Spun Out

Spun Out

This week the Main Stream Media seems to have finally realized that they are chained to Obama’s bedpost and the house is on fire.   Strangely they do not seem to remember how hard they fought to be in that position. While it’s more than a little tempting to just write “I told you so” regarding the Obama Care disaster in about five paragraphs, that’s being done elsewhere.  Many, many, other places elsewhere.

Face it, the Obama Care roll out stinks.  It stinks so bad that even his devoted media are chewing off their limbs to escape it.  I am less interested in describing why it stinks as I am at noting the sudden free for all amongst the “loyal” MSM, and the great entertainment value for me personally.

The media seems to be mauling each other over how to frame the debacle.  Can they be loyal to the Chosen One?  Dare they? The head salesmen of all things Obama are divided on this.  Is there a way to delay this without admitting that the Republicans had a point? Is there a way to do this without Valerie-the-Enforcer using whatever leverage she has to destroy them?  You can’t convince me she won’t seek petty vengeance. It’s what she does.  And what does she have on the members of the fourth estate anyway?  The press is slowly realizing that they are no longer spinning for Obama Care’s survival; they are spinning for their own.

I’m not even being metaphorical here.  I just read an article on Breitbart.com by John Nolte detailing how Warren Buffett did NOT buy the Washington Post because “he didn't want it to be a burden on his company or family.” To quote Joe Biden “That’s a big F%#&ing Deal.”  It means Warren Buffett does not think it is worth keeping a major metropolitan newspaper alive, even as an act of charity. It means they've been written off.  Partly, I am sure, because they keep putting themselves in positions where they simply cannot be trusted to be objective. Instead of the daily news, all they deliver is the daily spin, willfully not realizing that if the public wants spin we can write our own. They've been showing us how for years.

Most of all the MSM is learning the hard lesson that nobody wants to protect them from themselves.  Indeed it may be too late.  Obama loved them while they were useful, but apostasy is not allowed under Obama.  It’s the unforgivable sin.  However, at the same time, his clock will be running out in three short years.  What to do?  The media made its own hell. Don’t we all?

Pressure

Pressure

Well, I’m not going to try and spin this as a win.  We lost.  That sucks, but there it is.  Obama care speeds onwards like the runaway locomotive that it is.  Most people saw that coming too. However, we are not without gains of our own.  While the Democrat Party kept what they started with, they had to spend resources to do so. The pressure has highlighted some of their problems. Problems they like to pretend don’t exist.  I have been in a few disagreements over the course of my life, and there is nothing that brings you down to earth quite like that first hit to the face.  After that, everything is real.

Internally, the Republican Party has learned quite a few things.  Many were unpleasant, but they are things we need to know.  First we learned who is willing to fight on principal alone and at personal risk.  We need to know this. We need to know who, if nothing else, remembers which team they play for. Many will speak of cooler heads prevailing, but they weren’t prevailing. They were sitting on their hands, waiting for the “perfect moment.” That moment historically only happens when you make it happen. Some Republicans have forgotten that.

Obama Care itself seems to be its own worst enemy.  The rollout has been a disaster.  The Republicans did not do that.  The Obama administration did it.   In many minds, however, Republican talking points have been proven correct. Obama Care is only going to get worse. This may be the single biggest help that Republicans get in 2014.  People are going to remember who saw this coming and fought against it.  Those individuals are going to see their stock rise, while those who supported Obama Care try, and I hope fail, to put some distance between themselves and this catastrophe.

And of course there is the damage done personally by #PresidentStompyFoot and his #SpiteHouse edicts during the shutdown.  He couldn’t have been forced to do any of this; but he has harmed himself and his party.

The day of a million immigrant march on the National Mall, Obama decided to lock WWII veterans out of their own memorial in a fit of pique. Not only did some Congressional Democrats march out to support the immigrant rally, after the vets were locked out, and they intentionally got themselves arrested to show support of the immigrants.  But they stood mute instead of supporting our veterans. The only reason this wasn’t more widely known is because the MSM somehow forgot to report it until they looked stupid.  However, every time the media spins the news to protect Obama, It costs them credibility, which to them is measured in dollars. Thus they hasten their own end.  Even they had to balk when Obama pulled the death benefits for the families of soldiers fallen in Afghanistan. The President pulled the money in spite of the legislation passed by both houses of Congress and signed by him that was specifically meant to make sure that benefits were paid.  And again, the Democrats in Congress stood mute. They own that now, and they can thank the President.

Also, and we can’t forget or let the Democrat Party do so, the time to bask in the aura of their Chosen One is fast drawing to a close.  Whatever delusions of protection that the Obama Loyalists thought they had been granted are now gone.  They realize now as they nurse the fat lip they got from this fight that they won, they are immune to nothing. They will be dealing with the consequences their support of Obama’s choices long after he is gone.

You see, everything is real now.

That alone made this fight worth it.

Retrograde Leadership

Retrograde Leadership

In football, all teams have a coach. The coach’s job is to win games. He sends players out to play the game because he’s actually not allowed to do it personally. Some Coaches are Great and become living legends.  Others are horrible and get hustled out of town in the middle of the night. Some of those are legends too. Either way, the coach’s responsibilities’ are pretty straightforward.  Recruit a team, train the team, take care of the team’s needs and send them out to win games. He can hire assistants, but the responsibilities remain his.

Football can be a rough game.  Players get hurt pretty often.  Sometimes they are hurt badly and permanently. All of these are tragedies.  Injuries are unplanned and frequently not fixable.  At that point the coach has responsibilities to the player and his family.  Emotional support, medical care and financial obligations, and therapy if necessary are owed. The expectation of the players and their families is that they will be met.

Now let us imagine a coach who for some unknown reason hates the game but won’t quit and can’t or won’t control himself even in the face of scrutiny. Who even when warned about his behavior, for whatever reason, can’t be easily fired. 

Imagine this coach beating up his hurt players.  I’m not talking Woody Hayes, I’m talking about  a coach who would smack around a kid in a wheelchair, a coach who would charge up into the stands and smack the kid’s mother.

That is not a tragedy. That is a betrayal!  It is a complete abdication of the responsibility given to him.  This is not just being a lousy coach.  There is no reason good enough to do that. It violates the trust of the injured, their families, the players and all who have played or supported them.

OK! OK! So I’m not talking about football.

It’s not just the military funerals and death benefits during the shutdown either. Obama seems to positively delight in denying military families their benefits and in maximizing their pain. He called Fort Hood attacks “workplace violence” to block and specifically deny the wounded and their families’ benefits.  He outed the members of Seal Team Six and their families endangering them all.  He even kicked all veterans to the top of the “domestic terror” watch list out of pure spite.  This is a well-established pattern that has raised many doubts among service members and ex-service members as well of those who watch that sort of thing out of simple love for our heroes and a basic respect for their sacrifices.

However, the shutdown “crisis” offered Obama opportunities he simply could not stop himself from taking. I believe his disdain is pathological, but past a certain point it no longer matters.

The one that bothers me most is closing the base Exchanges. The military is chronically underpaid. Nobody joins for the pay, but the way military families can eat is by buying their food from the post exchanges where they don’t have to pay taxes on the food.  He’s literally taking food off their tables.  Then there is the complete ban on contracted military chaplains giving services on bases, even unpaid, on pain of prosecution.  In addition to denying service members and their family whatever comfort their faith can give them, I believe that to be flatly unconstitutional. It’s difficult to imagine a man who taught constitutional law not being fully aware of that.

Locking our veterans out of National Monuments built to honor them due to lack of funds just stinks.  When you are spending more to lock them up than to leave them open, the spite is blatant and shockingly petty. The outrage over this surprises no one, yet this President could not stop himself.

There are many more outrages than just what has happened to our military, their families and our veterans.  All are outrageous, and pretty much everyone is outraged. I am not sure even I could have made people any more furious, and I’m gifted.

We've had presidents before who weren't fans of the military.  I am not entirely sure what Bill Clinton thought of the military, but at least he kept one eye on the polls and treated them with the basic respect anyone should give the tools of their trade. Carter, I am told almost destroyed it, but the good thing about presidents is that they eventually lose that job.  It’s why we don’t have kings.  Our military will survive even Obama. But they, and those of us who support them, should be prepared for three more years of spite.

Now, I expect Obama’s defenders to come out of the woodwork, and call me and any person with a similar opinion a liar and much worse. They will sing his praises to the world at large while providing him with excuses.  The thing is, this is far beyond words.  I believe Obama’s Media Meat Shield will make excuses and call people names until he’s out of office or they are. I have heard many words, from both of Obama’s faces. They prove nothing. Trust, and any benefit of the doubt are now gone.  If Obama wants to make me a liar, he’s going to have to do it through his actions.

And I would welcome it.

Wait a minute, we're still here?

Wait a minute, we’re still here?

I thought the government shutdown was supposed to herald the end of the world or something. Are dogs and cats sleeping together and such, like in Ghostbusters?

Lila the magnificent, canine and absolute mistress of all things below knee-level is at this moment staring at me reproachfully as if to say “Unlike you, I have standards.”   

I stepped outside and saw the yellow fingernail of the moon just over the horizon.  I suppose the rest of the moon was told not to come in to work today because of the Evil Republicans?  I checked the almanac; the moon is scheduled to go away completely by the fifth! Who knew Evil Republicans had such power?

I suppose the sun is getting a furlough day as well?  We’ll see at 6:56 a.m. (Denver time). How could they doom us to labor in darkness so?  On the plus side, everyone is at least getting a day off….No Way! Everyone still has to go to work?  Well, with no cops to enforce the speed limit it shouldn't take as long….they are working too?!!? And the sun will rise anyway….What the hell?

The entire world is coming to a stop thanks to the Evil Republican plot against Barak, the chosen one, and nothing has changed?!!?

Does that mean the entire world is not coming to a stop? 

Could I ask my Democratic friends what exactly we are supposed to be panicking about? No offence, but I really don’t get it. The cops are there, the hospitals are there…

Most of the government workers won’t be there? This is different from normal because the doors will be locked?  This means I won’t have to stand in line to be told they can’t help me.  How is this not progress?

Why is this happening?

Is it because Obama will not be defied by mere Americans? 

Oh hell, that explains everything.