Category Archives: Political polemics

FAT KIDS CHANGE THE POVERTY ARGUMENT TO INCOME INEQUALITY

Posted on January 18, 2012 | Leave a comment

We are in a bit of a flippant mood this morning so take this post with a grain of salt.  To say “take it with a grain of salt” is an old expression meaning [wikipedia data unavailable pending new law (WDUPNL)].  The expression originated when [WDUPNL].

According to a radio report, 35% of Americans are fat enough to be declared obese.  To understand the significance of any study like that , it helps to know something about the organization that conducted it.  What we found is [WDUPNL].

Okay, we don’t need Wikipedia to make our point.  The old argument from the left that heartless Republicans were responsible for a nation full of starving kids has lost its punch.  It loses its credibility when you are surrounded with all those roly pollies.  Drop the starving kids.  Go to income inequality.

Income inequality has been the theme of socialist causes down through the ages.  To substantiate that assertion we refer you to [WDUDPNL].

The obesity study is real.  So is the unavailability of the world’s best known reference source, Wikipedia.  The Wiki shutdown is a one day self-imposed action by the online encyclopedia in protest to two bills in Congress that would regulate internet content.  The bills are intended to stop piracy of intellectual property like music and video (movies).  To that extent the intent is good.  But we take the stated intent with another one of those grains of salt.  And as far as unintended consequences go, we know that is one of those things Congress does very well.  Dare we call it soft censorship?

Leave a comment

Posted in News, Opinion, Political philosophy, Political polemics

Tagged , ,

THEY STILL DON’T GET IT

Posted on January 13, 2012 | 1 comment

David Brooks, writing for the New York Times laments, Where Are the Liberals?  “This should be the golden age of liberalism” he says.  And yet, declared conservatives outnumber declared liberals by a factor of two to one.  “How can that be?” he asks.

“The Republican Party is unpopular and sometimes embarrassing” says Brooks, inferring that conservatives and the Republican Party are one and the same.  The author is perplexed as to why the foibles of the Republican Party don’t lead more conservatives to join the liberal camp.  One has to wonder what he thinks the Tea Party is all about.

Brook’s reasoning is also myopic.  The relative popularity of the two philosophies was put to a test in the 2010 elections.  The rest of us know who won that popularity contest.  And embarrassment?  What could be more embarrassing than having to grant waivers to more than 1,200 companies and over 4 million employees to excuse them from compliance with a law that was so poorly constructed there was little other choice?  The answer is granting waivers to a law your own Party rammed through Congress against the will of the people; that’s what could be more embarrassing!

“Over the past 40 years, liberalism has been astonishingly incapable at expanding its market share.” 

Now I ask what is astonishing about the fact that something that doesn’t work, doesn’t sell very well?  Mr. Brooks thinks he has the answer.

The most important explanation is what you might call the Instrument Problem.  Americans may agree with liberal diagnoses, but they don’t trust the instrument the Democrats use to solve problems.  They don’t trust the federal government.

You can bet your belly button they don’t!  And it is not just the instrument they don’t trust; they don’t trust the players either.  Holders of the liberal point of view put their faith and trust in the wisdom, integrity and leadership of an elite few, oblivious of the fallibility of man.  When it fails they blame the few.  Even after it became obvious that the Soviet Union was failing the Russian people, the left didn’t find communism to be at fault.  The problem was simply that Stalin was the wrong man for the job.

Finding a better instrument to play the liberal theme isn’t the answer to the problem.  The liberal theme itself is the problem.

1 Comment

Posted in Political philosophy, Political polemics

Tagged , , , ,

VOTER FRAUD AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Posted on January 12, 2012 | Leave a comment

O’Keefe does it again!  You remember him.  It was O’Keefe who exposed ACORN by going into several offices with a concealed movie camera seeking advice on how to avoid the law when engaging in illegal activity.  Although manipulation of the election process was a primary tactic of the leading federation of community organizers known as ACORN, voter fraud was not the focus of O’Keefe’s expose.

This time O’Keefe is exposing the issue of voter fraud more directly by showing how easily it can be conducted, one could almost say encouraged.  O’Keefe’s group combed New Hampshire newspaper obituary pages and gathered the names of the deceased.  When they showed up at the polls they had no problem getting ballots to cast votes in the name of the dead.  No voter ID was required.  In fact ID was declined even when it was offered.

Now that’s not voter fraud, but does anyone really believe political groups are so honest voter fraud will not occur even when voting systems actually facilitate it?

There is no justifiable reason to oppose verification of eligibility to vote in order to cast a vote, none whatsoever.  There is however, a reason.  The reason is the belief that your party will benefit more from voter fraud than will the opposition party.  An even stronger reason would be to take advantage of the opportunity for voter fraud as a tactic in your strategy for winning an election.  The harder the fight against voter identification, the more one is inclined to think the reason is the latter, not the former.

Leave a comment

Posted in News, Political polemics

Tagged , , ,

MSNBC SUSPENDS PAT BUCHANAN INDEFINETLY FOR TELLING THE TRUTH

Posted on January 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

Suicide of a Superpower, will America survive to 2025 is the name of Pat Buchanan’s latest book. 

“Our government is engaged in the manic pursuit of equality of rewards, as it seeks to erect an egalitarian utopia that has never before existed.  Less and less do we Americans have in common.  More and more do we fight over religion, morality, politics, history, and heroes. And as our nation disintegrates, our government is failing in its fundamental duties, unable to defend our borders, balance our budgets, or win our wars.”

Truths like that are too inconvenient for MSNBC to tolerate.

MSNBC president Phil Griffin said that Mr. Buchanan argues in his book that the “European and Christian core of our country is shrinking,” which is damaging the nation “ethnically, culturally, morally, politically.”  The book also contains a chapter titled, “The End of White America.”  Mr. Griffin said these ideas aren’t really appropriate for national dialogue, much less the dialogue on MSNBC.

Griffin is right about one thing.  MSNBC is not a place of open dialogue.  Pat Buchanan is a misfit in a network that features Chris Matthews and Ed Schulz in prime time.  However, Buchanan’s ideas are not just appropriate for national dialogue, they are precisely the concepts we should be discussing.

Is Buchanan right?  Is he wrong?  We would never know if Griffin and his book burners controlled the day.  Thank God, they don’t.

Leave a comment

Posted in News, Political polemics

Tagged , , ,

RANDOM THOTS, Jan 8, 2012

Posted on January 8, 2012 | Leave a comment

The signs of protest  –
Have you ever taken note of all those signs that protesters carry about?  I’m not referring to what they say, but how they are made, for example from a side torn from a cardboard box with crude lettering, no artistic talent exhibited, some of them are supported with sticks, others held awkwardly by their edge during march.  Surely they could do better if they wanted to.

But nicely constructed signs are artifacts of the establishment and are out of place in an anti-establishment crowd.  A crisp well drawn sign on a fresh piece of poster board represents an accomplishment.  But the intent is to present an image of impoverishment and oppression.  It takes a motley sign to do that.  So motley signs are what they make.

The labor unions supported Obamacare –
But when they found out what is in it, they didn’t want it.  As I recall, neither did the members of Congress who voted for it.  Oh sure, they wanted it for others, but not for themselves.  Our lawmakers have their own plan.  They know what’s in it and they want to keep it.

One year ago, labor unions like the SEIU and teacher’s unions applied for  waivers to shield 40% of their members from the requirements of Obamacare.  Under this administration, what labor wants, labor gets.  The waivers were granted.

Putting their worst feet forward –
The Republican Party has Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Governors Chris Christie, Scott Walker and Mitch Daniels.  The nominees for the Office of the President are Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachman, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney.  The Party has the right people; unfortunately the best of them are not running for the higher office.

There can be little doubt that consideration of the amount of filth that would be thrown at, not just the candidate, but also at their families is a factor.  It is one thing to be willing to sacrifice yourself.  It is quite another to choose a path that will submit you loved ones to the same heart wrenching fate.

Leave a comment

Posted in Opinion, Political polemics

Tagged , , , , , ,

OBAMA TO LAY OFF 500,000 FROM THE GOVERNMENT PAYROLL

Posted on January 6, 2012 | Leave a comment

The only part of the federal government the President does not want to expand is ?… the military of course.  At the moment the United States is not under attack, but there goes our life insurance.

Some of us are informed enough to know the role the United States played in Europe in World Wars I and II.  Some may even know about the gift the nation of France gave us as the great bastion of freedom.  It’s called the Statue of Liberty.  How many today know the story of the Berlin Airlift or care about the speed with which the U.S. military reaches the world’s biggest natural disaster sites with aid?  Who gives us credit for the Marshall Plan by which we helped restore the lands of those who waged war on us?

Millions of North Koreans live in misery and without the freedom to move around at will, even within their own country.  Meanwhile, South Korea remains free and prosperous thanks to the American armed forces.  It’s a safe bet that the Soviet Union would have taken freedom away from even more people had it not been for the presence of America’s defenders of freedom. No one knows what wars did not start because of our strength and humanitarian resolve. This is just a sampling of many cases where the power and might of the U.S. has been a force for good.  Our president sees none of them.  He sees only our mistakes.

Our president does not believe in America the Good, BBHO.  In the words of Pamela Geller, Barack Hussein Obama is the First Post-American President.

Leave a comment

Posted in News, Political polemics

Tagged , , , , ,

OBAMA’S ACT OF DICTATORSHIP

Posted on January 5, 2012 | Leave a comment

In brazen defiance of law, President Obama has made four controversial appointments to public office without the approval of Congress as is required by the Constitution.

John Boehner described the president’s move as “an extraordinary and entirely unprecedented power grab by President Obama that defies centuries of practice and the legal advice of his own Justice Department.”  The Speaker is a public figure and must be diplomatic when making public statements.  We are not inhibited by any such restrictions so we call it for what it is, a defiant act of dictatorship. Barack Obama’s action in this instance is consistent with that of a neo-totalitarian government, not a democracy.

John Hinderaker, a lawyer and one of the founders of the Power Line blog has provided excellent coverage on this important issue.  You can read about it there.  There is no limit to where this president may take the country if he is not stopped.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in News, Opinion, Political polemics

Tagged , , ,

CINDY SHEEHAN’S HERO HUGO

Posted on December 30, 2011 | 1 comment

Sean Penn, Cindy Sheehan, Harry Belafonte and Danny Glover are liberal pals of the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.  All of these folks are well meaning and seek to make the world a better place with their activism.  This man they admire so much is now floating the absurd notion that the United States policies are causing cancer to break out among leaders of South American countries.

LIKE MINDS


Hank Johnson, the man liberal Democratic voters of Georgia chose to represent them in Congress, warned the nation that the Pacific island of Guam may tip over and sink because there are more buildings on one side of the island than on the other.

Former Speaker and liberal Democrat Nancy Pelosi told us it was vital that our leaders pass the most sweeping legislation since the Civil Rights Act into law without knowing what was in the law they were creating.  The legislative leader of the Democratic Party that wrote the law didn’t know what they wrote.

Is it any wonder that the Right thinks the Left is stupid?  I suppose you could say the same thing about Republicans.  Dan Quayle misspelled potato.  Joe Biden never did that.

1 Comment

Posted in Political polemics

Tagged , , ,

DOWN THE MEMORY HOLE

Posted on December 26, 2011 | 1 comment

We have occasionally made reference to Orwell’s ‘Memory Hole’ down which the Ministry of Truth dumped everything The Party did not want ever to have existed.  It was the duty of the Thought Police to enforce The Party Policy that once something was thrown down the Memory Hole it was never to be thought of as truth again.

When Orwell wrote “1984” he wrote fiction,…or did he?

Obama administration pulls references to Islam from terror training materials, official says

In a … Los Angeles Times op-ed, Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) president Salam al-Marayati threatened the FBI with a total cutoff of cooperation between American Muslims and law enforcement if the agency failed to revise its law enforcement training materials.

Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole confirmed on Wednesday that the Obama administration was pulling back all training materials used for the law enforcement and national security communities, in order to eliminate all references to Islam that some Muslim groups have claimed are offensive.

“I recently directed all components of the Department of Justice to re-evaluate their training efforts in a range of areas, from community outreach to national security,” Cole told a panel at the George Washington University law school.

It is not just the water temperature in your shower that The Party wants to control.  It’s also your very thoughts.

1 Comment

Posted in News, Opinion, Political philosophy, Political polemics

Tagged , , , ,

JIMMY CARTER – JOKE OF THE WEEK

Posted on December 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

North Korea is routinely labeled as one of the world’s most oppressive governments under an eccentric personality cult surrounding the Kim family. Harrowing reports from defectors describe North Korea as a dirt-poor nation filled with concentration camps and Communist propaganda. Kim Jong-il ran the reclusive country according to a “military first” policy since the mid-1990s, after a famine that may have killed as many as 2 million people.   The Washington Times

And of course we needn’t remind you of Kim Jong-il’s nuclear missile threats against the United States.  North Korea made the effort, they just didn’t have any success.

Now, along comes Jimmy Carter to wish them success.

Former President Jimmy Carter has sent North Korea a message of condolence over the death of Kim Jong-il and wished “every success” to the man expected to take over as dictator, according to the communist country’s state-run news agency.  The Washington Times

Republicans have had their embarrassments as well, Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon, to name just two.  The worst among the lot were dishonest, others corrupt and still others made some pretty bad decisions. The same thing could be said the string of Democratic presidents.  Which party has given us the best and the worst is a subject for legitimate debate.  But only two presidents have shown the world their animosity toward the country they came to lead.  At least we can be thankful that one of them is out of office.

Leave a comment

Posted in News, Political polemics

Tagged , , , ,