Why Yes, In Fact We ARE The Stupidest And Most Dishonest Lot To Ever Hold Office: The ObamaCare Thanksgiving News Dump

While you are traveling and cooking, HHS quietly announces that the small business portion of ObamaCare that would allow small businesses to shop for coverage online will be delayed for a year.

Thus, if you own a small business, you are still required to comply with all our incomprehensible and expensive regulations.

Only, you'll have to do it all on paper.

Happy Turkey Day from Barack Obama and his Democrat toadies, many of whom will have to stand for re-election in November of 2014.

Here's hoping that we'll be able to send the toadies on their way, and have even more to be thankful for this time next year.

OS Muses On The Senate Rule Changes: Failure, Hubris and The Removal Of Restraint

While yesterday's events seem arcane to most, the Senate rules changes will change everyone's lives. Any sense of restraint, from either extreme of the political spectrum, if not already erased, will soon vaporize. Welcome to the 1850's, deja-vue-all-over-again.

Already, Tom Harkin, smelling fresh blood in the water, is calling for the removal of all restraints on legislation as well.

OS watched the replay of Senator Levin's eulogy for the Senate last night, as he warned his enthusiastic leftist colleagues that they had just won a Pyrrhic Victory. Ni modo, hombre--a mi me no importa--seems to be the response from the left. We won, we won, we won, we won...we slam-dunked Rand Paul and Ted Cruz and any and all who would stand in our way as we get what we want. We drew blood, we can beat our chests.

Levin was telegraphing to his colleagues one simple truth: What Goes Around, Comes Around. The opposition we will face in the future will not be on the model of a Lamar Alexander, Howard Baker, or Susan Collins. An entirely new breed of cat has now entered the cat-fight, with long memories about our behavior, and a completely 'don't-give-a-flying-f*** about what Missah Harry thinks, or what the Yew Nork Times writes'. Harry's old, and the Yew Nork Times is going bankrupt, circling the drain along with the Blue States upon whom the Red States are now staging cavalry raids to cherry-pick what remains of their industrial base. One day, probably soon, the tables will be turned.

Missah Harry and Massah Obama may sense that as well. While it can still be done, let's promote our friends into the lifetime sinecure of the federal bench, the ultimate patronage job. We can pull the puppets' strings long after we've been tossed from office.

After all, all of life is about Power. Pure and simple, straight-no-chaser, 100 proof, gloves-off, raw Power. It's exhilarating, it's the ultimate drug. Hubris just isn't for Greeks, you know. Besides, we know  better than those guys. We won't fall into those traps. We've got this whole thing sussed out.

OS writes these things because he can find no other explanation for what he observes.

Normal people undertake ambitious projects throughout life: Education, Marriage, Parenthood. They create businesses, works of art, institutions such as schools and churches. They undertake science to understand how the universe operates, and out of that they create useful inventions. They enter government and public life.

Failure stalks every attempt to achieve. It is an inherent part of the process. Many ventures fail. Normal people, when aventure fails, invariably reflect upon the failure. What went wrong? At what point did things go pear-shaped? Were my assumptions wrong? Did I trust the wrong people? How much of this mess was my responsibility?

And most importantly:

What can I learn from this failure that may fuel the success of the next undertaking?

How can one describe this past year's work of the Obama administration (apart from remaining in power) as anything but massive failure? Need the litany repeat?

Benghazi.
The IRS suborned as a political enforcement arm of the Democrat Party.
The chaos and bloodletting of North Africa and Egypt.
The Syrian tragedy.
The revelation of our tapping the personal cell phones of world leaders.
Snowden.
The attempt to draw us into a civil war in Syria, and the promotion of Putin thereby.
The rise of a nuclear Iran as we stand helplessly by.
The ObamaCare 'rollout', which has burned through at least 600 million dollars, and disrupted millions of lives--and we're just on the front end of that particular adventure.
The chronic unemployment that will not respond to zero interest rate policies.
The stock market bubble roars on, while more and more citizens (and non-citizens) live on Food Stamps.

All of the above fueled and explained by a constant stream of lies from the lips of the President, which corrodes what little confidence yet remains in the office.

Normal people, when confronted with this massive sort of failure, pause and reflect. It is a function of the conscience. Obama and Company drop not a beat, and press forward to gather more power unto themselves, to enable them to undertake more of their ventures. Not a moment's reflection, not a moment's hesitation, simply a push forward to the next item on what seems to be a script, a play-book. No matter what happens, move on to the next item. If we seize enough power while we can, the failures won't matter--we'll have the power, and can stuff the record of those failures down the Memory Hole.

These are not normal people. And OS fears that another group of not normal' people may arise from the Right, or from even Farther Left. He fears we are staggering toward our next Civil War, or a dictatorship, or both. Heaven only knows what tragedies await us.

Yesterday's events will serve as an accelerator of that process, but will not be a principal cause. They were symptomatic, the inevitable result of the hubris that fuels the present regime.

An Obama Speechwriter Explains What Himself Really Meant...

Really, you just can't make this up!

Jon Lovett, a former Obama speechwriter, explains what Himself REALLY meant when he claimed repeatedly 'If you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance!'

It was an ObamaMantra, endlessly hammered home.

Any and all who pointed out that this would not be the case were derided, considered to be racist, or at least someone who enjoys watching sick people suffer.

Really, the problem has been that we were not sufficiently clairvoyant to understand what Himself really really really meant.

Silly us. Click on the image in order to find out what we should have known all along.

The Bad News, The Really Bad News, And The Really Really Bad News About The ObamaCare Failure To Launch...

The folks at CNBC aren't known for being wild-eyed crazy Teeeeee-Party, 'baccy-chewin', cousin-marryin', mouth-breathin', Newt-lovin', Neanderthals: i.e., in the eyes of Obama, anyone who thinks this whole ObamaCare thing is not a great idea.

So, when they have this to report, it may be worth reading:

First, the bad news:

As few as 1 in 100 applications on the federal exchange contains enough information to enroll the applicant in a plan, several insurance industry sources told CNBC on Friday. Some of the problems involve how the exchange's software collects and verifies an applicant's data.


"It is extraordinary that these systems weren't ready," said Sumit Nijhawan, CEO of Infogix, which handles data integrity issues for major insurers including WellPoint and Cigna, as well as multiple Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliates.


Experts said that if Healthcare.gov's success rate doesn't improve within the next month or so, federal officials could face a situation in January in which relatively large numbers of people believe they have coverage starting that month, but whose enrollment applications are have not been processed. 

This, folks, is a formula for chaos, with thousands of patients hitting the door of the doctor's office needing care, claiming to be covered, because after all, they signed up, or were signed up they think, for ObamaCare. Think about it. How many people do you encounter at the local fast-food joint, the convenience store, pass by on the road as they man the traffic flag at a construction zone, etc. A lot of these folks struggled to get through high school, or didn't manage to. Now, they are adults, struggling to survive, and they need medical care! They are just as human, just as deserving to not live in chronic pain, or with untreated diabetes or cancer, as any university president. They go through the struggles to attempt to sign up, think they've done it, but information is missing, or the miserably designed system malfunctions, or their application is lost by an insurer, or, or, or....

The Really Bad News:

One insurer reported a better, but still stunningly low, rate of enrollment applications containing enough data to process for coverage. 

"It's about half of what we've received," a source at that insurer said.

"We're getting incomplete data—about half of the applications we haven't been able to process," said the source, who used the term "corrupted" to describe the batch of applications received. 

Which means, in real terms, that applicants will have to be contacted individually to complete applications (how many employees, how many hours, who pays for them?), sending them back to the starting gate in many cases. And, remember, the system has already proven it cannot handle traffic...

The Really Really Bad News:

Experts said that if the lag in processing enrollments continues on a large scale, insurers expect the federal government to tell them that they must provide benefits to people even as applications are still being processed. 

"In talking to some of the insurers, they pretty much assume that even if there are issues, the feds will say, 'You know what, it's your problem, they've signed up,' " said Koritala. 

In other words--insurers will be compelled to pay claims on patients that may or may not actually be included in their coverage! Hmmm....at what point will they be able to say 'No' to patients who never complete their applications, or imaginary patients created by dishonest providers, or patients created by identity theft, or patients who never pay premiums because they don't know their coverage status, or....

And, who pays for this? Where does the cash flow come from to actually issue paychecks to all those employees hired to complete those enrollments, and claim checks to all those providers?

Now, let's contrast these facts with Massah Obama's comments last week that Republicans don't want Americans to have health care, heartless souls that they are.

If someone were to devise a system designed to bring health care to a halt for everyone in the country, it would look like the Byzantine disaster that Duh Prez insisted be launched last week.

Yes, the US could really use an efficient, sane, cost-effective way of making sure as many people as possible have health care that doesn't bankrupt their families.

And no, ObamaCare is not the means to accomplish this. That's what we wild-eyed crazy Teeeeee-Party, 'baccy-chewin', cousin-marryin', mouth-breathin', Newt-lovin' Neanderthals have been saying all along.

The Best Explanation To Date About The Gubb'mint Quasi-Shutdown...

HT: Doug Ross

OS Calls 1-800-318-2596, Just Like Mr. Obama Urged The Country To Do

It was, well, an interesting half-hour, calling ObamaCare Central.

OS decided to celebrate this great day in American history by calling that number that Massah Obama told us all to call.

He was, naturally, routed into a phone answering tree service. Not surprising. After asking for a representative and telling the computer which state he was calling from, he was put on hold.
Again, no surprise, no offense taken.

In a few minutes, the line opened up to a representative's desk, only OS found himself not speaking to a representative. He kept repeating, 'Hello, anyone there?' Never an answer....

Only the line was open, and OS realized he was overhearing conversations between the customer service reps. No one was doing any customer servicing. OS overheard laughter, references to schedules (work schedules? fee schedules? No way to tell...) and he heard references to training manuals. The voices sounded young. They sounded like young employees who had reached some sort of impasse, didn't have any guidance on what to do next, and were standing around chatting with one another.

It was eerie. OS stayed on the line for 33 minutes, and then moved on.

Again, nothing incriminating or offensive was overheard--just the sound of a bunch of kids waiting for the boss to tell them what to do next.

Welcome to our new health care system.

One would think, with so much money on the table, so much blood spilled to arrive to this day, the reputation and legacy of a presidency on the line, and a White House and Senate demanding no delay in launching this initiative...that they would make certain they had checked the system out before a general launch. Or that they would roll it out in phases, region by region perhaps. Beta test it, test-drive the model with some initial units like a car company does, before putting them in the showrooms.

But not this President. Not this administration. They're waaaaay toooooo clever for that.

This battle is not over, folks. It may just now be getting underway, given that the administration has demonstrated its arrogance, incompetence, and willfulness to the world.

Abdul Haji, The Hero Of The Kenyan Mall Massacre: The Case For An Armed And Responsible Citizenry

Contrasts are stark, tragic. On the one hand, we have a paranoid schizophrenic with a shotgun and a security pass into one of America's most vital defense bases, where he goes on a rampage, murdering people who WERE NOT ALLOWED the means to defend themselves. Thank you Bill Clinton, for ordering that employees in these sensitive posts be sitting ducks.

On the other hand, we have some El Shabab homeboyz who decide to kill as many as they can inside a shopping mall. Horrific, inexcusable, words fail. (By the way, what did our Homeboy-In-Chief have to say about these young Kenyans, who could have been one of his sons? Anything?)

There was someone on the ground, Mr Haji, who knew what to do. He was armed. He was trained, He was responsible. He entered the mall to help defend his brother, and ended up fighting alongside the police to rescue the victims. That fabulous picture showing the tiny girl running toward the outstretched arms of that African gent? That African gent is Mr. Haji, a Muslim, a decent compassionate man who was equipped for the task.

The Telegraph features a wonderful story about him. Comes the time, comes the man....

Mr Haji said his father taught him to use a gun to protect their cattle from bandits when he was growing up. 

Last Saturday, he used his skills to provide fire cover for the Kenyan Red Cross workers and, over a period of three hours, help to evacuate some of the 1,000 people who escaped the mall in the initial stages of a siege that would last three days and leave at least 72 people dead. As he stood with a fellow rescuer crouched outside the Nakumatt supermarket, Mr Haji said he noticed the women hiding under the table.

"Just a few minutes ago we were exchanging fire with the terrorists and these people were right in the middle of it, in the crossfire. We regrouped and we started to strategise on how to get them out of there," he said.


Let's think about this. President Trayvon, if he had his way, would make certain that the Mr. Haji's of America would be disarmed. All of the little Trayvons, of course, would be armed to the hilt, ready to fire into playgrounds (as occurred in Chicago last week) or shopping malls (which may occur next week, who knows?).

What if the decent and compassionate, the sober and responsible, were equipped for the task of responding immediately to the little Trayvons?

Thank You, Senator Cruz

You stood up and insisted that the RestOfUs need to be heard. For twenty hours or so, you stood up and insisted that what is about to happen to this nation will be detrimental to this nation.

Most of your erstwhile colleagues left you hung out to dry. Except for John McCain, who didn't have the stones to actually show up and ask questions while you had the floor. He waited until you departed to vilify you for something you didn't say.

Country First, my hindquarters.

Dick The Turban Durbin showed up in the final hour or so, knowing the press would finally be covering the marathon, to waste time and spew accusations at you. He shut up after learning that you never signed your family up to the ultra-Cadillac health insurance plan offered to Members of Congress--the one he helped fashion and in which he and his family are enrolled.

Massah Harry showed up to distract and delay, knowing you would be weary after twenty hours or so. Then, after you departed, he vilified you.

Ahhhh, Leadership.

Senator Cruz, you drew blood from them in that twenty hours. That's why they squealed, and vilified, and attempted to interfere, and did everything they could to silence you.

As a Tennesseean, OS is ashamed of Senators Alexander and Corker for not showing up to support you. Lamar Alexander's primary opponent now has the platform to challenge from: When it was the hour to stand up, to be counted, to risk unpopularity with Mitch McConnell and John McCain and Harry Reid and Chuckie Shumer, Lamar stayed away. As for Corker...this clown voted to allow himself to start a war against Syria over the Labor Day weekend. 'Nuff said.

So, Senator Cruz, thank you. At least you stood up, and more of us than you suspect will remember you for it.

Ooooops! Hey, Mr. President, If You Spy On Other Heads Of State, They Will Publicly Slam-Dunk You

Like Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff just did today.

That pesky Snowden carried away and then released information proving that the eager beavers at the NSA had been intercepting her emails.

Massah Obama promised an investigation, which will go like this:

Phone call (ring-ring) 'National Security Agency'

Duh Prez: Hey, you know your way 'round there. Anybody spying on the Brazilians?

NSA receptionist: Why, no, I haven't heard of anything like that.

Duh Prez: OK, thanks! Bye-bye!

In case Himself hasn't gotten the memo, Brazil is a huge country rapidly developing into a huge wealthy country. He might wish to pay attention.

And not go out of his way to piss them off.

Radical Islam Harvests One More Victim...

This young man from Alabama listened to the siren song of Islamic fundamentalism, and ended up dying in a shoot-out with estranged members of his sect.

Multi-lingual, obviously bright and ambitious--what might have become of his life had he not made those tragic choices.

Some will crow 'good riddance', etc. etc. etc.

OS, as the parent of children about this young man's age, finds himself grieving the loss of a life that might have been.

US Consulate in Afghanistan Attacked, At Least Until the White House Gets The Spin Right

It is comforting to know that White House staffers have been up all night, scouring YouTube for a video to blame for this 'incident'.

From ABC News:

The American Consulate in the western Afghanistan city of Herat, came under attack early this morning, the U.S. State Department confirms. 

The attack began around 6 a.m. local time when militants drove to the front of the consulate's gate. Once they reached the check point, the militants began attacking the consulate's perimeter security officers, possibly firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles. Shortly after, the entire truck exploded, damaging the front gate of the consulate, according to State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf. 

Non-security staff at the consulate immediately took shelter while American and contractor security personnel fought with the militants, who had breached the compound, Harf said in a statement. Some of the attackers, according to Harf, appeared to be wearing suicide bombs.

"Full details are not known of the extent of the attack at this point, but the attack is currently over," Harf said. 

If that fails, they always have a backup plan: blame it on George Bush.

Peter Van Buren Shares 'A Child's Treasury Of Tweets' On Syria And Obama

They're here--a parade of grim humor, funny in its grim way because it is true.

A few notables to share here:

The question no journalist will ask Obama: Mr. President, if you use the military again, tell me how this ends?

Iran warned the U.S. twice in 2012 that Syrian rebels the U.S. supports have chemical weapons of their own.

Russia proposes Syria turn over chem weapons to avoid war. Predicting U.S. will claim Syria can’t be trusted in 5, 4, 3, 2…

When Obama said “There is no NSA spying on Americans,” he lied. But it’s cooool if you trust him on #Syria …

When Obama talks about the dead children in Syria, do ask him why Syria is a crisis but North Korean labor camps are not even mentioned.

And...perhaps the best...

日本の歴史の本で発見：”パールハーバー：。ただ空爆、地上の歩兵を持つ” (Found in the Japanese archives: “Pearl Harbor: Just an airstrike, with no boots on the ground.”)

The Winner Of The Nobel Peace Prize And The Nation That Has Finally Had Enough Of Him

Duh Prez is beginning to understand what his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright--you know, the one in whose church Obama participated for years, whom Obama claimed he didn't know--was talking about in his expression 'Chickens Come Home To Roost'.

A year ago today, Al Qaeda forces (the organization Himself claimed he had on the run) overran the consulate in Benghazi, in a carefully planned attack. They killed four of our people. Obama and company let them die rather than admit the attack was happening.

Then Himself lied about it. To us. On the White House lawn, which We The People own. In front of the UN. He made certain Susan Rice lied about it on all the Sunday talk shows--same script, every show. It was, to quote his hero Teddy Kennedy, 'Lie after lie after lie after lie.' Then he made sure the full truth was buried as completely as possible. It's now just beginning to leak out, finally, a year later.

We witnessed Miz Hillary Clinton shouting at the Senate Committee 'What, in the end, does it MATTER?!!' Pounding the table in frustration as she realized the BS she was peddling on behalf of Himself simply was not being believed.

After all, we won the The Election? Isn't that all that really matters?

Well, Mizz Hillary, it does matter, far more than anyone's election.

Subsequently, we have learned that Himself employed the IRS as the enforcement and harassment arm of the 2012 campaign.

We learned that journalists were targeted for criminal investigation, for simply doing their jobs.

We learned that journalists who defied the Official Version of Events About The Sequester, such as Bob Woodard, were targeted for public attack by His pack of journalistic hounds.

We learned that Himself's NSA had basically destroyed the idea of private communications in this country. OS understands that he now writes these words at a real risk.

We learned that Himself feels free to blatantly disregard any law that Himself finds inconvenient to his purposes, even if it's a law Himself demanded be passed, like ObamaCare.

We learned that when he finds it politically inconvenient to carry out his role as head of Executive branch, to see that the laws passed by Congress are faithfully defended and enforced, he simply does as he wishes. Thus, the DOJ's refusal to defend the Defense of Marriage Act before the Supreme Court.

We learned that Himself believes he holds the power to wage war upon other nations without any need to refer to the Constitution under which he was elected and sworn in. If he doesn't like what's going on in (fill in the blank), Himself can bomb the bejeezus out of the place, and We The People are entitle to no voice in the matter. We're simply here to provide the money and children for His military ambitions.

We have all, on left and right, learned that this man considers Himself to be king, and that any lie will do as long as Himself gets his way.

Himself seem shocked to find that the nation has finally had enough of Himself. The blowback on his plans to take us into yet another war in the Middle East was huge. There is no telling how many times the phone melted down in his hand when even his most loyal syncophants in Congress called the White House.

Finally, it obvious the Emporer is stark raving nekkid.

This interview of Gregory Hicks conducted by ABC's George Stephanopoulus was aired Sunday morning, directly after the usual roundtable discussion by the usual talking heads, all of whom expressed great reservations, even if they supported the idea of bombing the bejeezus out of Syria.

It tells the world that from the very beginning, the State Department, and one can easily conclude the White House, knew that this had nothing/zilch/zero to do with anyone's YouTube video.

George doesn't dare look at the camera and say, 'Obama is a serial liar'. He'll lose too many invitations to AllTheRightParties. So, he does something even better. He lets Greg Hicks tell the truth, and lets us compare Obama's and Hillary's version of events with the truth.

Even George, the most craven of Obama worshippers, has had enough, it appears.

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Memo To All You Academics Who So Passionately Supported Obama In 08 and 12: You Are About To Be Rewarded For Your Loyalty

Adjuncts and grad students will see their hours significantly cut in order to avoid creeping up against the 30-hour-per week definition of Full-Time Employment under ObamaCare. 

No health insurance for you, and your income just got slashed.

Suckaaaaahs!!!

In the meantime, this is the year that Mr and Mrs OS, who are self-employed and in very good health, have seen their health-insurance premium (for very modest coverage) exceed their mortgage payment. And taxes are rising simultaneously.

We told you so, over and over and over, and you called us 'racist' and worse.

Don't blame us, you nit-wits.

Take a long look in the mirror, and contemplate what has befallen you, your families, your neighborhoods and the world at large. Look at the bodies stacking up from Northern Africa to the Turkish border, the 16+% unemployment rate amongst youth in this nation, the 26% ACT 'ready-for-college' pass rate amongst high-school seniors, and ask yourself if you chose wisely, and why you continue down this path, and where it might lead.

Chickens do come home to roost...this time in your 'hood.

You Buy, We Fry

OS was minding his own business, pumping gas at the local village station, when the sign caught his eye: You Buy, We Fry.

In other words, if you are on Food Stamps (err..SNAP) or any of the other forms of direct cash assistance from the feds, all you need do to have your own big ole' bucket of fresh fried chicken is swipe that there card right 'chere, ya'll.

Easy. Peasy. 

It's a SNAP!

Now, Mr and Mrs OS are blessed beyond measure to be able to work at what they love, with people they like, and make a modest living at it. He can't imagine life caught in the Perdition of welfare dependency,  and prays daily for wisdom and strength to make good decisions and to abhor laziness and greed.

But, still...this has been the Summer of Bleeding Money at Casa OS. Life has intervened, and precious cash reserves have had to be called upon to do some utterly necessary things, like repair roofs, replace autos, service calls on appliances, travel for family funerals, etc. Every dollar counts, and several items on the 'Wish-But-Damn-Close-To-Vital' list have been deferred.

It is disheartening to see this displayed in the store window. OS and Mrs. OS and all our friends who work harder and harder for less are paying for that bucket of chicken to be fried up for someone else, who likely voted to keep that fryer going at our expense.

It's as if the sign should read: They Buy, We Fry.

Or: We Buy, They Fry.

Or: We Buy, They Consume, we get to cook our chicken ourselves.

Or: We borrow from the Chinese, They Fry, They Consume, our children to pay the Chinese back with interest.

Well, then. On we go. Must get work done, taxes paid, and run to the grocery to buy something to put in the oven for dinner tonight. Mrs. OS and YoungerChild OS will be working until late this evening.

They won't be stopping at a gas station for a bucket of chicken bought by the taxpayer....

Jesse Jackson Junior Joins His Brethren In Duh' Joint

For blatant, flagrant corruption in misuse of campaign funds, the Congressman from Chicago (that, the son of that moral giant Jesse Jackson Senior, was sentenced to 2.5 years in the Federal pokey. 

For willfully playing along, and lavishly spending money on herself, Mrs Jesse Jackson Junior must spend one year in Federal prison.

They must, somehow, someway be victims of a racist conspiracy led by that virulent George Zimmerman....

That how the official narrative goes, you know. No other explanations, such as their actual guilt, allowed.

OS expects the President to come out swinging in defense of his close friend and colleague...

Sense of Events: The Religious Left's Chickens Come Home To Roost

The great Donald Sensing does it again, with his long memory and talent for stylishly telling the simple truth.

It has now, alas too late, dawned upon the great-and-good of the United Methodist Church that their cries for universal health care for all were heeded by their hero, Barack Obama. As a consequence, they and their clergy and church employees are about to get hammered by Obamacare.

The hypocrisy of the UMC's leadership on this issue is breathtaking. The UMC supported and lobbied for passage of Obamacare hammer and tongs, so much that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi specifically thanked the UMC for its work in getting the legislation through Congress.

But now, as Obama's own minister once said, the chickens are coming home to roost. Unless amended, Obamacare will make health insurance unaffordable for Conferences to fund. Wow, who could have seen that coming!?!?

Now, they want their own special deal. You know, like those evil corporate interests against whom they rail.

Just toooo rich. The best outcome will be that no deal is forthcoming, and the laity get to see first-hand where their clergy have led them, i.e. over the cliff.

When that happens, OS predicts he will hear the sound of checkbooks snapping shut in every pew of Methodism. Then, real change will come, just not the transformation envisioned by all those leftists who decided to hide out in pulpits for the past forty years or so...

The 'Phony Scandal' of Benghazi

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Dribble, dribble.....

(Deny, deny, deny, stonewall, call it 'phony', threaten everyone with any information within an inch of life.)

WHOOOOOOSH!

That's how these things work out, these scandals.

OS hears the distant sound of approaching waters.

The Telegraph tells the tale, since our own press are too busy assisting the Administration with its cover story.

Up to 35 CIA operatives were working in the city during the attack last September on the US CNN.

The circumstances of the attack are a subject of deep division in the US with some Congressional leaders pressing for a wide-ranging investigation into suspicions that the government has withheld details of its activities in the Libyan city. 

The television network said that a CIA team was working in an annex near the consulate on a project to supply missiles from Libyan armouries to Syrian rebels.

Sources said that more Americans were hurt in the assault spearheaded by suspected Islamic radicals than had been previously reported. CIA chiefs were actively working to ensure the real nature of its operations in the city did not get out. So only the losses suffered by the State Department in the city had been reported to Congress.

Paragraph two is the doozy. What in the name of sanity are we doing funneling arms from Libya to Syria?

BILL WHITTLE: Sarah Palin was Right, and Remember The Days When?

The Verdict Is Delivered, But The Race-Baiting Has Just Begun In Earnest

Not surprisingly, the jury found Zimmerman not guilty. The state's case was not credible, appeal grounded on emotion, and the attempt to include lesser charges at the last minute was disingenuous.

That doesn't stop the race baiting that fired the case up to the point where it became a national soap opera. In fact,it may only be just beginning. OS is shocked by what he has seen in just a few hours.

Once again, OS issues his plea:  Everyone, take a deep breath. If the genie of political bloodshed is let out of the bottle, there is no knowing what tragedies may visit us all.

No, no, no, no.

Restraint of tongue and pen, with a heaping helping of generosity and civility would help.

Please.

Rick Perry v Wendy Davis: Davis's Life Argues For Life, That Every Life Matters

Rick Perry, who probably should not be President, but has proven to be one of the most effective governors in the history of the US, will reconvene the Texas legislature and pass the bill Wendy Davis and a few hundred hysterical grad students from UT filibustered last week.

His comment on the situation summarized Mzzzzzz Davis's paradox completely:

"Who are we to say that children born in the worst of circumstances can't grow to live successful lives? In fact, even the woman who filibustered the Senate the other day was born into difficult circumstances. She was the daughter of a single woman. She was a teenage mother herself. She managed to eventually graduate from Harvard Law School and serve in the Texas Senate. It is just unfortunate that she hasn't learned from her own example that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential and that every life matters."


Bull's-eye. Full marks.

A CNN apologist demands Perry apologize.

Really?

For what?

Telling the truth?

Every. Life. Matters.

How Do We Secure The Border? One Frigging Yard At A Time!

Daniel Henninger, that pooh-bah of EastCoastGroupThink, assures us poor schmoes here in Flyover America that the border with Mexico just can't POSSIBLY be secured.  It's sooooo hard!!! So, we'll just have to let illegals flood us, and let them squat and vote and live off food stamps.

And if we don't, and build the wall to secure the border, why that would be just like the East Germans building the Berlin Wall.

Wrong!!! The Berlin Wall was built to keep oppressed people captive inside East Germany, not to keep the hordes of West Germans living in freedom from immigrating to the Soviet bloc. We are being invaded by people who have no, zero, respect for the rule of law, and no intention of ever integrating into American life.

Did he sleep through that history class at Georgetown, or do facts simply not matter?

Here's his whining quote of his essay in today's Wall Street Journal:

If you were to lift the Texas end of that border, like a string, and move it northward toward the Great Lakes, the length of the border between the U.S. and Mexico, as noted on the nearby map, is about the distance from San Diego to Chicago. That "border" would cross California, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois—most of the American continent. How would we secure all of that? 

One yard at a time, Mr. Henninger. It is not a matter of engineering.

It is a matter of will.

The Bush Administration lacked the will, even though it had clear legislative instructions.

The Obama Administration can't get enough illegals across the frontier quickly enough, to help secure their hold on power for generations to come.

It is a matter of will, and integrity, both qualities sadly lacking in the deputy editorial page editor for The Wall Street Journal...

Founded By Geniuses, Run By Idiots: Foxworthy Didn't Write This, But No Matter--It Needs To Be Read And Contemplated....

The Great Foxworthy did not pen these words, but whoever did certainly caught his tone of voice beautifully. The tragedy of this list is that it does describe our situation. We have become to accustomed to the idiocy, we are becoming numb to it.

Massah Obama and Company actually count on this happening, since numb people tend to not get all uppity and stuff, you know. OS, on the other hand, has moments when he sees the world burning, and innocents slaughtered, only to find that the lead stories on the morning shows such as 'Good Morning America' breathlessly inform us of the newest exploits of the Kardashian family. The temptation to throw things at the TV does become a bit strong, tempered by the knowledge that the missile aimed at those cheerful faces has no possibility of hitting its target...

These words, on the other hand, strike to the heart:

If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license,
but not for being in the country illegally — you might live in a
nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If you have to get your parents’ permission to go on a field trip
or take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion — you
might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If you have to show identification to board an airplane, cash a
check, buy liquor, or check out a library book, but not to vote
who runs the government — you might live in a nation founded
by geniuses but run by idiots.

If the government wants to ban stable, law-abiding citizens from
owning gun magazines with more than ten rounds, but gives
twenty F-16 fighter jets to the crazy new leaders in Egypt — you
might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If, in the nation’s largest city, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas,
but not a 24-ounce soda because 24-ounces of a sugary drink
might make you fat — you might live in a nation founded by
geniuses but run by idiots.

If an 80-year-old woman or a three-year-old girl confined to a
wheelchair can be strip-searched by the TSA, but a woman in
a hijab is only subject to having her neck and head searched
— you might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions
of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more — you might live in a
nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If a seven-year-old boy can be thrown out of school for saying his
teacher is “cute,” but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class
in grade school is perfectly acceptable — you might live in a nation
founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If children are forcibly removed from parents who discipline them
with spankings, while children of addicts are left in filth- and drug-infested
“homes” — you might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If hard work and success are met with higher taxes and more
government intrusion, while not working is rewarded with EBT cards,
WIC checks, Medicaid, subsidized housing, and free cell phones
— you might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If the government’s plan for getting people back to work is to provide
incentives for not working through 99 weeks of unemployment checks,
without any requirement to prove they sought, but couldn’t find, work
— you might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If you pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big
screen TV, while your neighbor buys iPhones, wall-sized plasma do-it-all
TV’s and new cars, and the government forgives his debt when he
defaults on his mortgage — you might live in a nation founded by geniuses
but run by idiots.

If being stripped of the ability to defend yourself makes you more “safe”
according to the government — you might live in a nation founded by
geniuses but run by idiots.

John Kerry (That Great Agitator For Peace) Calling For Airstrikes In The Syrian Civil War: Winner of OS's WTF Award

Really, ya'll, just can't make this stuff up.

At a principals meeting in the White House situation room, Secretary of State John Kerry began arguing, vociferously, for immediate U.S. airstrikes against airfields under the control of Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime -- specifically, those fields it has used to launch chemical weapons raids against rebel forces. 

(Wait a second! Wasn't this the guy who tossed someone else's medals (certainly not his own!) over the White House fence in protest of the Viet Nam War, and testified to the Senate that his fellow soldiers were murderers? Wasn't this the guy who gave GW Bush unshirted grief over the chemical weapons that weren't found in Iraq--because a lot of them had been secreted to Syria!)

It was at this point that the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the usually mild-mannered Army General Martin Dempsey, spoke up, loudly. According to several sources, Dempsey threw a series of brushback pitches at Kerry, demanding to know just exactly what the post-strike plan would be and pointing out that the State Department didn’t fully grasp the complexity of such an operation.
Dempsey informed Kerry that the Air Force could not simply drop a few bombs, or fire a few missiles, at targets inside Syria: To be safe, the U.S. would have to neutralize Syria’s integrated air-defense system, an operation that would require 700 or more sorties. 

At a time when the U.S. military is exhausted, and when sequestration is ripping into the Pentagon budget, Dempsey is said to have argued that a demand by the State Department for precipitous military action in a murky civil war wasn’t welcome.

(Um, scuze me, Massah Seceretahry Uv State, but all 'dem Syrian anti-aircraft sites? Dey beez Russian anti-aircraft sites! Yew don't think the Russians are so stupid as to just ship boatloads of advanced weapons to a chaotic situation like Syria, off-load them and hand over the owners' manuals to whoever greets them on the docks? Those are complex systems, and required trained people, that means Russians, to run them. We're the ones who just drop off ordinance and wish everybody well...)

Remember Viet Nam, the tragedy that helped launch your career Massah Kerry? It happened because a trigger-happy egomaniac named Lyndon Johnson decided to get us hip-deep in a civil war on the ground in Asia!

Now here we are again, with you demanding the fleet sail and the planes fly and damn the torpedos. No real entrance strategy, no exit strategy, no real goals in mind, no contingency plan if things go pear-shaped, nothing.

And to think you almost became President!! Holy Cow!!

So, Massah Secruhterry, if'n yew wanna go make yoh'self feel bettah by shootin' off ordinance, c'mon on down South. All the fireworks stands are up and running, and you can buy yoh'self all sorts of stuff that will will go boom and flash. Just stand clear when yew light dem fuses, ok? And remember, keep the pointy end of 'dem rockets pointed up and away from people and pets.

The Very Worst Sermon Ever...Presiding Bishop Schori Blathers In Venezuela

Just when you think you've seen/heard it all, along comes Presiding Bishop Schori, the captain at the helm of the sinking Episcopal Church here in the US.

Art Buchwald, the great satirist of an earlier day, would despair of his daily task at writing something funnier than what the great-and-good of Washington political life would daily peddle as serious pronouncements. Ron Nessen, Nixon's press secretary, particularly irked him.

Malcolm Muggeridge, as editor of Punch, faced the same problem. He once described the Archbishop of Canterbury attending a performance of Jesus Christ, Superstar. The old fool stood up at the end of the show and exclaimed 'Long live God!'. Muggeridge struggled, clever as he was, to write material funnier than what he observed in real time.

The clergy are a particularly rich source of humor. They don robes, climb into pulpits, and declare the most asinine things, ideas that can't possibly pass the smell or laugh test.

Presiding Bishop Schori, however, does win this year's grand prize with this excerpt:

We live with the continuing tension between holier impulses that encourage us to see the image of God in all human beings and the reality that some of us choose not to see that glimpse of the divine, and instead use other people as means to an end.  We’re seeing something similar right now in the changing attitudes and laws about same-sex relationships, as many people come to recognize that different is not the same thing as wrong.  For many people, it can be difficult to see God at work in the world around us, particularly if God is doing something unexpected.

There are some remarkable examples of that kind of blindness in the readings we heard this morning, and slavery is wrapped up in a lot of it.  Paul is annoyed at the slave girl who keeps pursuing him, telling the world that he and his companions are slaves of God.  She is quite right.  She’s telling the same truth Paul and others claim for themselves.[1]  But Paul is annoyed, perhaps for being put in his place, and he responds by depriving her of her gift of spiritual awareness.  Paul can’t abide something he won’t see as beautiful or holy, so he tries to destroy it.  It gets him thrown in prison.  That’s pretty much where he’s put himself by his own refusal to recognize that she, too, shares in God’s nature, just as much as he does – maybe more so!  The amazing thing is that during that long night in jail he remembers that he might find God there – so he and his cellmates spend the night praying and singing hymns.

An earthquake opens the doors and sets them free, and now Paul and his friends most definitely discern the presence of God.  The jailer doesn’t – he thinks his end is at hand.  This time, Paul remembers who he is and that all his neighbors are reflections of God, and he reaches out to his frightened captor.  This time Paul acts with compassion rather than annoyance, and as a result the company of Jesus’ friends expands to include a whole new household.  It makes me wonder what would have happened to that slave girl if Paul had seen the spirit of God in her.

On the one hand, the account seems innocent and well-meaning, until we remember the real story: The slave girl was, well, a slave girl, owned by pimps. She was at the very least severely mentally ill, in today's terminology, and St. Paul invoked Christ to free her from her bondage. She was liberated from her hell. The pimps, seeing a profit center vaporize in front of them, had Paul and Silas jailed. They stayed up the night, singing hymns in the dark, when the earthquake occurred. The terrified jailer, seeing all the cell doors open, was about to take his own life--in order to spare himself the tortures of Roman 'justice'. Paul intervened, and assured him that there had not been a jailbreak. The jailer asked the crucial question 'What must I do to be saved?'--the question a sane man asks when encountering the transcendent presence of the risen Christ.

And, what of that slave girl? The good bishop would have left her in her hell, the property of her pimps, with her claim that that mental disturbance was 'the presence of God in her'. 

Who let this woman out of seminary, much less handed her a bishopric? 

The entire sermon is here. The responses are rich...

Please, Somebody, Remind Us Why The Euro Was Anything But An Idiotic Idea: The Final Concert Of The National Orchestra And Chorus Of Greece

Yet another general strike in Greece, this time over the summary closure of Greek State Radio and Television, which means the orchestra and chorus are also shut down. 

The video below shows scenes from the final concert broadcast from the studio to the crowds outside, a performance of Elgar's 'Nimrod' followed by the Greek national anthem. The violinist in tears says it all. This is just one of the tragic outcomes of entry into the Euro, and the chaos that resulted.

As always, Greece is a mess, an ongoing tragic soap opera, with so many problems of its own creation that the list would go forever.

But nothing was helped, and so much was made so much worse, by the imposition of the Euro upon this messy corner of the world. Its economic, political and cultural woes have only been worsened by its continued participation. The well has been so poisoned, it will take decades to recover.

Some argue, 'Well, good riddance to the orchestra! Not the role of government to be funding this anyway!', and that point may be well-taken. On the other hand, even small governments like Grecce, if solvent, can easily scrape together 5-10 million dollars to run a radio orchestra, with even a chorus and small ballet on the side. They can be used to anchor arts education for the country, serve as public relations ambassadors, used to organize music festivals to draw tourism dollars.

In any case, it should be their choice, yea or nay. A solvent government in a stable society can spend a bit of discretionary money on this sort of thing with no harm done. The Eurozone has eroded and destroyed all that.

Time to exit, tell the Germans and the bankers where to stick it, and for the Greeks to take back their own country, and get to make their own choices. Who knows, they may even decide they want an orchestra that plays Elgar decently.

One Man's Crisis Is Another Man's Opportunity: Rick Perry Visits Colt Manufacturing In Connecticut

This spring, the idiot mainstream press breathlessly reported and applauded as the Connecticut legislature passed even more restrictions on gun ownership in the wake of the Newtown tragedy. Oh, the humanity, oh how noble a legislature, this we say this will fix things, by golly!

What was not well-reported were the some 400 employees of Colt who appeared at the state capitol to ask for cooler heads to prevail, all to no avail.

This week, Rick Perry came to visit, to invite Colt to relocate to Texas, a state that will never ever ever piss on them like Connecticut did.

The president of West Hartford-based Colt Manufacturing said Friday he will be pleased to host a visit by Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, a state he called a loyal supporter of the gun maker.

Perry is traveling to Connecticut on Sunday for a Northeast job-poaching tour that will also take him to New York.

A number of gun makers in Connecticut have said they are looking into leaving after the state passed some of the toughest gun laws in the country, a response to last year's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown in which 20 children and six educators were gunned down.

Colt president Dennis Veilleux said he welcomes Perry's visit Monday morning. 

He was careful to speak in code:

"While we have been proud to call Connecticut home for 175 years, as we look to future growth we have a responsibility to consider all options that ensure we remain competitive and meet the needs and expectations of our customers," Veilleux said.

The translation being: 'We're outta here.'

The plant leaves. The workers leave, highly trained people whose families have worked for the firm for decades and more. Their families leave, and their children never come back. The suppliers to Colt also leave, and their workers and families. The costs of maintaining roads and running schools don't go down, but the tax revenue certainly does.

And as for the firms recruited to take Colt's place? Question #1 is: 'If you will do this to Colt, what will you do to us? Besides, we've been talking to Texas, and Alabama, and Tennessee...They've got better weather, better food, lower taxes, and fewer Democrats.'

OS believes in our Federal system, with most power flowing to the states and the people. It allows a Texas to profit from the idiocy of Connecticut, and serves thereby to restrain their folly. The best reforms arrive dressed as competition.

Bebe Netanyahu Repeats His Message In Plain English: Israel Will Not Allow Another Holocaust

Lest anyone be lulled by a 15K Dow, the NBA Finals, the NHL Finals, the US Open Golf Tournament, an entertaining baseball season, or distracted by the multiple scandals now enveloping the Presidency (once again), Bebe reminds us that we are allllll up to our hips in the Middle East...

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, made the following remarks on Thursday at the dedication ceremony for the permanent pavilion at Block 27 at Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp.

"The leaders of the Allies (UK, US, France) knew about the Holocaust in real time. They understood exactly what was happening in the death camps. They were asked to act, they could have acted, and they did not. To we Jews the lesson is clear. We must not be complacent in the face of threats of annihilation. We must not bury our heads in the sand or allow others to do the work for us.

From here, the place that attests to the desire to destroy us, I, the Prime Minister of Israel, the state of the Jewish People, say to all the nations of the world: The State of Israel will do whatever is necessary to prevent another holocaust."

Netanyahu made the comments as other Israeli government ministers, Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski, Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Piotr Cywinski, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate and exhibition curator Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Rabbi Israel Meir Lau and Holocaust survivors looked on.

OS takes zero joy in the cascading scandals overtaking the US government.  Many innocent people will perish because we are not paying attention to the world around us while we sort out our own problems. There are a lot of bad actors out there, and they are very happy to use our distraction to spill oceans of innocent blood. It's who they are, it's what they do.

In the wake of Watergate, the resignation of Nixon, and the confusion and national paralysis that followed, Southeast Asia fell to the Marxists, the boatloads of desperate refugees sailed from Vietnam to Hong Kong, and Pol Pot murdered his millions. There was nothing, and no one, to stand in their way.

Given Barack Obama's weakened reputation, active encouragement of chaos in North Africa, and the general war that has enveloped Syria, moving into Lebanon, the deterioration of Iraq, the interventions of Iran, and the Muslim Brotherhood in control of Egypt, Israel is essentially surrounded. Obama is, if not a closet practicing Muslim, deeply influenced by Islam, and will throw Israel under the bus when push comes to shove. 

Israel, for its part, will not go down without a fight, and Heaven only knows what that fight may entail.

It is time to watch and pray, and hope that sane heads somewhere prevail.

Inspired Truck Gate Art, June 2013

Sometimes, a brave soul possesses both the idea and ability to create one of those unforgettable artistic moments...

The 'Visionary' Barack Obama

No comment needed...

West Wing Reports - Latest Reports

HT Donald Sensing at Sense of Events

Pastor Peters Provides The Quote of The Day

 We face constant critics who decry the looming irrelevance of Christianity, its impending death, and the sins, weakness, and ineffectiveness of the Church and her ministers.  It would seem that we must constantly reinvent ourselves merely to survive.  But that is not true.  We have only to wait and we will win.  He has promised to come again, that we will be where He is and we will be with Him.  This is most certainly true.  But He has also promised that the old will pass away and the new will come.  Heaven is not some sanitized version of today in which the horrors of the news are replaced with good and happy stories.  Heaven is the old done and the new begun, the today that becomes the eternal tomorrow, when the victory of Christ brings to culmination all things as He has promised.

 
The rest here.

Hello There, Mister Obama And All Your Progressive Fellow Travelers

It appears, since OS is a Verizon customer, that ya'll have been logging every phone call I've made for years.

Let's make this easy for you, ok?

So, all those phone calls overseas--either to a family member or business colleagues. No need to worry there...no conspiracies cooked up, other than to deliver goodies to an office in London every Christmas.

Also, every keystroke has been monitored. Hmmm....lots of stuff about music, family, visits to restaurants, visits to family, pictures of dogs, babies, gardens, cakes we've baked, friends we love.

And, yes, this blog; which, if you will notice, has some pretty acid things to say about Massah Obama, Miz Hillary, Massah Harry, Mizz Nancy. You'll also notice that OS keeps calling for sending these clowns on their way via the ballot box, and only via the ballot box.

OS is many things, but stupid he's not. And he has no taste whatsoever for bloodshed, because when the blood begins to spill, there is absolutely no telling what tragedies will overtake us. No, no, no. The French Revolution, followed by Bonaparte, should be enough of a cautionary tale to restrain us all.

Two final things to say, since you're reading them anyway:

You and yours will fail. Monsters like you always fail, though you do ever so much damage as you run headlong over the cliffs of history.

There is a God, who is the unique Creator of you and everything else, and he does sit in judgment upon his creatures. You will not want to confront him with your unrepented sins on your head. This day will come, as it comes to all. Act now, turn to Heaven for mercy, while there is yet time.

OS is not a regular Glenn Beck fan, but this segment is on point.

Tom Donilon's Out, Susan Rice In As National Security Advisor To POTUS

Wow, we should all feel safer already, don't-cha-know...breathe that collective progressive sight of relief, now that we have a real expert on the job, someone with impeccable credentials and the trust of everyone in the country. Not someone who would peddle a bogus story about some video as the cause of a terrorist attack on an embassy....

Oh, wait....

This also puts her in the White House, directly reporting to the President, and well under the umbrella of executive privilege afforded any president and his advisors, out of reach of those nasty senators and congressmen who might want to ask questions of her under oath....

And...she needs no Senate confirmation to serve in the post!

Sweeeeet!

This scandal will not go away, and the unanswered questions just keep stacking up.  Someone, somewhere in the White House is already talking with his/her lawyer about how to cover his/her backside while he/she tells the unvarnished truth, with the requisite documents (those that haven't been shredded yet) to corroborate the testimony. It's the way the world works. Someone decides they he/she has no taste for prison, or that last flicker on conscience begins to burn, and away we go...

It is only a matter of time...

Dancing IRS Employees And The Legitimacy Of Government

It's hard work, you know, serving as an extension of the perpetual Obama political campaign. Little wonder the IRS found and extra $50 million dollars laying around for employee conferences these past few years, and some 30k of that for this fascinating line-dancing video.




Increasingly, it has become clear that the IRS has become an extension of the political arm of the Obama regime. When Obama declared, 'They bring a knife, we bring a gun', he wasn't kidding. When he boasted about going after his enemies, he wasn't kidding.

OS has a prediction to make: As the pieces of this scandal come together, and the jigsaw puzzle of facts and anecdotes is assembled, the very legitimacy of the 2012 Presidential election will come into question.

The rallies for Romney in Ohio were huge in the days approaching the election, while Obama's folks struggled to fill even modest halls.

 So many states weren't even contested...the entire election felt, well, oddly contrived, strangely manipulated. There was genuine shock at Obama's win, especially after he lost the endorsement of normally loyal newspapers. OS asked friends in Ohio how this could have happened, and they shook their heads, either saying 'I don't know', or 'Cleveland'. Even the coal miners voted Romney this time.
Something just didn't add up, but no one knew how to explain it.

The stories now being told about the deliberate campaign of the IRS to intimidate political opposition may well be the tip of the iceberg.  The 2012 may have been manipulated to the point of fraudulence.

If this does become apparent, we are in a world of trouble. Obama will never resign, and no impeachment could succeed without a healthy GOP majority in the Senate after November 2014.

We are in a world of trouble. OS is not calling for the President's head. He is urging one and all to pray for this nation, and to prepare themselves for a rough and painful ride.

The Articles Of Impeachment Filed Against Richard Nixon

The damage control machine is in full gear now, with this conversation between Dan Pfeiffer (White House shill-of-the-week), and George (I-owe-my-career-to-the-Clintons) Stephanapolous.

The quote of the day is: 'The law is irrelevant', followed by immediate back-tracking--that's ok, the message made it out there into the open air. There was also the vow to engage in a 'modified limited hang-out' mode (in Haldeman and Erlichmann mode). Followed by condescending language about the Republicans, saying that what they're really mad about is losing the election and that Obamacare still lives. He was at pains to protect Obamacare, no. matter. what. And that they owe Susan Rice an apology for pointing out that she spread falsehoods.

This White House, like the Nixon White House, has decided to brazen their way through it. Facts be damned, law be damned, truth be damned, the Constitution be especially damned, The President Is Above The Law And Don't You Forget It, How Dare You Ask Disrespectful Questions.

The frightening revelation, details aside, of the Nixon years, was that the re-election campaign of 1972 (run by an organization aptly named CREEP) involved the enlistment of much of the Federal Government as a tool to accomplish that goal. The IRS was involved. The Attorney General was involved, the CIA was involved...on it went. There was no line that separated the government from the political operation. It was frightening to contemplate, as we were on the road to a dictatorship.

Fast forward forty years, here we are again. This will not end well. Read below to understand why. The words below are in the historical record, the actual words used to recommend impeachment.

This will not end well. The individual scandals will break upon the administration like a hurricane. It will just keep raining, but this President will never resign his post. It is his only identity, his one life's quest. He will never surrender it, his strength of will puts Nixon and even Bill Clinton in the shade. He will play the race card, the class card, and eventually perhaps even a religion card or two.

This will not end well. OS fears the dots will connect, and lead directly to the President and his staff.


Here are the articles of impeachment passed by the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives which led to Nixon's eventual resignation on July 27 1974.

Article 2 is especially troubling:

Article 2

Using the powers of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in disregard of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has repeatedly engaged in conduct violating the constitutional rights of citizens, impairing the due and proper administration of justice and the conduct of lawful inquiries, or contravening the laws governing agencies of the executive branch and the purposed of these agencies.
This conduct has included one or more of the following:

1. He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavoured to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposed not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be intitiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.
2. He misused the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, and other executive personnel, in violation or disregard of the constitutional rights of citizens, by directing or authorizing such agencies or personnel to conduct or continue electronic surveillance or other investigations for purposes unrelated to national security, the enforcement of laws, or any other lawful function of his office; he did direct, authorize, or permit the use of information obtained thereby for purposes unrelated to national security, the enforcement of laws, or any other lawful function of his office; and he did direct the concealment of certain records made by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of electronic surveillance.
3. He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, in violation or disregard of the constitutional rights of citizens, authorized and permitted to be maintained a secret investigative unit within the office of the President, financed in part with money derived from campaign contributions, which unlawfully utilized the resources of the Central Intelligence Agency, engaged in covert and unlawful activities, and attempted to prejudice the constitutional right of an accused to a fair trial.
4. He has failed to take care that the laws were faithfully executed by failing to act when he knew or had reason to know that his close subordinates endeavoured to impede and frustrate lawful inquiries by duly constituted executive, judicial and legislative entities concerning the unlawful entry into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, and the cover-up thereof, and concerning other unlawful activities including those relating to the confirmation of Richard Kleindienst as Attorney General of the United States, the electronic surveillance of private citizens, the break-in into the offices of Dr. Lewis Fielding, and the campaign financing practices of the Committee to Re-elect the President.
5. In disregard of the rule of law, he knowingly misused the executive power by interfering with agencies of the executive branch, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Criminal Division, and the Office of Watergate Special Prosecution Force, of the Department of Justice, and the Central Intelligence Agency, in violation of his duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

In all of this, Richard M. Nixon has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
Wherefore Richard M. Nixon, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.
Adopted 28-10 by the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives.

It's A Family Affair: The Barack H Obama Foundation Fast-Tracked For Non-Profit Clearance By The IRS

Obviously, there was 'adequate supervisory oversight' to see this application through, and even make the date of non-profit status retroactive....sweeeeeet...

It helps to be the President's half brother, raising funds to build a madrasa back home in Kenya...and the poor gent has twelve wives to keep fed. This brother's got him some bills to pay, ya'll.  If you think this is not a good way to run a government, you be a raaaaaaaacist! Just ask Chris Matthews and that fount of good character Al Sharpton.

Of course, Donna Brazile, one of the meanest operators in contemporary politics (she ran Al Gore's campaign in 2000, amongst other things) is now pontificating that the real problem is that folks are getting all bent out of shape over these minor matters...if we would just all sit down, shut up, and let people like her run the show, we'd all be so much better off.

Scuse' us, Donna, if we don't follow your advice....

Drip....Drip....Drip..Drip-drip....drip-drip-drip-dribble-dribble-shhhhhhhhh-splash!!!!

As story after story, bit of evidence here and there, lawsuit and docs obtained via discovery, underling-deciding-he-doesn't-wish-to-do-hard-time-for-MassahObama-coming-forward---the slow drip is on the way to becoming a flood threatening to wash over the Internal Revenue Service on its way to the White House.

It isn't just the big stuff, although that's bad enough. It's the 'little stuff', like traffic light cameras. City governments install them over the protests of the voters, claiming they make the streets safer. In reality, what they do is turn each intersection into a profit center. Then there are the hand-held versions employed by police officers from the safety of their cars. $50 here, $100 there, pretty soon it adds up to real money. The citizens know the truth, and they resent being lied to, and really resent being seen as the source of money for governments to skim. The police officer ostensibly hired to protect the law-abiding, to render aid to those in need, to maintain order by just being present, is now another anonymous collector of revenue, driving around in his car, photographing license plates, 'tagging' motorists for 50-100 bucks a pop. How long before they find the citizenry begins to view them as an enemy, not a friend, decide that perhaps there really is no Rule of Law after all, and perhaps grudges need to be settled privately? Wonder if that has already taken hold in Chicago in some cases?

Drip...drip...drip....

 Given enough time, enough frustration, that drip becomes a stream...

The mother of a straight-A student picks the child up from school 30 minutes early one day a week for a music lesson. This lady donates massive amounts of time, money, energy to the school and its PTO. The principal confronts her, threatens to sic the police on her for truancy. Homeschooling is now actively under consideration, as well as a nastygram from the family attorney to the local Board of Education. Because she wants her child to learn to play Mozart and Bach.

 Drip-drip-drip....drip-drip-dripdripdripdrip...


Representatives Mike Kelly's public disembowling of the pitiful political hack just departed from the IRS gives voice to much of that frustration.





The final minute or so is transcribed below...

REP. MIKE KELLY (R-PA): This has nothing to do with political parties. This has to do with highly targeted groups. This reconfirms everything the American public believes. This is a huge blow to the faith and trust that the American people have in their government. Is there any limit to the scope where you folks can go? Is there anything at all? Is there any way that we could ask you is there any question that you should have asked?

My goodness. How much money do you have in your wallet? Who do you get emails from? Whose sign do you put up in your front yard? This is a tax question? And you don't think that's intimidating? It's sure as hell intimidating. And I don't know that I got any answers from you today. And I don't know that -- what Mr. George said is great work -- but you know what? There's a heck of a lot more that has to come out in this. Any anybody that sat here today and listened to what you had to say, I am more concerned today than I was before, and the fact that you all can do just about anything you want to anybody?

You know, you can put anybody out of business that you want. Any time you want. I gotta tell you. You could talk about how you're a horribly run organization, if you're on the other side of the fence, you're not giving that excuse. And the IRS comes in, you're not allowed to be shoddy, you're not allowed to be run horribly, you're not allowed to make mistakes, you're not allowed to do one damn thing that doesn't come in compliance, and if you do, you're held responsible right then. I just think the American people have seen what's going on right now in their government. This is absolutely an overreach and this is an outrage for all Americans.

Even The Atlantic, that bastion of EastCoastPCThought, is beginning to catch on...

Drip-drip-drip...

It's even beginning to publish essays laying the groundwork for a possible impeachment... 

drip-drip-drip-dribble-dribble....

And, since OS assumes some leftist goon reviews his posts, it needs to be made clear: This country will be shattered by a third impeachment in forty years. And, more critically, if bloodshed begins, there is no telling where it will end. No, no, no, no.

But as he stopped into WalMart yesterday to buy printer ink, 'OS checked the ammo counter. Almost completely bare, still. A GoodOleBoy was there, who looked like a cast member from 'Duck Dynasty'.

Says he: 'DANG that Obama! Can't get no ammo, they' buying it all up! Why do they need .22 ammo?'

Says OS: Well, they're absorbing all the manufacturing capacity of the country with their orders.
What do they need with all that 40 caliber, 9mm, .223 ammo? I wonder if they'll turn it on us one day?

GoodOleBoy says: Well. I got me a little stockpile, I can hold 'em off for a while.

Drip-drip-drip-dribble-dribble-shhhhhhhhh....

We are moving onto dangerous ground. Let us pray, remain diligent, remain calm and focused, and abstain from violence. No, no, no, no.


OldSouth

Remember All The Hand-Wringing Apologists For the Boston Bombers? Wonder If They Will Retract One Word In Light Of This News...

Our dear boy Tamerlan, the athlete, the quiet nice guy, who suffered from 'alienation' in his adopted homeland, who just needed more understanding from us, which he didn't receive, which is why he murdered that little boy and all those other people, which after all is AllOurFault, because we're the EvilAmericans and he was just a poor misunderstood refugee from Chechnya, clinging to his traditional faith and culture in this foreign and corrupt land, so he was driven driven we say to do this horrible thing which after all is AllOurFault...

Turns out, he is coming up as the main suspect in a brutal and bizarre triple murder in 2011 in Boston.

Which, of course, will also be AllOurFault.

Vice Is Nice, But Incest Is Best: The Intermarriage Of ABC, CBS, CNN With The Obama Administration

The mainstream media's silence about tragedies such as Benghazi, the Fort Hood massacre, the development of Iran's nuclear program, the massive ammunition purchases by the Federal government, the use of the IRS to harass political dissenters, gun-running to Mexican cartels resulting in thousands of deaths--the litany stretches on--has seemed baffling. The 'news' is filled with anything and everything except, well, the news.

This little nugget of information helps to explain much.


"CBS News President David Rhodes and ABC News President Ben Sherwood, both of them have siblings that not only work at the White House, that not only work for President Obama, but they work at the NSC on foreign policy issues directly related to Benghazi."

So stated political consultant and media commentator Richard Grenell on Saturday's Fox News Watch.

RICHARD GRENELL: I think the media's becoming the story, let's face it. CBS News President David Rhodes and ABC News President Ben Sherwood, both of them have siblings that not only work at the White House, that not only work for President Obama, but they work at the NSC on foreign policy issues directly related to Benghazi. Let's call a spade a spade.
Let's also show you why CNN did not go very far in covering these hearings because the CNN deputy bureau chief, Virginia Moseley, is married to Hillary Clinton’s deputy, Tom Nides. It is time for the media to start asking questions why are they not covering this. It's a family matter for some of them.
JON SCOTT, HOST: So they don't want to bring embarrassment upon folks who, who they're close to?
GRENELL: Who directly are related to this story. Absolutely. They're covering for them. There's no question about it.

The coyotes are guarding the henhouse. We are in deep trouble.

Mark Sanford's Win: Folks Loathe Obama That Much

Time was, a screw-up like Mark Sanford would disappear from the public stage--permanently.

We live in different times, in these times. Bill Clinton actually blazed the trail for Sanford: he was rescued, forgiven, embraced, and is now lionized by the Democrat faithful. Any stones they throw at Sanford for his escapades will seem especially hypocritical, even for them. This is also the party of Barney Frank, whose adventures over time make Sanford look like a rank amateur. Let's not dwell too much on Anthony Weiner, who is said to be contemplating a run for mayor of new York City.

Govenor/Representative Sanford should not congratulate himself too heartily. His constituents don't love him, and many are embarrassed by him. But given the prospect of putting a Democrat in the House seat, who would be supportive of Himself...well, that was even more unthinkable.

Strange, strange times, when a President has made himself that odious to the citizenry.

Speaking Up, Refusing To Adjust: Ted Cruz Addresses The Faithful At NRA Convention In Houston

It keeps happening, you know, this slow squeeze on our freedoms...

Nineteen mooks who should have never been allowed in the country hijack three planes, murder thousands of innocents, and we end up being frisked every time we wish to fly. We are assumed to be bad actors, native-born citizens, from little kids through grandmas. The borders remain wide open to all comers, including the latest two mooks who slaughtered the innocents in Boston.

Another mook wears explosive shoes, so now, we all dress in loafers to travel. We stand in long long lines to be frisked by surly functionaries paid for by taxes on our air travel. We dare not utter a word of disagreement with the situation. We, after all, are the problem.

Another mook, who should have never been allowed onto the plane in Amsterdam, wears explosive undies. His own father had reported him to the authorities. His flight originated in Africa, and he paid the ticket to Detroit in cash. Now we get scanned to our birthday suits every time we travel. The borders remain wide open to all comers, including the latest two mooks who slaughtered the innocents in Boston.

Two mooks make home-made bombs out of pressure cookers, drop them in back-packs, slaughter innocents and maim many others. The older mook was allowed into the country earlier this year without a proper visa. Today, the Kentucky Derby was run, and the fans were subject to search, and coolers were banned. Yes, it was raining, but the infield was eerily empty of the throngs of happy fans who normally attend the great event. The borders remain wide open to all comers, and we dare not possibly publicly say that maybe, just perhaps, Islam and its extremist elements had something to do with that crime, or the other crimes listed above. No, no, no, no, no, no.....we can't say that. We can't turn the screws on immigration from dangerous places, we must be welcoming and understanding and accepting as we remove our shoes, have our privates scanned, stay home from public events, have our lives inexorably restricted by a government that refuses to defend us, and has chosen instead to focus its efforts on limiting our lives and freedoms.

An evil man murders his mother, steals her guns, and murders first graders, all of this taking place in a state with restrictive gun laws. In reaction, no mention of anything except targeting the law-abiding.

Punish criminals? Nahhhh.... Secure schools with guards? Unthinkable!! Admit that there is such a thing as evil in the world, and that there are evil people walking about? How very un-Progressive!!
The only only only solution is to target the law-abiding. They are the real problem!

In response, OS invites you to hear Ted Cruz's speech the faithful at the 2013 NRA Convention in Houston. Here's still contending that, one day, we will travel freely, send our kids to school fearlessly, attend concerts and sports events without being frisked. We'll even take our own coolers to the Derby.

Breaking Silence, Refusing To Adjust: The US Army Attempts To Censor The Baptists

 It's not unexpected, really.

The Army has decided that evangelical Christians are a potential terrorist threat, and has focused its efforts on keeping us safe from the likes of the folks who go to Sunday School at First Baptist Church of anywhere-south-of-the-Ohio-River. Hotbeds of hatred and insurrection like Abingdon, Virginia, or Paducah Kentucky, or Enid, Oklahoma.

Damn, OS feels safer already!!

Now, a self-proclaimed Muslim Jihadi Army officer can walk into a crowded room of unarmed servicemen and women at Fort Hood, cry the 'God Is Great' warcry and begin murdering those innocent people, and that is not a terrorist act! This man has never been sent to court-martial, and likely never will be during the Obama administration.

But, those Baptist! They, by golly are a threat!! Just ask Homeland Security!

('But, but, but...weren't those Boston Bombers wannabe jihadis?' Hush-yo-mouf!! They just poor misguided souls, dat's all, let's not go dissin' nooooobodies Muslim faith, now!)

Of course, it was not long before the Army's attempt to block the site was discovered, and the word spread. Rapidly. Loudly.

Then the serious backtracking began:

The Dept. of Defense confirmed to Fox News late Wednesday that the SBC website had been blocked — but not intentionally. “The Department of Defense is not intentionally blocking access to this site, said Lt. Col. Damien Pickart. “We are working diligently to investigate what might be causing access issues for some of our service members and to correct the situation as quickly as possible.”

Translation being: Damn!! We got caught!! Of course it was deliberate, since it's impossible to 'unintentionally' block a website, but we'll just lie about that bit, and hope people don't pick up on it.
Back to the drawing board--we'll have to find more subtle ways to pressure the Evangelicals. Them and their inconvenient consciences and beliefs that there is a moral Almighty to whom they have to give account.

What puzzles OS is: So much of the military is drawn from small towns, from church-going families, many of whom have a long tradition of military service stretching back generations. From what portions of society do they now intend to recruit for military service? Will blind obedience and physical prowess be the qualities most prized? Does this not sound troubling, and familiar, this military untied from a moral tradition, and trained to swear fealty to a charismatic leader? This is the direction that we seem to be going, and it always takes a nation over the cliff.

It is disturbing, but symptomatic of a more pervasive attitude found in the upper reaches of leadership in government and academia.

Mr. Obama's remark about rural Pennsylvanians clinging to guns and religion is the coin of the realm in his crowd. But let's put their shared consensus another way: Somehow it became a conventional view in contemporary American politics that it is non-urban conservatives who in every case have to accommodate their beliefs to a national culture created by people who live somewhere else. "They" must adjust on abortion, guns, school prayer, sexual mores and all the rest of it. Liberals, meanwhile, not only feel no need to concede anything but use the commanding heights of the press and academia to define anyone who dissents from their ever-evolving national culture as a political fringe obsessed with people, one might say, who aren't like them.

OS does not have much to say, except: The horrors of twentieth-century Europe, the millions upon millions slaughtered, the other millions who perished of disease and starvation, the millions more displaced by war, the wholesale leveling of beautiful cities; all this was made possible by compliant populations who were persuaded to 'adjust' to a New Order, a 'modern' view of life, unshackled by outmoded religion and ethics.

We cannot afford to, and dare not 'adjust'. To simply withdraw from society, as OS sees some do, into one's own angry and heavily armed enclave, is a form of capitulation. To respond with violence instead of words and votes invites massive blood-letting--recall The War Between The States, and imagine it re-fought with modern arms. This is not an option.

We have to remain engaged, and firmly, quietly, as kindly as we can, one home at a time, one neighborhood at a time, one church at a time, one town or county at a time, one vote at a time, one state at a time--inform one and all that we will not be 'adjusting'.