Posse Incitatus

It's the mendacity, stupid

The Posse has been watching lots of films on Turner Classic Movies.  Recently we caught the Paul Newman/Liz Taylor "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

There is a scene where Big Daddy (played by Burl Ives!) thunders about mendacity.

He must have been talking about the Obama administration.

Bill Clinton was hammered for being a liar, but he was, as Bob Kerrey pointed out, an usually good one.  He never told the outright whopper (well, there was the one time) but mostly you had to parse his language very carefully.  He was an experienced executive and a skilled lawyer.

Barack Obama is neither.

One year into his presidency, he has squandered the enormous good will and trust the American people offered him - largely through his own mendacity.

Even his own supporters don't believe him.

His list of broken promises grows longer by the day - from the pledge to close Gitmo to the tax cut for 95 percent of taxpayers.  Then there was the pledge to put the health care negotiations on C-SPAN.  He did this not once, but eight times.  

When called on it, his press secretary basically blew it off.

So if you were someone who actually believed him, who bought into what he was selling, you've been dissed, big time.

That's the thing: he's not content to simply wiggle out of his pledges, nor does he come out and say "You know, it simply won't work.  I know what I pledged, but it just can't happen."

Instead, he acts as if the pledge didn't exist.  Or lies about fulfilling it.

In the process, he has destroyed his credibility.

This is the most critical element for a president - or any other leader - to posses.  If no one believes a word that you are saying, negotiation is pointless.  And yet, it continues.

The State of the Union featured a remarkable pledge to become more fiscally responsible.  Next year.  And not counting the huge expenditures already on the way.

Does he seriously think that having lied about everything else, people will now assume he's telling the truth?

Even his own party is starting to distrust him. 

Bill Clinton's terms in office were good for him, but terrible for the Democrats.  Barack Obama may outdo even the landslide year of 1994 - and shatter his party in ways the Clinton's never dreamed of.

And should that happen, near the top of the list of reasons will be mendacity.

Cluelessness You Can Believe In

Amateur Hour at the White House continues. 

The same clowns who nominated tax cheats for cabinet positions, failed to vet kooks like Van Jones, allowed Pelosi and Reid to lead health care reform, and foisted such political correctness on the military that Maj. Nidal Hasan was able to murder 13 people at Ft. Hood, now have been exposed again.

A few weeks ago, the Eric Holder-led Justice Department announced that five al Qaeda suspects believed to have helped plot the 9-11 attacks would be tried in New York City.

Even a rookie lawyer, a law student (or a high school sophomore, for that matter), would realize that it's just common courtesy and common sense to consult with the Mayor of New York, the New York Police Department, and national security officials before going forward with such a policy.  The administration did none of the above.

With the cocky self-assuredness and utter cluelessness we've come to expect from the celebrity-in-chief and his merry band of lifelong government employees and academic idealists, the administration decided to try the suspects in New York.  Never mind the huge security risks, high cost, and inconvenience to people who live and work in the Big Apple. 

Never mind that such a trial, if it led to another terrorist attack, would close down Wall Street and the financial district, thus roiling an already sick and fragile economy. No, this was the idealists' opportunity to showcase American justice to the world, to demonstrate our now oh-so-much more exalted principles under a "progressive" liberal (as opposed to that neanderthal cowboy from hicksville).

Well, it turns out the pressure has been too much, and the Obama-ites are backing away from their hare-brained idea. This is getting downright painful to watch.

So why is my headline "Cluelessness You Can Believe In?"  Because when one of the most left-wing U.S. senators, a man who led a sheltered adult life in academia and the public sector, and whose only managerial experience was as a community organizer, suddenly takes on the toughest job in the world, it's a given he'll be in over his head. 

WHY EDUCATION IS IN TROUBLE — One of the few bright spots in the Obama administration is Education Secretary Arne Duncan.  He has demonstrated he's not afraid to lock horns with teachers' unions, and advocate charter schools as well as mayoral control of failing school districts.  He also has shown some flexibility on vouchers.

Well, take a look at this hissy-fit from a typical representative of the education community.  Okay, so maybe what Mr. Duncan said was a bit insensitive and awkward.  But if you focus your reaction strictly to Katrina's effects on education in New Orleans, Duncan was spot on.  Children in New Orleans are now getting a better education as a result of the changes Katrina forced, and will continue to do so.  Their futures are brighter, and so is the city's.

The last paragraph of this inane commentary is what really irks me. It's an example of shoot-from-the-hip demagoguery:

"....If we don't fix our public education system, we are in very deep trouble. Outsourcing it to hedge-fund managers and for-profit groups may help a tiny percentage of students, but it won't fix the system. And we can't hope for a hurricane or an earthquake to wipe out our nation's public school system...."

Hedge-fund managers? Running our schools? That's about on the level of Reagan's critics saying old folks would have to eat dog food, or the over-the-top rant by excitable U.S. Rep. John Lewis regarding welfare reform — that it was mean spirited and would force old and sick people out onto the streets. 

Get a grip, lady.

Stupidity on the Right

James O'Keefe performed a great public deed by exposing ACORN for its rampant corruption and hypocrisy in the hidden camera sting last fall.  He posed as a pimp, and friend Hannah Giles as a prostitute, as they secretly videotaped ACORN officials advising them on setting up a brothel.  The brain-dead mainstream media, which had insouciantly overlooked ACORN's corrupt ways for years, was forced to report on the shady organization's dirty deeds.

But now O'Keefe may have overplayed his hand.  He and three other men have been arrested for allegedly tampering with (or attempting to tamper with) Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu's office telephones.  Maybe O'Keefe thinks he's so moral, so right, with such bountiful good will and intent, that he's above the law.  He's not.

At the very least, O’Keefe and his buddies are guilty of extremely poor judgment, possibly fostered by a cocky sense of entitlement or superiority due to pampered upbringings.  But more likely, these guys might have massive egos and too much confidence from never being corrected or punished by their parents.

I don’t care how solid a person’s conservative credentials are, or how great a job he may have done exposing a corrupt left-wing sham organization such as ACORN. If that individual willfully and recklessly defies the law, he or she deserves to be punished.  Without a general acceptance of the rule of law, our society would be chaotic and treacherous.

Conservatives cannot get caught with their pants down, or the media will crucify them.  They will not get a pass, and cannot expect the kid-gloves treatment that more liberal transgressors would receive.

So let the left-wing bloggers gloat all they want.  They’re going through a rough time these days.  Maybe we just threw ‘em a bone.

As for you, Mr. O'Keefe, better get yourself a good lawyer.

Abandoning the Good Ship Obama

We’re only one year into the Obama administration, and disenchantment/disillusionment are running rampant. Call it "buyers' remorse" for those who did not take heed to the wise "caveat emptor" warning.  I have heard and read about many independent voters who now regret casting their ballot for President Barack Obama. 

Many feel he has neglected the common man and is kowtowing to fat-cat bankers on Wall Street. Some are angry that he’s sent more troops to Afghanistan and not withdrawn from Iraq. 

Along those lines, quite a few liberals are apoplectic about Obama’s decision to continue some of the Bush anti-terror policies, including use of warrantless wiretaps, and his foot-dragging in closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, a supposed al Qaeda recruiting tool.  Additionally, millions of moderates are appalled at Obama’s power grab tendencies, as evidenced by the attempted foisting of cap-and-trade and Obamacare on an unwilling American public.

Yes, the natives are restless.  And because of that, perhaps it won’t be long until the insiders realize that their days are numbered. Is it possible that this administration, with its cabinet full of academicians, life-long bureaucrats, and idealistic ideologues, will make such a hash of this economy, and face such a freefall in the polls, that administration hacks and lackeys will start abandoning ship VERY early?  (And then start up with the usual kiss-and-tell books.) As Politico reports, Hillary Clinton has stated she wants to be a one-term Secretary of State.  Could it be she sees the writing on the wall and is plotting another run for the Oval Office?

Normally, when an administration is in its dying days, e.g. in the last year of the Bush administration, veteran political hands begin jumping ship.  Some accept jobs with high-powered law or consultancy firms, others become lobbyists or p.r. flacks, and a few join cable network news and political shows.

But that’s in the last year-and-a-half of the second four-year term, when a president’s staffers KNOW the end is in sight.  I am wondering if, just as Barack Obama has set a new record for the biggest plunge in popularity during the first year of a first term, he will also set the record for the earliest state of political disaster — i.e., when so much damage has been done, so much credibility lost, and so much incompetence laid bare, that all but the most delusional will acknowledge re-election is out of the question. 

Jimmy Carter, he of the infamous “malaise” speech, 20 percent prime rate, 13 percent inflation, 10 percent unemployment, gas lines, and hostages in Iran, took a couple years to really muck things up.  Obama so far is the hare to Carter’s tortoise.  Only don’t expect the O-man to take a break.  He’ll keep on sprinting into deeper trouble, guaranteed.

During tonight’s State of the Union address (I MIGHT watch 5 or 10 minutes of it, but that’s about it), I’m sure the O-man will talk tough about Wall Street banks, fancy himself a populist (yeah, right), and show that he’s got religion on deficit reduction.

But as scripture says, by their works ye shall know them.  The American people already know that what Obama says and what he does are often at odds.  And the more we know that, the more Obama’s henchmen will realize that their ship is sinking, and it might be time to grab a lifeboat.

Spartans survive, Wildcats stumble

Here at the ranch, we've been watching MSU's amazing Big Ten start with a mixture of joy and fear.  Who among the Spartan faithful does not rejoice in the power and majesty of a team that keeps finding a way to win?

At the same time, we know that a stumble is inevitable - this team isn't that good (or is it?) and when it falls (or if?) - we want it to at least be to a worthy opponent.

Which brings us to Kentucky.  The Wildcats were undefeated.  South Carolina is nothing special this year, so things looked good.

But then President Obama called, and offered Kentucky's coach and players advice.

Whoops.

This guy is increasingly reminding me of someone out of a Greek tragedy.  I just hope our country gets to stay in the chorus.

The Angry Left

I and millions of other conservatives are disgusted and cynical regarding the bloat and corruption in Washington, D.C. I shake my head at the utter, unmitigated stupidity and hypocrisy so frequently on display. 

But in the end, I just let it roll off my back.  Better to be a happy warrior.  I'm middle-aged, and walking around in an angry state is unhealthy, both physically and psychologically.  It leads to high blood pressure, ulcers, heart disease, and other maladies.  It can result in frayed relationships, depression, alcohol abuse, or just a general state of malaise and diminished productivity.

Regrettably, there are far too many raging liberals who act out their anger and frustration like two-year-olds. (For example, window repairmen and glass shops make out like bandits in cities that host World Trade Organization summits.) 

Often, these leftist morons end up getting arrested and charged with a crime.  The other day, I happened upon Michelle Malkin's rogue's gallery of unhinged liberals who have run afoul of the law for committing various offenses including assault, tire slashing, braking windows, and resisting arrest. 

Here it is.  Frankly, if I looked like some of these folks, I'd be pretty angry, too.  Could it be that not having G.W. Bush to kick around anymore has been a traumatic and painful adjustment for some of these kooks?

Speaking of angry leftists, MSNBC lefty Ed Schultz has turned on fellow liberal Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary. Politico describes their little dust-up, in which Schultz described Gibbs as being "full of sh*t."

Schultz, you may recall, is the guy who declared shortly before the Massachusetts special Senate election that he would "cheat to beat these bastards," referring to Republicans.

Schultz is so delusional, he thinks Obama and the entire Democratic party need to go further left.  I wish he'd get some help.

.

Democrats' Faustian Bargain

First there was the dot.com bubble of 1999-2000.  Then there was the residential real estate bubble, already popping before the Wall Street meltdown of October 2008.  In recent months, commercial real estate has been exposed as another floundering sector. 

Vacant strip shopping centers and office buildings, shopping malls with well under 100 percent occupancy, deserted industrial parks — these are the tangible evidence of investors and banks that have been burned big-time.  And needless to say, many construction contractors and sub-contractors have fallen upon hard times.  Why put up new buildings when there’s already a glut of viable existing structures?

Next up: The government bubble.  The federal government is expanding so fast, and biting off so much more than it can chew, that the fiscal ramifications promise to swamp us like a tidal wave.

As if $30 trillion of unfunded Medicare liabilities, and Social Security headed off the cliff, and hundreds of unfunded pensions in the private and public sector were not enough, the burden of paying wages, health care and pensions to a massive number of unionized public employees is proving to be crushing for not just Uncle Sam, but state and local governments, too.

The Wall Street Journal's Daniel Henninger hit the nail on the head with his incisive commentary aptly entitlted, "The Fall of the House of Kennedy."  He points out that for many years, the burgeoning ranks of unionized public employees was a paradigm that worked well for Democrats.  Keep adding to their ranks, thus accomplishing the twin goals of 1) making more people dependent on the government for their livelihoods; and 2) increasing union dues that can be used to trumpet the liberal-left-labor talking points and demagoguery.

Only there's just one inconvenient truth the Democrats haven't faced up to — until now: With every action comes a reaction.  Or, more broadly, with a decades-long policy that keeps corroding our fiscal condition year after year, eventually the chickens come home to roost.  What happened in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts in recent months....these elections are harbingers of what the future holds.  And in case Republicans think that automatically means they can get elected and return to their free-spending ways, they'd better think again.  Because the anti-incumbent mood is as intense as it's been since Watergate.

To paraphrase an overused line (taken from character Howard Beale in the 1970s movie "Network"), voters are mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore!

Wall Street Journal guest columnist Steven Greenhut also weighed in on the albatross of greedy, voracious public employees' unions, only his commentary focuses on the precarious state of California's finances.  It's another good read.

What never ceases to amaze me is that there are still, more than 30 years after the fact, die-hard leftists in California who blame their state's fiscal mess on Proposition 13. Yeah, right: Spending's not the problem; all we need are more tax revenues.

And all the wino passed out in the gutter needs is another bottle of Captain Morgan.

Some More Good Reading

Great post, Ms. Sithkitten.  At first I thought it was K.N., but then realized, he would probably not use those cryptic terms from Star Wars, board games, or wherever they're from.

Sithkitten raised some excellent points about the damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't dilemma in which the United States finds itself regarding Haiti.  The Blame America First bashers are getting all revved up...AGAIN! Whenever you read about the so-called "international community" having a bad impression of the United States, or criticizing us because our President is (was) a cowboy, or any of that claptrap, you can pretty well guess that the "international community" consists of hellhole dictatorships in the Middle East, hypocritical French, and probably a good portion of the U.N.

As I and many others have stated time and again, when these folks imply we should be emulating Europe more and stop it with our sovereignty, free markets and individual liberty, there's a simple reply: WHY, pray tell, would we want to emulate a continent that has given us Hitler, the Holocaust, World Wars I & II, rampant anti-semitism, stagnant socialist economies with unsustainable welfare states, nihilistic and godless societies, and a major problem with non-assimilating, angry and alienated Muslims?  Why, indeed.

Well, anyway, back to Haiti and foreign aid.  This column by the Wall Street Journal's Bret Stephens really nails it when it comes to the destruction wreaked by decades of aid to Haiti.  Kind of like the old "enabler" role with alcoholics or drug addicts.  Check it out.

Here is another good read, a post-Massachusetts election assessment by the National Review's  Andrew C. McCarthy, which points out that perhaps plain old common sense about NOT coddling terrorists, and fighting the war on terror with vigor, is as big a reason as the Reid-Pelosi healthcare leviathan for angry voters rejecting the miserable Martha Coakley.

Here's an excerpt: "...And our reputation in the international community? Reputation with whom? Sharia states where they stone adulterers, brutalize homosexuals, and kill their own daughters in the name of honor? Rogue regimes where exhibitions of American weakness are taken as license to mutilate? Euro-nannies who rely on us for protection because they’re without the will and the resources to do the job themselves? They ought to worry about their own reputations...."

Andrew McCarthy is speaking the voice of MILLIONS of Americans who are utterly appalled and pissed off about the harebrained, Orwellian notions that jihadists ought to be tried in civilian courts; that taxpayers should pay for these killers' lawyers; and that waterboarding is torture.  McCarthy knows, as do many folks who voted for Scott Brown Tuesday, that that some of our intelligence-gathering tactics and techniques will be revealed in the Guantanamo legal proceedings coming up in New York City.  And the notion that Arab states will hold us in higher esteem and have greater respect for us because we're going the civilian court route rather than hold military tribunals, is laughable.

I want to see more candidates, whether Republicans, independents, or conservative Democrats, coming out and saying these things.  If I were them, I wouldn't give a flying phuck what the New York Times, Time, Newsweek, and Keith Olbermann say.  Getting criticized by them is a badge of honor.

Haiti Earthquake Fallout is The Kobayashi Maru for U.S.

Right now, the events happening in Haiti are very disturbing. The U.S. military is on shaky ground at best and that has nothing to do with aftershocks. The international community is blaming the U.S. government for not letting the Médecins Sans Frontières' planes land, but that isn't what is happening on the ground.

The U.S. is following the orders of the Haitian government because of the sensitive history between Haiti and the U.S. The international community, okay France, is accusing the U.S. of an occupation of Haiti. The U.S. is trying so hard not to appear as occupiers to the point we are afraid of stepping on Haitian government toes and taking control of the situation.

So, where are we? That would be stuck between a rock and a hard place.

If our military backs out, then the U.S. isn't doing enough to help the Haitians. If we do what the Haitian government wants, then we are aiding an unjust governing body that doesn't really care about the lives of the Haitian people. If our military ignores the Haitian government and takes complete control, then that's an occupation.

This operation is a no win scenario.

We should let the international community handle the negotiations with Haiti. We should let the U.N. tell the Haitian government it can go to hell because help is on the way.

Think about this from a cold, calculated standpoint:

You have no real concern for the people of your country. As long as food, water and medical supplies are scarce, the people are not concerned with how the government frakked up because they are desperately trying to survive. As a Haitian government official, you know that refusing to let MSF land will be blamed on the U.S. and any criticism will be directed away from Haiti because right now the world is reacting to the catastrophe. And when all of these Haitians die and all of the aid money is processed, it is the Haitian government that stands to gain the most.

If you think it will be passed on to help the people of Haiti you have no comprehension of the political dynamic and corruption in Haiti.

Just read what the Haitian people have to say, not what the press is feeding you during this frenzy.

Great Scott! A Massachusetts Elephant!

Congrats to Scott Brown and the GOP. Tuesday, Brown was elected Massachusetts' first Republican senator in 30 years. Maybe Taxachusetts ain't so invincible after all.  It seems a lot of those independents who thought they were progressives are having major second thoughts about a voracious federal government and intrusive nanny state.

The Democrats have been over-reaching and overplaying their hand, just as I predicted they would.  It's what they do.  And now they've lost three high-profile elections: The Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial contests, and the Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat.

Irony of ironies, Ted Kennedy's lifelong dream was to enact some kind of nationalized or socialized medicine.  He'd turn over in his grave if he knew his successor was a Republican who would put the kabosh on Obamacare.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I sure as hell didn't want to be mandated by law to shell out hundreds of dollars a month for a government-approved health care policy.  I didn't want to be paying tax dollars for illegal aliens' health care, or to see Medicare eviscerated, or to know that certain elderly lives would be deemed expendable by heartless bureaucrats.

Tuesday's results are tantamount to the GOP rout in the 1994 midterm elections.  At that time, President Bill Clinton realized, with the prodding of advisor Dick Morris, that he had made a grave mistake by tacking left after his 1992 election.  The issues of gays in the military, an attempted pork jobs program, and Hillarycare badly damaged his standing among the people. Clinton rightly moderated his positions, supporting welfare reform and a balanced budget, and declaring that "the era of big government is over."

But it remains to be seen whether President Obama will similarly move toward the center, or whether he will continue to attempt to shove statist policy down our throats.  Statements by Rahm Emanuel and press secretary Robert Gibbs seem to indicate Obama will stubbornly stick to pursuit of a health care bill that enables Uncle Sam to grab hold of a chunk of our economy and run it Soviet style.  He may have to learn his lesson the hard way, i.e., find himself a one-term president.

My, how quickly things can change in a year.  It looks like there's still hope for our republic after all.