Category Archives: Opinion

AMERICA’S SPUTNIK MOMENT

Posted on February 4, 2011 | Leave a comment

BRITISH TRIDENT MISSILE ARMED SUBMARINE

Her Majesty’s underwater ship. Russia want’s to know her secrets (the ship’s, not Her Majesty’s). And we are going to rat them out. Russia wants some secrets, Obama wants a treaty, it sounds like a deal. We get something; they get something. That’s the Chicago way.

We are selling out a 200 year-long faithful friend and ally for a lousy signature from a 200 year-long deceitful enemy. It isn’t even a good deal!

Obama must be replaced. Somehow we have to show our friends we made a mistake. The American people chose Obama. The American people are kicking Britain in the shins, by proxy. We must revoke the proxy and apologize for our error. We must.

Bob B

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RANDOM THOTS

Posted on January 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

OLBERMANN’S FALL FROM DISGRACE
Upon reading something about a 30 million dollar contract, my thought was… hate pays, but only in money. If reports are correct, Olbermann’s personality is the same off-camera as on. When off-camera his anger radiates in all directions we’re told, not just toward the political right but to staff and management as well. Keith Olbermann, by all appearances, is an angry and hateful man. Hate eats a person from the inside out. Hate is cancer of the soul.

Bush and Palin were favorite targets of the MSNBC star. These are two obviously very happy people. Olbermann is not. Targets of hate can rise above it because it comes at them from without. Haters are stuck in their own misery because one cannot rise above that which dwells within.

IMMELT’S REWARD
President Obama chose Schenectady for his nationally broadcast “jobs” speech. Schenectady has long been a home to General Electric. Jeffrey Immelt is Chairman and CEO of GE. The company is dominant in the city because it is the largest and oldest of the major employers in the region.

As he spoke, Obama highlighted what he had done to create jobs for MSNBC. Correction – for GE, the owner of MSNBC. In fact he said, the very reason he went to India was to negotiate a contract that will bring 1200 new jobs to General Electric’s manufacturing operation in this city in upstate New York.

Why Schenectady? Why GE? One cannot help but wonder, was it Immelt’s reward?

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SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN PACKS IT IN

Posted on January 19, 2011 | 2 comments

The Honorable Senator Joseph Lieberman will announce later today that he will not be running for re-election.  2012 will be the Senator’s last year in office.

The United States Senate is losing a man with a level of integrity all too uncommon among those with whom he shares that office. He spoke from the heart, voted his true beliefs and always remained civil in the raucous world of political debate. The Senator from Connecticut has been a good servant of the people. Never a man to play the politics of power, nevertheless, he came within a cat’s whisker of holding the second highest office in the land. Had Al Gore only been able to win his home state of Tennessee, Lieberman would have been our Vice President.

Lieberman’s loyalty was always to his beliefs, to the people he represented and to himself, for if a man  is not true to himself, he cannot be true to others. At times, those loyalties fell into conflict with positions taken by his political party. His integrity was without reward. The party pushed him out. It was not pretty. We know whereof we speak. We write from the town where he lives and where he will make the announcement at 12:30 today. Joseph Lieberman is our senator.

We have great admiration for this man with whom we so often disagreed. Sen. D. Patrick Moynihan was another. Good luck and very best wishes, Joe.

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HAS THE LEOPARD CHANGED HIS SPOTS?

Posted on January 4, 2011 | Leave a comment

The President’s New Year message to the people was eloquent, positive and replete with praise for the greatness of the nation we call home. There were no “buts” or “excepts” and no hint that it was not ever so. The flag pin on his lapel was as conspicuous in its presence as it has been in its absence at times in the past. The content of his message was worthy of Ronald Reagan. Has the leopard changed his spots?

In the opinion of our editorial staff, he has not. In our previous post  What Will Obama Do Now?, we wrote that after the mid-term election results Obama would revisit the teachings of his mentors for guidance on the best path to follow from here to his goal. The fast-track hit a roadblock, and a solid one at that. We said the Dude is done, Obama could see it too. Continuance of the transformation of America would first require transformation of the Dude himself. In a free Democracy like America, a radical cannot capture hearts and minds in sufficient numbers to survive elections and stay in power. A leader is needed, a leader who believes in the land. Someone once said “perception is reality”; and forming a winning perception will be the tack for the next two years.

The apparent transformation is stark. But few people change their beliefs on the proverbial dime. Are we to think an America seen as notable for its flaws is suddenly seen as noble from its inception? Or, an America that was not exceptional is now the greatest nation on earth?

“But Mr. President, didn’t you say America has not always lived up to its aspirations?”, asked John. “That was before the mid-term election results, John” answered Barack with a grin.

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DEFICIT HYPOCRISY CLARIFIED

Posted on January 1, 2011 | Leave a comment

Which causes deficits, too much spending or too little confiscation of someone else’s money? The New York Times thinks it’s the latter; deficits are caused by taxes being to low. Republicans are exhibiting “hypocrisy”, they cry. They are lawmakers with a “warped mind-set” sharing a “fantasy” about tax cuts and setting budget rules that “forbid being sensible”.

“Warped mind-set” is just an opinion. An opinion is just a view, not a claim. We accept it as such and further stipulate for the record that we do not consider a slur like this to be beneath the dignity of the times. The epithet is allowed.

But when the nations leading newspaper headlines an editorial “Deficit Hypocrisy”, one expects a clear and credible charge of hypocrisy will follow. Let’s explain the charge. The estate tax rate this year is zero. Next year, 2011, it goes up to 35%. In the Times’ world this is not an increase’ it is “deep cuts” (sic) for the wealthy. The hypocrisy we are expected to see is that Republicans who voted for the estate tax increase also voted to extend unemployment benefits.

Clear?

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THE DIRTY WORK Part II

Posted on December 30, 2010 | Leave a comment

Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Resources HHS) has announced price controls for health insurance companies. Starting in 2011, insurance companies will need to get permission from the Obama Administration to raise prices more than 10%. That move is a prime example of law by fiat, simply by the decree of a government official.

In another example, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced their “net neutrality rules” last Tuesday. Government control of the Internet was launched with that announcement. Price controls and Internet control are both major issues, yet they were launched by un-elected presidential appointees. There was no Congressional debate, no review and no opportunity to hear opposing views. That is how the dirty work will get done over the next two years.

Many paragraphs of the law enacted by the passing legislative body began, literally or figuratively, “the regulator shall determine….” Broad powers were given to the regulators. This was by design. Such a plan enables presidential appointees to do as they or the president pleases.

The 111th Congress did not pass any significant global warming legislation despite their desire and opportunity to do so. We are encouraged by their failure. However, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced last Thursday that it will regulate power plants and oil refineries to combat global warming. What cannot be accomplished by “legal” law may be accomplished by “regulatory” law.”

The coming battle will be between the central planning experts and the people as represented by the Republican, and dare we say, the Tea, parties. Look for Obama to play the good cop, the bi-partisan cop, while his operatives do the dirty work. Good cop, bad cop, still a cop.

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THE DIRTY WORK

Posted on December 29, 2010 | Leave a comment

Transforming the United States of America from a capitalist free market society into a socialist state is the President’s goal. Implementing socialism, even gradually, into a democratic society has to be dirty work because the people will not accept it voluntarily. Obamacare was enacted against the will of the majority and with open bribery to get the votes needed in the Senate. In an unguarded moment the Speaker of the House revealed the public would not know what the law is before it is put in force. The 111th Congress became the most unpopular Congress in the recorded history if the United States. Pelosi, Reid and the Legislature did Obama’s dirty work in 2009-2010. Who will do it in 2011-2012?

An agenda is implemented through laws. There are three means to create law, Legislation, Interpretation and Regulation. The Founders intended all law to be created by Legislation. However, the courts can determine law by Interpretation. When these both fail to achieve the goal, subversives can turn to Regulation. It’s called law by “fiat”. It is the Regulators who will be doing the dirty work in 2009-2010.

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INTERNET COMES UNDER SERIOUS ATTACK

Posted on December 20, 2010 | 1 comment

Tomorrow morning the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will [take] an unprecedented step to expand government’s reach into the Internet by attempting to regulate its inner workings. In doing so, the agency will circumvent Congress and disregard a recent court ruling.

Thus begins the lead article from today’s Wall Street Journal. As though that weren’t enough, we find these other recent headlines as well.

New UN committee could hand governments internet control

Who Will Control the Internet?

Venezuela’s Chavez calls for internet controls

The First Amendment, protecting freedom of speech, came into effect on December 15, 1791. Radio did not come until 115 years later, television many years after that. Yet these new media were always considered part of the Fourth Estate, more commonly known as “the press”. The internet is no less than the latest iteration of journalistic media and should be treated as such. It must and it will remain open in the free world. It is too big to fail.

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PELOSI CONGRESS SETS NEW RECORD

Posted on December 15, 2010 | 2 comments

Worst Congress Ever

Gallop poll

Approval rating – 13%   The lowest on historical record

Disapproval rating – 83%   The lowest in over 30 years

Please note, that doesn’t leave much room in between for the wishie-washies. Congress really lost the Democrats in the last two months. Approval by Democratic voters plunged 58%, from 38 to 16 since Oct 10th. There was almost no change among Republicans. Obama remains above the fray. His approval rating has been staying in the 44-46% range. One can only speculate why.

So let us speculate. Left wing Democratic voters are unhappy because the likes of Cap and Trade, Card Check and  the DREAM Act did not get passed. Right wing Democrats, if one can say that, are holding Congress responsible for the election results. Centrist Democrats, if there still are any, are unhappy for both reasons.

That still doesn’t answer the question why Obama’s approval rating is little affected. It’s a puzzling question. Let’s speculate again. Blacks remain solidly in support of the President. They have no such loyalty to Congress. That accounts for about 12%. The Jewish community has always been fiercely loyal to the Democratic party. They are beginning to crack but the seepage is still just a trickle. Finally, once you achieve Messiah status, you acquire a true believer following. Men fail, but God can do no wrong. Congress, as we know, is comprised of mere mortals. Very mere indeed.

UPDATE: In short, Obama’s approval remains stable while Congress’s approval plunges because Obama has the loyalty of blacks, Jews and true believers and Congress does not.

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1984 IS ALMOST HERE

Posted on December 11, 2010 | Leave a comment

George Orwell wrote the novel “1984” in 1949. This was before the internet, data mining, and GPS. It was both science and social fiction at the time. Sixty years later it is more science and less fiction. If you haven’t read it, you should.

Wikipedia describes the book as a dystopian novel about an oligarchical, collectivist society in a world of pervasive government surveillance and incessant public mind control. In “1984” the individual is always subordinated to the state, and it is in part, collectivist philosophy which allows the Big Brother Party, to manipulate and control humanity.

Random Thots found the following headlines all published in the same day:

CNN Reporter Put On Watch List After Criticizing TSA
http://www.prisonplanet.com/cnn-reporter-put-on-watch-list-after-criticizing-tsa.html
Wave goodbye to Internet freedom

FCC crosses the Rubicon into online regulation
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/2/wave-goodbye-to-internet-freedom/

Government reports violations of limits on spying aimed at U.S. citizens
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/02/AR2010120206052_pf.html

Feds Warrantlessly Tracking Americans’ Credit Cards in Real Time
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/12/realtime/

No headlines surfaced that day relative to GPS, but we know that many cars have tracking transmitters openly placed for fleet control and clandestinely placed for marketing and research purposes. Credit card transactions are recorded enabling the tracking of our whereabouts when out of the car. The possibilities with cellphones are limited only by our imagination. The tools are all in place for Big Brother to employ when the time is ripe.

Wikileaks, interestingly enough, is actually a reversal of Orwell’s theme. Orwell had the Memory Hole down which truth was thrown so that only government claims would remain standing as truth. Government ‘truth’ was called Newspeak. Assange with his Wikileaks is revealing what might be called Realspeak and throwing government Diplomaspeak down the Memory Hole.

The problem from America’s point of view is Assange is only exposing only one country and that happens to be us. If the same degree of revelation were made for every nation we would come out looking pretty good. Just imagine what Russian secret memos would reveal!

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