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Obamunism

Baraq’s First SOTU: Seriously Flawed at Best

Well, Baraq Hussein’s first State of the Union is wrapped up and in the can for what it’s worth.  (Not much, IMHO.)

Firstly, Herr Doktor Professor Baraq Hussein would have gotten a serious downgrade in MY class for screwing up a fundamental reference, that one could venture to say is symptomatic of a deep lack of respect for the fundamental principles of the founding of the American Republic:

“We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution, the notion that we’re all created equal…”

First off, downgrading what is the one of the fundamentally unique principles of our Republic to a mere “notion”…words fail. Also…checking my trusty pocket reference copy of the Constitution and Declaraction of Independence indicates that said reference is NOT “enshrined in our Constitution”…but IS found in the Declaration, in close and immediate context of “…they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”

Key concept there: Our equality, and our “unalienable rights” are NOT granted by any act of man, even the Constitution! They are directly bestowed as a part of the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God”. Once that relationship is disestablished nothing is left except ultimately as Mao stated and one of B.O.’s appointed “czars” (and how American is THAT title!?) reiterated “Political power comes out of the barrel of a gun”, or the other one who stated that if they couldn’t prevail “by means of the power of persuasion, then they would use the persuasion of power.”

Otherwise, some additional highlights of the less-than-edifying experience:

FACT CHECK: Obama and a toothless commission
There were also OTHER notable instances of B.O. playing fast and loose with reality:

President Barack Obama told Americans the bipartisan deficit commission he will appoint won’t just be “one of those Washington gimmicks.” Left unspoken in that assurance was the fact that the commission won’t have any teeth.

Obama confronted some tough realities in his State of the Union speech Wednesday night, chief among them that Americans are continuing to lose their health insurance as Congress struggles to pass an overhaul.

Yet some of his ideas for moving ahead skirted the complex political circumstances standing in his way.

Go to the original piece for all the gory details…it’s a reminder of the old Warren Zevon lyric: “It ain’t that pretty at all!”

Another historic aspect of the SOTU is the dissing of the Supremes, and for that matter of Congress at the same time. The congressional part of this is here:

…the cost of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will continue to skyrocket. That’s why I’ve called for a bipartisan fiscal commission, modeled on a proposal by Republican Judd Gregg and Democrat Kent Conrad. (Applause.) This can’t be one of those Washington gimmicks that lets us pretend we solved a problem. The commission will have to provide a specific set of solutions by a certain deadline.
Now, yesterday, the Senate blocked a bill that would have created this commission. So I’ll issue an executive order that will allow us to go forward…[emphasis added]

Without getting into the argument about this idea for a budgetary fig-leaf, the stated relationship here can be summarized as “I don’t need no steenking Congress, I’ll just do what I want by proclamation regardless of the vote of the people’s representatives.”

As far as the Supremes go, they were verbally flogged in an unprecedented display of inter-branch criticism reminiscent of some of the worst of FDR, but PERHAPS not as egregious as Jackson’s refusal to abide by the Marshall court’s decision on the Cherokee removal.

At least Justice Alito wasn’t buying B.O.’s mis-statements:
Justice Alito mouths ‘not true’

POLITICO’s Kasie Hunt, who was in the House chamber, reports that Justice Samuel Alito mouthed the words “not true” when President Barack Obama criticized the Supreme Court’s campaign finance decision.

“Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections,” Obama said. “Well I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that’s why I’m urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong.”

So what was wrong? Approx. a century ago corporations were banned from making direct contributions to candidates for election funds. This was not addressed, nor affected by the current ruling. Also, foreign corporations are STILL banned from involvement in U.S. political campaigns (although admittedly the presence of Chinese money in Bubba Clinton’s and B.O.’s fundraising was noteworthy as cases of sometimes intercepted interventions.)
Result? Read on:
Supreme Court Historian: After President’s “Insult,” Won’t Be Surprised If Supreme Court Doesn’t Attend Next Year’s State of the Union Address

A noted Supreme Court historian who “enthusiastically” voted for President Obama in November 2008 today called President Obama’s criticism of the Supreme Court in his State of the Union address last night “really unusual” and said he wouldn’t be surprised if no Supreme Court Justices attend the speech next year.

“It was really unusual in my mind to see the president going after the Supreme Court in such a forum,” said author and Law Professor Lucas Powe, the Anne Green Regents Chair in Law, and a Professor of Government at the University of Texas-Austin School of Law. “I’m willing to bet a lot of money there will be no Supreme Court justice at the next State of the Union speech.”

Added Professor Powe, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice William Douglas, “you don’t go to be insulted. I can’t see the Justices wanting to be there and be insulted by the president.”

But this is just a negative reaction from a myrmidon of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, right?…er…not this time:

His opinion has nothing to do with animus towards the President, for whom Powe said he voted enthusiastically.

Chief’s overall grading: D-minus for content.

I won’t even approach what I actually thought of the delivery except to ask if you can pronounce a-r-r-o-g-a-n-t. ’nuff said.

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Blognote

Back in the saddle after a rather abnormal week of funerary responsibilities.

It was…interesting…to have to get somewhat large quantities of snow out of the way before proceeding with other necessary preparations at the cemetary, but with heavy ag equipment, wonders were done, and the rest became more or less routine.

Working ouside in the cold  reminds the Chief of one of Clausewitz’ observations on war:  “Everything in war is very simple. But the simplest thing is difficult.”

Ditto for outside work in zero-ish temperatures with wind!

Glowbull Warming

Glowbull Warming Errata – Again

Glacier scientist: I knew data hadn’t been verified

The widely ballyhooed “established science” of Glowbull Warming” continues to unravel so fast that you need a scoresheet to keep track.

Off the top of my head, there was firstly a more or less continuous stream of articles and papers…yes…including peer-reviewed ones!

The major shock was the Climategate bust, which caught leading warmist scientists in the act of faking data, rigging publication of scientific papers, and other sorts of scientific fraudulent practices.

Then the alleged data showing the shrinkage of arctic sea ice was admitted to be incorrect.

Now, the bit about the Himalayas being ice-free by 2035 has similarly blown up, after lead climate scientist Dr. Murari Lal openly admitted the use of fake data to attempt to exert political pressure.

The scientist behind the bogus claim in a Nobel Prize-winning UN report that Himalayan glaciers will have melted by 2035 last night admitted it was included purely to put political pressure on world leaders.

Dr Murari Lal also said he was well aware the statement, in the 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), did not rest on peer-reviewed scientific research.

This report was previously a major linchpin in the construction of the supposedly credible IPCC report.

In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Dr Lal, the co-ordinating lead author of the report’s chapter on Asia, said: ‘It related to several countries in this region and their water sources. We thought that if we can highlight it, it will impact policy-makers and politicians and encourage them to take some concrete action.

‘It had importance for the region, so we thought we should put it in.’

So much for scientific objectivity.

With the current pattern shown by all of this the only surprise is that anyone still takes Glowbull Warming science at all seriously. There are a lot more of the details in the original article…it’s more of the same ol’ same ol’ as the previous cases of junk climate science that have been coming to light.

Constitution Watch

1st Amendment Upheld by Supremes

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Something else this week for the so-called “progressives” to knash their teeth about! Oh dear!

High court voids curbs on political ad spending

In a decision with profound implications for the role of money in American campaigns, the Supreme Court on Thursday gave interest groups, unions and corporations the right to pour money into issue advertising in political races – reigniting the passionate battle over the influence of cash on the electoral process.

The 5-4 decision punched a hole in the complex web of federal campaign-finance laws and rules in finding that those groups should have the same rights to spend money on political ads as any person. Direct contributions by corporations and unions to individual candidates are still forbidden.

This does NOT just affect organizations. Having access to effective political speech means having access to mass media. This means paying for advertising. If one is not a George Soros with piles of cash at hand, there is no serious way for an individual on their own to make their voice heard in the political marketplace.

However, if a group of like-minded individuals gets together, pools their resources, and enters the political fray, according to the McCain-Feingold law this was rendered illegal, since all groups were prohibited from political speech at the time of an election. Never mind that the specific reason that the 1st Amendment was enacted was to especially protect political speech!

Supporters cheered the ruling, which they said returns the country to the core free-speech precept that political speech should be protected, no matter who or what is speaking.

Critics warned that the foundations of American democracy are at stake and that big businesses will be able to spend enough money to influence elections.

…also big unions, and political action groups of all sorts. Remember, in spite of the weeping and wailing of the left, a lot of corporations’ leaders are demonstrably biased to the left. Besides, many corporations will be reluctant to be too outspoken, since a sizable part of their customer base will be partisans of the party they might oppose (which ever side is favored).

In stark language, the court acknowledged that it was overturning its own precedents, but Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing the majority opinion, said the justices were now returning to “ancient First Amendment principles.”

Yes! This is critical! It’s past time to recognize once again the fundamental source of our “unalienable rights” obtained from the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” as immortally stated in the Declaration of Independence. If this reasoning is removed from consideration, as it the common practice of the day in the world of political science, there is no other principle to base rights on other than the Maoist justification that “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” THAT’s why they wrote the Bill of Rights in the first place, to make SURE that those unalienable rights were spelled out in more detail than the original Constitutional text itself.

“The government may regulate corporate political speech through disclaimer and disclosure requirements, but it may not suppress that speech altogether,” Justice Kennedy wrote in an opinion overturning a 1990 case and part of a separate 2003 case that upheld most of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance laws, enacted in 2002.

This sounds about right, as far as it goes. The same principle now needs to be extended even further. The minority dissenting opinion accidentally highlights this need:

[Justice Stevens] said the ruling turns over power to corporations and unions at the expense of political parties, who will have a tough time fighting back because of the restrictions on their own fundraising and spending.

Use the same standards of disclosure and disclaimer for political parties as there will be for OTHER organizations…and turn THEM loose too! Here’s one Mao idea that would work, if ACTUALLY implemented: “Let 1000 flowers bloom.”

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Non-Headlines of the Day

Haven’t ever seen these news headlines?  You won’t ever, Guaranteed!

Government program ends as its intended goal has been achieved

Moveon.org decide to actually move on

Gay and Lesbian leaders declare abstinence best protection from AIDS

Labor Unions admit to artificially inflating national cost of living

Peace activists enraged over terrorist attacks

United Nations: capitalism best cure for hunger and poverty

Amnesty International supports US effort to end tyranny and corruption in Africa

Ass whooping discourages teen from ‘doing it again’

Another cold, snowy winter threatens survival of struggling Global-Warming-Industrial complex

Environmental groups switch focus from communism to environment

Technological progress: nature’s only chance

Democrats: Social Security is a pyramid scheme

Union leaders agree to wages determined by free market

Michael Moore gets a real job

France thanks US for saving ass… twice

Ariana Huffington closes failed blog, enters convent

Hollywood movie paints a favorable image of Senator Joe McCarthy

Mainstream Media apologizes to Americans for decades of bias

Chuck Schumer speechless

Shamelessly lifted from  The People’s Cube.

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GOP Alive and Well in Bay State

In epic upset, GOP’s Brown wins Mass. Senate race

Who’d have thunk it! That a Republican would get elected to replace Donk uber-Liberal Teddy “The Swimmer” Kennedy!

In an epic upset in liberal Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown rode a wave of voter anger to win the U.S. Senate seat held by the late Edward M. Kennedy for nearly half a century, leaving President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in doubt and marring the end of his first year in office.

Addressing an exuberant victory celebration Tuesday night, Brown declared he was “ready to go to Washington without delay” as the crowd chanted, “Seat him now.” Democrats indicated they would, deflating a budding controversy over whether they would try to block Brown long enough to complete congressional passage of the health care plan he has promised to oppose.

Even better, this occurred in spite of Baraq Hussein’s air drop mission to try to stem the tide, with no more success than the early Brit ruler Knut did.

The loss by the once-favored Democrat Martha Coakley in the Democratic stronghold was a stunning embarrassment for the White House after Obama rushed to Boston on Sunday to try to save the foundering candidate. Her defeat on Tuesday signaled big political problems for the president’s party this fall when House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates are on the ballot nationwide.

So much for the 60 vote supermajority of Dingy Harry.

Heh heh heh.

Meanwhile, not all Donks have deficient situational awareness:

Bayh Warns “Catastrophe” If Dems Ignore Massachusetts Senate Race Lessons

“There’s going to be a tendency on the part of our people to be in denial about all this,” Bayh told ABC News, but “if you lose Massachusetts and that’s not a wake-up call, there’s no hope of waking up.”

What is the lesson of Massachusetts – where Democrats face the prospects of losing a Senate seat they’ve held since 1952? For Senator Bayh the lesson is that the party pushed an agenda that is too far to the left, alienating moderate and independent voters.

“It’s why moderates and independents even in a state as Democratic as Massachusetts just aren’t buying our message,” he said. “They just don’t believe the answers we are currently proposing are solving their problems. That’s something that has to be corrected.”

One doubts whether the neo-Socialist claque in the administration and current Cong leadership is (pun alert!) constitutionally capable of making the changes. So much the worse for them…the Chief will TRY diligently to avoid schadenfreude about the probable result.

SD Politics

Of Laws and Sausages

From kuchen to gas tax, state lawmakers represent “nook and cranny” ideas

Germany’s Otto von Bismarck (who evidently had a bunch of fans up in ND), observed that “Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made.”

This piece provides some of the details of the legislative side of the process as it takes place up at Pierre.

South Dakota legislators will face important matters of life and law among the 500 or so bills likely to be filed during the 2010 session.

They’ll also face issues that aren’t quite so earth shaking.

The 131 bills that had already been filed last week through the Legislative Research Council included proposals to authorize charter schools, raise the state gas tax and approve a building addition at Northern State University.

Also in the mix were ideas with less-clear impacts on the state — like honoring and supporting “Czech Days in Tabor” and the “Scotland Kuchen Feier on the occasion of its first annual event.”

It’s easy (and sometimes fun!) to throw figurative mud-balls at some of the proposals that float up through the process, but look at the bright side…concerns about community festivals and kuchen MAY distract from other things…like more iterations of nanny-stateism, tax increases, etc.

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Blognote & Tuesday Events

Blogging has been slow lately…have been shifting over to Windows 7…which has caused a few issues that needed to be resolved. This was right after some config issues with my blog host site…nothing wrong with THEM…just some changes that requred configuration that was…ah…beyond my experience? You get the picture!

Anyway…things are expeditious again, so it’s back to normal, or at least what passes for it.

Tuesday Events

Meanwhile…tomorrow is a big political day.

The Chief will be attendign a luncheon meeting with SD Attorney General Jackley who will be speaking on issues affecting the state with regards to the current decrepit state of Federalism. More to follow after the event.

Oh yeah, there is also the Massachusetts Senate special election, which one supposes that some will be following with some degree of interest.

However it turns out, there will be a lot of grist for the discussion mills…this has become a big deal…the Chief admits he will be one of those watching for the results on this.

Although Boston and the Bay State are a “fur piece” from the northern plains, the political reach of this one can have significant effects, even out here.

B.O. making fun of pickuop truck drivers in his effort to contribute to the Donkey Party cause has, IMHO a lack of situational awareness and again demonstrates an attitude of elitist contempt for life in the real world.

One could also point out that there is some inconsistancy in criticizing Brown for driving his truck – which is a GMC. Ooops! So much for supporting General Motors!

Obamunism

Obamacare: Rationing from the Get-go

Medicare Rationing Begins in 2011

House and Senate Democrat leaders, and President Obama, argue that they can “pay for” health insurance “reform” by cutting $500 billion from Medicare spending over the next decade—largely through arbitrary reimbursement cuts,— without reducing the quality of care delivered to beneficiaries.

Yet, in January, 2011, Medicare will implement a new payment system for patients receiving dialysis for end stage kidney disease that will severely ration care to this vulnerable (and largely minority) population based on equally arbitrary payment reductions. These patients will be the unfortunate canary in the Medicare coal mine: “reform” legislation will expose millions of Medicare patients to rationing and reduced quality of care.

Several points to consider that are detailed:
– With the Medicare payment for dialysis below the cost of the treatment, and the pharmaceuticals required for said treatment, who will be left to provide the service when the providers (operating at a loss) go bankrupt?
– If the treatment is what is maintaining one’s life, the lowering of rates constitutes a de-facto rationing, and the resultant mortality of the patient as the result.
– The result is to impose administrative rulings (that enforce “price” limitation) to effectively speed patients on their way to their exit from life….hey….a backdoor way to have what amounts to a “death panel”.

The figures, and the gory details are spelled out in the rest of the piece.  Don’t take the Chief’s word for it, check it out yourself.

Any wonder why most polling indicated that Obamacare is NOT wanted by most Americans…not that the Congs (so far) care about THAT little thing!

Glowbull Warming

Glowbull Warming(?) Update

Yes, it’s true. Some who are unable to see the ice-cubes in their coffee are STILL worshiping at the altar of the Church of St Algore of the Hot Air.

They need a good sharp whack upside the headbone with the ol’ cluebat!

The mini ice age starts here

The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists.

Their predictions – based on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans – challenge some of the global warming orthodoxy’s most deeply cherished beliefs, such as the claim that the North Pole will be free of ice insummer by 2013.

According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, Arctic summer sea ice has increased by 409,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, since 2007 – and even the most committed global warming activists do not dispute this.

Sounds like the Polar Bears will be doing fine, which they already have been doing, as they increased their population from approx. 5000 in 1950 to over 25,000 now, but I digress.

The story goes on with a fair amount of detail on the very real science behind the current cooling trends.

Of course it notes the continued obtuseness of the Brit pols who are still getting their card punched at St. Algore’s. They just can’t bring themselves to admit all those pounds, euros, and dollars promised by the con-scheme of “carbon credit trading” are flying away for the winters.

Meanwhile the Chief will be scooping some more “white Glowbull Warming” away from the outpost this week while the temperature is reasonable.

Glowbull Warming

Glowbull Warming: How Cold IS It?

We all know about this latest blast of Glowbull Warming…wind chills in the -30 deg F range (-35 deg C), actual temps at night down to the -20’s F and the snow to boot, currently over 18″ total at the Chief’s outpost in NW Moody County… in fact it was so cold, that a local Democratic politician was seen with his hands in his OWN pockets!

By the way, anyone heard anything from AlGore lately?

Throw another log on the fire!

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We’ve been there, done that…

Received from an e-mail correspondent:

Does anybody out there have any memory of the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY during the Carter Administration?

Anybody? Anything? No?

Bottom line … we’ve spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency …the reason for which virtually no one who reads this can remember.

Ready?

It was very simple…and at the time everybody thought it very appropriate…the ‘Department of Energy’ was instituted on 8-04-1977 TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.

Hey, pretty effective, huh?

AND NOW IT’S 2009, 32 YEARS LATER …AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS “NECESSARY” DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE!

THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY ‘WHAT WAS I THINKING?’

Ah, yes, good old bureaucracy… and NOW we are turning (or have turned) the banking system, health care & the auto Industry over to government…just in the name of “CHANGE”?

May God Help Us !!!

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Joke of the Day

Pelosi tells C-SPAN: ‘There has never been a more open process’

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) defended Congress’ work on a healthcare bill Tuesday saying the process has displayed historic transparency, just as C-SPAN mounts an effort to open the negotiations.

The arrogant impudence of the Donkey Party House Speaker has gotten to be too much for even the MSM to swallow without gagging.

C-SPAN wrote a letter to congressional leaders Tuesday asking that TV cameras be allowed to film negotiations to reconcile the House and Senate versions of healthcare reform legislation.

But Pelosi said Congress has already been transparent throughout the process.

“There has never been a more open process for any legislation,” Pelosi said at a press conference.

Is she on bad acid, or what? Prima facie, reality no longer has a place in her mind.

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Justice Happens!

Afghan bus blast kills 14 terrorists

Sometimes justice just happens, regardless of anything we try to do to prevent it.

A bus loaded with explosives and suspected terrorists apparently blew up prematurely as it was on its way to a planned attack in Afghanistan, police said.

All 14 suspects in the vehicle were killed when it exploded Tuesday in Kundiz province.

CNN said investigators believe the bus was on its way to attack police or foreign military personnel in the area.

Ya gotta love it!

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Senate Status Redux

Democrats’ retirements add burden for Obama
Health care agenda raises voter anger

The retirements of two veteran Senate Democrats in two days this week underscore the political problems facing the party, with five other Democratic incumbents trailing potential Republican challengers in states where President Obama and his $1 trillion health care reform plan are increasingly unpopular.

From Nevada, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid faces a string of negative polls, to Arkansas, where Sen. Blanche Lincoln is polling at just 40 percent in head-to-head matchups with four potential Republican challengers, opposition to Mr. Obama’s agenda is causing problems for Democratic incumbents.

As noted by C.A.H. from Madville Times in a comment on an earlier post, the GOP has some retirements too, but the impact is not exactly the same:

Democrats at one time hoped to build on their 58-40 Senate majority – or 60, when two independents who caucus with the Democrats are counted – in the 2010 midterm vote, with six Republican incumbents also stepping down this year. But now they face a starkly different political landscape and vulnerabilities they had not expected.

In at least seven states – Connecticut, Nevada, Ohio, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, North Dakota and Colorado – the Democratic candidate for Senate trails the Republican in the most recent polls. In those states, Mr. Obama’s popularity has dropped below the percentage of votes he drew in 2008, and opposition to the health care reform bill is deep and wide.

And then there is the prospect of Harry Reid in the same sort of boat that sank out from under SD’s own Donk ex-Sen. Daschle:

Most striking is the plight of Mr. Reid. After shepherding the health care bill through the Senate – making deals throughout that Republicans decried – the senator from Nevada finds himself in political trouble with 10 months to go before Election Day.

Mr. Reid has been polling in the mid-40 percent range in recent surveys, trailing two lesser-known Republicans hoping to unseat him. In addition, the latest Rasmussen Reports poll found that 49 percent of Nevada voters have a “very unfavorable opinion” of Mr. Reid.

Ouch!  That’s got to hurt!

Meanwhile, also swinging in the breeze is Nebraska Donk Ben Nelson, who’s still trying to talk his way out of the aftermath of his noteworthy negotiations acceptance of political bribery that led to his abandonment of long-stated principles to go in the tank for the Obamacare monstrosity.

Nelson: We should have waited on health care

Sen. Ben Nelson said Tuesday it was a mistake for the Obama Administration to take on massive health care reforms in 2009, and suggested efforts would have been better spent addressing the economy.

Nelson, who provided the crucial 60th vote to advance the bill toward Senate passage on Dec. 19, has been active ever since trying to explain his actions to Nebraskans. Ads have aired on television and Nelson is making the rounds with the state’s media.

He requested Tuesday’s interview with the Tribune.

“I think it was a mistake to take health care on as opposed to continuing to spend the time on the economy,” he said.

Uh, Ben…it’s too late now!

Constitution Watch

Interpol: B.O. Grants GESTAPO Powers in US

The Chief REALLY doesn’t want to post on this…the content and implications are extremely disturbing, at least to anyone concerned with maintaining the American Constitutional system.

Obama Gives Interpol Free Hand in U.S.

No presidential statement or White House press briefing was held on it. In fact, all that can be found about it on the official White House Web site is the Dec. 17 announcement and one-paragraph text of President Obama’s Executive Order 12425, with this innocuous headline: “Amending Executive Order 12425 Designating Interpol as a public international organization entitled to enjoy certain privileges, exemptions, and immunities.”In fact, this new directive from Obama may be the most destructive blow ever struck against American constitutional civil liberties. No wonder the White House said as little as possible about it.

So, what’s the big deal about?

First, Obama has granted Interpol the ability to operate within the territorial limits of the United States without being subject to the same constitutional restraints that apply to all domestic law enforcement agencies such as the FBI.

Search warrents, controls on wiretaps and surveillance? “We don’t need no steenking warrants, and we sneer at your foolish Yankee ‘Bill of Rights’.”

Second, Obama has exempted Interpol’s domestic facilities — including its office within the U.S. Department of Justice — from search and seizure by U.S. authorities and from disclosure of archived documents in response to Freedom of Information Act requests filed by U.S. citizens.

Think very carefully about what you just read: Obama has given an international law enforcement organization that is accountable to no other national authority the ability to operate as it pleases within our own borders, and he has freed it from the most basic measure of official transparency and accountability, the FOIA. [emphasis added]

The Chief is still waiting to hear complaints from the left/lib claque that is always so quick to express their concern about some comparatively limited (albeit problematical in their own right) provisions of such laws as the Patriot Act. He suspects that this will be an infinitely long wait.

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Donk Transparency: Through a Glass Darkly

Dems iron out Obamacare in secret

Writing in The Federalist Papers during the debates on adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1787, Alexander Hamilton confidently proclaimed that “two thirds of the people of America could not long be persuaded, upon the credit of artificial distinctions and syllogistic subtleties, to submit their interests to the management and disposal of one third.”
The Senate majority leader and House speaker, respectively, are attempting, in a display of political arrogance unmatched in this nation’s history, to do almost exactly what Hamilton said Americans would never tolerate. They are inventing “artificial distinctions and syllogistic subtleties” of legislative procedure in order to force passage of a proposal favored by a minority and opposed by a large majority of the people.

How is teh Donkey Party they doing this?

Reid and Pelosi are meeting privately with each other and with President Obama to work out differences between their respective chambers’ versions of Obamacare. They are thus ignoring the long-standing requirement that a bipartisan conference committee with representatives from the Senate and House meet in public to iron out such differences, and that on-the-record votes be taken in both chambers on final passage of the committee’s report. Once Reid and Pelosi agree on a final bill, they presumably will conduct a pro forma conference vote to rubber-stamp their agreement.

Transparency: what transparency?

Obama, Reid and Pelosi fear the traditional conference committee process will encourage yet more Americans to decide they don’t want either proposal. All three have forgotten Obama’s promise of more than a year ago that “we’ll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents.” C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb said just last week that his network “will commit the necessary resources” to cover “the critical stage of reconciliation between the chambers.” Unfortunately, it appears that the more critical the stage, the more likely Obama, Reid and Pelosi are to go behind closed doors.

When the process is challanged even by C_SPAN, not exactly noted as being a stronghold of the VRWC (Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy), you know the process isn’t coming close to meeting any sort of smell test. Considering the source as the Reid / Pelosi axis of Constitutional evil, there should be no surprise.

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Donk Senators: Rats Leaving Sinking Ship

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A few recent announced departures in the face of the fading hopes of Donkey Party re-elections.

Close to home…a ND Senator, with an additional note on the 1-term Colorado gov. also bailing out.
Dorgan says he will not seek re-election in fall

North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan said Tuesday he will not seek re-election to the Senate in November, a surprise announcement that dealt another blow to Democrats already struggling to protect their Senate majority.

Adding to the party’s woes: Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, won’t run for a second term this fall, according to two Democrats with knowledge of Ritter’s decision. They spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the governor’s political plans public.

…and not so close, another Donk vet officeholder bites the dust:
Conn. Sen. Dodd to announce retirement

Dodd, a leading Democrat whose political star has wavered, is expected to announce Wednesday that he won’t run for reelection in Nov., sources say.

Dodd’s retirement comes after months of speculation about his political future, and amid faltering polling numbers and a growing sense among the Democratic establishment that he could not win a sixth term.

Hey guys…don’t let the door hit you in the seat on the way out!

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Unexpected Truth Outbreak in UK!

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Muslim MP: security profiling at airports is ‘price we have to pay’

A funny thing happened across the pond…there was an outbreak of truth:

Khalid Mahmood, the Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, said it had become necessary to ‘profile’ passengers from certain racial and religious groups in order to weed out possible terror suspects.

He said: “I think most people would rather be profiled than blown up. It wouldn’t be victimisation of an entire community.

“I think people will understand that it is only through something like profiling that there will be some kind of safety.

Somebody or more accurately somebodies need to pass this along to the B.O. administration, especially the head cheese himself, and the clueless Janet Napolitano.
Speaking of speaking the unspeakable, the MP goes on with this astounding observation:

“If people want to fly safely we have to take measures to stop things like the Christmas Day plot. Profiling may have to be the price we have to pay.

“The fact is the majority of people who have carried out or planned these terror attacks have been Muslims.”

WOW! What a concept…Islamoterrorism is being done by…Moslems!

To add to the “dog bites man” nature of this story is the fact that not only is MP Mahmood a Moslem himself, but he is also a member of the radically PC “Ingsoc” Labor Party.

Amazing!

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A Dog’s Life

Received the following from an e-mail correspondent:

This made me very sad, especially since I have 4 dogs.

My dogs sleep about 20 hours a day. They have their food prepared for them. They can eat whenever they want, 24/7/365. Their meals are provided at no cost to them. They visit the Dr. once a year for their checkup, and again during the year if any medical needs arise. For this they pay nothing, and nothing is required of them.

They live on a nice acreage in a kennel that is much larger than they need, but they are not required to do any upkeep. If they make a mess, someone else cleans it up. They have their choice of doghouses to sleep in. They receive these accommodations absolutely free.

They are living like a kings, and have absolutely no expenses whatsoever. All of their costs are picked up by others who go out and earn a living every day. I was just thinking about all this, and suddenly it hit me like a brick in the head:

Holy crap, my dogs are Democrats!

’nuff said.

National Insecurity

Homeland Insecurity Digest

By now, most are aware of the attempted bombing of the NW airlines flight into Detroit. The episode and its aftermath do little or nothing to reassure that airline security is any better than it was before this incident. The experience of flying is rapidly transmogrifying into a virtual signing in to a state of voluntary imprisonment, with no pesly Constitutional nicities to be troubled about. (If prisons treated inmates like some of the TSA regulations treat airline passengers, the ACLU would be in full cry and out for blood.)

Flight 253 passenger: Sharp-dressed man aided terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab onto plane without passport

A Michigan man who was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 says he witnessed Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab trying to board the plane in Amsterdam without a passport.

Kurt Haskell of Newport, Mich., who posted an earlier comment about his experience, talked exclusively with MLive.com and confirmed he was on the flight by sending a picture of his boarding pass. He and his wife, Lori, were returning from a safari in Uganda when they boarded the NWA flight on Friday.

Haskell said he and his wife were sitting on the ground near their boarding gate in Amsterdam, which is when they saw Mutallab approach the gate with an unidentified man….While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. “The guy said, ‘He’s from Sudan and we do this all the time.’”

HUH? Boarding an international flight WITH NO PASSPORT? WTF? Putting this along with the fact that there was no prior reservation, the ticket was one-way and bought with cash, MIGHT a rational person suspect that there was “something rotten in Denmark”? (OK – actually Netherlands, but you get the picture.) NOT confidence inspiring circumstances.

Two al Qaeda Leaders Behind Northwest Flight 253 Terror Plot Were Released by U.S.

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans.

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an “art therapy rehabilitation program” and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

Guantanamo prisoner #333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, and prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari, were sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody. Al-Harbi has since changed his name to Muhamad al-Awfi.

Both Saudi nationals have since emerged in leadership roles in Yemen, according to U.S. officials and the men’s own statements on al Qaeda propaganda tapes.

Transferred from Gitmo to art therapy in Saudi Arabia? HUH? Political correctness run amok here, or what?

Napolitano: No indication of larger terror plot

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says there is no indication that the man who attempted to destroy an airliner in Detroit on Christmas Day is part of a larger terrorist plot.

Napolitano refused to say whether Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has a connection to al-Qaida, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.

The phrase “poor situational awareness” comes immediately to mind.

Bomb plotter: ‘More like me’

Failed plane bomber Umar Abdulmutallab has bragged to FBI agents that there are more young men plotting to launch attacks on the West.

The 23-year-old Nigerian has told security chiefs of a sinister network in Yemen who are ready and waiting to strike.

The reports come after The Sun revealed that cops fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners.

The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen.

And finally – the responses after the fact – a serious misapplication of admittedly limited security resources.

‘Absolute chaos’ at NYC airports
Innocent fliers: TSA has gone plane insane

Airline passengers thwarted the Christmas Day terror plot — and now passengers are getting the shaft.

International fliers are falling victim to insanely repetitive security questions, invasive pat-downs and overzealous flight attendants who restrict their every move, passengers fumed yesterday.

For all the gory details read the article.

As far as we are concerned here at the Chief’s outpost…automotive travel is definitely the way to go.

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B.O. Admin Plan Pushes Ag Rollbacks

Plan to turn farms into forest worries Obama official

Hmmm. Looks like the USDA in conjunction with EPA is setting up a push in the direction of an at least partial repeal of that environmentally risky 5000 year experiment with agriculture.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has ordered his staff to revise a computerized forecasting model that showed that climate legislation supported by President Obama would make planting trees more lucrative than producing food.

The latest Agriculture Department economic-impact study of the climate bill, which passed the House this summer, found that the legislation would profit farmers in the long term. But those profits would come mostly from higher crop prices as a result of the legislation’s incentives to plant more forests and thus reduce the amount of land devoted to food-producing agriculture.

Questions come to mind…how is this plan supposed to work, and what sort of modeling is being used to generate it, and are the predicted changes actually valid? The latter two issues are far from being trivial, given the proven tendency of environmentally oriented (junk-)scientists to fake and distort statistics, and use demonstrably invalid computer modeling in order to prove their (pre-determined) conclusions.

In spite of that, it seems like the first question is shaky enough in its premises that the Ag Secretary is calling the idea into question.

According to the economic model used by the department and the Environmental Protection Agency, the legislation would give landowners incentives to convert up to 59 million acres of farmland into forests over the next 40 years. The reason: Trees clean the air of heat-trapping gases better than farming does.

Mr. Vilsack, in a little-noticed statement issued with the report earlier this month, said the department’s forecasts “have caused considerable concern” among farmers and ranchers.
“If landowners plant trees to the extent the model suggests, this would be disruptive to agriculture in some regions of the country,” he said.

Gee…d’ya think, maybe so? Wonder what the first clue was?

He said the Forest and Agricultural Sector Optimization Model (FASOM), created by researchers at Texas A&M University, does not take into account other provisions in the House-passed bill, which would boost farmers’ income while they continue to produce food. Those omissions, he said, cause the model to overestimate the potential for increased forest planting.

Oh yeah: the pesky bit about invalid computer modeling again!

Mr. Vilsack said he has directed his chief economist to work with the EPA to “undertake a review of the assumptions in the FASOM model, to update the model and to develop options on how best to avoid unintended consequences for agriculture that might result from climate change legislation.”

One HAS to question the outcome of any revision just as strongly as the original scvheme. Given the political realities, it seems not unlikely that the revisions will be crafted to give the APPEARANCE of solving problems, while continuing in effect to “nudge” (in the terms of B.O.’s Czardomry) us in a direction back towards the cave.

The legislation would give free emissions credits, known as offsets, to farmers and landowners who plant forests and adopt low-carbon farm and ranching practices.

Can you say “Cap and Trade”?

Farmers and ranchers could sell the credits to help major emitters of greenhouse gases comply with the legislation. That revenue would help the farmers deal with an expected rise in fuel and fertilizer costs. But the economic forecast predicts that nearly 80 percent of the offsets would be earned through the planting of trees, mostly in the Midwest, the South and the Plains states.

The American Farm Bureau Federation and some farm-state Republican lawmakers have complained that the offsets program would push landowners to plant trees and terminate their leases with farmers.

The model projects that reduced farm production will cause food prices to rise by 4.5 percent by 2050 compared with a scenario in which no legislation is passed, the department found.

Ooops! Maybe THIS is the problem with the projection…it would give ammo to opponents of the overall (pseudo) green policy framework, which after all is built on the foundation of junk-climate science as propounded by the Great Church of St. Gore the Green.

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Cornhusker Auction

How to lose friends for little gain

Rarely has a cowboy castrated himself in public like Ben Nelson, the senator from Nebraska, who becomes an object lesson in how a United States senator easily trades his “convictions” and “principles” for perfectly legal bribes from cynical party leaders.

When the inevitable howling erupted in Nebraska, all the senator could come up with was a variation on the oldest excuse in Washington: “I didn’t do it, and maybe I won’t do it again.”

Huh?   That’s got to go right up there with “I voted against it before I voted for it”, and “It depends what the meaning of is, is” in the political doublespeak hall of fame.

Every president mirrors in ways large and small the politics he learned back home, and the administration’s use of the battering ram in behalf of a scheme that grows more unpopular day by day reflects the down-and-dirty politics of Chicago. Richard Daley the Original lives and breathes on Capitol Hill.

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, and the senator’s colleagues can be grateful for the diversion of attention from the actual outrage. Max Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told the Senate that ObamaCare is so convoluted that no one (not even the dozens of lawyers who wrote it) actually understands it. The president insists that the change nobody believes in will reduce costs for everybody….

Nevermind. The president has the reform that does less and costs more. Earl Long, the late governor of Louisiana, once boasted that he could take a hundred-dollar bill and get anything through his legislature “and buy you a steak dinner with what I’ll have left over.”

President Obama goes that one better. He did it with a bribe of somebody else’s money.

It’s not change that the Chief can believe in.

Culture Wars

B.O. Tree: Ho-ho-ho’s indeed!

White House Christmas Decor Featuring Mao Zedong Comes Under Fire

BO Tree

The nation isn’t going to fall because of this. That being said…it DOES give a clear indication of the Obamaniacal state of mind, which in spite of Michelle’s vaporings has little connection to vast majority

Mao Zedong is in the White House, hanging out with the drag queen. Not far away, Barack Obama is making a play to have his head etched in stone.

BO Rushmore ornament

Mao Ornament

Hedda ornament

Critics of President Obama are setting their sights this week on the official White House Christmas tree, which features controversial ornaments including an orb depicting the late Chinese dictator, another that shows drag queen Hedda Lettuce, and yet another that shows a picture of Mount Rushmore — with Obama’s head pasted to the side of Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Roosevelt’s.

“Jesus wept.”

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Season’s Greetings

To My Democrat Friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010 , but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wish.

To My Republican Friends:

Merry Christmas and have a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

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Update: Senate Shoves Obamacare Bill…

0023 CST

60-40 vote in the Senate by the Donkey party tells the country to take this bill and and use it to…copy a medical procedure involving “someplace the sun doesn’t shine.”

How does it follow the Constitution?   What’s that?…as Queen SanFran Nan Pelosi replied to a reporter’s question about the bill’s constitutionality.  “Are you serious?…That’s not a serious question!”  So much for THAT minor quibble.

Since this lead balloon has made it off the ground, the best chance to try to stop it is to put a spoke in the wheels of the upcoming reconciliation process.  This may be a chance for the so-called “blue dogs” in the house to make a positive difference, both for the country, and for their re-election chances.

Are you paying attention Stephanie?

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Russians ID Flying Object?

UFO pyramid reported over Kremlin

The object has been compared to an Imperial Cruiser in the Star Wars films and witnesses estimated it could be up to a mile wide.

Two film clips exist which appear to show the same object and footage has been repeatedly playing on Russian television news channels.

So what is it?

The identity of the shape has not been confirmed. Russian reports ruled out a UFO but police refused to comment.

If it ISN’T a UFO, or Unidentified Flying Object, since it is prima facie a flying object of some sort, logically the Russians must think they know what its identity is!

Enquiring minds await this revelation,  but others are not so sure as the Russians:

A spokesman for aerospace journal Jane’s News said: “We have no idea what it is.”

Neither does the Chief, but the video clips ARE interesting!