"You Just Don't Like Him!" Waaaa

I do get frustrated with overgrown adolescents and their Youtube values whose superficiality limits them to like or dislike anything and everything. "You just don't like Obama," implies that we are incapable of judging people's actions. Yes, the dislike accusation arrives with an insinuation of racism. What other possible reason could explain one's disapproval of someone so incredibly awesome?

As previously stated, I found Barack Obama to be likable six years ago but likability is moot. Things like abuses of power, criminal behavior, chronic duplicity, constant falsity, $7 trillion in new debt, a stagnant economy, and a general ineptitude in all things administrative should weigh just as heavily in a president's evaluation than the number of celebrity friendships he has procured.

Yes, the sleaze factor and overall job performance should tilt the scales. Pardon my idealism, but those things should be considered as high as likability. But with that said, I don't see how anyone could like Barack Obama in any sense of the word. I see a cheesy, phony, audacious boor.

The latest "I am Trayvon" spiel is in bad taste because it uses a dead teenager for political gain but it's also a stretch to say that Barry Soetoro weathered the slings and arrows of racial discrimination. Insert giant groan here. Barry, the poster child for racial intolerance, takes the battle to Martha's Vineyard. He will be down for the struggle on the back nine. He will be down for the struggle in the clubhouse. He will be down for the struggle on the warm, sandy beaches. It's as if Trayvon himself has flown to Martha's Vineyard.

The portrait of the president as a young man reveals an honest shopper pursued by store detectives. Join the club, pal. Store detectives do that sort of thing. I too, a fat, pasty white man, have been profiled. (Then again, the store detectives might have thought I was one of those Tsarnaevs in which case they would have had probable cause.) That's life, poster child.

Oh, and women clutched their handbags when Barry entered an elevator. Maybe they were taxpayers in which case their instincts were good. Maybe the handbag in question contained an insurance card for a health plan that was appreciated. Doubly good instincts.

I used to have a gym membership at a fancy hotel that opened its facilities to the general public. I was generally clean cut but I underdressed a bit. For whatever reason the hotel security, at least those who were not familiar with my face, would view me with suspicion. Imagine the hurt and pain and sorrow when these mean security guards asked me "Can I help you?" in a confrontational tone.

Of course I grew up on Al Jaffee's snappy answers to stupid questions and I would usually make a small request in a bad BBC accent that would go largely unappreciated by the creepy ass crackers. Oh the humanity!

The president cited examples of profiling that could not be more generic. Any lone male is viewed with suspicion as is any group of young males of any color. That's the world we live in.

Meanwhile, the left tries its darnedest to exploit "a tragedy and a travesty." The president should be above such shameful opportunism. To which his mindless followers respond, "You just don't like him!" WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Harris-Perry; Detroit Government Too Small

According to delusional Melissa Harris-Perry Detroit is what it looks like when government is small enough to drown in your bathtub. Wrong this is what it looks like when 1 in 66 residents are on the public payroll. The largest employer in Detroit is not GM, Ford, or Chrysler. It is the city of Detroit. The second largest employer is the public school system.

Harris-Perry went on to claim that “this lack of tax base is also exactly the thing that many Republicans would impose on us even when our cities have sufficient populations.” Except they didn't. Louis Miriani served as mayor from 1957 until 1962. He was the last Republican to be elected to that office.
The problem that Harris-Perry and the left have with Detroit's bankruptcy is that the era of big government is over, at least as far a the Motor City is concerned. It collapsed under its own weight.

Illinois Legislator Suspects Chicago Police Are Killing Black Children

State Representative Monique Davis suspects the Chicago Police Department is killing black children. "There’s some suspicion -- and I don't want to spread this, but I'm just going to tell you what I've been hearing -- they suspect maybe the police are killing some of these kids."
Hmm. If Ms Davis doesn't want to spread rumors going on radio to repeat them is a strange way of going about it. As they say, the voters get what they deserve.

www.PubliusForum.com

Nice, eh?

Immigration Bill Allows 2 Passport Forgeries

Don't tell Marco Rubio but the bill he sponsored and voted for allows a person to forge two passports before it's a crime. Obviously asking the RINO from Florida why such language is in his bill is futile if he isn't aware it's there. The Senator holds out hope that the House will improve his bill. Is he trying to say we have to pass it to see what's in it?

Congress May Defund NSA Spying

Most important bill this week: DoD Approps. We can defund #NSA's unconstitutional spying on Americans--if House leaders allow amendments.
— Justin Amash (@repjustinamash) July 15, 2013

I'm sorry to admit that I have never heard of Congressman Justin Amash of Michigan. A little research reveals that he may run for the senate. Let's hope he does. At present he is on his way to forcing the first legislative showdown over the National Security Agency’s controversial policy of collecting the phone logs of every American.

The venue for the fight is an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill that would ban the NSA from collecting information from people who are not under investigation.
GOP leadership keeps stalling, showing the push is putting Speaker John Boehner in a bind. The House Rules Committee, which will decide whether the amendment gets a vote on the floor, delayed its proceedings yesterday for the second time this week. The underlying bill, the Department of Defense Appropriations bill, has also been expected on the floor for the past several weeks but keeps getting pushed back.
The catch is, if the Rules Committee doesn't allow a vote on the amendment, Amash and a coalition of Republicans and Democrats probably have the votes to bring the whole bill down. To do so, they could vote against the “rule,” which governs debate for the bill. Those are typically party-line votes, so only a few Republicans would need to join the Democrats to defeat it.

This Is Kind Of Glenn Beckish But...

Understand, I like Glenn Beck but I am still waiting for that big announcement. Whatever that might be, it is not as important as his latest vanity project which seems to be the topic of discussion last few times I listened to him.

Canada Free Press has served up a double dose of paranoia. All conspiracies are plausible at this point.

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/55749#at_pco=cfd-1.0

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/56029#at_pco=cfd-1.0

Someecards Take on NSA Spying

Waiting For The Millipede To Drop Its Next Shoe

We knew for years that the NSA was spying on and mining data on US citizens. That story was deemed not quite fit to print until the UK "Guardian" elaborated on what we already knew. We knew for about two years that the IRS was used as a political weapon until Lois Lerner planted a question at a Bar Association conference. Until then, the media did not find the story newsworthy.

What will be the next spiked story to go viral? My money is on voter fraud. Like the IRS scandal, evidence of abuse is all over the blogosphere. This is a little bit different however because small town newspapers have reported on local stories of electoral cheating. A wider, broader dare we say it--conspiracy--has not yet been advanced by the mainstreamers.

Let's hope that Canada Free Press or Russia Times or The Guardian or The Telegraph or some other foreign news agency follows up on the leads.

IRS Chief Counsel Was Party To Tea Party Harassment

For sometime I have liked William Wilkins, Chief Counsel for the IRS, as the connection with the White House to the IRS scandal. My reasoning is that every department and agency has an office of chief counsel which is a political appointment. In the IRS scandal not only were tax exemptions held up but frequently the applicants were hit with investigations from other governmental agencies such as the FBI, ATF, and OSHA. A logical conduit for this intergovernmental malfeasance are the offices of chief counsel in the various agencies.
In a letter, four leading 4 congressmen including Rep. Darrell Issa of the House Oversight Committee and Rep. David Camp of Ways and Means said that the office of the IRS’s top lawyer took unique interest in Tea Party cases, reviewing applications even after a veteran specialist said there was enough information to make a decision.
Lois Lerner made the request to send the targeted tea party groups' applications to the Office of Chief Counsel. Carter Hull, a tax law specialist charged with reviewing the tax-exemption forms, told investigators he was asked to send an application to a senior adviser to Lerner, something that had never before happened in his 48-year career. That claim had not been revealed publicly before Wednesday.
Michael Seto, the head of Hull’s unit, told investigators that Lerner told him that the Tea Party cases needed to undergo a “multi-tier review” that involved both her staff and the Chief Counsel’s office.
Hull said that after Lerner’s office and the Chief Counsel got involved, he was asked months later for more current information on the Tea Party cases.
Now it becomes clearer why Lerner took the fifth. Wilkins knows his way around the IRS. He was once a staffer on the Senate Finance Committee and has donated over $35,000 to various Democrats over the years including $4,250 to the campaign to Senator Max Baucus. In a post on this blog on May 12 I wrote;

Place your bets. Will Wilkins' name surface in this scandal?

Expect fireworks from Thursday's hearings!
Update: Congressman Issa has evidence linking this scandal to the White House. 

Protestors Block Route to Hospital

Peaceful demonstrators who broke no laws struck a women attempting to take her granddaughter to a hospital emergency room.



This is not about justice. This is about making sure Democrats turn out for the 2014 elections. 

Rand Paul Places Hold on New FBI Director's Nomination

Once again Rand Paul steps up. He will place a hold on the nomination James Comey, President Obama’s pick to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation, until the administration answers his questions on domestic drone use. Evidently Paul isn't planning another filibuster but he will hold up Comey's confirmation until he answers questions about the FBI's drone surveillance in American airspace. The Kentucky Senator sent some 15 questions on drone use to the FBI nearly a month ago and has yet to hear a reply.
“I want to know when the FBI uses a drone to fly over my property or someone’s house, are they getting a warrant first or are they just doing it willy-nilly because they can?,” he asked. “The thing about a drone is it has amazing ability to look everywhere from 50,000 feet so you don’t know you’re being spied upon. And I think that that kind of spying goes against the right to privacy that all Americans have.”

Leo Terrell mops up the floor with Juan Williams

I sometime think Juan Williams is kept on at Fox News as a punching bag. This video may lack informational value but it's great entertainment.

A Recurring Annoyance And A Modest Proposal

I get annoyed easily or maybe there are just a lot of annoying people these days. It frustrates me when I encounter discourse with same shackles over and over and over. For instance, the topic of illegal immigration floats into the blabosphere. Inevitably one will hear the proposition that employers must be severely punished for employing workers who are known to be illegal aliens.

As previously stated, it is not the employed or employable illegal aliens who scare me.  It is A) Terrorists. B) Criminals. C) Immigrants who illegally access public services. D) Immigrants who legally access public services. I am less fearful of the cleaner who lives with dozen of his countrymen in a modest apartment than I am of the welfare scammer who may or may not be employed.

In keeping with the spirit of the law why do we not punish the purveyor of public goods to illegal immigrants as severely as the employer of illegal immigrants? That is my modest proposal. Fine the states, counties and municipalities who help illegals collect food stamps and subsidized housing and free, non-emergency health care. Terminate the government employees who fail to practice due diligence in screening applicants for public service. Make the facilitators accountable.

You can listen to dozens of media discussions on illegal immigration and none address the topic of public assistance and curbing the abuses. Hold the enabling parties accountable and the immigration picture would change overnight.

"I Don't Know Where To Begin" Is A Lame Blog Post But...

These are strange times. The late 60's and early 70's were strange times but there seemed to be a spontaneity to the strangeness. With the Vietnam War and Watergate there was never a slow news day but even so, there were it seems, a lot of random events that just happened to cascade.

There were assassinations and riots and more riots and the Manson Family and mad bombers and soap models leading secret lives as porn stars. Just when you thought it was safe to open the papers, the New York Yankees swap wives. It was tough to keep on top of events in those days.

The past few years have been similarly overwhelming. The difference between now and then is that all of today's controversies are generated by the same people (or folks as they are now referred to in some circles) and the news media don't like to report on these people folks. For two weeks the news cycle was consumed by the George Zimmerman trial, a travesty engineered from the highest echelons of power.

There is much to say about the Florida Circus but for once, most of the media seemed to report accurately and fairly on a topic. This was politics masquerading as justice and most of the pundits said so. It was not one or two things wrong with this picture. This fiasco was flawed from its genesis.

Meanwhile, we did not discuss Prism or the impugning of and spying on journalists or the IRS or Benghazi, to say nothing of one more Fast and Furious death http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130705/NEWS06/130709586&source=RSS, or that Obamacare was delayed one more year because it is so wonderful or that Janet Napolitano raced out of town and there was some kind of immigration bill and on and on and on.

If every armed robber in the country struck at 1 PM on Wednesday, a lot of robberies would go unsolved. That seems to be the way Barack Obama operates. Carpet bomb them with falsehood, deception and scandal and maybe they will get lost in the chaos. It's worked so far.

Will it work forever?

Dershowitz; DOJ Should Investigate Angela Corey

Alan Dershowitz is not letting up. Yes, the US Department of Justice should look into the Trayvon Martin case. It should see if the state of Florida and specifically Angela Corey violated the civil rights of George Zimmerman.

Does Stupidity Cause Poverty? Do The Math

Megan McArdel usually doesn't bring much knee slapping humor to the party but this post by Mike Munger hits it out of the park. He quotes Theresa Ghilarducci of the New York Times.

Six months ago, I visited North Carolina’s state treasurer, Janet Cowell – the only Democrat in the administration now – and met with citizen advocates.. Our trip had impact, on us at least. On the plane coming home my colleague turned to me shell shocked, “How can it be legal to have so much poverty in such a wealthy state?” 
Ask two questions: How rich is the state? And what percentage of its children live in poverty? That’s a working definition of good fiscal policy…. Let’s look at North Carolina. It is the 39th richest state, and yet it ranks 12th for the percentage of children living in poverty – only 11 states fare worse. 

Um, ma’am….if it is the 39th richest state, that means it’s the 12th poorest state.  That means there are 11 states that are poorer. And if it is the 12th for percentage of children living in poverty….then again there are 11 states that are poorer. It’s exactly the same proportion, not out of line at all.  What’s with this “And yet…” thing you got going?

Angela Corey-"unethical, corrupt and politically motivated"-Alan Dershowitz

What has gotten into Alan Dershowitz? He has been in the public eye for two generations; a serious, sometimes cranky commentator, critic, and provocateur. He comments on legal matters from time to time because that's what law professors do. Up until the Zimmerman case he usually maintained an academic detachment when speaking on legal and political matters. Yes, he could understand that some people might be upset about a certain judicial outcome but that was to be expected because people were emotionally invested in this principle or that precept but the sun would come up tomorrow and life would go on.
That was prior to the Zimmerman case. We don't here adjectives such as injudicious or ill advised anymore. Instead when speaking of the prosecution team we here unethical, unprofessional, and illegal. Is he shooting up testosterone? He is positively livid.



Dershowitz trains most of his fire on Angela Corey, the state appointed special prosecutor who he calls unethical, corrupt and politically motivated. He charges her with suppressing evidence and over charging Zimmerman with second degree murder when he believes that a manslaughter case is a reach. Corey has according to Dershowitz threatened to sue both him and Harvard Law School for libel.

State Attorney Angela Corey, the prosecutor in the George Zimmerman case, recently called the Dean of Harvard Law School to complain about my criticism of some of her actions.
She was transferred to the Office of Communications and proceeded to engage in a 40-minute rant, during which she threatened to sue Harvard Law School, to try to get me disciplined by the Bar Association and to file charges against me for libel and slander.
She said that because I work for Harvard and am identified as a professor she had the right to sue Harvard.
When the communications official explained to her that I have a right to express my opinion as “a matter of academic freedom,” and that Harvard has no control over what I say, she did not seem to understand….
Even if Angela Corey’s actions were debatable, which I believe they were not, I certainly have the right, as a professor who has taught and practiced criminal law nearly 50 years, to express a contrary view. The idea that a prosecutor would threaten to sue someone who disagrees with her for libel and slander, to sue the university for which he works, and to try to get him disbarred, is the epitome of unprofessionalism.

Evidently first amendment, free speech issues aren't her strong suit.

Obama's Laughable NTSB

The National Transportation Safety Board is blaming this PR disaster on a summer intern. It apologized in a statement Friday night after a San Francisco television station  broadcast the obviously fake names, attributing the confirmation to an NTSB official. It is still unclear where the Fox affiliate originally got the false names that were later incorrectly confirmed by the NTSB intern. The agency said "appropriate actions" would be taken to prevent what it called a "serious error" from being repeated. Let's hope so.

Whistleblower in George Zimmerman Case Fired- Merry Christmas, Private Slovik

Merry Christmas, Private Slovik. Ben Kruidbos, a state attorney's office employee has been fired after testifying about concerns that prosecutors didn't turn over photos and text messages from Trayvon Martin's cell phone to the defense in George Zimmerman's murder case. The prosecution acted unethically by suppressing the existence of unflattering photos and text messages found on Trayvon Martin's cell phone. Kruidbos said that 2,958 photos were in the report given to the defense but that his report contained 4,275 photos. Through his attorney, Wesley White, Kruidbos informed Zimmerman's defense team that the information existed. Kruidbos received a termination letter Thursday accusing him of misconduct and ‘violating numerous state attorney's office policies and procedures.’
Don't hold your breath waiting for ethical violation charges to be brought against the prosecution team. So Martin liked to blow a little weed and traffic in firearms what's the big deal? He had his Skittles and iced tea and was, like Thomas Wolfe, just trying to go home.


Whatever faith the public may have had that the prosecution team headed by Angela Corey was remotely competent and was honestly seeking the truth has been undermined by its behavior. Corey has sat with the Martin family during the trial, has threatened libel suits against a Florida newspaper and Harvard University for remarks by Alan Dershowitz to the effect that she is unethical, corrupt, and politically motivated.