Monday, October 21, 2013

I'm a Dem. Therefore, I'm not sorry.

Since being a Democrat means you never have to say you're sorry, I shouldn't be surprised that we finally hear through Democrat Senator Dick Durban of all people, that Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will indeed testify before a congressional committee.

Why does it take a senator to answer the call from the committee? Why doesn't the secretary herself respond? Most importantly, why was there ever a question as to her testifying?

Stonewalling congressional Republicans evidently is a job requirement within the Obama Administration, which must utilize the services of each and all Democrats. One can only recall Attorney General Erik Holder who tops the list of recalcitrant witnesses, and who practically had to be dragged before numerous congressional committees by a team of Percherons. Clydesdales were considered, but since Anheuser Busch was sold to the Belgians, well, you know, political correctness and all...

As importantly, there have been other times that the people in the Obama regime did not respond to their own serious, game changing mistakes and poor judgment by simply doing what's decent and resigning, let alone say they're sorry. They react like little children; no, they're actually more like spoiled, enabled teens who refuse to acknowledge self responsibility. Over and over again, this crowd chooses to distract and simply moves on. Many times, they even get promoted ala Susan Rice. (Mis)lead by an aloof, haughty and arrogant president, they gather around their campfires and talk about their righteous day of fulfilling the dream of collectivism. What a wonderful world in which these folks live--no accountability, no price to pay. Never having to say, well, you know--so, so solly!

We know in the private sector, a person who could not complete a job and failed in his mission would probably be expected to resign--or get fired. Not this crew; instead, they batten down the hatches and wait for the storm to pass. After all, the press never holds them to account. Why should they worry about a small time ethic like accountability? Unfortunately, today we're also seeing this casual view of quality control among the ranks of the teachers unions, government workers and in nearly every area that is infested with bureaucrats and workers who have forgotten the Golden Rule and or are encouraged to be dishonest. They've bred and bred again into a bitter, me-first extension of the worst of the party they voted for. It's a mindset based in class envy and reverse racism that appeals to the lowest in us.

It seems remote, but there once was a time we could carry on a decent conversation with our loyal opposition without being called hateful names, shouted down and eventually dismissed as simply being--according to them--wacko or crazy. Now that this tactic is acceptable in the mainstream social and political discussion, we Republicans have a huge obstacle to overcome at the outset of any debate.

The greater media has succeeded in taking the strengths of the Republican Party's agenda, such as fiscal responsibility, lower taxation and smaller government, and have tried to define us by dumping it all into a trough of fascist-sounding goo, instructing the world that the media's definition is fact. However, not even the smallest slice of their coverage/analysis is accurate, and we have to overcome their imprecise propositions before we can even begin the discussions at hand. At times, it is extremely tedious and frustrating. At other times, it is simply laughable to listen to the ridiculous assumptions voiced by the left/progressives and the media's parroting of that same tired old folklore. They would like to tell you that deep down: Of course, we Republicans hate families and want them all to starve. We wake up in the middle of the night laughing about how Johnny and Polly down the street are hungry because we Republicans are mean. Psst. We're also racists. And we hate gays, Latinos and anyone else who is not like us. And we're all old, white guys who love war and hate peace.

Speaking of goo, there's the social agenda among the Republican ideals. Bill Maher or Jon Stewart--I don't remember which-- when speaking about abortion, called the fetus nothing more than a bunch of goo, something like a lot of mucus, not unlike something you'd cough up. Just as the atheist who calls Jesus Christ my "imaginary friend," to my face, I am shocked to my middle when the argument's reduced to such infantile results. It is a callousness which is frightening to me, reminding me of an anti world, a grown up and sophisticated place of fashionable black clothes, hip haircuts, sadness and depravity. Regardless of what these entertainers say or don't say (think about what they do for a living and then we'll talk about their real contribution to society and respective importance--it's not like they're curing cancer), there are mega millions of Americans who do not believe that abortion is a right of the mother, and that the child within her is also an individual with rights of his own.

But that fight is probably over for now since Roe v Wade is law. I also understand that the rest of voting public have different views. I maintain the belief  held within the Republican Party that the government should not pay for abortions. Period. Therefore, I am called, by the media and the progressives, off balance, crazy, a hater of women. A Republican.

Assuredly, the left has had lots of help from some of the members of our party in their perennial struggle to dehumanize Republicans. Ted Cruz, the senator from Texas, has succeeded in bringing to the fore a group of fighters who are downright proud as a Texas skunk that they took no prisoners (but he sure did stink up the place). I see he got an eight-minute standing ovation in San Antonio on Friday. In a ballroom of a hotel. Seven-hundred-fifty people were there. In the meantime, he's alienated millions of the rest of us and put our party in the odd position of explaining how we could let an unknown take the rest of us down. I'm still trying to figure that out, not to mention where the heck did our pride go? I sure would like a Mulligan on this one.

Dennis Kucinich, a far left ex-congressman, for instance, has been around forever and even ran for president. The Dems did not capitulate to him and his followers by allowing him to threaten to close down the government in favor of his views. They never even thought about it. Ralph Nader has been a thorn in the Dem's side as long as there have been lousy cars. The point is the Dems know a losing proposition when they see it: closing the government is a gigantic loser, no matter who does it.

Leadership certainly failed us. Cruz had no business dictating the terms of the discussion to close down the government. And because Republicans usually seek accountability, I'm afraid Speaker Boehner will pay the price for allowing Cruz to have his head. That may have been John's worst decision of his political life. I'm wondering if the long knives are out as I write. Saying we're sorry isn't going to change anything. Too late.

What is wrong with the Republican Party overall, however, is the messenger, not the message. I will always believe that. We have governors galore who could fill the bill and give the country a new direction. I suggest we start a search there.

In the meantime, Secretary Sebelius has a United States Senator running interference for her. The Republicans maybe should take lessons from the Dems on unity and leadership. These days, never saying you're sorry sure seems to go a long way in politics. It figures.

Just ask the president.

Thanks for the read.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

The GOP: One big, hot mess

They're about to blink.

It's not like I didn't tell them so.

Shutting down the government was a boneheaded move. What's so frustrating and unacceptable is they didn't accomplish anything positive in the budget negotiations; neither did they manage to get a delay in the Ocare individual sign ups.

The sixteen or so days the Fed closed down went for nothing. All we ended up with was another shot of really, really bad press, poor public relations and a wretched display of a lack of leadership in the Senate and the House. Obama's own toadies in the press kept him above the fray, of course, while the media made our guys look dumb. Any bad press the president did receive was blamed on Republicans!

It occurs to me that the embarrassment of the Obamacare system kick off would have been even more dramatically apparent if the government hadn't been closed. That monster isn't going to come up with a fix very soon. The volume alone of the data has to be a prohibitive issue when managing such an IT behemoth. We could have made many more political points from that disaster if we'd not been concentrating on closed national parks and dead soldiers payouts.

Instead, with the shut down evidently in his rear view mirror, the president is moving on with an immigration bill, which will become another huge debate before the fatiqued American people. This polarizing issue was selected for its righteousness factor, thrown out as an emergency so this regime can cram even more leftist causes down America's throat--just in case they lose power. Psychologically, it is a great chance for the president to appeal to his base and one more way to stick it to the American middle class by getting them to pay for it.

Meanwhile, instead of the Republicans' viable, competing, conservative and legitimate point of view taking hold and our getting what we really wanted, we got beat up, insulted and shamed by a media dedicated to marginalizing anyone outside the D.C. power elite. It has, after all, always been the messenger that has been the GOP's problem, and the Ted Cruz personna is no exception. He's a street fighter, whose tactics many Republicans fear because of the national electability quotient. Besides, RINOs have a rough time being called names. That's why they're RINOs.

In the end, however, the firebrand newcomers simply didn't have the votes to continue this fight, begging the question: how come there were enough votes on September 30th, before the shut down, and not today? Who fell out and why? Who's responsible for that miscalculation?

Where do we go from here? I believe we start with recognizing and coalescing around which we agree. The predominant right wing of the party is not as extreme as most people think; nor are the RINOs as ideologically left as some think. Most Republicans are thinkers who come to this party for its fiscal policies and couldn't care less about the social planks of  our platform. Alternatively, the pro life folks stick with the party because there's no one else who survives and gets even close to their moral foundations. Ronald Reagan, remember, who was pro life, was a right wing Republican, yet he appealed to almost everyone.

Some Republicans like to get themselves into these legislative traps every so often, i.e., allowing Democrats to place them on the wrong side of history. They were told it was bad idea to shut down the government and they wouldn't listen. There were innumerable opportunities to bring attention to the life changing Obamacare debacle without the drop dead decision to shut down our government.

Gee, it's fun to be a Republican.

Thanks for the read.




Monday, October 7, 2013

Pull over, George. I wanna see the presidents!

Regardless of the fallout from closing down the government, probably the most salient takeaways of this whole event are the displays of the huge, impersonal and vast reach of our elected officials and bureaucrats as they hunker down and "mean business," to wit.

The Amber Alert apparatus is arbitrarily shut down--an important, vital key in missing child response--by someone in the upper echelon of our government, while Michelle Obama's "Get Moving" program is up and running.

Did you know that the World War II memorial is closed, yet the president can do golf over at Andrews AFB?

How about this?




This is the road past Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. The Feds have made it so one can't pull over or stop to take pictures of the monument. Think about that. This seems like a punitive action against the American people from a vengeful and immature group of those who are declaring that since the government has shut down, they are "...winning." As Speaker Boehner stated, this is not a damned game.

Evidently, the Dems think it might be a game because just the other day, a couple, 80 and 77, were scooped up and displaced from their Lake Mead cabin. They have lived in there for 30 years, but the Feds didn't care...they were to be out of there while the close down was going on (don't you get extra points for old people?). Using that reasoning, then, the president and Michelle, the kids and others should be moving out of the White House.

The Dems seem to think that if they make life miserable for everyone else, the Republicans will be blamed. There's an excellent chance that is true. However, people are fickle. The longer this goes on, and the harder the Dems make it on people, the more people see these ridiculous inconsistent, doasIsaynotasIdo kinds of treatment of people, the greater appreciation people have of smaller, getoutofmyface kinds of less intrusive and cavalier treatment.

Having the representatives of our government, e.g., park rangers, bureaucrats, Et al in these anti public stances can't help but distress many people. Now that the Obamacare system is starting up, there must be a deep distrust of our government and its agenda. Obamacare anxiety will increase as the facts about the health care plan are revealed.

We will begin to understand that the core reason for this shut down is based in stories like the following: there will be people paying $700 per month in premiums for health care that they are required to buy. Of course, the bad news gets badder; the deductible for this particular plan is $14,000. If you choose not to buy insurance, the federal government will fine you. The amount of the fine is grossly unfair. We're talking major bucks (they are different amounts for different cases). Here's the fun part: the federal government, using the IRS, will take your money from you by garnishment. Also there are huge tax consequences if you don't do what you're told. Oh, I forgot. You can go to jail. Seriously.

So, perhaps the closing down of this out of control federal system is going to play into the hands of sensible Americans, of all ideologies, in that they see with their own eyes what happens when power gets into the hands of a few...what happens when there are bills passed that are too big to read...what really is important when it comes to our liberty.

And. We haven't even got to the actual health care delivery system itself. That's another issue. We don't even know if it will work under these new schedules and directives! Ask a doctor how he/she feels about all this.

Meanwhile, George. I suggest you listen to your Lovey Dovey and stop safely by the side of the road, take out your camera and click away. I'll bet there'll be plenty more after you doing the same thing. Why, that's the American thing to do, isn't it?

Thanks for the read.