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.

Up All Night, Waiting For Himself To Simply Answer A Simple Question

Does the President assert the right to arbitrarily take the life of a US citizen on US soil who poses no immediate threat to life and limb?

The answer from Massah Obama's White House has been a thunderous silence...

Until such time as that question is answered, Rand Paul and company are in filibuster mod

Time to stand with Rand, everybody. This could get interesting...

Rand Paul Wiped The Smile From Madame Secretary Hilary's Face

It takes a lot to remove that smirk; that practiced, self-assured "I am soooo much smarter than anyone in the room" condescending smile that Madame Secretary pulls out when on public view, and which she especially employs upon anyone, anywhere, anytime that may question Herself about anything.

Rand Paul did just that. As you watch this video, notice as the camera cuts back to Madame Secretary. She's beaming at the beginning, she's scowling at the end.

Rand Paul did this by simply stating common-sense truth in Plain English. It's worth going to C-Span and listening to just a few minutes of Madame Secretary's tortured employ of the English language to declare she takes responsibility while dodging and evading any specific part of the responsibility.

Contrast that with this little clip, this little memorable moment of Plain-Spoken English in a public forum. It is refreshing to hear. It was devastating to the recipient, because she knew he was spot-on correct, and she knew that everyone listening knew the same thing.

Oh, to have been in the limo with her after the hearing, to hear her river of profanities directed at Senators Paul and Johnson, but especially Senator Paul.

'He's from ***@@@!!! Kentucky, !!!@@@!!!. He's a !!!@@@!!! rube!!!! How dare he!!!! Where's the dirt on him???!!!!???? No illegitimate children??!!!??? No patient groping???!!!???  Well, go invent them!!! Do what it takes!!!! Etc, Etc, Etc...'

Welcome To Life Above The Radar: Rand Paul And CNN

From CNN:
Paul said in the CNN interview Thursday that MSNBC, taking cues from his Democratic opponent Jack Conway, had mistakenly reported that he supports a "repeal" of the Civil Rights Act.

"I think what troubles me is that the news cycle has gotten out of control," he told Blitzer. "For several hours on a major news network yesterday, they reported repeatedly that I was for repealing the Civil Rights Act. That is not only not true, never been my position, but is an out and out lie. And they repeated it all day long."

Well, of course. As it became obvious Paul would win the GOP nomination, the Democrat research machine was ramping up, ready for the first 'gotcha' moment the next morning. Of course, the charge was that Dr. Paul is a (gasp!) raaaaacist. Always a good way to begin the smear campaign.

Remember, if a lie is repeated often enough, and loudly enough, it takes on a life of its own. It worked like a charm for this guy. Thus the day-long MSNBC rant that Dr. Paul cited.

So much for a new kind of politics. Dr. Paul, let us introduce you to the Chicago Way.

Obama and crew are just getting warmed up. Hang in there.

And remember, if the guy you're talking to is from CNN, he's working for the other side.

Robert Reich Weighs In, And The News Isn't Good For Incumbents

Robert Reich, on faculty at Berkley, is no right-wing nutjob, as ObamaBob and company would like to characterize any who dare disagree.


As a matter of fact, he's come to the same conclusion as Denninger--the economy is not recovering, and having the guv'mint hose it down with cash isn't helping.

What does all this portend for November’s midterm election? Unless the economy moves into high gear, and unless America’s anxious class feels substantially better, incumbents are in trouble.
....

In fact, if you exclude temporary boosts like the government stimulus and the restocking of company inventories, the U.S. economy would not have grown in the first quarter. As these temporary boosts fade later this year, consumer spending is the only thing that will keep the economy going. But consumers won’t be able to spend what they don’t have.

Some economic cheerleaders predict employers will increase wages as their profits grow. That’s nonsense. With five jobless workers for every job opening, employers are under no pressure to raise wages.

This conclusion from a man on the Obama transition team. How will ObamaBob explain him away?

Arlen Specter Is Shown The Door In Pennsylvania, Rand Paul Kicks In The Door In Kentucky

The poster child of RINOism, Arlen (I don't give a fig about which party I'm in, just so long as I can stay in office!) Specter, went down in flames in the Democrat primary tonight.

OS caught his concession speech. The old gent truly looked shell-shocked. He rambled, almost incoherently. Not even the rooms full of people cursing him last summer at town hall meetings had managed to break through his ego, his vision of himself as an American Institution. Finally, tonight, it dawned on him: 'Gosh, everyone's really really pissed at me!'.

Rand Paul, on the other hand, kicked ass. He beat Grayson, the GOP establishment candidate, 60-40. Not even close.

Here's the raw video from his acceptance speech:



Of course, by tomorrow evening, the White House and their shills in Yew Nork will have it all explained away, assuring themselves and us that nothing is amiss, Arlen was just an old fool who needed to go, and Rand is just a TeaPartyNutJobFromKentucky (you know, where all those unwashed Kentucky people hang out...). No problem, no worries.

Of course, if we start tallying it up--Brown takes Massachusetts, Christie takes New Jersey, Stupak runs away, Tanner runs away...hell's bells--a bunch of Democrats have run away! Charlie Crist gets out of the GOP while he can, 'cuz he's going down in flames, Bennett is shown the door by the GOP in Utah...

The list is growing. Folks out here really really really are ticked-off, and they're tired of writing their Congressman, 'cuz he stopped listening a long time ago. Or, like the good Rep. Souder of Indiana, he was too busy nailing the office staff to pay attention.

Oh, by the way, in the Kentucky race (from the Washington Post):

With 99 percent of the vote counted in the Kentucky GOP primary for U.S. Senate ...

-Rand Paul outpaced Trey Grayson in every major region of the state, scoring his biggest win in the North, an area that includes the fast growing areas around Cincinnati and Louisville that have become reliably GOP. In that region, Paul won 65 percent of the vote, to Grayson's 32 percent.

-Paul won 109 counties; Grayson 11.

It'll be entertaining to watch ObamaBob explain this away tomorrow...there's always an explanation, more people to label as racists, AstroTurf, sexual perverts, rednecks, nutters, etc.

Chin-straps on, friends and neighbors.