Posse Incitatus

Demagoguery, Reality and Eric Holder

Left-wing Democrats are notorious for uttering over-the-top, outrageous statements, as well as for being possessed by unchecked, consuming rage.

But Indiana Congressman Andre Carson takes the cake.  A few days ago, while speaking to a Congressional Black Caucus audience in MIami, Carson charged the Tea Party with wanting to return to the days of Jim Crow, and stated some conservatives would love to see blacks "hanging on a tree." 

Like so many other clueless leftists, he is incapable of comprehending the true nature of the Tea Party's grievances -- the federal government is bloated, wasteful and way-too encroaching; deficits are out of control; and taxes are chewing us up and spitting us out.  Instead, he subscribes to a bizarre, psychotic notion that the Tea Partiers are a bunch of cranky old white people who hate minorities and are forever bitter that the lilly-white days of "Mayberry RFD" and "Leave it to Beaver" will never return.  How strange, the thoughts of liberals!

Don't hold your breath if you are expecting more responsible Democrats to denounce this awful vitriol.  At best you'll get a few lame rationalizations like, "Well, I understand his frustration; I just would have chosen different words."

Democrats can get away with the vicious language, while falsely accusing the likes of Rush Limbaugh of spouting "hate speech." (In their twisted minds, anyone who disagrees with their progressive agenda is intolerant or a "hater.")  The mainstream media will rarely, if ever, call them on it.

But enough of that.  We all knew racial politics would rear its ugly head just in time for the 2012 presidential election.  What's more important is to observe the realities on the ground.

Perhaps you've heard the news accounts of a disturbing new trend:  Roving gangs of young black men and teenagers have been randomly attacking innocent passers-by in cities including Denver, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Columbia, S.C.  As this account in American Thinker notes, some victims have been seriously injured.  Groups engaged in such random violence are dubbed "flash mobs."

But there's an even uglier phenomenon, known as "the knockout game," that some black teens are involved in.  Here is another American Thinker piece that describes this ugly pastime.  The victims are either white, Hispanic or Asian.

Now, I am in no way painting African Americans with a broad brush; it is only a small minority of trouble-makers who engage in these activities.  But imagine, for a moment, if there were white flash mobs attacking innocent blacks, or white thugs targeting minorities whom they intended to gang up on and knock out.

The Eric Holder-led Department of Justice would be all over it in a hurry; the NAACP, ACLU, Congressional Black Caucus, MoveOn.org, and editorial writers from coast to coast would be in overdrive.  But in the present circumstances, you will see no such outcry.

Conservatives know the score (chances are many "Posse Incitatus" readers were aware of these phenomena before reading this blog).  But we will not march in the streets or smugly affix sarcastic bumper stickers to our vehicles, or make asses out of ourselves during congressional deliberations.

Nor will any conservative documentary makers put out distorted propaganda full of sweeping generalizations, as Michael Moore would have done had the situation been reversed.

What we will do is attempt to get the word out as best we can, perhaps through civilized conversations with friends and relatives with whom we disagree politically, letters to the editor of newspapers, or by phoning in to radio talk shows.

Local prosecutors will have their work cut out for them, because we know better than to expect justice from the federal government.  Eric Holder, perhaps the most politicized hack ever to hold the title of Attorney General, is not likely to lift a finger to stop the racist violence that is happening in reality, not in the addled mind of a kook Congressman.

Holder, you will recall, did not prosecute the New Black Panthers for their 2008 voter intimidation tactics in Philadelphia.  He's been known on other occasions to make an end run around the rule of law to carry out political decisions at the behest of his boss, President Barack Obama, such as the administration's choice not to support the Defense of Marriage Act. 

He also intervened in the affairs of Dayton, Ohio, lowering the exam requirements for prospective police officers so as to ensure more minorities would qualify for the jobs.  And who could forget the bone-headed policy, since abandoned, to try al Qaeda terrorism suspects in civilian courts in Manhattan, of all places.

I hope and pray that the majority of blacks in this country will not fall for the poisonous demagoguery around them, and that those whites who are racists (yes, there ARE some) will not add fuel to the fire. A down-and-dirty presidential election is heating up, and we are in for many, many more months of economic hard times.  It will take all we've got to live in peace and civility.

 

 

Signs and Portents of Detroit Lions Success

The Detroit Lions are for real.  This time I MEAN IT! I really, really REALLY mean it!

Just three short years ago, the Lions exemplified the idiocy and incompetence of doofus Matt Millen (the worst general manager of all time) by becoming the first team in the history of the National Football League to go 0-16.

Fast forward a couple of years.  Millen and the useless head coach Rod Marinelli were shown the door.  A new management team and competent head coach (Jim Schwartz) were tasked with reclaiming the wreckage and assembling something that at least resembled a respectable football team.

Add some wise trades and draft picks (especially quarterback Matthew Stafford) as well as shrewd free agent signings, plus improved play by several of the younger players, and the Lions have become formidable.

On Saturday night, Aug. 27, the Lions had their way with one of the premier teams in the Natitonal Football League, defeating the New England Patriots 34-10.  The Patriots' All-Universe quarterback, Tom Brady, normally picks apart defenses with deadly precision.  But not Saturday.

The Lions' powerful defensive line had Brady running for his life, hurrying his throws, and taking several hard hits. Brady finished a pedestrian 12-for-22 with one interception.  And the Lions did this without two starters on the D-line: Rookie Nick Fairley and veteran Kyle Vanden Bosch.  This was, it should be noted, against the Patriots' starting offensive line.

Meanwhile, on the offensive side, Stafford was razor-sharp, completing 12 of 14 passes for 2 touchdowns and 200 yards.  The Lions' receiving corps, led by superstar receiver Calvin Johnson, looks potent, indeed.

The linebacking corps has been bolstered with a couple of trades and free agent signings, most notably Steven Tulloch.  The secondary looks solid, and the offensive line is steady yet not spectacular.  The running game may be the biggest weakness, but that will improve when starter Jahvid Best, sidelined by a concussion, returns to the lineup.

The Lions won their final four games in a row at the end of the 2010 season, including a victory over the eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers.  Several of their losses were very narrow; their 6-10 final record easily could have been 8-8.

Forgive me if I'm a kool-aid drinker, but I think Detroit can go 10-6 and make the playoffs for the first time since 1999, after more than a decade of misery.  Boy, this is gonna be fun!

R.I.P., 'KILLER' — Tom "Killer" Kowalski, a Detroit Lions beat writer and radio personality for nearly three decades, died unexpectedly today at age 51.  Kowalski was a big bear of a man (6-7, 300 pounds), and well loved by everyone who knew him.  His colleagues praised him today on WDFN 1130 AM "The Fan," saying he was a hard working and knowledgeable man of integrity who treated people fairly and had a generous heart. My condolences to his fiance, family and friends.

 

 

 

Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Arabs, OH MY!

The incompetents of the Obama administration apparently believe that the more outlandish and absurd their talking points on the economy are, the more likely it is the American people will believe them.

Of late the president and his key advisors who fan out on the political talk show circuit have been resorting to some, shall we say, grasping at straws in their efforts to deflect blame away from the statist O-man and his horribly misguided policies.

Obama economic advisor Austin Goolsbee, appearing on the Sean Hannity program Thursday, was the latest talking head to blame bad luck such as floods, the "Arab Spring" uprisings, and the earthquake / tsunami in Japan for contributing to America's continued economic malaise.  This would be laughable if it weren't so deadly serious and gravely consequential.

Let's start out by giving the administration the benefit of the doubt:  The economic collapse of October 2008 happened under G.W. Bush's watch.  Bad policies enacted by both political parties and going back as far as the 1970s were to blame.  The Community Reinvestment Act, which goes back to the Carter administration, set the table.

Much has also been made of the deregulation of banks and Wall Street through passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley legislation of 1999 (signed into law by Bill Clinton), which repealed key provisions of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act.

Gramm-Leach-Bliley, aka the Financial Services Modernization Act, knocked down walls separating banks, securities firms and insurance companies, permitting them to compete on each other's turf with a hodge-podge of mix-em-and-match-em products that, as this blog has pointed out numerous times, eventually became too complex and convoluted for most people to even understand.

Indeed, brilliant mathematicians were hired to create investment products consisting of arcane algorithms of economic formulae.  (Hint: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.)

And the artificial goosing of the housing industry also messed us up, big time.  Everything from free reign for Fannie and Freddie, to George W. Bush's obsession with creating an "ownership society" that reduced or eliminated minimum down payments on home purchases while lowering the bar on mortgage eligibility for first-time borrowers.

So granted, the economy was in freefall when Obama took the reins in January 2009.  No one could have brought back the prosperity of the mid-2000s or late 1990s.  But there is no question that more sensible, responsible policies would not have dampened the normal economic recovery that in past years has happened naturally following a severe recession, like a sponge returning to its former size and shape after you stop squeezing it.

Obama's disastrous Keynesian stimulous program (basically a sop to public employee unions and others who lined the Democrat campaign coffers in 2008); the overreach of the Dodd-Frank financial "reform" bill, appallingly large deficits, and the crushing and bone-headed regulations of the Obamacare fiasco, have petrified investors and entrepreneurs.

Oh, but there will always be straws at which to grasp.  The Arab Spring, Japanese earthquake and tsunami, floods, droughts, tornadoes... Oh, and, don't forget the KOCH BROTHERS!

The O-man's lackeys and sycophants are beyond pathetic.  As I've said before, four more years of these jokers, and we're finished as a nation.  Pray for a regime change.

Fall football preview

Can it be true? Is football season only a week away?

Yes, it is that time of year – time for the Spartan faithful to gather beneath the pines and sing their love of alma mater – and for the Wolverine fans to stagger out of their downriver trailer parks and into Ann Arbor for the ceremonial burning of last year’s team picture.

MSU enters the season at #17 in the Associated Press poll, which I consider a compliment and (being a veteran Spartan fan) an ominous development. Bitterly do I remember my freshman year at MSU when we entered the season ranked and finished it 3-8. Thanks, George.

Still, there is no denying the team looks sharp. The spring game was very encouraging and it appears that our only deficiencies – the loss of key defensive players like Greg Jones – are being more than offset through the emergence and development of new talent.

Rumor has it that the Spartans may actually have a secondary this year, which would be something to see. Kirk Cousins is by far the best quarterback Michigan State has seen in a decade and with continued focus and effort, might achieve true greatness. Would it not be a swell thing for the Spartans to clinch the inaugural conference championship game?

MEANWHILE, IN ANN ARBOR: When they let RichRod go, a little part of me died. Brady Hoke hasn’t shown anything like the same propensity for idiocy.

Of course, he’s hardly gotten started, so there is still plenty of time.

One thing Hoke has tried to do is reenergize the rivalries. He has countdown clocks for both the Spartans and Ohio. Not Ohio State, just “Ohio.” This is apparently what passes for wit in Ann Arbor. I suppose the other one says “Michigan,” and is reset periodically since Hoke’s folks get to play Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan and the Spartans. Maybe they aspire to be rivals with all three.

The Wolverines are going with a more basic defense this year: they are going to try a new technique called “tackling.” We’ll see how that works out for them. Hoke kept most of his recruits, but they were picked by RichRod, so they are a bunch of agile midgets well-suited to the Big East or Conference USA. Not so much the Big Ten.

Hoke is an unknown quantity – he has never coached at this level and his players are utterly unsuitable for the new system. Denard Robinson is still there, but much of what make him exceptional is not. MSU showed how to contain and destroy him, and other schools followed our example. Without a solid offensive line or a dominant running back, Michigan simply cannot return to Saint Bo-style football.

Another complication is the lack of any real continuity. The players Hoke is dealing with know what it is to lose and their upper classmen watched the team disintegrate. The institutional “winning ways” of the Old Guard are distant memories – assuming any of Lloyd Carr’s players are left. Most have transferred by now.

Hoke also inherited no special teams at all, and this killed the Skunk Bears last year.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Looking over each team’s schedule, it seems to me that neither team has a particularly easy path. MSU has scheduled two patsies (Youngstown State???) plus Notre Dame on the road and Central Michigan at home (did I not see we are playing them in Mount Pleasant next year? WTF).

Needless to say, MSU should finish September 4-0. Brian Kelly will have the Irish keyed up and they will be a better team, but MSU should be even more dominant. There was a tentativeness last year that should finally have been dispelled. The team has learned how to win.

October will make or break the season. Victory at OSU is now very possible, plus home games against the Skunk Bears and Badgers lead into the land of the Corn Munchers. If the Spartans somehow manage to go 8-0 through that stretch, beating Iowa and the Also-rans will not be hard. Certainly Michigan State has much motivation to beat Iowa after last year’s rout.

Realistically, the Spartans could drop three games but anything more than that would be a massive failure.

For the Wolverines, the question marks loom much larger. They gain the usual benefit of playing their first five games at home and Western and Eastern should be easy pickings, but Notre Dame can beat them. From there it gets interesting.

Minnesota doesn’t offer much, but Northwestern is dangerous at home, especially to a team like Michigan that has no discernable defense. Then they come to East Lansing, and their last five games are pretty brutal: Purdue they could win, but Iowa on the road, at Illinois -

wait a minute: Is Ron Zook still the coach at Illinois? Okay, that game’s a win for Hoke.

Where was I? Oh yeah, they finish with home stands against Nebraska and Ohio State. Are the Huskers that good? Have the Buckeyes fallen that far?

Still, it would not be hard for the Skunk Bears to lose six games or even eight if things go badly for them. Notre Dame, Northwestern, Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio State and of course my beloved Spartans all should give them a tough time. U-M survived last year on its high-octane offense and Indiana’s inability to close the deal. But with the Hoosiers not on the schedule, things get a little harder. And if Robinson has to stay in the pocket, even the Illini stand a chance.

FINAL ANSWER: Spartans go 10-2, Wolverines end 7-5.

Bush is a Fascist

Shocked by the headline?  Just an attention-grabber is all.

But if only I had $1 for every time I heard that worn out line from the Moveon.org and Daily Kos kooks between 2001-2008.   (Hint: I wouldn't be living in my present neighborhood or searching CraigsList for a used car.)

As 2012 draws near, we are bound to hear more left-wing drivel from angry airheads who are ignorant of history.  Here are a few things to keep in mind when the pathetic mainstream media parrots the dreck coming from left-wing politicians and their lemming followers.

"Fascist" or "Nazi" will be pejoratives hurled regularly at Republican presidential candidates by apoplectic leftists who are gifted parrots but piss-poor scholars.

Just a little refresher course in case any left-wingers happen to come across this blog through a Google search:  Today's conservatives and the mainstream Republican Party are a far cry from Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.  In fact, the Democrat Party bears far more characteristics in common with the Nazis than does the GOP.

The Nazis and fascists of 70-80 years ago were anti-Christian and anti-traditional marriage.  They favored government health care and idolized the environment like Al Gore.  They regularly bashed corporations and greedy capitalists.  Their notion of child-rearing was that the state ought to play a much larger role, and parents should happily give up their progeny to the all-knowing, all-wise government.

Eugenics was a priority of Nazis, and out-of-wedlock births were advocated as an effective way of proliferating the Aryan race.  Today's progressives try to portray Hitler as a Christian (they'll do ANYTHING to discredit Christianity), but in fact, the Fuhrer regularly bashed and ridiculed Christianity.

A Hitler Youth marching song featured these lyrics: 

We follow not Christ, but Horst Wessel,

 Away with incense and Holy Water,

The Church can go hang for all we care,

The Swastika brings salvation on Earth.

Mind you, I am not implying that today's liberals (or progressives, if that's what they prefer) would advocate death camps for Jews or brownshirts kicking in the door in the middle of the night.  But they certainly do have FAR more in common with the Nazis of 70-80 years ago than do today's Republicans.  Still, the misnomer keeps being spouted off by ignorant leftists.  If someone is too conservative and doesn't subscribe to their supposedly enlightened view of the world, he/she is a fascist or Nazi.  Ignorance truly is bliss for the left wingers.

AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH — Nick Ashford has passed at the too-young age of 70, succumbing to throat cancer.  Superstars like Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, and Diana Ross owe much of their success and fame to this gifted songwriter.  Ashford and his longtime wife Valierie Simpson formed a dynamic duo that composed many memorable hits of the 1960s and 1970s.  R.I.P., Nick.

YEAR OF DISASTERS — Wildfires, floods, blizzards, drought, tornadoes, earthquakes... The year 2011 is turning into an unprecedented string of disasters. I know the emphasis these days in Washington, D.C., is on cutting spending, but it would be sad if the Federal Emergency Management Agency got cut more drastically than other agencies.  FEMA actually does some valuable things that help ordinary people who are victims of disasters.  Unlike so many other federal agencies (e.g., Education, Energy, and Transportation) it actually benefits the taxpayers who support it.  Easy on the budget ax, pols!

 

Libyan situation unclear; ask again later

I haven’t opined on the latest Libya situation largely because I don’t have anything particularly insightful to add. The whole point of blogging (to me at least) is to say something that hasn’t yet been said. When I notice that everyone’s on the same page, I get bored and go looking for other things to read.

The Libyan situation is particularly murky – no one knows what is really going on. In this sense, it reminds me of the early reporting on the Selfridge Airshow wing-walker accident. Initial press accounts said that the wind was high, that the announcer had warned, the wing-walker Scott Green and that he failed his first two attempts before making a final – and ultimately fatal – third attempt. Subsequently we learned that none of that was actually true: the announcer was reading from a script and the first two attempts are always “failures” because that heightens the suspense.

The point is that press accounts are almost always wrong. Indeed, the closer to the event, the less accurate the story will be. Gaddafi may fight on for years, may go into exile, or may even make a comeback – assuming he lives out the week. What is certain is that the Obama Administration’s decision-making skills are consistently terrible. The president can be relied on to get it wrong, not matter what the circumstance.

AND THAT INCLUDES OPTICS: The fact that the Virginia earthquake made him miss a putt distills things perfectly.

Big Labor's Kaiserschlacht pt. II

Via the Hated Instapundit, we learn that one of Wisconsin's unions has already been forced to disband.

In addition, the Wisconsin teachers unions is laying off 40 percent of its staff.

While Republicans came up short in last week's recall elections, they have reason to be optimistic.  Against a nation-wide avalanche of leftist money, they held the line.  The front was staggered in places, but did not break.

Big Labor's Kaiserschlacht has failed.  Expect to see similar rollbacks all across the country.

At the same time, the bitter-enders in the union halls will mount desperate but ultimately futile counter-attacks.  The pointless Verizon strike also appears to be ending, without much in the way of company concessions.  Why anyone in their right mind would sanction such a move in a time of double-digit underemployment defies logic, but that's unions for you.

Even the Obama Administration's overreach in the Boeing case is illustrative - by trying to stretch labor law to effectively outlaw right-to-work states by administrative fiat, the administration is making a profound case for their adoption on a nation-wide basis.

Unions are explicitly driving jobs overseas, and the tighter their federal allies squeeze, the more companies will be persuaded to relocate off shore.

Alas, this is not all good news.  For the parallel to be exact, one must recall that even after the German offensive of 1918 sputtered out, there were many months of bloody combat ahead.  The vast majority of American casualties were incurred during the fall counteroffensives.

The free market has staved off immediate defeat, but victory remains a long way off.

 

 

America Adrift

The volatile stock market of late causes many people to lay the blame strictly on the Obama administration's misguided economic policies and Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. credit rating, compounded by gridlock in Congress and a broken budget process.

All of these are contributing factors, to be sure, but it goes way beyond domestic economic policy.  It speaks to Barack Obama's lack of leadership and principles, and how Europe's perception of a rudderless and drfting America takes its toll in many ways.

After all, European markets both influence and feed on what the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq do.  Investors in Europe recognize that many of their nations are fiscally sick and remain mired in recession.  They also realize that the odds of Europe rebounding are dismal as long as the United States remains mired in a deep funk.

The U.S. long-term fiscal outlook is so dire, it inspires little confidence in our nation's ability to carry forward the torch of exceptionalism that has benefited Europe and the rest of the world for so long.

Granted, Obama has not gone far-left in the war on terror as would be the case if left-wing crackpots like Dennis Kucinich or Bernie Sanders were in charge.  He increased troops in Afghanistan, approved extending key elements of the Patriot Act such as warrantless wiretapping, ordered the killing of Osama bin Laden, and continues to use Predator drones to kill suspected terrorists.  Still, his naivete is disturbing.

Early on, Obama talked about sitting down with Iranian madman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with no preconditions to try to find common ground and a mutually beneficial way forward.  Think about it:  Believing that it makes sense to negotiate in good faith with a nut who denies the Holocaust even happened and has stated he wants to wipe Israel off the map...  This is idiocy.

The administration's halting and confused reactions to uprisings in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere, plus its failure to support dissidents in Iran in 2009, don't demonstrate any wisdom, courage or leadership.

The long-lasting stalemate in Libya may finally be reaching a dramatic conclusion as I type, as Muammar Gaddafi apparently is on the verge of being ousted.  But one wonders whether the regime would have crumbled even without the NATO bombing campaign, as the rebel forces seem to have had little difficulty lining up new soldiers over the past several months, and defections from within Gaddafi's ranks have been plentiful.  His was a brittle regime in its dying days.  Its time has come to an end, as happens eventually to all despotic regimes.

Whether it's an uneven foreign policy, economic malaise, a lack of free trade agreements, or heavy debt to China, the Obama administration does little to restore faith in America, and there is no indication this will change by November 2012.

 

 

R.I.P., Ford Taurus

My 2001 Ford Taurus LX was taken off life support at 1336 on 16 AUG 2011.  It is lying in state on my driveway, awaiting its fate.

Visitation will be from 3:30 - 5:30 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, Aug. 18-19.  Memorials may be sent to the Prestone Cool Green Glycol Association.

Let's recap, for those who don't know.  Approximately six weeks ago, I was driving to work in Detroit when the engine overheated.  Although I was cranking out the tunes on my CD player, and the usual traffic noise was considerable, I still heard something odd under the hood.

Glancing down at my dashboard, I noticed the temperature gauge was way too high.  I immediately pulled to the side of the road, shut off the engine, called AAA, and had it towed to a Ford dealership in Brighton, Mich.

The service technicians replaced some corroded external cooling tubes at the rear of the engine, at a cost of $441.  But I was bothered by the fact that the engine was running rough on the way home, and the next couple of times I drove it it continued to be out of sorts.  Finally, a few days later, it would not start at all.

Away on deployment for a month, and then undergoing job-related training in Maryland for two weeks (which will end on Friday), I elected to leave the car sitting in my driveway for a while before seeking a diagnosis.

The garage that has done a great job repairing and maintaining the car since I bought it in 2005 gave me the bad news Tuesday:  The engine has severe internal damage, including a cracked head, blown gasket and possible valve and piston damage due to driving it while it was overheated.  Oil and antifreeze and water are mixed together into a hideoous brew.  Long story short:  It would cost less to replace the engine ($4,500) than to repair it.  But $4,500 is way too much to spend on this beast.

The Taurus, a former State of Michigan fleet vehicle, has 198K on it, and needs other repairs (two new coil springs, a new air conditioning compressor, ball joints, and soon, new brakes and tires.  It is not worth spending that kind of money.

The Taurus will probably be sold for scrap metal to a salvage yard, but I just might put an ad on eBay to see if some enterprising mechanic wants to buy it and put a new engine in it or rebuild the exisitng engine.  In the next few days, there may come an update in the Posse about how much I managed to get for selling the Taurus.

One thing of which I am glad:  I called my auto insurance company in early July and canceled the policy, asking for a refund check for the remaining unused months.  I've got to find a replacement vehicle in the next couple weeks, and decide what to do with the Big Blue Bull, which has served me well since July 2005. R.I.P. Taurus.  May we meet again in the Great Beyond.

CORRUPTION, INEPTITUDE, MISMANAGEMENT — Jennifer Granholm was not just a miserable failure as Governor of Michigan; her ineptitude and naivete cost Michigan's hard-pressed taxpayers millions of dollars.

The Lansing State Journal today reported on more mismanagement and thievery at the disgraceful Department of Human Services (maybe "DHS" really stands for Department of Heists and Stealing).

Gov. Tinkerbell, who now spouts her drivel on the Left Coast for the People's Republic of Berkeley, apparently was so consumed by the pipe dream of "green jobs," "sustainability," and reverse discrimination at the University of Michigan, that she failed to demand accountability at the Department of Human Services.

I doubt the statute of limitations has come into play.  I strongly urge Attorney General Bill Schuette to throw the book at the scumbags who lined their own pockets at the expense of Michigan taxpayers and the truly needy people they were supposed to be serving.

As Sen. Bob Dole agonizingly proclaimed (regarding Bill Clinton's perjury and scumbaggery): "Where's the outrage?"

 

 

The Agony of Detroit

Some of you may recall my May 2010 blog "Deadly Week in Detroit."  It recounted a series of horrendous violent crimes and bloodshed, including the death of a seven-year-old girl caught in the crossfire when police trying to arrest a 34-year-old man hiding out in her house (he was wanted for allegedly killing anther man days earlier).

Today I was sickened to read this report in The Detroit News about a spate of violence occurring in the Motor City over a 24-hour period -- 16 people shot, seven dead.

When I see the mayhem that our inner cities have become, I am continuously astounded that so many people keep on engaging in behavior that might rightly be labeled insane.  I am referring, of course, to this definition of insanity:  Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The people hurt the most by liberal Democrat policies, black Americans, are the party's most loyal supporters.  And they just keep voting Democrat, like an abused spouse who keeps giving her thuggish husband another chance. 

Take a look around.   In the vast majority of big cities where leftist, liberal Democrats have had their way for many years, urban blight, drugs, gangs, illegitimacy, wretched schools, violence, unemployment and despair reign supreme.  Yet African Americans continue to support destructive policies that have wreaked a tsunami of pain on their communities.

It's been obvious for decades that Lyndon Johnson's so-called "Great Society" has been a cruel hammer blow on black Americans.  The welfare reform of 1996 ameliorated the worst aspects of welfare, but the damage had long since been done.  Perverse incentives discouraged black men and women from marrying , and made it seem okay for women to get pregnant as the trusty nanny state would substitute for a father.  That's worked out real well.

Of all the pathologies harming black Americans today, the rampant incidence of out-of-wedlock births, fatherless homes and the irresponsible culture these have bred, are at the root.  Drugs, gangs, high school dropouts, unemployment, further illegitimacy, and deadly violence perpetuate the cycle.

School boards in big cities from coast to coast are dominated by self-serving liberal Democrats who arrogantly and delusionally refuse to acknowledge their roles in ruining urban public education.  Granted, some districts such as Washington, D.C., have allowed charter schools to get a foot in the door, bringing hope that competition and an end to teachers' union monopolies will result in improvements.

But many urban school boards and the unions to whom they suck up appear to possess the outrageous attitude of the late Albert Shanker, president of the United Federation of Teachers.  Mr. Shanker famously declared, "When school children start paying union dues, that 's when I'll start representing the interests of school children."

Why can't folks put two-and-two together?  Just as the riots in Europe provide ample evidence that the road paved with cradle-to-grave nanny-state policies leads to the chaotic destination of fiscal ruin and molotov cocktails hurled through London shop windows, the violence and decay of long-suffering Detroit are a damning indictment of left-wing Democrat policies.

Regrettably, a huge majority of black voters will vote to re-elect Barack Obama in November 2012, simply because they can't see past the color of his skin and somehow take pride in having a black president, even if he is a president who is hopelessly in over his head and is hastening the decline of our nation.  As bad as Jimmy Carter was, Obama is compiling an even more abysmal record.  His policies are the bull; the American economy, jobs and fiscal condition are the china being thrashed about, shattering into tiny pieces.

But it is my hope that large numbers of registered black voters will either not vote (out of disgust and disillusionment), or will decide to vote for change.  Pardon me, progressives, if this sounds racist or condescending, but it is downright ignorant for blacks to vote for someone who doubled the black unemployment rate, and whose cadre of leftist ideologues promote policies that grievously damage their community.