Thursday, November 25, 2010

Truly Just Theater . . . Theater of the Absurd

George Will wrote in an Op Ed this week in which he stated rather succinctly that,

‎"What the TSA is doing is mostly security theater, a pageant to reassure passengers that flying is safe,"


and yet I am not sure if anyone has written or said that if all of the new security measures (full-body image scanners and enhanced pat-downs) had been in place a year ago that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab still would have boarded a plane in Amsterdam where the TSA and Janet Incompetano have no real authority. UFA was flying into the U.S. with a plan to explode the bomb on arrival. In other words, the new system will likely fail just like the previous system because it is not addressing an inbound threat from abroad. Rather those in charge have decided to further harass and delay law abiding Americans.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

And Then There Were Many

A couple of observations while watching the post-Congressional Shellacking shows. There is a general eagerness by the media, characterized by a detectable level of panic for the main-stream liberal media to identify the Republican Presidential candidates which tells me:

a) they know (and are basically admitting they know) Obama is extremely vulnerable
b) the liberal media is anxious to fix their sites on the targets so they can start their "take-downs".

As an example, David Gregory looked like he had to be restrained to keep from coming out of his seat and throttling Bobby Jindal on "This Week" this week

Originally blogged on Friday, February 12, 2010


Iowa 2012 - No Vacancy

Get ready for the broadest slate of Presidential candidates we may ever see in our lives. There will be no room at the inns of Iowa and New Hampshire and given their need to create separation from the pretenders to the throne, serious candidates will have to campaign hard in South Carolina, Ohio and maybe even primary states further down the calendar and way out west.

I'm not Karl Rover or Dick Morris but I have been watching developments particularly over the last few months and I've been reading, not just the news but reading about the elections in 1980 and 1994. Trends and similarities abound.

But the reason I predict that the election in 2012 will be preceded by more entrants into the race then ever before is because there will be a rather confident perception by any and every candidate that they can do better than Obama. Sadly we will have to endure yet another 1000+ days of misery before one of them will get to prove their theory. And they are all right in their assumption, at least in varying degrees. If they govern less intrusively, if they choose to put the Federal government in reverse gear and back out of private enterprise and our private lives, by comparison the results will be better than what we've witnessed under Obama's agendas.

And this is why you will need a scorecard to keep all the players straight. This is why you will have to start your own personal research early to help narrow your field. Do not rely on the liberal media to pick the best Republican candidate for you or we may end up with another McCain or worse a Bob Dole vs. Clinton with a similar outcome.

Most of the candidates are going to rely on that same grass roots activism and direct campaign contributions that elected Scott Brown to the Senate last month. Contribution dollars will be diluted in such a vast field.

In addition to all the usual suspects like Romney and Huckabee and yes, Sarah Palin; the ones polls are already tracking, you will also see Gingrich and likely see Rick Santorum, maybe Tim Pawlenty. Fred Thompson may come out more early and often this time around. You will see names more regionally recognized. For instance the current edition of Texas Monthly is advancing the notion that our current governor, Rick Perry is campaigning already, not to keep his seat as governor this year but to brand himself as a conservative outsider to beltway politics and a champion of the people, a champion of smaller, less intrusive Federal governance on the same template of Texas government. Maybe Mitch Daniels from Indiana will be able to leverage his experience at the OMB and make a bid as a wonk-ish but popular state Governor.

I would expect to see a couple of names that have become nationally recognized just this last year. Guys like Scott Brown and perhaps (I hope I am not prematurely predicting his victory) Marco Rubio will look to capatilze on their successes at energizing a grass roots movement and becoming dragon-slayers of sorts against Liberal Democrats and RINOs alike.

In Iowa and New Hampshire they will be running out of office space and rent-by-the-month hotel rooms and if you are daring enough to start a small business under the current socialist, statist regime then a good bet would be to start a printing shop in one of these states to help these numerous campaigns turn out all of the bumper stickers and yard signs they will undoubtedly need. And if you are really smart you won't only stock up on red ink. You will be smart to be the only print shop in town with a fresh supply of blue ink too. After all, a Democrat by the name of Hillary Clinton will probably be there campaigning as well.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

The Obama Cult Massacre

If someone wanted to make an Andrew Lloyd Weber style musical or a cable channel movie-of-the-week or South Park episode for that matter, this one, as they say, "writes itself." I would guess that this one also fits the FBI profile.

The cult leader is charismatic, almost certainly fueled by narcissism and frustrated about perceived injustices. He has a vision of a Utopian ideal that will remedy all these injustices and because it's his vision he is the only one who can lead people to his Utopia.

He starts with a small cadre of believers including his wife (Michelle) and some lifelong colleagues (Gibbs, Axlerod). Perhaps there is a skeptic in their midst (Rahm) but he's mostly silent, either enjoying the growing notoriety or expecting greater opportunities for himself down the road.

On that road they encounter additional followers who are in search of something but are just not sure what it is they seek. When the "well spoken" cult leader extols the virtues of his Utopian vision now they know what it is they've been seeking.

Their following gets so big they need more room and need to get away from the dissenting voices in mainstream society who create a distraction from the message and just make it harder for the new believers to see their cult leader's vision.

[In October 1973, the directors of the Peoples Temple passed a resolution to establish an agricultural mission there.[13] The Temple chose Guyana, in part, because of its socialist politics, which were also moving further to the left during the selection process.[13][14] Former Temple member Tim Carter stated that the reasons for choosing Guyana were the Temple's view of creeping fascism, the perception of the dominance of multinational corporations on the government, and perceived racism in the U.S. government - Jonestown ]

[(CBS) President Obama said the much-discussed protests and anger projected at his administration is in part fueled by the 24-hour news cycle and new media.

He told "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer that cable news and blogs, operating on a 24/7 news cycle, "focus on the most extreme elements on both sides. They can't get enough of the conflict - it's catnip to the media right now."

Given this environment, the president bemoaned, "it is more difficult for us to solve the problems" Congress and his administration face. - CBS News Face the Nation
]

Somewhere out in the desert they come across gatherings of like-minded seekers perhaps with leaders of their own (Pelosi). The mood and the rhetoric intensify, power dynamics shift and the skeptics become dissenters and decide to leave the cult.

[Some defections occurred,[47] most notably in 1973, when eight mostly young members, commonly referred to as the "Gang of Eight", defected together.[48] ]

[Rahm Emanuel leaves the White House weeks before the Mid-Term elections. Christina Romer, and Peter Orszag leave the White House economic team in the Summer of 2010]

In the end cult leaders seem to follow a similar trajectory. The aforementioned Jim Jones ended up dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound amidst the bloated carcasses of his dead cult followers in the Guyanese sun. Sadly, in the Jonestown Massacre, amongst the many victims, a U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan (D) really did end up dead, murdered by overzealous cult members.

Similarly, Obama's Progressive Democrat Cult committed mass suicide confirmed in this article in The Hill - http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/politics-elections/127261-few-democrats-survive-vote-in-favor-of-health-reform?page=7#comments


The final time-line of the Obama Cult's Suicide Pact is as follows:
The Progressive Democrat Cult committed mass suicide on March 21st, 2010 after voting for the Health Care bill, an act that figuratively resembles drinking the cyanide lased Flavor-Aid. The cult leader died by his own pen on March 23rd, 2010 (by signing the Health Care Bill into law). . . . It wasn't until November 2nd and 3rd that we started to find the bodies.

There are rumors of a 2nd mass grave not too far from the first. I am guessing we will find those bodies in 2012.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Best Seats in the House

A few observations as the night goes on:

Most righteous defeat - Alan disGrayson. This was a win for all Americans regardless of party affiliation. The guy is an embarrassment to all of us.

Early predictions - Marco Rubio 2020. His ascent on the stage of national politics begins tonight. Another prediction, Rubio won't last 2 full years in the Senate because he'll get picked as the Republican running mate for the 2012 ticket. And yet he will still have a much bigger impact in his two years than Obama did during his stint in the Senate. Listen to his victory speech and you will witness something more Presidential than anything we've seen from the White House in the last two years.

Unfortunate returns - Barney Frank, Lloyd Dog-gone-it (Dr. Donna, we were pulling for you). Barbara Boxer and Harry Freakin' Reid

Stupidist Vote Cast - More than 10,000 Nevadans voting "None of the above" for Senate instead of just not showing up at the polls tonight. (Message to those voters: Your education has failed you. Did you really think your state would not send anyone back to DC to occupy the Senior Senator's seat because of your lame protest vote?)

Best Argument Against Electronic Voting Booths - Nevada
Best Argument For Using Electronic Voting Booths - Washington

Money better spent than taxed away by the Obama government - Dan Benisheck (made a small donation to his campaign when I heard he was running for the Bart "I'm Really NOT-SO Pro-Life" Stupak's seat).

Happy return (to sanity) - my birth state of Wisconsin - retiring career politician Feingold (Ron Johnson wins!) and electing a Governor with integrity (Scott Walker) who is on a mission to ferret (or perhaps badger) out waste, fraud and abuse of power.

Same old tune - New York still dancing to the Elitist Waltz, Chicago Corruptocrat Rap and of course California with the Electoral Slide Over the Cliff. (No coincidence that they are losing jobs, businesses and with a population that is rapidly voting with their feet, seeing a loss of Congressional Seats and Electoral votes too).

So Predictable
- msnbc is already building it's narrative about the so-called puniness of the Republican gains, the misfires of the Tea Party (O'Donnell) and how the American people in the "fly-over" states won't really be heard tonight. But why is it that Olberman looks like he's about to pass a football sized gall stone while he's reporting this cheery, pro-Dem news tonight? (I guarantee he will be scowling his way through a report about unfair gerrymandering in February).

Welcome to D.C. - Col. West (FL). Sean Duffy (WI) and many, many more

Write-Ins: And finally, I needed to hit the MUTE button when Fox decided to pull Geraldine Ferraro out of moth balls. Were Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale not available to parrot Liberal Not-So-Truisms and try to be a wet blanket on the night?! Her "logic" was mind-bending.

Now hand over the Gavel, Nancy!

Goal to Go

The ball is on the goal line today.