The National Republican Senatorial Committee apparently is so mad at Arlen Specter they’re resorting a political nukular bomb, a robo-call with this message:
“I would tell members of my family, ‘I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places right now’. It’s not just going to Mexico… It’s being in a confined aircraft, where one person sneezes and it goes all the way through the aircraft.” - Joe Biden on the swine flu outbreak.
I’m sure the tourism industry appreciated that one.
28
Apr
Can somebody explain to me how cap and trade realisticaly does anything to save the environment? It seems to me it’s just a tax on businesses the government randomly decides is bad and doesn’t guarantee any rewards to businesses the government deems good.
No rhetoric accepted, I need cold hard facts.
28
Apr
Arlen Specter switched loyalties today. A move that surprised me only in the fact it proves he’s not completely daft. Some people are reading a lot into this:
OK, I’ll say it, the Republican party is better off without Specter. My logic is a little pretzeled, but here goes. With the numbers what they were before his switch, the Republicans had no power, no authority, and realistically no real chance of a successful filibuster with the Republican in name only Specter. But, that option mathematically was there. So, a lot of people could easily argue things that the Republicans had absolutely no ability to control was their fault. Take for instance the swine flu situation. People are actually saying Karl Rove had the ability to kill something Nancy Pelosi and David Obey wanted. Not so now. This is 100% Obama, Pelosi, and Reid’s game. There can be no filibuster in the Senate and realistically little chance of one in the House. The only way it will happen is Democrats for some bizarre reason see fit to filibuster their own legislation. Won’t happen.
Now, the logic for Specter jumping sides is very obvious. During the 2008 election, a lot of Republicans switched parties to vote in the Democrat primary. Most I’m sure never switched back. So, I’m guessing Specter’s thinking is those people who voted for him five times in the past as a Republican in name only and then switched parties would only vote for him if he did likewise. If they switched registrations again in 2010, I’m sure Specter would too.
That filibuster-proof Senate of course is still contingent upon Al Franken getting more Republican votes thrown out of his election than the Republican can toss Democrats. And of course, the ability to maintain that filibuster-proof Senate is contingent upon Roland Burris fighting off his ethics charges and actually winning an election. We also can’t forget Jack Murtha dodging his own ethics issues.
With absolute power comes corruption. Maybe not as obvious as Murtha’s, but corruption nonetheless in that the ruling party feels no obligation to what it was that got them there. The Democrats had absolute power in the late 70′s, it crumbled immediately. The Republicans had absolute power at the onset of the 21st century. It crumbled just as quickly. So, whether it’s 58 or 60 votes, Democrats have absolute power now. Let’s see how long it takes to crumble as well. My guess, pretty dang quick.
28
Apr
A lot has been made of Obama’s reliance on teleprompters. Nothing new about that. This reliance has led to his reputation as an outstanding orator as well as provided some pretty remarkable gaffes. So, to me, the entire issue is something to observe and come to some conclusion much later. However, last night he did something I thought was kind of odd. Just watch for yourself:
It’s not so much that he loses his place in his speech, it’s the very casual way he actually talks to the teleprompter ( the person, not the screen ). He just stops what he’s doing and instructs the person where he needs the teleprompter to be. Now, this I think is just odd. However, since he had so many gaffes in the past when his teleprompter failed him, I can see the logic at this point of just stopping and getting things in sync. It’s not like the teleprompter is a secret at this point. However, it does seem a bit unnerving. What if this happens on a larger venue like the State of the Union address?
My main gripe with his reliance on a teleprompter is we have to just assume the words on the teleprompter are his. Some people are already tossing around the concept Obama’s part of the New World Order or a puppet of some entity. Stuff like this just makes it a much easier conspiracy theory to buy.
We’ve had two examples of oratory in the last few years. Bush was too off the cuff and unprepared, he needed a teleprompter. Obama seems too reliant on a strictly defined speech to the point where when his guide fails, he often seems lost and confused. That’s too much of a reliance. Now, I totally disagree with Obama’s politics, he’s WAY too liberal for me. However, he has a commanding presence and fantastic speaking voice. I would recommend he spend some time weening his reliance on the teleprompter. Sure, he’ll have some gaffes, but no one is perfect in any capacity. If he mis-speaks while winging it, that’s one thing. However, to have said some of the things he has said, while supposedly simply reading a teleprompter, is troublesome. Was there actually 57 states on the teleprompter? If so, why? Did he actually intend to thank himself in Ireland? If so, why? The gaffes are given some relevance, moreso than probably merited, because of the teleprompter. We don’t know if it’s working or not. We don’t know if these are his words or not. We don’t know if really meant what he said or is just being told what to say by someone else. Anyone can read convincingly, lieing about something convincingly is hard to do.
I think he should drop the teleprompters.
I kid you not. John Nichols at The Nation actually is blaming this “pandemic” on Republicans. He’s serious too. Here’s some meat:
When House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who has long championed investment in pandemic preparation, included roughly $900 million for that purpose in this year’s emergency stimulus bill, he was ridiculed by conservative operatives and congressional Republicans.
Obey and other advocates for the spending argued, correctly, that a pandemic hitting in the midst of an economic downturn could turn a recession into something far worse — with workers ordered to remain in their homes, workplaces shuttered to avoid the spread of disease, transportation systems grinding to a halt and demand for emergency services and public health interventions skyrocketing. Indeed, they suggested, pandemic preparation was essential to any responsible plan for renewing the U.S. economy.
But former White House political czar Karl Rove and key congressional Republicans — led by Maine Senator Susan Collins — aggressively attacked the notion that there was a connection between pandemic preparation and economic recovery.
Now, as the World Health Organization says a deadly swine flu outbreak that apparently began in Mexico but has spread to the United States has the potential to develop into a pandemic, Obey’s attempt to secure the money seems eerily prescient.
And his partisan attacks on his efforts seem not just creepy, but dangerous.
The current swine flu outbreak is not a pandemic, and there is reason to hope that it can be contained.
But it has already believed to have killed more than 100 people in a neighboring country and sickened dozens of Americans — causing the closing of schools and other public facilities in U.S. cities.
Scared yet?
Dr. Anne Schuchat, the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Interim Deputy Director for Science and Public Health Program, explained to reporters on Saturday that, because the cases that have been discovered so far are so widely spread (in California, Kansas, New York, Ohio and Texas), the outbreak is already “beyond containment.”
On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that a national “public health emergency” had been declatred. Notably, the second question at the White House press conference on the emergency had to do with the potential impact on the economic recovery.
On Monday, the question began to be answered, as Associated Press reported — under the headline: “World Markets Struck By Swine Flu Fears” — that: “World stock markets fell Monday as investors worried that a deadly outbreak of swine flu in Mexico could go global and derail any global economic recovery.”
Before U.S. markets opened, the Wall Street Journal reported: “U.S. stock futures fell sharply Monday as the outbreak of deadly swine flu stoked fears that a possible recovery in the global economy could be derailed.”
That’s unsettling.
To many Americans, genuinely scary.
He’s got a point, there have been all kinds of headlines of swine flu disturbing the market. Noatably, here’s one from Yahoo:
Wall Street Seesaws Amid Swine Flu Fears- Reuters
Wall Street is fluctuating amid investor worry over the possibility of a major swine flu outbreak. Investors were nervous that the flu could spread and thwart economic recovery; in later trade, they are scooping up shares of drug makers and pharmacies.
If you click on that headline, you get this:
Wall Street up as GM, techs outweigh flu anxiety
That’s right. Within the time it took them to create the headline, other things became more important. Nichols goes on and on and on about how Karl Rove did all this and he is the reason we are experiencing this catastrophe. He sums it up with:
The bottom line is that there were no heroes in either party on the Senate side of the ugly process that ridiculed and then eliminated pandemic preparedness funding.
There is, however, a hero on the House side. Throughout the process, David Obey battled to get Congress to recognize that a pandemic would threaten not just public health but a fragile economic recovery.
OK, let’s get real for a second, shall we?
This “pandemic” in the United States has now involved twenty cases from California to New York. That’s 20. So far, deaths in the United States are zero. All of the twenty are recovering. This “pandemic” so far has had zero economic impact as far as workers having to stay home, etc..
Second, the Dow is down 16 points. That’s about as flat as you can get. This also includes the headlines that GM is shutting down plants and laying off 21,000 people. The evidence so far is, regardless of the headlines, this “pandemic” has had zero impact on the US markets.
Obey was requesting a total of $1.3 BILLION according to this article. Here’s what the CDC, who Nichols says would have gotten the money, says has to be done to safeguard individuals as much as possible from H1N1:
- Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
- Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
- If you get sick with influenza, CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.
What is the best way to keep from spreading the virus through coughing or sneezing?
OK, Nichols and Obey, what part of those instructions requires $1.3 BILLION? There is no vaccine. There can’t be a vaccine until they know exactly how this has mutated. They will know that once a few people have gotten it and survived. That’s happening now, that process has been in place for decades. They need no funding for that. The instructions for avoiding swine flu are no different than avoiding ANY FLU. So, what exactly do we need $1.3 BILLION for? Soap?
So, even IF David Obey had gotten his $1.3 BILLION for pandemic control, what would they have done any different? How would they have guessed that the first cases of swine flu in North America would have been in Mexico? And, what would the United States Centers for Disease Control have done IN MEXICO?
The answer to all the above is nothing. There is nothing that would have, or could have, been done differently. Mexico, in case Nichols forgot, is outside the domain of the CDC. What happened was a bunch of US citizens were explosed before anyone had a clue what was going on. Once they realized they were exposed, they got medical attention and all will recover. This is not a pandemic. In this country, I doubt it ever will be. Scientists have seen this coming for years. I wrote about Avian and Swine spam four years ago.
Now, where this becomes absolutely inane is when you look at the most damning fact of them all:
The Democrats control the Senate, the House, and the White House. The Republicans control NOTHING. If Nancy Pelosi wanted this $1.3 BILLION to go to CDC, $1.3 BILLION would have gone to CDC. It’s that simple Nichols. Karl Rove, regardless of what John Nichols might think, HAS NO legislative powers at all. Zero. None. Nada. What Karl Rove thinks is irrelevant. It’s what Nancy Pelosi does that counts. And what Nancy Pelosi did was shoot down David Obey’s request. She’s in charge of the appropriations process, not Karl Rove, and certainly not any elected Republican. The only reason that funding was not put in place is because of floor leadership. That is Nancy Pelosi. Nancy Pelosi controlled every single penny that went into that emergency stimulus bill. In case Nichols needs to be reminded, Nancy Pelosi is a D-E-M-O-C-R-A-T.
To me, David Obey is pandering to public using the hysteria of swine flu as his audience, and John Nichols is practicing the absolute worst form of biased partisan reporting imaginable.
Quickie Update:
Quickie update 2: Pandemic funding was put in place in 2007. In that vote, Nancy Pelosi, along with most Democrats, opposed the funding. Included in that vote total that opposed pandemic flu preparedness, David Obey.
That’s all I have to say about that.
22
Apr
News is coming in that the Swat and Buner provinces of Pakistan have fallen under the control of the Taliban. It doesn’t seem to be getting much airplay tho. Let me see if this makes things a little more urgent:
The blue areas are where the Taliban were. The red area is where they have taken over this week. Just to the south of the red area is Islamabad. That is the capital of Pakistan. That is where the control over Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal resides. The Taliban are now about sixty miles from possessing an A-bomb.
Now, so far, Obama has talked a lot. He has talked to Castro, he has talked to Chavez. That has gotten him nothing but grief. If things get worse in Pakistan, will he feel compelled to talk to the Taliban as well? Or, will he swallow his messiah complex and deal with the situation in real-world terms? Do we have to remind Obama that the Taliban are the bunch that chose to protect Osama Bin Laden after he killed 3,000 innocent US citizens? What will they do if they have a nuclear bomb? Obama’s two-state preference for Israel might not be necessary.
We need troops in Pakistan. Now. And, we need to tell the UN to put up or shut down. If the United Nations are not willing to deter the biggest single terrorist group in the world from possessing an a-bomb, they have no purpose at all. Some I’m sure would argue they have none now.
This one is getting pretty wild pretty quick:
Now, that seems kind of serious to me, that a member of the Committee on Homeland Security was actively shaking down people under the carful watch of, you guessed it, Homeland Security. Just seems kind of dangerously dumb. This issue was an issue in 2006 when Time originally broke the story. After some investigation, Alberto Gonzalez decided not to pursue the issue. A lot of people scratched their heads. Now, it seems Gonzalez wanted Harman’s support for, you guessed it, the warrantless wiretap program that nailed someone he apparently didn’t want nailed.
What is new now is former national security officials are claiming publicly that Harman was taped by the NSA wiretap program. Gonzalez’s original claim of not enough evidence is apparently completely bogus if this is true. He’ll have to answer some questions I’m sure.
In her defense, Harman stated:
“These claims are an outrageous and recycled canard, and have no basis in fact,” she said in a prepared statement. “I never engaged in any such activity. Those who are peddling these false accusations should be ashamed of themselves.”
Now, her defense is morphing into:
“If there are tapes out there, bring it on,” Harman said in the NBC interview.
Pretty gutsy move. Now, the part that’s getting lost here is the people she considered “friends of mine” were members of AIPAC. Two of their members, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, were charged with communicating national defense information to the press and the Israeli government starting in 1999. Their trial is scheduled to begin June 2 in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, according to the court docket. This is where I see it getting very dicey real quick. I can see these tapes being made public outside of Harman’s control if these guys feel it will help their case. But the bottom line to me, is if AIPAC has such a questionable reputation to the point where their members are being charged with espionage, a member of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment, would know these people are people to stay very far away from in the first place. But, to her it doesn’t matter. She expects people to disregard whether or not she possibly compromised national security and focus only on the fact that she should never have been wiretapped in the first place even though she was talking to people who were legally under investigation.
Then there’s the sidebar to all this that Harman was a very rare Democrat who fully suported the warrantless wiretaps pretty much from the day of their inception. She bucked her party to the point where other Democrats moved to California just to run against her. And, needless to say, this ran totally contradictory to Nancy Pelosi’s claims that the wiretaps were illegal. However, at this time, Nancy Pelosi still calls Harman ““a very valued and informed member of the Congress,”. She of course, couldn’t comment on the wiretap issue.
The beauty of all this of course is the fact that the Democrats would love nothing more than to prosecute Alberto Gonzalez over the wiretap issue. However, if they do that, they of course pretty well destroy Jane Harman in the process if he chooses to drag her into it.
Maybe some of this explains why, after campaigning against the warrantless wiretaps, Obama immediately sought to have them continued. Wouldn’t it be grand for him to have something like this over all the Democrats? Controlling Republicans is sort of moot. It’s the Dems in charge now.
And the much more beautiful thing about all this is watching Nancy Pelosi squirm over the entire warrantless wiretap issue and how Obama threw her under the bus on the issue. This was her opinion last week:
And this is what she has to say now, watch and enjoy:
OK, is it illegal or is it something Obama has to have? And, if you’re going to prosecute Republicans for doing something that was deemed perfectly legal by the Supreme Court, shouldn’t you be prosecuting the Democrat who apparently made sure it stayed in place by means of offering bribes to members of a group charged with espionage?
This could wind up being a LOT of fun to watch.
“An ethical cloud hangs over the Capitol, … This culture of corruption must stop. … The American people deserve better.” — Nancy Pelosi. Yes we do.
As governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano was notoriously lax on immigration. This included vetoing a LOT of bills designed to stem the flow of illegal immigrants. When she was picked as Director for the Department of Homeland Security, a lot of people questioned Obama’s intentions regarding enforcing our borders. Now, we have a definitive answer:
And yes, when we find illegal workers, yes, appropriate action, some of which is criminal, most of that is civil, because crossing the border is not a crime per se. It is civil. But anyway, going after those as well.
Per about a dozen different websites. Title 8, Section 1325 of the US Penal Code states very clearly:
Any alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration officers, or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.
What, in that statement, allows for “per se”? There are civil charges that can be filed, but this is a federal law which makes it a felony.
And, as is par with the Obama administration, they are attacking the private business sector for something that is clearly not a private sector issue. If Napolitano is not going to enforce the law and allow immigrants to be here legally “per se”, then why should it be a crime for a business to hire some who is here “legally”?
And, if border agents are basically completely neutered in stopping anyone from crossing the border, what does that mean for national security? How does this affect the drug wars going on right now? By her interpretation of the law which she has obviously not bothered to read, drug dealers can come and go as they please. They will only be an issue when they are convicted of a crime within the US since no one will be allowed to question them on their way across the border.
I kinda like the old system better, keep the criminals out. Period. But, that’s obviously not what Obama wants.
Nobody delivers a quote quite like one of my all time favoritest rockers, Ted, The Nuge, Gonzo. Yesterday he went off ( like, when is he NOT going off? ) in US News and World Report. I’d love to put the entire thing on here, but they have laws against that. So, here’s a few snippets that I think sums up his feelings:
- Peace and love will get you killed, and unarmed helplessness is bad.
- Self-defense is the most powerful, driving instinct of good people everywhere. To deny this is evil personified.
- Write this down—GunFreeZones are a felon’s playgrounds. Ban GunFreeZones now.
- Good people don’t want the rapist to succeed. We want him dead. We don’t want our homes invaded. We want invaders dead. We don’t like carjackers. We like them dead. We don’t like armed robbers. We like them dead.
- Gun control as forced by the Chuck Schumers of the world is complicit in every violent crime committed. Conversely, gun control a la Ted Nugent is putting the second shot through the same hole as the first shot, where innocent lives are saved and recidivistic maggots come to a screeching halt, felled by the lovely ballet of good over evil we call the Double Tap Center Mass Boogie.
- Good guys should live, bad guys not so much.
- Write this down, too—”keep” means it is mine, you can’t have it. “Bear” means I’ve got them right here on me. “Shall not be infringed” echoes that beautiful “Don’t Tread On Me” chorus.
- Meanwhile, in order to stop the drowning and murders, I will work on banning water; Obama can try to ban guns. Good luck.
Can it get any clearer than that?
