How Politics Works

Michael Ramirez Cartoon:

We have all seen this happen locally. The classic is the school when short of money starts cutting athletic or music programs that have heavy emotional support, and explains "that's what cuts mean". They don't cut monstrous administration salaries, reduce administrative personnel, increase some of the class sizes at Jr High and HS, etc. They take actions that are guaranteed to get people up in arms ASAP. 

Local government is much the same. Hold some key local need hostage until the pet bonding or tax levy that allows pork and featherbedding as usual to go on or even increase. Just go take a walk through your local courthouse, county government center or other similar facility and think about the thought that "government has been cut to the bone". 

This is why our founders worked so hard to LIMIT the Federal Government. They had studied human  nature and history, and they were dealing with a government ruled by a King. They knew government was necessary, but realized that it was very difficult to control, even at the LOCAL level. 

The BO FAA ploy is classic. Refuse to deal with the elected representatives of the people, suggest the idea of sequestration, get the tax increases on the wealthy that you had indicated were what you were after, and then continue to refuse to deal on spending. When the sequestration that you wanted comes to pass and really doesn't make that much difference after all, push in any way you can to make it as painful as you possibly can, independent of the harm it causes to the economy or to individuals. 

You are just going to successfully blame it on the other party anyway and probably even pick up control of the House in the next election because,  just as in 1776, lawless despotism works!

 For the despot!

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FAA Furlough Fact Free Fury

FAA furlough reprieve: 'No fair!' - Apr. 26, 2013:

First, let's get the salient point out, this quote is in response to the claim that the BO admin is just trying to make things as painful as possible for political purposes:

The FAA’s budget backs that theory. According to FAA budget documents, the agency’s budget request for the 2013 fiscal year was $15.146 billion. The FAA’s actual, post-sequestration budget for FY 2013 was $15.371 billion — $225 million more than requested, as Phil Kerpen at American Commitment noted Thursday.

So, there are two potential reasons for the supposedly sequestration caused furloughs: 

1. Gross incompetence. The FAA requested over $225 million less than they needed to operate, and that ONLY came to light after the sequestration. 
2. This is a political ploy to make people "feel the pain" of sequestration. 

What I find even more interesting is the left screaming "no fair" on even the phony "deal" to get the controllers back to work. They want "all or nothing". Either ALL the funding comes back, or NONE of it!!

With that logic, we can't possibly govern ourselves. The whole idea of budgets is making intelligent choices about where and how much to spend based on priorities and trade-offs. Take that away and one would get a government spending trillions, borrowing trillions and taxing the economy into oblivion on auto-pilot. 

Oh, wait ... 




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I Miss W

CURL: W outclasses Barack and Bill, without even trying - Washington Times:

Had to throw in a little rah rah after the W Presidential Library opening. Reagan was certainly better, but no question that W was the 2nd best President of my lifetime. From 2000-2006, America still had hope for a better tomorrow, but we let ourselves down in '06 and elected Democrats to both houses of congress, and it ias been downhill HARD ever since.

My sense is that we have no hope of pulling out of this decline without domestic violence of a sort not seen since the Civil War, economic collapse to a level we have never seen -- making the Depression seem mild by comparison, and probably a major war with more loss of life than WWII ... it could be worse than that, but I'm somewhat of an optimistic realist.

But we had one final shot, W did his very best, we just blew it as a people.

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MA State Support of Terror

Patrick administration refuses to release Tsarnaev brothers' records | Boston Herald:

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!  Provide folks room and board, they take a vacation in Russia and come back and bomb you.

Remember, the reason that people hate America is because we are just not "generous and caring enough"!

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NY Mag Classy Insights on W

Bush: Terrible President, Also Not a Smart Man -- Daily Intelligencer:

On the very day of the opening of your enemies Presidential Library, when four ex-pres, two of which pretty much hate him (Carter and Omama) are willing to show up and be civil (KUDOS!!) , it make a significant statement to be out beating the "W is a dummy" drum!.

Since it is obvious that W is stupid and was a terrible president, completely obvious that the NY Rag and old J Chait are super intelligent, urbane, and immensely competent, I can only imagine what is on tap for tomorrow!

Earth not flat, penis enlargement pills fake???

Since they wanted to put in some cherry picked videos to prove their point on the stupidity, here is the master of numeric intelligence waxing eloquent ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjO8Qc5s1fY


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Congress Angles for BOcare Exemption

Lawmakers, aides may get Obamacare exemption - John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman - POLITICO.com:

"Shocking". Here is BOcare, the greatest boon to healthcare in the history of mankind and our elected officials are looking for a way out.

No big story here,  move along!

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Not All Terrorists are Muslim

Government Wants 45 Years for Would-Be Mass Murderer | Power Line:

No, some are left wing homosexuals that attack people that disagree with their beliefs.

Had this attack been on an abortion clinic or a left-wing organization, "Floyd Corkins" would be famous, and we would know A LOT about this attack and trial.

I can't possibly see how any of the press could be held accountable for rhetoric relative to Chick-fil-A that could have precipitated an idea like killing the folks and then rubbing a Chick-fil-a sandwich in their face.

Not nearly so clear as Sarah Palin using "targeted" in an ad relative to "causing" the Gabby Giffords shooting ... those Republicans REALLY have to clean up their militaristic rhetoric!


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The Defense of the Indefensible

Why Does Evil Make Liberals Stupid? | Power Line:

I happened to touch on the main column covered by PL in this blog.

This is worth a read. The point that PL does NOT make here is that if the bombers had turned out to be in  ANY way "right wing", or even if they had just been nuts, and opened up with an AK-47 at the finish line the inability to deal with evil and thus the fall to incoherency would not have happened.

If the bombing had in any way been "right wing", **EVIL**!!!!!!  would be shouted from the rooftops and COMPLETELY connected with "Fox News, Talk Radio, Conservative Bloggers, Republicans, the NRA, Christians hating gay marriage, etc, etc" ... now? There is just no way for a liberal to understand the complexity of it all.

In fact, as we saw in both the bombing and ricin case, the MSM could barely contain their hopeful rage in either case that it WOULD turn out to be "right wing". They MUCH more enjoy being able to pound on what they see as the SOLE source of evil in the world, rather than having to drift into inconsolable incoherency in defense of the indefensible.

MSM Discovers % of GDP

Deficits are falling. For now - Apr. 22, 2013:

Wow, the MSM is using deficit as a % of GDP, things must be REALLY bad! Of course, bad old me has always declared that a number without context is meaningless ... if I say 1 Billion, and it is the size of your bar bill, then that is on the large size. If it is the size of your hard drive, today it is minuscule, in the early '90s it would have been big ... etc.

The chart I included shows why they nearly never use it ... Because it puts things in context, and when all you want to do is beat on your "enemies", the Republicans, the LAST thing you want to do is put something in context!!

The very sad part of looking at my chart is to realize that the "trend was our freind" after the massive fix it took under Reagan to get the country moving again. The trend in deficits as a % of GDP was generally DOWN ... because of GROWTH! When the economy sputtered, another wave up happened, but when it grew, we produced revenue that allowed the trend to continue DOWN!

YES! That is very much a "rosy view", so shoot me.  It would have required continued pro-growth policies, difficult entitlement reform like Newt and company pushed through in the late '90s, etc, BUT we HAD A FUTURE!!

CNN's chart leaves out historical context and is "rosy and on LSD". They would like to believe that some "minor BO tweaking" to entitlements will right the ship, but the real problem is the anti-growth for anything but Government agenda. Government is an EXPENSE!

The chart in the story is made as rosy as possible because of projections. Even 2013 is PROJECTED on that chart, and I'd like to see the date from 11 and 12 show up on the site I got this from http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/  They even mention SIXTY YEAR HIGHS in the article, wow,  CNN must be off their propaganda feed this fine Monday AM!



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They Didn't Use Guns, So??

The Boston Bombers Were Muslim: So? - Megan Garber - The Atlantic

The pain of finding the bombers were Muslim Immigrants as opposed to home grown anti-government "Right Wing Extremists" is palpable. It feels for the media as feels for me seeing the snow fall again here in MN on the 21st of April.

If this had been another shooting tragedy, the Atlantic would be pointing to the OBVIOUS problem of "guns in America". Come on, you KNOW that to be true!! How can one be rational at all, even with leftward views and not see that???

Why?

To be left thinking is to completely lack the capacity for self reflection. Here are some of the reasons I surmise, written in my "lefty guise".  No real lefty even seems to care, they simply treat Islamic Terrorism and Gun Violence as completely different things.

1. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Islamists hate Christians. Christians tend to vote "the wrong way" and have moral ideas "incompatible with modern thought", so I'm OK with Islamists, at least for now. (Note: Major problem, Islamist thinking is FAR more incompatible with "modern thought" than Christian theology and practice ... but as a lefty, I ignore that)
2. Immigrants are "Unregistered Democrats" -- a little violence, even mass violence from a few immigrants is acceptable. 
3. Guns are personal, bombs are corporate. If someone is shooting at me or those I love with a gun, I might wish I had one to try to protect myself or them. If a bomb goes off, I won't be bothered by any thoughts like that.
4. I don't like the foreign and independent thought of the "right wing" -- the government is my god, and those guns are an obstacle to the kind of control that we may need to apply to insure that our nation is "fair". It may be important to forcibly transfer assets from "conservatives" to the rest of us as the situation continues to decline. Guns make that harder. 
5. I get really sick of having to listen to "the right". I boycott all their media, unfriended any I can both virtually and physically, but I know they are still out there. Knowing they tend to be armed makes me VERY nervous. I don't really trust myself with a gun, I'm not sure why they trust themselves. I find both the guns and the conservaties very scary, together I completely can't stand it! I have a RIGHT to not have to feel this way!

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A Spineless Perspective

The Spineless Gun Vote - NYTimes.com:

As I read this article I was again very glad that the MSM and BO didn't get their wish of the Boston Bombers being "White Right Wingers". Now the calls will all be for "caution and no rush to judgement" ... don't blame Islam, don't blame immigration ... no need to blame at all. Well, maybe we aren't welcoming enough ...  if the poor misguided children had gotten a hug at the right time?

No calls for the banning of anything.  When bomb goes off, the bomber is responsible. When there is a shooting, it is the guns fault! Bombs are inanimate, guns are evil daemons that capture the hearts of man. Maybe the progressive psyche feels an affinity for the annihilation of the bomb in carrying out the act? The gun is somehow evil since it survives the violence. Sort of a French Revolution view -- the country was destroyed, but the revolution was a great success!

I remember so well when 9-11 happened and some called the Terrorists "cowards". The left took a dim view of that right away ... "they gave up their lives, how can you call them cowards"? For the left, as long as the attacker is "anti-american", the hackles rise if one tries to label their actions negatively.

The Ft Hood shooting that killed 13 and injured 32 is classified by the BO Administration as "Workplace Violence", not terrorism. It seems surreal, Islam is WAY more "homophobic", "at war with women", and "anti science" than Christianity, yet the standard "left elite" in America are very reticent to label Islamic acts as "terrorist".

The only reason that I can come up with for that is "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". The elite left hates Christians and Constitution supporting Americans ... "conservatives", so much that much as with the old USSR, they feel a certain kinship with the attackers.

Why DO they hate guns so? They need to be goaded to even mention the Gosnell house of horrors. A live baby delivered into a toilet splashing around that is taken out and slaughtered. Gosnell  has a good shot at being the biggest mass murderer in US history just counting the babies delivered alive -- not counting what? Thousands that were viable, but were "properly" murdered before exit from the mothers body? The MSM and the left absolutely do not care! Abortion, or even infanticide is something they are happy to allow, they DEMAND it! no matter the numbers, no matter the "collateral damage".

Again, it is hard for me to even fathom the reasoning. Bombs are indiscriminate. They kill en-masse, is that why they are so much less angered by the use of a bomb? But then not really -- McVeigh, the fortunately very rare nut-job with some "right leaning" was certainly demonized and the Clinton administration and MSM were chomping at the bit to get out and "infiltrate right wing groups", and to "put the muzzle on the hate filled voices of talk radio".

It is clear that at the moment the left wants the constitutional republic replaced by mob rules ASAP. BO's disdain for the 60 vote filibuster capability in the Senate was palpable in his tirade this week. How did "The Republic for which it stands" become so lost that standing against the majority (at least according to the right polls) is "spineless". How comforting to write for that bastion of divergent thought, the NYTs, where even their house "right winger", David Brooks, supported BO for president.

Ah yes, the "courage" of it all.

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The ‘Co-exist’ Bombers

The ‘Co-exist’ Bombers | National Review Online:

Steyn hits a goodie. Definitely worth the read. I found the following to be especially adroit -- we humans REQUIRE comparison to understand what is going on around us. As a believer in God, I find that the universe is basically shouting at us about good and evil from every corner -- and the "Co-exist" bumper stickers are essentially Lucifer saying "plug your ears".

In America, all atrocities are not equal: Minutes after the Senate declined to support so-called gun control in the wake of the Newtown massacre, the president rushed ill-advisedly on air to give a whiny, petulant performance predicated on the proposition that one man’s mass infanticide should call into question the constitutional right to bear arms. Simultaneously, the media remain terrified that another man’s mass infanticide might lead you gullible rubes to question the constitutional right to abortion, so the ongoing Kermit Gosnell trial in Philadelphia has barely made the papers — even though it involves large numbers of fully delivered babies who were decapitated and had their feet chopped off and kept in pickling jars. Which would normally be enough to guarantee a perpetrator front-page coverage for weeks on end. 

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NPR, April, "Right Wing" Terrorism

ViralRead » NPR’s Dina Temple Raston Blames Boston on ‘Right-Wing Individuals’:

Your tax dollars at work, on "ALL THINGS (from a lefty nut job perspective) Considered".

Boston was "Right-wing extremism", got that?? Cuz April is a huge month for it!!

HITLERS B-Day. Let's see, was he Libertarian? Anarchist? or just basically a Republican? RIGHT is LESS GOVERNMENT ... yes, you will find some totally anti-government folks over there that are Anarchist who MAY do some forms of terror, but Hitler? Sure, during WWII, there was the propaganda of calling the National SOCIALISTS (Nazis), "right wing", since we were allied with the communists from the USSR. Hitler was just another STATIST. Left to right is "Maxwell Smart" on the old "Get Smart" TV show, "Control vs Chaos". Left believes in the power of the state over the individual, right believes in less state, and at the far right side, NO GOVERNMENT == chaos.

Branch Davidians???  The CLINTON administration chose April as the month to attack them. Was the Clinton administration (or maybe just Janet Reno?) somehow liberty and individualism oriented??  Man, they sure hid it well.

Columbine? Who knows what all those kids really thought ... if they did think, but they were younger than the Boston Bombers.  Just watch the media thinking shift switch on Boston now "Can't rush to be blaming ISLAM just because they may have connections there". It would be TERRIBLE to allow the actions of a couple looneys to besmirch the "religion of peace".

McVeigh. There we finally have a nut job with some "right wing", meaning anti-government thinking. But notice, we don't hold the Uni-bomber up ... also to some degree "right wing" in that he was anti-technology and anti-corporate, but not really anti-government, so what is focused on there is that he was a nut -- not his thinking.

FREEDOM means that it is possible to have different views without being slandered by the PU|BLIC media!! It is just barely possible that when total government spending is about 40% of GDP, it MAY be just barely possible to be relatively sane and think that LESS, say maybe "1/3 or 1/4" of GDP would be a good direction vs MORE. One would still be a very long way from "no government" even at 25% of GDP.

Note: The MSM often confuses people buy using US **FEDERAL** tax rates and spending in comparison with Sweden, Germany, etc to claim that "US taxes and spending are LOW in comparison".  Don't look now, but those countries are basically the size of major US "Blue States"(BS) US BS Spending, and especially urban spending -- like NYC, LA, SF, Chicago, etc EXCEEDS 50% of of GDP. True, the people that make any money that live in those cities (or even work there) pay though the nose, but even so, without vast transfers from the states the cities are in and the Federal government, their lavish spending to purchase close to 100% democrat votes would still not be "viable". Even that is a complete fiction -- given the financial condition of the BSs, our cities, and the Federal deficits.

But you must be carefully taught to hate the "right wing" ... meaning anyone that might hold a different opinion on the advancement of Statism. There were a number of "breakouts" on the Boston Bombing where we see just how anxious the MSM and the BO admin is to get a good old fashioned witch hunt for "Right Wingers" going. BO was struck by it being "Tax Day" -- somehow I really don't think that meant much to the Chechens.

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I Support Universal Background Checks

Opinion: Gun control fight just beginning - CNN.com:

The level of misinformation after the defeat of the Manchin - Toomey bill is insane. This is SIMPLE folks.

The current check system is NICS (National Criminal Background Check System) and the form an FFL (Federal Firearms License holder) has you fill out and keeps for 20 years (minium) is a 4473.

There is no gun show or internet sales loophole. Less than 10% of gun sales are private transfers. If you buy a gun and transfer it that is already an illegal straw sale -- it says that right on the 4473!

The 4473 has your name and the serial number of the firearm. **SO**, although that gun is not officially "registered to you", it effectively is, since all that is required for the federal government to find 90%+ of the firearms legally sold since '98 is to collect the records from the FFLs. That is ASSUMING that the Feds have no kept the information from all the calls to the NICs center.

If the feds come to my door and say "we want your guns" today, I can say "I sold them", and if due process is still in force, they can't prosecute me for not having them. If background checks in the way they are talking about become "universal", then there are no transfers that are allowed without going through the NICS, and I will either have to claim them "stolen" or "lost", both of which can easily be made into crimes ... that I would be required to report my "missing firearms", and if I filed that falsely, then I would be also guilty of a felony.

So, private sales today are a "safety valve" and the source of very few sales to criminals.

However, I too am in favor of "Universal Background Checks" if done reasonably. It could be very simple:

1. Everyone that wants to purchase a firearm must obtain a "Permit to Purchase(PP)", which you already need to do in MN  for pistols or "Assault Weapons" (Modern Sporting Weapons). This causes a more through NICS check, and ought to be provided freely to citizens. 
2. At an FFL, it works just like buying a pistol in MN today ... show your PP or Permit to Carry,  fill out the 4473, FFL does a NIC check, and you get your gun. 
3. The add would be that when a private citizen does a sale, they are required to see the PP/PC + picture ID. A retention requirement of keeping the PP/PC and Driv Lic #s  for "2-5 years" seems not unreasonable  as well ... indicating "I sold this person one or more firearms". 

For those that want to have all legal transfers of guns have a background check, this accomplishes that task without defacto registration or the threat thereof. Those of us "wackos" that have concerns about future confiscation could cross execute a couple "sales" to buddies that COULD have sold our whole collections in case confiscation ever comes to pass.

However, based on attempting to read the bill, and making it most of the way through http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/345845/problems-toomey-manchin, I can ONLY conclude that current "background check" people are FAR more interested in collecting data on legal gun purchasers than they are in insuring background checks for legal gun sales.





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BO Knowingly Lies In Calling NRA Liars

Obama Takes Senate to Task for Failed Gun Control Measure - ABC News:

If you can stomach listening to this sob-fest, you will hear BO directly lie about two points.

1) He will claim that "60% of the gun purchases go though background checks". The real figure is 90-95%, He has gotten 3 pinnochios from the Post on this before http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/obamas-continued-use-of-the-claim-that-40-percent-of-gun-sales-lack-background-checks/2013/04/01/002e06ce-9b0f-11e2-a941-a19bce7af755_blog.html he KNOWS this is a LIE!

2). Since he knows 1, he knows there is NO "Gun show / Internet loophole". You as private individual MAY sell one or two guns, but they had better have been in your collection for over a year, or it is a STRAW SALE! If you are an FFL, which you BETTER BE if you are going to sell guns, you have to do a background check on EVERY gun you sell. Thus about 5% of gun transfers are between family members, and about 5% more are between sporting gun users like USPSA shooters which may well sell a gun to a fellow shooter -- BUT, everyone that I know gets a copy of their drivers lic and Carry Permit or Permit to Buy, which IS a background check, just not one with a federal paper trail.

NOBODY says that the bill that went down would have prevented Sandy Hook. To have those folks there as props is simply and emotional lie. It is shamelessly using a horrible event in an attempt to get pure political gain -- it is callous and cowardly beyond what one would believe possible in a human, but BO continues to surprise in how low he can really go.

I tried to read the bill, I'm not sure WHAT is in it! It sure as hell isn't "common sense gun legislation".

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