"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.