Dirge for the race card

A twitter friend of mine requested a rant about how the Mainstream Media utterly ignore absolutely anything that makes Obama look bad, and asked if I thought it was race related.

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I almost break my neck because some idiot won’t let us use coal to power the damn lights…  But I suppose that’s a different issue.

To the best of my knowledge and memory, the feud between the liberal media and conservatives started getting cutthroat around the time of the fall of Dan Rather. He had been head anchorman of CBS for over 20 years at that point, and was generally respected throughout the journalistic community.

In essence Rather failed to vet documents that allegedly proved G.W. Bush failed to complete his term of service with the Air National Guard and ran it as straight news.  Ultimately he resigned, undoubtedly under duress.  For the first time, the internet had landed and gutted a VERY big, VERY liberal MSM fish for lying. The MSM would NEVER go unchallenged again.  This was the shot heard round the media, if you will.

Nothing about that really involved race.  It did however morph into a Left/MSM vs. Right/internet media war that continues to this day.  And the MSM is losing.

Before Obama came along, there were MANY black politicians using the race card to preempt anyone who wanted to say anything bad about a black legislator. Its use was Standard Operating Procedure for a long time. Any and all criticism was called racist in spite of any evidence to the contrary.

Obama did not invent that.  He learned it at the feet of the masters and unsurprisingly became one himself.

I believe that the majority of the MSM was delighted that Obama was black.  They thought it would give THEM the ability to use the race card by proxy. Obama himself would be absolutely untouchable.  When challenged the response would be the race card and that was supposed to preempt any and all disagreement. Nobody was supposed to be able to politically survive an accusation of racism regardless of the truth.

I don’t believe most MSM reporters ever thought race card could be worn out. But by the time they realized calling everybody racist was no longer working, they were too invested in Obama and had nowhere to go if they could get loose. They are stuck because too much evidence of bias and partisanship is now in the hands of right wing bloggers.  New Media knows exactly how to use it against the MSM and, frankly, is foaming at the mouth like rabid dogs.

So is their protection of Obama due to race?  Kind of.  They thought they had a great weapon in the first black president, a weapon the left simply could not use with a white president because they couldn’t call all opposition racist. They were correct about that actually – and it took quite some time for everyone to become indifferent to the constant accusations of racism. The race care did eventually wear out.  

Tainted

Short and to the point, the IRS has been politically exploited; it has been TAINTED and can no longer serve its function as an apolitical entity.  It must be destroyed.

It does not matter who is at fault for this. Everyone knows it can be done and exactly how to do it. The IRS is now a broken tool and can never be fully trusted again.  They had a great run, but it’s over now.  Ultimately it will have to be replaced by something that MUST answer to ALL branches of government, not simply to one man (or person.)   I would make it, BY LAW, forced to keep 100% of ALL documents produced, EVER.   With a group separate from the IRS chain of command– Lets call them Archivists – who can store and safeguard this information, and reproduce ANY of it upon request from ANY BRANCH. The Executive could appoint the head of the new (and unnamed) tax group while the Congress appoints the Head Archivist.

That’s the easy part.   The hard point would be the sudden influx of unemployed IRS people into the job market.  By which I mean EVERY CURRENT IRS EMPLOYEE WOULD BE UNEMPLOYED.  This would not necessarily preclude them from future employment at the new agencies but would require that they apply for these jobs just like everybody else who’s ever been laid off or worked for a company that went bankrupt.

And they will SCREAM!  There will be a cacophony of wailing that puts any previous hissy fit in history to shame.  It will come from the ex-employees, and unions. Shrieking politicians from both sides will no doubt pander to the newly unemployed for votes (and some campaign contributions.)  There will be perfectly decent people that insist it would be a greater crime to put so many people out of work because of the actions of a few (very) guilty people.  But we must do what must be done (I feel very Sith-like today) so that the IRS can be replaced with an organization WITHOUT TAINT.  It will be Uncorrupted and much harder for ANYBODY to exploit politically, though ultimately somebody will figure out something. People are smart like that – and in the end, ANY government will ALWAYS require the vigilance of the governed.  

After all, it’s only “a Republic, if you can keep it.”

Low hanging fruit (and other stuff)

Like many people, I found the capture of Ahmed Abu Khattala suddenly made the interview of Hillary Clinton on FOX a hell of a lot more interesting.  I had a few thoughts on that interview and have expanded my thinking on the capture.

Face it, this guy was low-hanging fruit by his own (and perhaps others) design.  Could that have been part of the plan?   I gather he showed up in the opening stages of the attack doing things that made great video.  For Al-Qaeda, no less,  who shot the video. His starring role could have been scripted either to provide a buffer for the true leaders or to spread misinformation when he was captured.  Or both.  Jihadists aren’t big on technology, but history leads me to believe that they are good and getting better at sneaky.  I find myself hoping that the Obama’s administration has taken that into account.  At the end of the day we didn’t pick that fruit, we tripped over it.  Multiple times.

The right encouragement from Clerics/Politicians (remember they can be the same thing in the Muslim world) could have easily persuaded Khattala to be a willing star of the movemnent.  A threat, a bribe or both, if it could be managed, could have overcome any reluctance on his part.  Or it could have even been on the spot improvisation that paid off, though that seems less likely.

During the Hillary’s interview one thing that stood out in my mind when Hillary was asked about the night of Benghazi was how she explained that she was not in the loop but was watching the loop. With respect, if you can watch that loop you are in it.

While I have come to believe that Obama is actually incapable of making a snap decision, that is not a problem that Hillary Clinton has ever had. Her snap decision was to cover her butt by producing excuses all around in textbook Clinton fashion.  Instead of attacking the problem and taking any action to relieve those on the ground she watched the loop.  That is not good enough.  The state department is expected to act, “fog of war” or no.  Hillary chose to blame or help blame somebody else. If she was overruled so-be it, but she will never escape the lack of action produced that night while she was, in-fact, in the loop.

I know she knows how to throw a lamp.  I always thought it was her highest qualification for Secretary of State. It would have been an improvement.

In general, her responses all seemed aimed at making herself the lone voice of sanity who was constantly overruled by the weak man that she worked for. But She never quite put it that way.  That probably appeals to somebody else…

Force Works

Literally, as I was walking across the room to sit down and write this, I heard about the school shooting in Oregon.   Prayers to all concerned.

My timing just became atrocious, but I mastered bad timing long ago.  Besides, this is as true today as it was yesterday and probably will be tomorrow.

I want inner city minorities to buy guns.

I really do!

Armed and trained legal gun owners are the best chance of making crime too dangerous for criminals.  When people can protect themselves, crime becomes very risky.  Who wants to get shot by a little old lady protecting her Social Security check? Who wants to rob a convenience store when the customers might just be better armed than the robber is?  Force Works. It has for centuries.

The simple truth is that any individual is the first and the last person who can protect himself and his home. An armed person does it better. The police will try, and nobody’s better at it then they are.  But when is the last time you saw a real world fight last longer than one minute.  The police aren’t THAT fast, so it’s usually up to the person who didn’t want to be in that violent situation.

It baffles me why the inner cities tend to be Democrat Party strongholds.  In Chicago for instance, it has become so violent that there is no way for the police to protect everybody.   If a Chicagoan tries to protect himself in a way that works however, HE goes to jail.  In what world does this make sense?  The only legal option left is to be a willing victim.  Now THAT is a racist policy and it’s all from the Left.

A gun is not a magic wand, and isn’t a cure all for the entire world’s evil.  I frequently hear that “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”   Notice how they say nothing about skin color?  It’s not an accident.  Good people come in all colors.  But in spite of all the Gun Control fanatics will say and do (or not do) having some chance STILL beats the hell out of having no chance at all. The Right would like all people to protect themselves as best they can, regardless of color.   The left would have permanent victims. 

So, who’s the racist?

How many?

Like most, I have been following the Bergdahl trade.  I have been outraged by the stupidity, and the question of whether or not Bergdahl will be court martialed.  Also I’ve been somewhat entertained that this brilliant diplomacy blew up in Obama’s face and he’s now catching criticism from former Yes Men and Women about it.  Does bipartisan fury make him at long last a uniter?  Still, even though Obama’s dance through the minefield was not without incident, he got what he wanted, just not the way he wanted it.  We’ve been distracted from the VA scandal.  If you are reading this on Tuesday the 10^th tomorrow it will have been a week since Bergdhal pushed the VA scandal out of the headlines.

Even though the Bergdahl trade infuriates everyone (as it should,) the truth is that story is going to move very slowly. We should not be distracted from the Veterans that need help RIGHT NOW.  So in an effort to refocus the outrage in a direction that will do some good, I ask this one simple question in hopes it will be shouted from the rooftops!  I want to inspire people who know better than I how to get answers to do so NOW.

How many Veterans died on the waiting lists this week?

I want to know.  I want a number that I can use to hit this issue, hard, until changes are actually made.  A number that reminds people that this is not over.  The fact is that nothing has actually changed. I want to stop this shameful situation and to hold people responsible. We need to stay on it.  Politicians tend to think that talking about an issue is the same as actually making a change.   They are wrong.  Whatever sideshow Obama manages to produce, our Veterans continue to die while we are looking elsewhere.  That is still not good enough, and I will remain furious until it is changed.  It is my hope that enough people ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ISLE also remember that they are angry, and why, and DO SOMETHING about this instead of just talking.  The treatment of our Veterans has never been a Right/Left issue. It’s a basic responsibility.  A promise made.  How many die before we can fix it?  How many we will LET die to protect the President’s prestige? We cannot ignore the fact that time = more dead Veterans.

To continue to allow this is shameful. 

The Democrat Party is in a quandary

They’ve been in one for six years now – but they’ve finally noticed.  What’s it going to be? The party of Obama the first?  He won’t  be president past 2016 without a civil war, and the Democrat Party will be needing some of the power they gave him back before it falls to a Republican.

But in an apparent Imperial Presidency, how do Democrats hold their own power when it’s all been given unreservedly, by them, to the Imperial President? 

Whoever is next, and there’s a good chance it will be a Republican, will have whatever power Obama has.  There’s a very urgent need to reduce the power of the president before that happens.  But what do you do when the Republicans will probably control both houses of Congress before that happens? What happens if Republicans can rubberstamp an imperial president?

One of the problems of the Dem Party reclaiming power is that any exercise of free will is going to definitely irritate The One.  It always has after all. That would be the guy that Democrats told he was the Democrat Messiah.  It’s Inconvenient when somebody believes it like that.  They tend to act like they are God, and that lessens the party’s power.  Sweet reason no longer applies, unless it benefits him.  It’s ok with him if a servant (read anybody else) gets hurt though. In fact, it is what is owed to The One.  It’s awfully hard for even Democrats in Congress to profit if that’s the only deal in town.

Still, he’s not going to be there past 2016; They have got to protect themselves now.  To do that, they’ve got to reclaim some of the power they gave willy-nilly to the President and he won’t like that.

That’s what we are seeing with the Democrat Party scattered all over the map on the Bowe Bergdahl trade.  Politics hasn’t been this exciting since Rome.  Of course Exciting politics are always very bad for somebody, and that’s just not going to be a Republican.

This Democrat Party  fratricide is going to get much worse before it gets better. And of course, we should all do our part to assist. A big part of how bad it gets is entirely up to us so be as helpful as you can to our Democrat friends by pointing out these obstacles whenever they appear.

Bitter Pills with Cold Comfort and Political Commentary.

I speak, of course, about the Bowe Bergdahl situation. Face it, this stinks on so many levels I’d consider getting myself tear gassed just to clear my sinuses if only that would work. (Yes, actually – they do that to everyone in basic)

When I first heard about this freakish disaster, I started to break it in to three levels and that still works, so I will continue. 

WASHINGTON D.C. (Or Obama and friends if you like.) 

This will be brief. It was wrong and illegal and stupid. If Obama, or the people that serve as his brain, thought he would get any political credit or good will from this, they were wrong.  All he did was put a bounty on Americans Citizens, and then pay it.  We are now going to see more of that and, pay or no pay; good people will suffer for this stupidity for years.

These were not foot soldiers they traded – They were top leaders with confirmed records of slaughter, who wanted and probably still want to slaughter Americans. They are not going home to raise goats in peace. We are going to see them again.

THE ARMY. 

Based on what I’ve heard in the Media there is no way this guy should have been allowed in a Combat Unit.  While no one is a mind reader, the risk seems to have been widely apparent.  It’s not the sole or largest cause of this mess, but it is another thing that did not work when it could and should have.  It seems very close to what happened at Fort Hood, in that this guy should never have had the chance.

As for searching for him after he was gone, that was done correctly and with great courage.  If he was a traitor or even a deserter, getting him back was even more urgent.  The knowledge in his head had military value to the enemy, who was going to get it out of him period. Eventual torture was inevitable and most likely planned on as soon as they had him.  Our U.S. Forces had to try and get him back no matter what he did.  They did their duty, and God bless them for it.

THE IDIOT (at a bare minimum)

I don’t know for sure, yet, if this guy was a deserter or a spy/traitor, or a lost puppy chasing a butterfly through a mine field. What happened next was predictable and was not going to turn out well for him personally, whatever the truth.  Even if he was the lost puppy, bad things happen to puppies in Muslim nations. He should have known this. To them, he was never going to NOT be a servant of The Great Satan. (That’s us, if you didn’t know.)

The only good thing is that we have him.  We don’t know what kind of shape he’s in now.  We don’t know if we will be able or willing to reassemble a human being, who can assist in his own defense, out of whatever we got back.  Or if they should even try, frankly.  Whatever happens will happen in public at least. We won’t have to guess.  Even Obama can’t change that now.