A New Contract With America

I have a hard time writing about a subject when I am trying to say twelve things at once. I have to curb at least three tangents before moving forward.

 1. The CROmnibus and the day to day behavior of the GOP should make us reconsider Codevilla's epic analysis of the political class. We tend to consider expressed ideas brilliant if they reinforce what we were already thinking. Many of us have thought that the most important power struggle of the day was not Left vs. Right, Liberal vs. Conservative, Democrat vs. Republican. It is Insider vs. Outsider.

Where Codevilla drops the ball is in his grouping the opposition into the "Country Class." My perspective is that the Country Class does exist but the opposition is larger and more diverse than that. The Country Class does not describe people like Larry Kudlow or Richard Epstein or Adam Corolla. The opposition is a tsunami waiting to happen.

 2. Any resistance movement will be hindered by the Cult of Obama. The idiots-by-choice who worship Barack Obama are unconditionally loyal to their deity. BHO announces that we are normalizing relations with Cuba and the throngs of loyalists ask "How will this affect our leader's approval ratings?" If he changed his mind and announced that we were going to nuke Cuba his loyalists would ask, "How will this affect our leader's approval ratings?" If he announced that he planned to promote global warming to melt the ice caps and flood our cities, the loyalists would ask, "How will this affect our leader's approval ratings?" And those changes of policy would not affect his approval ratings all that much.

 For all of the labels applied to BHO, he reveals himself to be a Beltway ubercrat. If Barack Obama could be the poster child for just one thing, that one thing would be K Street. The Insiders love the man, as well they should. He plans to stay in Washington after he leaves the White House? It's a perfect fit.

 3. What if the crash predicted by Peter Schiff and Ron Paul and many others never materializes? What if stagnation is the new normal? Energy might provide a renaissance but if the non-energy and non-lobbyist sectors are stuck in neutral, we might not be popping a lot of corks. I do not want to see an economic crash but I believe it is inevitable. Then again, I have been wrong in the past. Maybe Janet Yellen can prop us up for years to come. Maybe, we really can spend our way to prosperity. Maybe.

The New Contract With America should be concise and limited in its focus. It should emphasize the following:

1. Adherence to the Constitution. If you don't like the Second Amendment, repeal it. If you don't like those evil Little Sisters of the Poor practicing their First Amendment rights, repeal the First Amendment. If you don't like the PEOPLE at Hobby Lobby practicing their First Amendment rights, repeal that pesky First Amendment once and for all. But let us respect the Constitution. In the words of Sandy Shaw, "The Constitution is not perfect but it's better than what we now have."

2. Debt. AKA The Budget. The greatest anti-achievement of the Obama Administration is removing fiscal matters from public discourse. It's all settled science, no need to debate, how about the way the president conquered Ebola while ending two wars and sending an olive branch to Fidel?
Yes, I expressed some doubt about the debt time bomb above but I still believe that debt is one of the two or three greatest threats to America. Let's push the topic back into the public arena, what say you?

3. Defense of America. To acknowledge an international jihad movement in no way makes one an Islamaphobe or a hater or a racist. ISIS is real. Al Qedah is stronger than ever. I do not want a dirty bomb exploded in New York or anywhere else. Wake up!

4. Declawing The Bureaucratic State. Our system might require an umpire to call balls and strikes but it does not need the grounds crew to construct toll booths on the base paths. Congress is supposed to make law, not the FDA, the DEA, the EPA and certainly not HHS. The fourth branch of government needs to be scrutinized in toto. Maybe Joni Ernst will be allowed to put her prior work experience to good use.

Strategy:

We should support all elected officials who support our contract and oppose those who do not.

We need to reject those office holders who pay lip service to the contract but who vote otherwise.

We should compete in every election. Howie Carr said that the Dems won Massachusetts by running the same candidates over and over, improving their name recognition at every election. We could do this in districts ruled by Charlie Rangels types. We could recruit a 28 year old African American who is uncomfortable with the erosion of purchasing power and is not so sanguine about black genocide. The first time up he might only get 30% or so. But two years later he might get 40%. And third time around?  Well, his chances will improve each time a Charlie retires.

1994 showed us the power of a clear, concise message. 2012 and Mitt Romney showed us the futility of unclear messaging. In 2014, Dave Brat unseated Eric Cantor and went on to win a Congressional seat because he stood for something. Also in Virginia in 2014, Ed Gillespie nearly pulled off the Senate upset of the evening because he broke ranks with the GOP and discussed issues and solutions. Lesson learned?

Formerly Rejected Videos

These videos were all rejected by this blog in the past. I prefer raw video with minimal commentary. I would rather pass along footage of brainwashed kids singing "Yes We Can" than video interspersed with footage of Nazi children from the 1930's. I hold the opinion that raw video is more persuasive than editorialized video. In each of these the videographer interjects his own commentary. Well worth viewing, each and every one of them.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

The State Of The Resistance Movement

I stated before that Democrats measure success differently than people who advance principle. They win an election and it's Super Bowl, Academy Awards and Judgement Day all rolled into one. The rest of us--Republicans, conservatives, independents, people with Kool-Aid allergies--we celebrate with a sigh of relief. We know betrayal is right around the corner. The greater evil has been temporarily thwarted. Prepare yourself for Mini Me.

Boehner and company would not disappoint. He could have passed a continuing resolution for two or three months and let the new Congress have their say. Nope. The CRomnibus sold us out till next autumn. With friends like the Speaker, who needs enemies?

The Obama Administration tries to demoralize us but they have not succeeded. Every other day there is a scandal, a Gruber video, a terrorist swap, an assault on the First Amendment, bureaucratic overreach, executive overreach and on and on and on. They might have succeeded in exhausting us but they failed to demoralize us.

Boehner on the other hand succeeds where the administration failed. We knew we would have to fight two fights and it wouldn't be easy. For me, it is hard to recharge the batteries. I don't feel defeated by the GOP but I do feel deflated. I am not the only one.

Sadly, we cannot close the books on Obama just yet. The religiosity of all things Obama is alive and well. It is as frightening as it has ever been. More about that in future posts if I can muster the resolve to address the matter.

Meanwhile, we have to rethink the resistance movement. If the choice is Democrats who are with us 5% of the time and Republicans who are with us 15% of the time, hello Senator Ayotte. But we can do better. We can do better or else die trying. We have nothing to lose.

Feinstein Fiasco Creates Diversion Not Discontent

It did what it was supposed to do. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence distracted us first from Jonathan Gruber's testimony and later from one more Republican sell-out of the people who voted for them.
One last little diversion to get us to the holidays. Mission accomplished.

If Feinstein's report was also supposed to incite civil discontent, it failed in that endeavor. Outside the Beltway and CNN studios the scandal sheet would be met with a giant, "So what?" I don't foresee a lot of mini Fergusons breaking out over Khalid Shakes Who? I don't foresee angry people with American flags hanging out on overpasses demanding the prosecution of Dick Cheney. I don't foresee tens of thousands of bikers descending on our nation's capitol to vent their anger over how many Ensures a blubber ass terrorist can suck down. I don't foresee work stoppages or strikes. Not even the amazingly pliable Occupy crowd can be herded up for this one. Will anyone even send an email on the formerly-rotund killer's behalf? Maybe after the New Year. Maybe not.

This might not be a free lunch for the Democrats. The word of the day is pushback as in the CIA is going to pushback on this fairy tale and expose one more Democrat-advanced Gruberism. We might have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and an even happier new year. Ho. Ho. Ho.

The Very Worst Abuses Uncovered By Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Executive Summary

Two psychologists were paid $81 million to develop the CIA's Enhanced Interrogation Program.

"By 2006, one year after Mitchell, Jessen & Associates was founded, the value of their base contract was “in excess of $180 million,” Senate investigators found. All told, the CIA has spent $81 million on the company’s contract. Some went directly for interrogation services, in amounts that caught the eyes of CIA professionals."

The bloated contract was terminated in 2009. Until now I had not thought of the Obama Administration as fiscal watchdogs. If only they had been as vigilant elsewhere.

I would like to state that I am not even a little bit concerned about the comfort of Khalid Sheik Mohammad. If he was deprived of shut eye, oh well...no use both of us losing sleep over his treatment. Reminds me of when they were going to execute Ted Bundy. All my life I had been an opponent of capital punishment. Bundy changed that. I was not going to be manipulated by the compassion freaks. If I was going to shed tears it would be for the bacteria I killed when I flushed the toilet, not for Ted Bundy. He was such a great poster child for capital punishment and I have been a proponent of that barbaric practice ever since Bundy.

Khalid Sheik Mohammed is the perfect poster child for torture, or if we must, enhanced interrogation. He has helped me to pivot and evolve on that particular subject. But let's talk about abuse and torture inflicted on the American taxpayer. $81 million! We could have gotten a couple of Chicago detectives for a fraction of that cost. They have been great at extracting confessions from both the guilty and the innocent going back decades. They would have gotten Khalid to talk for a couple of bottles of Scotch.

$81 million! Why is no one talking about this abuse? Oh the humanity!!!

Where the Boys Are - UVA

If, God forbid, I were a student on UVA campus they would learn what sexism is real quickly. As long as men act like boys they can expect to be treated  as props in perverse morality plays. They have ceded far too much to the politically correct, publicly funded radical agenda of the left. They should use the current uproar as a teachable moment, something that seems to be so dear to the hearts of the left, to illustrate what true sexism looks like. With only a few participants and a minimum of cash they could begin by demanding that the resignation of UVA President Teresa Sullivan. The Republicans hold a sizable majority in the Virginia House of Delegates so they would have some leverage. The could also contact the alumnus and ask that they withhold any donations until Sullivan leaves.
If a large number of men act like men for a change the fight could be won rather quickly but failing to attract a large portion of the student base they could begin by setting up an off campus web site that would:

• Demand the school bestow a baccalaureate degree on Bill Cosby.
• Market Teresa Sullivan approved knee pads.
• Demand the banning of the sale of Rolling Stone Magazine on campus.
• As the Charlottesville Police Dept has decided to put its dog in the fight by announcing an investigation, the movement should announce an investigation of the Charlottesville Police Dept. All police departments have high divorce rates and most divorce proceeding are public records. Talk to their ex-wives. Ex-es say the damnedest things. Publish salacious details online.
• Raise enough money to conduct a similar investigations of Rolling Stone. Probe into every employee's personal life for embarrassing incidents.
• Demand the University establish a false rape allegation crisis line.
• Demand the University establish a Male Studies Department for Normal People.
• Establish a Mike Nifong Award to be bestowed on gullible faculty and administrators.

If the men of UVA continue to ac like boys they deserve everything they get.

Who Is Anonymous?

I cannot say for certain if the real Anonymous posted this video. One question that has never been answered satisfactory, is "who is the hacker group called Anonymous?" Rumor has it that Anonymous consists of rogue elements of the military/industrial complex. That might explain why they are so damn good at what they do and might explain why they focus their attention where they do. Then again, would someone of that skill and talent quote and publicize Jesse Ventura? Maybe not.

The Staten Island grand jury got it right

I have written several posts on this blog featuring police misconduct, over reaction, cruelty, and downright stupidity. I reviewed the video of the arrest and subsequent death of Eric Garner shortly after it occurred and declined to criticize the police action. If there is a lesson to be learned from the grand jury's refusal to indict anyone in the matter it may well be that members of the media are unfit for jury duty. The prosecution did not face an uphill battle in the matter. It needed only 12 votes of the 23 jurors to vote for a true bill and it failed to get even that. Imagine the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt when 12 of 12 jurors must vote to convict.
First let's address the issue of racial prejudice. It has not been widely reported but the ranking officer, who is seen briefly in the video, was a black female sergeant. Second, the decision to arrest Garner was not made on the spot. It originated at the precinct house after several merchants in the area complained that Garner was disrupting business with his illegal cigarette sales. The decision was not made by Daniel Pantaleo nor his teammates but by a NYC officer, probably a captain. Moreover the NYPD announced with much fanfare a crack down on the sale of untaxed cigarettes. From the Washington Times;

In January 2014, tough new penalties for selling untaxed cigarettes took effect in New York City. In July, emboldened by the new law, the city’s highest-ranking uniformed cop, Philip Banks, issued an order to crack down on loosie sales days before Garner died.

 
As to the alleged brutality of the arrest. Bullshit! Thirty years ago more rough housing went on in every school recess everyday. Was Garner beaten with a night stick? Was he sprayed with pepper spray? Was he electrocuted with a taser? No. He was simply restrained. It appears Office Pantaleo took him down by wrapping his arm around his neck but not even a high school wrestling referee would have called it a choke hold. Then Garner complains he can't breath. Try speaking the next time you're being choked.
Garner died but the cause of death is vague. It is known he did not die of asphyxiation nor was there any injury to his neck bones or windpipe. The best the medical examiner could come up with was “Compression of neck (choke hold), compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police.” The examiner also added that the victim’s asthma, obesity and high blood pressure were also contributing factors in his death.
So a grand jury should indict Pantaleo because Garner died of vague causes? Yes, just after it indicts Mayor de Blasio for the death of the groundhog he dropped.

Funny or Sad? Chris Rock Assesses Obama's Cool

Maybe

Maybe

Maybe

Maybe

Maybe

Maybe

Maybe

Maybe

Maybe

Maybe there is more to be said about a leader, a president, a politician, a human being than whether or not he is cool and the degree to which he satisfies that standard.

OK, Frank Rich interviewing Chris Rock might be more political correctness, cheese and a giant, implicit "aren't we so amazingly wonderful" ball of goo than most readers can endure. So let me summarize the highlight of the chatter. Chris Rock assesses Barack Obama's "coolness." Obama is cool but not cool like Eddie Murphy.

Let’s talk about Obama a bit. You have been a fan. Have you ever met him?

Yeah, a couple times.

And what did you make of him?

Kind of cool. I always say, cooler than most politicians, not as cool as actual cool people. He’s not cool like Jay Z’s cool. He’s not Eddie Murphy. But in a world of politicians …

It gets worse.

What do you think of how he’s done? Here we are in the last two years of his presidency, and there’s a sense among his supporters of disappointment, that he’s disengaged.

I’m trying to figure out the right analogy. Everybody wanted Michael Jordan, right? We got Shaq. That’s not a disappointment. You know what I mean? We got Charles Barkley. It’s still a Hall of Fame career...

Continuing the analogy, I think we got Latrell Sprewell, a player whose on-court record will always be eclipsed by his efforts to choke his coach to death, his confusion as to how said action generated controversy and of course, the playing of the race card in his defense. 

By the way, 'cool' is one of my favorite words for several reasons. It is possibly the most nuanced word in the English language. It does not just mean stylish. 'Cool' can mean stylish but the context and yes, nuance, give it a richer, deeper meaning. Having defended the word, I should also state that it is the height of irrelevance to assess serious people on the basis of their "coolness." Grow up!!!

Recalling The Tight 2010 Elections

Bear with me.  I can live with YouTube vids losing a slice on the right side of the screen but an embed from anywhere else and that slice becomes a chunk.

Here is Gallup predicting tight Congressional races in 2010 a month before the election.

http://launch.newsinc.com/share.html?trackingGroup=90052&siteSection=townhall_nws_non_sty_dynamic&videoId=59322

What If We Had A Tyrant For President And No Free Press To Report On The Tyrant

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

More Staged Heckling

Obama hecklers are as staged as his fainting women. Every heckler reported thus far has had a pro-amnesty message. Obama's handlers screen his audience and are good at delivering friendly crowds. Funny that the only dissent comes from those who agree with the president's agenda.

More BS from the King of BS.

Michael Brown And The Hypocrisy Of The Left

American police frequently act as thugs, inflicting terrorism on civilians that often enough concludes in the termination of a human life. The left and the media (excuse the redundancy) are largely indifferent to police brutality, especially when it is inflicted on white people. But if the victim can be used to promote a political agenda, as is the case with Michael Brown, the story is portrayed in a much different light.

I still don't like what happened to Michael Brown. He was unarmed, he was shot repeatedly, he was shot twice in the head. Still, the grand jury hammered out the details, something I have not done.

What is always troubling about the media/the Left is that they only show concern for people who can be manipulated into political props. I saw glimpses of CNN last night and I can tell you `that they were fanning the fires of racial divide. They were injecting themselves into the story, marching with the protesters in Manhattan, reciting a litany of police vs. young black men massacres.

A few days after Michael Brown was shot, an unarmed white man was gunned down by a black police officer in Salt Lake City. Where was Al Sharpton? A previous post by Hoosierman shows a man armed with a pen knife gunned down by what looks to be a rainbow coalition of cops in 2012.  Giant yawn from media bigwigs. Police terrorism remains largely a white on white crime. More yawns.

The media starlets do not care about Michael Brown. They were hoping to spin the resentment so as to assist the Dems in the midterms. Vote out of revenge. We heard those instructions before. Unfortunately for people like Kay Hagan, the grand jury was not fast-tracked. They meticulously did their job.

CNN would gladly dance on Michael Brown's grave. And there will be other Michael Browns. Rahm Emanuel will always be remembered for his maxim "let no crisis go to waste." To Sharpton and Don Lemon and Eric Holder, Michael Brown's life and death are but vehicles for their opportunism. CNN, MSNBC, CBS and everyone else not named Fox will do whatever they can to boost their dismal ratings. The tragedy in Ferguson will not go to waste. CNN will make certain of that.

Trey Gowdy, Superstar

If you want to blog and you don't have anything prepared, you can always post a Trey Gowdy video. He never disappoints. Never.

It is a milestone, or if not a milestone a gauge of a performer's status, when a YouTuber actually takes the time to compile a playlist of your memorable videos. Usually, the more popular the artist, the longer the playlists as well as the greater number of playlists.

Trey Gowdy is not the only congressman I know of who has a playlist compiled (there were Ron Paul playlists but he is retired) but he has a multitude of playlists. Most of them are from the floor of Congress but he does make a TV appearance and he also addresses gatherings of people who are interested in Constitutional issues.

This playlist contains 200 videos. That's right, 200.

If that playlist is not complete, this 15 video list might have one you are looking for.

This 14 video list is entitled "Best of Trey Gowdy." Might be accurate in its assessment.

This 46 video list focuses on IRS testimony.

These are not the only playlists. YouTube searches can meander so I stopped looking after page 34 but there were Gowdy vids on almost every page.

Nancy Pelosi has several but most of hers are posted by her political opponents, including Eric Cantor.

Here is an Issa playlist.

My research is not complete but I have not found any other Congressional playlists. Not sure I could listen to any of them not named Gowdy anyway,

Immigration: Once More, It Is All About Obama

The media love to give bad advice to Republicans. Distance yourself from conservatives. Distance yourself from tea party types. Forget that abortion stuff. Tell the Christians where to go. Nominate someone who impulsively reaches across the aisle. Stay clear from Sarah Palin. Blanket amnesty and in-state tuition for what is the term? Migrant dreamers? It is Ollie saying to Stanley, "Why can't you be more like me?"

I am reluctant to offer advice to Dems, in part because I don't want to sound like Ollie and in part because I enjoyed this year's election and part of me wants to scream, "Stay the course! Stay the course! Stay the course! Have another glass of Kool-Aid! And another! Wish we had someone half as brilliant as Mr. Hopenchange. Guess we'll just keep on losing."

But...haven't you had enough of Jonestown? No? OK, drink a glass for me.

Once more, we have entered the theater of the absurd. Even Obama's critics don't seem to understand him very well. The immigration decree is and will be wildly unpopular, even among Democrats. This is a terrible political maneuver. Yet, the sanctioned critics bend over backwards to put this on an existing template.

Watch this vid. Here is O'Reilly interviewing Krauthammer. Krauthammer tells us Obama has delayed this sort of unilateral command because it would jeopardize elections. In other words, it is a politically bad move. So why would he do it?

O'Reilly asks Krauthammer if he is calling Obama a phony, a venal man. In essence that is exactly what he is saying. But Krauthammer cannot say this, even on Fox News because even there, Obama is treated with kid gloves. So Krauthammer denies that he has asserted that Obama is venal and phony and he explains that this is the work of a skilled politician. Huh?

Was it a good political tactic or a bad one, Charles?

And two quick follow ups? Is Obama phony? Is he venal? You can skip those two, Charles. Everyone knows the answers.



Obama's Executive action will damage the Democratic Party even more than he has already hurt it. Obama does not care. He does not care. This is a sick individual trying hard to harvest adulation anywhere he can find it. The day after his prime time announcement he flies to Las Vegas to perform a rally to "sell" his program. What? What is there to sell? The emperor has spoken. It does not matter if anyone is buying. Still, the emperor sells his mandate at a rally.

By the way, the president's prime time announcement and accompanying rally coincides with the Latin Grammies, hosted in Las Vegas. Anything for adoration. Anything. Obama gets an audience on successive days. Mission accomplished.

Bye Bye Cable

We cancelled our cable TV and land line. I will probably miss the land line more than the cable. We still have cable Internet so we will pay about $75/month. Contrast that with our bundle that recently jumped from $156 to $190. It had previously jumped from $138 to $156.

We do have Netflix and we just added Amazon on a trial basis. All things being equal I would rather be able to watch cable TV but all things are not equal. Roku is a game changer. We have had our unit about three years. $50 one time fee gives you access to about as much programming as a lower level cable package. It's harder to access because you can't watch TV as you explore the guides. Of course you can also pair your TV (we have a dumb dinosaur TV) with YouTube sites and navigate via your laptop or other small screen device.

Cable TV still has the live event as a selling point. Breaking news and sporting events. And there is habit and familiarity and convenience. We still do not have instantaneous viewing when we turn on our "device," as we do with television. We know the channel numbers of stations we never watch. I like to come home. flip on the tv and let it run long before (or if) I sit and watch it. I don't have to make three or four decisions before passive viewing. The instantaneous experience television is a wonderful feature. But at savings of $4/day, we will somehow find the strength to endure.

The Decline In Traditional Religion And The Rise Of Barack Obama

Homo sapiens is a religious species and for decades, formal religious affiliation declined in America. A void was there to be filled and The Cult of Obama became an overnight religious awakening.

Obamacism could not have thrived in an era dominated by traditional religion. Idolatry would not have taken root and the act of deliberately cultivating worship would have been met with harsh disapproval. The Obama Halo would have been recognized as blasphemous. The White House's demand that Jesus's name be covered when the president spoke at Georgetown--a demand the craven wafers granted without a fuss--would have sunk every other politician's career. In another era, celebrities would not refer to the president as lord and savior and had there been a YouTube it would not feature videos of people praying to a politician.

Why religion? It could be that we are genetically programmed to believe in celestial affairs. As such, do we favor religions that promote our survival and well being and shun those that do not. Then again, maybe sociobiology doe not explain everything.

Maybe a spiritual realm does indeed exist and religion is our way of speculating on its nature while also safely harnessing our spiritual exploration. Some, like the late Robert Anton Wilson, are fortunate enough to “see God out of the corner of my eye.” Some of us will experience a freakish moment where we blurt out the lines of a TV show right before the character speaks his part. Most of us witness just enough telepathy, clairvoyance and premonition to make us say, “There is something more than the material realm.”

Why the decline in traditional formal religious worship? When eggheads compile their list of most influential books or most important books, they never include Raymond Moody's “Life After Life.” Published in 1975, this book concerns case studies of what would later be called near death experiences or NDE's. Never mind how many copies were sold. This book opened the floodgates. Soon, so it seemed, everyone's Aunt Zelda had seen the light.

It should be noted that NDE's became more common with the advance of medical technology that allowed patients to come back from a state of near death and tell all about their experiences. We tend to think of technology as an opponent of spirituality but defibrillators changed the ontological perspective of many a person.

Regardless of one's opinion of NDE's, they have shaped popular belief and popular culture. No more physically rising from the grave on Judgment Day. No more souls frozen in dormancy until Kingdom Come. “Grandma saw the light right away. She reviewed her whole life and it was a pleasant experience. She didn't want to come back.”

A few people have undergone hellish NDE's, but most comeback kids experience something unspeakably wonderful. It's not just Lutherans or Protestants or Christians who experience the conversations with deceased relatives, the journey through the tunnel, the warm, comforting light and so on. Experiences did not seem to vary between baptized and non-baptized, believer and infidel.

Why worship at The One True Faith if we all end up in front of the light? Might as well sleep in on Sundays. There are many roads to salvation. In the wake of the NDE phenomenon idiosyncratic religions flourished. Traditional religions have not fared so well.

It is not just NDE's that have emptied the pews. Many of us are critical of traditional religion for its focus on sexuality to the exclusion of just about everything else. I would like to see religions address public vs. private morality, property rights, volition, voluntarism, temperance of plunder, cruelty for cruelty sake and a boatload of other topics concerning the moral issues we discuss on a daily basis. Religious leaders need not draw the same conclusions I draw but they should at least mention the subjects.

More idealistic souls would like to see religious leaders condemn war or at least submit guidelines as to when war is moral and just. Other people would like to see environmental issues addressed from the pulpit. Still others would like to see the clergy at least examine issues of animal welfare. Unfortunately, the ethos of the day is never on the menu.

I take evolutionary theory, or sociobiology as it was originally called, with a grain of salt. It does not sufficiently explain adoption of children genetically dissimilar to the parents. It does not explain voluntary celibacy, voluntary sterilization, homosexuality and other non-reproductive sexual practices. What sociobiology does explain is how religions became obsessed with matters below the waist.

In an era when venereal disease was rampant and there were no cures and no means of prevention, sexual restraint was the pinnacle of virtue. In an age when children of two parents were unlikely to see adulthood and the fate of illegitimate children was even worse, sexual mores defined the person. When larger battalions were needed, sexual practices that did not produce future soldiers were condemned.

Once more, technology challenges our morality. Condoms and antibiotics make sexually transmitted diseases significantly less threatening. Birth control options influence people's attitude towards marriage. Universal access to indoor plumbing changes....it changes a lot of things. One can shout “moral relativism” but isn't moral relativism what the clergy endorse when they ignore the previously mentioned hot button topics?

When a sect emphasizes sexual behavior as the gold standard of morality, they will fill their pews with the timid more than the virtuous. So too, the old, the feeble, the lonely, the unwanted. They will reap a harvest of impoverished men and dowdy women. Mostly, people who live a moral lifestyle by default.

Institutional religion has not weathered eclecticism very well. In places like the rural South, rural Utah, the Middle East and and Northern Africa, formal religion reigns supreme because just about everyone is of the same faith. So too, traditional religion does well in urban neighborhoods with tight ethnic identities. This is especially true when those ethnic groups feel a rivalry with people of a different faith. The Catholics of Belfast unify around their perceived persecution by the British. The Protestants of Belfast unify around their perceived persecution by the Catholics of Belfast. Neither group seems influenced by eclecticism.

Technology has not been kind to traditional religion. Yes, we have televangelists and websites devoted to devotion but all in all technology has been disruptive to worship as it was once defined. The automobile might have given to the rise of the megachurch but before doing so it gave rise to suburbs.

The deck got shuffled in the suburbs. When a kid grows up in an Italian American Catholic neighborhood, he will probably remain Catholic for the rest of his life. When an Italian American grows up on a suburban street where the next door neighbor is Mormon and his next door neighbor is Nada and his nest door neighbor is kind of New Age and his next door neighbor grew up Catholic but then married a Baptist but then married a Buddhist and then married someone who is “deeply spiritual but not religious,” his religious destiny is not so readily determined.

Spiritual values transcend time and place and circumstance. How religions adapt to technology, mobility and eclecticism remains to be seen. So far, religious leaders have not figured it out. Religious trends are a fascinating subject but for now, they are beyond the scope of our attention. Let us focus on the decline of traditional religion and the spiritual void that is left in its wake. For some people that spiritual void was filled by Barack Obama.

American religions have slowly lost members, influence and clout over the course of several decades. In 1948, Gallup reported only 2% of the population considered themselves unaffiliated with any religion. In 2008, that number rose to 12%. This number taken by itself might not be so alarming but the degree of involvement has decreased among the “affiliated.”

Protestant and Roman Catholics have been hit hard. Whereas the Mainstream Protestants have lost more members, the Catholic Church has suffered sharper decreases in attendance and participation. From Kenneth Jones' “Index of Leading Catholic Indicators” :

Priests: From 27,000 in 1930 to 58,000 in 1965... 45,000 in 2002.

Ordinations: 1,575 in 1965...450 in 2002.

Priestless Parishes: 1% in 1965...15% in 2002.

Seminarians: 49,000 in 1965...4,700 in 2002.

Sisters: 180,000 in 1965...75,000 in 2002.

Parochial Grade School Students: 4.5 million in 1965...1.9 million in 2002.

The Sacraments: 45 million Catholic Americans and 1.3 million infant baptisms in 1965.

65 million Catholic Americans and 1 million infant baptisms in 2002.

126,000 converts in 1965...80,000 in 2002.

352 Catholic marriages in 1965...256,000 in 2002.

Sunday Mass Attendance: 74% in 1958 (Gallup.) 26.6% in 1994 (University of Notre Dame.)

Meanwhile the Protestants lost almost 5 million members from 1990 to 2000.

This same period saw an almost 20% decline in all church attendance.

In 2010, Southern Baptists reported four straight years of declining membership. They also reported a 4.98% decline in baptisms from 2009 <lifeway.com>

Every year more than 4000 churches close their doors compared to just over 1000 new church starts.

<churchleadership.org>

We have focused only on Christians but Jews have also grown more secularized. Estimates of non-practicing Jews range from 60 to 75%.

Near death phenomena, psychedelic drugs and pop culture have spurred interest in the paranormal but the “other world” is impossible to harness. One can do many things with paranormal activity except institutionalize it. Spiritualist churches are something like Lincoln's Ax, changing both congregation and meeting place with such frequency as to question the institution's very existence. Spiritualist churches do not have lifelong multigenerational families. They usually rent space from function halls to perform their rituals.

Americans had become Spiritualists in the sense that they entertained fleeting, ephemeral interests in matters celestial alongside their congregation of dilettantes. It was a perfect storm of sorts. A religious species in a traditionally religious land, spiritually stimulated but spiritually unanchored. Tinder awaiting a spark. And out of the screen would pop this dashing figure who would ask us only to “Believe.”

There is a free-floating assertion that the non-religious are more rational, less easily duped, than the religious. Unfortunately, not every atheist is Bertrand Russell, The “Whatever” school prevails. Jesus is boring and god is like, old. But Barack Obama is “The One.”

Religion can be a bit like eroticism. People return to both activities because they enjoy them. But in both pursuits, the object of fascination is not always so easy to find. Barack Obama is to religion what the Playboy centerfold is to eroticism. Finally, the fickle are pleased.

America has always been a hotbed for religious cults. Nascent religions were usually subjected to a period of scrutiny that could last decades. The establishment was traditionally skeptical of charismatic cult leaders who lined feathered their own nest at the expense of the gullible. The faithful were usually unfriendly to cult leaders who sought worship for themselves.

The critics fell silent for Barack Obama. Truth is, a lot of ministers, such as the previously mentioned Andrew Greeley, were mesmerized by Barack Obama. If they did not buy into his divinity, they did not challenge it either. Sure, he cultivated his own adoration but who are we to judge? Wasn't Christianity just a dress rehearsal for Obamacism?

There is a new savior in town.

The Biggest Losers In Obama's Amnesty Program: DEMOCRATS!

Oregon is still a blue state and despite the recent WAVE election they actually expanded their Democratic majority in the legislature. This might be the only state that is getting bluer.

Yet, the voters used the power of referendum two weeks ago to cancel driver's license for illegal immigrants (the AP slips and calls them "people who are in the United States illegally." Weren't these migrants or undocumented workers or people who live in the shadows?).  The measure passed 66-34!

Is there an expert in the house? Can we get Halperin and Heilemann on the line to explain the intricacies of the president's upcoming amnesty announcement and its impact on the Democratic Party in 2016? Can we get Rasmussen to conduct a poll for us? They only missed the Kansas Senate race by 16 points. They only missed the governor's race by 14 points.  Where is Steve Schmidt when we need him?

Yahoo News:

"The Oregon measure tells you these measures are not easy or simple," said Muzaffar Chishti of the Migration Policy Institute. "The political cost may be significant, even in blue states."

The state law had seemed to be popular. It easily passed last year with bipartisan support in the Democratic-controlled Legislature and was signed Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber, who was re-elected Nov. 4.

Opponents barely gathered enough signatures to put the repeal question on the ballot. Immigrant rights groups outspent their opponents 10-1.

Still, the measure failed in every county but the state's most liberal one, Multnomah, home to Portland. Even there it trailed significantly behind other Democratic candidates and causes.

Recommended Reading by Michael Barone

I like it when a big shot validates what I have said. Well, not exactly what I said. I am saying that the policies, the governance and the personality of Barack Obama are destroying the Democratic Party. Barone does a much better technical analysis and he addresses fragile coalitions and tired ideas and tired candidates. The situation is much worse for the Democrats than the media are letting on.

(1) This was a wave, folks. It will be a benchmark for judging waves, for either party, for years.

(2) In seriously contested races, Republican candidates were generally younger, more vigorous, more sunny and optimistic than Democrats. The contrast was sharpest in Colorado and Iowa, which voted twice for President Obama. Cory Gardner and Joni Ernst seemed to be looking forward to the future. Their opponents grimly championed the stale causes of feminists and trial lawyers of the past.

Democrats see themselves as the party of the future. But their policies are antique. The federal minimum wage dates to 1938, equal pay for women to 1963, access to contraceptives to 1965. Raising these issues now is campaign gimmickry, not serious policymaking.

The perils of finger wagging

As one who has had trouble keeping his digits attached I can sympathize with Canseco but my last severed and reattached finger has been with me for over 25 years.

My finger should have been amputated from the beginning. It was very loose with no bone to connect it.it was also smelling really bad.
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) November 14, 2014

Ok well I might as well tell you .I was playing in a poker tournament last night and my finger fell off .someone took a video of it.
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) November 14, 2014

The ultra cerebral Canseco
shot his finger off while cleaning his gun.

Revisiting The Personality Of Barack Obama

The Personality Of Barack Hussein Obama

Grandeur:

Barack Hussein Obama is an exotic personality. We tend to think of successful people as having large scale personalities and that is often the case. That is, they are much like us but their drives are stronger, their endurance greater, their will power unwavering. In the words of Scrooge McDuck, they think a little faster and jump a little quicker.

Barack Obama's personality is a radical departure from that template. If there is but one word to define our forty fourth president, that word would be grandiose. A man who cultivates his own deification is a dangerous man.

Let us just skip the self-comparisons to Mandela and Gandhi and self-rating his administration no worse than fourth ('with the possible exception of Lincoln, FDR, LBJ) on foreign policy and legislative achievements. And let us just ignore the underachieving lawyer who held the lofty position of community organizer writing an autobiography (the material discrepancies are addressed elsewhere) and let us forget that Candidate Obama readily played the role of the embodiment of “Hope” and adopted the word as an uncopyrighted logo.

John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton all liked to be the center of attention. They loved the spotlight but at no time did they promote worship of themselves. No halos or fainting damsels for these men. Had their handlers tried to elevate them to objects of worship, the aforementioned would have rejected it. Efforts to encourage religious devotion would probably embarrass them as it would most normal personalities, even personalities who seek attention.

The deliberate promotion of self-deification separates Barack Obama from every other president as well as most public figures. The president's personality is similar to that of a religious cult leader such as Jim Jones or David Koresh. If that assessment seems too harsh, ask yourself this: Dating back to the age of Constantine, what Western Civilization public figure would request that references to Christ be shrouded prior to his arrival? Can you name even one?

That is exactly what Barack Obama did in April 2009 at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. “IHS” the ancient symbol for Jesus was covered, prior to the new president's arrival. Sadly, the faux Catholics at Georgetown complied with the White House's request.

At the time many of us saw this as the president's first gaffe. In retrospect, the obliteration was no blunder, it was much more sinister than that. It was part of Barack Obama's ongoing effort to cultivate his worship. There was only room for one deity on stage and we know who that happened to be. His followers shall have no gods before him.

Incidentally, the news media only reported this story after it was volleyed around the blogosphere and radio host Michael Savage reported on it. Reluctantly, a few members of the Fourth Estate stuck their toes in the water and offered some lame excuses for their preferred deity.

Barack Obama profoundly believes that his very essence is more significant than his actions. Sadly, he sold this belief to his followers. June 3, 2008 following an Obama victory in the Democratic primaries: “ this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” Barack said it. They believe it. That settles it.

Barack Obama, as well as his followers, believes that his presence in the White House will somehow improve America's standing in the world. Obama believes he projects irresistible charm and of course the Arabs, the Russians, the Iranians and the Chinese would all revel in his unending brilliance.

Barack Obama believes that actions similar to those taken by his predecessor might yield vastly different results. George W. Bush spent money recklessly. (“Two wars on a credit card” repeated ad nauseum). Obama sincerely believes that he is metaphysically different from Bush and other mortals as well. Obama's profligacy would--he believes-- yield prosperity and balance budgets. Most of America bought this perspective as well.

Clinically speaking, I don't think this guy has all of his oars in the water.

Malignant Narcissism

Let me state that I am reluctant to pin clinical diagnoses on other people. Having worked in the mental health field, I can tell you that clinical diagnoses can be judgmental, imprecise and at times downright fictitious. I have seen psychiatric evaluations performed on the same patient by different evaluators in a short time frame yield vastly different conclusions. I have seen clinicians who fixate on a single diagnosis and assign that diagnosis to just about everyone they meet (This is especially true of clinicians who have undergone drug or alcohol treatment and thereafter see most of humanity as addicts and alcoholics in various states of denial). I have seen patients rubber-stamped with anxiety or depression to expedite the process and allow the writer to sooner punch the clock.

Clinical terms are often trendy. OCD, ADD, or bipolar disorder is featured in the news and the ailment de jour arrives in clusters. For better or worse, the hottest, trendiest diagnosis is narcissism. It was featured on “Dr. Phil” and “Coast to Coast” radio, a show that usually deals with UFO's and Sasquatch sightings. I personally know a clinician who pins the “N” word on every patient who is anti-social. It's the fashion, man. Get with it.

So I am hesitant to apply clinical terms to others and I am especially hesitant to label anyone a narcissist. With those disclaimers out of the way, let me state unequivocally that Barack Hussein Obama is a textbook narcissist. This is not my diagnosis. I am citing Samuel Vaknin on this matter. 

Vaknin is not a mental health professional but he is a self-professed narcissist. He is one of the most prolific writers on the subject and he was way ahead of the curve in identifying this disorder. As one who spends forty hours a week with mental health professionals, I trust Vaknin's analysis more than I trust the opinions of degreed people.

Vaknin identifies seven characteristics of narcissists that can be found in Barack Obama:

1. Magical thinking. We have already touched on this. Barack Obama seems to believe that his presence determines outcomes more than his actions. Unfortunately, this delusion is reinforced by his ardent followers. Barack Obama's worldview is one of perceptions, not of substance. In his mind, the message is all. If the Affordable Care Act seems unworkable, get the right people—pop stars and athletes—to sell its merits. Bring a bunch of doctors to the Rose Garden and hand out lab coats. Problem solved.
2. Imperturbability. I part company with Vaknin on this one. Yes, the president is described as cool, aloof and detached but he is quick to show disgust. He might not pound the table but he did scratch his chin with his middle finger as Hillary Clinton talked. He quietly but visibly seethed when Paul Ryan challenged him on the premise of national health care and later when Benjamin Netanyahu told him that Israel had no intention of returning to their 1967 borders.
3. Pronoun density. According to Vaknin the average person uses I, me, myself 15-20% of the time. Barack Obama uses those pronouns 70% of the time. This might need some clarification but Vaknin is not alone in recognizing this habit. According to The National Journal December 22, 2012, “ President Barack Obama used the funeral for Hawaii senator Daniel Inouye to talk about himself. In the short 1,600 word speech, Obama used the word "my" 21 times, "me" 12 times, and "I" 30 times.”
4. Barack Obama sees people as unimportant props in his own movie. In Vaknin's words, the narcissist sees people as “cardboard cutouts” or “non-people.” Obama has no sense of empathy. This is ironic because when asked which politician cares more about people like them, would-be voters overwhelmingly chose Obama over his opponent.
5. Barack Obama displays a false modesty that masks haughtiness.
6. Barack Obama likes to play the eternal adolescent.

Additionally, narcissists believe they are omniscient and infallible. You are either one hundred per cent with them or you are against them. The slightest disagreement will result in conflict. Perhaps most importantly, when they go down, they take everyone with them.

Chronic Dishonesty.

Barack Hussein Obama is a tightly-woven gestalt. It is hard to say where one facet ends and another begins. He is a chronically dishonest human being. With that said, if one lies boldly and frequently, knowing that he will probably be called on it later, one has to wonder if that person can distinguish fact from fantasy.

When a political figure who seeks the White House writes an autobiography with at least thirty-seven “material discrepancies”, he has to expect to get caught. Nope. Getting caught never even slowed down Barack Obama. No embarrassment. No shame. Move on. Re-message.

Barack Obama repeatedly stated that people could keep their preferred doctor under the Affordable Care Act. How many times did he repeat this falsehood? That question was posed at various message boards including “Yahoo Answers.” There is no consensus but someone said “about twenty.” A YouTube montage has the president saying this seventeen times. "Tampa Bay Times" recently listed 37 retellings of this modern myth but they include White House web postings and statements by other White House administrators. The president also made false claims that ACA would result in lower premiums and lower overall costs.

It would be no exaggeration to say that it would take hundreds, if not thousands, of pages to chronicle Barack Obama's falsehoods. Factor in broken campaign promises or the sliding scale of honesty we allow politicians (“The failed policies of George Bush” Specifically which policies?) the misquoting or misstating of his rivals' positions, pulling numbers out of thin air and the accumulation of deceitful practices is overwhelming. With an obsequious press unwilling to call their beloved leader on his chronic deception, we have become a Land of Babble. Nothing is believable and everything is believable. It's all the same.

A few quick highlights of Obama's ongoing efforts to deceive.

1. Operation Fast and Furious. Complementing the president's positive falsehoods are his administrations efforts to obstruct, distract and impede. The Obama Department of Justice successfully stonewalled a Congressional investigation. Give an assist to the president for extending Executive Privilege to his Attorney General for matters that clearly did not involve Executive Privilege.
2. Benghazi. Falling back on the repeated success of a deliberate, outlandish lie, the entire administration advanced the idea that the attack on the Benghazi, Libya consulate on September 11, 2012 was the result of a demonstration against a not-much-viewed YouTube video that insulted Islam. A spontaneous protest that got out of hand is more politically palatable than an Al Qaeda terrorist attack.

3. The IRS Scandals. Lost and broken hard drives, private emails, foggy memories, the Fifth Amendment, a promised FBI probe that never got off the ground and a president who goes on television to announce “there is not a smidgen of corruption” at the IRS as his Justice Department conducts a non-investigation.

4. Voter ID. The Obama Administration fought states' effort to require a photo ID prior to voting. Every position is arguable except perhaps this one. There is but one reason to fight the integrity of the electoral system and that is to allow and institutionalize widespread cheating.

Yes, politicians and fishermen are notorious for their outrageous claims. Is Barack Obama less honest than other politicians? Yes, absolutely. What is different about Barack Obama is that the fawning press has downplayed, excused, covered and even facilitated their cult leader's falsehoods. It is all about the worship.

I could pile on but you get the point. A web search of “Obama's top lies” will get you hundreds of sites. No, they do not all repeat themselves. Obamalies.net provides a greatest hits, of sorts.

Three personal favorites. One, Obama stating that the new administration had no idea how bad the country's financial situation was until they took office. This was a fairy tale to appeal to idiots who believe that George Bush kept a set of secret books under his bed and a key to a giant vault. The country's finances are a matter of public record and a sitting Senator can get just about any financial information he wants with a wave of his hand.

Two, the false biography. I never put a lot of stock in that Kenya birth certificate thing (but the administration and the loyalists in the press actually kept the subject alive.) When a middle-aged man takes a much younger wife, he usually does not bring her home to meet his original family. Even if such practices were common, I doubt if most late stage pregnant women would want to fly to Kenya during the 1960's. I believe Barack Obama was born in Hawaii.

It would be revealed that a young Barack Obama would solicit the services of the literary agency, Acton & Dystel in 1991. The agency would circulate brief biographies of their clientele, usually about four sentences long. “Barack Obama, the first African-American President of Harvard Law Review, was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii...” Ooops!

Jay Acton and Jayne Dystel have refused to answer questions about Barack Obama, as has former staff biography editor, Miriam Goderich. Of course, the Cult of Obama members employed in the Fourth Estate did not try all that hard to unravel this mystery. Could it have been a simple miscommunication?

The United Kingdom's “Daily Mail” reports that Acton and Dystell maintained the “born in Kenya” assertion about the junior Senator from Illinois on their website as recently as 2007. If there was an original miscommunication, it would probably have been corrected over sixteen years of updates. As with the “material discrepancies” in “Dreams From My Father,” the Barack Obama persona was subject to revision to better suit audience preference.

The loyalists screamed “Foul!” at the slanderous Birthers. Obama sycophant David Gregory ambushed both Michele Bachmann and John Boehner with Birther questions, even though neither of them had ever broached the subject. Of course there would be allegations of racism leveled against anyone who questioned the official version of the nativity.

Yes, the born in Kenya rumor was one big lie. Ironically or not, the lie seems to have originated from the lips of Barack Obama. Barack Obama is the real father of the Birther Movement.

Perhaps there are more sensational lies but one oft-repeated Obama lie carries the day for its pure unadulterated sleaze. Drum roll, please. The number one lie spread by Barack Obama is the oft-repeated fable that his mother died at the hands of greedy insurance barons.

Barack Obama used that much-repeated falsehood to sell his Affordable Care Act. That mendacious testimony dragged all of us into the sewer. Stanley Dunham's life and death would be just one more occasion for political theater. Call me old fashioned but in my day a man did not pimp his mother's memory to promote his own career.

Constant Adulation.

This aspect might seem benign but it could also reveal something disturbing. Barack Obama has never performed the duties of a president as they were normally performed. He skips meetings and security briefings. He does not regularly meet with his Cabinet and he hates to meet with Congress for any reason. Such things involve confrontation, disagreement and work. Barack Obama hates all of those things.

Barack Obama loves to speak to adoring fans. He loves fundraisers and teleprompter speeches and the love of an idolizing crowd. It seemed odd to many observers that he kept on campaigning after getting re-elected in 2012. With each subsequent budget fight, Barack Obama left Washington to take his message to the faithful. There he would vilify the Republicans and generally misstate their objectives. The loyal press cheered him on with each prompt of the tele.

There is speculation that Barack Obama will not leave office in 2017 as he is required to do. Some people think he will create an emergency, perhaps a war or even a civil war to extend his term. That used to seem far fetched. Now, it is plausible. I am not sure he can give up his addiction to praise and celebration.

Petulance

We have already discussed abuses of power and we had to shorten the list for brevity's sake. There is a lot of suspicious activity that is just par for the course with these people.

Were Republicans targeted in Chrysler and General Motors dealership closures? Were non-union employees also targeted? Did FEMA deny disaster-area status to a wildfire-scorched Texas because they were under Republican leadership? Did the Obama Administration target Standard and Poor's for downgrading the US government's credit rating? Was Trump University targeted by a Democratic state government because of repeated criticisms of the White House leveled by Donald Trump? Was the government's response to Hurricane Sandy slower in Staten Island due to their citizenry having the audacity to elect a Republican to serve in Congress?

Dozens such questions have gone unanswered. What is certain is that the Obama Administration has done its utmost to intimidate all but staunch loyalists. We also know from the president's ongoing budget battles that he has no qualms about using innocent people as political pawns.

The spending conflicts of 2013 were ugly events with even uglier results. Obama would win the war decisively. He bypassed Congress altogether and took his message directly to his hand-licking media.

The puppies would deliver the day for their master. This would be no budget crisis or impasse or stalemate involving two sides who could not reach an agreement. Oh no. This would be presented as an irrational act by the anti-government bomb throwers and extremists in the Republican Party. Once more, the press coverage could not be more lopsided.

There was just one little obstacle. The sequester was not painful. It involved but a drop in a trough of red ink. No one seemed to notice. But the cult leader was not to be defied. Compromise is for mortals.

To win the challenge to his supremacy, Barack Obama deliberately inflicted hardship on innocent people. An embarrassing email to a low level USDA employee named Charles Brown advised Mr. Brown that he should, “make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be.” In other words, if we say it's an earthquake, tremble till you drop.

Brown would not be the only government employee to receive such a directive. The administration warned of “maximum pain” and other departments fell into line. Florida congressman John Mica accused the administration of orchestrating airport delays across the entire country. More than 2,000 illegal immigrants, many with criminal records, were released to the street due to phony budget shortfalls. The administration even used kids with cancer as political pawns. When it was revealed that an NIH-funded program was being discontinued due to the sequester, the GOP offered to fund the experimental program. The president promised to veto any such measure. Let them eat chemo.

The Obamacist media remained faithful to their leader and he pushed onward. When it seemed there was not enough pain, President Obama pressed our park rangers into action. The National Park Service barricaded places that needed no service or immediate government funding to stay afloat. War memorials were closed to the public. The privately-funded World War II Memorial was blocked off and when veterans, some in wheelchairs, invaded the memorial, the president responded by placing armed guards around the perimeter. That's right, additional spending to make phantom spending cuts seem painful. The National Mall in Washington, DC would be shut down but briefly re-opened to host an immigration rally.

The National Park Service tried to prevent tourists from viewing Mount Rushmore from an access road. They used their muscle to close roughly one hundred privately-managed parks at a financial setback to their non-government employees, as well as depriving the federal government of revenue. American Forces Network suspended broadcasting, army chaplains were furloughed and warned not to perform services gratis and the USDA website went black.

To recap, the Diva-in-Chief won the day and our titanic National Debt grew even larger. Humanity has witnessed worse atrocities than sequester bullying but has humanity ever witnessed petty vindictiveness played out on such a broad stage? Not that I know of.

Control

Politics is largely about control but it is also about humility. The Obama Administration has never met an industry they did not want to dominate. Health care, health insurance, auto manufacturing, student loans, education, personal finance, banking, energy...you name it, they want to grab it, twist it and shape it to their liking.

The impulse to control is rooted in conceit. Anything you can do, I can do better. I am simply wiser than you in all respects, therefore I should be the captain of the ship. Every ship.

Managerially speaking, Barack Obama is a hands-off micro-manager. He wants absolute power but he does not want to be bothered by details. Micro-managers are not optimum performers but they have strengths. They are hands on, detail oriented control freaks. They can be difficult to work for and work with but they are familiar with the minutia of their domain.

The hands-off micro-manager craves power but he does not like minutia. His finger is never on the patient's pulse, he does not care to see the patient but he insists on supervising his treatment anyway. Outside the world of kings and clergy, the hands-off micro-manager is a rare bird. Their obvious flaws are recognized early on and their talents are diverted to a non-managerial track.

It is not coincidence that Barack Obama never had an executive position prior to his inauguration. He is ill-suited for leadership but he is blind to his deficiencies. So too, are his followers.

Greed

People who rail against greed are invariably greedy. Barack Obama is no exception. His late Aunt Zeituni Onyango lived in South Boston, Massachusetts despite being denied political asylum based on ethnic violence in her native Kenya. Barack Obama likes to brag about his wealth and his commercial success as a writer. There is no evidence that he helped his destitute aunt but the US taxpayer picked up the slack. Aunt Zeituni was placed in public housing where she would live out her years free from the burdens of employment.

Regardless of who picked up the tab, someone helped Zeituni Onyango. The same could not always be said about the president's half brother, George. George Obama lived in a hut in Kenya. By almost any definition he was poor. A hundred dollars a month would have gone a long way in Kenya and would have significantly elevated his living conditions. For whatever reason, Barack Obama refused to help out his less fortunate brother.

When George Obama's son needed medical attention he called filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza in New York to help him out. Barack Obama could not be bothered. Yes, the president is greedy but that is not his worst attribute. His is not a lust for wealth, it is the pursuit of superior wealth. He wants to rub his luxuries and extravagance in the face of the less fortunate.

Lavish vacations. Two-jet vacations. The family dog airlifted on Marine One. Hobnobbing with the beautiful people in mansions. Two hundred rounds of golf on exclusive courses. Living the good life for all to see and envy.

Despite his excessive “fair share” verbiage, Barack Obama took elaborate measures to assure that he only pays about a twenty per cent rate on his income taxes. Yes, the president's secretary pays taxes at a higher rate than the chief executive. Barack Hussein Obama is among other things, a miser.

To Paraphrase Sigmund Freud, Everywhere I go I find a blogger has been there before me.

“Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me.” That was Siggy's enduring quote about the avant nature of poets. 

Hoosierman, whose poetics grace these hallowed halls, scooped the MSM by a little better than three months on Jonathan Gruber . Of course, the MSM had all hands on deck offering around the clock coverage on the upcoming midterms. Those poor overworked schlubs might have overlooked a video clip here or there. It's not like someone posts these things on Youtube, you know.

How long can MSM news pay their bills? The IRS scandal was volleyed around the blogosphere for at least a year before a newspaper mentioned it and at least two years before Lois Lerner went public at the ABA convention (before going silent in front of Congress.) The news has sometimes been viewed by networks as a loss leader or a public service but it could be very profitable right now. There is a six year logjam of stories to choose from.

In the meantime, a blogger is on the case. Wherever Katie Couric may wander, you can bet a nation of bloggers has been there before her.

Halperin, Heilemann Miss Big

I am glad to see experts get it wrong. I have had my doubts about these guys' expertise and I doubt some of their stories as well. They hedge their bets a bit but they certainly believe the polls and they certainly missed the wave.

Gruberism: The Philosophy That States It Is Noble To Deceive People Because People Are Stupid

Here it is. This is a snapshot of everything I have resisted for a long time.  Call it conceit, arrogance, authoritarianism...This is what unifies "us" against "them." I know of no one on our side who advocates for anti-transparency, conscious deception, falsehood for falsehood sake. Take a pot shot at any controversial figure on our side--Boehner, McConnell, Koch Brothers, Michael Savage--none of them have ever advocated lying to the American people (on the grounds that we are too stupid to appreciate the wonder of Gruber and Gruberism.)

Jonathan Gruber is everything wrong with the Left. They cannot sell their ideas so they misstate their intentions. Evil is not too harsh a term to describe what we are witnessing. Let us reject Gruberism once and for all.

TELLING US WHAT WE KNEW ALL ALONG

Obama On Course To Damage His Party More Than Nixon Damaged His

Richard Nixon, Superstar. The most widely read post at this blog is one where I make the case that Richard Nixon is the worst president in US History.

What I could have added to that brief summary of the Nixon Administration is the damage he did to his own political party. Had Nixon not tarnished the GOP brand the Republican Party might have served as a counter balance to what would become the implementation of an extremist Democratic Party agenda. Had Nixon spread competent leadership and integrity our cities might not have fallen into ruin. Our schools might still educate. Traditional American values might still be respected.

Disgusted with a corrupt and incompetent president, the 1974 midterm elections resulted in a Democratic tsunami. They held the majority of House seats going into the election, with 242, They would pick up 49 additional seats on November 4 of that year. 

Among the 49 were Henry Waxman, who is serving his final term forty years later. Tom Harkin, who would move up to the Senate in 1985 and will retire this year. Max Baucus, our current ambassador to China who would move up to the Senate in 1978 and remained there until he was appointed to his current position in 2014. Also, Patrick Leahy was elected to the Senate that night. Waxman won by a landslide but the other three luminaries in the making won tight races aided by anti-Nixon sentiment.

One of the most reassuring facets of this past Tuesday's election is that honesty and integrity still matter to most Americans. Obama's administrative record was on the ballot but so too was his malignant personality, widespread corruption and ongoing abuses of power. Hobby Lobby was on the ballot. So too was Lois Lerner. As in 1974, America voted against the crook.

How's this for a stunning Before and After?

You can make an airtight case to a Democrat that Obama is damaging our country and if they don't laugh in your face, they will yawn or walk away. But tell them Obama is damaging their precious Democratic Party and you have their undivided attention.

In my lifetime places like New York and Vermont were once red states. More than anyone else, Richard Nixon turned them blue. As we speak, there are no deep blue states. There are only red states and purple states. Two thirds of the state chambers will be controlled by Republicans and the other third are vulnerable in 2016. Massachusetts, Maryland and Illinois all elected Republican governors three days ago. Can anyone see a trend here?

Nixon was the gift that kept on giving. Does anyone think Jimmy Carter would have won in 1976 had he followed a sterling performance by the Nixon Administration? Nixon's resignation in 1974 might have stopped the bleeding but the patient was wounded and weary, He still has not fully recovered.

I can't see Obama resigning. The conspiracy theories I used to dismiss outright, that he would create some chaos to extend his two terms now seem possible. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party continues its slide. Remember when Barack Obama said we were just days away from fundamentally transforming America? Who knew how ironically prophetic that prediction would turn out to be?

Rasmussen Reports Spins Their Bad Results

Greg Orman/Pat Roberts will go down in the annals of bad polling. Rasmussen had Orman up five points. He lost by eleven.

When you get past the spin, you will see some bad results by Rasmussen.

I only learned a few weeks ago that Scott Rasmussen sold his interest in Rasmussen Reports in 2013.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/election_2014

Great Sharyl Attkisson Interview In Hollywood Reporter

I can almost spell her name.




Who did you tell at CBS that your computers were hacked?

The first person I spoke to was Washington bureau chief Chris Isham.

Did he believe you?

He appeared to.

Did CBS care? Did they do anything about it?

God, you know, there’s a lot of people there. He seemed to care. He hired a separate computer forensics firm to look at the computers. They, too, agreed that there had been highly sophisticated remote intrusion of my computers. They decided to dig deeper and embark upon a process that spanned a number of months, during which time the situation with the Associated Press and the government spying on Fox News reporter James Rosen was disclosed, as well as Edward Snowden’s NSA information.

Did they ever find out who hacked your computers and spied on you?

I don’t believe their computer forensics team concluded who spied on me.

Did they ask anybody in the Obama administration if they were the culprits?

Not to my knowledge. Executives discussed with me that they assumed that was the case. And we discussed how to proceed with that information and what we could do about it.

So what did you do about it?