Smoke & Mirrors

38.5 billion dollars cut from the budget – that’s the budget deal that the Republicans cut with Democrats last Friday night to pay for the rest of FY11. This is well short of the 100 billion dollar cut that they promised to the Tea Party last year and even short of the “prorated” amount of 61 billion. Yet, the Republicans are breaking their arms slapping themselves on the back in congratulations. This by itself would not cause consternation except that the media has been joining in the “celebration.”

The media is no friend of the GOP. Why would the media tout this as a huge GOP victory? Why are the Democrats celebrating as well? Could it be that the GOP got duped? Or, could it be that we are being duped?

We, as a nation, are swimming in a pool of red ink. The government continues to print money and write checks that it can’t cash. Our economy, though better by a hair than it was 2 years ago, is still limping along and is far from recovering. Unemployment is still in double-digits despite government claims that it has dropped to 8.8%. 8.8% comes from the creative accounting methods being used to discount the unemployed that have stopped seeking employment. We haven’t gained enough of the lost jobs to have recovered nearly 2% in the past 2 years. The bottom line is that the government needs to tighten its belt like never before because there isn’t enough money out there to loot from the masses like they typically do.

So what exactly was in this 38.5 billion dollars in budget cuts that convinced the Democrats to agree to it? The GOP proposed to defund NPR and PBS and the EPA but those are apparently still funded under this budget. The GOP proposed to cut funding to Planned Parenthood and that is apparently still funded (except in DC.) So what did get cut?

According to the Wall Street Journal (http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/02/09/house-gop-spending-cuts-the-list/), there were 70 line items that were subject to cuts. The EPA was cut but not defunded. Planned Parenthood was cut but not defunded. So there were cuts, but no defunding efforts. The other thing that is disturbing about this budget is that it actually adds new spending. The WSJ article also does not detail “cuts” of funds that were not going to be spent anyway, like for the salaries of various Obama czars.

In this light, it is easy to understand why the media and the Democrats are cheerleading for the GOP. It all smacks of doublethink. This may work for the Democrats’ constituency but I don’t think that the Tea Party and other conservatives will be fooled by the attempted misdirection. These times are too critical to play these Orwellian games.

The focus now needs to be on Paul Ryan’s 2012 budget and the raising of the debt ceiling. I believe that since Congressman Ryan’s budget has been out there for all to see for a week or two now, the GOP should resort to forcing it down the Dems’ throats in the same manner that the Dems forced Obamacare down their throats. And tie it to the debt ceiling. If they want the debt ceiling raised, make them accept the Ryan budget as is – no debate. Raising the debt ceiling won’t be as heinous if we make the draconian cuts necessary to bring us to a balanced budget and start paying off the debt instead of incurring new debt.

Don’t blink this time, Boehner. We are watching. And if you punt this one, it won’t matter who gets elected in 2012 because we’re done.

Happy Birthday, Ayn Rand!

Happy Birthday to Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged, a book with even more relevance in today's politcal climate than ever before. Happily, we may be seeing the rise of John Galt against this onslaught of collectivism.

Happy 106th Birthday, Ayn!

Unconstitutional

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

So says the United States Constitution with regards to how the election of the Presidency is supposed to be determined. The Founding Fathers devised this method, known to all of us as the electoral college, to prevent our nation from becoming mob rule. Because of this, we are truly a representative republic, not a democracy. In fact, the Founding Fathers found pure democracy so vile that the common epithet and insult that was exchanged amongst them was 'democrat.'

Why do you I bring this up, you ask? Because there is an unconstitutional movement afoot in many states to abrogate this paragraph in the Constitution. In several legislatures, bills have been proposed, and in some cases, passed, to cast all of that state's electoral votes to the candidate that wins the nationwide majority vote. This creates a de facto popular vote for President.

What's wrong with that, you ask? I'm glad you asked because this is perhaps the most important issue we face today but gets the least media coverage. Our Founding Fathers recognized that directly electing the President, the only nationwide office for which we vote, would mean that the most populous cities in this nation would decide who would be President.

I personally don't want New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco deciding who is going to be President. And, if you are one of those that are okay with that misguided arrangement but don't live in any of those cities, how will you feel when no Presidential candidate ever campaigns outside of any of those cities - because he doesn't have to?

That's right. If you live in flyover country, which is anywhere between those cities listed above, you will never see a Presidential candidate anywhere near you or ever ask for your opinion on anything. If you thought that your vote doesn't count now with the electoral college in place, wait until it becomes circumvented by these unconstitutional state laws making the election a popularity contest.

The Founding Fathers intended to ensure that our government was a government by the people, with the consent of the governed. The Constitution dictates the structure and procedures to maintain this but, beginning in 1861, the federal government threw most of those rules under the bus and usurped much of the power of the state and the people. The next major power grab by the federal government was in 1913 with the passage of the income tax and direct election of US senators amendments to the Constitution. At least that power grab was accomplished via Constitutional means regardless of whether it was in the spirit of the Founding Fathers' intent.

What was detestable about 1913's acts was the codification of the confiscatory tax system that we are shackled with today and the loss of the final piece of equality amongst the states. The Senate was always intended to place each state on equal footing with every other state, regardless of population. With the advent of direct election of Senators, the states lost their voice in the federal government and the Senate, because of special interest money, no longer represent the state or its people very effectively.

This also paved the way for the next federal government power grab - the New Deal. The New Deal was the largest government expansion in our history (at that point in history - Obama's not done yet.) Now, not only are US Senators not influenced by their home states, the unaccountable, burgeoning federal bureaucracy is making policy as law - strictly unconstitutional.

Circumventing the electoral college would be the final nail in the coffin for our republic. By essentially making the President directly elected by the majority of the national popular vote, the state and its people will have given their sovereignty away. They lose their voice. They gave up their power to select the chief executive to New York City, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

If you are comfortable with that unconstitutional arrangement, maybe you should move to one of these bastions of statist beliefs. As for me, here in flyover country, I won't stand for it. If you have half a brain and any love of liberty, you won't stand for it either. Sic semper tyrannis.

SPINELESS

Yes, I am back and I’m going to be blogging more frequently. I’ve been very busy behind the scenes the past two years. Regardless, I am back and plan on blogging more regularly.

Yesterday, I ranted about the Left’s attacks on Conservatives for something the Conservatives had nothing to do with. Which brings me to today’s development – the seating at the State of the Union address.

Apparently, in an effort to promote civility, the Democrats and the Republicans are going to be comingled at the State of the Union address. Normally, the two parties are segregated at the address.

What a nice gesture. Let’s all sit together and sing Kumbaya and be civil. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!!! The Republicans, who just won a huge margin in Congress, are going let the Democrats dictate the rules of civility? Agreeing to this charade of civility is tantamount to an admission of complicity in last week’s shooting!

This is what I fear from supposedly Conservative Republicans. They are spineless when confronted by rabid Leftist Democrats. All of the week long efforts to connect Conservatives to last weekend’s deadly shooting were just about to be put to rest as the myth it was and now the spineless Republicans have agreed to this change in the traditional seating arrangement at the State of the Union in the name of civility.

You can just feel the momentum leaving the party, can’t you? Letting the Democrats set the debate and the terms of the debate is not what the American people sent these spineless Republicans to Washington to do.

If Conservatives continue to allow the Statists and the mainstream media frame each debate, they will end up as the minority party again. I despise symbolism over substance. I fear that this is a bellwether of things to come and this Congress will become ineffective and not accomplish the mandate that it was given by the American people.

The one thing (the only thing) that I do admire about the Left is that they never waver from their convictions. They never take their eyes off the ball. They went in with the intent to pass healthcare legislation and, despite the tidal wave of disapproval by the American people, they passed it anyway. But that was their prime objective and they got it done despite pressure to let it go. The Republicans, on the other hand, appear to have no such resolve and seem to be eager to be liked by everyone. Which, by the way, is never going to happen.

If steadfast conviction led to the Democrats’ defeat last November, the Republicans’ lack of convictions will sink them in 2012. This nation doesn’t have time for popularity contests. A lot of damage was done in the past 2 years that needs to be undone and having a party with no backbone is not the answer.

Stop allowing the Left to dictate the debate. Yeah, they have willing accomplices in the media but the American people have become immune to the CBS/ABC/NBC/CNN agenda and expect Republicans to get the job done that they were sent to do. When the Left makes ridiculously false assertions as they have the past week, call them on it and move on. Don’t continue to entertain these falsehoods and get trapped in a never-ending cycle of defending yourself against trivialities. Go on the offensive! Don’t apologize! (The words ‘I’m sorry’ aren’t in Nancy Pelosi’s vocabulary.)

Frame the debate. The shooting has nothing to do with political rhetoric and the surest way to prove it is to kick the rhetoric up several notches. There won’t be a sudden wave of violence as a result because there is no connection. Stay on the offensive. Stop holding hands with the Democrats unless you’ve got them in a full Nelson.

Ridicule the Left. Point out the fallacies of their arguments. Don’t resort to namecalling but call them out on everything they say and attack it. Then step away. Move to the next target. Make the Left spend all of its energy refuting your attacks on their agenda. Be a political sniper. A sniper engages his target and then moves to prevent being detected and neutralized. The sniper then takes another well-hidden position and engages his next target and moves again. The Left cannot counter if the debate moves to new topics.

A savvy political sniper will choose his targets carefully and never reveal himself. In other words, he will choose the venue that he will take out his opponent and not allow himself to cornered. If there are talking head shows that are hostile to our political snipers, we avoid exposure there. We dictate the venue and conditions and thereby control the debate. Engage one target and move on. Do not attempt to engage more topics than that. Leftists will always engage as a group by a political sniper can neutralize both by simply engaging the intended target and moving. The remaining Leftists will have to tend to their ‘wounded’ compatriot.

So, let me spell it out in less allegorical terms – don’t appear on ‘Meet the Press’ and such shows unless you control the terms. There are new and better ways to get your message out than sitting in front of a Leftist firing squad, awaiting your demise. Use the internet. Post your statement on YouTube. On Facebook. On any number of available outlets where you control the battlespace.

Pick your target/topic and stick to it. The David-Gregorys of the world will eventually shut up and go away when they can’t get fresh meat on their shows and you will deny them that fresh meat by using the new battlespace and picking your target. Engage and move. Engage and move. One by one, these targets will fall and the Left will be scrambling for cover. But I’m wasting my breath. What I have seen so far of the new Republican congress is that they are spineless and doomed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

By the way, I did use military terms for this post. I guess that makes me complicit in the shooting last weekend as well because I’m advocating “targeting” and “sniping.” When I post, I control the debate, not the Left. If the Left wants to debate me, meet me here, on my terms, in my venue. I am a political sniper and I will prevail in the battle of ideas because I am right and I am engaged.

Be afraid, Leftists. Be very afraid.

Stop the Blamestream!

The events of last Saturday, January 8th, were heinous. A lone psychopath took the lives of 6 people and wounded several others, including an Arizona Congresswoman. As the smoke has cleared from this senseless act, it has become more and more apparent that this murderer, Jared Loughner, was indeed a mentally disturbed individual.

It took less than a day for the left, the statists, the Democrats, the ‘usual’ fingerpointers, and the mainstream media to start pointing fingers at everyone from Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh to the Tea Party movement. Demands for a return to the Fairness Doctrine as well as new calls for gun control legislation followed. But Jared Loughner had no affliation with any of these people or movements. And his association with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords dated from before the advent of the Tea Party movement.

Jared Loughner was apolitical. His many mindless ravings on Myspace, Youtube, and gamer forums prove that. He lists among his favorite books Mein Kampf and Communist Manifesto, two diametrically opposed books. He simultaneously espoused a disdain for the Second Constitution, a term sometimes used to describe the post-Civil War amendments that ended slavery, extended the right to vote and required equal protection under the law and for what he terms as the government’s attempts at mind control using grammar. Clearly, Mr. Loughner is all over the place in his ‘convictions.’

But the Left has vehemently attacked talk radio, the Tea Party, and Conservatives as the source of Loughner’s motive. According to Democrats, the vitriol that the Conservatives in this country have ‘unleashed’ is why Loughner took up arms to assassinate Gabrielle Giffords. And the Left continues to deliver this ‘new’ mantra despite all of the mounting evidence that none of this has anything to do with the case. Can’t let a good crisis go to waste, can they?

Lost in this mindless attempt at political mudslinging is the fact that the only political figure that was ‘successfully’ assassinated by Loughner was a Conservative judge, John Roll. If Conservatives were as petty and shallow as the Left, they would be crying foul over Loughner’s ‘obvious’ Leftist connections because he killed a Conservative judge and the congresswoman just happened to be in the way. If that example sounds ludicrous, it is because it is ludicrous. Just a ludicrous as their contention that the Conservatives made him do it. The incendiary speech of Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh made him do it. The Tea Party made him do it.

Jared Loughner is no different than Seung-Hui Cho, the perpetrator of the massacre of 32 people at Virginia Tech, except he survived and is in custody. We have all of these Leftist blamestormers spewing their vitriol regarding Loughner’s motive but Loughner is alive and perhaps we should withhold that judgement until someone is able to extract that motive from him personally. We could not do that in the case of Seung-Hui Cho because he took his own life. The common thread between these two ghastly murderers is their mental illness.

I’ve said in the past that more gun control will not prevent these types of events. It won’t. Banning ‘high capacity’ magazines or specific types of firearms will do nothing to make the public safer. It takes about 2 seconds to eject an empty magazine and insert a loaded one. The size of the magazine bears little on the potential for carnage. What the root cause here is not the method of carnage but the perpetrator of the carnage. We allow the mentally ill to matriculate in our society.

The rise in violent crime in this country can be traced to two occurrences: the rise in illegal drug use and the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. That deinstitutionalization began in 1955 when there were around 560,000 institutionalized mentally ill patients in this country. Compare that with the 80,000 that were institutionalized in 2006. Our overall population has burgeoned in this same time period and yet the percentage of the population that is institutionalized has shrunk disproportionately. The explanation is that those that we formerly deemed as too mentally ill to function in society now live amongst us.

So much of this mental illness is treated will psychotropic drugs and most is self-administered, as in Seung-Hui Cho’s case. Cho was prescribed psychotropics to stabilize him but Cho stopped taking his meds. We don’t know yet if Loughner was under any psychiatric care or if he was on any medications but we do know that he had a very consistent history of run-ins with authorities over his mental state. And nothing was done.

Signs were ignored in Cho’s case. Cho should have been institutionalized but was not. 32 people paid for that oversight with their lives. Jared Loughner should have been institutionalized and now 6 people have paid for that oversight with their lives. These deaths have nothing to do with politics. These people died because of a failure to address mental illness in a way to keep the public safe. End of story.

Hoplophobia is a mental illness as well and any politician that advocates further gun control over this tragedy needs to have his head examined. I have begun to believe that liberalism is a mental illness as well because it leads to irrational behavior and disjointed thought. Anyone that would link conservative political rhetoric with the events of last Saturday is incapable of rational thinking and should perhaps be under the care of a licensed mental healthcare professional. But then again, maybe that’s why we have liberals – we emptied out the insane asylums.

Happy Birthday, Ayn!

Today, Februaury 2nd, is the birthday of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged, a book with even more relevance today than ever before. Happy Birthday, Ayn!

"Now we see the violence inherent in the system...Help, help! I'm being REPRESSED!"

The quote above was the height of hilarity 30 years ago but unfortunately for we Americans, it has become the dismal reality of the thugocracy that rules our nation today. Dissent is no longer tolerated. Turning in your neighbors to the government thought police is encouraged. And speaking out at town hall meetings with our elected representatives is now met with violence from SEIU and ACORN thugs.

I wrote nearly 4 months ago about DHS compiling an enemies list and issuing a report besmirching our returning war veterans as potential domestic terrorists. Now, it has been revealed that you can email to the White House and tell them that your neighbor opposes Obamacare. If you voice your opposition to Obamacare at a townhall, you will be manhandled by either a union goon from SEIU or an ACORN member. This fellow at the left is one of the goons that attacked a dissenter in St. Louis and despite the video capturing the crime, he claims that the dissenter attacked him! "If you are going to lie to the people, tell them a big lie..."

I live in a district that has a representative that is not in favor of Obamacare so it is nearly a waste of time to attend a townhall with him because he already agrees with me. I have not been able to determine if Senator Webb has a townhall scheduled because his website is silent on the matter. Senator Warner has opted to eschew the face-to-face townhall in favor of polling, virtual townhalls via telephone, and etcetera. At least when I send in my dissenting opinion, I won't be attacked by a SEIU goon or an ACORN operative. But I welcome the confrontation.

You see, although I'm not a confrontational type of person, I'm not one to back down from a fight - especially when I know I'm right! I welcome the goons to attempt to even so much as put their hands on me because as soon as they touch me, they will die! Anyone that puts their hands on me without my implicit permission obviously means to do me harm and I will not stand idly and allow them to do so. It is my right to defend myself and their hostile actions make it necessary to defend myself. I have seen enough evidence that if I resist, they will apply more force. If I begin to defend myself, they will likely use enough to force to injure me or perhaps even kill me. Obama didn't send a bunch of little grandmas to do his bidding. He sent hulking linebackers to strike terror into dissenters. And I am not cowed by their presence.

You could say that these people who have already been roughed up by the Obamacare goons are the first victims of Obamacare. They won't be the last if the measure gets passed in any form. Obama says that it is necessary to save the American economy. That's bullshit! His Obamacare would be a greater drag on the economy than the current system. But he can't waste a good crisis...

If Obama is willing to use third party enforcers to push his health care agenda, what else can we expect when he's pushing the other radical parts of his agenda? We already know that the Card Check bill will encodify exactly this type of behavior on the part of the unions and Obama favors Card Check. And yet the sheeple elected him! Now, he's pushing a healthcare plan that will leave some elderly with only painkillers to soothe their ailments because the cost-benefit analysis will say that it isn't worth the expense of surgery to fix their ailments. That's not a fabrication or a stretch. That came right out of the mouth of Barack Hussein Obama in an interview.

What needs to come out in these townhalls is this: the 47 million uninsured Americans is a fabrication. First, illegal aliens are included in the 47 million. They don't belong here in the first place. Instead of spending money to insure them, use the money to get them the hell out of our country. They are here ILLEGALLY! Don't reward bad behavior. So, away with 10 million right there.

Second, don't include those that have the option to get health care coverage through their employer but choose not to. These people are unwilling to pay the small stipend each paycheck to get coverage that is available so they can spend it on big screen TV's, bigger houses, nicer cars, etcetera. Why should I have to pay for this idiot's healthcare coverage? Who's being greedy here? He keeps his money and gets me to pay for his coverage? Granted, that's genius if you pull it off but it ain't right. Gone are now another 17 million from this fraudulent number.

So here we are at 20 million uninsured. But some of that 20 million are already receiving government health care benefits. Oops. There went another 10 million "uninsured." So, truthfully, there are around 10 million uninsured Americans out there. In other words, less than 3 1/2 percent of the population.

So, in essence, this "crisis" is not a crisis at all. 3 1/2 percent does not a crisis make. Wake up and pay attention! Your freedoms are being taken away along with your hard earned wages to address a crisis that doesn't exist. And if you're aware of it, wake up your neighbor or the nearest sheeple you know. Before it's too late.