"The Manchurian Teleprompter" and other Fairy Tales.

Congressman John Conyers, a Democrat, who represents a district in eastern Michigan which includes part of Detroit, said it all last week.

“No I haven’t read it and I’m not going to read it. Hell I’d need 2 days and 2 lawyers to go through all the 1000 pages”. I’m tempted to add that it’s more than possible that Mr. Conyers has never read 1000 pages of anything in his entire life and that’s cumulative.

And, that’s OK I guess. The last time I checked the ability and/or willingness to read were not requirements for election. Except for one nagging fact.

Mr. Conyers is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, a passage through which the healthcare bill must pass. Anyway, he made that startling announcement during a speech at the National Press Club earlier this week.

So, do you think the guy will vote for it in Committee anyway? And, do you think he’ll somehow change his mind when it comes to a full House vote? You know the answer as well as I. And, you can take it to the bank that his ignorance will not be unique.

But the point is, how long can this great nation continue to be so while we return these clowns term after term after term?

One person knows this very well; it’s the “Manchurian Teleprompter” also known as Obama! He doesn't know what's in the bill either and you can tell that by his non-answers to what should be easy questions. Significant among these was the "deer trapped in the headlights" look when he was first asked about the compulsory counseling on end-of-life choices for Medicare recipients. Shades of "Logan's Run"?

Another facet of this unsurprising revelation is that, if the bill is so incapable of being understood, then what do you think are the chances for successful implementation and real benefit to the American public at large? I contend not much!

The political ramifications are huge and the fact remains that the Democrats do not need GOP support in order to ram it down our throats. They have the raw numbers in both the Senate and the House and so, if it fails to pass muster, it will not be because Republicans did not support it. This is precisely why I would like to see every GOP member vote, “No” or better yet, don’t vote either way. Let the liberals twist in the wind alone.

For more than a week now Pelosi has insisted that she has the votes in the House to ensure passage. This is pure humbug because, if she did, Obama wouldn’t have spent day after day jetting around the country in Air Force One trying to drum up support.

And, if you’re looking for a final commentary on the whole sorry mess, you need look no further than Obama’s own family doctor in Chicago. His verdict was that the measure has no chance of working as promised.

“It’s doomed”, he said.

The Yanks ............

I was born just before World War II started in Europe, namely, in September of 1939 and ever since I was old enough to know what was what, the British have felt somehow cheated about it. Don’t get me wrong now, the British are rightfully proud of their stance alone and their acceptance of a crippling share of the burden imposed but they feel resentful and I think I know why …….

Rodney Dangerfield put it as well as anyone when he said. “I don’t get no respect!”

Part of their issue can be traced back not just to “loss of Empire” but also to a loss of perceived respect or, more pedantically, a loss of respect as they perceive it. Never mind what actually happened before 1945. Hollywood; seems to insist that D –Day was all about Omaha beach and the Battle of Britain was won by American-manned squadrons of the RAF. Well we and history know that’s not the case but the resentment persists.

The problem was then, and still is the same; the “Yanks”.

I remember two lines above all others from my childhood about this period. One was, “they only come in when the war is won”. The other was, “they’re overpaid, oversexed and over here”. They, of course, was us, the big us, the US, the United States.

Clearly with this post I risk the wrath of my British readers. And I do care about that because, equally clearly, I have many allegiances over there except for one, my citizenship. But I do admit an intellectual foot in both camps.

Now, why would I bring this up now and what relevance can it possibly have?

And, the answer is Afghanistan and the war that is going on there. Way back on the campaign trail, Obama declared that this was a “just war” and, indeed, he’s cranked up the American participation in that theater so now it’s Obama’s War with a vengeance. This month, July of 2009, has seen the greatest loss of life since the conflict began almost 8 years ago.

That fact is drawing very little media attention here in the US precisely because it’s Obama’s war and the love fest continues. Not so much in the UK and other NATO countries where murmurings of dissatisfaction are turning into a clamor. And that hasn’t been reported here either.

Where is Code Pink? Where are all the Hollywood “limousine liberals”? Where is Cindy Sheehan?

It may be Obama’s “just war” but the brave young men and women are just as dead.

But there is more and, to my mind, it makes it more shameful; the new “rules of engagement” require that the US Military must not use deadly force if civilians may be hurt. Consider that and then go further. The Taliban do not wear uniforms. The Taliban, just like Hamas in Gaza, site their rocket launchers next to schools and hospitals.

So Obama sends more and more of our brave young men and women into harm’s way with one hand tied behind their back.

Let’s see the flag-draped coffins being unloaded at Andrews AFB.

It’s one thing to die for your country but quite another to have been stopped from fighting back.

The Mask ..... and the man behind it

Any objective mind that reads “Dreams of my Father” cannot escape the inevitable. The author was, of course, Obama and the inevitable is that the book reveals just how racist he may be. For the most part, the racism remains hidden when it suits him, which is most of the time if you want to get elected, but its there nevertheless and, were he ever to overlook it, Michelle would be quick to remind him. Just as soon as she'd kicked off her Prado's in the Residence after she'd returned from her latest shopping spree and ordered that they be cleaned.

The very word “racism” carries negative connotations for some people even though it probably shouldn’t be so; how about “interracial awareness” instead?

Now I suspect that all of this may be uncomfortable for some of his supporters who sought to expiate their guilt for years of slavery and its aftermath and so they voted for him.

Let’s look at the press conference on Wednesday evening when the subject was supposed to be healthcare. After the rambling responses to the press corps’ initial round of questions, Obama came alive for the first time when some plant in the audience asked about the sad saga of Professor Gates from Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Until now I’ve stayed away from this topic as I watched, with everyone else, Obama dig himself a hole. But as to the event itself, I’ll restrict myself to two points.

I live in a nice quiet area but even so we have a “Neighborhood Watch” program in place. This requires that all the participants be aware of their environment and to act should they detect anything or anybody untoward. The recommended action is to call the emergency services. In the case of Cambridge, this is exactly what Gates’ neighbor did. Now if I’d been in Mr. Gates’ shoes I would have been thanking both the police officer and the neighbor for their efforts to protect my property. Instead Mr. Gates chose to “mouth off”.

The other point is that Gates, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and countless other blowhards immediately started yelling about racial profiling. This is plainly preposterous in these circumstances. If the police officer had found both Mr. Gates, who is black of course, (just in case you hadn’t figured that out) and a white guy at the scene and then had decided that, based on that difference alone he was going to concentrate on the black, that would be racial profiling.

We know that is not what happened but what did happen is that Obama himself leapt into the fray and pronounced it an act of racial profiling and compounded it by declaring the individual police sergeant and his brother officers were “Stupid”. Needless to say, this did not sit well with police departments and unions across the country and faced with this growing firestorm, Obama was forced to try to defuse the very crisis that he had stoked.

Does anybody think that Obama would have intervened in the first place if Gates were white and the cop was black?

But, this whole mess does tell us something about Obama that he has sought to hide from the American electorate. Like an Al Sharpton he does not wait to get all the facts before playing the race card and he admitted as much.

For a brief moment the mask of urbane sophistication slipped and we saw the true Obama. Suddenly what we saw was not Presidential. What we saw was an ACORN leader. What we saw was a Community Agitator.

Strictly for the Birds!

One of these days I’ll get to write the post I planned about a week ago but today will not be the day. Let me explain!

I live in the desert Southwest and I like it. But so do the pigeons who view my pool as their personal watering hole. If that was all there was to it I wouldn’t be writing this but trust me, they see more than that and I’m sure you can figure it out.

But, they’ve taken on an adversary such as they haven’t seen in a while.

So has Obama who was on TV again yesterday trying to breathe new life into his healthcare program even though he’s never read it and cannot answer questions about its implementation.

There is a senator from Iowa called Charles Grassley who reports that at least one blue-dog Democrat has been told by Obama that, “opposition to healthcare reform threatens his presidency”. Perhaps this is, indeed, his “Waterloo.” Well now we see where his priorities lay; “It’s all about Me, the Anointed One, Lord Obama the Most Merciful”.

Then we must look at Jim Demint from South Carolina who, on TV yesterday morning, responded to Matt Lauer’s “insightful probing”. The senator suggested some questions that should have been asked of Obama last night but they weren’t.

Notable among these were:-

If the measures of the healthcare bill don’t go into effect until 2013, why the rush?

Every monitor of costs including the Congressional Budget Office and others shows an increase in cost. Do you agree?

If a company decides that it can no longer continue the coverage they provide to all their employees and so they decide that they can either up their costs or drop employees. Which should they do?

Will presidents and members of Congress be required to use the “public” option?

But, you get my point, I hope.

As the drip, drip, drip of public opinion goes on, it is clear that “the times they are a’changin”. And they are for, as Rasmussen reports today, only 47% of Americans support Obama’s bill. So for the first time Obama faces opposition from the Senate, many Democrats in the House, the majority of Governors across the country and, last but no means least, the Great American Public. And the more everyone learns about the subject, the greater that push-back becomes which is the reason for the rush.

It may come as a shock to Obama but no amount of teleprompter-sourced oratory is going to change that opposition.

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright almost nailed it but not quite. It’s not America’s pigeons that are coming home to roost.

No, No, No they’re Obama’s pigeons and I’m prepared to send him some of mine as well.

The Drunk Uncle who just won't shut up .....

While I cannot claim my action is as close to being as worthy as those led by Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King; nevertheless I committed an act of civil disobedience today. It was only a little act but it was done for the right reasons in my book and it felt so good.

My AARP (American Association for Retired Persons, for those from Lake Havasu) renewal subscription was due and I decided against it. It’s not that I’ve decided to “unretire” but rather that I’ve decided to put my $12.50 elsewhere. Well you may ask; why such a drastic step?

At an AARP town meeting last week Joe Biden uttered these immortal words.

“So when people ask me; Joe are you telling me that we should spend money to stop us from going bankrupt? I say Yes, that’s exactly what I’m telling you”.

Oh, my heavens!

I’ve known two people who’ve declared bankruptcy in the last few years and I’m pretty certain that they would be amazed to learn where and how they went wrong.

One of the reasons I, and many like me, follow sports is precisely because in that world it’s results that count.

So too in the business world where I worked. During all those years, I met many apparently talented people who wanted, I’m sure, to do a good job but didn’t. As I said they had good intentions; they showed up early and stayed late; they were enthusiastic at meetings. But they didn’t get the job done. Some were fired and some became managers but the latter point may become the stuff of a future post.

In other words, just because you “intend” to do a good job, doesn’t mean you will. But, in the mind of the Obama administration, intent is all that matters. So, the first and the second stimulus packages didn’t work, maybe we need a third. Why?

Because Joe Biden says that the way out of bankruptcy is to spend more money? What kind of insanity is that?

Perhaps Biden is dumb enough to believe it. I know his boss isn’t and doesn’t but he has a different agenda altogether and one that is beyond Joe's ken.

I nearly forgot to mention why I tore up my AARP renewal! The reason was that the people at Biden’s Town Hall meeting applauded and cheered his idiotic assertion. Surely, their experience tells them the opposite.

That said, though, I’ve never understood why NOW (National Organization of Women) has never denounced radical Islam or why the Unions have not denounced illegal immigration or why 70% of the Jewish people in the US voted for Obama. After all, on the latter point, only 6% of Israelis think that he holds their welfare dear.

Anyway, all that is what led to the act of civil disobedience. I didn't spend the money. Well not on AARP anyway. Instead, I upped my contribution to the NRA (National Rifle Association). They at least fight for me and my beliefs.

Someone once said that the Vice-President’s main job was to sit outside the Oval Office waiting to hear the President cough.

With this team, I’m spoiled for choice or, more precisely the lack of it ……..

Life is one big Test, Are you prepared?

I never really minded tests when I was in school and even after. I would probably have scored higher on most of them if I’d taken more time to study beforehand and more time to actually complete it.

That’s what comes I suppose of being both a Type A person and having a good memory. Well, I guess I’m stuck with the former and I hope that the latter stays around too.

But, back to tests:-

Indulge me for a moment and come up with the test of your choice. Now select any appropriate population sample and give them time to study. Now comes test day and the results are eventually scored. This should be no surprise but some will pass and some will fail.

For those brought up in parts of the California School System; yes, I know it's shocking but it is possible to actually fail, but I digress again ….

So, in order to get back on track, let’s take a look at New Haven, Connecticut, way back where a test was scheduled in order to produce a shortlist for promotion within their fire department.

Those tested waited with breathless anticipation. And then the results were announced. Guess what? Some passed and some failed. So far, so good but wait there was a snag. Not all the white candidates passed nor did all the Hispanics. As expected some passed and some failed.

But because every black applicant failed, the test was ruled invalid by the City of New Haven. Would someone please explain to me what question or questions could be asked that some Whites and Hispanics could handle but would remain incomprehensible to all our African-American fellow citizens. Or was it simpler than that? Could it be that not all applicants put in the pre-test work? Or could it be that the Black applicants, consciously or unconsciously, felt they could rely on Affirmative Action and, therefore, study and preparation were not needed.

You decide.

Can you imagine how the men and women felt when they learned that all their midnight oil was in vain?

Now I’ll fast forward through all the lower court machinations and we’ll get to the second circuit based in New York. And there sits Judge Sotomayor.

She ruled that because all the Blacks failed the test, there must be something wrong with the test and, therefore the City of New Haven was justified in ignoring the whole process.

Again, ignoring all the intermediate legal sparring, the case wound up in the Supreme Court of the United States and was adjudicated about a month ago. The firefighters were right and the City of New Haven was wrong.

And so was Sotomayor!

Again!

La Semana de La Raza

It's been obvious for years that liberals have no regard for the, as yet, unborn but now it seems they'll eat their young as well.

Some liberal law professors are beside themselves at the perfidy of the Justice designate.

Liberal law professors, especially those seeking tenure, wear their idiocy just like a badge of honor but Judge Sotomayor has decided she wants the job as a Supreme and she’ll lie to get it. But, what the law professors wanted her to do was to use the hearing as a forum to proclaim their vision of nirvana.

And then, when it appeared she would not do that, one of them, from Georgetown University I think, turned on her. “Well, if she really believes what she’s saying now then her confirmation should be denied on the grounds of legal inconsistency. But, if she doesn’t it should be denied on the grounds of perjury.”

Strong words indeed!

In whatever direction the truth lays, I think it might be constructive to look at this hearing in the context of those that have gone before and so, with your indulgence, we will.

Every time a Democrat senator has talked during this Senate hearing on nominee Sonia Sotomayor this week, I felt lousy about my adopted country. Not for the usual reasons when a Democrat talks, but because Democrats revel in telling us what a racist country this is.

Interestingly, the Democrats' examples of ethnic prejudice did not include Clarence Thomas, whose nomination hearings began with the Democrats saying, "You may now uncuff the defendant."

Their examples did not include Miguel Estrada either, the brilliant Harvard-educated lawyer who was blocked from an appellate court judgeship by Senate Democrats expressly on the grounds that he is a Hispanic -- as stated in Democratic staff memos that became public.

No, they had to go back to Roger Taney -- confirmed in 1836 -- who was allegedly attacked for being a Catholic (and who authored the Dred Scott decision), and Louis Brandeis -- confirmed in 1916 -- allegedly a victim of anti-Semitism.

Indeed, Sen. Patrick Leahy lied about Estrada's nomination, blaming it on Republicans: "He was not given a hearing when the Republicans were in charge. He was given a hearing when the Democrats were in charge."

The fact is that the Republicans were "in charge" for precisely 14 days between Estrada's nomination on May 9, 2001, and May 24, 2001, when Sen. Jim Jeffords switched parties, giving Democrats control of the Senate. The Democrats then refused to hold a hearing on Estrada's nomination for approximately 480 days, shortly before the 2002 election.

Even after Republicans won back a narrow majority in 2003, Estrada was blocked "by an extraordinary filibuster mounted by Senate Democrats" -- as The New York Times put it.

Memos from the Democratic staff of the Judiciary Committee were later unearthed, revealing that they considered Estrada "especially dangerous" -- as stated in a memo by a Sen. Dick Durbin staffer -- because "he is Latino and the White House seems to be grooming him for a Supreme Court appointment."

Sandy Berger wasn't available to steal back the memos, so Durbin ordered Capitol Police to seize the documents from Senate computer servers and lock them in a police vault. Led by Senators Leahy and Chuck Schumer, Democrats ferociously opposed Estrada, who would have been the first Hispanic to sit on the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. They were so determined to keep him off the Supreme Court that Leahy and Schumer introduced legislation at one point to construct a fence around Estrada's house.

In frustration, Estrada finally withdrew his name on Sept. 5, 2003. At the time, liberal historian David Garrow predicted that if the Democrats blocked Estrada, they would be "handing Bush a campaign issue to use in the Hispanic community."

Alas, but not surprisingly today, Democrats can't really place Estrada -- James Carville confuses him with that other Hispanic, Alberto Gonzales. On MSNBC they laugh about his obscurity, asking if he was the cop on "CHiPs." They also can't recall the name "Anita Hill." Nor can anyone remember African-American Janice Rogers Brown or what the Democrats did to her.

Only the indignities suffered by Justices Taney and Brandeis still burn in liberal hearts! So when Republicans treat Sotomayor with respect and Sen. Lindsey Graham says his "hope" is that "if we ever get a conservative president and they nominate someone who has an equal passion on the other side, that we will not forget this moment," I think it's a lovely speech.

It might even persuade me if I were born yesterday. But Democrats treat judicial nominations like war -- while Republicans keep being gracious, hoping Democrats will learn by example.

Sen. Teddy Kennedy accused Reagan nominee Robert Bork of trying to murder women, segregate blacks, institute a police state and censor speech -- everything short of driving a woman into a lake! -- within an hour of Reagan's announcing Bork's nomination.

To defend "the right to privacy," liberals investigated Bork's video rentals. (Alfred Hitchcock, the Marx Brothers' movies and Ruthless People -- the last one supposedly a primer for dealing with the Democrats.) Heaven forbid they found a rental slip for “Anybody doing Pelosi”.

Liberals unleashed scorned woman Anita Hill against Clarence Thomas in the 11th hour of his hearings to accuse him of sexual harassment -- charges that were believed by no one who knew both Thomas and Hill, or by the vast majority of Americans watching the hearings.

But when the tables were turned and Bill Clinton nominated left-wing extremist/ACLU lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Republicans lavished her with praise and voted overwhelmingly to confirm her, in a 96-to-3 vote. (Poor Ruth. If Sotomayor is confirmed, Ginsburg will no longer be known as "the hot one in the robe.")

The next Clinton nominee, Stephen Breyer, was also treated gallantly -- no video rental records or perjurious testimony was adduced against him -- and confirmed in an 87-to-9 vote.

As Mrs. Sam Alito can attest, the magnanimity was not returned to Bush's Supreme Court nominees. She was driven from the hearings in tears by the Democrats' vicious attacks on her husband's character.

The great "uniter" Barack Obama voted against both nominees.

Even Justice Ginsburg recently remarked to The New York Times that her and Justice Breyer's hearings were "unusual" in how "civil" they were. Hmmm, why might that be?

To the extent that the Sotomayor hearings have been less than civil, it is, again, liberals who have made it so, launching personal attacks against the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions, and even the fireman whose complaint started the Ricci case.

But it was a nice speech.

The only one grinning is the Cheshire Cat ..

OK, Obama disciples talk your way out of this one.

Dateline: September 12, 2008

“I can make you a firm pledge that if you make less than $250,000 a year you will see no increase in any of your taxes. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains tax, not anywhere. In other words, your income will not suffer."

This has to be the Obama equivalent of,” Read my lips; No new taxes” uttered by the first President Bush. Well it cost him a second term and let’s hope history repeats itself. Again you have to remember that Obama is a lawyer and parsing words is that profession’s stock-in-trade.

Now time alone will tell if even he can parse his way out of the inevitable revelation that he did not tell the truth about taxes but let’s say he can but let’s also look at a mythical household like yours.

Assume a gross income of $100,000 and assume that right now you pay $25,000 in the various taxes. Now let’s say you pay $3000 to your local utility company for electricity and now you’re left with $72,000.

Obama has said it, and the House has proposed that the goal is to make so-called “green energy “the cheapest available. Now this would be great except for one thing; the only way to keep that promise is by making the sources we have today more expensive and Obama has said that too. Now just who does that hurt? Why, only the poorest of society who are supposed to be his strongest proponents.

Remember our mythical family budget which had $75,000 after tax but now deduct say, $4000 in utility costs and our family is down by a $1000 before we know it. Now I’m not pretending that someone making $100,000 is poor but I simply used that number in order that readers from Lake Havasu could follow the math. In any event our family is now down to $71,000.

And this isn’t some “maybe” or “could be”. There are two power companies locally known as Arizona Power Supply (APS) and the Salt River Project (SRP). The latter has this very day announced an almost 9% rate hike. But the inflation that would result from “Cap & Trade” doesn’t end with electricity prices.

Let’s say you started a small business making garbage cans a few years ago and despite all the odds it has succeeded. Diligence, hard work and a smattering of good luck have paid off to the extent that you want to expand and open a new manufacturing location in the next state. On top of all the usual bureaucratic-induced cost inherent in such a venture you now have to contend with the “Carbon Credit” issue. Some bean-counter somewhere has to figure out the “carbon footprint” for the new location and you have to buy carbon credits to match it.

Yes, you read me correctly; I did say “Buy”. Under Cap & Trade these United States will have a fixed allocation of credits and before your new “Nevada Garbage Can Inc.” produces its first product you will have to shell out cold hard cash. Of course, you are not alone in this quest and you are up against every giant corporation in the country for this finite resource. Even those from Lake Havasu know that competition for a finite resource means only one thing. The price goes up!

Corporations though are not in business just for the fun of it so if their costs go up they will pass those on to customers in the form of higher prices. Guess what, we’re all customers and we will pay which erodes the $71,000 left to our family yet again. And that same family cannot simply shop elsewhere because all American companies face the same burden. Of course the family and millions like them can choose to buy foreign products at a lower price. But what does that do for employment?

Al Gore, the ex-VP was in England last night and spoke at either Oxford or Cambridge. The Nobel Prizewinner proclaimed that he brought good news from the United States to the illustrious gathering before him. Not about global warming because even Ozone Al is having a hard time selling that these days, but he said it signalled an acceptance of "Global Governance".

Not by me it doesn't!! Because he means control. And that's what this is all about. PBS can show gut-wrenching video about a polar bear mommy on a melting ice-floe trying desperately to feed her adorable cubs while a few hours after the speech, Ozone Al is at 40,000 feet above their habitat in his Gulfstream V.

Your homework assignment is to calculate that flight's carbon footprint. Then you tell me if it's about global warming or "Global Governance"?

Even the most strident liberal should see the dilemma here; one worthy of Lewis Carroll’s Alice. If you don’t, there’s a community in Lake Havasu where you would feel right at home!

Obama to Jacko: " Please come back again and again and again ...."

It seems that, at the moment, minorities rule the airwaves in this country. I knew this to be true when, last week some demented caller phoned an Al Sharpton hosted radio talk show with the conspiracy theory to end all such.

Anyway, this woman had “heard” that the reason that Sarah Palin had decided to withdraw from the active political scene was because she, Ms. Palin, was somehow involved in the death of Michael Jackson. And the Reverend Al in his response said, “Interestin, let’s put it out there. Who knows?

Now, Dick Cheney calling in the attacks on the World Trade Center because his insurance broker thought it was a sound investment. That ought to be the conspiracy theory of all time except some on the left in this country actually believe it. If so, the Vice-President truly must be in "Good Hands".

But speaking of “Jacko”, I don’t know where the body is right now but I do hope the embalmers employed did a great job because, if they didn’t, even entombed in a gold coffin, there might be more than a whiff of corruption. Not that I want one or anything like it, but where do you get one of those. Las Vegas perhaps? I know one thing, it won't be Tel Aviv.

Now, that’s a word that sums up Jacko to the hilt. His body is corrupting as we speak but, long before that, he corrupted his own body by virtue of his determined attempts to change who we was.

As far as I know, there isn’t yet a real effort to have an official memorial postage stamp and as far as I know a public holiday in his honor is not on the cards either. If it were to happen every child molester in the country both overt and covert would be holding “love-ins” in public bathrooms. With NAMBLA leading the way. By the way, somewhere I read that there was already a day of Kwanza commemorating Michael Jackson. Truly! It celebrated the day he turned white!

I worked in San Francisco for many years. I once attended the Exotic Erotic Ball so anything that 2 or more people want to do in private or in public is fine with me. But they have to be willing and they have to be of age.

OK, I know I should stop sounding like the cable news outlets; you know what I mean, “All Michael, All the time”, but there is one more snippet I’d like to add. Did you hear that Mattel is bringing out a new doll? For those from Lake Havasu, Mattel is the outfit responsible for Ken and Barbie.

Anyway the new doll is purported to be an anatomically correct version of Jacko. Only fair I suppose because now little kids will get to play with him as they go to sleep.

One thing that Jacko’s death did though, much to the relief of the Obama apologizers both on TV and elsewhere, was to divert attention from the real issues of the day. Perhaps Obama would like to see him die every week until “Cap &Tax” skates through and until “Obamacare” passes or until the unemployment rate stops rising or until Joe Biden learns to shut up!

And next week, it is the turn of another minority to hug the spotlight because next week it is;

La Semana de La Raza!

Coal is black. So is Michelle's purse!

The name of this Blog is “Obamameltdown” but I never dreamed when I started it last winter that the meltdown of the Obama phenomenon would begin this soon. I prayed and I hoped but this is amazing even with my meager interventions to the divine.

For the first time, a bunch of polls have started to indicate just that. Today’s ABC/Washington Post and Drudge and Gallup surveys all show less than a 50% approval. Rasmussen’s data got more granular when they reported that only 30% strongly approved of Obama’s policies and 38% didn’t.

I leave you to draw your own conclusions ….

Today’s post was going to be about foreign policy and, specifically, about the Middle East and even more specifically Obama’s abandonment of Israel.

But now, I’m conflicted because I don’t know whether to do a fashion piece or an economics piece. Even my devious mind cannot find a way to put all that together

So I’ll just write and see if a miracle happens.

It isn’t too long ago that Obama and his thugs were beating the crap out of corporate America for going to Las Vegas in order to reward and thank the people who had made their company successful. Think frugal they were told.

In other words, they were ordered to set an example or else.

So, last Monday I think, there was Ms. Obama striding through a Russian park with a $6000 purse. Weren’t we taught that one leads best if one leads through example? And weren’t we enjoined to think frugal? At least she didn’t wear the $600 sneakers. But, I guess, they’re reserved for visiting food banks.

OK, she can carry whatever she wants and even I could come up with $6000 if I had to but let’s turn to a sum of money that blows my mind and it all revolves again around the “Cap and Trade” bill which past the house a week ago.

I have written about this before but, when I did, I had no idea about the depth of the cesspool over which Nancy Pelosi presides.

When Cap and Trade came before the House for the first time it was DOA. So many Democrats were elected from “carbon heavy” districts and they told their leadership it was a no-go. So Pelosi and Waxman tried again and they proposed two solutions. One was bribery to members in some districts such as Toledo, Ohio. The other they thought was more subtle but they were wrong. Anyway, the idea was to create ‘islands” that would not be subject to the constraints within the legislation. For example, huge swathes of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and West Virginia would be beyond the pale. Now that pissed of Texas so Houston et al were added.

And that was how it stood until late one afternoon when some other aides actually read the text and nudged their bosses awake and pointed it out. When the house convened next there was pandemonium among the rest of the Democrats because they knew that they would have to explain to their potential electorate that they were being screwed. So, when they wouldn’t sign up for that, a new idea was floated and this is what will kill it eventually in the Senate.

Plan B or C, you call it, inserted wording that said, effectively, that the US would impose trade tariffs against any nation that sought to export any product into this country that would be cheaper than the US equivalent. Think, coal, oil, and natural gas for a start.

That would incite a trade war that we are ill-equipped to fight. Obama knows it and so does the Senate.

Now enter one Robert Byrd, the senior senator from the great state of West Virginia and recently out of a month-long hospital stay. He is 90 something and therefore unlikely to run again. But right or wrong,he would prefer to be remembered as the defender of coal miners than as a Ku Klux Klan member. As a result he is leading the charge to end this charade.

So, “Politics makes strange bedfellows” or so I read once.

For a brief period, Senator Byrd, more strength to your arm.

From Russia, with not much ........

It’s an old truism that a week is a long time in politics!

A corollary of this same belief is that, for a president, a couple of months is an eon.

Think back to Berlin last year and then fast forward through Cairo a few weeks ago and now look at the latest trip. There are huge differences in the receptions accorded to Obama over that period.

Obama draws oxygen from the adulation of crowds. The trip to Russia tells the story of a man who cannot compete with his own expectations. And the sad thing is Obama knows it but yet he feels powerless to do anything about it.

But, before we go any further, let's look at Russia for a moment or two. For a start, their economy is no better than a third world country, their population is shrinking and cannot sustain their new welfare programs. As evidence of that, consider that more than 2/3 of pregnancies end in abortion. And the reason why is also clear; the parents see no future for their foetus.

Now, by this time, we should be used to Obama going abroad and apologizing for everything from slavery to global warming to, well, you name your real or perceived shortcoming. On the other hand, he’s very good at praising other nations and societies for their achievements even though the claims are demonstrably false.

Wouldn’t it be nice if, every once in a while, he would criticize what’s wrong with other countries and praise his own?

But, back to Russia for a while. Obama’s press conference earlier this week wasn’t even shown on Russian television. Instead they elected to air a rerun of a local soccer game. Then Obama went to a graduation ceremony for a Moscow business school. And only the end of his speech was greeted with polite but muted applause. There were no scenes of delirium, no mink papakhas being tossed onto the stage. By the way, for those from Lake Havasu, a “papakha” is nothing more exotic than a fur hat.

Now, why did the students sit on their hands until the last moment? Well, for a start, he apologized for the part of the US in starting and perpertrating the Cold War. The students knew better and they also were not buying into his follow-up that the Cold War ended only because the countries of Eastern Europe were unhappy with the status quo. Hence, the absence of adulation and the consequent hypoxia of Obama.

Well, I try to keep these posts down in length. There are several reasons for that. First of all, my smart readers have moved onto other things in their mind and those from Lake Havasu don’t know that many words.

But, before I sign off and while I know it's off-topic we are on the subject of Obama’s foreign diplomacy so let’s not forget that in Israel only 6% believe that Obama has their best interest in mind while more than half believe he favors the Arabs.

Well, let’s face it, his middle name is Hussein.

No Mulligans!

Many people I know do golf. For some, it seems that’s all they do and, if they aren’t actually doing it, they’re talking about doing it or they’re arranging to do it or they’re buying stuff which they believe will ensure they do it better next time.

I don’t do it. For a start, golfers cheat but I don't because then there is even less point than before the start. Secondly, it takes far too long and despite all the “Royal and Ancient” pretensions, there exist double standards of gigantic proportions.

Do you remember the player on the pro circuit who, because of some disability or other, sued for the right to use a cart between strokes? He won by the way, but the pompous huffing and puffing from blowhards on both sides of the Atlantic was preposterous.

When I voiced my support for this individual, I was told that fatigue was part of the game and therefore, the aforementioned individual would gain an unfair advantage if he or she were power-assisted.

My response was twofold. “If”, I argued, “fatigue was indeed part of the game”, then why were players not required to carry their own ridiculous weaponry and why not make them run between shots or strokes or hits or whatever their fatuous attempts are called? "At the least", I added, "impose some time limit". Also I opined why can’t they all use carts? The only people who would complain about getting the whole sorry ritual over sooner would be the TV networks. And for them, the networks I mean, how about a new idea; Speed Golf?

The reason I mention all this is to segue into Joe Biden’s appearance on TV yesterday. Following his unintended admission of a few weeks ago that this administration had “guessed wrong” about the financial climate and their response to it, he tried to pretend yesterday that they knew nothing until after the immaculation.

This is a lie.

I know that isn't very parliamentary language but I'm just a Blogger ......

For months before the election both political camps received regular briefings on issues critical to this republic. After the election, those briefings for Obama and his entourage were frequent and thorough. So it wasn’t the end of January as Biden claims but the beginning of November.

So, then he went on to declare that a second stimulus package could be waiting in the wings. Now we know that Joe has been known to speak out of turn before now and it is more than likely he has been taken out to the woodshed in order that he sees the error of his ways. Thus, when he then says that such a move has been contemplated, you know that he’s been told to float that balloon.

But, the problem is Mr. Biden and Mr. Obama, there is no more money for a second stimulus package unless you print, borrow or tax to get it. And Mr Biden and Mr Obama, the Great American Public is starting to wake up. Even a dyed-in-the-wool Obama supporter yesterday allowed that she now had an inkling of doubt.

The point is Mr. Biden and Mr. Obama, they now recall how it was just before the first package was stuffed down their throats. Remember it had to happen now; it couldn't wait even through the weekend or unemployment might reach 8%.

And leading the charge now comes Warren Buffett who is an unashamed Obama fan who has announced that the "stimulus isn't working". So why on earth would we repeat a process that doesn't work?

At the time, Obama was surfing in Hawaii and playing golf. Of course he was only doing the latter because, and I quote, "Golf keeps me in touch with regular people". On the other hand though, perhaps he was looking for his birth certificate. But, then again, probably not!

Anyway, the measure passed and last week the 8% figure became 9.5.

So Mr. Biden and Mr. Obama; we don’t have the money for any more guesses.

In the real world, there are no Mulligans!

Let Freedom Ring!

I am indebted to an old friend from California for much of the historical content of this post. It is so appropriate for today especially now as some of us contemplate that which we'd previously believed to be unthinkable. Thank You, John!!

I hope, but without much certainty, that all except the “dyed-in-the-wool” liberals will admit some contrast between then and today. Today, many current residents of this country seek, nay crave and seemingly cannot function without government; local, state and federal.

And that is precisely that which Obama and his "gofers" on the Hill want because that’s what Socialism does. It seeks control.

There are two paths to control. The obvious one is fear but that takes eternal vigilance and a lot of resources. The easier path to the control of any entity be it a person, a class, a race or even a nation is to make that entity dependent.

For those from Lake Havasu, consider slavery wherever found, consider hostages from Patty Hearst to the battered spouse. And on and on ....

Back in 1776, the patriots honored below just didn’t seek independence from England but also independence from unnecessary government whatever the source and whatever the motivation both benign and malevolent.

Most of us know the names of the more famous names at the bottom of the Declaration of Independence but what about the rest? The "unsung" heroes"...

Let Freedom Ring!

And here are John’s words. May they ring loud and clear and forever for all mankind.

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died and had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, with everything to lose but they signed the Declaration of Independence anyway knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his familywas kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.

As an American, Independence is your right.

Dependence, though, is your Choice.

Perhaps it pays to leave dishes in the sink

Countless people across this world would have died much earlier than they did if it were not for a careless laboratory assistant who left a window cracked an inch or two open over a long British holiday weekend.

Now that alone would not have been enough had that same assistant done as his boss had ordered.

Nobody, except for me perhaps and now you, remembers Douglas Gilchrist. Commonly known as” Dougie” he was anxious to get away for a few days off. But were it not for he, a mold spore may not have floated through that crack in that window and found that unwashed Petri dish on which to land.

Now we can’t claim it all for Dougie because if Alexander Fleming hadn’t come in early the day after the holiday and, having “tut-tutted” about his uncleaned work space, all the contaminated culture dishes would have been swept into the Lysol pail. Just before he did though, Alexander noticed that one colony on one dish was surrounded by a ring of nothing. That ring of “nothing” was because of a mold and that mold became famous as Penicillium Notatum and that became the eventual source of penicillin.

The point is that invention and innovation do not happen by government fiat. Not penicillin, not manned flight, not superconductors, not even water bras or Slinkies.

So, Obama and his teleprompter can announce all the non-existent technology they and their disciples desire but, ……….

Guess What?

That’s not how it happens.

Just because Obama says it, does not make it so.

So many scientific breakthroughs have come about because people were looking for something else or, in Dougie’s case, nothing at all.

Hydrogen cars, flying cars, cars that run on water, cars that run on nothing are all going to have to wait despite presidential (and teleprompter) proclamations.

But, if you cut your finger as you get your ribs ready for the family barbecue, rest easy because there is always “Dougiecillin”.

For the price of a nail a shoe was lost .........

OK! I admit it. I started this post several days ago and put it on hold until I could do more research. And now I have and now it’s time.

So the tally last Friday was 219 to 212 on the “Cap and Tax” bill in the house. If it hadn’t been for 8 GOP members crossing over we would not have to rely on wiser heads in the Senate to prevail. Yes, I can do the Math; it would only have taken 4. I tried to simplify it for those from Lake Havasu who are already anticipating the upcoming Holiday weekend. But they did cross over, the GOP members I mean.

And when they did, it begged the question why? A great website for this kind of research is “RollCall.com”, and a look at last Friday’s vote revealed that one of the defectors was Mary Bono from California, no great surprise there, but there were 3 from New Jersey and at least one from Connecticut. Do you want to ponder if any of those members had connections to Wall Street? Remember, the real name of this abomination is “Cap and Trade”? Where do trades get done in this country?

A more interesting analysis of last Friday’s vote can be found within those 44 Democrats who also crossed over and came out against “Cap and Tax”. My Congressman was one of those and I’d like to think he’d seen the light for the right reasons but I know better. The most important thing on a politician’s mind even as the election results are announced is how do I do it again 2 years, 4 years or 6 years from now?

Let’s face it doing deals is what politics is all about. It has been a tradition on Capitol Hill ever since its creation but this is different because of the degree of cynicism involved. Speaker Pelosi,” Ms. Botox” is a street fighter from way back and there is no doubt that dispensations were given for certain members under her Whip to vote no because of the “sensitivity” in their individual districts to the measures in the legislation.

Not all those so affected were allowed this flexibility. Some, like a Congressman from Mississippi complained that he was “being forced to walk the plank”. See he knew that the chance of the provisions of this bill becoming law is virtually nil. But he also knew that he would be up for election again in 2010 and that, while his electorate might have moved onto other things by then, his opponent would remind them often and loudly.

So as far as Pelosi and Obama were concerned all was now well. The deals had been done and their majority was assured. Until 3 am the next day when a further 300 pages flopped onto actual and virtual desks to add to the 1300 pages already there. Most, of course, didn’t read those pages and most still haven’t. But 1 or 2 or more did and they didn’t like what they read. One such was Ms. Marcy Kaptur who is the representative for Ohio’s 9th Congressional District. Ohio is a coal state in more ways than one and Marcy dug in her heels.

To buy her off, Henry Waxman put in the fix. The fix was $3.5 Billion for her to use as she wishes to loan to anyone in her purview who could claim a contribution to “renewable energy sources”.

That was the cost of one vote. Would you like to contemplate the total?