Posse Incitatus

Dog Days

It's that time of year: The days are hot and muggy as we head into August, the NFL training camps are underway, and college football teams soon will begin their two-a-day workouts.

My 2001 Ford Taurus, which has 174,000 miles on the odometer and runs like a top, has non-functioning air conditioning.  The diagnosis: It needs a new compressor.  Total parts and labor is close to $1K.  Fuhgettabboutit!

I am still recovering from some tough times in 2009, and cannot afford to shell out $1K on a non-essential, even though I spend quite a bit of time in my car.  September is only 4 1/2 weeks away.  The days won't be as long, there is much less likelihood of 90-degree-plus temperatures post 8/31, and some days ought to be nice and cool.

Suck it up. That's what I'm doing, knowing that better days lie ahead, both financially and weather-wise.  And that's what many of us are doing during this demoralizing time in our nation's history: displaying fortitude, hoping and praying for better days.

We conservatives are not emotional whiners, window breakers or fanatics who engage in ridiculous name-calling and vulgar commentary like the left does.  Let's put it this way: If someone as far to the right on the ideological spectrum as President Obama is to the left were elected president, the left would be exploding with rage — trashing cities, breaking windows, setting fires, and overturning cars.  Loser riff-raff types (you know, the 20- and 30- something slackers who are still living at home or relying on Daddy to pay the rent) would be lying out in the street to impede traffic.  The blogs and airwaves would be crackling with vitriol.  We'd also be subject to excessive use of the "F" word and the usual lame pejoratives -- Nazi, Hitler, fascist, war criminal, etc. that are as predictable from leftists as poop from pigeons.

But we have something they don't: Good ideas, knowledge of history and our nation's constitution, and the ability to articulate our views.  Not to mention the fact that far more Americans consider themselves conservatives than liberals. Too, most of us believe in God and try to live our lives accordingly.  It sometimes seems as if the level of anger, self-righteousness and scorn for political opponents exhibited by the left stems from little or no faith in God.  I believe that those who don't have that bedrock, guiding light in their lives are highly susceptible to the destruction of hubris, anger, and bullheadedness.  It's scary what emotions, ideas, and sick propensities can fill the void of an empty spiritual shell.

Millions of Americans are aghast at what is happening in Washington, D.C.  I am supremely confident the GOP will take back the House, and I believe Republicans have a reasonable chance of also taking the Senate.  But furhter damage still can be done by Democrats in a lame duck session, and Republicans won't be able to get their own ideas into law during 2011-12 with President Obama's veto pen always at the ready.

Meanwhile, here in Michigan, an underwhelming slate of candidates will face off on Tuesday in the Republican and Democrat primaries.  Waiting patiently for the woefully failed Gov. Jennifer Granholm to leave Lansing.  Dog days, indeed.

Thomas Paine's words come to mind: These are the times that try men's souls. But maybe it's true that adversity builds character and what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.  Let us hope so.

Only the Beginning / Maalox Moments / Anger Overspill

So the liberals, La Raza, ACLU and academia are probably creaming their jeans over today's court ruling blocking key provisions in Arizona's immigration law.  And an appeal to the left-leaning Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will most likely result in the same type of ruling. Live it up, lefties. Enjoy it while you can.  Because it won't last.

Rest assured, this baby is going all the way to SCOTUS - the Supreme Court of the United States.  It may take many months, but it will eventually get there, and when it does, I am confident the highest court in the land will uphold Arizona's law, which was painstakingly crafted to avoid inclusion of unconstitutional provisions.

Meantime, I sense that millions of Americans are ready to boil over.  They are sick and tired of corrupt, self-serving, tone deaf politicians and power-hungry, egotistical judges who do their own thing and thumb their noses at the will of the people by creatively interpreting the Constitution.

As the economy continues to crater under the Obama/Pelosi/Reid wrecking ball, and Americans prepare themselves for a damaging lame duck last hurrah by the likes of Scary Harry Reid and his fellow hacks; as Afghanistan rapidly deteriorates with our hamstringing rules of engagement and deep corruption on the part of the Afghan government; as the Obama administration shamelessly plays the race card at every opportunity, methinks many Americans are reluctant to even pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV news.  It's that bad.  Like a Maalox moment, albeit far longer than a moment.

Worse, not all of the ill-advised policies by this administration will be out in the open.  There will be lots of damage taking place out of the headlines, buried in thousands of pages of tangled regulations.  A few months ago I blogged that Obamacare would include provisions showing favoritism toward minority medical school applicants and graduates (even if their grades are not competitive) and result in an insidious form of affirmative action that's more concerned about diversity and social engineering than improving health care.

Now today, I've read that the recently enacted financial reform bill empowers the federal government to terminate contracts with any financial firm that fails to ensure the “fair inclusion” of women and minorities. Oh, we just HAVE to have more "people of color" on Wall Street.  That's SO, so important. NOT!!!

I'm just waiting for an upcoming energy bill (crap-n-tax?) to include a provision calling for stiff fines or jail time for those who refuse to stop using incandescent light bulbs and convert to compact fluorescent lamps. 

It seems the leftists in Washington are utterly power hungry and will stop at nothing to dictate how we live our lives.  The economy may not be growing, but deficits, disgust, and anger sure are.

How's that hope-n-change stuff working for ya?

Kamikakushi

A couple days ago, Shirley Sherrod was all the rage on network and cable television news.  But today, the story was making itself scarce.

All sides have dug in their heels, and CBS dinosaur Bob Schieffer continues to be clueless and feckless.  The White House seems to have tried to put this behind them, and for good reason.

As the Washington Examinder notes, Sherrod is in pretty deep with some shady dealing by the USDA over the years. (Google "Pigford" for more on shenanigan specifics.)

The Obama White House and its media stooges will use the race card to distract Americans from the issues with which we're most concerned: Unemployment, obscene deficits, a coming health care meltdown, and ill-advised foreign policy, among other things.

They will use the race card, that is, UNTIL it blows up in their face.  If Ms. Sherrod's background, actions and words get more attention, this will be, for conservatives, the gift that keeps on giving.

Gee, I wonder how the Family Guy is sleeping these days?

Of Regulations and Regulators...

According to the liberal narrative, our economic meltdown is almost entirely due to excessive deregulation and the natural capitalistic default to greed, recklessness and a wild, wild west mentality.  And/or, regulators failed to do their jobs because they were bought off by Super Bowl tickets, high-priced call girls, and lots of wining-dining and ego stroking.

The left believes that without Uncle Sam watching over their shoulders and putting them in a regulatory straitjacket, our whole private sector will revert to a bunch of Enron/Global Crossing/Bernard Madoff crooks, shysters and scumbags who prey upon little old ladies and would sell their grandmother if it meant putting more Benjamins in their pocket.

The left's solution, naturally, is to pass bigger and better regulatory schemes like the recently enacted financial regulatory package sponsored by (irony of ironies) Senators Chris Dodd and Barney Frank.  This 2,300-page monstrosity is on a scale equal to the Obamacare leviathan. It must be said that in addition to having a big ego, Barack Obama has big dreams, and favors BIG legislation.

Yeah, like this is gonna make things better.  To return once again to my crude but effective analogy of the wino lying in the gutter (America's bloated entitlement state and fiscal condition)....Gee, he's built up a tolerance to MD 20-20. Let's get him some Bacardi's 151. Go buy a pint. No, make it a fifth! That will sate him!

Outrageous? Totally warped and insane? Why, certainly. But so is the fact that millions of people actually voted for, and continue to support the likes of Dodd and Frank.  Trying to persuade them of the error of their ways would be like trying to teach the queen's English to someone who speaks Mandarin Chinese.  They are so, so much on a different plane(t), that it's an utter waste of time and lesson in futility.

There's one point I'd like to make to the liberal elitists who are so caught up in their own delusional world that they don't have an inkling about "flyover country" and the honest, hard working Americans who make this great nation tick:  It is small businesses that provide most of our jobs, not large corporations.

These small businesses, often mom-n-pop concerns, will be hurt severely by this so-called "reform" package.  Large corporations can afford to hire the armies of lawyers, tax accountants, and lobbyists they need to navigate the shoals of Obama's treacherous seas.  But small concerns cannot.

Many of them will find it harder to obtain credit, and will need to lay off workers, raise prices, and/or hire fewer additional workers than they had planned to if they are lucky enough to see their customer base grow.  While the legislation was targeted at large financial firms, something tells me its tentacles will reach far and wide into Main Streets across the nation.  There will be a continued negative ripple effect on our economy.

Change you can believe in.  And be disgusted by.

Oil spills, sunshine and backlogs

In response to me esteemed co-blogger, I had in fact been doing a tour of duty with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response team, but now I'm back in town and catching up with the family - and the immense backlog of work at my job.

Astute observers of this blog may have noticed the widget on the lower right which displays a news feed from the Unified Area Command.  I put it up while down there, and have left it there out of a deep sense of irony.  I will probably remove it in a couple of days.

While on the Gulf Coast, I learned many things about the oil response, nearly all of which were deeply demoralizing.  Suffice to say that the same brilliant organizational skill and experienced leadership that has characterized everything this administration has done from its initial diplomatic gaffes to the Sherrod firing fiasco is on full display down south.

Lucky us.

Whither K.N. McBride?

My co-blogger, K.N. McBride, has been on assignment in another part of the country.  Or maybe he's back by now; I don't know.

We used to talk more often, but since I began working (and spending time) out of town, it's getting harder to get together with K.N. and his family.  When the college football season resumes in a few weeks, we'll probably watch our beloved Michigan State Spartans together on occasion.

C'mon, K.N., it's been about 3 weeks since you posted a blog. Get with the program! This site isn't as good without your keen intellect and biting observations.  To tell the truth, I am getting a bit wary with politics, but there's so much at stake, I need to stay in the arena.

I am also dying to hear the inside scoop on a Michigan lawmaker with whom I had a run-in a few years ago, a guy who's "two pickles short of a quart," as they say.  He's been in the news of late for a couple of things that may be B.S., or may be true, but where there's smoke there's definitely fire.  (Note: It's NOT former Michigan House Speaker Craig DeRoche, whom I mentioned a few days ago.)  Remember that e-mail I sent you, K.N.? Do fill me in, please.

MAJOR OVERREACH — My head is spinning from all of this Shirley Sherrod coverage. Of late I have observed that Sherrod, NBC News, and the usual suspects, i.e. Media Matters for America and far-left crank Keith Olbermann, are suddenly coming right out and charging Fox News with being racist.  This is as asinine as the left's claim that the Tea Party consists of a bunch of backward, mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging racists who just fell off the hay wagon.  These kooks are just destroying their credibility more and more, as if taking a hammer to a ceramic sculpture.  And we still have more than three months to go until the election.  Stop the world, I want to get off.

Shirley You Jest

I've been on assignment in the Chicago area this week.  While driving around in my rental car, I've been listening to a lot of local talk radio shows.  The Blago trial has been a hot topic for several days, and today it seemed the airwaves were on fire with talk about the Shirley Sherrod fiasco involving the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Fox News, Andrew Breitbart, the White House, and the NAACP, among others.

I haven't had time to check the blogs, but I'm sure they're sizzling at all points on the political spectrum. Such is life in the Internet age, the era of 24/7 cable news and a voracious hunger for immediacy in news reporting and analysis.

Frankly, I don't have the patience, self-discipline or time to analyze this closely.  But one thing that really jumped to the front of my mind when I was listening to Chicago's "progressive" talk radio station, WCPT,is the blatant double standard liberals have demonstrated about a story that apparently has fallen apart after folks on one end of the ideological spectrum tried to pump it up.

A couple stories that came to mind immediately were the Dan Blather/Mary Mapes forged documents scandal that led to Mapes' firing and Rather's resignation from CBS News; and the so-called Haditha Massacre, a largely discredited story in which U.S. Marines were accused of murdering 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians.  The late Rep. John Murtha accused Marines of killing Iraqi civilians "in cold blood." Charges were dropped against 7 of the 8 Marines charged.  The media ran wild with this story, but did not come back with a mea culpa when it was proven that the initial hysteria was B.S.

President Obama's rash judgment that the Cambridge, Mass., police officer James Crowley "acted stupidly" in the incident involving Harvard Prof. Henry Gates Jr. is another story that was misreported in a rapid, reckless fashion.

Shirley Sherrod has stated she may not want to return to work for the USDA.  Could it be because she is a committed left-wing activist who fears that some of her other imprudent remarks in recent years will come back to haunt her and embarrass the Obama administration?

Stay tuned; something tells me we haven't heard the last of this woman.  And as for Breitbart, could it be he was set up by a conniving liberal who deliberately sent him video that was edited to eliminate crucial context, i.e., Ms. Sherrod stating that her temptation to give the white farmer short shrift was wrong and she learned her lesson from that incident? Who knows, but it's not out of the question.

IDIOT ALERT -- No one ever suggested Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee was a candidate for Mensa International. The other day, the Houston lawmaker, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, spoke of "two Vietnams" that are "living side by side." She actually referred to North Vietnam as if it still existed.  I dare say that most high school students, despite our educational failures, know that there is now only "Vietnam," not "North Vietnam" and "South Vietnam."  These idiotic remarks make Rep. Lee a laughingstock, but sadly, the folks who often are the butt of other people's jokes are the least aware of it, either due to ego, arrogance, or just plain stupidity.

KUDOS TO GEICO -- Could switching to Geico save  you 15 percent or more on car insurance?  Does Posse Incitatus have fewer readers than there are players on an NFL roster? Just a little self-deprecating humor there... I have to hand it to the folks at Geico, I really get a kick out of those commercials...the one with the former drill instructor working as a psychotherapist, the one where Honest Abe Lincoln admits that a dress his bride Mary Todd is wearing makes her look a little fat, the one with the Latin American soccer announcer giving play-by-play in a chess game and then shouting his long GOOOAAALLLLLLL! When one player gets the other in check mate.  Life is tough these days, and we all can use a little humor.  As Reader's Digest used to call its jokes page: "Laughter - the Best Medicine."

Liberal 'Logic' — Right Back At Ya!

It's been standard liberal M.O. for decades to whine and complain if you don't get your way, then when you finally do get your way, and things don't work out like you said they would, finger point, move the goalposts, and try to persuade others how much worse things would be if we had not pursued these polices.

Case in point: The so-called "stimulus" program, which when it was enacted in February 2009, was supposed to keep the unemployment rate down to 8 percent.  At that time, the libs stated that without the stimulus, the then 8 percent unemployment rate would rise to 9 percent, but with it, we should prevent a higher jobless rate.

It turns out, even with the stimulus, the unemployment rate rose to nearly 10 percent before falling back to the current 9.5 percent rate.  And many economists believe this number is artificially low, because it does not account for those who have given up searching for a job.  Nor does it take into account the large number of people who are underemployed (overqualified for the position they're now in) or only working part-time when they wish to work full-time.

So now the lefty spinners are saying, well, just think of how bad things would be if we had not adopted the stimulus bill.  But you know what? Anyone could make up any kind of doomsday scenario and loudly proclaim that it likely would have happened if Course A, B, or C had not been pursued, or Legislation A, B, or C not adopted.

Yes, there have a been a few times in my life I've woken up with a hangover (It's been many years, thank God).  Oh, but just think of what would have happened if I had NOT chosen to drink.... Why, I might have been snorting the dummy dust, or dropping acid, or smoking up a storm with wicked sinsemilla...Why, I could be DEAD by now! I could be six feet under, pushing up daisies.

And if Gore had defeated Bush in 2000, the cap-and-trade-global warming hysteria would have taken off like a rocket.  Our nation would be hamstrung by $7 per gallon gasoline, burdensome crap and tax regulations, and a moratorium on offshore drilling, as well as land drilling.  The EPA would have imposed crushing regulations on refining requirements to clean up the fuel. Gas lines would stretch so far, they'd run into lines of fanatics waiting for the latest iPhone release.

Our nation would be getting hammered by 15 percent unemployment, 10 percent inflation, 20 percent interest rates, negative GDP growth, and a malaise so deep there would be people committing suicide in alarming numbers, desperate tent communities cropping up everywhere, and food riots would be breaking out in urban areas. Hey, why stop there? We might even be returning to bell bottoms, disco balls, pet rocks, CB radios and 8-Track tapes!  OMG! Thank GOD Bush beat Gore!!!!

Oh, and, if we had not invaded Iraq and overthrown Saddam, eventually leading to his execution at the gallows, why, the old bastard would have acquired nuclear weapons and blown up the oil fields of Saudi Arabia, thus causing a human and environmental catastrophe that makes the BP/Deepwater spill look like child's play.

You see? It's easy. Just spin away with wild, outlandish tails, and keep repeating the same claptrap thousands of times, and the brain-dead media will report it with naive innocence and awe.

CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION? — It appears that the hideous oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico has been contained at last. Great news! I am glad that oil drilling guru Matthew Simmons appears to be wrong with his comments that this leak could go on for many, many months, if not years.  BP and the Obama administration so far are being cautiously optimistic, and are in disagreement over what comes next. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

DOGGONE IT, TIGERS! — The second place Detroit Tigers just lost four straight games to the last place Cleveland Indians.  What's maddening is HOW they lost the games, with two excellent pitching performances (Justin Verlander and Rick Porcello) going to waste in a Saturday doubleheader, some stellar defensive plays by the Indians infield (even though the Cleveland squad led the American League in errors entering into this series), and an outrageous number of men left on base by Detroit.  The Tigers' first 5 or 6 batters are studs, but the bottom three batters are major weak links.  Patience is a virtue, and necessary for Tiger fans.

The BO Hope/Change Deep Shit Horizon Spill

The explosion happened over time, starting roughly in 2005-2006, when President George W. Bush’s popularity sank to record lows as Iraq had become a bloody mess and the press pilloried him for his administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina. Left-wing blogs, Air America, Hollywood airheads, and MSNBC were on fire with anger, rage, and hate for George W. Bush.  The words “Nazi,” “Hitler,” “fascist,” and "war criminal" were blithely tossed about along with vulgarities such as the worn out “F-word.”

So the explosion was well underway shortly after the 2004 presidential election.  And it ripped this nation apart.

Then came the fire, fanned by an adoring media, a gullible public, and a charismatic candidate and orator whose so-called “soaring rhetoric” (more often-than-not, it’s really vapid words with the substance of cotton candy) lulled millions into a burning desire for change they could believe in, and fed them with false hopes.

The fire, in turn, led to the election of an inexperienced leader with one of the most left-wing legislative records around, and this rupturing of common sense then produced a devastating “oil spill” that has fouled our nation -- a spilling out of leftist ideologues, nanny state legislation, foreign policy appeasement, egregious deficits, naive idealism, class warfare, racially tinted “justice,” Orwellian logic (bow to dictators, but get that Churchill bust outta my sight NOW!),  and Chicago style corruption -- all over the White House, inside the Beltway, and across this great land, from sea to shining sea.

The gooey oil globs are washing up all over the place:

-- Nervous small business owners look with dread at the soon-to-come crippling health insurance costs under Obamacare;

-- Bitterly disillusioned young people and minorities who fell for the hope/change drivel are, in many cases, unemployed AND unimpressed by the cold, detached professor from Chicago;

-- In California, farmers were cut off from a major water supply by a judge citing the Endangered Species Act to protect a type of fish. No help from the green community organizer on this one;

-- In Arizona, where Uncle Sam is suing over the state’s efforts to protect itself from being overrun by illegal immigrants, lawlessness runs rampant on the border, citizens are endangered, and hospitals, jails, and law enforcement agencies are overburdened;

-- Jewish voters, who supported Obama en masse, are peeling off like autumn leaves falling off a tree.  They are appalled that Obama sucks up to Arab despots, behaves disgracefully toward Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and makes more demands of Israel than her Arab neighbors;

--While millions of average Joes struggle with joblessness, debt, and the threat of losing their homes, Obama and his Wall Street cabal give cart blanche to the Wall Street banks.  Obama and his cohorts continue to party with musicians and Hollywood elites, play golf, and enjoy expensive getaways to places like Paris and New York.

-- The administration dragged its feet for weeks following the real oil spill, declining help offered by other nations equipped with some of the best equipment in the world, refusing to waive the archaic Jones Act so as to protect union jobs, putting thousands of more people out of work with not one, but two ill-advised oil drilling moratoriums in the Gulf of Mexico, and naming a bunch of left wing enviro-nuts and academic egg-heads (not a one of them with the practical, technical knowledge or expertise to be of much use) to a useless oil spill commission.  A House panel has approved legislation calling for an independent commission consisting of members with experience in oil drilling and oil spills.

The skimmers and booms started appearing in the summer of 2009 in the form of Tea Party outrage.  This was the beginning of true hope, the hope that the destruction being wreaked from inside the Beltway could be turned back.  But the sycophant press demonized the law abiding, God-fearing, hard working Americans who make up the vast majority of Tea Party members.  Continuing with the metaphor, this helped spread the oil even farther and wider so that it immersed every one of our nation’s 300 million people, whether they knew it or not.

Regrettably, the hemorrhaging will continue, at least until November.  Then we can insert a “partial cap” (taking control of the House, and maybe the Senate, too) with politicians who are far from perfect, but are clearly the lesser of two evils.  But alas, the cap is bound to pop off with the intense pressure of a November lame duck spurt that will foul the waters even more.

The damage will keep seeping out, and fighting against our efforts to cap this horrendous leak and clean up the damage will be evil people who either want to destroy this nation -- George Soros comes to mind -- or are of the “useful idiot” vein -- folks like Michael Moore who are sincere, but sadly misguided.

Let’s hope this metaphor doesn’t end up like Ohio’s Cuyahoga River, which famously caught on fire back in 1969 because it was so fouled with oil.  If we reach that point, it may be too late.

More of the Same

The Obama folks are nothing if not gluttons for punishment.

A couple weeks after the administration imposed an ill-conceived moratorium on offshore drilling in water deeper than 500 feet, a federal appeals court overruled the ban.  Today, we're getting word the administration is back for more.  What'll  you bet this gets overturned, too?

The Obama administration lawsuit against Arizona for its law cracking down on illegal immigrants is based on a tenuous premise that state governments don't have the right to implement their own policies to protect the borders. This is because even Obama's Justice Department recognizes that those who crafted the Arizona law took pains to ensure it guards against racial profiling.  Methinks this one will eventually work its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will side with Arizona.  I look forward to that day. 

The same libs who says it's a waste of money for state attorneys general to sue the federal government over Obamacare seem perfectly content to let the Justice Department fritter away the taxpayers money on this wrongheaded suit.  A vast majority of Americans support Arizona's law, but Obama's henchmen have been known to be tone deaf and bullheaded. 

SIMPLY ORWELLIAN — The Bush administration spent too much, we all agree, but its deficits were in the $200 to $400 billion per year range.  Obama's have exceeded $1 trillion the first two fiscal years.  Unemployment was low under Bush (generally in the neighborhood of 5 percent, compared to about 10 percent for the past year or so.) Yet Obama continuously bashes Bush, and has the gall to go around talking up this so-called "Recovery Summer." These people are something else.  This is almost as bad as telling a rape victim she's really lucky she got to have that passionate sex.

CANCEROUS DEBT — Major kudos to Debt Commission Co-Chairman Erskine Bowles (White House Chief of Staff under Bill Clinton) for not mincing words.  He said our obscene deficits and exploding national debt are "like a cancer" that will destroy this nation if not brought under control.  But don't hold your breath: Obama won't take heed. He needs to be voted out of office, or we are toast.

REV. JESSIE CHARLATAN — Jessie Jackson is a hypocrite and blowhard of the first division.  He often says some of the most stupid, ignorant things I've ever heard. The other day, he claimed Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert was treating millionaire NBA superstar LeBron James "like a slave." Gilbert took umbrage at James' abandonment of the Cavs to sign with the Miami Heat, and lambasted his former star.  To which Jackson chimed in, “His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. (Gilbert) sees LeBron as a runaway slave.”  Last time I checked, slaves didn't earn millions, have the right to choose who they'll work for, or drive around in fancy cars.  Jessie is the definition of an idiot.  Hey, Jess, yer slippin'....your rant didn't rhyme!