Archive for the ‘Editorial, Opinion’ Category

The Gray Lady: More treason…

May 29, 2010

If the stakes were not life and death, and possibly the ultimate survival of our country, parts of the U.S. war effort would be comical. Instead, the whole situation is becoming ever more surreal. First, the treasonous New York Times once again splashed its front page with U.S. war secrets, reporting on Tuesday that last September Gen. David Petraeus signed a secret order authorizing American Special Operations troops to infiltrate both friendly and hostile nations in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa in order to gather intelligence and establish ties with local friendlies. The order also allows reconnaissance that could be used in military strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites. It’s worth noting that such an action during wartime under Democrat Saints Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt would have gotten the paper closed and the editor jailed with no resort to habeas corpus.

While similar military activities were ordered by the Bush administration, the goals of this new order are longer term, building human networks that can “penetrate, disrupt, defeat or destroy” al-Qa’ida and other jihadi groups, while preparing “the environment” for future military strikes, although this order does not itself authorize any strikes. Thanks to the Times’ news flash to al-Qa’ida, et al., our enemies will now be on the lookout for our Special Ops troops. Responding to concerns about troop safety it has compromised, The Times said it did withhold some details about how troops could be deployed in certain countries. Gee, thanks for “supporting” the troops.

In yet another “you’ve got to be kidding me” item, emails from U.S. officers in Iraq and Afghanistan say that troops on most bases in combat areas are not allowed to carry loaded weapons. That’s right; soldiers on a war zone base cannot be armed! Why, you may ask? Well, because their PC commanders are more concerned about an accidental discharge than they are about defending against an enemy attack. As one soldier said, “The idea that anyone, anywhere, would carry firearms for serious social interaction, yet do so with them in any condition other than ready to fire at a moment’s notice, is so stupid no ‘discussion’ appears necessary, at least among the sane.” Indeed, nothing more can be said, except God help our troops.

SOURCE

Democrats Help Themselves to More of Your Money

May 29, 2010

“We have new ideas about how to spend government money wisely.” So said Vice President Joe “BFD” Biden this week while discussing the $787 billion “stimulus” passed by Congress last year. He continued, “I’m very proud to say that there’s been virtually no — knock on wood — virtually no fraud associated with the $787 billion program overall.” Unless you consider that most of the money spent so far has gone to Democrat constituents, that is.

The occasion of Biden’s comments was a Middle Class Task Force roundtable discussion on Wednesday with the aim of pushing the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010. The bill would extend the Sept. 30, 2010 expiration date of the Emergency Contingency Fund, which in turn is part of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program created by The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. (Say that three times fast.) The extension would cost $2.4 billion over 10 years, but, hey, it’s all about “jobs,” which is apparently why we’re stuck at 9.9 percent unemployment.

The price tag for the overall bill could be as high as $190 billion, the bulk of which Democrats aren’t concerned about how to pay for. Paygo rules don’t apply because, of course, this is another “emergency,” a tune that will change before November as Democrats crow about their fiscal responsibility. The Wall Street Journal calls it a “grab bag of political payoffs, corporate welfare and transfer payments,” including $65 billion for Medicare physician payments, $47 billion for unemployment insurance, $24 billion in Medicaid payments to the states (though this provision may be removed), and $1 billion for summer jobs for teens, to name a few.

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) recently bragged on the House floor that such payments are “one of the most effective forms of economic stimulus” because “every unemployment dollar spent returns $1.64 of economic benefits.” Sounds like we should be cheering higher unemployment.

Speaking of spending, Barack Obama sent legislation to Congress this week seeking a new kind of line-item veto. The Associated Press reports, “The legislation would award Obama and his successors the ability to take two months or more to scrutinize spending bills that have already been signed into law for pork barrel projects and other dubious programs. He could then send Congress a package of spending cuts for a mandatory up-or-down vote on whether to accept or reject them.”

Though this serves to make Obama look tough on spending, toothpaste is pretty hard to put back in the tube.

As for the private sector, thanks to Democrat spendthrifts, it’s shrinking while the public sector grows. “Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year,” according to USA Today. “At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.”

“The truth of the matter is that the Recovery Act is working,” Joe Biden declared. All too well, as a matter of fact.

SOURCE

Rahm Emanuel: Political Hardball Pitcher

May 29, 2010

The White House Chief of Staff has been playing hardball in political circles for many years. He may be used to such things in Chicago, but a rather rude awakening might be on the horizon for him, and others that enjoy engaging in such shenanigans.

So now the Senate Republicans are looking for blood. As if they haven’t engaged in similar things over the years…

Read more about this HERE.


Any wonder why California is broke????

May 26, 2010

Texas versus California

A Governor is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks the dog.

California :

#1. Governor starts to intervene, reflects upon the movie  “Bambi” and then realizes he should stop; the coyote is  only doing what is natural.

#2. He calls animal control. Animal control captures coyote and spends $200 testing it for diseases and $500 upon relocating it.

#3. He calls veterinarian. Vet collects dead dog and spends $200 testing it for diseases.

#4. Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting bite wound  bandaged.

#5. Running trail gets shut down for 6  months while wildlife services conduct a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is clear of dangerous animals.

#6. Governor spends $50,000 of state funds  implementing a “coyote awareness” program for residents of the area.

#7. State legislature spends $2 million  investigating how to better handle rabies and how to  possibly eradicate the disease.

#8.Governor’s  security agent is fired for not stopping the attack and for letting the Governor intervene.

#9. Cost: $75,000 to train new security agent.

#10. PETA  protests the coyote relocation and files suit against the state.

Texas :

#1. Governor shoots coyote and keeps jogging. Governor has spent $0.50 on a .380 cartridge. Buzzards eat dead coyote.

Any wonder why California is  broke????

Courtesy of Texas Fred

1200 Troops to 1969 mile border: Epic fail obama

May 26, 2010

The impostor in chiefs latest gambit for increasing poll numbers prior to the November elections? Put a band aid on what, metaphorically, is a shotgun wound to the torso. That, and throw more money at the problem.

Friend and fellow blogger Texas Fred has called what is happening down there an invasion, and he is correct. 1200 National Guardsmen being deployed along a border that stretches nearly 2,000 miles? Simply not enough, period. Then, what will be the ROE’s? Will they be unarmed, as was the situation under Bush?

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a disaster waiting to happen. The old goat RINO, John McCain, remember him, the amnesty guy that wanted to be President? Now that it’s election time, he sure has changed his tune. Imagine that… Just about everything that’s going on right now in politics, is geared to one thing. Maintaining the status quo. Which means keeping the same people in power that are wrecking this nation.

Obama lied: Duh!

May 23, 2010

Well? How long until we hear some forlorn mother screaming before the cameras that “obama lied and my son died!” Or does that only work for left wing loony’s?

The impostor in chiefs never ending statements that his signature piece obamacare legislation would not result in Americans losing their health care coverage, was, like so much that comes out of his pie hole, a lie.

President Obama guaranteed Americans that after health reform became law they could keep their insurance plans and their doctors. It’s clear that this promise cannot be kept. Insurers and physicians are already reshaping their businesses as a result of Mr. Obama’s plan.

The health-reform law caps how much insurers can spend on expenses and take for profits. Starting next year, health plans will have a regulated “floor” on their medical-loss ratios, which is the amount of revenue they spend on medical claims. Insurers can only spend 20% of their premiums on running their plans if they offer policies directly to consumers or to small employers. The spending cap is 15% for policies sold to large employers.

This regulation is going to have its biggest impact on insurance sold directly to consumers—what’s referred to as the “individual market.” These policies cost more to market. They also have higher medical costs, owing partly to selection by less healthy consumers.

Finally, individual policies have high start-up costs. If insurers cannot spend more of their revenue getting plans on track, fewer new policies will be offered.

Full story HERE.

How’s that change working out for you?

“The bottom line: Defensive business arrangements designed to blunt ObamaCare’s economic impacts will mean less patient choice.” Same source.

“Marinestan”

May 22, 2010

And people wonder why the Marine Corps is leery..?

The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, retired three-star Army General Karl W. Eikenberry, reportedly made a comment about there being 41 nations serving in Afghanistan — and a 42nd composed of the Marine Corps. One unnamed Obama administration official was quoted by the Washington Post as saying, “We have better operational coherence with virtually all of our NATO allies than we have with the U.S. Marine Corps.”

Some officials call the new Marine enclave in Nimruz Province “Marinestan” — as if, out of a Kipling or Conrad novel, the Marines have gone rogue to set up their own independent province of operations.

Yet once again, it would be wise not to tamper with the independence of the Marine Corps., given that its methods of training, deployment, fighting, counterinsurgency and conventional warfare usually pay off in the end.

Read the entire story HERE.

Profiles in Valor: U.S. Army Air Forces Col. (ret) Walker ‘Bud’ Mahurin

May 22, 2010

We at The Patriot Post frequently honor America’s heroes. Accordingly, we mark the passage of retired Colonel Walker “Bud” Mahurin with both thankfulness and mourning. Col. Mahurin, a fighter pilot who shot down more than two dozen planes in two wars and three theaters, died last week. Bud was 91. The first American pilot to become a double ace in the European Theater, and the only ace to shoot down enemy planes in both European and Pacific Theaters as well as the Korean War, Col. Mahurin was unique among U.S. combat aviators.

Bud joined the Army Air Forces in September 1941 — just three months prior to Pearl Harbor — fully anticipating the conflict America faced. Having downed enemy aircraft in every plane he flew — the P-47 Thunderbolt, the P-51 Mustang and the F-86 Sabre — today Bud is revered by America’s fighter community as one of its all-time top aces. His unrivaled dedication, perseverance and integrity earned him the call sign “Honest John.”

Twice shot down in World War II and once during the Korean War, Bud’s 16-month captivity and torture during the latter especially tested his call sign, but he would nonetheless live up to it. Subjected to extensive physical and psychological torture by North Korean communists (read: Red Chinese), Col. Mahurin was coerced into signing a “confession” that was so wrought with falsehoods that even a Democrat would at once recognize it as bogus. Bud’s brutal P.O.W. experiences, however, would shape future generations of fighter aviators through incorporation of Survival-Evasion-Resistance-Escape (SERE) training. That training would later prove invaluable to downed aviators in Vietnam.

Of course, we can never repay Col. Mahurin for his selfless service and heroism. We can and should, however, honor heroes like him by pausing to remember him and by simply saying, “Thank you, Col. Mahurin. Your nation owes you a debt we can never repay — well done.”

SOURCE

Brady Campaign’s slipping relevancy underscored by NRA convention

May 21, 2010

Adhering to a pattern of behavior that has developed over the years, a tiny contingent of gun prohibitionists paraded outside of the Charlotte Convention Center while the National Rifle Association was hosting its record-breaking members’ meeting, but they remained only long enough to get some camera time with local news crews.

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, came to that North Carolina city in order to grab some face time and get his name in the local newspapers. Where the NRA can pull more than 70,000 members, the Brady bunch could barely muster two dozen protesters to parade around for perhaps an hour, probably less, and then leave satisfied that the 5 o’clock news would carry their images.

For several years, right up to the devastating 1994 mid-term elections that turned dozens of Congressional anti-gunners out of office, the Brady Campaign and other gun control groups enjoyed media and public support. But when gun rights organizations began fighting back with facts, and developed a strategy of education through legal journals, their influence began to wane. That influence continued to erode as time tested their rhetoric and found it not simply wanting, but totally preposterous.

Their dire predictions in state after state that concealed carry reform and state preemption statutes would spawn Wild West gunfights at fender benders, bloody shootouts in restaurants and cocktail lounges, and skyrocketing murder rates in which perpetrators would be citizens who were licensed to carry all were false. Influential people, including prosecutors and county sheriffs, recognized this and went on the record to say so.

These days, Brady’s Helmke is reduced to spouting platitudes on the steps of the Supreme Court, verbally bashing important civil rights cases like District of Columbia v. Heller and the Second Amendment Foundation’s pending McDonald v. City of Chicago.

His organization has desperately resorted to attacking Starbucks Coffee to gin up support while pandering paranoia; an effort that anti-gunners have developed into an art form, albeit a lousy one.

They have attacked the most anti-gun president in the nation’s history, giving Barack Obama an “F” grade because he is not anti-gun enough to suit their extremist philosophy.

The Brady Campaign has not managed to push through a single piece of federal legislation in more than 15 years. Their attempt to sue the gun industry into bankruptcy using anti-gun mayors as their puppet proxies failed on legal merit and in the court of public opinion.

If it weren’t for the fact that pro-gun rights groups are so active, the Brady bunch would not even have events to attend. In short, gun prohibitionists have become irrelevant, and in their desperation for attention, they appear to be in a state of denial, reaching out to a shrinking audience that still believes in public safety through demagoguery and surrender to the criminal element.

Just like some politicians, Helmke and the Brady Campaign do not know when it is time to retire.

Alan Gottlieb is the Founder of Second Amendment Foundation. Dave Workman is senior editor of Gun Week. They are co-authors of Assault on Weapons: The Campaign to Eliminate Your Guns.

SOURCE: SAF Newsletter

Op-Ed By Alan Gottlieb and Dave Workman

MFFA: Feds: States’ growing gun-rights movement a threat

May 21, 2010

It appears that the Federal government is worried about the various states that have decided that enough is enough. Federal oppression has been going on for decades, if not longer, and it is high time that something was done about it.

While MFFA is about firearms it is really about everything that the Federal government has been doing under the authority of a terribly warped interpretation of the Constitution, and simply ignoring the Bill of Rights.

The federal government is arguing in a gun-rights case pending in federal court in Montana that state plans to exempt in-state guns from various federal requirements themselves make the laws void, because the growing movement certainly would impact “interstate commerce.”

The government continues to argue to the court that the Commerce Clause in the U.S. Constitution should be the guiding rule for the coming decision. The argument plays down the significance of both the Second Amendment right to bear arms and the 10th Amendment provision that reserves to states all prerogatives not specifically granted the federal government in the Constitution.

Full Story Here