Delusions of Granduer or just Insane Delusions?

What if George Orwell had been right/wrong all along? Does big brother really know what's best for every single person living, working, retired, and preparing to work (as well as those few choosing to be non-working and getting free Obama phones and unlimited food stamps) on the most critical decisions they confront for their entire lives - cradle to grave?  All 310,000,000 of us?  How does Big Brother even know the "ins and outs" of the lives of hundreds of millions of folks?  Oops almost forgot about the NSA and its unlimited surveillance capabilities.  As an aside, the chorus of NSA defenders are swift to point out that, despite all the recent criticisms of that Agency, not a single actual abuse of its gathered intelligence has ever been cited by these hysterical critics.  Oh really?   What about a low level contractor having sufficient resources (e.g. lap top) and completely unfettered computer access, thereby being able to steal practically every important secret being securely guarded by the NSA and giving those thousands of megabites to the Chinese and Russians.  Talk about an Agency not to be trusted as the premier steward of the Nation's "Top Secrets".  Yet, despite this scandal of unprecedented proportions, not a single employee of the federal government has been disciplined, not even with a paid day of leave from work for allowing Richard Snowden to take the "Keys to the Kingdom" and then sell them to the highest bidder, that champion of civil liberties and privacy protection, Putin's Russia.

Oh well, I guess to really get in trouble as a federal bureaucrat, you must gleefully refuse to do your job and cause the brutal, savage mutilation and murders of four Americans, bravely serving their country in a worn torn, foreign land.  Oops again; that failure of leadership makes no difference either.  It's just leading lambs to their slaughter, after all; indeed, a mere bump in the road, those crumpled up corpses.

So, the clear conclusion from this litany of federal executive branch blunders is that  accountability is an illusion, a mere chimera, indeed, a false promise of leadership - - some might say a "Big Lie", like a spontaneous demonstration that caused a spontaneous riot, that caused the spontaneous firing of mortar rounds for six or more hours more than a mile away from the spontaneous demonstration - - greatly undermines trust in government and its worthiness to be given more comprehensive powers over American lives.

We, therefore, must turn to the Nation's Legislative Branch to seek our integrity of action, intellectual honesty and accountability for failures of competent and trustworthy leadership.  In this vein, the Senate Majority Leader sets the penultimate standard by which all others are measured to ensure that the Constitutional checks and balances are preserved.  Harry Reid's speech on the Senate floor, February 25, 2014:

                     "All the tales being told by the Republicans and their Koch brothers' commercials, all those tales are just that, tales, all lies about the Affordable Care Act."

Harry Reid's speech on the Senate floor, March 26, 2014 - exactly 31 days after his prior unmistakeably clear defamation of every single (tens of millions of Americans by the way) Obamacare critic: 

                    " I never said on the floor of the Senate anything about the critics of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, to the best of my recollection."

Come on MAN; it was 31 days and you could have easily watched the video before going back to the floor of the Senate to make that egregiously outrageous false statement.  Either big Brother is right and the vast majority of low information voters will swallow any lie no matter how ludicrous, so long as they get free bread and circuses, or the other 99 United States Senators have absolutely no self respect by allowing their crucial Branch of Government to be rendered impotent and the laughing stock of the Nation through acquiesing in the "leadership" of a deranged lunatic.  Our once great Constitutional Republic deserves better.

Why George (H) W Bush2 Still Matters, and Ronald Reagan, too

The last three Republican Chief Executives held sway over our once great Constitutional Republic for a full two decades. Let's briefly examine their accomplishments for a change of typical focus of this bombastic outlet for ant-progressive government rhetoric.

President Reagan is credited, somewhat accurately, with winning the Cold War against the Soviet Union.  So what, you say?  As Russia today is ascendant, and under Putin, even more aggressive in its pursuit of dominance over Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia, the downfall of the USSR now seems to have been a nothing more than a bump in the road of totalitarian history.

Elsewhere, Mr. Reagan did little to confront either Iran or the Islamist Jihadists threatening all of western civilization with ever more virulent terror attacks.  Indeed, in dealing with Iran, Reagan's chief minion, the Ambassador of Silly Cakes, traded advanced weapons for American hostages, of which, Iran had no difficulty in replacing 2 for 1 whenever Ollie North closed a release deal.

On the domestic side of the ledger, President Reagan gave the Nation ammesty to 12,000,000 illegals coupled with then record setting deficit spending.  Well, at least he got it "right" on the Supreme Court nomination of Moma's Boy Justice Sutter - ranking with the conservative choices by Ike of Warren and Brennan.  Repubs sure can vet their high court appointments, you say?

Turning now to the Bush dynasty, let's expedite our consideration of their accomplishments by simply incorporating Reagan's litany of leadership failures by reference - watch my lips or more accurately fingers here - no sound fiscal policies while the National Debt grew exponentially and no strategy on the War on Terror, until the grand building plazas of NYC and DC were littered with more than 3,000 dead Americans.

As to the first duty of every President - preserving the Nation's sovereignty by securing the borders - of little or no concern of either Bush 1 or Bush 2, inasmuch as cheap labor is a worthy goal of every big business Repub.

In short, then, while Barrack Obama can take partial credit for the birth of the Nation's Tea Party Movement, those Bush guys are also significantly blame worthy bastard parents as well.  Rino's are  the bane of real conservative alternatives to the ever more intrusive Nanny State governance.  Indeed, where is Senator Robert Taft (R-Ohio) when we need him most?

Why should what Mahmoud Abbas will not say Matter?

With the turning of the season, hope spring eternal, and now renewed optimism for the state of the World stage is vitally needed.  This winter of our discontent has seen Ukraine disembodied, as was Libyia, Iran released from its "Time-Out" Box, thereby freed from crippling economic sanctions to pursue its dream of putting nukes on rockets (with range to spare) to wipe Israel off the map, and finally, Syria literally bombed back to the stone age - 140,000 innocents killed and more than 8,000,000 refugees suffering unimaginable misery - with no solutions to any of these civilization destroying crises being offered up by President Barack Obama.

In the face of this world-wide relentless carnage, what is the laser-like focus of this Administration's Poo-Bah for foreign policy:
               "Global climate change is our Nation's greatest national security threat".  Oh, really?

In pursuit of this preposterous notion, Kerry is fully committed to winning the President's War on Coal, while having no opinion whatsoever on the Keystone Pipeline.  Great; a Know-Nothing follower of a Leader with a pen and phone, Mom jeans, and but two priorities for the future survival of the Free World's most exceptional nation:

                *Dismantling all of the inconvenient Affordable Care insurance mandates until after all               elections occurring during his entire term in office;

                 *Dismantling the security of the Nation of Israel;

This President will be meeting in the White House oval office on Monday with the PLO's chief thug, Mahmoud Abbas, surely to be lauding him as a peace advocate worthy of a Nobel Prize - he after all should know the needed credentials for gaining such an award.  Despite Abbas' unequivocal refusal to acknowledge and accept Israel as the rightful and permanent Jewish homeland, Mr. Obama intends to impose a "Peace Pact" upon Israel that intentionally deprives it of any defensible borders - a nation no more than eight miles wide at its geographic heart.

Thereafter, once Abbas is seated on his royal throne in Jerusalem, he will be fully empowered by the United States, and the President's cherished "International Community" of appeasers, to unleash the next Infitdada against the now very vulnerable Jewish people.  Having publicly proclaimed, with the implicit blessing of Secretary Kerry (see transcript of his testimony before House Foreign Relations Committee, 3/14/14) to be an illegitimate, racist State because of its essential Jewish character, Abbas consistent with prevailing international norms (see Ukraine above) can and will unleash legions of terrorists to liberate all of Palestine, so that its rightful owners can reclaim their abandoned lands, as ordered to do so by the Arab legions upon their invasion of Israel, 1947 - 1949.

Before the United States sets the stage for another holocaust in the middle east, Kerry and Obama need to tell our Nation and Israel how many Jews must die at the bloody hands of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the PLO (it has never been disbanded, by the way, and is the governing body for all actions of the current Palestine Authority, PA) before this Administration acknowledges and accepts that the Abbas lead peace process is a fraud and a sham to gain on the ground the tactical advantage in its half century old commitment to drive the Jews into the Sea, those few left alive to be so dealt with. 

Chris Christy: A Man in Full

In this Winter of his Discontent, Governor Christopher Christy found his full-throated voice; alas, his lamentations of monumental ignorance as to the nefarious plotting of his many minions merely reduced him to the size of Sergeant Schultz of Hogan's Heroes infamy.

Certainly, the "Insultenator" was betrayed by his overly zealous staff.  So, Christy's swift throwing of his Deputy Chief of Staff, Bridget Kelly, under the Bus was entirely proper and timely; not because, however, her actions bespoke a dirty trick characterized by rank "stupidity" as Christy bemoaned so loudly, rather because her actions - whether crimes or not - were not stupid, they are despicably evil.

Because Christy has been widely praised for his supposed forthright candor in his Presser on this debacle, I choose to articulate a contrary view of his flawed leadership here.  The Governor, to my mind, displayed a gross lack of any real appreciation that Ms. Kelly deserved to be immediately fired not for the sin of lying to His Grace, rather, for intentionally putting thousands at risk to their health and safety for reasons of cringe-worthy partisan political advantage.

Accordingly, Chris, be sad all you want because your underlings were and are total morons who let down the Big Guy otherwise destined to be our nation's next King.  While you glumly hunker down to ride out the public clamber for more heads to roll, I await your acting on the promised anger you told us is coming soon. Once you publicly call upon the New Jersey Attorney General to prosecute these fired confidants, should crimes have been committed, I will be persuaded that you really are outraged and a proponent of meaningful accountability.  People lose their jobs every day of the week; they go into the marketplace and find new employment, inconvenienced for a time, even diminished in their affluence, but otherwise free to be themselves in full.  It is time Mr. Tough Guy to stop apologizing for something you say you are blameless and start deterring future government underlings by making the price of such misconduct more than they will be willing to pay - time to put up or just shut up.
 
 

A Christmas Message from Vermont Royster

At this most Holy of Seasons for the World's Christians, I often reflect upon the true nature of man and his place in the wide Universe of disbelief, unbelief and other contrary beliefs.  My first and most lasting conclusion on this deeply spiritual matter is that but for virtues that are timeless, all human endeavors would be vanity.  This conviction underscores the meaning that I found in the lead editorial published yesterday in The Wall Street Journal's Christmas Eve edition: "In Hoc Anno Domini" written by Mr. Royster in 1949, the year of my birth.  This editorial has been reprinted annually now by the WSJ for 64 years, and justifiably so:

            "Along the road to Damascus, the light shone brightly. But afterwards Paul was sore
              afraid.  He feared that other Caesars might one day persuade men that man was no-
              thing save a servant unto them, that man might yield up their birthright from God
              for portage and walk no more in freedom.

              And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethen, the Galatians, the
              words he would have us remember afterwards in each of the years of his Lord:

                          Stand fast therefore in the Liberty wherewith Christ has made us free
                           and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."

     This message of deliverance from oppression is more timely today than even so more than half a Century ago, as the suffocating intrusions into our lives by government overseers become more pervasive each and every year - NSA monitoring of every citizen's every communication every day being only the latest of the perversions of our birthright of Constitutional freedom and liberty.

Therefore, to quote my favorite line from both the Bible and the movie: "A Man for All Seasons" - "What gaineth a man to win the entire World, but loseth his soul."  With this thought in mind, I am willing to stand with Vermont Royster be to be a voice of contrarian views resisting the power of the collective political wisdom where all men get their daily bread handed to them by our modern day Caesars, while bonding us all in servitude to this all powerful secular State.  Be of good cheer, as we will prevail - if not in our time, in God's.              

The Arrogance of Stupid Power

From the very beginning, the Obama Administration has failed the most basic tenet of national leadership on this debacle in Syria - zig zaging from one banal sound bite to the next, the public is aghast at the lack of a coherent plan or strategy to be implemented in response to the use of chemical weapons against the civilian population of East Damascus.  The American people want to rally around the President in a time of international conflict that endangers our national security.  Nonetheless, uniting the Nation in support of a plan of action to defend the country has been made impossible most assuredly by the absence of any meaningful plan of action by this Administration.  No American citizen believes that a pin prick, shot across the bow will accomplish anything on the ground in Syria other than to embolden Assad that he has taken America's best shot and finds himself neither particularly degraded, nor in the least bit deterred from continuing the slaughter of his own people in any fashion that suits him.

Instead of hearing the rallying war cry of "Remember the Maine", "A Day that will Live in Infamy" or even "The Whole World will Hear Us Soon", we get David Axlerod tweating: "Congress is like the Dog that caught the Car". Cheap political gotcha games do not inspire citizens, nor instill confidence in our allies that America's Commander in Chief will successfully manage any military campaign, however "limited" and "precise in scope".

Yet, far worse than than the dismal optics of the Administration's misconduct of the public debate on the Congressional war powers authorization, is the clear demonstration that this White House truly believes there will be no blow back or violent response to our attack in Syria. A miscalculation of that magnitude is absolutely frightening in its arrogance, naivate and blind stupidity.  When Senator Rand Paul challenged Secretary Kerry on the President's Constitutional authority to take the Nation into war contrary to the Vote in Congress opposing such initiation of military conflict, the Secretary dismissed the Senator's contention as frivolous because the Constitution requires Congressional approval only for real or "Classic war".  With a straight face, and I mean that literally - a very long, straight face - Secretary Kerry pontificated with deep and sincere conviction that the President is simply going to blow up a few buildings in Syria and then all the unpleasantness will be over in a matter of days, not weeks or months.

A very telling moment then occurred when the Secretary looked to nail down his put down of the Senator by asking General Dempsey, sitting right beside him, to concur on this obviously wise pronouncement that America will take a few names, kick some Arab butt and come home credibility restored, Hezbollah terrorists, the Iranians and Russians rendered impotent.  In reply, the Nation's Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman turned to face Secretary Kerry and said:  "No Mr. Secretary, I do not want to speak to that proposition."  Kerry, forgetting to turn off his witness microphone, said to General Dempsey, the Congress and to the entire nation: "Thanks for pulling the Rug right out from under me, General".

Better Secretary Kerry loses control of his ridiculously wrongheaded talking points, than our Great Nation lose all control of its destiny by marching off to inflict a simple pin prick that causes our enemies in Damascus, Tehran, Moscow and Beijing to launch counter pin pricks - through surrogates at first - that lead to a second round of attacks to restore Obama's street cred, that lead to yet another round of counter strikes by these emboldened adversaries, with every escalation met by a similar upping the ante of war fighting until even Mr. Kerry recognizes the existence of that "Classic War" he can't envision happening.   Unintended consequences do happen after all, even to Nobel Peace Prize laureates.  

A Call to Arms

Tens of thousands are dead or dying in Syria - hundreds of innocent children and women every day.  Egypt is wracked by murderous sectarian violence; Iraq has blown up, again literally, Bagdad's streets are littered with shattered human wreckage and misery from daily car bombings; Iran is speeding toward wielding the largest killing machine in history, an atomic bomb; Yemen is so threatening to America that our Embassy has been closed, possibly permanently.  No country in the entire Middle East is peaceable or safe for Americans, Europeans or Israel's citizens. The Arab Spring may yet lead to a Nuclear Winter for the West, our civilization reduced to rubble or destroyed by Jihadists willing to kill forever in the name of Almighty Allah.

So, as chaos reigns, hard choices - none good, nor assured of complete success - need to be made here as our war weary nation is now threatened to be engulfed in these many murderous conflicts, spanning already two continents.  Russia has made its chosen path in the region known - every military armament available to be spared from the Russian arsenal has and will be flown into Syria to keep Assad, the Butcher, on his thrown, so he can kill, maim and torture his own people in perpetuity, Reset Button notwithstanding.

In the face of this vast carnage in Syria over the last three years, our Nation's key response has been to unleash first Hillary, and now John, on the Butcher Assad with ever more withering rhetoric. This week, however, America has finally reached the Rubicon, as President Obama has called upon the Congress to authorize his use of whatever military force he deems warranted to prevent more chemical weapon attacks on Syria's civilian population.

 In one recent press interview, the President said he intends to "fire a shot across the bow" of the Butcher Assad.  Regrettably, as Assad does not live on a boat out at sea, he probably won't even see the splash of this so-called harsh punishment.  But this is no time to carp or quibble about pin pricks or other one time symbolic, face saving gestures.  Because now the Congress gets a Vote, so will Assad, Putin and the Mullahs in Iran after America fires a few tomahawks into Syria's desert.  This President's fervent desire to sucker punch Assad, and then pivot back to his golf game with Joe Biden is just not the way the world works.

America and our Congress must now decide whether to get very serious about the perceived need to protect our national security. We have the military power to stop the ongoing carnage, at least for a long period of time through air strikes that ground the entire Syrian Air Force. Such a "All In" intervention - at great risk to our armed forces and citizenry due Jihadist retaliatory attacks - is not the President's Way, however.  Indeed, should Congress debate this authorization to go to war seriously, knowing that a sucker punch that does not knock the opponent unconscious, leads quickly to possibly countless and uncontrollable counter punches, may well reasonably decide not to intervene.  As stated at the outset, there are no good or guaranteed winning choices in today's Middle East conflict. 

Nonetheless, one absolute truth does exist in this geopolitical battle for regional dominance - any one or two day, pop gun shot across the bow will accomplish nothing more than reveal to the entire World that America is faking it; we will be justifiably seen as "phoning in" our supposed concern for the gassed  babies, mothers and fathers of East Damascus, let alone the other one hundred thousand slaughtered by more "humane" weapons.  I will not Vote for America to become the Joke of the Middle East. I have not yet decided on whether to call my Congressional reps to seek their support for "All In" either. Nonetheless, I will not be out golfing while I struggle with that seriously Life and Death Vote.  Our entire Nation deserves a few sleepless nights over this dangerous game changing decision.