binders are terribly old-fashioned. They invoke a time when the only jobs women could get in offices involved secretarial duties like putting together binders for the men who would do the real work.

4. And, as hundreds of online commenters (male and female) have pointed out, the word binder implies, well, binding. And we’re kind of sick of being bound up unless it’s in an E.L. James novel.

No, it’s not a parody. Yes, she is serious. Long live free speech!

Saturday Ha Ha's

My old Air Force buddy OD sent me these, so I thought I'd pass them along...

Ruger has come out with a new commemorative Pistol called "The Congressman..."

It doesn't work and you can't fire it.


Here's my favorite:

I'm gearing up to go hunting.  Have a great weekend!

Nostalgia Friday: Kelly's Heroes, Burning Bridges

Love Clint Eastwood?  Want to show your kids or grandkids a great movie from an earlier time?  Get Kelly's Heroes.  A few bad words, some violence, but not graphic, no nudity or sex, so it's safe for teens.

I have a confession to make.  I saw the movie Kelly's Heroes for the first time last Friday.  It was one of those movies I had always thought I had seen.  Maybe I saw it as a young tyke at the drive-in with my parents, because a few scenes looked familiar, like Don Rickles schlepping the .50 cal.

I was blown away by it, from start to finish.  The movie opening has to be one of the best of all time.  The tone of the song Burning Bridges makes an ironic juxtaposition with the battle scene, even as it incorporates the military snare drum sound and marching cadence.  The irony continues when Donald Sutherland's tankers destroy a German encampment to the tune of All For The Love Of Sunshine.

It also has an artsy touch of farce, imposing some blatant 60's themes upon a WW II movie.  

Could Hollywood make such a movie nowadays?  I don't think so.  Kelly's Heroes is a comedy without laugh lines, mining its humor from tragedy and everyday pathos, and Carroll O'Connor's General Colt is hilarious, especially after having seen him as Archie Bunker.  I also enjoyed the echoes of Sergio Leone when Clint was walking down that deserted street.

If the anti-war left was capable of such a brilliant project in this day and age, we would have been out of Afghanistan years ago.

Here's one of the better videos I found over at the YouToobs.  I love that song, Burning Bridges.  It has a big sound, like The Prodigy's Stand Up.  I had never heard it before, but it belongs to that late 60's genre that I can't describe, but that includes the Ray Charles Singers and perhaps Herb Alpert (whose music I absolutely love).  Alas, I am stirred to nostalgia for a time I never knew...

One final note.  Burning Bridges was written and produced by Mike Curb, and sung by the Mike Curb Congregation.  He also did the soundtrack for the Peter Fonda movie, The Wild Angels as well as Tom Laughlin's Born Losers (an excellent but disturbingly violent movie).  Mike Curb was also Governor Jerry Brown's Republican Lieutenant Governor, the last Republican ever elected to that office.

America's Future: An Artisan Economy?

Examine the liberal propaganda, and you’ll see a grain of truth behind it. Yes, social mobility is slowing in the US, but investigation reveals that it’s not evil plutocrats keeping their cruel boot heels on the necks of the poor, but societal dysfunction of our underclass. If you insist on blaming someone other than the poor, our tolerance of criminal gangs and crappy public schools are both great targets.

Loss of manufacturing jobs is an important part of the narrative

While manufacturing jobs have long since departed for China and India, the U.S. economy continues to grow and even manufacture products that the world wants to buy—we export more in dollar terms than we did a decade ago. But what we’re sending (and how it’s made) is drastically different today. (Slate)

A cry we hear over and over from the Krugman’s and the Reich’s of the world is that more and more money is going into fewer and fewer pockets. They then hint darkly at those greedy republican businessmen.

Well, this is to be expected in an age where automation continues apace. Replace a man with a robot, and the wages no longer go to the man, but all the gains from the robot go to the company owner.

Luddite Barack Obama, who knows nothing of economics or how business works, ignorantly decries the advent of robots, automated checkouts at grocery stores and ATM machines. So what would our economically-ignorant president do? Banish technology from his kingdom? Tax robotic innovation to the point that it is too expensive to implement?

This is the intellectual dead end liberalism brings us to. Fortunately, reality does not conform to their fevered nightmares. There is always a way, and innovation powered by free-market capitalism is the signpost.

Manufacturing is Coming Back

the larger trends show that the tide has turned, and it is China's turn to worry. Many CEOs, including Dow Chemicals' Andrew Liveris, have declared their intentions to bring manufacturing back to the United States. What is going to accelerate the trend isn't, as people believe, the rising cost of Chinese labor or a rising yuan. The real threat to China comes from technology. Technical advances will soon lead to the same hollowing out of China's manufacturing industry that they have to U.S industry over the past two decades.

Manufacturing won’t require the manpower it used to 

But that’s not the end of the story...

Moretti suggests that the prognosis for the average American worker need not be so gloomy if, as he predicts, America continues to thrive as a hub of knowledge generation and innovation. While the idea creators—those who design iPhones and develop new drugs—will continue to be the drivers of prosperity, more than a few crumbs may fall to the workers who support them.

For example, Moretti estimates that Microsoft alone is responsible for adding 120,000 low-skill jobs to the Seattle area, where the company is based. This is because of the support workers required to style the hair, cut the grass, and yes, build the houses, of all those Microsoft engineers and computer scientists.(Foreign Policy)

It's going to require us to learn new skillsets... 

…what today’s worker needs is a set of skills that offers the personal touch and judgment that can’t be provided by a machine or someone 12 time zones away. Katz argues that this will be crucial for those with only high school educations, who will need to learn a “high touch” trade—like personal trainers, kitchen designers, and home health aides—where personal interaction is critical.

He makes a similar argument for the college educated as well: With many clerical and lower-level management jobs made obsolete by advances in information technology or lost to off-shoring, they’ll have to reinvent themselves as, say, IT support professionals or consultants. (Slate)

The author’s bottom line is government-driven jobs training and retraining. I think this is too important to be left to our sclerotic, plonkish federal government, but he is right that we need to be flexible, and education is the key. As certain kinds of jobs go away, new jobs appear, if our economy is nimble and encourages entrepreneurship.

We could start on this road to our new “Artisan Economy” by burning down libraries full of government regulations that chain down our entrepreneurs. Next we can RIF the armies of bureaucrats waging war on jobs creators. Finally, we can stop subsidizing higher education with federal money that flows as easily to the rich as to the poor and equally to worthwhile degree programs and worthless ones. 

Stop preaching the ridiculous message of college for everybody (a plumber or hairdresser trained in a trade school makes more than a Masters of Humanities working at Starbucks), and let the free market reign.

The Blame Game

In an interview with NBC News, Hillary Clinton discouraged the current debate about who should be blamed for the security breach that led to the attacks in Benghazi.

"I really believe that tragedies like what happened in Benghazi should be viewed in a non-political way," Clinton continued. "Please don't blame me."  Actually she urged us to all pull together as Americans.

When asked if initial reports indicated that there had been an intelligence failure, Clinton said she didn't want to engage in a "Blame Game".

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/15/14463534-clinton-we-did-everything-we-could-to-keep-our-people-safe?lite

So what is this "Blame Game" that Hillary refers to?  A quick search of Google headlines reveals what this blame game is really all about:

Hillary Blames Bush for Economy
Hillary Blames Bush for North Korean Nukes
Hillary Blames Bush for Afghanistan Problems
Hillary Blames Bush for Katrina
Hillary Blames Bush for Closed Factory
Hillary Blames Bush for Blackout
Hillary Blames Nigeria's Leaders for Extremism
Hillary Blames Israel for Mid-East Woes
Hillary Blames Arafat for West Asia Violence
Hillary Blames US for Violence in Mexico
Hillary Blames Obama's Out of Control Spending on Bush
Hillary Blames Bad US Image on Pro-Wrestling
Hillary Blames Iranian Victims for Suffering Caused by Sanctions
Hillary Blames Speculators for High Gas Prices
Hillary Blames CO2 for Fires
Hillary Blames Baywatch for Poor Middle-Eastern Relations

And last but not least... Hillary Blames White house for False Statement on Libya Attack!

"What we want to do is get to the bottom of what happened, figure out what we're going to do to protect people and prevent it from happening again, and then track down whoever did it and bring them to justice...after we have safely secured the election," Clinton said.

You see, culpability is irrelevant when it's an election year and even more so when it is probable that you are at least partially to blame.

The Blame Game... so long as you don't blame me!

Cheers!

~FINNTANN~

Obama's House of Lies

Chexydecimal.com

Now that the Vice Presidential debate is over and Obama's locked Grandpa Munster back in the White House basement, the focus swings back to the top of the tickets...

Barring a big gaffe, I predict nothing earth-shattering out of this evening's debate.

Obama's winged monkeys in the press echoed the campaign propaganda blaming The Messiah's dismal performance in the last debate on Romney's myriad lies.

That's right.  Mitt Romney is not satisfied with firing men and killing their wives, this evil millionaire performed a nefarious denial of service attack on the President's brain, causing the Smartest President Ever to literally lock up.  But not to worry, he had some snappy comebacks... The next day!

I hope the supposed lying comes up this evening, because El Presidente has some problems of his own in that department...

The Roof is caving in on Obama's house of lies...

... And with spin like this, they are panicking

* AARP has issued at least two requests for the Obama campaign to stop invoking its name in its campaign propaganda.

* Coal Miners ask Obama to Stop 'Absolute Lies'

* Sesame Street has asked the Obama campaign to cease and desist the use of its characters

* The Princeton economist who published a detailed study of Romney’s tax plan has stated that the Obama Campaign is misrepresenting his work when they make the tendentious claim that Romney wants to take $5 trillion from the middle class and give it to rich people:

But Princeton economist Harvey Rosen told The Huffington Post in an interview on Tuesday that there is no way that this claim is accurate. "My paper doesn't say it, doesn't imply it," Rosen said.

He said that, if anything, his paper reached the opposite conclusion about Romney's tax plan. "The paper shows that if you look at individual taxpayers with incomes of $200,000 or more, there is sufficient revenue from base broadening and growth to make up for the revenue lost from lower tax rates. Therefore, there is no need to make up revenue from groups with below $200,000." (HuffPo)

* NBC has asked the Obama Campaign to stop using its news personalities as campaign ad props

* Erstwhile news organization AP has taken to ambush photography in service to their messiah

* Obama supporters were caught using dirty tricks to get the Catholic vote

* The latest cheap lie: Blaming the GOP for the Benghazi terrorist attack

Soledad O'Brien, perhaps the dumbest woman on tv, most definitely the dullest knife in CNN's drawer, opened a partisan attack on Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz:

While speaking to CNN, Chaffetz was asked if he had "voted to cut the funding for embassy security."

"Absolutely," he replied. "Look we have to make priorities and choices in this country. We have…15,000 contractors in Iraq. We have more than 6,000 contractors, a private army there, for President Obama, in Baghdad. And we’re talking about can we get two dozen or so people into Libya to help protect our forces. When you’re in tough economic times, you have to make difficult choices. You have to prioritize things."

Poor Soledad thought she had an opening, so she pressed her attack, suggesting that his cuts could be tied directly to the Benghazi deaths. That's when Chaffetz lowered the boom, showing her for the mental midget that she is, informing this supposed news person that there were no cuts because the Senate hasn't passed a budget in four years, they've been running on continuing resolutions.

So there were no cuts, and the blame is right back in Obama's lap, where it should be.

Obama and his minions are getting desperate, folks. The rotten edifice they've built is collapsing on them. The next three weeks will see a frenzy of mudball fusillades and character smears from the O-bots.  It's going to be a slugfest. 

Economic Liberty

Peter Grossman asks, Is Energy Independence Undesirable? Being independent in anything sounds good, and often it its, but at what cost? What is Adam Smith’s unseen?

For example, should the US be completely food independent? We’re not. We ship a lot of it overseas, and then we import more. Exploiting our abundant resources is a good thing, and it does provide us more freedom of movement, but energy independence should not be the goal, economic freedom should be.

Just ask Europe, dependent on Gazprom, with the specter ever looming of Putin pinching off the pipe. It’s a worry, but not a great one. Russia can’t eat their natural gas, just as the Arabs can’t eat their oil. Even the richest of countries hurt themselves by forgoing an opportunity to sell their resources. As Grossman points out…

…the Arab embargo was a fiasco for the Arab exporters who imposed it; the embargo became a crisis in the U.S. because of our own policies, especially price controls that prevented prices from rising to market levels. But that’s clearly not how it is remembered here. Most Americans, like Obama, see the oil “weapon” dangling over our heads, wielded no doubt in the popular imagination by the robed sheikhs of 1970’s lore, or maybe these days by masked jihadists. (Grossman)

Another example: How are we punishing Iran? By refusing to buy their oil, and convincing others to boycott as well. So it goes both ways, and having our own energy development allows us to take such actions without damaging out own economy.

Free trade in a global open marketplace with a diversity of buyers and sellers is the most desirable scenario, guaranteeing open price discovery and avoiding shocks and gluts.

Rather than speaking of independence in anything, we should be talking about economic liberty, a wise use of our resources, and free and fair trade between free nations and peoples.

Catholicism in the Hands of the People

51% of Catholics believe gay marriage should be legal

Jamie Manson has written a provocative article speculating that rank and file Catholic support for gay unions can be chalked up to what she calls the Catholic imagination.

Her premise is posited in response to The Archbishop of Newark’s declaration “that those who support marriage equality should refrain from receiving the Eucharist.”

“With somewhere between 52 percent and 72 percent of Catholics in this country supporting same-sex marriage, a lot of people are going to be turned away hungry from the altar.”

For Catholics, receiving communion is a big deal. It is one of the seven sacraments and is the very center of Catholic faith. I know the Catholic Church looks to outsiders like a legalistic fortress, and it is, but Jesus Christ is the core of the faith. Without the life, death, burial, and resurrection of God Made Man, and without Christ’s saving grace, Catholicism has no meaning.

The Catholic Imagination

Manson does a wonderful job scraping away the legalistic barnacles and exposing the Catholic soul:

In his book The Catholic Imagination, Fr. Andrew Greeley writes, "Catholics see the Holy lurking in creation. As Catholics, we find our houses and our world haunted by a sense that the objects, events and persons of daily life are revelations of grace."

The Catholic imagination, or "Catholic sacramental view of the world," as my mentor Margaret Farley calls it, has its roots in the Catholic understanding of the relationship between grace and nature.

In Catholic theology, grace perfects nature. Yes, human beings are a mess, and we're born into a very messy world. But because we are created by God and because everything God creates is good, there is intrinsic goodness in us. God offers us countless opportunities of grace to help us transform ourselves and to redeem us.

Catholics believe the finite is capable of the infinite. This is why Greely says objects, events and persons all have the capability to reveal God's grace to us. That grace can come in our experiences of love, forgiveness, compassion, justice, sacrifice, but also in the midst of suffering, brokenness and desolation. (Jamie Manson)

Ducky, a fellow Catholic, will invoke Dorothy Day every now and then. She’s not a famous actress, but rather a leftwing Catholic woman who devoted her life to social activism and helping the poor. In March of 2000, The Vatican opened the case for her sainthood. She too had the Catholic imagination:

It is the Catholic imagination that gave Dorothy Day the vision to see a prostitute with advanced syphilis as Jesus Christ on her doorstep. (Jamie Manson)

This is not unlike the Theology of Bono, a world-famous rock star married thirty years to the same woman and also a devoted Catholic:

It's a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma. […]

But I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I'd be in deep s---. It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity. (Bono: Grace over Karma)

The Bono interview and the Jamie Manson article do not deal in Catholic orthodoxy or theology, focusing instead on the hearts of two believers. Bono has departed from some Church teachings while carrying out others quite faithfully, and Manson rejects Catholic doctrine in her conclusion on gay marriage, but along the way both of them beautifully explain what moves and motivates everyday Catholics.

You could also listen to Mumford and Sons, another band caught between the sacred and the profane. Although they are not Catholic, they capture the same spirit, of celebrating life and all that is in it, because although it is full of the fallen and the broken, it’s all God’s creation, and God still blesses it with his grace.

Life does not deal in neat categories and pristine lines of demarcation. We drink, we cuss, we act out, we sin, but we are also capable of loving God so much, and getting down on our knees and crying over our sins, even as he cleanses us and forgives us.

*- This is neither a defense nor an attack on Catholicism or any other religion.  I will delete comments by jihadis intent on using this discussion to launch attacks on the beliefs of others.

Beer and Politics

Click the picture to embiggen, or go here.

Grab a Heinie, or head for the mountains?  What your Beer Says about Your Politics

Those who drink Sam Adams, the patriot of beers, are more likely to vote Republican. They're also more likely to vote than those who drink, say, Natural Light.

Heineken fans are more likely to be Democrats than any other beer drinkers. But they aren't a particularly strong voting block. Heineken drinkers turn out at the polls to vote at relatively low levels. (National Journal)

We'll all need something stronger than beer by the time this election is over...

A Full Cuppa Joe

You can tell Obama is losing, because he’s even more smirky and shouty than normal, hurling insults and tossing out committee-generated one-liners (conveniently, where no opponent can rebut him).

As VP Biden would say, Romney’s trouncing of Obama in the debate last week was a big f’ing deal. Romney got a 5-point bounce in the Gallup poll and keeps going higher, so ol’ Gaffmaster Joe’s performance tonight could be worth five or so more. The election could be over this Friday…

Or Maybe Not...

So, Joe Biden had to take six days off to compete for a job he already has. What’s with all the debate prep for him and President Obama? They’ve had the job for almost four years, what is there to “prep” for? Either you know it or you don’t, and they clearly don’t which I guess explains all the preparation. It was so important to Obama that he even cancelled some golf outings and Hollywood media events to practice.

I think the Veep will probably do OK, if he stays away from mentioning how FDR went on TV to speak to the American people or doesn’t try to spell anything. His non-stop, one-man traveling minstrel show lulls us into forgetting that he is an intelligent man.

But seriously, I look for him to take a fatherly, lecturing tone to put Ryan in his place, to portray the younger man as an untested naïf. After all, unlike Obama and Biden, Ryan didn’t kill Osama with his bare hands or win a Nobel Prize, and Biden's been in politics since before Ryan was born.

Also, I predict Biden will go loud populist. It’s the free-wheeling, facts-be-damned territory that suits him best. His reeling off blue collar zingers will contrast sharply with Ryan’s studiousness, and it could end up making Ryan look like a stiff, humorless prig, in love with his actuarial tables, bogged down with cold statistics and unconcerned with “real people.”

I know, it sounds contradictory. Biden being both a lecturing father and a populist joker, but it can work for the voluble Vice President. Think Archie Bunker or (the resemblance is striking) Frank Barone, the father from Everybody Loves Raymond. It will take some skill on Ryan’s part to escape this pincers attack.

Nothing is certain. The irony for Biden is this: The more scripted and staid he is, the less effective he’ll be. If he let’s ’er rip, he can win over the crowd and beat Ryan, but that “Scranton Joe unplugged” territory is also mined with gaff hazards.

I predict an entertaining debate with no clear winner, based mostly upon the affable VP’s formidable skills at playing to the peanut gallery. I may just have to watch it tonight.

See also:
Stakes Get Higher in Upcoming Ryan-Biden Debate
Obama Needs the Merciless Joe
Did Obama Just Throw the Entire Election?

And I'm including this picture because I think it is a wonderful piece of photography...

Federal Government: A Deviant Subculture

Can anyone change the DC culture that is dragging this nation down?

Gene Healy, in his sarcasm-laden article Take Me Down to the Parasite City, notes that DC has the highest percentage of college grads and the lowest unemployment in the nation. And they don’t produce anything there…

D.C.'s "high-skill" economy boasts more college degrees than any other major metropolitan area in America. "If you wanted to imagine what the economy might look like if the country were much better educated," Leonhardt writes, "you can look at Washington."

Hey, you people out there in flyover country: We're eating your lunch because we're "smarter" than you! Hit the books, rubes: We built this!

Even so, I found it a bit unsettling last fall to read that "Beltway Earnings Make U.S. Capital Richer Than Silicon Valley," as the Bloomberg News headline put it. After all, Silicon Valley "creates" wealth, while we -- smart as we are -- mostly shuffle it around. (Gene Healy)

Phillip K. Howard observes that the Federal Government is a deviant subculture:

A deviant subculture is defined by sociologist Anthony Giddens as one "whose members have values which differ substantially from those of the majority in a society."

American government is a deviant subculture. Its leaders stand on soapboxes and polarize the public by pointing fingers while secretly doing the bidding of special interests. Many public employees plod through life with their noses in rule books, indifferent to the actual needs of the public and unaccountable to anyone.

He tells a sad story about trying to advance a solid, bipartisan idea, reaching to the highest levels of government, and getting nowhere. He concludes:

Right and wrong no longer matter in this deviant subculture. Sealed off from personal responsibility by accumulated bureaucracy and thick walls of special interest money, our government is covered by a putrid mold of cynical gamesmanship and everyday hypocrisy. People scurry around its baseboards seeking short-term advantage, but big change is so inconceivable as to be laughable. (Federal Government: A Deviant Subculture)

Can Anyone Fix Too Big To Fail?

James Pethokoukis asks, "Would Mitt Romney Break Up The Big Banks?"

Pethokoukis is a very smart man, so he starts out by offering a direct quote from Romney saying he has no such intention, but that was back in March. Tea Partiers and rightwingers are no happier about Too Big To Fail than their leftwing fellow citizens, so the author engages in some wishful thinking.

Does adding Ryan to the Ticket Change Romney’s Stance?

Ryan understands the danger of crony capitalism to the U.S. political economy, and the Wall Street-Washington nexus — not Solyndra — is the number one example of this. I would guess he has an open mind on the issue. (Pethokoukis)

It’s a nice fantasy, but I’m not holding my breath. Romney is a creature of Wall Street. If he did break up the DC-Wall Street orgy, it would be a Nixon to China moment.

And the President Droned On...

I am conflicted over our use of drone strikes overseas. I think they could be a useful tool, but not the way we are currently using them, and I hate the fact that the technology is coming home to spy on US citizens.

Bunkerville has been doing a consistently excellent job covering the president's extra-judicial assassinations, and their latest post on Yemen sparked me to investigate further, leading me to a good article in The Atlantic, of all places.

Joshua Foust wrote a surprisingly-balanced piece in that magazine, Targeted Killing, Pro and Con, examining the issue of drone strikes in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). He starts with the recently released report, Living Under Drones.

The report argues that the U.S. narrative of drone strikes -- precise, accurate, and limited -- is false. Citing 130 interviews and a review of media reports, the authors argue that the civilian toll from drone strikes is far higher than acknowledged, that many problems with the drone campaign go unreported, and that more government transparency is essential to gaining a better understanding of the campaign and its consequences.

While acknowledging that bad things happen, the author rightly questions the report as biased and not having a big enough sample, and not sampling enough of the people who are affected by the strikes. He points out that the strikes are highly effective in taking out bad guys, and he asks, are they really so bad? And more importantly, is there a better alternative?

It is not a simple one to answer. Looking at how residents in the FATA have behaved in other violent campaigns is instructive. In early 2009, the Pakistani Army announced its campaign to "clear" the Swat Valley, north of Islamabad, of terrorist groups that had been systematically murdering elders and tribal policemen and destroying hundreds of schools and other government buildings.

As the campaign proceeded, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said more than 300,000 people fled the fighting. By the end of the campaign, more than 1 million people got displaced by the army-Taliban fighting in Swat, which left the region completely devastated.

There have been no reported mass movements of people fleeing the drones in the last four years. The mere threat of a Pakistani army offensive into Waziristan, however, prompts thousands to flee in terror. There are several possible explanations: for example, people in heavily affected drone areas might be terrified to leave their houses.

But there is a simpler explanation: Perhaps drones are not as scary as opponents claim.

He makes a good point.  I have read reports featuring people cheering the strikes because they are fed up with the violent gangs that infest the place.  The anti-drone groups and campaigns could be patsies of the terrorists, who knows?

If drone strikes minimize the amount of troops on the ground and really are effective at taking out bad guys, then I'm for them, but it needs to be done transparently, and with congressional oversight.

We also can't have governments invite us in and then publicly badmouth us while privately cheering us on as duplicitous Pakistan does. If we're going to partner with a nation, it needs to be an honest alliance that furthers US objectives.

But most important is the transparency.  Why isn't congress debating our overseas actions and bringing We The People into the discussion?  Has congress voted on any of this?  Has anyone from the government explained to us why we are in Yemen? Should we be there?  Should we be in Pakistan?

Cooking the books

February 2012

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 227,000 in February, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment rose in professional and businesses services, health care and social assistance, leisure and hospitality, manufacturing, and mining.

April 2012

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 115,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 8.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in professional and business services,retail trade, and health care, but declined in transportation and warehousing.

July 2012

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 163,000 in July, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 8.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment rose in professional and business services, food services and drinking places, and manufacturing.

 September 2012
The unemployment rate decreased to 7.8 percent in September, and total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 114,000, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in health care and in transportation and warehousing but changed little in most other major industries.

Who do they think they're fooling?

Source:  BLS Archives

See Also:
The Sickly, Stagnant September Jobs Report
Drop in Unemployment may be Misleading