Someone please tell Bill O’Reilly this, thanks.

Well put, I must say:

Northern intellectuals, then, need to get over their snobbery about the South. The Southern model is based on more than beggar-thy-neighbor policies. In any case, it seems to be working. On the other hand, the South’s boosters shouldn’t exaggerate its distinctiveness. Like the North, the South does best when it encourages innovation and high-skill employment. And that takes more than just cutting taxes and regulation. – Is America’s Future Southern? | The American Conservative

Someone finally said it, something that I have been thinking for a very long time.

Some tough questions for Sen. John McCain

In light of the grilling that Chuck Hagel received at the hands of the Jewish right, Paul Abrams has some very tough questions for John McCain:

1. You are trying to establish accountability for Benghazi where four Americans tragically died. For clarification, nearly 12 years later, could you tell us whom you hold accountable for 9/11/2001 when 3,000 Americans died?
2. No WMD were found in Iraq. Whom do you hold accountable for taking us into war based upon cherry-picking the information, deliberately misleading the American people and you?
3. Did you read the entire National Intelligence Estimate prior to voting for the Iraq War? What did you make of the doubts and uncertainties expressed in that document?
4. Prior to the invasion of Iraq, you said that we would be greeted as liberators and that the war would last 18 months. In fact, it lasted 9 years, 4,400 Americans were killed, 32,000 were seriously injured, and it cost more than $1 Trillion. Do you hold yourself accountable for that bad judgment? If so, what consequences are there to you for being so wrong?
5. Do you believe that the U.S. should support Israel’s foreign policy no matter what? If not, can you tell us what Israel has ever done with which you disagree?

These are questions that Independent thinking Americans, like myself, really want to know the answers to. Because the way I see if, the Republicans are going to bitch and gripe about Libya, then we should open it up to 9/11 as well. Who failed us? and why have they not been brought to justice too?

I admit it, in the beginning, I have some serious issues with what happened in Libya. I still think it could have been handled better than it was handled. But, the Republicans got the information that they wanted and yet, they still keep pressing for stuff that is just not there. You know why they keep pressing? Well, for one, partisanship and for two, they are resentful of a black President. It is just that simple. It is called racial resentment.

It is same thing that Obama did, when he let those 4 white guys die in Libya. He let them die, because they were white. Instead of the Republicans being better than Obama, they are playing the same game in reverse. It is sick and sad thing, and it sucks that the taxpayers money is paying for such monkeyshine nonsense!

Just my opinion.

Hillary Clinton goes on speaking tour

I would say that this is a sign that she is not running in 2016. But, these days, who knows? She could be doing the speaking tour to warm up for a political run in 2016.

EXCLUSIVE: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will hit the paid speaking circuit this spring (likely April or May) and has selected the Harry Walker Agency, which represents President Clinton, as her agent. Industry officials expect that she will be one of the highest paid speakers in the history of the circuit, with fees well into the six figures in the United States and abroad. Secretary Clinton will likely do some speeches for no fee for causes she champions, and expects to occasionally donate her fees for charitable purposes. Clinton, who will maintain her homes in Washington and Chappaqua, is also beginning to make decisions about the book she has said she will write, an account of her four years as secretary of State. Non-profit work will be another component of her new life, perhaps through her husband’s foundation or one of her own. — HILLARY CLINTON UNVEILS FIRST PHASE OF NEW LIFE -POLITICO.com

Either way, I wish her the best. I think it would be interesting to see Hillary Clinton and a Republican woman run for President. It would make for some interesting debates, especially on Abortion. If anything at all, it would be fun to see who could out-harpy the other. You know, two feminists, screaming at each other as to whom was the more self-important. It would, if anything, make for some very funny TV.

Just my opinion.

The Further Consequences of Wilsonian Foreign Policy in Iraq

This is what happens when you invade sovereign nations based upon bad intelligence and do not bother to verify said intelligence.

BAGHDAD – Car bombs struck two outdoor markets and a group of taxi vans in Shiite areas across Iraq on Friday, killing at least 36 people and wounding nearly 100 in the bloodiest day in more than two months, as minority Sunnis staged large anti-government protests.
Sunni protesters have rejected calls to violence by an Al Qaeda-linked group, but there is concern that Sunni insurgents could step up attacks ahead of the April 20 provincial elections — the first country-wide vote since the U.S. troop withdrawal more than a year ago.
via 4 car bombs at outdoor markets in Iraq kill at least 36, wound 100 | Fox News.

Now I am not going to sit here and write a posting blaming Bush for all the above. Yes, Bush was wrong about Iraq; but Bush has not been President since 2009, when he left office. Obama took the reigns of the Country and he now is the President, so, basically, Iraq was Obama’s baby when he took office. There are some who believe that Obama removed our troops too early; to be quite honest with you, I really do not agree with that at all. Because to be honest with you, our presence there was causing a good deal of friction in that Country, or at the very least, adding to the friction that was already there. Now the total anti-war people say that, if we would have never invaded Iraq, this above would not be happening; because Saddam would not tolerate it. This is true, but Saddam also was a brutal dictator, who did horrible things to his people as well. So, while it is not a good thing that we invaded that country, we did get rid of someone who was a horrible tyrant. This is why I never took, and still do not take a hard stance on the Iraq War and the middle east; because it is such a complex subject, and seems to get more complex by the minute. This is why I never really bought into the, “blood for oil” meme by the Democrats and the anti-war crowd. I did feel however, that once we got Saddam, we should have started making the moves to leave the Country.

However, I will say this; this Wilsonian bungle that did happen in Iraq, will be a black mark on America for a very long time to come. The Wilsonian foreign policy crowds biggest flaw, is that they cannot see past the end of their noses. They never look past the “here and now.” They always live in the moment. They do not stop to think about what might happen down the road; they never do. All they care about is defending Israel, no matter the cost of life or money. This is their fatal flaw and they have ruined America’s credibility around the World. What gets me is, how the Republicans like to blame Obama for ruining America’s standing in the World. The problem is, Obama is a very little part of that; the Neoconservatives, with their Wilsonian foreign policy ruined America’ reputation in just eight years time. True the Democrats did destroy the housing market and the economy. But, our standing in the World was done by Bush and the Neocons.

Anyone that tells you anything different than that, is either lying or a partisan. But, then again, I repeat myself.

Let’s hope that Donald Kaul’s next heart attack is fatal

This way there would be one less liberal progressive Democrat idiot walking around and drawing excess air. I say this, because of Donald Kaul wrote this stupidity right here:

Donald Kaul in the Des Moines Register:
Declare the NRA a terrorist organization and make membership illegal. Hey! We did it to the Communist Party, and the NRA has led to the deaths of more of us than American Commies ever did. (I would also raze the organization’s headquarters, clear the rubble and salt the earth, but that’s optional.) Make ownership of unlicensed assault rifles a felony. If some people refused to give up their guns, that “prying the guns from their cold, dead hands” thing works for me.
via PJ Media » Modern Democratic ‘Fire-Eaters’.

…and we that disagree with the idea that guns should be outlawed are the violent ones. 🙄

I hope the idiot strokes out and dies, quickly. 😡

Just saying all, just saying….

I figure if he can be an ass, so can I. 😛

Oh Boy….

Yikes:

ATF UPDATE: Jones pick as ATF chief is in deeper trouble. “Earlier this week, Donald Oswald, a former Minneapolis FBI director and self-described Democrat, wrote to alert the Senate Judiciary Committee to Jones’ ‘atrocious professional reputation within the federal law enforcement community.’ . . . The newest flashpoint involves operation ‘Fearless Distributing,’ a Milwaukee sting operation in which the ATF set up a phony storefront targeting gun traffickers. A recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation found what it called a string of mistakes, including a military-style machine gun that ended up on the streets, and a robbery of the agency store that netted $35,000 in merchandise.”
This agency doesn’t seem to be ready for primetime.
via Instapundit » Blog Archive » ATF UPDATE: Jones pick as ATF chief is in deeper trouble. “Earlier this week, Donald Oswald, a for….

Reason I say, “Oh Boy….” for is this: I have heard from sources that are of the Alex Jones credibility that the ATF basically is an agency unto itself. I have also heard that they do not take too kindly to insults of this sort. So, if I were Glenn Reynolds, I would be real careful about making jokes at the expense of the ATF. As some of you know, I am also an Amateur Radio Operator, or Ham for sort. Well, once back in the late 1990’s, when I was a part of the BBS scene; I heard of a guy, who made a posting on a land-line bulletin board, basically mocking the ATF, saying something along these lines. Well, a week later the ATF was at his doorstep. They ended up busting the guy on an illegally modified AR-15. modified for automatic fire. The person ended up doing 15 years for that little stunt.

Now to be honest, I did not give that story much credibility; so, I used some of my contacts in the local and state governments around here, via Amateur Radio, to check on this story and sure enough it was true. As to what, if anything, prompted the raid, they could not tell me. But, the facts was, someone got a hard-on for a poster on Bulletin Board and it went downhill from there.

So, to Glenn and everyone else; I simply say this: Be careful. All it takes is some irate FBI or ATF agent to get a hard-on for you and you are done my friend. The Government does not need a reason to raid your house anymore. All they have to do is think you are doing something illegal and they can come in, with a no-knock raid and take everything you own; even if you did nothing wrong and getting your stuff back is like a nice day in hell.

Again, I would like to think that nothing would come of what Glenn wrote; but if I were in his shoes and I had a big traffic blog like his, there would be no way in Hades that I would ever write anything of that sort on my blog. There are too many agencies out there data mining, and there are too many agencies with people snooping; especially at the Pentagon.

In short: Watch it and be safe….and smart.

Ronald Brownstein at National Journal confirms what I have believed for a while

That is that the Democrats have basically told the “Blue Dogs” to piss off and die:

With his suddenly aggressive second-term agenda, President Obama is recasting the Democratic Party around the priorities of the growing coalition that reelected him—and, in the process, reshaping the debate with the GOP in ways that will reverberate through 2016 and beyond. On issues from gay rights to gun control, immigration reform, and climate change—all of which he highlighted in his ringing Inaugural Address last week—Obama is now unreservedly articulating the preferences of the Democratic “coalition of the ascendant” centered on minorities, the millennial generation, and socially liberal upscale whites, especially women. Across all of these issues, and many others such as the pace of withdrawal from Afghanistan and ending the ban on women in combat, Obama is displaying much less concern than most national Democratic leaders since the 1960s about antagonizing culturally conservative blue-collar, older, and rural whites, many of whom oppose them. —- Why Obama Is Giving Up on Right-Leaning Whites – NationalJournal.com

I can tell you now; if the Democrats believe that this sort of thing will be good for the future of the party; and for winning elections — they are very wrong. Because there are not enough white city liberals to win an election. The Republicans did do some outreach to the heartland and to some typically very liberal areas, with some good success. Could you imagine, if the Republicans finally were actually able to get someone to connect with those people?

I also believe that another reason the white, rural, Conservative Democrats are feeling alienated from the Democrats is because every time there is a shooting of some sort; the Democrats want to try to push though some sort of gun ban. Which is quite frankly, stupid. Because whether the Democrats want to admit it or not; Guns are a part of the culture of America and this goes way back into history. The United States of America was founded at the end of gun. We fought wars to make our separation from the British stick with guns. We also quelled a southern rebellion with guns.

So, this whole entire idea that we have to disarm society is quite frankly un-American. The Democrats need to learn that lesson, or they will pay dearly for it in the next coming elections in 2014 and 2016. Because the American people are just not going to pick a political party that wants to make us into Europe. Just is not going to happen at all.

More via Memeorandum

Ed Koch RIP

Video:

The Story via the New York Times:

Edward I. Koch, the master showman of City Hall, who parlayed shrewd political instincts and plenty of chutzpah into three tumultuous terms as mayor of New York with all the tenacity, zest and combativeness that personified his city of golden dreams, died Friday morning at age 88.
Mr. Koch’s spokesman, George Arzt, said the former mayor died at 2 a.m. from congestive heart failure. He was being treated at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital.
Mr. Koch had experienced coronary and other medical problems since leaving office in 1989. But he had been in relatively good health despite — or perhaps because of — his whirlwind life as a television judge, radio talk-show host, author, law partner, newspaper columnist, movie reviewer, professor, commercial pitchman and political gadfly.

He will be, however, remembered for this:

Out of office, Mr. Koch remained influential in New York politics. He crossed party lines to support Mr. Giuliani in the 1993 mayoral election, an endorsement crucial to Mr. Dinkins’s defeat. But Mr. Koch later turned against Mr. Giuliani, flaying him as “a good mayor but a terrible person” and refusing to endorse him for a second term.
Mr. Koch endorsed Mr. Bloomberg’s successful races for mayor as a Republican in 2001 and 2005, calling him about “as Republican as I am.” (Mr. Bloomberg later refashioned himself as an independent.) And when Mr. Bloomberg engineered a legislative finesse of term-limits laws to run for a third term in 2009, Mr. Koch backed him and called for an end to term limits.
In presidential races, Mr. Koch went back and forth. He supported the losing Democratic ticket of Al Gore and Joseph I. Lieberman in 2000, but joined the Bush-Cheney re-election bandwagon in 2004 and promoted the Republican National Convention in New York, urging New Yorkers to “make nice” to conventioneers. By 2008, he was back with the Democrats, supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the nomination and, when she lost, switching to Mr. Obama.

Now, I do not normally speak ill of the dead; but I will say this: Mayor Koch switched to a Republican stance, because of terrorism and what it did to NYC — that ,I fully understand. I was one of the many who watched 9/11 unfold on television in 2001 on CNN. I found it to be totally unbelievable that we were witnessing an attack on American soil. It was worse than pearl harbor. At the time, I was not really politically active. But, I found the Democrats response to 9/11 and the subsequent cries for “no war” to be sickening. At the time, I felt that we should bombed the entire Arab world for what happened on that day.

Koch also understood that what happen on 9/11 was a horrible thing and when the Democrats decided to play the role of “lets all just get along,” Koch switched sides. It earned him the praise of the people of NYC at the time; but it earned him the scorn of the political elite of the Democratic Party.

As for the man’s sexuality, I could honestly give two flips about that; if he was gay at all. You would have never known it about him, he never looked the part at all. Except for that high-pitched Curly Howard sounding voice of his — which is very common in that ethnic group.

Put very simply; the man was a leader, something that New York City needed at the time; and he did well at leading the city during a very tough time. One thing he said in that video up there, that I posted; which I found to be very poignant is “You don’t spend money that you do not have!” I only wish that our leaders in Washington D.C. would truly learn that lesson; before America goes into a meltdown. My friends, that is not a Republican or a Conservative position; that is a position of common sense. Something that is sorely lacking in this modern day and age.

Rest in peace Koch, you damned well earned it.

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Hope and Change: Government drops probe of possible inside trading by media companies

Hmmmmm… Maybe Cornell West has a point:

The dismissal of an investigation into major media companies suspected of giving clients a sneak peek at crucial data drew great surprise on Wall Street, where traders make their living profiting from blips of information moving at the speed of light. Federal authorities had been pursuing allegations that various media companies — including Bloomberg LP, Thomson Reuters and Dow Jones and Co. — leaked key economic data to select investors, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. But the investigators dropped the probe, according to the paper, in part because they could not conclusively determine that investors were able to use the advance look at the numbers to extract profits. Wall Street analysts pronounced that explanation baffling, noting that in modern markets — fueled by high-frequency trading and robotic transactions — a mere fraction of a second can be enough to execute trades worth billions of dollars. — Government Drops Insider Trading Probe Of Media Companies, Baffling Investors

How much you want to bet that these companies told Obama, “You want our support? You had better call off your dogs on this probe.” How much you want to bet that this is what went down? I would be willing to bet you a nice steak dinner, with all the trimmings that is what happened here. This is why I did not support the Democrats this time around; because I knew this is what was going to happen. Believe you me, it would not have been any better with Hillary either; she is bought and paid for like the rest of them.

This is why I won’t be voting for Democrats in 2014 or 2016; because they are two sides of the same coin. Bought out, corrupt, self-serving vermin is all that they are, anyone that believes anything else; is crazy.

I think Americans understand the Republican message just fine

I really do:

(Reuters) – Days after President Barack Obama’s inauguration, Republican leaders said on Sunday their party needed to change the way it communicates, not its ideas, to win back the White House. Former Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, appearing in his first live television interview since the November 6 election, said his party needs to demonstrate that Republican ideas can improve people’s lives. “We have to show our ideas are better at fighting poverty, how our ideas are better at solving healthcare, how our ideas are better at solving the problems people are experiencing in their daily lives,” the Wisconsin congressman told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. Governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia, where Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney campaigned aggressively and lost by 4 percentage points, said his party’s message has failed to reach voters who don’t pay close attention to politics. “I think they don’t understand the conservative message,” McDonnell told CNN’s “State of the Union.” — Republicans blame message, not ideas, for failures | Reuters

The Republican message is understood just fine by Americans; and that is that we should privatize social security, and that we should turn medicare into a voucher system and put many disabled Americans at risk and that we should get rid of all the social safety net.

Which is why the Republican Party will never be in power again, unless they back away from the extremism of the far right or the Tea Party. The GOP could take some good steps to pay for the social safety net and pay down our debt. I have written about this many times before. Instead, the GOP would rather let it’s lackeys, like the Koch Brothers, who are Jewish, by the way; pick fights with the labor movement and have people like Governor Snyder pass bills that will do more to hurt Michigan’s economy than it will to help it.

Which is why the Republican Party, as far as this Independent Political writer is concerned, is the stupid party anymore. It is controlled by the banksters, and the protected minority thugs, who would sell America’s soul for the right price. Which why, in 2014 and 2016; my vote is up for grabs.