Did you notice how filled with anticipatory glee the Main Stream Media was over the arrival of Hurricane Irene?

It was sad and amazing at the same time.

Now, please don’t misunderstand me.  Storms are dangerous.  Eighteen people lost their lives due to Irene, and 3,000,000 lost power.

However, it did not turn out to be the Rehearsal for Armageddon that the MSM claimed that it was going to be.  They were hoping that it was going to be just like Hurricane Katrina and that their president, Obama, was going to get to show his magnificent leadership skills in this time of crisis.

Instead, it basically turned out to be less damaging than an Oklahoma tornado, and all of those pictures of Obama sitting in his Command Center wound up looking about as serious as an adolescent playing video games.

Toby Harnden, in an article posted at telegraph.co.uk, summed it up this way:

For the television reporter, clad in his red cagoule emblazoned with the CNN logo, it was a dramatic on-air moment, broadcasting live from Long Island, New York during a hurricane that also threatened Manhattan.

“We are in, right, now…the right eye wall, no doubt about that…there you see the surf,” he said breathlessly. “That tells a story right there.”

Stumbling and apparently buffeted by ferocious gusts, he took shelter next to a building. “This is our protection from the wind,” he explained. “It’s been truly remarkable to watch the power of the ocean here.”

The surf may have told a story but so too did the sight behind the reporter of people chatting and ambling along the sea front and just goofing around. There was a man in a t-shirt, a woman waving her arms and then walking backwards. Then someone on a bicycle glided past.

Across the screen, the “Breaking News: Irene Batters Long Island” caption was replaced by stern advice from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): “Stay inside, stay safe.”

The images summed up Hurricane Irene – the media and the United States federal government trying to live up to their own doom-laden warnings and predictions while a sizeable number of ordinary Americans just carried on as normal and even made gentle fun of all the fuss.

There was almost palpable disappointment among the TV big guns rolled out for the occasion when Irene was downgraded to a mere ‘tropical storm”. In New York city, CNN’s silver-haired Anderson Cooper, more usually seen in a tight t-shirt in a famine or war zone, was clad in what one wag dubbed “disaster casual”.

He looked crestfallen and fell briefly silent when a weatherwoman told him that the rain was not going to get any worse. “Wow, because this isn’t so bad,” he said. “It’s an annoying rain but it isn’t even a sideways rain.”

Disappointment.  Disillusion.  A bunch of hype leading to something that wound up fizzling out.  Sound familiar?  I’ve got three words for ya:

Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm)

Do you remember all of the campaign promises Obama made?  Politifact.com does.  In fact, they have a list called The Top Promises on the Obameter:

1. Create a foreclosure prevention fund for homeowners
2. Create a tax credit of $500 for workers
3. Repeal the Bush tax cuts for higher incomes
4. Begin removing combat brigades from Iraq
5. Train and equip the Afghan army
6. End the use of torture
7. Close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center
8. Restrict warrantless wiretaps
9. Seek verifiable reductions in nuclear stockpiles
10. Centralize ethics and lobbying information for voters
11. Require more disclosure and a waiting period for earmarks
12. Tougher rules against revolving door for lobbyists and former officials
13. Secure the borders
14. Provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants
15. Reform mandatory minimum sentences
16. Secure nuclear weapons materials in four years
17. Strengthen antitrust enforcement
18. Create new financial regulations
19. Sign a “universal” health care bill
20. Create 5 million “green” jobs
21. Reduce oil consumption by 35 percent by 2030
22. Will “reduce oil consumption overall by at least 35 percent, or 10 million barrels of oil, by 2030.
23. Create cap and trade system with interim goals to reduce global warming
24. If you don’t have insurance, or don’t like the insurance you have, you’ll be able to choose a new plan on a health insurance exchange.
25. Cut the cost of a typical family’s health insurance premium by up to $2,500 a year.
26. Bring Democrats and Republicans together to pass an agenda

According to The Obameter Scorecard that Polifact keeps up with, here’s how Obama is doing with his 500 campaign promises that they’re tracking:

Promise Kept 144

Compromise 41

Promise Broken 44

Stalled 73

In the Works 204

Not yet rated 2

Not so great, huh?

In fact, just yesterday, gallup.com reported that Obama had reached his lowest disapproval ate yet, scoring 55% disapproval as compared to 38% who approved of the job he was doing as President of the United States.

As of April 17,2009, Gallup showed Obama’s approval rating averaging 63% for the First Quarter of his Presidency.

That means that his approval rating has fallen 25 percentage points in just  27 months.

Talk about fizzling out.

Last Wednesday, the Feds recreated a scene from The Untouchables, as they busted into factories and offices in Memphis and Nashville, seizing contraband.

Only it wasn’t illegal booze as during the days of Elliot Ness. Barack Obama’s and Eric Holder’s Department of Justice seized American-made guitars!

Supposedly, the Gibson Guitar Company is making guitars composed of endangered wood.

Huh? You mean with all these forests that International Paper and others are planting, this kind of wood cannot be re-grown, also? How do you endanger a tree?

Gibson’s chairman and CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, has since issued a statement in defense of his company’s manufacturing policies, and, at the same time, accusing the Justice Department of being a bunch of bullies:

The wood the government seized Wednesday is from a Forest Stewardship Council certified supplier.

This wasn’t the first time that Obama has sent agents of the Fish and Wildlife Service to harass Gibson Guitars, the world-famous American maker of such legendary instruments as the Les Paul electric guitar, the J-160E acoustic-electric John Lennon played, and F-hole jazz-boxes such as Charlie Christian’s ES-150.

Back in 2009 the Feds seized several guitars and pallets of wood from a Gibson factory, and both sides have been going back and forth over the goods in a case curiously named “United States of America v. Ebony Wood in Various Forms.”

According to the Feds, they raided Gibson in 2009 because the company had been buying illegally harvested hardwoods from protected forests, such as the Madagascar ebony that composes their legendary fretboards.

If they can prove that Gibson did, with prior knowledge, import illegally harvested ebony from Madagascar, that would be a serious offense.

According to Peter Lowry, ebony and rosewood expert at the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Madagascar wood trade is the “equivalent of Africa’s blood diamonds.”

Wood, huh?

Sorry, tree huggers.  It was revealed yesterday, by Andrew Lawton, of landmarkreport.com, that the reason for the raids has about a much to do with wood as a buffalo nickel:

…It’s worth pointing out that Henry E. Juszkiewicz, Gibson’s Chief Executive Officer, is a donor to a couple of Republican politicians. According to the Open Secrets database, Juszkiewicz donated $2000 to Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN07) last year, as well as $1500 each to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN). Juszkiewicz also has donated $10,000 to the Consumer Electronics Association, a PAC that contributed $92.5k to Republican candidates last year, as opposed to $72k to Democrats. (The CEA did, however, contribute more to Democrats in the 2008 election cycle.)

When warrants as ridiculous such as these are issued and executed, there appears no other reason than because the company or individual at hand is being targeted, not because there is any sort of wrongdoing. As a company, Gibson is a legendary. They’ve done nothing wrong, except, apparently, deigning to have a Republican CEO.

The plot thickens, however.

One of Gibson’s leading competitors is C.F. Martin & Company. The C.E.O., Chris Martin IV, is a long-time Democratic supporter, with $35,400 in contributions to Democratic candidates and the DNC over the past couple of election cycles. According to C.F. Martin’s catalog, several of their guitars contain “East Indian Rosewood.” In case you were wondering, that is the exact same wood in at least ten of Gibson’s guitars.

The Gibson facility wasn’t raided over allegations of tax evasion, charges of embezzlement, or even something as drab as child labor. Not even close. It was raided over what the DOJ deems an inability to follow a vague domestic trade law in India (one that apparently the Indian government didn’t seem too concerned about enforcing) regarding a specific type of wood. Not illegal wood, just wood with obscenely specific procedural guidelines.

Why is the Obama Administration going after America’s leading Guitar manufacturer, endangering American jobs, in the middle of the worst economy since the Great Depression?

According to Andrew Thomas, in an article posted on October 26, 2010 on americanthinker.com, it’s all about punishing his enemies:

Who is the real Barack Hussein Obama? Harvard-educated professor of law? Radical community organizer? Union flack? Or Chicago Way thug politician?

…This past Monday, speaking on Univision, he warned that attaining his goals will be harder “[I]f Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, ‘We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us’.”

What kind of Harvard professor talks like that? It appears that a majority of the electorate are about to be added to Barry’s enemy list. And how will he “punish” us? Put a “boot on our throats”? Find out “whose a- to kick”? On the same day, speaking in Rhode Island, he told Republicans “they can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in the back”.

With Obama now in complete command of 50% of the US economy thanks to ObamaCare and Financial Reform (with pending Cap & Trade legislation, EPA regulations, FDA food regulation, and FCC internet regulation to grab most of the remaining economy), finding creative ways to punish enemies and reward friends should be a snap.

Being the President of the United States comes with some unique responsibilities. The President must put aside petty politics and represent all of the American people, whether they be perceived “enemies” or “friends”. Apparently, Mr. Obama has not transcended the thuggish ways of his Chicago political past.

What next? Is the Politboro, err, I mean the Obama Administration, going to seize every vintage Gibson guitar in America?

I guess I had better hide my 1981 Epiphone Sunburst, then.

Oops.  Forget you just read that.

Last evening, my Preacher, a great man of God, posted the following on his Facebook Wall:

Strongest earthquake in 100 years in D.C. Only days later, the strongest storm threat coming in 2 decades. I hope by the time the locusts and plagues show up that somebody in the capital realizes that God may be a little ticked off.

This morning, I surfed over to drudgereport.com to find inspiration for today’s post. The main picture shows Hurricane Irene’s path, hugging America’s East Coast, straight up through Martha’s Vineyard, where President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) and his family are still vacationing. The headlines associated with this story read:

STORM ALERT: FROM DC TO BOSTON…

NYC BRACES FOR DIRECT HIT…

EVACS POSSIBLE…

STATE OF EMERGENCY…

NAVY MOVES SHIPS…

FLIGHTS CANCELED, UP AND DOWN…

National Cathedral to be blocked off pre-Irene…

On top of all that, they’ve been forced to indefinitely postpone the dedication ceremony for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, scheduled for this weekend.

So, I said to myself:

Self, what in the Wide, Wide World of Sports is a’goin’ on here?

If all of this is God trying to get our attention, why is he ticked off?

Could it be, that as His Word tells us, he is a jealous God?

Deuteronomy 5:9

You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

John Adams, our 2nd President, from 1797-1801, wrote:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

In America, in the year of Our Lord, 2011:

92% of Americans believe in God.

75% of Americans self-identify as Christians.

Only 2 % of  Americans are Muslim.

Therefore, if 92% of Americans believe in God, it stands to reason that only 8 % of us do not.  If you surf the web or your TV channels, you would think that Atheism is practiced by the majority of our citizens.

And, if you listen to the President of the United States, you would think that America’s Muslim Population is taking over, due to their own “righteous” ways:

From Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope (2006), pg. 261:

Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.

And Obama slapped the majority of Americans in the face when he said this:

From cbn.com, July 30, 2007:

…Obama believes that religious conservatives need to accept the fact that America has evolved and government policies need to encompass all faiths because the country is no longer just a Christian nation.

I think that the right might worry a bit more about the dangers of sectarianism. Whatever we once were, we’re no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers. We should acknowledge this and realize that when we’re formulating policies from the state house to the Senate floor to the White House, we’ve got to work to translate our reasoning into values that are accessible to every one of our citizens, not just members of our own faith community.

…In a speech last month to a church convention, Senator Obama told the audience, “Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart. It got hijacked. Part of it’s because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, who’ve been all too eager to exploit what divides us.”

This from the man who pushed for laws legalizing partial-birth abortion while in the Illinois State Senate, and signed a bill supporting abortion rights on a global scale as soon as he became president.   And then, there’s his shoddy treatment of Israel, showing his willful ignorance of Genesis 12: 1-3:

1 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

I don’t know Who Scooter worshiped for those 20 long years in Rev. Wright’s church, but the God Christians worship unites us all under His Banner of Love.

Oh, by the way, did you hear what Mayor Bloomberg of New York said yesterday?

He is barring religion from the 9/11 10th Anniversary Memorial Service.

Newsmax reports:

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is under attack for refusing to allow members of the clergy to play a role in the city’s commemoration of the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

Bloomberg insists the ceremonies should focus on the families of those killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center. He is also barring political speech. But pastors and politicians are lining up to lambast his decision, reports The Wall Street Journal.

“This is America, and to have a memorial service where there’s no prayer, this appears to be insanity to me,” said Rudy Washington, a deputy mayor under Bloomberg’s predecessor Rudy Giuliani, who organized a nationally televised interfaith ceremony at Yankee Stadium in the days after the 2001 attacks.

“I feel like America has lost its way,” added Washington. “I am very upset about it. This is crazy.”

Indeed.

May God protect those in the path of Hurricane Irene.

 

 

 

The Former Vice-Presisdent of the United States, Dick Cheney, is about to release a book, titled, In My Time.

According to a source close to Cheney:

This is not an apology tour. It’s the book of a proud conservative. He’s not looking to kiss and make up with the NEW YORK TIMES set, or for that matter, some of his former Bush administration colleagues,.

Some of the highlights, per drudgereport.com, include:

In a chapter entitled, SETBACK, Cheney is blunt about failures in Bush Administration foreign policy, especially in the second term. He criticizes ‘concessions delivered’ to North Korea ‘in the naive hope that despots would respond in kind,’ and says the president was badly served by his State Department, including through advice that was ‘utterly misleading.’

Cheney excoriates Colin Powell for standing by silently, knowing that his deputy Richard Armitage was responsible for leaking Valerie Plame’s identity to the press.

Says that it’s not Guantanamo Bay that hurts America’s image abroad but rather critics like Barack Obama who ‘peddle falsehoods about it.’

Says that Attorney General John Ashcroft approved the controversial Terrorist Surveillance Program that tracked terrorist communications no less than 20 times before his deputy, James Comey, objected. In a briefing delivered by Cheney and NSA Director Mike Hayden, Democratic congressional leaders Pelosi, Daschle, Harman and Rockefeller unanimously agreed the program should continue and that the administration should not seek any further authorization from Congress. ‘The view around the table was unanimous… They feared, as did we, that going to the whole Congress would compromise its secrecy.’ When it did leak in the NEW YORK TIMES, Cheney writes that the NEW YORK TIMES clearly violated the law by printing information about classified communications intelligence programs.

Unrepentant on Iraq. Even in hindsight, Cheney asserts it was the right decision, even taking into account mistakes on intelligence. Says those Democrats, like John Kerry, who supported the war and then flipped for political expedience and accused the president of ‘peddling untruths’ are guilty of just that themselves.

Another one of the revelations in the book is the existence of secret resignation letter that only one of Cheney’s staffers knew about. The letter was signed in March 2001 and was keptlocked in a safe at all times.

Vice-President Cheney told NBC’s Jamie Gangel in an exclusive interview that will air on NBC’s “Dateline” at 10 p.m. ET Aug. 29:

I did it because I was concerned that — for a couple of reasons. One was my own health situation. The possibility that I might have a heart attack or a stroke that would be incapacitating. And there is no mechanism for getting rid of a vice president who can’t function.

To quote “Darth” Chaney:

There are gonna be heads exploding all over Washington.

The book was ranked #267 on AMAZON’s hit parade late Wednesday. It will be available for the world to consume on August 30th.

Meanwhile, what is our current Vice-President up to?

Well, he’s currently in the middle of a Tour of Asia, doing what he does best:  making an embarrassment of himself.

Per foxnews.com:

Vice President Biden is facing criticism after telling a crowd in China that he doesn’t have a problem with the country’s one-child policy.

The vice president addressed the policy while answering a question about the U.S. budget deficit at a university in Chengdu on Sunday. He was trying to explain how China has a looming entitlement crisis on its hands because its strict enforcement of the one-child-per-family rule has essentially eroded the “safety net” for seniors. Fewer children means fewer people earning money and supporting retirees.

But in explaining that concept, Biden appeared to condone China’s policy.

“You have no safety net. Your policy has been one which I fully understand — I’m not second-guessing — of one child per family,” Biden said, according to the official transcript of the event. “The result being that you’re in a position where one wage earner will be taking care of four retired people. Not sustainable.”

With that statement, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, immediately (after sticking his finger up in the air, in order to see in which direction the political winds were blowing) announced that China’s policy “gruesome and barbaric” and questioned how Biden could have given it a pass.

Releasing a terse statement, Romney declared:

Vice President Biden’s acquiescence to such a policy should shock the conscience of every American. Instead of condoning the policy, Vice President Biden should have condemned it in the strongest possible terms.

Gee. Ya think, DiNozzo?

The CEO of Concerned Women for America, Peggy Nance, also released a statement, saying that Biden’s comment “crosses the lines of ignorant and wrong.”

Then, a spokesman for Biden released a statement later Tuesday stating that:

The Obama Administration strongly opposes all aspects of China’s coercive birth limitation policies, including forced abortion and sterilization.

The Vice President believes such practices are repugnant. He also pointed out, in China, that the policy is, as a practical matter, unsustainable. He was arguing against the One Child Policy to a Chinese audience.

Uh huh.

For the record, China began their horrendous policy three decades ago to help curb population growth. While it does not apply to those in rural areas, families living in cities can be subjected to stiff fines for breaking the rule. The policy has also resulted in families choosing to have male children more frequently than female children, and compassionate (usually Christian) Americans attempting to adopt those unwanted Chinese baby girls.

Little did I know just how prophetic I was, when I posted the following comment on the great Conservative website, hotair.com on 10/19/2010 at 8:45 p.m., Eastern:

We went from Darth Cheney to Jar Jar Biden.

C’mon, January 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday, on the East coast of the United States, the most powerful earthquake  in 67 years rattled both buildings and nerves from Vermont to Atlanta.  Office workers, scared out of their minds,  ran into the streets in New York, while parts of the White House, Capitol and Pentagon were forced to evacuate.

Thank God, there have been no reports of deaths, however, according to  fire officials in Washington, there were some injuries.

The  central tower and three of its four corner spires were damaged on the National Cathedral, but advisers interrupted President Barack Hussein Obama’s golf game to let him know that there were no reports of major damage to the nation’s infrastructure, including airports and nuclear facilities.

Per the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake registered a magnitude of 5.8 and its epicenter was located 40 miles northwest of Richmond, Va.

According to Roger Hannah, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, two nuclear reactors at the North Anna Power Station, in the same county as the epicenter, were automatically taken off line by safety systems.

Momentary panic ensued in Washington and New York, triggered by fears of a Terrorist Attack, due to the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks looming less than 3 weeks away.

At the Pentagon, a low rumbling built until the building itself was shaking, and people ran into the corridors of the complex. The shaking continued there, to shouts of “Evacuate! Evacuate!”, as a water main in the basement burst, due to the seismic activity.

In D.C., the National Park Service closed all monuments and memorials on the National Mall.  Meanwhile, and ceiling tiles fell at Reagan National Airport outside Washington causing all flights to be put on hold.

A 26-story federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan, blocks from ground zero of the Sept. 11 attacks, began swaying, causing hundreds of people to flee out of the building.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly was in a meeting with top deputies planning security for the upcoming anniversary when the quake interrupted. Workers in the Empire State Building ran out into the streets, some having ran down dozens of flights of stairs.

Meanwhile, per reuters.com:

The United States put its eastern seaboard on alert for Hurricane Irene on Tuesday as the powerful storm barreled up from the Caribbean on a path that could hit the U.S. coast on the weekend.

Even as the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic season pounded the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeast Bahamas with battering winds and rain and dangerous storm surge, coastal residents in Florida and the Carolinas were preparing for Irene’s approach.

“I pray God’s blessing on us all,” Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said as he urged residents of his Atlantic archipelago nation southeast of Florida to take shelter.

Irene is the ninth named storm of the busy June-through-November season [ID:nN1E77M1W4] and looks set to be the first hurricane to hit the United States since Ike pounded the Texas coast in 2008.

It weakened on Tuesday to a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir Simpson scale of intensity, but could strengthen into a major Category 3 storm with winds over 111 miles per hour (178 km per hour) by Thursday, the Hurricane Center forecasters said.

So, where has the Leader of our country been during this “Armageddon Rehearsal”?

“Scooter” was briefed about Irene while on vacation at the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard. He signed an emergency declaration on Monday for Puerto Rico after the storm pummeled the U.S. territory with heavy rains and winds. Puerto Rican authorities reported power outages and some flooding, but there were no reports of deaths or injuries.

On Tuesday, before the quake, Obama began a round at the Farm Neck Golf Club, a public course in Oak Bluffs. His foursome included White House trip adviser Marvin Nicholson, Chicago pal Eric Whitaker, and Washington lawyer Vernon Jordan.

And when the quake hit, Scooter was right on the job, showing his concern for the American citizens whom he is supposed to be serving, right? RIGHT?

Errr….no.

Per washingtonpost.com:

According to a press pool report, Obama wasn’t exactly on his A game.

At the first hole, Obama “stepped up to his ball, which was several feet from the hole, and made two practice strokes. He missed the hole on his first putt, but got it close. He then tried to tap it in, but missed again. He appeared to pick up the ball to let the others in his party play through as he watched,” the pool report noted.

At that point, the press pool was ushered off the course, while Obama continued to the second tee.

The earthquake, whose epicenter was in Virginia, was felt by the press pool waiting for Obama after it struck around 1:51 p.m. But it was unclear whether the president had felt it on the course.

He was, however, photographed and captured on video, taking the phone call on a mobile phone.

By 2:50 p.m., the White House felt compelled to issue a statement, saying Obama has led a conference call with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, Homeland Security Adviser John Brennan, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, and other geological and nuclear regulatory advisers.

“The president was told that there are no initial reports of major infrastructure damage, including at airports and nuclear facilities and that there were currently no requests for assistance,” White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest, who is with the president in Martha’s Vineyard, told reporters. “The president asked for regular updates on the situation.”

Reporters were not satisfied and continued to press Earnest about whether the president had felt the quake. Somtime around 6:45 p.m., Earnest said that Obama “didn’t feel the earthquake today.”

Not everyone was put off by the president’s golf outing. The most popular Twitter message on the topic was one from a user names Spykes whose Twitter name is Dammyyie, who saluted Obama’s typical cool demeanor.

“Shoutout to obama playing golf right now while the usa is going crazy about this earthquake…obama still chilln like a boss,” he wrote.

A BOSS WHAT? MAC DADDY?

No wonder Obama wants to blame Congress and anyone else he can think of for his rapidly tanking approval poll numbers.

As of yesterday, gallup.com reported that Obama’s approval had dropped to an alltime low of 38%.

And that was before his performance, caught on video during the quake.

A whole lot of speculation by political pundits, on both sides of the political aisle, is filling the “airwaves” concerning if, where and when a certain Arctic Fox is going to announce her campaign for the Presidential Nomination of the Republican Party.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I have heard or read the following statement:

Palin can’t win. Independent voters will never vote for her.

As early as 1992, the Myth of the Independent Voter was being debunked.  A book by that name, now available in paperback, is summarized in the following manner on amazon.com:

Few events in American politics over the past two decades have generated more attention than the increasing number of voters calling themselves Independent. By the early 1970s Independents outnumbered Republicans, according to many eminent experts on voting behavior. Yet the authors of this incisive new commentary on American politics claim that most of this widespread speculation on declining party affiliation is simply wrong. They contend that most so-called Independents lean strongly toward one of the two parties and resemble–in all important respects–either Democrats or Republicans. Contrary to expert opinion, only a small segment of voters are truly “independent” of either major party.

Based on the most up-to-date 1990 data, The Myth of the Independent Voter provides a roadmap of the political arena for the general reader and scholar alike. Debunking conventional wisdom about voting patterns and allaying recent concerns about electoral stability and possible third party movements, the authors uncover faulty polling practices that have resulted in a skewed sense of the American voting population.

Demonstrating that most of what has been written about Independents for more than thirty years is myth, this challenging book offers a trenchant new understanding of the party system, voting behavior, and public opinion.

On July 7th,2011, Alan I. Abramowitz, Senior Columnist at Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, wrote about the Myth of the Independent Voter:

There they go again. The presidential campaign season is barely under way but already pundits and pollsters are making misleading claims about independent voters and the role they play in presidential elections. Here are some of the things you’ve probably read or heard in recent weeks:

Independents make up the largest segment of the American electorate.

Independent voters are up for grabs in 2012.

Whichever party wins a majority of the independent vote will almost certainly win the presidency.

These beliefs about the crucial role of independent voters in presidential elections have become the conventional wisdom among the Washington commentariat, reinforced by groups like “No Labels” and “Third Way” that try to promote centrist solutions to the nation’s problems. Recently, the Pew Research Center provided additional support for this theory with a report claiming that independents constitute a rapidly growing and diverse group of voters who swing dramatically back and forth from election to election.

It sounds convincing, but when it comes to media commentary about independent voters, you shouldn’t believe everything you read or hear.

It’s true that independents are a diverse group. But that’s mostly because the large majority of independents are independents in name only. Research by political scientists on the American electorate has consistently found that the large majority of self-identified independents are “closet partisans” who think and vote much like other partisans. Independent Democrats and independent Republicans have little in common. Moreover, independents with no party preference have a lower rate of turnout than those who lean toward a party and typically make up less than 10% of the electorate. Finally, independents don’t necessarily determine the outcomes of presidential elections; in fact, in all three closely contested presidential elections since 1972, the candidate backed by most independent voters lost.

Let’s start with the claim that independents make up the largest segment of the American electorate. That’s true only if you lump all independents together including those who don’t vote and those who lean toward a party. In 2008, according to the American National Election Study, independents made up 40% of eligible voters but only 33% of those who actually voted. Moreover, of that 33%, only 7% were true independents with no party preference. The other 26% were leaners.

And what about those independent leaners? Fully 87% of them voted for the candidate of the party they leaned toward: 91% of independent Democrats voted for Barack Obama while 82% of independent Republicans voted for John McCain. That 87% rate of loyalty was identical to the 87% loyalty rate of weak party identifiers and exceeded only by the 96% loyalty rate of strong party identifiers.

It’s hardly surprising that the vast majority of independent leaners voted for their party’s presidential candidate in 2008. The evidence from the 2008 ANES in the following chart shows that independent Democrats and Republicans held very different views on major issues — views that were very similar to those of their fellow partisans. Independent Democrats were more liberal than weak Democrats and about as liberal as strong Democrats while independent Republicans were less conservative than strong Republicans but just as conservative as weak Republicans.

From foxnews.com:

She [Sarah Palin] stoked the speculative fire once again on Friday, posting a slickly produced video of her trip on the SarahPAC website. In the video, which included shots of Palin interacting with the crowd interspersed with giddy media commentary, the narrator declared the ex-governor is still “grabbing the attention of Iowans and, yes, the media.”

The real tease came at the end, with a written reminder to Iowans that Palin will “see you again” on Sept. 3. That’s when Palin is expected to deliver a speech at a Tea Party rally in Indianola, Iowa.

Charlie Gruschow, co-founder of event host Tea Party of America, told FoxNews.com he doesn’t know what Palin will do at the rally, but that “all we’re being told is that she’s going to make a major announcement.”

Tea Party of America has already started running radio ads in Iowa promoting the event. And the group’s website has a poll asking readers not if but “when” Palin will announce her candidacy

Karl Rove, a Fox News analyst and former adviser to ex-President George W. Bush, said the movement looks “pre-presidential campaign” to him.

“I’m not much of a gambler but I’d put a little more money that she gets in than if she doesn’t, because of the schedule she’s got next week in Iowa, it looks like that of candidate, not celebrity,” he told “Fox News Sunday.”

Donald Trump, who had publicly entertained — and then snuffed — the thought of his own presidential campaign, said Monday that he thinks “she maybe is going to go into the race.”

Trump said he previously didn’t think she was entering and told Fox News that she was still undecided when he met with her in New York City this past May. But he suggested Palin’s recent schedule and comments are that of a potential candidate.

He noted that she’s already a known quantity.

“She certainly has a big voice in the Republican Party,” Trump said.

Y’know, judging from the traffic that any Sarah Palin Thread generates at Conservative websites, for somebody whom the “pundits” (professional and amateur) keep insisting is not running or doesn’t stand a chance, she sure is generating a ton of national interest.

Or course, what do I know? I voted for a guy who used to star in movies with a chimp.

It appears that the decades-long brutal riegn of Libya’s mad despot Muammar al-Qaddafi has come to a violent end.

According to the Libyan rebels’ top diplomat in London, only five percent of the capital city was still controlled by forces loyal to the Libyan leader, after a morning of intense fighting near Kadhafi’s compound in Tripoli.

Per Mahmud Nacua, there are “still some pockets” of support for Qaddafi, but rebels are asserting control.

He says they have not yet found Qaddafi but “the fighters will turn over every stone to find him, to arrest him, and to put him in the court.”

Sunday, United States of America President Barack Hussein Obama issued the following statement while on vacation with the First Family at Martha’s Vineyard:

Tonight, the momentum against the Qadhafi regime has reached a tipping point. Tripoli is slipping from the grasp of a tyrant. The Qadhafi regime is showing signs of collapsing. The people of Libya are showing that the universal pursuit of dignity and freedom is far stronger than the iron fist of a dictator.

The surest way for the bloodshed to end is simple: Moammar Qadhafi and his regime need to recognize that their rule has come to an end. Qadhafi needs to acknowledge the reality that he no longer controls Libya. He needs to relinquish power once and for all. Meanwhile, the United States has recognized the Transitional National Council as the legitimate governing authority in Libya. At this pivotal and historic time, the TNC should continue to demonstrate the leadership that is necessary to steer the country through a transition by respecting the rights of the people of Libya, avoiding civilian casualties, protecting the institutions of the Libyan state, and pursuing a transition to democracy that is just and inclusive for all of the people of Libya. A season of conflict must lead to one of peace.

The future of Libya is now in the hands of the Libyan people. Going forward, the United States will continue to stay in close coordination with the TNC. We will continue to insist that the basic rights of the Libyan people are respected. And we will continue to work with our allies and partners in the international community to protect the people of Libya, and to support a peaceful transition to democracy.

Scooter, we’ll be lucky if it doesn’t turn into a Muslim Theocracy.

What effect will the victory of the Libyan Rebels have on the tinderbox known as the Middle East?

Per reuters.com, it make spark a firestorm:

From the Atlantic coast to Gulf shores, live images on Arab satellite channels of rebels pouring into Tripoli, trampling on pictures of Qaddafi and chanting “From alley to alley, door to door,” taunting the leader with his own threats to hunt down his enemies, will rattle Arab leaders facing similar revolts.

Arab capitals have been enthralled as street protests forced Tunisia’s Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country he had ruled for 23 years and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak to step down after 30 years in power and now Qaddafi’s government to decompose.

Arabs who this month have seen Mubarak and his sons appear behind bars and who now see the rule of the longest-serving Arab ruler collapsing must wonder what else is possible.

From Syria to Yemen, Arab autocrats who sought to use force and repression to contain pent-up popular aspirations and fend off uprisings must have pause for thought after events in Libya.

Meanwhile, the Libyan Rebels are receiving back-up from NATO. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has announced that combat air patrols over Libya will continue until all pro-Qaddafi forces surrender.

A NATO official called for Qaddafi to step down immediately in order to save lives and allow for a peaceful transition.

I hope he’s not holding his breath.

The rebels took over the capital city of Tripoli yesterday, facing just token resistance as Qaddafi’s forces disappeared, along with his 42-year-old dictatorship.  Rebels and citizens joined together in spontaneous celebrations in Green Square, known as the symbolic heart of the regime.

Qaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, was captured by rebel forces during the seige of the city. Al-Islam will be tried (supposedly) on charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, and the court urged rebels to turn him over, rather than seek revenge. Another of the dictator’s sons was under house arrest.

Hundreds of men and women celebrating in Green Square, used a mocking nickname of the curly-haired Qaddafi, chanting:

It’s over, frizz-head.

During their celebrating, the partiers fired shots in the air, clapping and waving the rebels’ tricolor flag. Some of them set fire to the green flag of Qaddafi’s regime and shot holes in a poster of Qaddafi.

By Monday morning in Libya, the rebels, who controlled large parts of the capital, set up checkpoints alongside residents, many who had been secretly armed by rebel smugglers in recent weeks. However, small pockets of pro-Qaddafi forces still remained.

Per businessweek.com:

The U.S. State Department urged rebel leaders “to maintain broad outreach across all segments of Libyan society and to plan for post-Qaddafi Libya,” spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a written statement.

The rebel council will appoint a transitional government after moving its headquarters to the capital from the opposition stronghold of Benghazi, in eastern Libya, [Mahmoud Al-Nakou, Libyan charge d’affaires to the U.K] said. “Today, we start to rebuild Libya. We look forward to building a democratic country. We will have institutions, freedom in every part of the country and in different fields of activities.”

The rebel council was prepared to quickly restore normalcy to Libya, including the country’s oil production for much-needed income, [Mohamad Al Akari, an adviser to the National Transitional Council, the rebel governing body] said. Except for the refinery at Brega, damage was not major, he said.

Is the future of Libya going to be similar to that of Egypt?

The Jerusalem Post reported on 8/6/11:

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood held a public internal election on Saturday for the first time in its history in a display of openness before a parliamentary election in November.

The Brotherhood, Egypt’s most popular and organized political force, was banned and often harassed, but semi-tolerated, during the 30-year rule of former president Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted by an uprising in February.

“The group is doing this now as it wants to set a model in democracy and transparency ahead of the parliamentary vote,” Mustapha al-Sayyid, political science professor at Cairo University, said of the Brotherhood’s public vote.

“Having an internal election in public will certainly increase the credibility of the group among the public,” he said.

The Brotherhood is generally seen as the best prepared group for the November election in which its newly formed “Freedom and Justice” party will contest half the assembly’s seats.

…Saturday’s vote, to which journalists were invited, was to pick replacements for three senior figures who resigned from the Brotherhood’s administrative body in April to join the Freedom and Justice Party, which the group says will be independent.

The three men are party leader Mohamed Mursi, deputy leader Essam Elarian and secretary-general Mohamed Saed Elkatatny.

“The elections taking place in this open manner is one of the gains of the blessed revolution that has allowed freedom of expression and granted freedom to all Egyptian citizens, including the Muslim Brotherhood,” the group’s guide, Mohamed Badie, said in a speech at the event at a Cairo hotel.

The voters were members of the Brotherhood’s 122-strong decision-making Shura Council.

The Brotherhood then hosted a Ramadan Iftar banquet, at a cost put by a local newspaper at about a million Egyptian pounds ($168,000), with guests expected to include military council members, government officials and presidential candidates.

So…does this revolution turn out to be all about the Devil we know versus the Devil we don’t?

Hey…does anybody remember some guy named the Ayatollah Rouhollah Mousavi Khomeini?

 

 

As the Leader of the Free World plays golf and eats ice cream during a 10-day family vay-cay in the exclusive community of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, the area of the world known as the Middle East, once again sets on the precipice of a Firestorm.

Per breitbart.com:

A beleaguered Moamer Kadhafi urged supporters Sunday to “march by the millions” and quash a months-long uprising, as rebel forces advanced on Tripoli and claimed his 42-year rule was on its last legs.

The strongman’s appeal came as fighting erupted and rebels closed in on Libya’s seaside capital by claiming a third key city in 24 hours.

“We have to put an end to this masquerade. You must march by the millions to free the destroyed towns” controlled by rebels he labeled as “traitors” and “rats.”

“These scum enter mosques to cry ‘God is great.’ They are dirty. They are defiling the mosques,” Kadhafi said in an audio message carried on state television.

Earlier, a Tripoli resident said cries of “Allahu Akbar” could be heard from mosques in the city’s eastern sectors.

Kadhafi accused French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country is helping lead NATO-coordinated air strikes on the strongman’s military assets, of recruiting the rebels as “agents” to steal Libya’s vast oil wealth.

“To win the upcoming elections, he wants to be able to say to his people: ‘Here, I’m offering you Libyan oil’ and this is going to be achieved with the help of traitors.

“But the Libyan people will not allow France to take its oil or leave Libya to the hands of traitors,” he said.

As blasts and gunfire rocked Tripoli after the break of the dawn-to-dusk fast of Ramadan and witnesses reported fighting in the eastern neighbourhoods of Soug Jomaa, Arada and Tajura, the government insisted it was in charge of the city.

“The situation is under control,” Information Minister Moussa Ibrahim said, adding that pro-regime volunteers had repelled insurgent attacks in several neighbourhoods.

Ibrahim dismissed mounting speculation that the regime was on the brink as a “media attack,” but more gunfire was heard after he spoke on television.

Diplomats between the region’s leaders, Egypt and Israel feverishly worked on Saturday to smooth the strained relationship between the two nations, prompting the Israeli government to issue a rare statement of regret for the killing of three Egyptian security officers by an Israeli warplane.

The relationship between the two countries is so strained that Egypt announced Saturday that it would recall its ambassador from Tel Aviv. This new round of tension has been brought about by a burst of violence along the border which they share in the Sinai Peninsula. Eight Israelis were killed there in a series of attacks on Thursday. The Israelies then retaliated against Gaza-based militants, and the three Egyptians died in the crossfire.

Following Egypt’s announcement concerning its ambassador early Saturday, diplomats from other nations rushed to broker an end to the impasse between the Egyptians and the Israelis, according to a Western diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the talks.

Meanwhile, in Syria, per foxnews.com:

A government owned Syrian newspaper on Saturday rejected U.S. and European calls for President Bashar Assad to step down, saying they revealed the “face of the conspiracy” against Damascus.

Despite the regime’s promises this week that it had wrapped up a military offensive against protesters, activists said that security forces killed 29 people on Friday, most of them in the central province of Homs.

The Syrian leader has come under mounting criticism for his assault on the 5-month-old uprising. The U.S. and its European allies on Thursday demanded Assad step down because of the crackdown, which rights groups say has killed more than 2,000 people.

The regime, however, has pushed ahead with its offensive despite the criticism.

Reinforcements were being sent Saturday to Homs, Syria’s third-largest city and the site of intense anti-regime protests, according to the Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and The Local Coordination Committees, an activist group.

“Shooting has not stopped since last night,” Abdul-Rahman said, quoting residents.

And, tensions are high between the anchor nations of the region, per nytimes.com:

In Cairo, thousands of protesters demonstrated for a second night outside the Israeli Embassy on Saturday, demanding the expulsion of the ambassador. One climbed up the building and took down the Israeli flag, drawing cheers from the crowd.

The crisis has been the sharpest signal yet that the revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February is transforming the three-decade-old relationship between Egypt and Israel that has been the cornerstone of Middle Eastern politics.

On May 19, 2011, President Barack Hussein Obama (peace be upon him) addressed the nation on the firestorm known as the Middle East.  He proclaimed:

There are times in the course of history when the actions of ordinary citizens spark movements for change because they speak to a longing for freedom that has been building up for years. In America, think of the defiance of those patriots in Boston who refused to pay taxes to a King, or the dignity of Rosa Parks as she sat courageously in her seat.

…The question before us is what role America will play as this story unfolds. For decades, the United States has pursued a set of core interests in the region: countering terrorism and stopping the spread of nuclear weapons; securing the free flow of commerce and safe-guarding the security of the region; standing up for Israel’s security and pursuing Arab-Israeli peace.

We will continue to do these things, with the firm belief that America’s interests are not hostile to people’s hopes; they’re essential to them. We believe that no one benefits from a nuclear arms race in the region, or al Qaeda’s brutal attacks. We believe people everywhere would see their economies crippled by a cut-off in energy supplies. As we did in the Gulf War, we will not tolerate aggression across borders, and we will keep our commitments to friends and partners.

Yet we must acknowledge that a strategy based solely upon the narrow pursuit of these interests will not fill an empty stomach or allow someone to speak their mind. Moreover, failure to speak to the broader aspirations of ordinary people will only feed the suspicion that has festered for years that the United States pursues our interests at their expense. Given that this mistrust runs both ways –- as Americans have been seared by hostage-taking and violent rhetoric and terrorist attacks that have killed thousands of our citizens -– a failure to change our approach threatens a deepening spiral of division between the United States and the Arab world.

Wow.  Smart Power! seems to be working great so far, Scooter.

By the way, I did not know that Mrs. Rosa Parks was a violent Islamic Revolutionary.

Yesterday, as the president was preparing for his ten day family vay-cay, with the rest of the Kennedys, in Martha’s Vineyard, word was released that he and his administration, including “Big Sis” Janet Napolitano, will halt deportation proceedings on a case-by-case basis against illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria, such as attending school, having family in the military or having primary responsible for other family members’ care.

…Bypassing our laws by Royal Diktat.

For months, Obama has claimed that he did not have the sweeping authority to halt deportations and said he must follow the laws as Congress has written them.

However, in letters sent to Congress on Thursday, Big Sis revealed that she does have the power to focus on “priorities” and that her department and the Justice Department will review all ongoing cases to see who meets the new criteria:

This case-by-case approach will enhance public safety. Immigration judges will be able to more swiftly adjudicate high-priority cases, such as those involving convicted felons.

What changed? The Democrats need more voters.

Of corse, Obama was immediately lauded by Hispanic activists and Democrats. These were the same individuals who hadgone to the mat with the administration on amnesty for those in our country illegally, saying that as long as Congress is deadlocked on the issue, it was up to the Leader of the Regime to act imperiously.

Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, Illinois Democrat, a leader on this issue, gloated:

Today’s announcement shows that this president is willing to put muscle behind his words and to use his power to intervene when the lives of good people are being ruined by bad laws.

If they were “good” people would they have entered our country illegally?  I’m just asking.

The illegals who are affected by the Royal Diktat are those who have been apprehended and are in deportation proceedings, but have not been officially booted out of our country by a judge.

Big Sis said a “working group” (of Libs) will try to come up with “guidance on how to provide for appropriate discretionary consideration” for “compelling cases” in instances where someone already has been ordered deported.

Obama’s brave Administration officials announced the Royal Diktat just before Scooter got the heck out of Dodge, and while all the members of Congress were already out of town, back home in their districts.

While Americans remain deivided on Amnesty for illegal aliens, the majority still recognizes the importance of control our borders.

Per rasmussenreports.com, posted 4/20/11:

Nearly two-thirds of voters still believe border control should be the top priority in the fight against illegal immigration, but they also continue to support a welcoming immigration policy.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 63% of Likely U.S. Voters say when it comes to immigration reform, gaining control of the border is more important than legalizing the status of undocumented workers already living in the United States. Thirty percent (30%), however, feel legalizing undocumented workers is more important.

Support for border control as a legislative priority has been at this level for years now.

But while voters remain convinced that border security plays a pivotal role in reducing illegal immigration, 55% favor a welcoming immigration policy that keeps out only national security threats, criminals and those who would come here to live off America’s welfare system. Thirty percent (30%) disagree with such a policy, while 15% more are not sure. These findings, too, have remained fairly consistent for several years.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on April 17-18, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

On May 20. 2010, in my post Press “1” for English, I wrote the following:

A while back, the following allegorical story went viral.  You may have seen this already, but it explains illegal immigration as succinctly as anything I’ve come across:

Let’s pretend I broke into your house.  When you discover me there, you insist I leave.  But I say, “I’ve made all the beds, washed the dishes, did the laundry, and cleaned the floors; I’ve done all the work you don’t like to do. I’m hardworking and honest (except for breaking into your house). Not only must you let me stay, you must also add me to your insurance plan, educate my kids, and provide these benefits to my husband, too (he will do your yardwork, he’s honest and hardworking too–except for that breaking in part). If you try to force me out, I will call my friends who will picket your house and proclaim my right to be there! It’s only fair, because you have a nicer house than I do, and I’m trying to better myself. I’m hardworking and honest…except for, well, you know. I will live in your house, contributing only a fraction of the cost of my keep, and there is nothing you can do about it without being accused of selfishness and prejudice.

Oh yeah, I want you to learn my language so you can communicate with me.

Good plan..don’t you think?

Evidently, our anti-American President, his pinheaded Administration, and his Democratic minions in Congress are all for it.