"Truth", Media, F&F

The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal - Fortune Features

This is one of those stories that has stayed right up at the top of CNN for a few days. It is rather long for it's premise -- "Fast and Furious never happened at all, everyone ought just move along".

This article doesn't reach the conclusion that Holder should resign, but take a look at this paragraph:

As political pressure has mounted, ATF and Justice Department officials have reversed themselves. After initially supporting Group VII agents and denying the allegations, they have since agreed that the ATF purposefully chose not to interdict guns it lawfully could have seized. Holder testified in December that "the use of this misguided tactic is inexcusable, and it must never happen again."

This is the first article I've read that takes the tack "it never happened". The other explanations from the left and the WH have said "it was a Bush program". (is there a pattern here? "It was Bush's fault" ... or, "uh, it never happened" ... then maybe,  "uh, BOTH!!") However, Holder testified under oath that the Bush program was "Wide Receiver" and he knew of the differences
http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com/2012/06/wide-receiver-vs-fast-and-furious.html


1). The guns were marked, RFIDed and tracked
2). The Mexican Government was aware and involved in WR
3). WR was shut down in '07 because it was not considered effective


So Fortune -- a Financial magazine writes a big article that sits at the top of CNN on the web for a couple of days that says "Fast and Furious never happened", and the whole problem is "Republicans / Conservative Media". 

Irony abounds when it comes to the Fast and Furious scandal. But the ultimate irony is this: Republicans who support the National Rifle Association and its attempts to weaken gun laws are lambasting ATF agents for not seizing enough weapons—ones that, in this case, prosecutors deemed to be legal.

Indeed. 

The NRA is about the right to bear arms in the US -- not Mexico. The fact that illegal drug cartels acquire illegal guns from the US ought to be off everyone's radar. The illegal drug cartels acquire and sell illegal drugs that are illegal on both sides of the border as well. The guns are just a business cost to them -- like cars, boats, planes, trucks and cool sunglasses. 

They will acquire the guns from some supplier -- US, Columbian, Czech, Chinese, etc -- why anyone is even REMOTELY concerned where the illegal drug cartels happen to acquire their guns, knives, cars, fancy jewelry, etc is beyond me. Their BUSINESS is acquiring, transporting and selling ILLEGAL DRUGS for goodness sake. If you think they really care about where they get the various tools of their trade, or think it is going to somehow be "hard" for them to acquire ANY weapon that they want (RPGs, grenades, full auto weapons, etc), you have no concept at all about groups that move thousands of TONS of drugs into the US every year!

So, the "ultimate irony" is that major US news outlets are falling over each other trying to explain away a scandal that cost the life of a US DEA agent plus many more in Mexico to protect "their guys" in the WH. 

Limits of Tolerance

Where Maurice Sendak was | Power Line:

The idea that the left is tolerant and civil is an extremely cruel joke. These people are not loonies in some backwater, they are well known people of the left, yet there is ZERO interest in policing their own -- because frankly, they agree with them.

'via Blog this'

Eureka! An Honest Life vs BO

Sitting in a coffee shop in Eureka IL, location of Eureka College, Alma Mater of Ronald Reagan, the end of the "Ronald Reagan Trail" in IL. Towns like Dixon, Tampico, Washington, Galesburg -- full of real places and real people.

The little museum at the college is full of pictures from Reagan's life -- all the way back to being a lifeguard. Everyone knew "Dutch" -- his life is an open book. Teachers, girlfriends, buddies, people he saved from drowning, classmates, team mates, bosses, people that listened to him on the radio.

For Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, HW, Clinton and W, I suspect there are or will be little displays and "trails" that are much the same. There are a ton of Reagan quotes -- "Tear Down This Wall" being right up there with "Ask Not" and "We will land a man on the moon in this decade". Even Slick Willie famously said that "The Era of Big Government is over" and "That depends on your definition of "is"".

What would the "BO Trail" look like? Where are his classmates? Where are his childhood friends, teachers, team mates, etc?? What is his best quote? My personal favorite "If I don't fix this economy in 3 years, I'll be a one term president". or maybe "57 States so far, 2 more to go"! I guess "The private sector is doing fine" may be remembered for awhile.

Reagan left a lot of tracks in his life. BO? I guess we should be thankful that other than red ink -- which of itself may be the poison that finally kills America, his life and presidency are already nearly invisible.

Pot Calls Kettle Cookware

Running Scared, Democrats Resort to Hysteria | Power Line:

One of the greatest strengths and weaknesses of liberalism is total blindness to their own hypocrisy -- but this may be a new height even for them.

'via Blog this'

Let Our People GO!!

Boom Town, USA | Power Line

The magic of America was once FREEDOM!! Let our people and states innovate and compete and we will rise again just as we did in the early 80's -- only BIGGER!

Deodorize the BO! Lets ROLL!!

A Very Misplaced Faith

Moral Dystopia - NYTimes.com

Like many "progressives", Mareen seems to be shocked at the wages of relativism. Can't we just worship "the human spirit"??

We are getting a lot closer to understanding the "base wetware and kernel memes" that make up the core of what Maureen might think is "the human spirit" -- sort of an bio-cultural semi-indoctrinated  daemon in the brain to "keep us good". A kind of randomly programmed "moral compass".

Nice wish, not really much of a substitute for an eternal God and eternal damnation.

Somehow she left of Slick Willie, patron Democrat saint who we no know was a serial abuser of women under his control or influence, very likely including rape in the case of Juanita Broderick -- Maureen, nor anyone else in the press even took the small step of "reporting it to Paterno" in that case, let alone standing up and saying "I don't care if he is President, women matter more, he has to be punished". Very very fat chance.

She did however drag out the Catholic Priests. Nobody is reporting it much, but the source of that problem is pretty well documented to being the big influx of Gays into the US church in the '60s as our nation became more "enlightened". Abuse of boys and young men is very old -- Greeks, Romans for example. Any culture that embraces homosexuality has also embraced the sexual abuse of boys -- they may just not know it right away. They apparently go together like "a horse and carriage".

We are pretty much a thin veneer of civilization on top of a massive nervous and limbic system that at best is under tenuous "control" ("training", "management", "coaching" ...) the old systems are very happy to be driven by seeking "pleasure" of all sorts. They aren't very selective systems. "Moral" only in the sense that your cat is an  equal opportunity killer. Equality and morality are only VERY recently associated -- history would find anything that has equality of result to be equally BAD as in lowest common denominator.

Here in the west, we used to have a few thousand years of Judaeo - Christian culture playing a very major role that included friends, neighbors, family, work, school, etc taking shared responsibility in the proper creation and maintenance of a very specific "small still voice" -- if you are just an honest sociologist. If you are a Christian or Jew, that voice becomes very real, and evidence of an eternal Spirit that exists forever and is the true value of each human. Killing that transcendent human Spirit is the most difficult task of the atheist.

Or, as was decided in the '60s, we are just "naked apes" whose best moral maxim is "if it feels good do it". Even atheists that have managed to get their transcendent spirit bludgeoned very close to death usually have to swallow hard to actually the utter the true label on the fruit of secular humanism.

There are many thousands of years of human history that could clue poor Maureen in on how the very social and political directions she so strongly espouses give us more and more Bill Clintons, Jerry Sanduskys, abusing Catholic Priests, etc. Night tends to follow day, flies tend to show up around filth and death. Some things really ought not be surprising.

A Conflict of Visions (Brooks)

What Republicans Think - NYTimes.com

A good one by Brooks, the following paragraph is a pretty decent summary of how conservatives see the current welfare state model:

The welfare model favors security over risk, comfort over effort, stability over innovation. Money that could go to schools and innovation must now go to pensions and health care. This model, which once offered insurance from the disasters inherent in capitalism, has now become a giant machine for redistributing money from the future to the elderly.

BO Getting Stale?

Media — and others — oddly unimpressed with presidential re-reruns « Hot Air

When it comes to light that your policies aren't cutting it, you can either "stay the couse", try the "and now for something completely different" or "triangulate" to the other guys policies.

Reagan stayed the course, and the policies started working in '83, so by '84 he had lots of success to run on.

Bush 1 made a giant political mistake. He caved to tax increases in a VERY mild recession and then got abused for a "poor economy" as those tax increases were absorbed by an otherwise strong economy. HW is a lesson in what happens when Republicans "compromise". Tax, spend and regulate policies have been proven over and over not to work, and Democrats LOVE getting a Republican enact them and then complain when they STILL don't work.

Clinton triangulated after '94 and by '96 was pretty much an "honorary Republican" -- NAFTA, Welfare Reform, "the era of big government being over".

W's issues were more military than economic -- by '02 the crash recession was over and the economy was just not that big in '04. Even bubble growth is better than no growth.

BOs problem is that he really believes that more government spending and debt = prosperity, or at least it should. That is his ideology, and he is not shifting it. Unfortunately, what he believes doesn't work, so all he really can do is try to blame others and keep saying that things are "getting better".

Stale BO soon starts to be unwelcome -- even to your friends!

It would be funny if it were not so sad has we hear BO blaming W for policies that the extremely weak lame duck W was forced into after he lost congress in '07. He had enough institutional / political power to push The Surge through and win in Iraq -- thank God. Beyond that, the economy has been on Democrat pilot since '07, and it shows.

Another ID Outrage!

Since I know that many Democrats are honestly concerned about the evils of people being forced to carry around a government issued photo ID, I include this offensive picture so they may use it as they move forward from just focusing on voting to purge the country of ID requirements.

From Drop Box

I can only imagine the horror and outrage that quakes through a Democrat as they visualize an "undocumented worker" (some would say "illegal alien"), elderly person, or apparently college student (that one always mystifies me -- most of them must not drink today) being turned away from shipping a UPS package!!

What is the country coming to!! I realize that so far, because of their many priorities,  Democrats have only focused on voting ID requirements -- but since I know they are honestly concerned, and not just trying to allow as much fraud as possible in the specific case of voting, they will soon be working hard to remove the scourge of personal ID requirements from our lives.

Alcohol sales, cigarette sales, plane travel, changing your phone from land line to cable, driving, cashing a check, checking into a hotel, mailing a UPS package -- all these are cases where the ID challenged person is blocked in  today's society -- oh, and in voting every couple years if the evil ID legislation passes.

I do realize that my understanding of the Democrat brain is limited -- it is hard to understand why they would focus so hard on no ID for voting rather than the many other more common challenges to the less ID abled person. I'd think it would be easier to ban the use of IDs for checking into a hotel, mailing a package, or even driving rather than just focusing on voting.

This is a civil country though, I believe Democrats are intelligent and well meaning people, so I'm certain they can't just be trying to enable voter fraud because they know there is a lot of it in their favor based on ACORN and other prosecutions in the past couple years.

Recalling Sanity

No Recall - NYTimes.com

The linked column gets it  mostly wrong, but the voters in WI got it right. Recalling a Governor over a matter of policy that was passed and implemented as required is anti-Democratic and would have been a strong message in the direction of even worse partisanship and gridlock. The real winner in WI was "Good Government" or "We the People". Self government can't work if the minority demands constant recalls when things don't go their way after losing regular elections.

There are a lot of "mirrored connections" between BOcare and Walker's Budget:

1. The opposition was energized -- Republicans followed the process and took over the House in 2010. Democrats and Unions in WI protested and did a bunch of recall elections. The politics of division and destruction is primarily a Democrat / MSM approach (look at all the war metaphors in the linked  column alone), it just gets reported as the reverse.
2. Walker's policies generally worked -- the WI budget is in surplus, the state economy is outdoing rival states and there has been no loss of services in the state. BO's policies have generally not worked -- we have massive deficits, a poor economy and healthcare costs continue to rise unabated. All of the claims of BOcare "saving money" to date have proven false. All the claims of "disaster" being caused by Walker's policies have also proven false. 
3. What is missing from the linked article and much of the left is Sanity/Reality. Democrats look at the "growing economy" of much of the post WWII era and believe it was due to "good government". In fact, it was due to "less government" -- less, but perpetually increasing. Like weight, spending, driving fast, gambling, drinking, etc, government is NOT a "universal good". Some is required, but more is definitely not always better.

We live in a looking glass media culture. Having our politics be less divisive is important when it means letting Democrats have the policy their way. But when Walker and enough Republicans are elected to act in WI to solve the budget crisis, suddenly the more divisive the better -- including legislators fleeing, threats of violence and endless recalls. 

 

BO The Fiscal Conservative

Obama Doubles Down on Lies About Spending and Debt | Power Line

Insanity reigns -- good take down of what ought to be so obvious to all that anyone putting forward this line of tripe would never be taken seriously again.

BO is as much of a budget hawk as Reagan was pro-commie!!!!

25 Years Since "Tear Down This Wall!"

Tear Down This Wall at 25 | Power Line

Virtually everyone in his own administration "knew better", and the press thought he was completely insane. Then they thought he was insane, now they think he was lucky. There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.

I'm sad for those too young to have been alive to see Reagan stand strong for America and a brighter future. His faith was in God and the American Spirit, not Ronald Reagan, and thus his strength and accomplishments far outstripped the would be leaders that have followed him. Much like today, Americans had decided that "our best years were behind us" until the Gipper launched us on a 30 year "Morning in America" adventure.

We could REALLY use a leader like Ronald Reagan again!!

Knowing Left From Right

Socialist or Fascist - Thomas Sowell - Townhall Conservative Columnists - Page 1

An excellent column, please read it.

One of the most effective propaganda moves of the left was the abandoning of Fascism when it went bad in Nazi Germany and brilliantly morphing it into an ideology of the "Right".

Since left is "State Control" and right is libertarian anarchy", this never made any sense, but when you control the schools, universities and the press it is amazing what you can get people to believe!

If Thomas Sowell had been our first Black President, our nation would be MUCH  better off today!!

Building Discord

Obama Steps on Message, GOP Steps on Economy -- Daily Intel

The assertion in the article is that Mitt Romney not being castigated for making an off the cuff claim that reducing spending in his first year would be counterproductive "proves" that Republicans are trying to slow economic growth to gain power. Thus:

So Republicans in Congress are blocking Obama’s jobs plan, in the correct understanding that this will redound to their party’s advantage. When Obama attempts to explain this state of affairs, Romney can accuse him of making “excuses.” Obama can hammer home the point that Republicans are blocking his plan, but doing so has the side effect of making him appear partisan and ineffective.

Obama was arguing, correctly, that Republicans are the ones satisfied with slow private sector growth, and he is the one trying to boost it through economic stimulus. But his argument is complicated, and theirs is very simple.

So your average NY Magazine reader, already pretty certain of the thesis finds their suspicions confirmed -- it is always easy to confirm our suspicions.

However, is that really what the discussions have been about? No.

BO wants to INCREASE spending AND increase taxes on the "wealthy". So Mitt saying he is going to hold the line on spending and saying nothing about taxes is actually significantly different than the meaning reported, and likely far less nefarious. 

Republicans just believe that the private sector tends to allocate capital better than the public. 

It is an article of faith for Democrats that GOVERNMENT spending is positive for the economy, but also that high taxes on the WEALTHY are beneficial. Having Bill Gates sell a billion worth of MS Stock so that BO can send $500 M to some Solyndra, and 500m to various folks so they can spend it as they see fit is a FAR better investment than leaving the money in MS stock. ]

A Warm Uniter vs a Cold Narcisist

How to praise your predecessor with class | Power Line

Just read it, it really doesn't get more plain. Putting up a portrait of your predecessor is not a time for political points or self aggrandizement -- it is about them.

BO is incapable of even the most rudimentary understanding of respect for others, of occasions not being about him, or of things being far bigger than him.

He needs to be shown the door.

Shut Up and Give Us Your Money

Wisconsin’s lessons for the left and the right - The Washington Post

EJ Dionne says it pretty straight. The problem with Citizens United is that only the left is really supposed to have Free Speech. As for the 1%, they are supposed to only have a right to shut up and let the lefties take their money to squander as they see fit.

The Golden Goose needs to learn how to not be honking as it is killed for those golden eggs -- the left doesn't cotton to any noise!

Of course EJ HOPES that the the right will be "arrogant" -- such would be funny if it was not so sad. I'm sure that the left is just about to foreswear the use of Hollywood stars for massive fundraising.

This is a huge problem for democracy in a post-Citizens United world. A few billionaires can amplify their voices far above those of other citizens.

Walker's Policies Work. Recall Him??

How much should you pay for how much government? - chicagotribune.com

We have the clearest test that could possibly be had coming up in WI on Tuesday. As this article outlines -- Walker's policies have worked to save the WI taxpayers money without cutting services. He has turned a projected deficit into an actual surplus, and business is migrating to WI from neighboring states.

Meanwhile, while outraged, the union folks are paying less for their better benefits than comparable folks in the private sector. What's more, freed from the State acting as bagman for the union and collecting dues, union membership is down significantly. When people are given a choice on paying for the services of the union, most opt out.

Will people support Walker and give us a little bit better chance to avoid the path of Greece, Italy, Spain  and California? or will they remove him from office and turn WI back to the path of union control and runaway spending?

Tuesday is a critical day for both WI and America.

BO: Drone Warrior

Barack Obama: Drone Warrior - The Washington Post

Excellent article from Charles, I heard a segment on this from NPR. We all have our biases, but there is something about the completely different reaction here that is just chilling.

 BO is completely aware that he can get POSITIVE press out of his "toughness" as he plays judge and jury to remote assassination. W weighs options, consults congress (even though some, like Pelosi try to weasel out of that), has specific legal findings on the line between "torture" and "enhanced interrogation", and is called a "war criminal" by the same folks that now have positive words to say about remote assassination.

The old question used to be "how would YOU like to be Waterboarded" ? Of course, our own SEALs are all Waterboarded during their training -- which is part of the reason it was not considered torture. There are A LOT of parts of SEAL training that are pretty much "torture".

OK, how would you like to have you and possibly your family slaughtered  by a remote drone? How would you compare THAT to you being captured and waterboarded for information -- of course with the chance that maybe you AREN'T a terrorist?

I don't have a problem with BO as president making decisions for SOME assassinations, but I do have a big problem with bypassing information and possibly killing innocents because of a primarily politically driven "we don't "torture"" policy. We don't "torture", but we do execute without any interrogation, process, etc??

I also don't understand how to really deal "civilly" with liberals on this issue when it seems that their positions are completely politically rather than good good of the country / national security based.

If liberals have some "strong humanitarian sense" that had them out protesting and screaming obscenities about W, where has that "sense" gone now that BO is in the WH if it is just not thinly veiled partisan politics??