Remember Gitmo?

Obama restarts Guantanamo trials - Yahoo! News

Remember when having Gitmo open was a horrible stain on the US? Remember when military tribunals were a HORRIBLE idea?-- even though FDR and others had used them? Well, we now have proof that Gitmo nor military tribunals ever really were a problem to the MSM/Democrats/left -- both of them were merely ways to harp on a subject and help to lower the popularity of Bush and Republicians in general. Why in the world do Democrats even have to spend a dime on political campaigns when they have the MSM working for them 24x7?

I really don't even understand the kind of mind that makes something like Gitmo/tribunals a major issue, and then is completely unconcerned about it when their party takes power. If there was ANY shred of interest in these items as a issue, they would have to be an issue under BO as well as under W, but it is absolutely clear they are not. Nobody in the MSM / Democrats / left cares one whit if BO ever gets Gitmo closed, nor that he as returned to using military tribunals. The only explanation that works for me is that it is TOTALLY "politics and power above ALL else" -- prosperity, security, freedom, character, truth ... nothing else matters!! There is NOTHING more sacred than "politics and power" -- but I just don't get it. To me, it is ONLY the principles/values that matter --  politics and power are ONLY a MEANS to hopefully move us toward more/better freedom, security, prosperity ... and to LESS poltics and power, because individuals have more liberty and responsiblility, so the government can have LESS!

 

Know the Facts on Publlic Unions

A Union Education - WSJ.com

One of the saddest things in America today is how much of the country has been convinced that "there are two sides to every story, and everyone has their facts". In fact, every side has N sides and there is no shortage of "facts" to support nearly any world view. The primary questions in life are actually of the sort "faith, world view, ideology". Those are the questions that allow the selections of which facts we prioritize, and even more imporantly, what we DO as a result of the important input from reality provided by facts.

Even when the facts are scrupulously and fairly presented, many world views that are not in alingment with them will continue -- difficult facts will be ignored or minimized, old information will be used rather than new, rosy projections will be presented as reality -- standard stuff. The problem with this story is that most of the MSM is effectively lying:

1. Very few people are aware that Federal public unions do NOT have the collective bargaining right.
2. Very few people understand the power of a union in a monopoly where the money from the union influences the monopoly 

I'd rather we started fixing the nation by dealing with entitlements, but we are broken in a lot of places. Educating Americans on what is wrong with public unions is critical, this article does a good job of starting that process:

Why? Because unlike in the private economy, a public union has a natural monopoly over government services. An industrial union will fight for a greater share of corporate profits, but it also knows that a business must make profits or it will move or shut down. The union chief for teachers, transit workers or firemen knows that the city is not going to close the schools, buses or firehouses.

Mind Control In MSM Clothing

Opinion: The Left's Unhealthy Koch Habit

It is never enough for the left to have a discussion of issues. It must always be some sort of strange conspiracy, some "assault", in which making things up, running away, creating conspiracies out of whole cloth -- or ANYTHING, including violence is justfied because of "morality" of their cause. There can be no god but leftist mamon, since it is certain there would be more than one case in which he would not agree with them, and that may not be countenanced. You MUST buy the leftist view, or you will be declared apostate and destroyed. You have been warned! Get your mind right (er, left) !!

Good column, just read it.

What's really going on here is an attempt to silence people whose views liberals disagree with. After all, they don't have a problem with billionaires using their money to influence policies and public opinion when the money is being spent by the likes of George Soros, a left-winger who, among other things, helps fund the Think Progress site.

End the Privileged Class

End Unions and End the Privileged Class - The Daily Beast

Here here! Well thought, well written, and to the point!

The primary purpose of public unions today, as ugly as it sounds, is to work against the financial interests of taxpayers: the more public employees are paid in wages and uncapped benefits, the less taxpayers keep of the money they earn. It’s time to call an end to the privileged class. And the White House makes a mistake if it thinks it can grow a manufactured and uncivil unrest into a popular movement. Voters will not follow those who flee.

Loving Revolution

Niall Ferguson: Americans and Revolutions - Newsweek

 

Ferguson is an academic, not an idealogue, I generally find the quality of his thought to be high, and this is no exception.

In the absence of an American strategy, the probability of a worst-case scenario creeps up every day—a scenario of the sort that ultimately arose in revolutionary France, Russia, and China. First the revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East could turn much more violent, with a death toll running into tens or hundreds of thousands. Then they could spark a full-blown war, claiming millions of lives. Worst of all, out of that war could emerge an enemy as formidable as Napoleon’s France, Stalin’s Soviet Union, or Mao’s China.

Yes, Americans love revolutions. But they should stick to loving their own.

 

Trusting The Government

RealClearPolitics - Who Benefits From Government Unions?

Democrats are always telling us that more government is the answer -- to the poor, to the old, in education, more laws, more regulation; why just recently they solemly told us that even our health care was better handled by the government, and they were so certain that was true that bypassing the fillibuster rules in the senate to shove their bloated legislation through was required. According to the MSM and tax funded Public Media, it was even courageous!

Why would it be that this government that we are all told to trust so much is not qualified to bargain individually with the people that work for it? I thought this government was benevolent, trustworthy, competent, big hearted, patient, good at listening, and a whole host of other positive characteristics too numerous to name. THat same government that we are to continue to hand ever increasing amounts of our cash, freedoms, choices and childrens protentials for a future over to must be bargained with collectively? Do we need a "tax payers union" that negotiates our taxes, and we can simply have a tax strike legally if they don't meet our demands?

We CONSTANTLY hear from the Democrats -- well, if you don't like something, just vote the other party out -- but wait, they don't follow the rules of government even when we DO vote them out, and based on the WI example, they are very willing to just run away to prevent the will of the voters from being carried it if that will doesn't agree with theirs.

Just read the Barone article -- the bottom line though is very very plain. Public sector unions are a built in way that Democrats can collect campaign money from taxpayers -- even those that vote against them. That is just too sweet a deal for them to allow to be sacfificed. As with the poor, the Dems could care less about public employees, but they DO care very much about where their political power and money comes from. Thus, civility has been left behind and Democrats have finally found somethng worth going to war for!

Follow the money, Washington reporters like to say. The money in this case comes from taxpayers, present and future, who are the source of every penny of dues paid to public employee unions, who in turn spend much of that money on politics, almost all of it for Democrats. In effect, public employee unions are a mechanism by which every taxpayer is forced to fund the Democratic Party.

 

 

Assaulting Civility

Obama joins Wisconsin's budget battle, opposing Republican anti-union bill:

BO calls the WI governors budget bill an "assault" on unions. Can we re-name "assault" rifles to "civility rifles"? No reason to ban those I guess. Let's see, little over a month ago, it was "The Tea Party and Sarah Palin" that were the cause of violence in AZ because of their "harsh rhetoric". Now we have screaming, chanting union workers, teachers calling in sick ad showing up to protest (some bringing clueless students with them), all sorts of signs of Walker as Hitler, Walker with a crosshairs on him, Walker as "Madison Mussolini" ... etc, etc.

Somehow the MSM seems suddenly and oddly muted on the whole "civility thing". Wassup wid dat??? Certainly can't be bias!!

Unlike the tea partiers, the union folks are blocking halls and screaming about their "rights". I'm thinking that "collective bargaining" is another one of those "rights" that is in the same general area of the Constitution as "abortion"?

Funny isn't it? "Liberals" (regressives) find a number of "rights" that they hold dear, but things like the right to bear arms, or the right of ALL to speak (as in even spend MONEY as speech), the right to private property (Kelo, Income tax, etc) even though clearly written are "questionable" and need to be "carefully controlled" -- and only thought to be "simply understood" by the supposed simple minded conservatives.

Not so abortion on demand (ideally government funded), health care, a "living wage" and yes, collective bargaining. Those rights, even though they are nowhere to be found in the actual document are somehow "unalienable".

Watch the union protesters and think about what the attitude of the MSM would be if those were Tea Party folks!

Anti Union, Anti Wealth? Take a Powder?

Thousands protest anti-union bill in Wisconsin | Minnesota Public Radio News

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Thousands of teachers, prison guards and students descended on the Wisconsin Capitol for a second day Wednesday to fight a move to take union rights away from government workers in the state that first granted them more than a half-century ago.

Gee, the first guy that started hammering JD in the AM in college may have been one of the first that "quit" as well -- either because he was dead, or his liver was. It is a SURPRISE that the state that first got the stupid idea of having public employee unions might be the first to quit them? Duh.

Let's see, we need unions to counteract the "greed" of business owners and large corporations? But wait, isn't this government "of, by, and for THE PEOPLE???" -- if THE PEOPLE can't be trusted to treat their employees reasonably, then who can we trust? Isn't it just a TINY bit disengeuous to take sick days AND drag the students you are supposed to be teaching along so you can protest the potential end to your yearly shakedown of the rest of your neighbors? I guess we need one more lesson entitlement and corruption are without limit, while resources ALWAYS have limits!

Oh, BTW, here in MN we have Gov Mark Dayton wanting to raise taxes on the "wealthy" to the highest levels in the nation. If the measure in WI attempting to gain control of the budget is "anti-union", why would the MSM not cover the Dayton proposal as "anti-wealth"? It certainly IS anti-wealth, and it is much more likely to harm everyone in the the state of MN than hiring, firing and paying teachers on the basis of credentials, capability and results rather than the universal union techniques of payola for those who support you (Democrats), fleecing your marks (the public) and getting your salary and job security on "time and grade".

Now we discover that the Democrats in the Senate have fled the state to avoid a vote on the issue! Holed up somewhere in N IL, Land of BO and Bears that still suck! This wasn't supposed to be Greece, Italy or France YET -- but it appears that we may be much farther down the road to serfdom than most were aware!

Purity and Martyrdom

RealClearPolitics - Mitch Daniels' Moment, and Dilemmas

"Purity and martyrdom is for suicide bombers," Daniels told his audience. "Change of the dimension we need requires a coalition of a dimension no one has recently assembled." But the thrust of his speech, at the aptly named "Ronald Reagan Banquet," was a comparison between today's debt crisis and the "red menace" of Reagan's day.

Great quote, great guy.  He would be such an improvement over BO that there is a chance that we could avoid decades of decline and despair! Not MUCH of a chance mind you, but this is probably the only guy that really gives us any chance at all given the massive hole that Nancy, Harry and BO have managed to plow us into!

4-star general, 5-star grace - CNN.com

4-star general, 5-star grace - CNN.com: Good news, even about a 4-star general, on CNN no less!!

Very much the kind of servant attitude that is worth risking the deadly sin of envy over!

I REALLY enjoy being able to report something positive on our MSM!

MEOW, WTF?

Obama wants to 'Win the future.' (That slogan may not help.)

You know, "Moral Equivalent of War" -- Jimmuh Carter, 1977.

At least ONE MSM outlet seems willing to mention that the great BO might not be quite up to super genius standards on deep thought relative to sloganeering, and so sadly (for the left), the assumed brain damaged from birth Sarah Palin pointed it out. Even the "Wisconsin Tourism Federation" was finally forced to realize that in these days of the WWW, Twitter and youth evolved with quad thumbs, the acronym rules.

The article didn't cover them all, or provide the appropriate derision for the Republican attempts. "WIN" was treated with unimaginable disdain in the '70s. Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" was hammered without mercy. Remember "A Thousand Points of Light"? or how about "A Kinder Gentler" conservatism / Republican party? As if the party of the Constitution vs the party of Cronies and ACORN Crime was somehow going to be helpful through unilateral surrender.

One more example of how sadly we miss at least half the humor in the world by the knee jerk reaction of the MSM and especially the entertainment industry to somehow take Democrats more seriously.

The universe is just too good though -- it is HARD to beat "WTF" for BO and "MEOW" for Jimmuh!

Why Everything Starts with Repeal - Charles Krauthammer - National Review Online

Why Everything Starts with Repeal - Charles Krauthammer - National Review Online

This is as clear as it gets. Why oh why can't we have a national discussion that makes this clear to all!

Hatred on Planet Krugman

Climate of Hate - NYTimes.com

One really need not go any farther than this column to see that rhetoric and reason are all too often easy to separate. A rational person really doesn't have to look at much Krugman to get a "sick feeling in the pit of their stomach". He as left reason and moderation behind long ago and exchanged them for some form of rage that makes one wonder if he can hear himself at all.

In the nadir of Republican power in the spring of 2009, KRUGMAN was all for elimination of Republicans!!

Remember BO saying that Democrats ought to "punish their enemies"?

Nutcases will ALWAYS shoot up the place ... be they John Hinkley, or wackos in Finland, England, Australia ... or you name it.

Regressive Hate

http://michellemalkin.com/2011/01/10/the-progressive-climate-of-hate-an-illustrated-primer-2000-2010/

Nice little history of some of the highlights of  Regressive Hate, in case one feels snowed under by the current AZ snow job.

Ft Hood vs AZ

Journalists urged caution after Ft. Hood, now race to blame Palin after Arizona shootings | Washington Examiner

Well done column on the the obvious. WHY is it somehow important to give a guy who clearly WAS an Islamic extremist every possible benefit of the doubt and beyond, but to jump precisely the other way and go to rather stupid lengths to try to link a guy that is obviously mentally ill with US politicians and political rhetoric?