"Trust Me, I Get It"

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“Trust me, I get it”

So said President Barack Obama in his delivery to the nation Tuesday evening. As I did some play by play on the speech here, I was left wondering one thing- is this guy stupid or arrogant?

Then it hit me. He’s the worst scenario of all- a liberal with a plan. I am firm believer that contradictions cannot exist, but this case may prove that theory wrong. He has a plan and he will pursue it until stopped.

Shortly after his budget presentation headlines were clear- $10,000 per person, that’s what the 2010 budget averaged out to. Several hours later, the headline changed to $25,573 per taxpayer. That got me thinking. At what point will the extreme left wing of this country, which gains more and more power each day, be happy with that ratio? Is it 3 to 1, 4 to 1, or even higher?

At what point will they achieve happiness knowing that they have succeeded in their goal of providing for the have-nots on the back of those who achieve?

Thanks to a drooling media that cannot get its head out of its own ass long enough to ask a few relevant questions about our future, Rahm Emmanuel, the current Chief of Staff, has flown under the radar despite his tremendously insightful remarks that “crisis brings about opportunity.”

That’s the troubling part of this economic downturn. Deep down, the Democrats in charge at the top are digging it. It is allowing them to pursue an agenda they never dreamed of chasing- a radical adjustment of what this country used to stand for.

Nancy Pelosi is sipping champagne tonight with visions of a $3.5 trillion budget figures dancing in her head. Pet projects saving field mice in California, more than $600 billion heading towards universal health care with no plan for implementation, and people who don’t pay taxes receiving a tax break- it’s a liberal utopia. A trillion in new taxes over the next decade? I don't know if they conjured that up out of their ass or hat?

Please do not make the mistake that I genuinely believe everyone having access to health care is a liberal dream. Nor is the completion of pledged projects to their constituents- they could care less about that.

My friend KO discussed this earlier, but it cannot be understated. Liberals seek a government that does not just enforce laws and collect taxes, but provides you with the food you eat and the work that allows you to earn. They understand, perhaps more than most people realize, that the advancement of these plans solidify their increasing voting base- the people that are searching harder for handouts than they are a job. Their true heaven on earth is in sight for the first time in many, many years.

The opportunity this crisis presents is to reach their unstated and silent goal. It is a notion that they will deny until the very end- they want to make everyone equally poor. There is no need to prosper in their minds, just survive. They loathe individual achievement. If everyone is forced to remain the same, and we somehow retain our democracy, they remain in power. They become the great liberators. Taking care of those who do not know better, this is how they look at America.

Their arrogance is angering. After spending the week talking about his goal to cut the budget deficit in half by 2012 despite spending more than a trillion new dollars on ill conceived stimulus packages and bank bailouts, Obama had the audacity to title his budget message, “A New Era of Responsibility.” He either has one serious sense of humor, or he’s just hoping we are not paying attention.

During Ayn Rand’s epochal Atlas Shrugged, two characters discuss the worst fable ever repeated to children- Robin Hood. The moral of that story has been destroyed over the years and molded to the point where we genuinely believe that stealing from the rich for the benefit of the poor is a noble goal. It’s difficult to believe that in a short 50 years we have reached a point in our culture where that exaggeration has become a reality.

"The taxing aspect of this is worse than Robin Hood," said economist Peter Morici, a University of Maryland professor, of Obama’s spending plan on Thursday. "He's resurrecting class warfare for political gain."

There are some people out there that get it. As we’ve talked about before, the question is how the liberals go, how much do they achieve, before the rest of the country wakes up from its coma?

In the meantime, we are left with over-the-top rhetoric entitled “Inheriting a Legacy of Misplaced Priorities,” also known as, Chapter One of Obama’s Budget Message. That’s true hope and change right there.

The message, which can be viewed here- http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/fy2010_new_era/A_New_Era_of_Responsibility2.pdf- has wonderful little ditties discussing “eroding trust and accountability,” the “erosion of market oversight,” and an “unresponsive and secret government.” For guys that claim to want to play in both sides of the political sandbox, the entire budget message is a lefty fringe wet dream- “Bush Bad.”

What was Pelosi’s response to this massive budget that brings back big government to a level that conservative stalwart Bill Clinton pledged we would never see again?

“It is a blueprint for the future, and I’m proud of that,” she said.

Trust me, I get it.

I’m hoping the rest of the country will soon.

Assault Weapons Ban Update

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Ah, the political winds blow fickle between the election cycles....

Her Highness Nancy Pelosi was the first one to play party pooper with the Obama administration's sudden announcement that they wanted to revisit the Clinton AWB:

Attorney General Eric Holder raised the prospect Wednesday that the administration would push to bring back the ban. But Pelosi (D-Calif.) indicated on Thursday that he never talked to her. The Speaker gave a flat “no” when asked if she had talked to administration officials about the ban.

“On that score, I think we need to enforce the laws we have right now,” Pelosi said at her weekly news conference. “I think it's clear the Bush administration didn’t do that.”


The esteemed Senate Majority Leader Harry "We've Lost" Reid soon joined in:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will join Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in opposing any effort to revive the 1994 assault weapons ban, putting them on the opposite side of the Obama administration.

Reid spokesman Jim Manley said the Nevada Democrat will preserve his traditional pro-gun rights voting record.

"Senator Reid would oppose an effort (to) reinstate the ban if the Senate were to vote on it in the future," Manley told The Hill in an e-mail late Thursday night.

Why the lack of support for a traditional leftist issue? It's simple, really: the entire House of Representatives comes up for election again in November of 2010, and 36 Senate seats also go up for election that year. The balance in the House is 254 Dem/178 Repub (with 3 vacant seats sure to be filled by Dems) and in the Senate of the 36 slated for reelection, 19 are Repub and 17 are Dem. After the last ban passed in '94, more than a few Democratic Representatives were targeted by the NRA and other pro-gun groups, and lost reelection. In 2004, when the original AWB sunsetted and was brought up for renewal, the Democrats in Congress knew it was a losing issue, and treated it accordingly.

Toss one more rough economic year on top of things, and every Democrat in Congress with an election coming up in 2010 is probably going to be scrambling for reelection as it is, without the added pressure of the NRA bearing down on top of them over a piece of legislation that has very little upside, only a ton of downside.

One is left to wonder why President Obama would send AG Eric Holder out to basically sign a bunch of Congressmen up for political suicide without even consulting them first? Is the administration going to make a habit of floating ideas out in the press to measure reaction, all the while without consulting its own allies in Congress beforehand? I must have skipped that chapter in How To Make Friends and Influence People.

While I do not for a moment believe the issue is dead, hopefully the past two days has been a lesson to President Obama et al that there are limits even within his own party to how much liberal rhetoric he can float out there without repercussions.

Pentagon Repeals War Dead Photo Ban at Dover

The Pentagon has officially repealed the ban on photographing returning remains of dead servicemen/women at Dover AFB:

Pentagon to Allow Media Photos of Returning War Dead

The only groups requesting this ban to be lifted were Code Pink & associated groups. That should tell you pretty much everything you need to know.

Blackfive has it right: HELL HATH FROZE OVER, AND THE INMATES NOW RUN THE ASYLUM.

Update 27 Feb '09:

Even after sleeping on this, I have strong feelings on this. My main reaction is that the men & women actually putting themselves in harm's way are not being listened to at all here. Even beyond the wants and needs of the families, the opinions of America's warfighters should be heard here. It is they who are coming home in those flag draped boxes.

Secondly, the only reason anyone ever wanted this ban lifted was for propaganda reasons. The comment you hear most is, "If Americans saw these photographs, they'd realize the cost of these wars and opposition would be higher/have started sooner." What a load of horseshit. These photos are the fulcrum that "understanding the costs of war" rests on? We haven't been barraged with "the costs of war" in the popular media in the form of casualty counts, etc.?

Thirdly, the opportunity for groups like Code Pink to take rare advantage of a family in grief is too great. These groups are opportunist, PR driven packs of jackals and a year from now, if a mother or father regrets a decision made in haste during a time of mourning, the Pinkers aren't going to give two shits about it.

On the surface it doesn't seem like a bad idea to let the families decide "as they are allowed to at Arlington," but Arlington is on the other end of the process. Families have at least had a few days after their loved ones return to American soil to consider the impact of media/photography at a graveside service.

I believe that a few people, family members, probably wanted a choice in this and that their opinions were true. A far greater majority asking for this to be opened up to media coverage are doing it purely for propaganda purposes and it is probably too much that we ask they feel ashamed of themselves for it.

The words of John Stuart Mill hold true here:

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

With Apologies To Melanie

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a 3.5 Trillion dollar Budget??


"Look what they've done to my party, Ma
Look what they've done to my party
Most of the time they were close to right
And now they're just all wrong, Ma
Look what they've done to my party

Look what they've done to Mr Jefferson, Ma
Look what they've done in his name
Well they twisted it and turned it
Like they're all insane, Ma
Look what they've done to my party

I wish I could fix the party I am in
Wish I could find a good fix
Well, if I just could find a real good fix
I'd never have to come out and look at
What they've done to my party

But maybe it'll all be all right, Ma
Maybe it'll all be OK
If the people don’t buy the fears
And Pelosi - Reid go away some day, Ma
Look what they've done to my party

Look what they've done to my party, Ma
Look what they've done to my party, Ma
Well they tied it up in a socialist bag
And turned it upside down, Ma
Look what they've done to my party

Look what they've done to my party, Ma
Look what they've done to my party
Most of the time they were only half right
And now they're just all wrong, Ma"

Liberty At Stake

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So it begins. Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the administration's intention to renew the 1994 Clinton Assault Weapons Ban.

It is not a surprise, since Joe Biden was one of the authors of the original bill, which still stands as one of the most useless pieces of legislation in the history of legislation...and that's saying alot.

What is even more galling, however, isn't just the reintroduction of the ban. This has been expected by most firearms owners, to be honest. We knew toward the end of the campaign when Obama looked dead into a t.v. camera and said, "Look, I'm not going to take your guns," that he was lying through his teeth. He has to give the far left voters something, and this looks like a gimme.

What's really galling is the how, when and why of the announcement:

Holder said that putting the ban back in place would not only be a positive move by the United States, it would help cut down on the flow of guns going across the border into Mexico, which is struggling with heavy violence among drug cartels along the border.

"I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum."
Holder said at a news conference on the arrest of more than 700 people in a drug enforcement crackdown on Mexican drug cartels operating in the U.S.

A positive impact in Mexico? Now we're seriously considering trampling the Constitution of the United States of America because Mexico can't take care of its own problems? Seriously? And the words "at a minimum" are especially ridiculous. He just basically acknowledged this ban has no real purpose, except it might do some good for Mexico. Maybe. We're now pissing on the Constitution because it might help out the Mexicans.

That is not the minimum, Mr. Holder, that is the maximum and you damn well know it. Anyone who's ever looked at the real math behind the original AWB knows it was a spurious piece of legislation. Traditionally, the rates of assault weapons used in violent crimes have run around 1/5th of 1% (.2%). The ban had absolutely no measurable effect on violent crime in the United States.

Then why bring it up now? Several reasons come to mind:

1) The administration has to look like it's doing something about the border problem.

2) The administration is not going to be able to carry through on many of the promises that it made to the more radical leftists of the country to garner votes, and as I said before, this looks like an easy measure to push over to show that the lefties got some return on investment.

3) It is a quintessential stepping stone. As the Washington Post said about the original ban back in '94:

No one should have any illusions about what was accomplished (by the ban). Assault weapons play a part in only a small percentage of crime. The provision is mainly symbolic; its virtue will be if it turns out to be, as hoped, a stepping stone to broader gun control.

Of course, no one should be surprised at any of this coming from the mouth of Eric Holder. He is primed to easily surpass Janet Reno as the biggest joke of an Attorney General this nation has ever had. As someone who's lawfirm represented 17 Guantanamo Bay detainees and who's former law firm partner represented the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing, we shouldn't be surprised that his legal philosophies are firmly rooted pretty far to the left of the center aisle. His confirmation shows that when it comes to the Constitution, this administration is only interested in upholding the rights of a specific segment of this nation's citizens.

Battle lines are forming, and Americans who screamed bloody murder about the Patriot Act and the treatment of foreign terrorists who wish nothing more than the obliteration of this nation are now going to stand aside and watch real, tangible assaults on our real liberties happen. Hope and change has quickly been replaced with rhetoric and fear mongering. The words of Samuel Adams in 1776 have never been truer than now:

The warm sunshine of influence would melt down the virtue which the violence of the storm rendered more firm and unyielding. In a state of tranquillity, wealth, and luxury, our descendants would forget the arts of war and the noble activity and zeal which made their ancestors invincible. Every art of corruption would be employed to loosen the bond of union which renders our resistance formidable. When the spirit of liberty, which now animates our hearts and gives success to our arms, is extinct, our numbers will accelerate our ruin and render us easier victims to tyranny. Ye abandoned minions of an infatuated ministry, if peradventure any should yet remain among us, remember that a Warren and Montgomery are numbered among the dead. Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, What should be the reward of such sacrifices? Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, and plow, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than the animating contest of freedom--go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.

The spirit of liberty is something we must recapture as a nation, and before it is too late and our chains do not sit so lightly upon us.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

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So…Obama is going to withdraw the troops from Iraq and end the war. He hasn’t yet provided any details on the timeline (actually he hasn’t provided any details about any of his plans yet, but I digress…), however, reports are circulating that most troops will be withdrawn over the next 18 months with a residual force remaining until December 2011, the deadline under the current agreement with Iraq.

That’s nice. I mean it. The men and women who have spent years and multiple tours of duty fighting to bring freedom and democracy to a people who have known only terror and tyranny have well earned their trip home. Their families have well earned the return of their loved ones.

But let’s be clear about one thing: when this war is brought to its conclusion, it will NOT be because of anything Obama does. The natural course of events will end the war. Events driven by President Bush. You see, the reason Obama is in a position to bring the troops home is because the Iraq government, military and police are increasingly able to stand on their own. And the reason for THAT is because Bush stayed the course. Now, you can debate the reasons he sent troops into Iraq in the first place and you can criticize the initial strategy. Lord knows that’s been the favorite liberal pastime over the last 7 years. The fact remains that once there, failure was not an option and we did not fail. That’s a tough pill for the Democrats to swallow but it’s still the fact. The elected government of Iraq is taking control over running their affairs, their military is becoming more effective in handling insurgents, their police better able to maintain law and order and their people more comfortable with, and trusting in, their new freedom and leadership. A turn of events brought about by Bush staying in Iraq and our military fighting along side and training their counterparts to do the job themselves.

And so the troops are ready to start coming home. But not because of what Obama does. Any action taken by the Obama administration now, is akin to scrubs coming in to run out the clock after the varsity has built up a lead so large it can’t possibly be fucked up. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking anything else and don’t let his usurped claim of victory distract you from the real focus: how he handles Afghanistan and Pakistan. For all our sakes, I hope he does as well as his predecessor ultimately did in Iraq and can claim a genuine victory there.

Short Round

A "short round" in fire mission speak is indirect fire (artillery, mortar, etc.) that lands short of the intended target, possibly endangering friendly troops. In Indiana Jones speak, it's a small Asian kid kicking bad guy ass. In WAF speak, it's a brief post designed to draw attention to something of interest somewhere else on the Errornet.

This Short Round is dedicated to Day By Day. If you're not a regular Day By Day reader already, you're missing one of the funniest conservative slanted cartoons in, well, ever.

We Will Defeat Al Qaeda...Just Please Don't Ask About Jamaat ul-Fuqra Or Anyone Else

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After spending 7+ years doing everything they can to denounce and undermine the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it appears the Democratic leadership of the nation is poised to take credit for the successes that, up until a few months ago, they denied existed. After Al Qaeda's command structure has been completely decimated by both our military and diplomatic efforts, including the seizing of huge amounts of money and disrupting their training and financial networks, President Obama has declared that Al Qaeda will be defeated.

I'm glad to hear our new President is committed to the Cause, but while we're all focused on the Dems renewed vigor in the Long War overseas, we have a wee little problem developing right here in the U.S. While we've been killing jihadists over there, they've slowly and quietly been increasing their presence over here.

Back in November of 2008, KMSP Fox 9 in Minneapolis/St Paul broke the story of the Somali jihadists living in the Twin Cities area (archive link courtesy of Free Republic):

Young Somali men are vanishing off the streets of the Twin Cities. More than 20 have left in the last few months, and the community fears they’ve gone back to Somalia to fight in a holy war.

They’re known in the Somali community simply at The Missing. More than 20 young Somali men, between the ages of 17 and 22, who have left the Twin Cities in the last few months, without a single word to their families.

The families and community leaders believe the men have gone back to fight in a bloody civil war, in which Al Quiada is a major player.

Now it appears the NY Times is on the case with a similar story of recruitment of young Islamic youths in Minnesota (NY Times embedded links removed):

WASHINGTON — The FBI Director, Robert S. Mueller III, said Monday that a Somali-American man who was one of several suicide bombers in a terrorist attack last October in Somalia had apparently been indoctrinated into his extremist beliefs while living in the United States.

The problem is not nearly isolated to the Twin Cities area, and neither is it isolated to the Somali Islamic population.

Fox News recently released a video report on 35 suspected camps suspected of indoctrinating and training Islamist militants scattered across the U.S. belonging to the group Muslims of the Americas, which is an offshoot of Jamaat ul-Fuqra:



For the uninitiated, Jamaat ul-Fuqra is a terrorist group formed in 1980 by Muslim Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani. The stated mission of the group is to "purify Islam through violence."

Within 10 years of its formation, Fuqra's communes in the US attracted many Muslim converts-including some of those recruited in prisons. The JF is said to comprise of some 1,000 to 3,000 members in the US. Secrecy is the hallmark of the outfit and cadres are reportedly well versed in the use of aliases. The Fuqra’s structure is well concealed behind front outfits and consists of a network of safe houses and cells. Furthermore, the JF founder as well as cadres consistently maintain that it does not exist. JF members occasionally travel abroad for ‘paramilitary and survivalist training’ under Gilani's supervision.

Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, who also calls himself the sixth Sultan Ul Faqr, is the chief of JF. Jamaat ul-Fuqra is headquartered in Hancock, New York.

...

Although Gilani, the reclusive chief of Fuqra resides in Lahore, Pakistan, most JF cells are located in North America. Fuqra members have purchased isolated rural properties in North America to live as a community, practice their faith, and insulate themselves from Western culture. The group has set up and funded rural communes that the US authorities allege are linked to murder, bombings and other felonies throughout the US and Canada. Currently, there are half a dozen Fuqra residential compounds in rural hamlets across the US sheltering hundreds of cadres, some of who have reportedly trained in the use of weapons and explosives in Pakistan.

Muslims of the Americas, a tax-exempt group established in the US in 1980 by Gilani, operates communes of primarily black, American-born Muslims in many states in the US, including in Binghamton in New York, Badger in California, York in South Carolina and Red House in Virginia. JF is reportedly linked through court documents to the Muslims of Americas. There is also a road in the name of Sheikh Gilani in the vicinity of Virginia. The cult houses between 100 and 200 people, many of them women and children in about 20 huge trailers. There is also a Virginia newspaper, the Islamic Post, founded by Sheikh Gilani.


The following is courtesy of Jihad Watch and the Canada Free Press about a visit by CFP in May 2007 to the camp located at "Islamberg", New York:

Islamberg is not as benign as a Buddhist monastery or a Carmelite convent. Nearly every weekend, neighbors hear sounds of gunfire. Some, including a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, have heard the bang of small explosives. None of the neighbors wished to be identified for fear of "retaliation."

"We don't even dare to slow down when we drive by," one resident said. "They own the mountain and they know it and there is nothing we can do about it but move, and we can't even do that. Who wants to buy a property near that?"

The complex serves to scare the bejeesus out of the local residents.

"If you go there, you better wear body armor," a customer at the Circle E Diner in Hancock said. "They have armed guards and if they shoot you, nobody will find your body."

At Cousins, a watering hole in nearby Deposit, a barfly, who didn't wish to be identified, said: "The place is dangerous. You can hear gunfire up there. I can't understand why the FBI won't shut it down."

Islamberg is a branch of Muslims of the Americas Inc., a tax-exempt organization formed in 1980 by Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, who refers to himself as "the sixth Sultan Ul Faqr," Gilani, has been directly linked by court documents to Jamaat ul-Fuqra or "community of the impoverished," an organization that seeks to "purify" Islam through violence.

Though primarily based in Lahore, Pakistan, Jamaat ul-Fuqra has operational headquarters in New York and openly recruits through various social service organizations in the U.S., including the prison system. Members live in hamaats or compounds, such as Islamberg, where they agree to abide by the laws of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, which are considered to be above local, state and federal authority. Additional hamaats have been established in Hyattsville, Maryland; Red House, Virginia; Falls Church, Virginia; Macon, Georgia; York, South Carolina; Dover, Tennessee; Buena Vista, Colorado; Talihina, Oklahoma; Tulane Country, California; Commerce, California; and Onalaska, Washington. Others are being built, including an expansive facility in Sherman, Pennsylvania.


JUF and Muslims of the Americas have been implicated in multiple terrorist incidents both here in the U.S. and abroad, including bombings in the Pacific Northwest in the early 1980's, an attempted bombing in Toronto in 1991, and a member convicted in complicity of the 1993 WTC bombing. Daniel Pearl was on his way to interview Gilani when he was abducted and murdered in 2002. Gilani was questioned and released following Pearl's murder.

In other words, this is a very serious terrorist organization with infrastructure and facilities spread across the U.S. that has a history of keeping their jihad below the radar. They are active, and they are training, and the threat of an attack similar to the terrorist incidents in Mumbai is no longer looking like just a possibility, but an inevitability.

With the focus on our actions overseas, this group and other smaller, similar groups have flown under our radar for far too long. These are threats that need to be dealt with immediately and emphatically. We need to recognize that not only is Al Qaeda not the only terrorist threat to the U.S., they may not even be most dangerous terrorist threat to the U.S. International terrorism in general has a constant ebb and flow to it, with groups evolving, some becoming more prevalent as others fade. Al Qaeda has been the bogeyman of America since 9-11 with good reason, but they are not the only game in town and we ignore the others at great peril.

As our commitments abroad in Iraq and Afghanistan transition, we need to refocus some of our energies here, within our borders. The Obama administration has two choices: continue the current rhetoric to take credit for advances made overseas under former President Bush's watch, or adapt to a changing world that's including rapidly increasing threats here on our own soil. It is no longer a question that the rise of these groups on the North American continent is a failure of the previous administration. A new question appears: is the current administration more interested in taking credit for the previous administration's successes, or correcting its failures?

Blogging The President

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Mr. President, Don't Blow This

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As my Lahti and I made our way to our small, cramped, dimly lit desk, nestled in the far left corner of the bunker I reflected on a conversation I recently had with my college History major daughter. The topic was England and Parliament and some of its most famous personalities. We came around to one of my favorites, Edmund Burke. So, I am declaring it Edmund Burke day, at least in the small, far left corner of the bunker. Burke once mused:

'When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state will be of no service”.

Mr. President, on day 35, earlier than I am sure you ever imagined, you are at an important crossroad of your administration. You can sacrifice it to those to whom the auctioneers have already bid and won, yes that’ means YOU Ms. Pelosi, or you can use your talents as problem solver, a conciliator, to bring the GOP into the discussion and come to a true bi-partisan agreement on how to resolve the economic downturn.

Follow the lead of one of Burke’s fellow Irishman, Ronald Reagan (whoa, that was tough to write even on Edmund Burke day), Reagan won both his elections with a far larger mandate than the one which brought you to office. If he can sit down with Tip O’Neil, there’s no reason at all why you shouldn’t bring Boehner, Cantor, et al to the White House, shut the door and “git r done”. 35 days into your administration you have the opportunity to be a great President, don’t squander it to the same bidders and auctioneers who have already destroyed the reputation, credibility and effectiveness of the congressional democrats.

“Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion”

Mr. President, use the judgment with which you have been blessed. Use your victory as an olive branch of co-operation, not as a gavel to unilaterally end debate. Use your address tonight to invite bi-partisan success, not partisan failure.

Frank's Tuesday Morning Hangover

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Today, please join me for a very special episode of Frank’s Tuesday Morning Hangover.

I know that I’m only one column in, but I want to be a little serious today. I promise that we’ll bust balls on Brad Pitt and talk about boobs and what pisses me off next week.

So the other day I hired a young female accountant. Smart, qualified, professional - all of the things that you want in an associate - but she had one other “something”. She’s the sort of person that makes a room better just by being there. You know the type, the “aww shucks, life is beautiful and I’m so glad to know you” people. The ones that, when you meet them and know them, make you pray down in your soul that they’re genuine so that your faith in humanity might be maintained for another day.

I’m feeling pretty good about, we’ll call her “Margaret”, so I ask her my favorite question.

Tell me about your greatest tribulation and how you overcame it”.

I generally get “my professor in Psych 250 had it in for me”, “my Dad wouldn’t buy me a car for sweet sixteen”, “my last job got yanked out from under me because I wouldn’t kiss ass”.

Really deep stuff.

Not from Margaret. No way.

“Mr. TStyl, that’s got to be when I had my car wreck. I was six months pregnant and totaled it - the other driver was intoxicated. I had a seizure and had to deliver by emergency c-section three months early. I got home from the hospital after a couple of weeks and about a week or so later my husband was laid off so I had to go back to work, except the hospital replaced me and I had to take a position in customer service.”

Then she starts smiling, and I’m thinking “what the hell? Is she nuts?”.

“I got to learn how to deal with difficult people and the whole thing strengthened my marriage. My daughter is now three and she‘s just the greatest thing in my life. God really blessed my family”.

Lessons to take home here?

#1 - Her pregnancy was six months along when this wonderful woman gave birth to a beautiful girl who is now three years old, smart and almost perfect. It's a shame that The ONE thinks that this child wasn't a person when she was brought into the world. That Margaret was “punished with a baby”? (side note - every time this guy leaves the relative safety of a teleprompter he lets slip his forked tongue and gives us another peek into the shallow, fetid pond that is his soul.)

Before you get on my ass about abortion in general, I’m talking late term here. I’m not really sure that I think that all abortions should be illegal, but banning late termers, where the child could almost certainly thrive outside of the womb, should seem pretty damned obvious and logical to anyone with a high school bio class under his or her belt.

But what about incest or the health of the woman?

A.) self defense in any situation is something that I believe in.
B.) didn’t Suzie realize that it was Uncle Joe who knocked her up before her seventh month kicked in?

Hold your tongue before you get on me for “being a man that doesn’t know what he’s talking about”. I was conceived in the back seat of a car between a couple of stupid teenagers in the summer of ‘70, not too many years before Roe v. Wade became the law of land.

BTW, thanks to both of you for finding me some great parents - your little boy turned out ok.

#2 - This woman genuinely believes that God brought her and her family through this tough time. Not the “god” that tells radical Islamists to blow up daycare centers or the “god” that tells Fred Phelps and his band of troglodytes to protest the services of our brothers and sisters in the military - a loving God that protects, guides and nurtures His (or Her) children.

Yeah yeah, we get it Bill Maher. Anyone that believes in “the magical dude in the sky” is a moron. Thanks. Does anyone else want to be enjoying buttered popcorn, hot wings and Genny Cream Ale on a plush sofa with Lou Gehrig and Jimi Hendrix watching while Maher tries to convince God that He doesn’t exist???

Even if there isn’t a God (something with which I strongly disagree), is it a horrible thing that prayer, belief and hope brought this young woman and her husband through a time that would have emotionally crippled 99% of the people that cross your path?

My brush with fame - I used to date a woman that got nailed by Brad Pitt at a frat party at the University of Missouri at Columbia. He’s got a TIIIIIIIIINY penis and horrible body odor.

Let that bring a smile to your face every single time you get jealous of him banging Angelina Jolie whenever she isn’t pregnant.

(Ok, sue me. I had to sneak one in.)

Who's Minding the Store?

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Of the myriad of promises our President has made, a common refrain has been "transparency of government and accountability to the American people". Indeed, he wasted no time as seen here:

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release January 21, 2009

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

SUBJECT: Transparency and Open Government

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government

A truly noble thought. We should know what our Government is doing. One small problem: The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, under new Chairman, Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), evidently did not get this memo. It appears this august body, whose mandate is to ensure that very transparency and open Government President Obama seeks to bring to unprecedented levels, has not yet convened.

An odd set of circumstances given the current state of affairs. They should be the busiest little beavers in D.C. Just ask Rep. Waxman. Under his stewardship, the Committee held the Bush Administration under a microscope and STILL found time to investigate MLB's steroid problem. In the waning year of President Bush's term, Rep. Waxman, along with Rep. Barney Frank also found the time (over the holiday recess yet!) to hold extensive hearings into the mortgage/credit crisis, at the behest of Madam Speaker. (I'll leave it to some of my colleagues to comment on their findings.)

Now, to be fair, the Committee will hold their first meeting this week. No, not on the economic crisis. Their first order of business is an examination of the Excluded Parties List System, a federal database intended to prevent persons and businesses ineligible to receive federal contracts due to past misconduct from receiving new awards. No, I'm not making that up. Hey, I'm sure they just want to make sure no miscreants slipped through the back door.

Still, I'm not feeling the urgency. Chairman Towns' staff has attributed the slow start to transitional issues. Of course, Rep. Waxman has hit the ground running on his new committee, but then, he has extensive experience holding hearings as we've seen. I suppose it didn't help matters that the Oversight Committee was among the last to get staffed. Yes, that's right...the Committee charged with OVERSIGHT was among the last to be staffed.

It seems the Committee has lost some of its stature. So what's different? Well, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) offers this theory:

“Speaker Pelosi gutted this committee,” said the panel’s ranking member, Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) Issa defended Towns in the face of having “no money, no staff and no members,” but he questioned Pelosi’s commitment to rigorous oversight under the Obama administration.


“She could have gutted the ability for Henry Waxman to do oversight two years ago if she wanted to,” Issa said. “But it wasn’t until President Obama took office that she did so.”

Surely, Rep. Issa must be wrong. Speaker Pelosi wouldn't do that. It flies in the face of the change she and our President promised to bring to Washington. It must just be those pesky transitional issues.

Monday Closing Drive By: In Case You Find Yourself Wondering Why The Dow's Dropping Like a Rock...

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Here's a hint.

The Swedish government said on Wednesday it would not intervene to take over Saab. Enterprise Minister Maud Olofsson slammed Saab’s US owner General Motors for “abandoning” the struggling Swedish car maker. General Motors has warned that the unit would go under without official help. “Voters picked me because they wanted nursery schools, police and nurses, and not to buy loss-making car factories,” Enterprise and Energy Minister Maud Olofsson told Swedish public radio.



When politicians in Sweden begin looking like the rational beacon of free enterprise ... well -- you know.


(Hat tip: Richard Florida)

Resident Liberal

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Bobby Jindal: Politics over People

With unemployment at the highest level in decades and likely to go higher Bobby Jindal, Louisiana’s Republican Governor has placed his own political fortune over the people of Louisiana. In refusing to accept Federal Stimulus money, particularly those dollars for increased unemployment compensation, an emergency measure designed to give those who need it, help. Jinadal joins Haley Barbour and South Carolina’s Mark Sanford as point persons for the GOP’s latest round of obstructionism.

While there is still great debate over the best method to resolve the current economic malaise in the country, Obama’s Keynesian approach or the GOP’s “supply slide” theory, one thing is certain: the GOP Governors have no intention of allowing the plan to succeed. The triumvirate of Barbour, Jindal and Sanford are seeking to gain power; as if this were ancient Rome and they were Augustus, Antony and Lepidus. Consumed with gaining power at the expense of the people they are supposedly representing.

Jindal’s insistence that the only way to solve the economic crisis is to “cut taxes, lower tax brackets and get the private sector spending” is déjà vu fantasy. Correct me if I’m wrong here but didn’t Bush, “cut taxes, lower tax brackets and get the private sector spending” and aren’t we in the worst economic position in 50 years? During the Bush Tax cut years, we created a mere 3 million jobs and the median income did not go up at all………yet Mr. Jinadal feels more of the same is the recipe for a turnaround.

Jindal, just as conservatives often do, plays the “grandchild” card on Meet the Press……”You’ve got another view that says all this spending is temporary yet its creating debt my children and grandchildren will have to pay” Mr. Jindal openly celebrates the Regan legacy of record debt in the eighties and more recently was silent when President Bush created debt (some of which was created to help Louisiana after Katrina) as if he were a drunken tourist on Bourbon street during Mardi Gras. Mr. Jindal’s repudiation of Obama’s Keynesian approach is understandable from an ideological sense, but from a practical sense, the Rubicon has been crossed. Jindal’s lack of desire to work within the solution with which he has been presented simply shows that he is far more concerned with The White House in 2012 than with helping the people of Louisiana. It is another example of the GOP’s desperate gamble to regain power………..regardless of the cost or harm to our country.

How far does the ACORN fall from the tree again?

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Soon, ACORN will begin battling other similar organizations for their "fair share" of between $4 -5 billion dollars of stimulus money earmarked for "neighborhood stabilization activities". Evidently, according to ACORN, breaking & entering, unlawful property damage and vandalism all qualify.

ACORN Trains Citizens To Protest Home Foreclosures

Near Patterson Park, the padlock on the door and the sign in the window tell part of Donna Hanks foreclosure story.

"The mortgage went up $300 in one month," said Hanks, former
homeowner.

She says the bank refused to modify her loan and foreclosed, kicking her out of the house in September.

The community group ACORN calls Hanks a victim of predatory lending.

"This is our house now," said Louis Beverly, ACORN.

And on Thursday afternoon, they literally broke the foreclosure padlock
right off the front door and then broke into the house, letting Hanks back in for the first time in months.

"We are actually trespassing, and so this is a way of civil disobedience to try to stay in the house," said Beverly. "Legally it's wrong, but homesteading is the only means that she has left to stay in her house. And we feel as though this is the right thing to do at this particular time to save this family."

Inside, there's spray paint on the walls and evidence that someone has possibly been remodeling.

The group says it was staging similar demonstrations in six other cities
nationwide while urging a moratorium on foreclosures. They want
that until President Obama's stimulus plan begins on March 4. The
plan is designed to help threatened homeowners.

"As you all can see, Donna is reclaiming her home, and she's putting a lock on her door at this time," said Beverly.

But that padlock won't stay there for long.

The current property managers told Eyewitness News they were unaware of ACORN's actions Thursday and were contacting the police and their lawyers.


Donna is not "reclaiming" her home. Donna is at least an accessory to breaking and entering and a few other fairly serious crimes. One is also left to wonder why Donna would be helping people to spray paint graffiti all over the inside of "her" own home.

"Predatory lending" will once again become a favorite buzzword of the left as they continue to attempt to shift responsibility for the foreclosure crisis from the poor spending habits of Americans to the evil banks and mortgage companies that only did what the left asked them to do to begin with: provided long term loans to people with marginal credit histories and marginal ability to make realistic repayment. You are now a "victim" if you can't plan a budget for more than a month at a time, evidently. The advancement of the culture of victimization continues.

As taxpayers, we should all be concerned that an organization with as sketchy a history as ACORN that is now actively supporting serious illegal activity not only has the ear of the President, but stands a good chance of receiving taxpayer money in the form of grants to escalate that activity. Taxpayer funded criminal activity isn't something the stimulus plan officially calls for...is it?

We Don't Need No Water, Let The Motherfucker Burn...

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Later this week President Barack Obama will announce that he is closing the barn doors. Unfortunately for the United States, the horses split awhile ago, and while our trusted politicians were out looking for their valued thoroughbreds, the tools were stolen from the shed and scrapped, the feed robbed by hungry wolves, and the building burned to the ground by potential regulatory arsonists.

But he will close the doors now. Before it's too late.

When Obama delivers his speech to the country it will be littered with catchphrases encouraging us all to “do our part” in this “economic climate” that is “the worst since the Great Depression.” According to reports, his comments will concern his attempt to cut the national debt in half by the next Presidential election. A noble goal to be sure, and only a couple of weeks late.

During the big push to have the stimulus package passed as quickly as possible the President was quoted as saying that “now is not the time for profits,” adding that it will come later. It is terrifying that a large segment of our country actually believes that rubbish. If now is not the time for profits, exactly when would be a good time be? This thought process will only accomplish to handicap the producers left in our country.

On this stop along the path to socialism, the overtaxing of the rich to provide for the rest, the country is being asked to close its eyes to the problems we face, and wish them away on the backs of the earners. The left wing of this country accomplishes this magic act by convincing the middle class that the cause they fight for is those making under $250,000 per year. They just forget to mention how far under.

We can thank former President George W. Bush for his great efforts in making this path much easier for Obama to traverse. The current President is a man who proudly told “Joe the Plumber” that he sought a “redistribution of wealth” to cure all of our financial ills. We knew then, but it was Bush's advancement of his bank bailouts that allowed this path to be free of logistical pitfalls.

As we continue to discuss the economy, liberals in this country have begun to prop up appointed economists as a blockade to the true motives they chase, believing this Great Wall of Economy cannot be seen through despite its transparency, when it actuality all that is required is common sense.

When that wall is brushed aside they resort to the only tool they have argued with for nearly a decade- “Bush Bad.” The progressives in our country enjoyed crowing about Bush's abysmal approval rating during his last two years in office- it was proof to them of his abysmal failure. What is perplexing about this liberal delusion is remarkably they believe 80 percent of the country disapproving of Bush meant 80 percent of the country suddenly became liberal. Logic is not their strong suit.

If we are to survive as a society and buck this intended advancement towards what was once our worst nightmare, we must awaken from our slumber and once again become a nation of people that think freely and make difficult decisions. Each day politicians preach the difficult choice mantra. Choosing between Filet Mignon and smoked pork tenderloin is not a difficult decision.

The path that we need to travel is to convince an entire nation to change its way of life. Though it looked promising for decades, we must now acknowledge that long term consumption without equal production is a recipe for failure. Our leaders, current and past, refuse to recognize that we must focus on the foundation of which this country was built. We must stop our excess government funding of programs that started as transitional assistance and morphed into generational expectations. We must stop subsidizing the living conditions of the unmotivated, and ignore programs that bankrupt our society morally, ethically, and financially.

When Obama delivers his address this week, it will be the latest in which he eloquently maps the further destruction of our country. What will our response be?

Maniacal government spending that has been supported by both political parties must be replaced with a plan that rewards ability and hard work, not the opposite. This is not a Republican versus Democrat issue, it is an ideological battle concerning those willing to work through life and earn what they seek, and those looking for a handout.

Following Obama's remarks, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal will offer a rebuttal to the President. Jindal has been in front of the stimulus package argument by declaring that his state would not blindly accept the funding if it was determined that it would be a long term detriment. Jindal will be the first person to hold the national spotlight in prime time and offer another perspective to Obama.

He held his own against an aggressive David Gregory on Meet the Press Sunday in addressing the fact that any opposing party must offer suggestions, particularly in these challenging times, rather than simply being a party of no. Offering no alternative will only strengthen your opponent, and Jindal understands this.


If he can offer logical options to the “we must act now, or we will all die, hope be damned” message that Obama has hammered home in recent weeks, it will help promote the common sense alternative to the contradiction that permeates our society today- that government needs to spend itself to death for us to survive.

Jindal failing to get this message across in a plain-spoken manner that the majority of the country can connect with will have the effect of Obama not closing a barn door, but just another opportunity for this country to right itself.

Dear Attorney General...

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Earlier this week Attorney General Eric Holder spoke to the Justice Department and declared that the people of the United States deploring its lack of advancement on race relations and referring to the entire populous as “cowards,” despite the recent election of Barack Obama.


“Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial (they) have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards," Holder told his employees.

Your eyes do not mislead you. During his first month in office, the chief law enforcement officer in the country, referred to his constituents as cowards. Ignore for the moment that the President is black, as is Mr. Holder. Disregard the impact that people like Oprah Winfrey have on our culture, or the great importance that black athletes hold in the hearts of our youth. Erase from your memory the service that Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell have recently given to this country.

Instead, focus on Mr. Holder’s words.

"If we are to make progress in this area, we must feel comfortable enough with one another and tolerant enough of each other to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us."

Apparently Mr. Holder’s version of a frank conversation begins with name-calling, and ends with, well, we’re not quite sure yet. Is it surprising that President Obama has surrounded himself with someone willing to flippantly call an entire nation “cowards?” Only until we understand that the only people he was referring to as “cowards” were people who happen to be white.

Perhaps we should provide Mr. Obama some leeway on this matter; it’s not as if he has a history of surrounding himself with people that have made it their mission to destroy this country from the inside by injecting a far ranging agenda of hate, anger, inequality, and terrorism into its blood stream. We were told during the recent election that we need not worry about Reverend Wright and his “God Damn America”- he would not be a member of any administration. We were looked at as racists if we dared question how someone could continually listen to ideologies and not come away with some type of indoctrination.

We, the thinking men and women of this country, however few of us remain, are willing to have very frank conversations on race, and all of the other matters troubling this country, Mr. Holder. Please let us know when you are ready. Please let us know when we may be judged on the content of our character; and not the assumption of racism because we dare question a dangerous liberal agenda.

If we are to progress in this area, we must feel comfortable enough with one another and tolerant enough of each other, Mr. Holder. These are your words, but the direction in which you speak them is wrong. Do not stand at the edge of the balcony and preach to the choir a reinforcement of unrealistic platitudes. Instead, look in the mirror and whisper to yourself these noble directions.

Are you, Mr. Holder, willing to have a frank conversation with us? Are you willing to admit that when we look at you, we do not see an angry black man, but a person serving his country that we disagree with vehemently?

Are you willing to admit that the vast majority of this country could care nothing of race? Do not look at this as a negative. It is the fulfillment of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream. How else can you explain the election of Mr. Obama to the most powerful position in the world?

For generations, the United States, not white or black people, has been saddled with leaders in the black community that play a divisive game that would not exist were it not for self advancement and preservation. Reverend Al Sharpton, praised by many in the black community, the liberal base, and the media, has done more to harm race relations in this country than any delusional KKK fool could ever hope to achieve.

People of Mr. Sharpton's ilk, if we are to speak frankly, care little for the advancement of racial equality in this country. If achieved, they would be out of a job.

These words would carry more weight if I were black. I am not. We look at this situation, the message these words intend to convey, and the insults that will instead be lobbed, as a true problem if we are to have our discussion. We will not apologize for the wrongs and sins our ancestors committed because we cannot fathom for a moment the audacity they had to chain a fellow human being to land and treat him as property.

Instead we will work to right those wrongs the only way we know how- true equality. We are willing to hire anyone of color for a job they are qualified for. We judge a person for who they are, listen to what they believe, and work with them to perfect our American dream. Color be damned- to not do so would be cowardly.

Are you willing to do the same?