Not Exactly A Book Review:"The Intimidation Game: How the Left Is Silencing Free Speech" by Kimberly Strassel.

This blog once more calls attention to the most timely and important book ever written. Yes, we might have made that claim before when discussing other books about Obama, but this baby is certifiably the most timely and important book on the Timely and Important bookshelf. Given the advantages of time, Kimberly Strassel has chronicled the best account of The Left's ongoing effort (lead by Barack Obama) to kill free speech, specifically political speech. Laid bare is an ongoing conspiracy to thwart political opposition by unethical and often illegal tactics,

If we have to pinpoint America's demise, we can do so with the election of Barack Obama in 2008. We all know it takes more time, effort, energy, skill, and smarts to build a house than to torch a house. Things we once held dear--truth, transparency, the rule of law, the first amendment--have fallen victim to Obama's scorched Earth policies.

This blog was started with the intent of exposing Barack Obama as an empty suit. I saw him as a man unqualified for most jobs, much less the most important job on Planet Earth. It was as if through some twist of fate, Paris Hilton would now be headed to the White House for the next four years. Over time, Obama would reveal himself to be something much worse than a vapid buffoon. He would reveal a capacity for evil the likes of which America had never before witnessed.

Over eight years of abused power, it is hard to keep track of all the atrocities without a scorecard, or a score keeper like Ms. Strassel. Remember Obama's backroom attacks on the Chamber of Commerce for displaying the audacity of disagreement on matters related to global warming? Remember the White House-orchestrated protests on the front porches of insurance executives who dared to speak out against a government takeover of health care? You are excused if you have forgotten some of the blatant acts of intimidation. It was one abuse after another after another after another.

Despite the media blackout, we did learn about the IRS's crimes--yes, as in felonious and conspiratorial activity--used to squash groups that might disagree with or even oppose the policies of Barack Obama. Even those of us who think we have the gist of it probably underestimate the scope and frequency of the biggest scandal in American history. We probably underestimate the extent of the cover-up by the IRS, Democratic legislators, DOJ, and the Silent Majority Coalition of the fourth estate. Strassel airs the dirty laundry and it's not for the faint of heart.

Lest we think it was the IRS and only the IRS that was used to harass honest Americans, Strassel reminds us that the FEC, SEC, FCC, and DOJ were also pressed into service, to say nothing of the contributions of thuggish NGO's. To those loyalists who say this is business as usual, Strassel points to the record of George W. Bush. President Bush once publicly suggested that a certain church in California should be investigated by the IRS after they voiced criticism to the Iraq War. The blowback was huge and Bush made no further suggestions of this kind. Comparing the Obama Administration's abuses--and crimes--to other administrations is comparing elephants to microbes. Not even Richard Nixon could hold a candle to this latter day Mussolini.

This blog might preach to the choir but this is an important book. Even if you can just go to the library and skim the chapters, please do so.  Kimberly Strassel  is employed by "Wall Street Journal" and maybe, just maybe, given her lofty status the masters of the universe will not dismiss her as a tin hat bitter clinger. We can hope.

Amazon link 

Graft By Any Other Name...

There are tangible benefits to promoting Obama's agenda. General Electric, parent company of MSNBC, pays no corporate taxes. Facebook received an unexplained colossal tax break. Maybe we should not be surprised that Google has cashed in as well.

People have gone to prison for much less than this. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323864604579069730686941454.html

Win or Lose, Obama Will Change Our Political Assumptions For Years To Come.

Conventional wisdom has long held that a politician can be corrupt or incompetent but he can't be both. The Chicago Machine might be Exhibit A of corrupt but competent. Whatever else we might say about those thugs, they can plow snow and pick up trash. No problem there.

Exhibit A of the honest but incompetent might be Joe Biden. He might come across as the fun-loving drunk who stopped being fun two hours ago, but Joe has never been linked to a serious scandal. Yes, there was the plagiarism thing, but his hands have stayed out of the cookie jar. Biden is guilty of outbursts of honesty...like when he tells the world that the middle class has been buried for the past four years. Say what you may about this guy, he does not have a dark cloud of scandal following him around.

Clinton survived his scandal because he kept the wheels of production rolling. Nixon on the other hand, looked dirtier with every oil shortage, every price increase, and every foreign policy boondoggle. Clinton was competent but dishonest. Nixon was incompetent and dishonest.

The fact that Obama is still in the game at this stage of a disastrous four years tells us that we have undergone a shift. Can anyone defend Obama's record? Anyone? Binders and bayonets and Big Bird and a quarter billion dollar character assassination have served as successful distractions from a dismal job performance. I believe Richard Nixon was the worst president in US history. Give Obame a second term and he will knock Tricky Dick off his pedestal.

We do need to distinguish between Obama's duplicity and his corruption bona fides. Both are testaments to his dishonesty but duplicity is not necessarily indictable. For brevity, let's focus on the overt corruption.

Before his presidential campaign we had a shady Rezko real estate deal and Michelle receiving $300, 000 for a no-show job. Let's skip over his anti-transparent background and the undisclosed benefactor who footed the bill for Obama's education. Yes, it is pertinent that a man of humble means spent a six-figure sum to complete his education but did not reveal college loans in any of his financial filings (even though his wife said they had paid off student loans.)

The 2008 Democratic Primary was marred by blatant cheating right from the onset. Chicago thugs moved to Iowa and tiltted the caucus is Obama's favor. Caucusgate had begun. See the previous posts to Caucusgate at thisd site.

With Hillary crushed, the Obama Campaign used shady (read illegal) financing to crush John McCain. They would have won without stuffing the ballot boxes but Wikileaks revealed that the Obama campaign padded their numbers in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Got to keep the skills sharp.

The Obama Presidency was marred by scandal from the starting gun. The GM bancruptcy that deviated from law to benefit the UAW at the expense of the non-union Saturn workers. The Chrysler reorganization also seemed to benefit the politically-connected dealers over the unsanctioned dealerships.

There was Solyndra and other green energy fiascos. There was the ongoing funneling of money to General Electric in the form of government contracts (perfectly legal by the way) in exchange for promoting a 24 hour cable attack network that would spew truth, half-truth and lies to destroy political enemies. The stimulus dollars seemed to gravitate to Obama supporters.

Then there was Fast and Furious, the MF Global cover-up, the IRS harrassment of opposition groups, the DOJ harrassment of Romney donors, the DOJ intimidation of Gallup Polling and of course, there was the bump in the road in Benghazi.

The above is a brief summary of Obama scandal. If we factor in things like deleting California from unemployment statistics, we would have to write a large book to cover all of the chicanery. This is a corrupt administration fronted by a corrupt man.

Obama might still pull off this election. Does anyone doubt that he will flood battleground states non-citizens or citizens of other states? The Chicago Mob has a lot of other tricks at their disposal. Early voters in Nevada are already reporting fraud. Key battleground states might be tilted by the thumb on the scale.

Regardless of outcome, a political maxim will be put to rest. Obama has proved that one can be both corrupt and incompetent and still be a viable political player. Yes Barry, you can have it all.

Let's Hope That Facebook Does Not Count The Ballots

I can remember circa 1994 when I attended a party and the three of us who had email isolated ourselves from the culturally deprived mob and discussed email. We exchanged email addresses. I went home and exchanged emails and never again communicated with either of the two party-goers.

Fast forward to 2009. A twenty-something friend of mine insists that I join Facebook. She actually opened the account for me and added a few of her friends to my list. Then as now, I did not grasp many advantages to maintaining a Facebook account. It was like email in the mid-90's. I have Facebook. You have Facebook. Now what?

I did not seek out friends but a lot of people found me. To Facebook's credit, I did reconnect to some old friends and that made the entire experience worthwhile. But mostly I was Facebook friends with distant relatives who could not remember meeting me, ex-coworkers whom I had never been very close to, and friends of friends who wanted to expand their Facebook audience.

Not sure what to do with FB, I started submitting bogus status assessments. I claimed to be painting a snow shovel I had stolen off my neighbor's porch. I claimed to call a woman to report that her adult son's trash contained beer bottles and to later report that his cable bill included charges for dirty movies. I claimed to dognap poodles in hopes of collecting a reward. I claimed to spy on my neighbors with binoculars and to secretly record AA meetings.

I did have some fun with FB. I was amused to find out that some of my FB friends discussed me in private to determine if I was pulling their Facebook legs. I created a small town nuisance character who was fun to play. Some of my real life friends played along with me. I would post that I had kidnapped a pooch in hopes of collecting a reward and John would then post that he was looking for his dog.

After two or three months of merriment I had to put FB aside, in part to devote more time to this blog. Fast forward to 2011. I have a product to sell and I have bought into the idea that one needs Facebook and Twitter to sell it. My FB account had now filled up with real family and real friends. I never hit up friends and family for sales. Never. So I opened a new FB account and a new Twitter account specifically for selling merchandise.

My time constraints being what they are, I decided to employ a social network expert to spread the word for me. I employed a contractor from Pakistan on Odesk. If you have not visited Odesk, please do so. You can employ people to do your online errands for you as well as recruit web developers, networking specialists, cartoonists. As long as the dollar holds up, common Americans can staff huge offshore work forces.

My social network specialist worked hard for me. For whatever reason, most of my FB friends on my new account would turn out to be professional hypnotists. He added his friends and his family. We both added friends from the industry of my previously mentioned product. My specialist tweeted twice/day and added followers.

The good news was that we had established a large social network. The bad news was that we did not move any product. I am sorry to say that I had to let my contractor go and last summer I awarded him a generous severance package. He would later write me a kind email thanking me for my generosity and he would inquire about my health, knowing I had undergone surgery last July. I was pleased to hear from him and should I ever do Odesk again, I would gladly rehire him.

Fast forward to today. I have not checked the other FB account in about two months but I am informed that my dormant account "likes" Barack Obama. I was livid. I had changed the password before letting my contractor go. I am the only person in the world who can use that account. Or so I thought.

Facebook is to social networking what the Chicago Machine is to politics. If a Cook County resident dies or simply stays home, he or she votes Democratic. I guess if one leaves their Facebook account dormant, they "like" Barack Obama.

Obama is the sleaziest politician in American History. If you can hear me Spiro, you are no longer the worst of the worst. The distinguishing characteristic of Obama is that he corrupts everything he touches. The news media. Social media. The Democratic Party. The Department of Justice. This bad apple has ruined a truckload of barrels. Rotten. Rotten. Rotten.

Having recently moved and still scrambling to find lost objects and to re-organize my new home as I face down Frankenstorm, Facebook is low priority. But be forewarned. Obama can only win by cheating and we would be fools to think he won't pull out every trick from his Chicago repertoire. Facebook today. America tomorrow?

ACORN revisited

Perhaps the most underreported news topic of this era is ongoing voter fraud. A recurring character in this story is ACORN. The cynic in me wants to believe that we don't hear much about ACORN because, like 99% of the news media, they are devoted to assisting the Democrats win elections. Here is a good starting point for all things ACORN.

http://rottenacorn.com/activityMap.html