Tag: Ted Cruz

The Second Civil War: The Beltway Vs. The Heartland

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

pailinbiggulp2October before last, one of my bride’s favorite aunts, her namesake, passed away. So, we made the 21 hour drive up to Waterford Township, Michigan, from DeSoto County, Mississippi.  Waterford Township is located right outside of the vast wasteland known as Detroit. Anyway, what struck me while I was up there, was not so much the differences in Northern Culture and my beloved Southern Way of Life, but, rather,  the similarities.

We all spoke, basically, the same language. Although, they couldn’t figure out why I didn’t sound like Jeff Dunham’s redneck mannequin, Bubba Jay. Needless to say, it was an interesting week.

That being said, it struck me, while at lunch with friends, after church on Sunday, just how disconnected the professional politicians, pundits, and prevaricators (but, I repeat myself) up in the Beltway are from all of us average citizens out here in America’s Heartland.

I guess what really triggered this revelation was remembering Sarah Palin’s speech from CPAC’s Saturday Session, in which she spoke just like you or me, having a political discussion with our friends and family. She was bringing up some spot-on political points, when, all of the sudden, she got a mischievous smile on her face and began telling the audience how Todd gave her a wonderful gift the Christmas before last: a gun rack for her ATV. She talked about how cool it was, and then told the crowd that, for this Christmas, she gave Todd a new hunting rifle. She quipped,

Yep, Todd got the rifle and I got the rack.

As the stunned audience quickly broke out in thunderous laughter and applause, Sarah stood there, grinning like the Cheshire Cat, while, at the same time, reaching under the podium to retrieve a 44-ounce Super Big Gulp Diet Coke, which she slowly sipped from, still grinning, then holding it over her head , imitating Lady Liberty holding her torch. The picture of this seminal moment has since gone viral, much to the chagrin of Liberals, on both sides of the political aisle, whose heads have been exploding, like balloons which have blown up beyond their usefulness.

She also got a gig in on professional kingmaker, Karl Rove, he of the whiteboard fame, who was, unfortunately, not a very good prognosticator in the Presidential Election.

Rove made an appearance on yesterday’s Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, where he basically called Governor Palin a quitter, attacking her like a petulant child , who had been criticized by his Mom, or a Liberal Democrat. Take your pick.

Getting back to the crux of the matter, there is a great divide between those who are supposed to be “the smartest people in the room”, those who are supposed to objectively report to us the news,  those who are supposed to be our civil servants, and us average American Citizens.

We, as Americans, out here in Realityville (as Rush Limbaugh calls it) tend to hold on to our Traditional American Values.  Of course, this Classic American System of Beliefs and Values, is what led Democratic President Candidate Barack Obama, to tell a bunch of donors on a campaign stop in Pennsylvania before the 2008 Election, that “us rednecks” were out here “bitterly clinging to guns or religion”.

That began an animosity between Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) and average Americans, that did not dissipate with time. If, anything, his actions since ascending to the Throne of The Regime, have seemingly been designed to intentionally torque off average Americans, living in “Flyover Country”.

With his minions, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, firmly esconced in their seats of power in our nations legislature, our country continued a downhill spiral which rivals the Fall of the Roman Empire.

Americans rallied in 2010, to take back the House of Representatives, by forming a New American Tea Party, consisting of grassroots groups, which supported Conservative candidates, holding rallies to gin up support and get out the vote.

During all of this upheaval, where has the Republican Party been? I mean, the purpose of our two-party political system, is to have different points-of-view to choose from, right?

Well, evidently the Powers-That-Be of the Grand Old Party have forgotten the reason that they were sent up to Capitol Hill. For example,

House Speaker John Boehner says he ‘‘absolutely’’ trusts President Barack Obama, even though they have their differences.

Boehner told ABC’s ‘‘This Week’’ that the two have a good relationship and that they’re ‘‘open with each other … honest with each other.’’

How precious.

Recently, Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have stood up on their hinds legs, doing their jobs, speaking out for Americans., by holding forth on the Senate Floor, in a spectacular filibuster, protesting the Obama-suggested Sequester.

In response, older patriarchs of the Senate, John McCain, and his faithful dog, Lindsey Graham,  jumped on the Young Freedom Warriors, calling their behavior disrespectful, and these Fighters for Liberty, “Wacko Birds”.

After experiencing blowback from his constituency that made Hurricane Katrina look like one of those battery-operated handheld fans, McCain apologized.

But, the divide remains.

The Beltway continues its willing obliviance to the economic plight of average Americans, and disparaging of the Heartland of America’s System of Beliefs and Values, which have protected and sustained this country since its founding.

Thomas Jefferson, an American Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and the third President of the United States once said,

 When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.

If our servants on Capital Hill do not “straighten up” and remember that we are their bosses, and not the other way around, it could lead to civil disobedience, or worse.

I have an idea: Let’s just vote them out, before that happens.

Who’s with me?

Until He Comes,

KJ

Welcome to the USSA: Now, About That “Right to Privacy”…

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

obamabigbro Your personal information is no longer personal.

Per Reuters.com:

The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters.

The proposed plan represents a major step by U.S. intelligence agencies to spot and track down terrorist networks and crime syndicates by bringing together financial databanks, criminal records and military intelligence. The plan, which legal experts say is permissible under U.S. law, is nonetheless likely to trigger intense criticism from privacy advocates.

Financial institutions that operate in the United States are required by law to file reports of “suspicious customer activity,” such as large money transfers or unusually structured bank accounts, to Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

The Federal Bureau of Investigation already has full access to the database. However, intelligence agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, currently have to make case-by-case requests for information to FinCEN.

The Treasury plan would give spy agencies the ability to analyze more raw financial data than they have ever had before, helping them look for patterns that could reveal attack plots or criminal schemes.

The planning document, dated March 4, shows that the proposal is still in its early stages of development, and it is not known when implementation might begin.

Financial institutions file more than 15 million “suspicious activity reports” every year, according to Treasury. Banks, for instance, are required to report all personal cash transactions exceeding $10,000, as well as suspected incidents of money laundering, loan fraud, computer hacking or counterfeiting.

“For these reports to be of value in detecting money laundering, they must be accessible to law enforcement, counter-terrorism agencies, financial regulators, and the intelligence community,” said the Treasury planning document.

A Treasury spokesperson said U.S. law permits FinCEN to share information with intelligence agencies to help detect and thwart threats to national security, provided they adhere to safeguards outlined in the Bank Secrecy Act. “Law enforcement and intelligence community members with access to this information are bound by these safeguards,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Some privacy watchdogs expressed concern about the plan when Reuters outlined it to them.

A move like the FinCEN proposal “raises concerns as to whether people could find their information in a file as a potential terrorist suspect without having the appropriate predicate for that and find themselves potentially falsely accused,” said Sharon Bradford Franklin, senior counsel for the Rule of Law Program at the Constitution Project, a non-profit watchdog group.

Despite these concerns, legal experts emphasize that this sharing of data is permissible under U.S. law. Specifically, banks’ suspicious activity reporting requirements are dictated by a combination of the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA PATRIOT Act, which offer some privacy safeguards.

Speaking of records, are you aware that your medical records are in the process of being digitized?

JudicialWatch.org reports that

In a classic example of how government blows through your tax dollars, billions have been squandered on a faulty electronic medical records system that operates with no oversight and continues receiving big wads of cash from Uncle Sam.

It gets better; by the time it’s all said and done—in about four more years according to government estimates—American taxpayers will have been fleeced $6.6 billion! It’s all part of the Obama Administration’s hostile takeover of the nation’s healthcare system. The idea behind this plan is to switch medical records from paper to digital to create a centralized system that supposedly improves the quality of health care.

The overhaul won’t come cheap and the government is offering hospitals and doctors billions to switch to electronic medical records. The money has come largely from President Obama’s fraud-infested $787 billion stimulus which was supposed to jump start the economy and put Americans back to work. Instead the economy is a disaster as the nation suffers through a staggering $16 trillion (and growing) deficit and unemployment is at record highs.

This has not affected the cash flow to government programs, however. In this case the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is the agency that cuts the checks to healthcare providers that agree to switch to electronic records. So far CMS has doled out $3.6 billion to 74,317 medical providers, but the agency doesn’t bother following up to assure the money is appropriately spent. In fact, CMS fails to verify if providers are meeting the required quality goals, according to a federal audit released this week.

Investigators from the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General warn in their report that the electronic records program is vulnerable to abuse. Furthermore, they say immediate efforts should be made to strengthen oversight and prevent tax dollars from being wasted. This is not an unreasonable request considering doctors receive up to $44,000 and hospitals a minimum of $ 2 million to switch from paper to digital records.

Here is the scary response, included in the HHS watchdog report, from the head of the CMS (Marilyn Tavenner) on the idea of requiring healthcare providers to prove they’re meeting quality requirements before they get U.S. tax dollars. It would be burdensome, Tavenner said, and it would “significantly delay payments.” Spoken like at true government bureaucrat!

Michelle Malkin adds:

Oversight is lax. Cronyism is rife. The job-killing and privacy-undermining consequences have only just begun.

The program was originally sold as a cost-saving measure. In theory, modernizing record-collection is a good idea, and many private health care providers have already made the change. But as with many government “incentive” programs, the EMR bribe is a tax-subsidized, one-size-fits-all mandate. This one pressures health care professionals and hospitals across the country into radically federalizing their patient data and opening up medical information to untold abuse. Penalties kick in for any provider that hasn’t switched over by 2014.

So, what’s it to you? Well, $4 billion has already gone out to 82,535 professionals and 1,474 hospitals, and a total of $6 billion will be doled out by 2016. But the feds’ reckless profligacy, neglect and favoritism have done more harm than good.

Don’t take my word for it. A recent report released by the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General acknowledged that the incentive system is “vulnerable to paying incentives to professionals and hospitals that do not fully meet” the program’s quality assurance requirements. The federal health bureaucracy “has not implemented strong prepayment safeguards, and its ability to safeguard incentive payments postpayment is also limited,” the IG concluded.

Translation: No one is actually verifying whether the transition from paper to electronic is improving patient outcomes and health services. No one is actually guarding against GIGO (garbage in, garbage out). No one is checking whether recipients of the EMR incentives are receiving money redundantly (e.g., raking in payments when they’ve already converted to electronic records). No one is actually protecting private data from fraud, abuse or exploitation.

Little is being done to recoup ill-gotten payments. In any case, such “pay and chase” policing after the fact is a crummy way to run government in lean times — or in fat times, for that matter.

Allow me to summarize all of this for you. The bottom line is this: The Obama Administration is gathering information about us (The Proletariat) in a manner eerily reminiscent of the old Russian Politboro.

Americans are not going to be able to buy a Big Gulp or have a hangnail removed without the Federal Government knowing about it.

Ted Cruz, Republican Senator from Texas, hit the nail on the head, when he said,

I think President Obama is the most radical president this nation’s ever seen. And in particular, I think he is a true believer in government control of the economy and of our everyday lives. In my judgment, we are facing what I consider to be the epic battle of our generation, quite literally the battle over whether we remain a free market nation.

Hang tough, Americans.

Until He Comes,

KJ

The Vichy Republicans Vs. The New Conservatives

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

grahamandmccainYesterday, I wrote about Sen. Rand Paul’s 13 hour filibuster he delivered on Wednesday to bring to light President Barack Hussein Obama’s refusal to answer the question of whether he would use unmanned drones to hunt down and kill American Citizens on our soil, and to block the vote on Obama’s nominee for CIA Director, dhimmi John O. Brennan.

Unmanned drones killing American Citizens…sounds like a bad science fiction movie, doesn’t it?

Well, the good news is: He finally received an answer from Attorney General Eric Holder, who wrote him a short message, stating, “No”.

The bad news is: Yesterday morning, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, fresh from being treated to an outrageously expensive dinner by Obama on the very evening Sen. Paul was delivering his inspiring filibuster, verbally attacked Rand Paul for his efforts. They mocked him and ridiculed him, saying that he “violated the Rules of the Senate”.

The Washington Times reports that

Mr. McCain quoted from a Wall Street Journal editorial: “The country needs more senators who care about liberty, but if Mr. Paul wants to be taken seriously he needs to do more than pull political stunts that fire up impressionable libertarian kids in their college dorms. He needs to know what he’s talking about.”

The senator went on to say that he didn’t “think that what happened yesterday was helpful to the American people.”

And where Democrats praised Mr. Paul for using Senate rules properly to launch a filibuster, Mr. McCain said it was an abuse of rules that could hurt the GOP in the long run.”What we saw yesterday is going to give ammunition to those who say the rules of the Senate are being abused,” the Arizona Republican said.

Mr. Paul said he was filibustering to get the administration to affirm it won’t kill non-combatant Americans in the U.S. — and his effort was joined by more than a dozen other senators who said they, too, supported his effort to get answers.

Mr. Graham said asking whether the president has the power to kill Americans here at home is a ludicrous question.

“I do not believe that question deserves an answer,” Mr. Graham said.

Mr. Graham and Mr. McCain led a Republican delegation that held a private dinner with President Obama on Wednesday, as Mr. Paul was holding the floor with help from other GOP colleagues.

Mr. McCain even joked about Mr. Graham’s “behavior” at the dinner.

“He was on his best manners and everyone was impressed,” Mr. McCain said.

Speaking to reporters after he came off the floor Wednesday, Mr. Graham said he defends Mr. Paul’s right to ask questions and seek answers, but said the filibuster has actually pushed him to now support Mr. Brennan.

Mr. Graham said he had been inclined to oppose the nomination because he’d found Brennan to be qualified for the job but also “arrogant, kind of a bit shifty.” He said he wasn’t going to filibuster him but would have voted against him on final passage, but now he’ll vote for him.

“I am going to vote for Brennan now because it’s become a referendum on the drone program,” he said.

Later in the day, Sen. “Grahamesty” did just that, helping to  bring about the approval of Brennan’s nomination.

Why did “The Sunshine Boys” attack Sen. Paul like that?

Rush Limbaugh, as he always does, had the answer:

It’s just that there’s nobody that we see that has any courage to stand up to the people who are doing the damage. Even when we have the White House, there’s no standing up to the people assaulting the country. Even when we’re campaigning, the candidate doesn’t stand up. Now, I know the president’s race frightens a lot of people away from criticizing him. (No two ways about that. It’s just the way it is.) But Rand Paul did it last night, and nobody’s calling him a racist today. Nobody’s calling him an extremist, and nobody’s calling him names — and he doesn’t care anyway.

But he [Sen. Rand Paul] stood up for freedom. Last night people finally had somebody to rally around. Somebody finally spoke up and reflected what you all think and what you all fear. And somebody, in addition to speaking up, was actually trying to put the brakes on the direction this country’s being taken. So, yeah, it made perfect sense for people to rally behind it and rally to it. And then today after that we get the old guard, the ruling class, Republican establishment types belittling what happened last night. Casting it aside. It’s insignificant. Violated the rules of the Senate. Bad image. Silly to say that the president wants to launch drone strikes on America. Why do we even have to answer that question. That’s so absurd, it’s silly. Why, it was embarrassing last night.

…You cannot have this many millions of Americans continually ignored and unrepresented in a representative democracy without a price to pay for it.

So Rand Paul does his filibuster, and people flock to it. Even Democrats flocked to it, all over Twitter, which is normally owned, run, and operated by the Democrats. All over Twitter last night, Rand Paul had people saying, “Well, wait a minute, I understand this.” I mean, the left, this should be a natural for them. This is the kind of stuff, this is why Code Pink exists, for example, among other things.

The administration ought to be just taking it on the chin over this. And they may be. Time will tell. My whole point here is I understand why people are rallying to Rand Paul and Rubio and Ted Cruz. And that’s going to continue. And the Republican establishment, as long as they continue to pretend this is 1990, ’98, 2000, as long as the old rules which guarantee defeat continue to dominate, then at some point something’s gotta give.

Rush is right, as usual.

Sen. Graham actually made the arrangements for the swanky meal, enjoyed by 12 Republican Senators Wednesday Night, which was hosted and paid for by Obama (which means you and I actually footed the bill). For them to be snuggling with the Manchurian President, while Rand Paul and others held the Senate Floor in defense of our Constitution, is despicable. Their love for their Capital Hill way of life took precedence over their service to their constituents and their Constitutional Duty.

McCain and Graham attacking Rand Paul reminded me of “Blazing Saddles”:

We must protect our phony baloney jobs, gentlemen! Hrumph!

The greatest U.S. President of our Generation, Ronald Wilson Reagan, once said,

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and other “New Conservatives” seem to be willing to do just that.

If the old guard Vichy Republicans care more about their Capitol Hill way of life than their country and their constituents, then it is time for them to get out of the way, and allow Sen. Paul, and his allies to lead the battle against this corrupt anti-American Administration.

Because, as the old saying goes,

If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama’s Gun Control Announcement: Some Republicans Come Out Swinging.Others Bow Down.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

gun-controlBy now, some of y’all are saying: “KJ, give it a rest. Why are you continuing to write about this? It’s over.”

No, it isn’t. As the late Senator John Blutarsky said,

It’s not over until we say it’s over. Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

But, I digress…

The Republican Party seems to be split in this fight. However, it appears that there are some of our public servants, who are actually ready to fight on behalf of us “bitter clingers”.

Like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas,

Republican senator Ted Cruz of Texas said Thursday that Barack Obama is “high on his own power” with regard to the president’s announced efforts on gun control. Speaking on Laura Ingraham’s radio talk show, Cruz, who was just elected to the Senate last November, said “this is a president who has drunk the Kool-Aid.”

“He is feeling right now high on his own power, and he is pushing on every front, on guns,” Cruz said. “And I think it’s really sad to see the president of the United States exploiting the murder of children and using it to push his own extreme, anti-gun agenda. I think what the president is proposing and the gun control proposals that are coming from Democrats in the Senate are, number one, unconstitutional, and number two, they don’t work. They’re bad policy.”

Cruz told Ingraham that he does not believe Obama will be successful in passing gun control legislation and that the political ramifications of pursuing such laws could be bad for Democrats.

“I think he’s going to pay a serious political price, and I think the price that’s going to be paid on this is going to manifest in Senate races in 2014, in some red states,” Cruz said. “And there have got to be some Democrats who are up for reelection in 2014 who are very, very nervous right now that President Obama is picking this fight.”

But, then, there are the Vichy Republicans, like New Jersey’s own “Governor Zeppelin”, Chris Christie,

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is labeling “reprehensible” the National Rifle Association ad that brought President Barack Obama’s daughters into the gun-control debate.

The NRA ad accused the president of being a hypocrite for allowing his daughters to be protected by armed Secret Service agents but not embracing armed guards for schools.

The Republican governor and father of four said at a briefing Thursday in Trenton that the children of public figures should be off-limits to political attacks.

Christie again refused to take a position on Obama’s call for a federal assault weapons ban. The governor says he has no influence over what Congress and the president decide.

Christie has said he supports New Jersey’s current gun laws. They include an assault weapons ban in place for 21 years.

What a Tower of Jello. 

Coincidentally, what “Useless” said, actually happens to be what the President’s mouthpiece, Jay Carney, said.

So, what is The Regime going to do about the NRA? Their membership is skyrocketing, thanks to their brave, level-headed stand against Obama’s blatant attempt at gun confiscation.

Ben Shapiro, reporting for Breitbart.com, tells us the Administration’s plan:

The Obama administration puzzled many observers by leaving its campaign infrastructure largely in place in the aftermath of President Obama’s re-election win. Now we know why. According to Stephanie Cutter, President Obama’s former deputy campaign manager on Ed Schultz’s MSNBC program:

President Obama’s network across this country, grassroots individuals, who organize, volunteered with their time to get the president reelected are much more powerful than the NRA lobby. And I think that you can expect to see that network activated, very soon. And for good reason.

Cutter’s words should frighten Americans accustomed to the usual ins-and-outs of politics. Unlike prior presidents, who leveraged their campaign into power, then got down to the business of governing, Obama is running a permanent campaign intended to destroy his political opposition completely.

This has been his agenda for years – only now, the administration is pursuing full-scale opposition openly from within the White House. In the past, the President relied on his allies in the 501(c)3 charitable world to do his dirty work.

Last year, for example, President Obama set his lackeys at Media Matters and Color of Change on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which was then pushing voter ID laws. After George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin, Obama quickly inserted himself into the proceedings, declaring that Trayvon looked like his fictional son. In doing so, he lent air to the mainstream media narrative that Zimmerman had shot Martin in cold blood, and used Florida’s so-called “stand your ground” law as cover – and ALEC had pushed for “stand your ground.” In reality, nobody at the Sanford Police Department ever cited “stand your ground” as the rationale for Zimmerman’s release, and Zimmerman never said “stand your ground.” This was all an attempt to gin up public indignation at “stand your ground” laws, and by extension, ALEC. The Obama-generated assault on ALEC ended with ALEC disassociating from its more controversial political positions, as organizations like Coca-Cola, seeking to avoid scrutiny, cut ties.

That wasn’t the first time Obama had used his allies outside the administration to attempt to destroy political opposition. After Rush Limbaugh called media moth Sandra Fluke a “slut,” Obama jumped in to call her with his condolences – though he was nowhere to be found when the media was labeling Gov. Sarah Palin a “c***” (actually, Obama’s super PAC took $1 million from Bill Maher, the cretin who said that). Obama then helped push a Media Matters-led boycott on Rush’s advertisers.

Now it’s the NRA. The NRA was always the target of the Sandy Hook-exploiting media. The NRA receives no public funding, and writes no laws. Yet the media immediately suggested that the NRA abandon its positions and those of its members or face public wrath. No such suggestion was ever made with regard to the ACLU’s defense of ultra-violent video games. That’s because the NRA is a serious opponent to the left’s public sway. And so it must be destroyed.

To summarize, the Republicans are hardly unified in their opposition to Obama’s attempt at “gun confiscation”. There are some who are taking a pro-gun stance, some who are taking a stance in favor of gun control, and finally, there is the Republican Leadership, who are standing in the shadows.

Thank the Lord for the National Rifle Association. At least, they have the testi…err… intestinal fortitude to stand up to the tyrannical despot occupying OUR House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.

They’re doing the Republican Establishment’s job for them. All we’re hearing from the Moderate Elite is **crickets**.

Until He Comes,

KJ