"No! Shut them all down!"

First, if you don’t recognize that line, I’m not sure we can be friends.

Second, go read this from Larry Kudlow, and then go read this from Ace.

I tend to be on Ace’s side here.  The Republican Establishment has been too open borders for too long, despite the grass roots’ very specific objections that our border situation was a National Security concern.  Either they are way too stupid to be in charge (for not realizing what us rubes in fly-over land, free-market Jesus paradise have realized for the last couple of decades), or they are simply trying to co-opt a position they don’t actually believe to make us rubes in fly-over land, free-market Jesus paradise a little less angry at them.

For over 14 years the Minute Men have been on the border between the US and Mexico attempting (voluntarily) to help US Border Patrol.  They understood (as did many of the rest of us) the danger posed by an open border way back then.  So is really that another terror attack on US soil finally got Larry’s attention, or is he trying to sound tough so that the grass roots will start trusting the Establishment again?

However, with all that said, I think Kudlow is an idiot even in his new hawkish opinion.  He reminds me rather of C-3PO telling R2D2 not to shut down “all the trash compactors on the detention level” but rather, “No! Shut them all down!”

We don’t have a problem with immigrants or visitors from England, France, or Sweden.  Not by and large, at any rate, and certainly not a recognizable terrorism problem from those countries.  Why should we prevent them from coming here and, potentially, even further alienate our allies?  Larry wants to pretend that this is not “about religion.”  To do so, he has to pretend it’s about “immigration” more generally, and so the only option is complete embargo.

Note to Larry Kudlow and the rest of the GOP Establishment:  It’s the Mohammedanism, stupid.

What is the common denominator among Iraq, Syria, Libya, Israel’s West Bank, and the rest of the Middle East?  Mohammedanism.  Who are the euphemistic “warlords” in Africa?  Mostly Mohammedans.  Who is throwing gays off of buildings, beheading Christians, and slaughtering innocents?  Mohammedans.  Who shot up a Christmas Party in San Bernadino, detonated a bomb at the Boston Marathon, and flew 3 planes into US landmarks?  Mohammedans.

It would be really nice if Mohammedanism really was “a religion of peace,” as its apologists claim.  It simply isn’t.  Mohammedanism, is an evil death cult.  Mohammed preached (and practiced) conversion by the sword, conquest, rape, and pillage.  Today, a majority of Mohammedans world-wide believe that violent jihad is a valid form of Mohammedanism.  A majority of US Mohammedans believe that Sharia Law, which has been called “completely incompatible with American Values, should be the law of the land.


Trump is certainly bombastic.  He’s a carnival barker, a narcissist, and a whole host of other unsavory things.  But between him and Larry Kudlow?  Trump is the one who is right.

What Do Conservatives Want?

So, over at the HQ this morning, commenter jwest raised an interesting point.  His comment is too long to quote in its entirety, but the gist seems to be this:  Conservatives, especially in the blogosphere, are too ready to pull out the Long Knives whenever one of our allies (actual allies- a Perry, or Walker, or Cruz, or Lee) makes a tiny misstep.  So we should probably make some decisions, as a movement, about where we really stand.

So here are some areas he highlighted, and my thoughts on them (all quotes: sic; I'm not a proofreader).  I'll follow up with a couple more at the end.

1: Immigration/Border

On immigration, has anyone defined what the word "amnesty" means? We can't simply say "follow existing law", because than entails kicking in doors at 2am and dragging mothers away from their children (which looks bad on the evening news). It would be good to have a well written position on what true conservatives want.

Amnesty means "officially not administering just punishment for a crime."  Any "path to legalization" or "path to citizenship" is Amnesty.

Step 1 (before anything else) secure the border (or take real, substantive steps to secure it).  Step 2 Make explicit that illegal aliens are not eligible for any federal benefit, reduce Medicaid payments to States who pay State benefits for illegal aliens.  Step 3 Come down like "a ton of rectanular building things" on any employer- large or small- found to be hiring illegals.  Step 4 expedite deportation hearings, stop releasing illegals into their own recognizance.

2: ObamaCare/Health Care/Health Insurance

On healthcare, certainly everyone wants Obamacare repealed, but that's not a position. Never in the history of the U.S. has the government been able to give citizens free shit and then turn around and take it back. Those who think this is an option just aren't being serious. We need a conservative plan on what is going to replace Obamacare.

Burn it down. 
Scatter the stones. 
Salt the earth where it stood. 

The federal government has no authority over health care/health insurance.  The only space where the feds have authority is to end the prohibition on interstate sale of insurance.  Would consider making personal health insurance tax deductible, just like employer coverage... but that has issues (since I want the tax code to be much less complex).

3: Defense (esp. Defense Budget)

On defense, some are taking the position that patriotism can be gauged by how much we spend on the military. Others know that at some point, enough is enough. It's hard to make the case of being a budget hawk while handing out blank checks. We should nail this down so that voters know where we're at.

I'm sorry, Hawks, we don't have money.  I don't want to cut defense spending, but neither can we let it grow (or, at least, grow much).  Let's fix the procurement process, cut out the "diversity" stupidity, and see any other avenues available to make the defense budget more efficient.  If that's still not enough, *then* we can talk about more money.

4: Social Security

On Social Security, for decades the holy grail of the conservative side of the aisle was a plan to privatize SS. If this is still the plan, it could be marketed in such a way as to gain the black vote. Of course, our side needs to agree on plan first.

One-time payment of "your" SS money into an IRA.  Retirement planning is your business, not Daddy Government's.  For current or near retirees, we'll have to figure out a plan.  Some kind of phase-out will be necessary, but not sure exactly how that would work.

I'll add on top of that:

5: Taxes

A massively simplified tax code.  Flat tax, fair tax, even a progressive/graduated tax which is simple to understand would be far better than what we have today.  I don't think, realistically, we'll ever get a true "flat tax," and the "fair tax" scares me unless we can repeal the 16th Amendment.  Repeal the estate tax, drop corporate taxes to around 15%, stop taxing capital gains (and maybe dividends).

6: Budget

A balanced budget amendment is way over-due in this country.  Texas has one in our State Constitution, and it has contributed to tax surpluses (since people and especially businesses know that there aren't huge deficits, Texas is seen as very tax-payer friendly).

What are your thoughts?  Jwest is right- the sooner the *base* figures out our starting point, the easier it will be to judge when someone has deviated from it, and to what degree- thus (hopefully) preventing some of the circular firing squads which have led to the last two disastrous Republican presidential candidates.

Enough

Here, go read this.

Now, I'm not going to go over anything Drew says there.  Read the whole thing, it's worth it.

So what we have here is the GOP, once again, trying to have their cake and eat it, too.  The Chamber of Commerce really likes Amnesty.  They've made no attempt to hide that fact.  The Chamber of Commerce is a big Republican donor.  No one has tried to hide that fact, either.

So when the SCOAMT enacted Executive Amnesty, the CoC and the Republican establishment were jubilant (in private, anyway).  The CoC gets what it wants (amnesty) and Republicans get to pretend that they had nothing to do with it and no way to stop it.

Except then November 2014 comes along, and Republicans retake the Senate- largely on promises to stop ObamaCare (how's that going?) and Executive Amnesty, so the GOP is in a bind.  If they actually act on their promise, they tick off the CoC and lose donation money.  If they do nothing, they tick off the base and become the minority party again.

So rather than showing some moral fiber, making a decision, and explaining it like men, they hide behind this pathetic move attempting to be seen as trying to do something, while their actions actually make it impossible for anything to be done.

A commenter at the HQ summed it up like this:

"Or to paraphrase Rudy Giuliani, 'They do not love the American people.'"

This is correct.

The rest of this post goes out to the few Republicans who *do* love the American people.

Please join us.  Various pundits, bloggers, and commenters have mentioned a 3rd party.  The Republican party is going the way of the Whigs- they care too much for their privilege and "unity" than they do doing what is right.

It is time for a 3rd party.  It is a time for you, you remnant of the Conservative Right, to stand up and say "No more."  While you support Mitch McConnel and John Boehner even simply by wearing the same party label, you are supporting people who are willing to sacrifice the American People to their privilege.

You must disassociate with them.  You must form your own bloc, your own Party.  If you lead, there are countless Conservatives who will follow.  You will be amazed at the support.

If you love this country- if you love her people- you will stand for what is right, even though the cost will be high.  The cost will be so much higher if you do not.

Thank You, Ace and Oregon Muse

Anyone who went over to the Ace of Spades HQ’s Sunday Book Tread, saw this:

Moron commenter AllenG is attempting to crowdsource his writing of a fantasy novel, which if I am reading his description correctly, will be called "Fire & Frost". It takes place on a world that is not your usual mountains-and-forests fantasy fare

Well, he is indeed reading correctly.  I have written a novel, and started a GoFundMe page to pay for publishing costs- line editing, graphic design, and a publishing service.

You can click over there and contribute, but this is really a thanks to Ace & Oregon Muse for highlighting me on the Sunday Book Thread.

So…

Thanks you guys.

Here Have a Post

Since Ace is down...  here, play in my comments section for a while.

Try not to break anything- I haven't been posting because, instead, I've been working.

Oh... so you wanted some content, too?

Okay, I'll add stuff as I come across it.

Here's from DFW- Sheriff's Deputy who shot a dog has now been indicted on felony animal cruelty charges.  Good.

Boko Haram Claims those girls they kidnapped have all converted to Islam.  I say, "I bet."

Pray for the people of the Texas Panhandle.  They're supposed to get some rain today, say the meteorologists, but Wildfires in Texas are a bad, bad thing.

I was promised Global Warming.  Where the F is my Global Warming?

The Moron Lifestyle is not for everyone...

And now the Gay Mafia is targeting Nintendo.  Seriously?

On Rebranding

Over at the HQ for the last little while, we've been talking about Rebranding the Republican Party (or the Conservative movement- sometimes the two get conflated when they shouldn't).  I've commented a lot over there, but I wanted to use this space to get a bunch of ideas all in one place.

First off, as I see it, the Republican Party and the Conservative Movement are not the same thing.  I am a Conservative.  Until and unless the Republican Party can prove to me that they are also Conservative, I am not a Republican (even though I'll probably vote "R" much more often than "L" for the moment).  Now, Many Republicans are Conservative, and I would venture that most Conservatives are Republican, but not all Republicans are Conservatives, and a goodly number of Conservatives vote Libertarian (I cannot believe anyone who is conservative could vote Democrat in good conscience).

To that end, it is the Conservative Movement that I will be discussing. 

So, if you're ready to come along for the ride, take a look under the fold.

Book Review: Amy Lynn

Amy Lynn is, as far as I know, the first and only novel written by Jack July (who comments over at the Ace of Spades HQ).  I'll admit I balked a bit at the $15.00 price tag for a physical copy of the book, but I was quite willing to spend $10 for the Kindle Version, which I did over the weekend.  I'm almost certain that was a better choice, since the physical book weighs in at a hefty 15 tons, I mean, four hundred twenty-some pages.

The blurb for the book on the Amazon website claims that Amy Lynn is the story of a "tomboy-ish girl" who grows up in rural Alabama.  That's mostly right.  Having now read the book, it might be more accurate to say it is about the life of a girl who grows up in Alabama.  Certainly Amy Lynn is the protagonist and heroine of the story, but the book is as much about her family as it is about her.

If you've got ten bucks to spend, you could do much worse than buying this on Kindle.  I'd recommend it, and give it a solid 4 / 5.

Synopsis/Spoilers/Deeper Review after the break:

Let's Be Honest

There's a problem in our country.  It's a deep sickness that affects everything we do, or see.  It's called "politics," and I don't believe it has a cure.

On Friday, the the town of Newtown, CT was the scene of a terrible act of evil.  A young man, apparently mentally ill, took a veritable arsenal to a school, after having already killed his mother, and killed over two dozen people.  He then took his own life.  This is a senseless act of mindless violence.

"Senseless": It has no sense.  No amount of rational thinking will ever allow us to understand what was going through that young man's head.

"Mindless": He wasn't using his mind.  Perhaps he was incapable of using his mind.  Someone thinking clearly doesn't target innocent children in some random act of violence.

As a nation, we all feel wounded by the events that unfolded.  Some of those wounds will close quickly.  Some of those wounds will never close.  The only thing we should be worrying about is how provide some measure of comfort and compassion to the survivors of Friday's attack.

Yet, for some reason, people believe politics must be brought into the discussion.

One professional political pundit, I can't even remember which one, remarked that 2nd Amendment advocates would probably be calling for "arming kindergartners," before we even knew all the victims.  See, it was important to get it on record immediately that more people having guns wouldn't have stopped this attack.  Never mind that he's wrong.

In what was supposed to be a prayer service for the victims and their families, the President decided to make a call for increased gun control.  On the other side of things, 2nd Amendment advocates were pre-politicising the event, since history says that exactly what did happen (increased call for gun control) would happen.

Now, those are things that can certainly be discussed.  It is in our nature to want to avoid this kind of pain and monstrosity.  When something like this happens, we rightly review to see what, if anything, could be done to prevent future recurrence.  So I don't have a problem that it's being discussed.  I do have two problems with the discussion, however.

The first, and most important, is the timing.  The political discussion was occurring, on both sides of the aisle, by around 1 PM CST, if not earlier.  The President politicized a prayer service.  It seems little or no consideration was given to the grief of those affected.

The second reason, however, is that the discussion is not honest.  As Ace so correctly pointed out on Friday, whenever Liberals say they want to have a "discussion" about guns, what they really mean is they want to demonize them and push for more gun control.  They're just smart enough that they know they can't say that out loud.  For the gun rights advocates' part, they seldom mention the shear danger involved with a totally armed populace.

Today there will be more posts from me.  I've been out since last week with a bad back, and today is the first I can even really use my laptop while laid out on the couch.  I hope to avoid some of the dishonesty in this discussion.  Most of all, I hope that we can all be honest about our goals, and see the facts for what they really are.

Treason: Rice Admits White House Lied About Benghazi Attack

Via Ace

Here was Ms. Rice's Statement after speaking to a Senate Panel about Benghazi, and her roll in lying to the American People (Emphasis mine):

In the course of the meeting, we explained that the talking points provided by the intelligence community, and the initial assessment upon which they were based, were incorrect in a key respect: there was no protest or demonstration in Benghazi. While we certainly wish that we had had perfect information just days after the terrorist attack, as is often the case, the intelligence assessment has evolved. We stressed that neither I nor anyone else in the Administration intended to mislead the American people at any stage in this process, and the Administration updated Congress and the American people as our assessments evolved.

Get that, "neither I nor anyone else in the Administration intended to mislead."  But we already know the facts are that terrorist action, and not some YouTube Video, was already known to be the cause of the Benghazi attack.  We know that the CIA submitted talking points that addressed the terrorist attack.  So if they never "intended to mislead," did they instead believe that the CIA was lying to them?

No.  They didn't believe that, but they're hoping you'll believe that they believe that.

So, to be clear one more time:

The Secretary of State had to sign off on leaving the Benghazi compound under-defended.  Since Obama was routinely pointing to Libya as a foreign policy success, it is unreasonable to believe that he was unaware of that decision, and could have over-ruled his Secretary of State. 

When the attack occurred, the White House had immediate visual intelligence via drone and the compound's own security cameras.  They knew the nature of the attack.  Nevertheless, someone made the decision not to send help.  Remember, that was an active order: "stand down."  Barack Obama could have over-ridden that order.  He was either not available (and therefore derelict in his duty as President and Commander in Chief) or actively chose not to override that order, thus sentencing our people to death.

After the attack occurred, the White House approved a set of talking points to be delivered by Ambassador Susan Rice which explicitly excluded any reference to a terror attack, and instead referenced a "spontaneous demonstration" which they already knew had never existed.

Barack Obama consigned those men to death, and then lied to the American People about it.

He must be immediately impeached.

 Update: Commenter 'Jane D'oh' at the AoSHQ points out that Susan Rice is also partially responsible for Bill Clinton's decision not to take Bin Laden when Sudan offered him to us on a silver platter.

Benghazi Files: Special Report with Bret Baier

I'm not going to link the separate parts, instead I'll just send you to the Ace of Spades HQ.

I can't even really discuss this right now, my blood pressure is so high.  Barack Obama didn't just abandon those men to their deaths, he bears direct responsibility for the order which prevented their rescue.

By his authority, 4 good men are dead.  By his authority, the monsters responsible were not stopped and killed in the act.  By his authority, they were able to avoid blame and scrutiny for 14 days while a YouTube video was blamed, and its maker thrown in jail.

By providing this aid and comfort to our enemy, Barack Obama has made himself a Traitor to the United States of America.

A Little Break

So... I'll be taking a break for the rest of the week.  Reading through those documents, plus the other information that has come out about the Benghazi attack (including Mrs. Clinton's most recent idiotic statements, and knowledge that she and the SCOAMT watched the attack unfold and never dispatched help) has left me mentally and emotionally out of whack.

That's not a good place to be, so I'm taking a couple of days off from blogging (I'll probably be lurking at the Ace of Spades HQ and on Twitter, though).  Look for new posts here starting Monday.  Until then, see my sidebar for some good links.

Acts of Covert War Include War Crimes

Massacre of Teenagers in Ciudad Juarez

H/T: Ace, who is focusing on the "Why is the media covering this up?" angle.

Not that I don't agree with that, but someone has to have a sense of shame before they can be shamed into admitting wrong doing, or even accidental error.  The Media has shown no signs of shame in the last 6 years, at least.

However, I believe it is important to note when these stories come out, because they're important.  To recap, Fast and Furious was a program whereby the Department of Justice supplied weapons to the ultra-violent Mexican drug cartels.  The Media has bought into the story that it was a gun-tracking operation, but there is no evidence that the guns were tracked at all.  Indeed, some of the emails reviewed by Darrell Issa's committee show that the plan was for the weapons to be used in exactly this kind of slaughter, and then recovered.  That means that, in fact, Operation Fast and Furious was providing (free, in many cases) arms and support to domestic enemies of our Ally- Mexico.  That further means that this Administration was engaged in a covert war against the Mexican Government.

As the head of the DoJ, Eric Holder holds responsibility for this Operation.  As President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Barack Obama bears ultimate responsibility.  Which makes Barack Obama a war criminal.

Barack Obama and Eric Holder bear responsibility for the deaths of 14 young Mexicans, and the wounding of at least 12 others in this attack alone.  That's on top of the 300+ we already knew about.  That's on top of Brian Terry's death.  And the article linked by Ace talks about another such massacre, that one leaving 18 young people dead.

On Desperation and Despair

Desperation:

One of the things I've noticed over the last couple of years- the Obama Administration and their internet trolls increase in both frequency and shrillness of posts when something bad for Obama is happening.  So, when you see an uptick in troll activity and/or an uptick in stupid stories coming from the Administration and their shills in the Media, you can be pretty certain they're trying to distract you.  Sometimes this is to distract from a current problem.  Just as often, it is preemptive and designed to get you fixated on one thing, so they can slip something else by you unnoticed.

Case in point: yesterday, on the AoSHQ, we had worse than usual troll activity.  There was a lot more of it, and it was a lot more desperate than normal.  Everything, though, was about the polls.  Now, Republicans pretty well have this poll thing figured out, so poll trolling is a low ROI tactic.  There are two websites that I know of that use Math! to show what bunk the polls are, and most Conservatives on the internet are at least familiar enough with the problems to say, "And what are the internals."  So it doesn't make much sense to try to get people worked up over the polls.

So when they came in constantly talking about the polls, and there were so many of them, it got me to thinking: something big is coming. 

Sure enough, today the economic news came out, and it's terrible.  Ace points out how terrible it is: we're somewhere between 50% & 70% chance for recession next year.

Now, this isn't to brag on my prescience.  It's a warning- when you see the trolls latch onto something, be careful not to get too engaged; as likely as not, they want you paying attention to them and debunking them so that when the real thing (whatever that may be) comes along, you're too busy debunking polls to notice.  Conservative Blogs, Talk Radio, Twitter, and all the other forms of Guerrilla Media are having an impact, and the Liberals are desperate to lessen that impact.

Despair:

The flip side of Trollish Desperation is Conservative Despair.  Call them Eeyores, Concern Trolls, or whatever, there seems to be a class of Conservative who have decided that the election is already over, and that we've lost.  These include well known pundits, and lesser known bloggers.  They never seem to be satisfied, and they never seem to be willing to work to make things better.

They'll complain about what the Romney campaign is doing, or not doing, but when you point out that the Romney Campaign has a suggestion site, they ignore it and move on.

Not to call him out specifically (well, okay, a little) because I like his opinions on most things, one particular example is @DrewM- both on twitter and regular poster at the AoSHQ.

This morning, he was tweeting about the failings of the Romney campaign- how Romney has to offer a way forward, and how he needs to have "targeted events."  I don't know if he just didn't see them, or chose to ignore them, but I responded to the tweets by pointing out that Romney has been doing exactly those things.  The most recent example was just yesterday when he had a whole day devoted to manufacturing and skilled labor, in conjunction with Mike Rowe (who did not expressly endorse Mr. Romney).

Indeed, Mitt Romney is doing just about everything the Eeyores are saying he should, and they continue to ignore it.  When they do acknowledge it, they then turn around and complain that "he's not doing enough," or "he's not getting his message out."  Well, how about this, instead of complaining that he isn't doing what he is expressly doing, or complaining that the word isn't getting out- how about you help get the word out?  R.S. McCain has been phenomenal on this, as have others.

If you want Mitt's message to get out, then help it get out.  It's that simple.

Why Do We Do This?

Over at the HQ this morning, commenter Truman North asked this: "What makes us do this? What makes us follow this stuff so compelling, when it makes us so mad?"

And I responded:

Actually, I've thought about this, and I can't answer for you, but I'll answer for me.

Really, there are 3 things.

1- An obsessive personality (really). I'm going to be fixated on or addicted to something, so it might as well be something significant.

2- An understanding of what is really at stake. I never remember going through the Liberal phase most kids go through. I never recall ever thinking, "Well, if we just did this the world would be better and everyone would love everyone else, and it would be perfect!" Maybe that's because, reared as a member of the Church of Christ, I always understood the fallen state of man and that human perfectibility is impossible.

So, when I look at what people like Mike Bloomberg or TFG, the SCOAMT, are doing, I understand that they're demanding a price (my Liberty) for which I will get no benefit in return- the benefit they're promising is impossible. I don't particularly like getting bilked out of things, especially my Liberty, so I watch it like a hawk.

3- Empowerment. With the rise of the Blogosphere, my voice can finally be heard. Between comments here (which generate results on Google and Bing), and my own Blog (yes, I have one), people are finally hearing what I have to say. They're finally hearing my viewpoint.

Because of Twitter, Facebook (no, I don't have an account, but it's still out there), and Blogs, we finally have weapons that normal people can use that give us a chance in the Media/Culture war.

And I wanted to expand on that.  Well, on numbers 2 and 3.

I think a lot of people don't really understand what's at stake.  That's what's behind my posts like "Hey, This Matters" over at the Axiom Report, and "Don't Tread On Me" here.  It's easy to think of tyranny as this big machine marching inexorably down the street.  It's easy to imagine it as something big, that everyone would notice.  Usually it isn't.  Usually tyranny is little.  Usually tyranny is subtle.

That's why things like New York City's ban on sugary drinks over 16oz is important.  That's why ObamaCare is so important.  That's why it's important to realize that the current problems in the Middle East were not caused by a movie. 

The Political Left hates Liberty.  Liberty is messy.  Liberty means that sometimes people hurt each other.  Sometimes its even completely innocent.  No matter the cause, however, the Left hates it when people exercise Liberty, because that takes them further from their goal of complete control "for the greater good."

The empowerment piece, however, is probably what puts it over the top.  I've known that Liberals wanted to control, rather than to govern, for a long time.  It wasn't until recently, however, that I had anything I could do about it.  Letters to my Representatives were met with no response, or form letters.  People with money "on my side" tended to stay silent, partially out of fear, and partially because Conservatives tend to keep our opinions to ourselves.  People "on their side" with money (like Convicted Felon and Nazi Collaborator George Soros) went to a great deal of trouble to push their agenda.

Now, much of that has changed.  I get responses from my Representatives which indicate they actually read my correspondence.  The "Army of Davids" is making it so that my position is being heard, despite the best efforts of the Media to drown it out.  People with money "on my side" have started spending money to defend themselves and, as a side effect, me.  People "on their side" with money have had to become more circumspect in how they spend it.

I, alone, don't make much difference.  I, in combination with you, and everyone else who refuses to remain silent, are beginning to make a huge difference.

In Honor of Ace

If You Can't Say Something Nice...

Then shut up.

I've gone rounds with DrewM over at the Ace of Spades a few times, and I've never responded with a blog post about it, but I think this is important enough to be posted somewhere beyond just the comments section of the HQ.

Like DrewM, I was not a huge fan of Mitt Romney.  I think he's a Northeastern Liberal Republican.  I think he's got too much of the autocrat in him and views Government, if not as the solution, then at least as the vehicle for whatever the solution is.  I still see him as "the man liberal enough to be elected Governor of Massachusetts."

Unlike DrewM, I've decided my personal problems with Mitt Romney pale when I consider the need to oust Barack Obama and get a Republican in the White House.  My problems with Mitt Romney are problems of policy.  My problems with Barack Obama are problems of fundamental ideology.  Mitt Romney and I probably disagree about how big the Government should be.  Barack Obama and I disagree about the relationship between Government and the People.  Mitt Romney is an autocrat who believes in top-down solutions.  Barack Obama is a neo-feudalist who believes I am a subject, not a citizen.

So if you're a conservative, and you want to make sure Barack Obama is evicted from his current residence in January of 2013, then I suggest you follow this advice.  If you can't say something nice about Mitt Romney, then shut up and at least don't make the rest of us wast time answering your objections, too.

The Growing Police State: FDA Spying Edition

I've known about this since Monday, but the only link I had was to the NYT (here).  There's nothing I can point to that's wrong with the article- from what I've read it seems to be fairly straight news reporting.  But it is a convoluted issue, and exactly "why" it was a big deal was hard to pin down.  I knew in my gut that it was bad, but the reporting didn't make clear exactly why I was so irked, though irked I was.

Today, via the almighty Vic at the AoSHQ, I have this better link to a FoxNews article.  It's a little easier to digest, and made it much easier to pin down why this is such a bad thing.

For those who don't know, the FDA has to approve everything from new prescription drugs, to generic formulations of drugs no longer protected, to new medical devices and changes to old medical devices.  This process has been highly politicized for as long as I can remember, with the "Big Pharma" companies routinely getting drugs approved via a "fast track" process; drugs which would later either be recalled or have their approval modified.  On the other side of things were the little pharmaceutical companies who would often have drugs languish in red-tape limbo for years, and Durable Medical Equipment designers.

At least six scientists working for the FDA decided there institutional, and probably legal, problems with this arrangement, and began working on getting it fixed.  They communicated with congress and with personal attorneys, as (it seems, though I'm not clear on this) with each other.

The FDA retaliated by installing monitoring software on their work laptops- software which captured confidential communications with members of Congress as well as with their attorneys.

Now, the criminal issue here is big, but the implications are actually wider than that.  Hit the NYT and FoxNews for the criminal angle. 

The major problem with this is the brazen, even cavalier manner in which the FDA acted.  Their actions speak of a culture that brooks no dissent- which should be antithetical to science generally, and especially to medical science.  Spying on employees who disagree with you is bad enough, but to then base retaliation (which is illegal anyway) on the confidential communications thereby attained is even worse.  It cannot have anything but a chilling affect on dissent, and dissent is necessary for science to work properly.  Contrary to Al Gore's beliefs, science is not now, and has never been, about about "consensus."

To so oppose dissent, even if it dissent about policy, means the FDA is putting politics above safety and people's health.  If policy is wrong about something- and sometimes even decently crafted and well meaning policies get something wrong- then it needs to be challenged and changed.  To oppose such means the FDA is more concerned with the status quotient than they are with doing what they are mandated to do: make sure drugs and medical equipment are safe for your use.

Barack Obama is a Stuttering Flustercluck of a Miserable Tyrant: Redux

Barack Obama is announcing that he will instruct DHS to cease deportation proceedings for "children" age 30 and below who were brought here illegally by their parents.  This is an obvious attempt at pandering for the minority vote; an extremely cynical move.

Now, I'm not going to argue the policy piece of this- other blogs will handle that, for one thing, and I'm undecided, myself, on how to handle the issue of people who were brought here illegally as minors.  I will highlight one thing.  From, as we say at the AoSHQ "Stuff Jefferson Said" (or wrote, in this case): "For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power legislate for us in all cases whatsoever."

For those who have never read the whole thing, that's from the Declaration of Independence.  Yes, King George III ruled by exactly this kind of fiat power.

Because that's what this is.  Barack Obama has declared that the United States Congress is moot.  By this unilateral action, he has declared they are unnecessary and redundant.  He has assumed the role of legislator, as well as that of executive.

Be clear on this: this is no mere "executive order" covering something he has power to decide, or something not covered by a law.  This executive order is in direct contradiction to current US Law.  He has, by executive fiat, voided a Law of the United States.  In so doing, he has also declared that our state is not a sovereign one: that our borders are meaningless constructs.

Call your Senators and Representatives.  Send them letters (the paper kind).  Go to their offices.  Perhaps if they will not stand up for us, they will at least stand up for themselves.

Apropos of Nothing

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

When You Can Reasonably Mistake 'Million' for 'Billion,' Something is Wrong

Over at the Ace of Spades HQ (permalinked in my side-bar), on one of the threads we got to discussing President Obama's Health Care law, and the fact that it guts $500 Billion from Medicare (all the while, Democrats are screaming that Republicans want to end Medicare.  Go figure.).  When that point of discussion first came up, I said 'Million.'  That was a mistake of memory, not of typing, for me.  I had simply forgotten the enormity of the cut to Medicare.

Now, consider that both of those numbers are believable numbers.  Consider further, that most people would see $500 Million as a very, very deep cut in spending.  But the number is $500 Billion.  As one commenter said "$500 Million is a pitance[sic]." 

In this day of Trillion Dollar deficits, in this day of a $16 Trillion, and counting, national debt, it is all too easy to look at $500 Million dollars as a pittance.  How disgusting.  It is immoral in the extreme for our government to so burden us, our children, and our grand-children to the n-th generation.

Our Government does far too much.  It spends too much money on things where it has no business.  It intervenes in areas it has no authority.  It continues to grow like a parasite devouring its host.  This must end.

The election in November will not be about ending this monstrosity of a Government, but it will be about checking it's growth, or about accelerating.  The election in November will be about whether or not we continue to heap mountains of debt on our posterity, or if we "tap the breaks" and attempt to get things under control.  But the war will not be won in November, even if we win the battle.  It will take many battles, each exerting a little more control on the Government.

Make no mistake, however:  We are fighting for Liberty.  The current war is not one fought with guns.  It will not have a body count (God willing).  It will not have historic battlegrounds.  It is a war all the same, and we must fight it.  And, given that we have true compassion for people, and therefore limits on how far we will go at any one time, we must when numerous battles to regain a little lost ground.  Our opponents must only win one to move us far closer to the slavery of socialism.