Like It Or Not, Detroit Is Our Future

This is a concise summary of what went wrong in Detroit. In short, they overspent.

Detroit did not collapse overnight. It was a free fall that took decades to hit the ground. But hit the ground she did. Bankruptcy surprised not one person, not even the habitual practitioners of self-delusion.

America is on a Detroit trajectory. Everyone knows it but not everyone acknowledges it. Facts suck.

FIFTY YEARS OF RUINATION DESCRIBED IN 13:57

Pat Caddell Confirms What We Suspected: Boehner Is Orchestrating Benghazi Coverup

Given the nature of blogging, I like to stay away from places like Fox News or Mark Levin. These sources are easy to find and I would rather link to the video with 100 hits or the blog with a dozen members. I dislike Fox News because they prefer chit chat to news. What news they offer is not too Fox, it is not Fox enough. No Larry Sinclairs. No John Drews. No Wayne Alan Roots. No Corsis or Dujans or Reynolds. There aren't even any Becks left at Fox News. Despite their tepid branding, Fox sometimes nails it. In the following vid, Pat Caddell calls out Boehner for impeding the Benghazi investigation. PAT CADELL: THE LAST OF THE PRO-AMERICAN DEMOCRATS
Pat Cadell is not the only critic of John Boehner. Mark Levin has become an habitual Boehner basher. Levin is possibly my least favorite talk radio host. Nothing wrong with rude, brutish and nasty but those qualities have to be tempered with good humor and a human touch. Levin is a bitter enemy of Michael Savage but I mentally file them in the same folder in the same drawer. However, Savage voices concern for wild elephants and affection for his aging dog. Mark Levin is always rude, brutish and nasty. We have to take our allies where we find them and if The Abrasive One is calling out Barack Boehner, more power to him. BTW the following vid is not his only anti-Boehner rant. The Speaker has become his favorite punching bag.
ANYONE WHO TELLS THE TRUTH ABOUT BOEHNER CAN'T BE ALL BAD

Florida State Attorney Will Investigate the Shooting of Ibragim Todashev

Finally someone in Florida is showing a little back bone. State Attorney Jeff Ashton announced he will investigate the FBI shooting of Ibragim Todashev. His office is reviewing a preliminary report by the federal Department of Justice about its investigation into the death of Todashev last May.
Abdulbaki Todashev, the victim's father who has come to the US to seek justice for his son has been contacted by the FBI.
Three people from the FBI came, but they just showed their ID cards. They didn’t say their names and didn’t let me take a photo of the cards when I said I didn’t know who they were. I refused to talk to them because they said they didn’t have anything on me and just wanted to talk. I answered that I, on the contrary, had a lot on them and said we would talk at a law firm. But they didn’t want to go there and just left.
I don't blame him. If I were he I wouldn't talk to the FBI without an armed guard.

The Associated Press Once More Carries Water For The Luckiest Man On Planet Earth

This blog has already reported on The Smartest Man In History referring to Charleston, Savannah and Jacksonville as gulf ports. Now, the Associated Press has been caught red handed rephrasing the Brainiac's statements to render them less laughable. 

I don't know if anyone keeps score of the Associated Press's sneaky rewrites. I first became aware of their practice five years ago when they quoted Sarah Palin's infamous convention speech where she stated that she want to serve "this great country." The AP got the quote mostly right but of course they left the word 'great' on the cutting room floor. Subtle but profound. 

Despite his spying on their employees, the AP is still blindly loyal to their Comrade-in-Chief. Has there ever been a luckier idiot than Barack Obama?
http://www.examiner.com/article/associated-press-admits-inserting-text-to-cover-for-obama-s-gulf-gaffe

Rand Paul Learns to Love the Drone

Perhaps I am not against ALL drones! http://t.co/gLTQFzLDLH
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) August 9, 2013

Some compare beer delivery by drone to the Old Testament manna
"It's an almost Biblical thing that beer is dropping from the sky," said Hoffmann.
The beer, free at this stage, is dropped in plastic cups and the drone is performing well.
"Every time it drops a parachute a crowd of 5,000 cheers," he said.

Touched by an Angel?

This story has been all over television but it's worth retelling. There was a horrible accident on a country road outside of Hannibal, Missouri. Emergency workers couldn't free the injured woman from her wrecked car and then:

Emergency workers and community members in eastern Missouri are not sure what to make of a mystery priest who showed up at a critical accident scene Sunday morning and whose prayer seemed to change life-threatening events for the positive.
Even odder, the black-garbed priest does not appear in any of the nearly 70 photos of the scene of the accident in which a 19-year-old girl almost died. No one knows the priest and he vanished without a word, said Raymond Reed, fire chief of New London, Mo. “I think it’s a miracle,” Reed said. “I would say whether it was an angel that was sent to us in the form of a priest or a priest that became our angel, I don’t know. Either way, I’m good with it.”

The Smartest Man In History Gives A Geography Lesson

REMEMBER WHEN BP DUMPED ITS OIL ON CHARLESTON AND SAVANNAH AND JACKSONVILLE?

A 45 Video Playlist Of Cops Killing Family Dogs

Continuing Hoosierman's theme of Cops v. Canines, I submit a 45 vid playlist of doggy doom. I had heard that a writer at the Cato Institute was compiling a book or data base about family dogs who were killed by police but I was unable to find it. They do have some other related stuff though.

Cops Enter Home Without Warrant & Shoot Dogs

How much of this will the public put up with before it demands reforms and demands that police officers who do not respect citizens' rights are jailed? Police entered the home through an open window and without a warrant, shooting the couple's two dogs killing one of them. The couple who occupied the home say they have barely eaten or slept since the incident. Their bedroom is a bloody mess. The sheriff deputies were looking for someone involved in a neighborhood altercation who was reported to be armed. They noticed an upturned bucket under an open window in the couples backyard and and reasoned that the suspect may have climbed into the home.
The sheriff's department is playing defense.
“Upon encountering the people in the house, the dogs became aggressive. One dog bit at one of the deputy’s leg. He pushed the dog away, but it came at him again so he shot the dog in self-defense, at which time the second dog began to run towards him. For his personal safety, he shot the second dog.”
Bit at?
“Repeated attempts were made to get someone to open the door, with no success,” the release states. “Deputies entered the house through the open window in an effort to locate the suspect and to assure the safety of the occupants.”
The couple reports they heard nothing until they awoke to find the police in their home and their dogs barking. No one answers the door so naturally the cops feel free to enter through the window?

More.

Who Cares If The Always-Reputable FBI Monitors Our Email?

WASHINGTON — The FBI gave its informants permission to break the law at least 5,658 times in a single year, according to newly disclosed documents that show just how often the nation's top law enforcement agency enlists criminals to help it battle crime...

...Agents authorized 15 crimes a day, on average, including everything from buying and selling illegal drugs to bribing government officials and plotting robberies. FBI officials have said in the past that permitting their informants — who are often criminals themselves — to break the law is an indispensable, if sometimes distasteful, part of investigating criminal organizations.

 Article continues below:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/04/fbi-informant-crimes-report/2613305/

NPR, Koch Brothers, Rand Paul and Saul Alinsky

Saul Alinsky's 'Rules For Radicals' might be the most influential book in history. It has not been read by near as many people as the Koran or Mao's little red book but this book has been on the reading list of our cultural elite for decades. For that reason, the impact of 'Rules For Radicals' has been underestimated.

Alinsky advances two important ideas. 1. Truth is optional. 2. Attack the messenger, not the message.

A pillar of Western Civilization is the proscription against false witness. Alinsky liberates the anointed from that pesky ball and chain of truth. What was once the practice of political operatives has been adopted by the mainstream media. Yes, the media trumpet the truth when it is in their favor. When it is not in their favor, they either ignore the facts or they parrot the quotes of liars who reinforce their editorial position. Truth is an impediment.

Alinsky dominated the 2012 Presidential Election. Barack Obama was defending an atrocious first term record. No problem. Attack Mitt Romney for being a felon, a tax cheat, a misogynist, even an accomplice to murder. All untrue. All effective.

Hardly a day goes by when one cannot witness the Alinsky influence. Recently a news item circulated that reminded us that people who earn $30,000/year are in the top 1% of earners on a worldwide basis. This was potentially disruptive to all of the Occupy propaganda. If the one per centers are evil and should be dealt with harshly and all present (or their parents) are one per centers....Bummer.

The media attacked this news story by connecting it to the Koch Brothers. Ignore the facts. Slay the messenger.

Last night I listened to NPR's "On Point" rebroadcast on the way home. There was a time when I listened to and even enjoyed NPR. Christopher Lydon would cherry pick his facts of course but he was a gentleman who was not particularly interested in assassinating the character of his guests. But times have changed and NPR is now firmly in the clutches of Alinskyites.

I probably would not have listened to the show except that the guests were David Boaz and Rand Paul. In true Chicago radical fashion the host and the activist callers attacked Paul as a racist. If you dig up the podcast in hopes of hearing an exchange of ideas you will be disappointed. It was pure Alinsky. Kill the messenger. Truth be damned.

Obama The Destroyer always lives up to his reputation. His toxic influence will linger long after he is gone. Obama's destruction will go beyond ravaging the world's best health care and the world's most viable economy. Barack Obama and David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett have successfully killed civil discourse. Somewhere, Saul Alinsky is smiling.

Ibragim Todashev's Father to File Wrongful Death Suit Against FBI

This would be a great plot for a movie. A grieving father travels to a far off and often hostile land to seek justice for his son who was slain by corrupt police. Abdulbaki Todashev, father of Ibragim Todashev is here to take on the FBI. He has hired a private detective to help him document his case. He is being aided by the ACLU and CAIR but has not hired his own attorney. He has photographs of Ibragim's body showing 7 bullet wounds including 2 shots about an inch apart through the top of the head. “He was shot seven times,” his father says. “In the heart and in the head. What is that if not murder?”

Ibragim Todashev has been dead for 2 and one half months while the FBI claims to be investigating the shooting. Supposedly while being interrogated in his apartment he “initiated a violent confrontation”. The FBI has issued several tortured and contradictory accounts of the shooting before deciding to just keep quiet, claiming it could not comment on an ongoing investigation. As to Todashev's ability to “initiated a violent confrontation” I have documented in a previous post his fighting weight was 154 pounds and now his father reveals he was recovering from knee surgery and used crutches.
The Florida medical examiner has refused to release the autopsy report citing an ongoing FBI investigation. Good luck on keeping that sealed when Mr. Todashev's lawyer eventually files for discovery. Todashev faces an uphill fight with limited English and limited resources but he comes from an area where blood feuds can last generations. I hope he gets justice.

Yet Another Phony Scandal? The DEA Mines Data With The Best Of Them

 WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans.

Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin - not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges.

The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to "recreate" the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated, a practice that some experts say violates a defendant's Constitutional right to a fair trial. If defendants don't know how an investigation began, they cannot know to ask to review potential sources of exculpatory evidence - information that could reveal entrapment, mistakes or biased witnesses.

More below.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/05/us-dea-sod-idUSBRE97409R20130805

The Next Phony Scandal: Extortion 17 or What Happens When The Kooks Have More Credibility Than The Orthodox Media

I predicted that widespread voter fraud would be the next phony scandal. That phony scandal will still have its day, trust me. It has temporarily been pushed aside by Extortion 17.

Insert truckload of disclaimers here. I am not a Michael Savage fan. I do not find him enlightening or entertaining. He prides himself on being a radio guy who grasps the medium better than TV babies could ever hope to understand. From my perspective he is challenged by the theater of the mind and the rudiments of talk radio more than his rivals. However, I do respect Savage for his refusal to buckle under to the jihadists and I respect that he posts beheadings on his website. Someone has to tell it as it is.

Those of us with an insatiable thirst for knowledge and who do not trust the media dogmatists and who find themselves in long commutes will sometimes fall back on talk radio. Given the amount of chatter I listen to, it surprises me how few of the practitioners I respect. Like many, I bite the bullet and when the lesser disliked radio host goes to commercial and I have had met my quota of NPR deception, I listen to Michael Savage.

Michael Savage might be a lousy talk radio host whose values are foreign to me, but he is courageous. He is stubborn. He is determined. He is relentless. Michael Savage is dog shit on the bottom of a perforated sneaker. Just try to get rid of this guy. Good luck.

Michael Savage has trumpeted the suspicious tale of Extortion 17. I was at first dismissive but I took the bait and I visited sites that I respect to get their perspective. I thank Michael Savage for prodding me along.

With other administrations, I would dismiss this subject outright. The Obama Administration is different. Their deception is surpassed by their duplicity. Their duplicity is surpassed by their audacity. Their audacity is surpassed by their malevolence. Their malevolence is surpassed by their ambition. I no longer put anything past these people (Excuse me. I meant to say these folks.) Extortion 17 conspiracies are as plausible as anything advanced by this administration.

To summarize, Extortion 17 was a Taliban ambush on a transport helicopter that killed 38 allies, including 15 members of Seal Team Six. Tomorrow, August 6, 2013 will mark the two year anniversary of this tragedy. Below are two links that raise some disturbing questions about this disaster.

http://www.westernjournalism.com/obamas-seal-team-6-coverup/

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/07/before_benghazi_there_was_extortion_17.html

Items From My Mailbox: Thanks Bonnie

YOU WILL NEVER SEE A MAN LIKE THIS AGAIN

 

Thought you'd enjoy this.
It's one you want your children and grandchildren to read.
They won't believe this happened, but it did.
Harry & Bess
(This seems unreal.)
Harry Truman was a different kind of president. He probably made as
many, or more, important decisions regarding our nation's history as
any of the other 42 presidents preceding him. However, a measure of
his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.

The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which
was in Independence , Missouri . His wife had inherited the house from
her mother and father and other than their years in the White House,
they lived their entire lives there.

When he retired from office in 1952, his income was a U.S. Army
pension reported to have been $13,507.72 per year. Congress, noting
that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted
him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.

After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home
to Missouri by themselves. There was no Secret Service following them.

When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined,
stating, "You don't want me. You want the Office of the President, and
that doesn't belong to me...It belongs to the American people and it's
not for sale."

Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him
the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it,
writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be
the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."

As president, he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.

Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on
the presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many in Congress
also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the
fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale

Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in
life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a
politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!"

I say dig him up and clone him! 

Happy Birthday, Mr. President

I extend my sincere birthday wishes to the luckiest man who has ever lived. Happy Birthday!