Fly Naked?

Almost a year ago, most citizens of the great state of Arizona breathed a sigh of relief as Janet Napolitano left her then current job as the governor and became the Secretary of Homeland Security. She had refused to work to secure our southern border and she had run up crippling debt for this state.

It seems that Secretary Janet lives in one universe and the rest of us live in another.

And, it seems she still is because yesterday the Secretary declared that “the system worked”, The system she was talking about was airport screening in the wake of the terrorist attack on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

A conservative estimate says that we spend 50 billion dollars a year on these programs.

If she’s right that, “everything worked as it should,” then we must be spending that kind of money in order to train random Dutchmen to gang-tackle a demented black Muslim who is trying to set fire to his knickers in an airport lavatory. And, Oh by the way, there were no air marshals on this flight. Thank G-d for throat-choking Dutchmen!

Let’s take a closer look at this event. And for those from Lake Havasu, I’ll put it in little easy-to-read paragraphs.

The man is a Muslim.

He was no penniless indigent. His father owns a second home in London worth between 2.5 and 4 million GBP.

His own father warned the US Embassy in Nigeria about his son.

The son boasted that he had been trained by Al-Queda.

He bought a one-way ticket and paid $2800 in cash.

He had no passport.

He had no luggage.

He had been refused entry to the UK because they deemed his application was fraudulent. And they placed him on a “Persons of Interest” watch list. This information was transmitted to this country and agencies such as the CIA, the FBI, and Homeland Security.

Now, I realize that there are more than 500,000 people on that list but add in the other data points and it shouldn’t take too long to trigger a red flag and flares as well.

I went to amazon.com earlier this morning and they told me immediately what I’d bought and what I may like to buy. And so, one is bound to ask if they, a commercial company, can know that much about me, why wouldn’t Obama's agencies, with all the computer power at their command, be able to at least point a suspecting finger at the “knicker bomber”?

Instead though, what I think we’ll get is an extension of the new regulations which dictate that bathroom visits are out when one is closer than 1 hour from arrival and that one must be in one’s seat with hands visible.

I remember being in a class in Junior School and one of the disciplinary measures was that the whole class had to sit with “hands on heads” until your arms ached and the “Go Home” bell was long silent.

When Richard Reid tried to set fire to his sneakers he started the ritual of shoe removal at airport security. There was even a concern that gel-filled bras might be suspect at one point. Now it's underwear as well and the possible outcome is way too frightening to contemplate ..........

Perhaps what is needed is that we’ll all be shipped as freight in a box. Or, has that already happened?

I suspect that Nappy will be gone by March but in the meantime,

Thank Heavens for the Flying Dutchman.

I hope there’s one on your next flight!

Reflect, Rejoice, Renew!

The title to this post is the theme for this Christmas according to the Obama White House and let’s see how you feel about it by the time you get to the end of this screed.

Congress was asked for another $155 Billion earlier this week in order to create “shovel ready” jobs. Wait a minute. Wasn’t that worthy goal the idea behind the stimulus package they approved just about a year ago? As you saw from the previous post, the House Ways and Means Committee was forced to concede that that goal had not been realized. So isn’t this latest measure yet another classic example of throwing good money after bad? In Las Vegas they call it doubling down and that is rarely a winning strategy.

Especially when you don’t have the money and the “Peoples Bank of China has made it abundantly clear that they have no obligation to carry on subsidizing Obama’s narcissism by buying up our Treasury Bonds. They are quite right to be leery as with every turn of the printing presses at the U.S. Mint, the dollar loses value.

And, it doesn’t do much for the credibility of the person with cap in hand who announces to the world that if we don’t pass his healthcare agenda this country will go bankrupt. And they accuse the GOP of trying to frighten the American public.

Now, while we’re on that thorny topic, buried in the fine print among the more than 2000 pages of the Senate Bill is a kind of parliamentary poison pill. In an attempt to head off the effects of the loss of Democratic seats in 2010 and 2012, we read that any attempt to undo any of the provisions will require a majority in the Senate of not 50% or even 60% but a full 67%, the so-called “Super Majority”.

And, Oh, I would be remiss if I failed to mention that indeed there is funding for abortion in spite of protestations to the contrary and in spite of Ben Nelson's dupicity. You won't find it the main bill but rather in "Dingy Harry's" "management addendum". And just like a perennial weed, ACORN is back again for its handout. But the measure passed the Senate anyway after much deal making and utter bribery. No wonder Thurow once described Congress as “the only whorehouse in the country that can’t turn a profit”.

And, I couldn’t miss reporting the events surrounding the appearance of several Democratic and White House spokespersons on Joe Scarborough’s morning TV show earlier this week when it was obvious that these talking heads were receiving real-time instructions via text and Blackberry messages. The source of these coaching directives was indeed the White House, most likely Robert Gibbs.

Is it any wonder that this morning’s Rasmussen tracking poll shows Obama with a minus 21% result. In other words, while only 25% “Strongly Approve”, a whopping 46% “Strongly Disapprove”.

Unless something monumental happens and I can’t avoid it, this is almost certainly my last post before Christmas Day and so I thought it only fitting to apply a seasonal touch.

You can access the search engine of your choice and you will discover that there are more than 10 schools across this country which have published records of their students singing songs in praise of Obama, the Most Merciful. But now the White House is surpassing even that with the decorations on the White House Christmas Tree. Most of these were produced by the creative director for Barney’s of New York.

Two examples of this persons creativity included one with the face of Chairman Mao on it who single-handedly brought about the death of more than 35 million of his own people.

But, surely the piece de resistance is a tree decoration showing Obama’s face, ears and all, on Mount Rushmore. The source for that terrifying snippet is no less than ABC News.

So how about a couple more "R" words to add to the title of this post?

Reflect, Rejoice, Renew, Regurgitate, Resign.

That's more like it!

Merry Christmas

Made to Measure

I don’t shrink from making the distinction that Obama wanted the title he now flaunts but he really didn’t want the job. Or, putting that another way, he wanted the power and the control that went with the position but not the responsibility inherent in it.

The reason is that now his success or lack thereof can be measured and while measurement and subsequent reward or penalty is normal operating procedure for most people, it is anathema to others. Those would include people from Academia and Community Organizing for, in that world, it doesn’t seem to matter what you did but only what you say and what you say you will do. By the time that it can be shown that the words didn’t do anything, the person has moved onto the next gig.

The closest analogy I can draw is that of the snake oil salesman who blows into town. And, with his carpet bag of tricks, he fleeces the miners and their families of everything he can and then gets the next train out.

Well Obama, the next train is a few years away and an increasing number of Americans are not buying your snake oil. It’s getting time to demand answers so let’s start with this.

It’s almost a year since the stimulus packages were past and do you remember the promises that were made at the time? Even then, Obama was hedging his bets as he phrased them very carefully as he promised “to create or save 3.5 million jobs.”

Even the House Ways and Means Committee was forced to report over the weekend that the measures had done neither.

I have been accused of being too generalized in my accusations of incompetence and mendacity and so, let me try this approach.

49 out of 50 states have reported net job losses since Obama’s speech. But let’s get even more granular. According to Obama, Arizona should have had more than 70,000 more jobs by now. In fact, it’s lost another 60,000.

Then yesterday we heard just how well and equitably the stimulus packages were being applied in a report from the Mercatus Center which is part of George Mason University. I did think about breaking my promise not to overburden you with stuff and reproduce the whole report but, as well as being a compassionate conservative, I'm also a merciful one.

But, for those who don’t want to wade through the stats, here’s the Clift notes version.

This report concluded that there was no correlation between the unemployment needs of the area, state or district and the cash it received. It did however find that Democratic districts got more than Republicans. It also found that more money went to richer districts than poorer ones.

How can that be? Anyone who asks that question has never been to Marin County, California or to Westchester County, New York.

Again, if you want granularity, 73.47% of all the “stimulus” money went to Democratic districts.

How’s all that Hoax and Chains working for ya’?

And, Oh, By The Way, if you want all the data, regressional analyses and all, send me an email at jack-morris@q.com

A Story for Christmas Week from an unlikely source ......

William F. Buckley Junior who died last year was one of the most influential conservative writers of our time and he was also one of the brightest. Although he was born in New York City and was as American as Apple Pie and Chevrolet. he sounded very much like a Brit. And he had great taste with respect to his ties ........

He was educated largely, but not exclusively at Yale, and was an active member of the notorious “Skull and Bones” society, much maligned in the liberal press which means, therefore, most of it.

For years they attempted to characterize all its members as empty-headed “Frat Boys” especially when they gleefully hammered on the fact that President George W. Bush had been one of them.

Is it possible that some of those "hammerers" couldn't get in? I could tell you a story about something similar but now is not the time and I do have a story coming up as promised.

Anyway, one of the essays that William Buckley wrote posed the question; How do you define smart?

Clearly the answer is not a simple one because you cannot just use education or possession of advanced degrees as the sole criteria. Anyone who has worked in industry on either side of the Atlantic can cite countless examples of people with doctoral qualifications who could not be trusted to go out and buy a daily paper and return with the correct change.

And anyone who has had to deal either with politicians or government bureaucrats can vouch for the fact that both fields have a healthy representation of people who couldn’t find their own rear end in the dark, even with both hands.

This must surely be why countless bobbing heads on the news shows keep assuring us that the recession is over and that the good times will surely be rolling again shortly.

I don’t know about you, but I’ll know the corner has been turned when I drive across town and see new businesses start cropping up in strip malls. Right now, I still see precisely the opposite as more and more existing businesses close their doors, often forever.

And how can it be when the unemployment rate increased again in these United States?

The fact is that, no matter how great and innovative a possible new venture may be, it will fail if their potential customers have no money to spend.

Of course, the liberal media is going to insist that the talking heads on TV are right because they are still in the tank for the Anointed One in spite of the fact that they know that whatever he has tried has not worked. But Shhh ...

Obama may have the “Book Smarts” but he’s never run a business, never had to make payroll; never even been employed in any capacity involving profit and loss. And the real scary part is that he has surrounded himself with many of the same background and in the absence of experience they fall back on ideology.

Here’s a little story I got from a fervent “Obamaite”. Perhaps, they shared the same educational curriculum? And the more I think about it , the more likely that could be .......


"Anyway, imagine a slow day in a little East Texas town. The sun is beating down, and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit...On this particular day a rich tourist from back east is driving through town.

He stops at the motel and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.As soon as the man walks upstairs, the owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel.The guy at the Farmer's Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit.

The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything. At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, picks up the $100 bill, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town…

No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism.And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is conducting business today."


Well almost, but not quite, because at least here in the story everyone broke even. Actually they didn't because the hotel wound up out by $100 but it makes a better story the way it's written.

But certainly in the world in which we all live, you and I will not come close to breaking even and neither will generations as yet unborn.

The Wheels on the Bus go ............

Liberals, it seems, are ever eager, willing and able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and let me explain what I mean.

The other evening, when I was trying to poll a survey sample of one about the Anointed One’s progress, she was all sweetness and light. She only reserved her vituperation for Joe Lieberman who she described as contemptible because, it was feared, that he would help defeat the Health bill. But the Democrats needed his vote and so they agreed to remove the legislation to which he objected.

Now Joe isn’t my most favorite guy either but the degree of venom from my “pollee” was more than I could stand without comment. But lo and behold, Harry Reid was so desperate for any vote he could get that he was prepared to grant almost anything and he did. And, more of that later.

Did you ever play a game at the fair called “Whack-a-Mole”? It’s silly but I suppose fair games usually are. Anyway, this one consists of a board with a series of holes drilled in it. And through those holes on, what appears to be a random basis, up pops a fake mole or a dilapidated imitation of one.

And then you, the player, has to whack it with a mallet. Depending on the number of hits you get, you’ll win a prize or not. For the most part, it’s not and that is no surprise either.

What is a surprise though, is that PETA hasn’t been all over this already. Or, maybe they have and I just haven’t been to a fair lately.

Anyway, when Joe Lieberman retreated back down his burrow, up popped Howard Dean.

Conservatives have to love Howard Dean. He is indeed a friend when we are in need starting with his primordial scream way back when in a New England primary. And today he continued by calling for the abandonment of the current healthcare proposals. His objection was the deletion of the “so-called ‘Public Option’", much beloved by Dean's base, at Lieberman’s insistence.

Put all this together with all the other stuff swirling around and it takes only a cursory scan of the liberal blogs to realize that there is trouble on the Hill and for the Hill. And for Obama big time!

So, Lieberman got his way about the “Public Option” which means, according to the Left, that Obama is prepared to sell out to the insurance companies. If that’s what it takes.

And, trust me on this, he will along with anything else in order to cement his "legacy".

Abortion via taxpayer funding is also gone. And, although Obama swore on a stack of bibles or Korans or, perhaps an interleaved and diversified selection of both, that, as far as he was concerned, the abandonment of killing feti was for him the third rail. So, that flip-flop is hardly going to endear him to the lunatic Left as well. But Obama doesn’t care about that either.

And, now for one more dirty little secret. The Senate proposal reaffirms the ban on individuals or pharmacies or companies from importing cheaper, already US-approved prescription drugs. So now according to the liberal Left, Obama has sold out to the big pharmaceutical companies. And, as the Left sees it and as I see it, according to his campaign pledges he’s done just that.

But not in his mind. All he wants is a Bill he can sign with the word “Health” somewhere in it. That way he can go to present his first State of the Union report with that on his resume and he doesn’t care how bad the legislation is. And that’s why he will throw anyone and any campaign promise under the wheels of the bus. After all, he ignores his illegal alien and penniless aunt in Boston and his brother in a hut in Kenya.

It’s all about him!

And always was and always will be!

When you know that, you will start to understand why Harry Reid is so desperate to get it done which is why he lashes out with accusations of racism at anyone who dares to defy his master.

However, Senator Reid would do well to remember that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. It was the Republicans who fought to get rid of discrimination and the Jim Crow laws. And it was the Democrats who fought to stop that effort.

Finally, as far as I know, there is still just one Senator on the Hill who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and he is one Robert Byrd of West Virginia.

A Democrat.

It's Report Card Day .......

I held a revealing telephone conversation yesterday evening. Actually three, but one sticks in my head. With Obama supporters, it takes a certain amount of temerity, stupidity or alcohol to broach the subject but, broach it I did.

So, employing my most engaging interviewing technique, I asked how the person felt that Obama was doing and I was not surprised by the reaction which was, “I think he’s doing great”. But I’m not a quitter and I so I went on to wonder if the person could be a little more specific such as telling me what he’d actually done. Again, not surprisingly, there was a brief moment and then I heard a reiteration that overall, he was doing very well.

Is that a fact? Last weekend, Obama was asked to grade himself on his first 10 months in the job. Now, a normal person would have deferred the question and would have protested that it was too early, ask me again a couple of years from now, etc .. etc .. etc. But not Obama.

The very next day, yesterday to be precise, a major news outlet in this country polled 100,000 voters and asked them to fill out Obama’s report card and they went further by making the process more granular. Here are the results and, Oh by the way, the choices were A, B, C, D and I ( for incomplete). In deference to the office there was no F.

Handling the Economy 73% D

Domestic & Social Issues 80% D

Foreign Affairs 79% D

Afghan & Iraq Wars 63% D

Leadership 80% D

National Security 82% D

Management Style 81% D

It doesn’t take an Einstein to work out the Grade Point Average but actually it was an 85% D. And bear in mind, there was no F.

Of course, by now, you’re all on the edge of your seats as you wait to learn Obama’s answer on TV. Well, he awarded himself, and I quote, “ A solid B+”.

Has anyone ever explained to that man the difference between self-confidence and self-aggrandizement? Or how about the difference between realism and fantasy?

So, Obama believes he is the cats meow and so does one Arizonan. Somehow I doubt that will be enough to carry the day for his party in 2010 nor for he and his party in 2012.

Even including Chicago ballot practices

Dateline: Copenhagen, Denmark; December 14, 2009

Tony Blair, the ex-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the aspiring first President of the European Union said today at the, now notorious, Copenhagen Conference.

“We must take action on the issue of climate change even if the science is not correct.”.

Now his opponents in the UK will not be surprised with this revelation but maybe you will. And this was in the wake of the disappearance of the University of East Anglia’s web site and the resignation of the illustrious head of their “Climate Research” facility and the destruction of all their raw data. But yet, politicians can strut out and lie through their teeth?

Is it any wonder then, that the polls in this country reflect these truths and Obama is no longer immune.

Today Rasmussen reports that the margin of likely voters who favor Obama is at a minus 18%. And, for those from Lake Havasu City, that means that while only 44% “Strongly Approve, there's a helluva' lot more that don't and that gap keeps on widening. Now, also keep in mind that we're talking about likely voters here because, in the cold light of day, the rest don’t really matter.. Brutal perhaps but it’s politics and it is life,.

Either lead or follow or get the heck out of the way.

I love numbers. So, here’s a few more!

Now most of them track with the statistic detailed above and you can make up your own mind anyway about those and the ones that follow.

For a start, 40% of Americans describe themselves as conservative, 36% as independents and only 20% as liberal. The strange thing is that only one quarter of the latter describe themselves as such. It seems they would much prefer to be known as “Progressives”. Odd that liberals want to run away from their flag while conservatives are proud to display ours,

Old Glory!!

But I digress, because I have yet to mention the Gallop Generic poll which gives the edge to Republicans over Democrats by 18 points. Amazing how that tracks with this weeks Rasmussen isn’t it?

And, were I the type to drive in the knife, I would also point out that, even in the post-George Bush era, as of this weekend, only 50% like the idea of Obama in the Oval Office while 44% would prefer Bush.. Do you remember how reviled he was? And as for the missing 6%, they're waiting for Elvis to return.

Is that an indictment or what?

Finally, I do not personally endorse this, but 20% of independents support the idea of impeaching Obama. Then ,of course, they always will until Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich is sworn in.

I’ll will leave you today with a this thought:-

Obama was on Wall Street today. Or perhaps Wall Street was summoned unto the” Great One”. Anyway, as we saw on the Sunday talk shows, he is angry with the “Fat Cats”


When was the last time you were offered a job by a poor man?