If North Korea CAN Mount Nuclear Warheads on their Missiles, Shouldn’t We Know About It NOW, Instead of When They Nuke One of Our Overseas Bases?

A congressman may have revealed updated U.S. military information on North Korea, which suggests that they may already have the ability to mount nuclear warheads on their ballistic missiles, which goes against what the Obama Administration has been publicly saying about North Korea’s missile capability.

IF North Korea already has this capability, the American people should be informed of it sooner rather than later.   It may raise jitters among the American population for a while, but they’ll get used used to living under another nuclear threat, if they have to. 

But I don’t think North Korea’s nuclear threat will last that long, if things continue to progress as they have.  One of the North Korean generals is going to put a bullet in Kim Jong Un’s fat ugly head, as he doesn’t have their unanimous support, in spite of their shows of public admiration on North Korean media television.

Hopefully Kim Jong Un, his uncle and his aunt live long enough to be put on trial for crimes against humanity, in the name of North Korean political prisoners who are in their slave labor camps or are starving to death in the streets while the "fat pig” (a South Korean term of endearment, and one that brings a death sentence in North Korea) leader eats to his heart’s content, with not a care about his starving people.

He’s had plenty of time to get food to his people since taking charge of North Korea, but has instead sent U.N. food meant for the hungry to his military combat units instead.  Shame!!

Women’s Groups Give President Obama a Free Pass on His Comments About California’s Attorney General: If a Republican Had Said the Exact Same Thing, They’d Be DEMANDING His Resignation, Not Saying that He “Displayed Leadership”

Double standard in progress…

President Obama apologized for commenting on how attractive California’s attorney general was, after women’s groups started raising concerns, that the comment detracted from her professional accomplishments.  Some of the groups praised President Obama for “demonstrating great leadership” in apologizing and saying that there’s still a “cultural gap” in how women are professionally treated.

Now, if a Republican had said the same thing, these same groups would be leading the charge to have the offending politician resign.  “Demonstrating great leadership” my afterburner!

More double standards from the left. 

North Korean Generals Need to Get Rid of the Kid Running Their Country: He’s In WAY Over His Head

We really need to get in contact with the North Korean generals around Kim Jong Un and encourage them to get rid of the runt.   That kid has no business being in charge of nuclear weapons.

Venezuela’s President Passes Away: VP Blames U.S. For “Giving Chavez Cancer” and Expels Two U.S. Embassy Officials

Hugo Chavez passed away from cancer today, and his U.S. ultraliberal supporters have been paying tribute to him, Sean Penn among them.   Hearing them sing his praises is like listening to a dying mule moaning.

He may have been popular with the poor of his country, but he definitely didn’t do them any favors.  He stole $2 billion of their money, leaving their currency in free fall, their inflation rate extremely high, food shortages, electrical shortages and housing shortages throughout their country.

His vice president (and current acting president) is still repeating Chavez’s mantra that the United States gave him cancer, while ignoring the fact that it wasn’t the cancer that got him, it was a massive heart attack.  This is according to the head of Venezuela’s Presidential Guard. 

Where are the intellectuals in Venezuela?  They’re in the opposition, in jail, or outside the country where Chavez couldn’t make them disappear, like so many others who dared to speak out against Chavez’s reign.

Venezuela will be better off getting rid of the bus driver who is now their President and putting Chavez into the ground, instead of keeping his body on display like Lenin in a glass box.

Like my reaction to Arafat, I do not extend my sympathies to the people of Venezuela on the loss of their Dear Leader.   I mourn Chavez’s many victims and their families.  That’s more appropriate than the liberals in this country crying for the Mouth of the South.

The Word “Resigned” Isn’t the Right Word to Apply to Benedict XVI’s Actions; The Correct Term is “Abdicated” or “Retired”

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI didn’t resign the throne of St. Peter; he abdicated, which is the correct term to use, or he retired. 

There are a couple of definitions that need to be looked at:

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resign

1. To submit (oneself) passively; accept as inevitable: I resigned myself to a long wait in line.
2. To give up (a position, for example), especially by formal notification.
3. To relinquish (a privilege, right, or claim). See Synonyms at relinquish.

To give up one's job or office; quit, especially by formal notification:

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abdicate

to renounce (a throne, power, responsibility, rights, etc.), esp formally
[from the past participle of Latin abdicāre to proclaim away, disclaim]

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“Abdicated” is the more accurate term to describe Benedict’s actions.  He pledged his allegiance to his successor and vowed to stay out of high level Vatican politics.

There are a lot of conspiracy theories out there as to why the pope chose to go into retirement; I’m inclined to believe that the job was too much for him to handle, and that a younger back was needed to do the heavy lifting.  I’m hoping that they choose a pope young enough to have a decades-long reign, instead of someone who is already in his late 70s or 80s.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

France Enters Mali to Stop Islamists From Taking Over the Entire Country: America, Meet Our Next Battleground if Things Go Badly for the French-Lead Forces

<Sigh>

French special forces and elements of their Air Force are fighting in Mali, in an attempt to stop Islamist forces who have already seized the north of the country from advancing any further.

I hope the French are victorious. 

The EU and United States cannot afford to have the French Army be defeated by the Islamists, as has happened in the past.  If it looks like the French get in over their heads, I think it’s safe to say that the United States military will be unleashed in Mali to help the French.

The French have been acting like cowboys the last couple of years.  It’s nice to see, but not if the United States ends up invading another country to support another nation’s military adventures.  That’s the last thing we need.

We need time to rebuild and retool our own military, and we can’t do that while we’re locking horns in another country AND cutting the military budget at the same time.  That equation doesn’t work!

Lance Armstrong Admits Doping: Major Disappointment, Though Not an Entirely Unexpected Result

I didn’t want to believe the accusations that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency leveled against Lance Armstrong, but he’s admitted to Oprah that he used performance enhancers.

I read the USADA report on Armstrong when it was published last year, and the accusations contained within required a huge stretch of the imagination.  My impression was that the report read like a very bad book by a fourth-rate author attempting to get noticed by a publisher.  But outlandish claims of 40-50 people sharing in his cover-ups of his illegal activities turned out to be true.

Shame on Lance Armstrong.   He cheated his way to victory after victory.  I got the impression that he was sorry that he got caught but didn’t mind destroying others who were making true statements about his cheating and rampant drug use.

All of his foundation’s good works may come undone as the lawsuits start to pile up.  What a waste of goodwill; cancer will continue to haunt us for even longer if a powerful cancer treatment advocacy and fundraising powerhouse like Livestrong goes away. 

That’s the saddest part of this entire affair.   I hope Livestrong survives this and continues on its mission without Lance Armstrong poisoning the well any more than he already has.

I have to wonder if we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg in the cycling world.  What else is going on behind the scenes?

Current TV Rejected Glenn Beck Network’s Attempts to Buy Struggling Network For “Not Being Aligned With Their Point of View,” But Allowed Itself to Be Prostituted to Enemy Propaganda Network Al Jazeera—Way to Go, Al Gore

Reports have emerged that Glenn Beck’s Blaze Network attempted to put Al Gore’s failed Current TV network out of its misery by buying it, but the liberal outlet rejected the offer, stating that "the legacy of who the network goes to is important to us and we are sensitive to networks not aligned with our point of view."

So instead, they sold their souls to Al Jazeera, the enemy propaganda network, in a display of Al Gore’s true colors.

“Networks not aligned with our point of view” my afterburner. 

They actually believe their own lies and distortions to the point that they would rather provide aid and comfort to the enemy rather than have their failed network stay in the hands of people whose ultimate allegiance is to the United States.

I feel bad for the employees of Current TV, who are speaking out about Gore selling them out to the big oil interests behind Al Jazeera.

Debt Ceiling Language is Being Manipulated By Scare Mongers in Congress: What a Debt Ceiling Really Is

There are certain key phrases that Congress and President Obama will be throwing around in increasing frequency as the days and weeks go by.  And they will manipulate what each term means, in the hopes of confusing and scaring the public to pressure the other side to agree to something.

First, the debt ceiling is how much the United States government can borrow from the banks and other nations.  If the ceiling is not raised, we will be able to fund 60% of government operations at full strength with incoming federal taxes and other federal income.  This is critical to understand.

Next, being able to “service the debt” means to be able to pay the interest on the debt, plus some of the principle.  We CAN service the debt whether there is a debt ceiling or not using incoming federal taxes.  If we do default on being able to service the debt, it’s because the Obama Administration has diverted the money used to service the debt on a monthly basis into funding part of the government under the “obligations” discussion below.   They have 100% control over whether the monthly bill is paid or not.  We’ve never failed to pay this, even when the government was “shut down.” 

Finally, being able to meet our obligations.  This simply means running the government at 100% of what President Obama wants.   We will hear that we will “default on our obligations” if the debt ceiling is not raised.  This is not true.  We will have enough to fund 60% of current  government operations.

Seems to me if the government was operating at 60%, we’d be cutting deeply into the debt and reducing it, while living within our means instead of borrowing money and running up the debt like many Administrations have chosen to do.

If the government is shut down due to no action on the debt ceiling, it’s actually 40% of the government that is shut down, though President Obama could order 100% of the government to shut down as a political weapon to increase pressure on his political opponents to agree to his terms.

This is why the GOP will not knuckle under quite as easily as they did over the “financial cliff” stupidity.  The government could stand to get a haircut.

Al Gore’s Worthless “Current TV” Network Bought By Equally Worthless Al Jazeera TV: Gore Says He’s “Proud and Pleased” At Having His Network Bought Out By Enemy News Propagandists

How the mighty have fallen.

Al Gore’s failed Current TV network has been by bought by the useless Al Jazeera network, which is nothing more than an enemy propaganda network.  The buy will gain Al Jazeera a larger foothold in the U.S. market than it was able to achieve on its own.

Said the anti-American propagandist Al Gore: “We are proud and pleased that Al Jazeera, the award-winning international news organization, has bought Current TV.” 

Time-Warner cancelled their own contract with Current TV after the sale was announced, which reduced Current TV’s foothold in New York and LA. 

Al Jazeera announced that their new network offering in the U.S. would be called Al Jazeera America, as if that was going to help this unholy union.  I’m not going to wish them luck in their new endeavor.

Michigan Governor Snyder Signed Dozens of Bills in the Last Ten Days of 2012: What Was Enacted?

Here is the list of bills signed by Governor Snyder of Michigan in the last part of 2012, from the Governor’s web site.  I have been reading that he had signed all these bills, but couldn’t find out what they were.   The lame duck session has been anything but lame duck.   I wasn’t able to find PAs 499-501.  I think PA 499 was an abortion one.  Don’t know about the others.

If it was just one or two bills, I wouldn’t even mention them here, but there are tons of new laws.  I question how many of these bills our representatives in Lansing actually read. 

The new laws:

House Bills 5843 and 5902, sponsored by state Rep. Joe Graves, would make it a felony punishable by up to five years' imprisonment if a person is found guilty of knowingly committing organized retail crime. This includes the theft of retail merchandise with the intent or purpose of reselling, distributing, or transferring the stolen retail merchandise to another retail merchant or to any other person personally, through the mail, or through any electronic medium, including the internet, in exchange for anything of value. The measures are now Public Acts 455 and 456

HB 4725, sponsored by state Rep. Tom McMillin, prohibits certain governmental agencies from disclosing personally identifying information pertaining to minor victims of child abuse, criminal sexual conduct, sexual assaults or molestation, or similar crimes. It is now PA 457.

HB 4804, sponsored by state Rep. Roy Schmidt, revises the monthly payment-in-advance mandate for state use tax payments by large retailers or vendors who would also have to submit the money by electronic funds transfer. It is now PA 458.

HB 4838, sponsored by state Rep. Sharon Tyler, creates the "Interstate Mutual Emergency Aid Act" to authorize the state and local units of government to enter into mutual aid agreements with out-of-state units of government to provide for the coordination of communications, training, and response to planned events and emergencies. It is now PA 459.

HB 4856, sponsored by state Rep. Ben Glardon, prohibits the transfer of medicinal marijuana by vehicle unless the drug is enclosed in a case and placed in the vehicle's trunk or secured in a way that is not readily accessible from the interior of the vehicle. It is now PA 460.

HB 5047, sponsored by state Rep. Harold Haugh, allows local units of government to submit final tax settlement rolls in an electronic format provided the format is compatible with the computer system used by the corresponding county treasurer. It is now PA 461.

HB 5156, sponsored by state Rep. Joel Johnson, exempts insurance company employees and agents, lawyers and certain other professionals from needing an insurance adjuster license. It is now PA 462.

HB 5220, sponsored by state Rep. Marty Knollenberg, allows a petitioner or a local tax collecting unit to request an informal settlement conference after a petition was filed in the Residential Property and Small Claims Division of the Tax Tribunal. It is now PA 463.

HB 5261, sponsored by state Rep. Holly Hughes, allows teachers retired for more than one year an approximate one-year window to reenter the classroom (for up to 3 years) if they are on a critical shortage list as determined by the state superintendent. It is now PA 464.

HB 5267, sponsored by state Rep. Bob Genetski, provides for a school district to qualify for special pupil membership counting provisions, as well as a seat time exemption, if the district operated a dropout recovery program that met specified criteria. It is now PA 465.

HB 5301, sponsored by state Rep. Amanda Price, requires charter counties to certify their compensation, retirement and health plans for employees conform to certain standards as a condition of receiving state road funds beginning Sept. 30, 2014. It is now PA 466.

HB 5444, sponsored by state Rep. Jud Gilbert, allows Michigan-based trucking companies to receive sales and use tax exemptions for the post-purchase installation of equipment and parts. It is now PA 467.

HB 5466, sponsored by state Rep. Kurt Heisse, eliminates the requirement that a contractor, architect, professional engineer or professional survey indemnify a public entity from all claims in a construction contract. It is now PA 468.

HB 5852, sponsored by state Rep. Kevin Daley, ensures that the price of gasoline is clear and posted correctly for consumers while allowing retailers additional time to make changes to their signs. It is now PA 469.

HB 5873, sponsored by state Rep. Anthony Forlini, changes the Police and Fire Survivors Tuition Act to a tuition "grant" program, and raises the eligibility age from 21 to 26. It also moves the administrative responsibility for the program from the Michigan State Police to the Department of Treasury. It is now PA 470.

HB 5883, sponsored by state Rep. Joel Johnson, replaces specific restrictions and regulations on catching fish with a net with a general grant of authority by the Department of Natural Resources. It is now PA 471.

HB 5931, sponsored by state Rep. Matt Lori, allows the Department of Community Health to use email to notify of Medicaid policy changes to Medicaid enrolled providers. It is now PA 472.

HB 5936, sponsored by state Rep. Holly Hughes, provides a driving skills test waiver for qualified military veterans seeking a commercial driver license. It is now PA 473.

HB 5937, sponsored by state Rep. Peter MacGregor, creates a use tax exemption for general contractors and manufacturer-contractors for the affixation of tangible personal property to real estate located in another state. It prevents businesses that both manufacture and install tangible personal property in other states from being double taxed. It is now PA 474.

HB 5732, sponsored by state Rep. Jud Gilbert, allows a company or developer with historical resource rehabilitation tax credit to sell all or part of the credit to other firms. It is now PA 475.

SB 931, sponsored by state Sen. Roger Kahn, provides supplemental budget appropriations for the Department of Community Health to support behavioral health services for Medicaid-eligible children in foster care and child protective services. It also grants additional funds to Grand Rapids Community College for renovations to Cook Academic Hall. The bill also accounts for book closing on FY 12 so that the state's financial statements are balanced and accurate. It is now PA 476.

HB 5461, sponsored by state Rep. Deb Shaughnessy, amends sentencing guidelines to include an unemployment compensation fraud offense as a Class H felony against property subject to a statutory maximum of one year's imprisonment. This will apply to violations in which a person obtains or withholds an amount of unemployment benefits or payments exceeding $3,500 but less than $25,000 as a result of a knowingly false statement or representation or failing to disclose a material fact. It is now PA 477.

House Bill 5523, sponsored by state Rep. Aric Nesbitt protects the online privacy of Michiganders by prohibiting employers and educational institutions from asking applicants, employees and students for passwords and other account information used to access private internet and email accounts, including social networks like Facebook and Twitter.  HB 5523 is now PA 478.

Senate Bill 152, sponsored by state Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker, revises existing law to require that video recordings of interrogations be made in certain criminal investigations regarding major felonies. It is now PA 479.

SB 873, sponsored by state Sen. Jim Marleau, protects commercial truckers from unfair contracts that leave them open to damage to their equipment without being paid by those responsible. It is now PA 480.

SB 933, sponsored by state Sen. Rick Jones, allows employers to not be responsible for paying for employee medical marijuana treatment. It is now PA 481.

SB 972, sponsored by Hildenbrand, requires notification to a property owner when property is returned to the county treasurer because of delinquent taxes. It is now PA 482.

SB 978 and 979, sponsored by Schuitmaker, and SB 980, sponsored by Jones, allow for the practice of trust decanting, meaning assets held by an irrevocable trust may be moved into a different trust. The bills are now PAs 483-485.

SB 988, sponsored by state Sen. Steve Bieda, designates the walkway between the state Capitol and the Hall of Justice as the Frank J. Kelley Promenade. It is now PA 486.

SB 996, sponsored by state Sen. Tom Casperson, requires the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to make indemnity payments to livestock producers for the death, injury, or loss of their livestock due to wolves, coyotes, or cougars. It is now PA 487.

SB 1031, sponsored by Casperson, allows recreational activities as approved uses of municipal forest lands. It is now PA 488.

SB 1133, sponsored by state Sen. Rebekah Warren, allows the State Administrative Board to sell the vacated Ypsilanti State Police Post. It is now PA 489.

SB 1148, sponsored by state Sen. Bruce Caswell, allows certain exceptions to the requirements for an industrial facilities exemption certificate. It is now PA 490.

SB 1180, sponsored by state Sen. Goeff Hansen, allows the secretary of state to use the Pure Michigan branding as part of the standard issue vehicle license plate. It is now PA 491.

SB 1189, sponsored by state Sen. Mark Jansen, establishes pension oversight by requiring equal treatment of elected and appointed members of a public employee retirement system governing board. It is now PA 492.

SB 1272, sponsored by Jansen, requires employers' contribution payments and obligation assessment payments to be credited first to interest on the obligation assessment and then to the assessment, with the remainder credited as currently required to penalties and interest on contributions and contribution principal. It is now PA 493.

HB 4134, sponsored by Margaret O'Brien, provides tax exemption for new construction on development property from school operating taxes for up to three years or until the property is sold or used for commercial purposes. It is now PA 494.

HB 4496, sponsored by state Rep. John Walsh, allows community colleges to grant bachelor's degrees in cement technology, maritime technology, energy production technology, and culinary arts. It is now PA 495.

HB 4726, sponsored by state Rep. Al Pscholka, excludes wages earned by volunteer firefighters if less than $10,000 so it won't affect the amount of unemployment benefits they may receive. It is now PA 496.

HB 4753, sponsored by state Rep. Peter Pettalia, allows family members to transfer residential property to a parent or child without incurring a pop-up tax. It is now PA 497.

HB 5668, sponsored by state Rep. Brad Jacobsen, primarily allows used car dealers to voluntarily enter into an agreement with an inventory lender so the lender can retain physical possession of a used vehicle's certificate of title as long as the used vehicle dealer meets certain criteria. It is now PA 498.

SB 1210, sponsored by state Sen. Mike Kowall, streamlines and improves the effectiveness of the brownfield grants and loans program, providing a sustainable revenue stream. It is now PA 502.

HB 5835, sponsored by state Rep. Jeff Farrington, repeals the outdated Savings and Loan Act of 1980 and any reference to it is removed. The Savings and Loan Act of 1980 no longer serves any purpose and no institutions are chartered under the Act. It is now PA 503.

HB 4561, sponsored by state Rep. Joe Haveman, coincides with the national code cycle change and gives the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs the ability to determine if code changes are substantial enough to warrant updating the Michigan Residential Code more frequently. It is now PA 504.

HB 4975, sponsored by state Rep. Margaret O'Brien, provides a framework for the regulation of Appraisal Management Companies. It is now PA 505.

HB 5302, sponsored by state Rep. Roy Schmidt, brings financial accountability and transparency to local road agencies by requiring standards for employee pay and benefits as a condition for receiving state road funds beginning Sept. 30, 2014, ensuring that transportation funds are maximized for the building of roads. It is now PA 506.

HB 5313, sponsored by state Rep. Brad Jacobsen, requires counties under this act to certify their compensation, retirement and health plans for employees to conform to certain standards as a condition of receiving state road funds beginning Sept. 30, 2014. Oakland County is the only county impacted by this legislation. It is now PA 507.

HB 5315, sponsored by state Rep. Patrick Somerville, amends the Mental Health Code to improve the safety and security of both patients and mental health professionals by allowing video security cameras to be used in common areas in psychiatric hospitals. It is now PA 508.

HB 5817, sponsored by state Rep. Paul Opsommer, expands prepayment of sales tax to diesel fuel and reduces the per gallon variance between the prepayment and the final sales tax by using a one month averaging period instead of a quarterly period. It is now PA 509.

HB 5557, sponsored by state Rep. Margaret O'Brien, revises the 2011 deadline in the process whereby downtown development authorities (DDAs) apply to the Department of Treasury for approval to receive State Education Tax (SET) revenues to be used to meet certain debt obligations. By extending the deadline, the bill allows the City of Kalamazoo DDA to receive SET revenues it otherwise would have lost. It is now PA 510.

HB 5673, sponsored by state Rep. Al Pscholka, modifies grant and loan programs under the Strategic Water Quality Initiatives Fund (SWQIF). It is now PA 511.

HB 4851, sponsored by state Rep. Phil Cavanagh, amends the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act by creating a definition of a bona fide physician-patient relationship and further defines an enclosed, locked facility and provides clarification on the transporting of medical marihuana in a motor vehicle. It is now PA 512.

HB 4853, sponsored by state Rep. Ed McBroom, amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to include a violation of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act (MMMA) in the sentencing guidelines. The bill strengthens the MMMA by placing a penalty on registered qualifying patient's or registered qualifying caregivers who sell marihuana to an unauthorized person.  It is now PA 513.

HB 4834, sponsored by state Rep. Gail Haines, allows the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs to contract for the processing and issuance of medical marihuana registry identification cards to help eliminate delays. The bill also extends the period in which a registry card is valid from one year to two years and requires the department to appoint a review panel to review petitions received for other medical conditions in addition to those conditions currently authorized under the Medical Marihuana Act. It is now PA 514.

HB 5801, sponsored by state Rep. Ray Franz, enables Michigan to enter into a state and province emergency management assistance agreement, allowing Michigan to enter into an international mutual aid agreement with Canada. It is now PA 515.

SB 969, sponsored by state Sen. John Proos, allows a school district to qualify for special pupil membership counting provisions, as well as a seat time exemption, if the district operated a dropout recovery program that met specified criteria. It is now PA 516.

SB 1024, sponsored by state Sen. Roger Kahn, prohibits individuals with economic relationships with Iran from submitting bids on requests for proposals with the state, school districts, community college districts, intermediate school districts, cities, villages, townships, counties, public authorities, or public airport authorities to take effect April 1, 2013. It is now PA 517.

HB 5367, sponsored by state Rep. Chuck Moss, provides supplemental appropriations for FY 13 for the departments of Human Services and Treasury. The appropriations are for the Indigent Burial program and Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT). It is now PA 518.

HB 5830, sponsored by state Rep. Eileen Kowall, provides for capital outlay reforms that streamline the authorization process and ensure fiscal discipline by requiring that long-term debt obligations are accounted for in the budget when new projects are authorized. It is now PA 519.

SB 1350, sponsored by state Sen. Tom Casperson, allows the Natural Resource Commission (NRC) to create a gray wolf season in Michigan and establishes a wolf hunting license with associated fees. It removes the gray wolf from the furbearer list and adds it to the list of game species in Michigan. The bill establishes a wolf hunting license and sets fees for resident and non-resident licenses. It is now PA 520.

SB 1172, sponsored by state Sen. Darwin Booher, extends the mortgage foreclosure modification sunset until June 30, 2013. It is now PA 521.

SB 265, sponsored by state Sen. Tom Casperson, amends the Michigan Vehicle Code to create an exception to seasonal weight restrictions for vehicles transporting heating fuel, helping to resolve the problem of fuel haulers making multiple trips to service their customers. It is now PA 522.

SB 810, sponsored by state Sen. Goeff Hansen, amends the Michigan Election Law to allow cities more flexibility in scheduling voting dates to even year primary and general election dates, as well as putting into place a plan help ensure that overseas and military ballot deadlines are met. It also addresses previous concerns raised by the governor when he vetoed earlier legislation on this topic. The change now simply includes an opening U.S. citizen declarative statement on applications, alleviating voter confusion and removing the need for a separate citizenship checkbox while ensuring voters are properly qualified. It is now PA 523.

HB 4446, sponsored by state Rep. Margaret O'Brien, provides for the conditions under which a bank may retain the principal residence exemption (PRE) and to allow taxpayers to appeal to obtain the PRE at the July and December boards of review. It is now PA 524.

HB 5404, sponsored by state Rep. Dale Zorn, prohibits a land division or land plat that isolates a cemetery so that it is not accessible, and instead requires that cemeteries be served by easements that provide vehicular access. It is now PA 525.

HB 5422, sponsored by state Rep. Joe Haveman, enables colleges and community colleges to provide new employee training to new corrections officers, reducing costs that the Department of Corrections spends on training new recruits. Currently, all training of new recruits is held in Lansing. It provides for minimum standards and requirement that colleges and community colleges must follow. It is now PA 526.

HB 5600, sponsored by state Rep. Joe Haveman, permits a juvenile offender who has been adjudicated of not more than one felony or not more than three misdemeanors and who does not have an adult felony conviction to petition the adjudicating court(s) to set aside one felony adjudication and two misdemeanor adjudications, or up to three misdemeanor adjudications. This bill also provides a reduced timeframe of one year, instead of the current statutory timeframe of five years, in which the individual can petition the courts for the set-aside of adjudication(s). It is now PA 527.

HB 5459, sponsored by state Rep. Paul Opsommer, amends the Open Meetings Act to specify posting requirements for notices of special meetings or rescheduled meetings. It also establishes notice requirements for emergency public meetings and those meetings that fail to meet the 18-hour notice requirement. It is now PA 528.

HB 5487, sponsored by state Rep. Phil Potvin, allows authorized agents (weighmasters) of county road commissions to enforce activities related to the proper registration of commercial vehicles; and the height, weight, and width of vehicles and loads; and the safety of loads, among other things. It eliminates previous ambiguity regarding whether weighmasters are required to be certified as a police officer to enforce the code. It is now PA 529.

HB 5805, sponsored by state Rep. Lisa Lyons, creates the Health Care Sharing Ministries Freedom to Share Act and acknowledges these ministries are not subject to the Insurance Code of 1956 and are not engaged in the business of insurance in Michigan. It is now PA 530.

Congress Doesn’t Need to Pass Everything at Once on Fiscal Cliff Deal: They Need to Write Up a Bill Containing the Things That Have Already Been Agreed to and Send It to President Obama

Congress is acting like a group of political hostage takers.  “AGREE TO WHAT OUR SIDE WANTS, OR ELSE WE’LL STOP EVERYTHING ELSE!”  Instead of killing people, they’re killing legislation in order to get a political victory.  Is that political victory going to be worth the billions of dollars in damage that is done to the economy?

For crying out loud, both sides agree that they’re not going to get everything that they want in the time left before they drive us off the fiscal cliff. 

They should take the parts of this deal that they agree to, put it into a bill and send it to the President.  They can reset the clock on the stuff they don’t agree to.

Personally, I think sequestration is the way to go, but it didn’t go far enough.  They need to cut $2.2 trillion out in order to make a small dent.

If we don’t get a deal out of Washington, every politician currently in office needs to be turned out the next time they’re up for election.

New York Newspaper Publishes Interactive Map Showing Where Registered Gun Owners Are: Why Are They Going After People Who Are Obeying the Law? This is an Idiotic Move on the Part of the Newspaper

The knee-jerk reaction to the Sandy Hook massacre continues at full speed, with a local New York newspaper publishing an interactive map showing where gun owners live, and what the permit holder’s name is.

Why are they targeting people who are obeying the law and registering their firearms?

I agree with many of the comments against the Journal News/LoHud.com that it’s an invasion of privacy, but also a roadmap for criminals to attack houses that don’t have registered firearms in them.   Garnett Publishing needs to do a better job of policing their knee-jerk reporters and newspapers from publishing stuff like that.

It’s also highly insulting to have registered gun owners, people who are obeying the law, put on display like sex offenders or other convicted criminals.   The newspaper is engaging in scare tactics, reminiscent of yellow journalism.  If one house is robbed at gunpoint by criminals who looked at their interactive map, the Journal News will have deliberately shared in the execution of the crime and should be held accountable.

Journalism has taken another step backwards.

United States Government Did the Right Thing in Refusing to Sign the International Internet Treaty: 20 Other Nations Refused to Sign It as Well

The Dubai Conference is over and done with, with twenty nations refusing to sign the protocol that was proposed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and under the banner of the United Nations.  Nations that signed are in black, those who didn't are in red.

Nations that censor the Internet within their borders were pleased with the protocol, especially China, Iran, and 88 other nations.  Twenty-plus nations joined the refusal to sign it.  And I hope the U.S. government never signs it.

We can’t trust our free speech to totalitarian regimes.

I am not supportive of helping China to keep information from their people, nor Syria, or any of the other nations who suppress their own people.

Is The Ongoing “End of the World” Nonsense Connected to the Connecticut School Shooting?

I have a bad feeling that the current obsession over the doomsday nonsense on 12/21/12 is connected to the slaughter in Connecticut.

There’s no doubt that the lunatics are out in force.   Was the gunman one of them?

Hey CONGRESS and President Obama!! Don’t Leave Washington Until You Have a Fiscal Cliff Deal!

Congress needs to stay in Washington and so does President Obama until they fix THEIR fiscal mess.

And if they want to keep their jobs, they had better not kick this down the road again.  They’ve done that far too often, and we get deeper and deeper into the hole.  Unacceptable!

Quit screwing around and GET BUSY!

Suicide of London Nurse Who Was Pranked By Radio Shock Jocks is Tragic on So Many Levels: Who is to Blame?

A couple of radio shock jocks have expressed remorse at the death of a nurse who put their prank call through to Duchess of Cambridge after she was admitted with morning sickness, due to her pregnancy.

The radio station in Australia aired it, and the nurse who put the call through, believing she was talking to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, killed herself three days later after the story broke.

This is so tragic that it almost defies belief. 

I think there’s lots of blame to be spread around. 

First, the DJs for pranking the hospital.  Then, the radio station for airing the taped audio.  And the hospital, for not having some kind of protocol for filtering out calls like this, and the media for throwing such a HUGE spotlight on the Royal Family.

I’ve had family members in intensive care before, and before I could talk to my family member on the phone, I had to provide a verbal password to the nurse before my call was put through to the room.  This was done in accordance with the wishes of our family member, and set up by our family and the hospital.  That’s a common practice at hospitals, nursing homes and medical care facilities where I live.

Why in heaven’s name didn’t this hospital have a similar protocol in place to block unwanted calls getting through to the Prince and Princess?   The media coverage of the Duke and Duchess has been just as intense as the media coverage of Princess Diana was before the paparazzi hounded Diana to her death.

The radio station itself should also have its feet held to the fire.  They shouldn’t have aired this crap.   They had the audio recorded, and it wasn’t a live show.  Why did they air it?

Finally, the media.  They need to give the Royal Family a wide berth.  They Royals are human beings who make human mistakes, just like everybody else.  Most people don’t have a microscope trained on their every move and every word that they either make or utter.  WHO CARES!!

Sad.

Egypt and Hamas Pull a Screwjob on Israel and Washington: If This Truce Holds, Israel Will End Up Fighting This Battle Against Hamas Again in a Few Months

The Obama Administration hasn’t done Israel any favors with this cease-fire deal that was brokered by Egypt.

Hamas is still heavily armed, and they’re going to continue sending rockets into Israeli territory.  They haven’t agreed to recognize Israel, which is going to make Israel very reluctant to lift their blockade of Gaza.

All they’ve done is postpone the inevitable.  Here’s why:

Israel will attack Iran before the “red line” is reached, and then Israel will have Hezbollah firing their 40,000 rockets into northern Israel shortly thereafter, while Hamas resumes hitting southern Israel at Iran’s request.  

The best thing that could happen is for the cease-fire to fail and for Israel to flatten Hamas before getting into this thing with Iran and Hezbollah. 

Israel is doing its best to obey the truce, but if Hamas rockets continue to hit Israel, all bets are off.  I don’t see Hamas stopping its own forces from attacking Israel.  They lack the cohesive discipline that the Israeli military has.

Washington did the right thing in saying that Israel has a right to defend itself.  But they were wrong in playing a part in forcing this truce before the job was done.

If this truce is to hold, Hamas needs to act more responsibly on behalf of the people they are governing,   If they can’t do that, they should quit and let the Palestinian Authority take charge again.  Compared to Hamas, they’re much more preferable.

Hard times are ahead.

Hypocritical Turkey Calls Israel a “Terrorist State” for Firing Back at Hamas, But Won’t Apply the Same Label to Themselves for Firing Back at Syria Last Month

Turkey has decided that Israel shooting back at Hamas is terrorism, yet they had no problem doing the same thing to Syria when Syrian artillery shells landed in Turkish territory just last month.  They even enlisted international support in their “terrorist” action against Syria by convening a meeting of NATO ministers to tell Syria to stop.  In fact, they’re asking for U.S. Patriot missile batteries to be placed on their border with Syria. 

NATO should refuse this request if Turkey considers legitimate self defense “terrorism.”  After all, we don’t want to be a sponsor of Turkish “terrorism.”

This is the kind of hypocrisy that Turkey, above all other nations, needs to avoid.  If they’re not part of the solution, then they’re part of the problem.

I wonder how Egypt and Turkey would react if a faction opposed to their governments were firing rockets at their territory and killing their civilians?  Would they be tolerating it, as Israel’s neighbors seem to be insisting on, or would they be going in with maximum military force to put an end to it?

Oh, wait.  Egypt uses its army against its own people already.  So does Turkey.  So do most of the governments who are screaming about Israel defending itself against a terrorist organization.   And knowing these countries, they’d have already sent their armies in, long before now.

Israel’s neighbors need to quit the rhetoric and put pressure on Hamas to stop firing.  Or else Israel will bulldoze Gaza into the ground, and the Palestinian people will suffer for it, while what’s left of Hamas deserts them and flees to Egypt, like the cowards that they are.

And I’d be willing to bet that Egypt’s military will watch them go running by, instead of swiveling the tank turrets around and putting an end to Hamas before they get into Cairo.

This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Some Political Hack Deleted References to al-Qaeda’s Involvement in Libyan Attack in CIA Memo: That’s Who They Should Identify

I’ve been following this whole Benghazi mess with little surprise.   And I have a few theories.

It’s becoming clear that someone in one of the federal agencies who were reviewing the CIA report on the attack was some political hack, concerned about President Obama’s re-election bid, deleted the references to al-Qaeda’s involvement in the assault on the U.S. consulate, before the information went to President Obama.

I also think that there is a possibility this person or persons used their knowledge that CIA Director Petraeus was being investigated against him, to influence him into saying what he did in his earlier testimony to Congress.  It took the form of “support our version, or we’ll go to the media, ruin your marriage, and destroy your reputation.  AND you’ll go to jail!” 

They need to do a top-to-bottom review of all the relevant agencies, identify people who reviewed the CIA memo, and then determine which of them knew that the general was under FBI investigation before he went public and resigned.   I think the paper trail will lead to the same person or people.

They need to find out if the CIA Director was compromised, in the form of blackmail discussed above.

That’s my theory, and I’m sticking to it.  It’s probably all wrong, but I also think we’ve just seen the tip of the iceberg on all of this.  People will be going to jail.

CNN Caught Faking Palestinian Footage: They Need to Quit Manipulating Stuff to Suit Their Agenda

The degenerates at CNN are at it again, faking footage of the poor rocket-firing Palestinians taking casualties from the evil Israeli warmongers.

Gag me with a spoon!

CNN keeps screwing up; they’ve become nothing more than a propaganda arm of Hamas.   They need to present a more balanced view and keep their opinions to themselves.  They’re siding against the ONLY democracy in that region against terrorists; what does that say about CNN? 

I use the term “degenerate” as they’ve de-evolved from a news agency to a propaganda outfit.   They need to get off their collective butts, report the news and then shut up with their opinions. 

If the Air Force is Unwilling to Spend Money to Fix the Over-Budget F-22 Raptor, They Should Retire Them

The Air Force has been dragging their feet in fixing the F-22 Raptor’s in-flight oxygen system, and it’s time to put an end to the issue.

They either need to spend more money on the already-over budget F-22, or they need to retire the aircraft.   The pilots don’t think the aircraft is safe. 

They only have two options: fix it or retire it.  It can’t continue to fly as-is. 

This has gone on long enough.  Another F22 crashed yesterday in Florida short of the runway.  At $190 million per copy, they ought to be able to diagnose and fix ANYTHING on that aircraft. 

Fix it or cancel it. 

If Egypt Really Wants to Broker Peace Between Israel and Hamas, Then They Need to Tell Hamas to Stop Firing Rockets at Israel BEFORE Telling Israel Not to Retaliate: S0 Far They’ve Been Telling Israel to Cease Fire While Ignoring Hamas’ Firing Rockets Into Israel, Which Started the Israeli Response

Egypt’s new leaders are proving to be more hypocritical than their former ruler when dealing with Israel and Hamas.

Egypt and the Muslim world have been screaming at Israel to stop fighting, while ignoring Hamas and their rocket strikes on Israeli cities, which provoked the Israelis into returning fire.

If one of these other countries were being fired upon by terrorist groups, they’d already have sent in ground troops.  Israel’s response has been very limited by comparison so far, targeting rocket launchers, Hamas commanders, rocket storage facilities and Hamas terrorists. 

Unfortunately, because Gaza is so small and so packed with people, everything Israel has attacked so far is amongst the Palestinian civilian population.  And Hamas doesn’t care where it puts its military equipment either.  There was an image of a rocket launcher next to a mosque yesterday on various web sites.

If the Muslims really want peace, they need to be more even-handed and realize that Hamas is the main cause of the problem.  If they were to stop firing, so would Israel.  It’s just that simple.

I think the Muslim world is sacrificing the Palestinians to Hamas militarism, just to get at Israel.  Otherwise they wouldn’t be arming a terrorist group and screaming at Israel to stop firing back while ignoring Hamas’s attacks on Israel.

Ridiculous White House Notion Sparks Independence Drive in Twenty States: What is President Obama Doing?

President Obama’s web site has an incredibly stupid petition promise: gather 25,000 signatures by December 7th, and the Administration will deliver “a response.” 

Someone from Louisiana started a secession petition to allow Louisiana to leave the United States peacefully.  Individuals in nineteen other states followed suit, and of those petitions, the Texas petition just hit 25,000 signatures.

Now the White House has to waste time addressing their dumb move on the petition drives.

I’m also wondering what kind of people signed the petitions to begin with, and I cannot help but think that there are a lot of civilian militias, and fringe characters, along with people who are unhappy with the direction of the country.   

President Obama needs to put a stop to this nonsense before the militia types pick up arms and start all kinds of trouble that we don’t need.

Internet Should Remain Under Western Oversight and Not Go to an International Authority: They’ll Kill Free Speech on the Internet

One month remains before control of internet addresses shifts over to an international organization under the control of the United Nations.

Given the fact that the U.N. is being lobbied by Muslim countries to ban forms of expression that insults their religion, the U.N. cannot be counted on  to safeguard free speech online.

Western countries should work to make sure that the Dubai conference next month, sponsored by the International Telecommunications Union and sanctioned by the U.N., that they do not get control of the Internet.  This idea needs to be permanently derailed.

The ITU says there are no motions on the table to ban free speech, but how long can it be before one is?

It’s better to have the U.N. keeps its hands off the Internet.  

The U.N. dedication to free speech is only as strong as the member states’ dedication to free speech is.  And with many nations on earth locking up their own citizens for expressing their views, that’s a highly dubious proposition.

The Dubai conference should be cancelled and the UN and ITU told where to go.  If they don’t like it, they can start their own Internet and censor that!

Texas Threatens to Arrest U.N. Observers at the Polls: We Don’t Need International Supervision of OUR Elections

Texas has threatened to arrest United Nations officials if they show up at any voting locations in the state of Texas.  Good!

We don’t need the U.N. to play any part in our elections.  If they do show up, it will give the militia types more reasons to scream about U.N. troops taking over the U.S.

I think the U.N. has bigger fish to fry and can be more useful elsewhere in the world on November 6th.

Romney Should Have Openly Questioned Candy Crawley’s Impartiality at the Debate When She Kept Cutting Him Off: Moderators Should Not Be Influencing the Debate to That Degree

“Sit down, Mr. Romney.” 

Crawley should have just said “STFU Mr. Romney!!” and gotten any image of impartiality off the table.  She was awful and was tiled toward President Obama all evening long.

Reporters should limited to asking questions during the debate, not moderating, or they shouldn’t be from openly biased news outfits.  This would exclude CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News from providing  moderators.  

What was the debate commission thinking, choosing a moderator who described Romney’s VP pick as a “ticket death wish”  in the days and weeks before the debate?  THAT’S IMPARTIAL?

Obama had to have help to fight off Romney in this debate, and he got it in the form of Candy Crowley, who managed to turn it into a three-way dance.

I was just watching one of the George HW Bush/Bill Clinton/Ross Perot debates on YouTube from 1992.  That was a well-run debate and looks like what a proper debate should look like, compared to last night’s train wreck of a debate.  She even got on CNN and admitted after the debate that she was incorrect about her Libya “fact check” and that Romney was “right in the main” but had chosen one wrong word.  Thanks for the clarification.

And what was she doing on CNN after the debate?  Spinning for Obama from the moderator’s chair?

Slate documented some of the problems with the train wrecked debate.  And this is coming from a liberal-leaning magazine, so there were huge issues with the debate last night that the left and right noticed.

Regardless of who won, there were major structural problems with how this debate was set up, how it was run, and how the candidates and audience acted during the course of the debate.

Can we get some independent news journalists and others in to moderate these debates? 

Obama Administration is Unbelievably Off Course on Libya: Are the President's Advisors Talking to Each Other, or to the President?

Judging from the badly bungled Libyan situation, evidently not. 

We have one guy from the Counter-Terrorism Center saying that it was an all-out September 11th terrorist attack to Congress. 

We have another embassy in Libya making apologies to the terrorists, without clearance from the White House. 

We have President Obama mumbling about the anti-Mohammed video being the cause.  His press secretary doesn’t have updated (or ANY) information. 

And the State Department is at war with CNN over some kind of journal that was recovered from one of the destroyed buildings in Benghazi belonging to our late Ambassador.  Secretary Clinton’s speech on the loss of Ambassador Stevens was the best speech I’ve ever seen out of her.  Yet she’s out there focused in on the video too.

A hundred terrorists wielding automatic weapons, RPGs and other heavy weapons  showed up at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, and President Obama insists it was spontaneous, and in reaction to a video that was developed by an Israeli American?  NOT!

I trust the counter-terrorism guy more than President Obama, Secretary Clinton, or any political appointees who are making any noise in Washington.

I think Romney’s scored some points here, despite the media’s attempts to paint his remarks as “inappropriate.”  The White House remarks are the inappropriate ones as they have all the intelligence reports, yet are choosing to promote their own version of events.

The man in the White House has given all the wrong signals to the bad guys. 

Fact Checkers Aren’t Telling the Truth Either: Now The Fact Checkers Need to Be Fact Checked Too!

This is ridiculous!

I’ve long suspected that the “fact checkers” who are taken at their word by the media that their facts are correct actually weren’t.

Now a lot of web sites on both sides of the political spectrum have started cropping up, challenging the fact checkers.  

The “fact checkers” who had a field day with Romney and Ryan had major issues with some of their “facts,” including a GM plant that the Ryan mentioned had shut down during Obama’s term.  They started off by misquoting Ryan, then went off on their tangent.

Here’s the story on that “fact checking” issue, with video of what Ryan actually said.

Townhall.com did a piece on more “fact checking” as well.

The Townhall article above mentions that the “fact checking” are disguised OPINION pieces.  That isn’t right.  Do a Google search on “fact checking fact checkers”, and see what pops up.  Blows the credibility of the agency fact checkers right out of the water.

I wonder how many people believe the crap that the news networks are trying to shovel down our throats to get people to vote for their candidate.

USADA Needs to Obey U.S. Constitution: Suspects Are Innocent Until PROVEN Guilty

I've been following the Lance Armstrong story with a growing sense of anger.

To recap, Armstrong dropped his challenges against the U.S. taxpayer-funded USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency), and the USADA took that to be an admission of guilt and stripped Armstrong of all his Tour de France achievements and recognitions.

That isn't right.

The USADA has to obey the U.S. Constitution, especially since they are U.S. taxpayer-funded, and they've targeted an American citizen.  All suspects are INNOCENT until PROVEN guilty, and they haven't proven anything.  They say they have evidence, but they haven't shown it to a judge.

Armstrong also doesn't have to incriminate himself, according to the Fifth Amendment.  And he hasn't said that he cheated, either.  He said he was tired of being tied up in court, with no end in sight.

If Armstrong had said that he couldn't afford really expensive lawyers to defend himself, would the USADA have said that it was an admission of guilt?  According to them, the answer is YES.  And that's also unconstitutional.

Also, if they had proof that Armstrong was using performance-enhancing drugs since the mid-1990s, why didn't they ban him then?  Why did they wait until after the guy won seven Tours, and retired from cycling to go after him?  That just smells of a political agenda.

Congress needs to reign in the USADA, and cut their funding if they're going to grandstand like this, and abuse their authority.

I'm not much of a cycling fan, but I'm less of a fan of witch hunts, which this definitely is.  Lance Armstrong has done a ton of good with his celebrity status and his Foundation., which the USADA can NEVER strip away.

There need to be some changes made to the way that this agency conducts business.

I don't care if Armstrong is a champion cyclist or not.  But proper procedures MUST be followed.

Politics 2012: Ho Hum

I'm waiting for President Obama and Governor Romney to start acting Presidential, and not like a pair of eighth graders engaged in a name-calling contest.  When they do, I'll start paying attention to their actual messages.  A few notes:

President Obama ran on nothing in 2008, and won, due to the fact that he was not running against John McCain; he was running against the highly unpopular President Bush and the tanking economy.  He's running on nothing in 2012, and since he has nothing constructive to say, he's throwing nothing but  mud in Romney's direction.

And Romney's been so busy dodging Obama's negative accusations that he hasn't gotten his own message out.  The addition of Representative Ryan to the Romney ticket will help Romney get his message out; I think this is good news for the overall Presidential campaign.

The sooner they start talking about issues, the better.

U.S. Government Owes China NO Apology for Attempted Defection of Chinese Dissident in Beijing, But It Does Owe the American People the Truth on WHY The Dissident Left the U.S. Embassy

China is demanding an apology from the United States government for the attempted defection of a blind Chinese dissident.

China can go jump in a lake, IF this is an official Chinese government demand.  I’m not certain if this is a Chinese media outlet making the demand, or if Chinese government officials are demanding it.  No U.S. apology is owed to China over this situation in either case.

Rather, China owes its own people an apology for treating its dissidents like this, to the point that they feel the need to flee to the safety of a foreign embassy to escape official Chinese government repression.  That’s just wrong.

The U.S. government needs to account for what happened, though.  Did a U.S. embassy official in China tell the dissident that Chinese officals were going to beat his wife to death if he didn’t leave the Embassy, as the dissident claims?  Or is he trying to generate sympathy?  What really happened?

This is a very troubling situation.   He should never have been talked into leaving the protection of the U.S. Embassy; I’m not sure we’ve done right by him.

Any apology from the U.S. to China on this issue is unacceptable.

Tax Masters Fined $195 Million for Deceptive Practices and Files Bankruptcy: Why Did So Many Advertisers Continue Running Their Ads Months After They Were Sued for Fraud?

Anyone seen this man on TV?

Anyone who watches CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, or other media outlets are familiar with the Tax Masters commercials that are played almost incessantly on those channels.

Very few of these outlets were unaware that they had been sued by two states for fraud.  Question:

Why did so many advertisers continue to advertise for a company that had been sued for fraud, and after some of these media outlets had done stories putting the company in a very bad light?

Some of the advertisers want to be paid now, but with the $195 million judgment against Tax Masters, and $1.7 million in listed assets, what are the chances that they’ll see it?  Zip.  Nada.

Here is a partial list of major advertisers who have been left holding the bag, according to Tax Masters’ bankruptcy filing:

CNN ($2.6 million)
Maxximedia ($1.3 million)
Fox News Channel ($938,000)
Westwood One ($676,000)
History Channel ($653,000)
MSNBC ($259,000)
Yahoo ($196,000+)
Weather Channel ($137,000)
ESPN ($94,000)

Instead of accepting more money for advertising on their respective mediums, which helped Tax Masters rip more people off, by the way, they should have refunded the money and refused to run more ads until Tax Masters had been cleared of wrongdoing.  Instead they kept running the ads.  Sad.

Representatives Join the Throng: They Know Nothing More Than Anybody Else

When we elect people to the House of Representatives or the Senate, we expect them to act in a way that is fitting to an elected official.  They should pass laws that are not made in the passion of the moment, and conduct themselves accordingly.

Three Representatives are not doing that.

They're all caught up in the Trayvon Martin situation, and are making horses arses out of themselves.

And once they cross that line, they need to decide what they're doing there, and if they can do their jobs.  If they can't, then they should resign and allow the voters of their districts choose someone who CAN do the job without resorting to race baiting.

Isn't that right, Congressman Bobbi Rush, Congresswoman Frederica Wilson and Congressman Hank Johnson?

These three individuals have no more idea as to what happened the day Trayvon Martin was killed, any more than anyone else does.  The difference is that they've also rushed to judgment, just like President Obama and "Reverend" Sharpton and Spike Lee and a lot of other people have.

Do your frigging jobs, elected officials, and set the example.  I suggest reviewing the parts of your oaths that say you swear to uphold the Constitution.  Even the parts that are inconvenient to you. 

SHAME ON YOU!

Spike Lee ReTweets Wrong Address for Location of George Zimmerman; Elderly Couple Has to Leave Their Home Because of This

Spike Lee, you idiot!

In the ongoing black lynch mob aggression against George Zimmerman, director Spike Lee decided to retweet an alleged address of George Zimmerman, who is in the center of the controversy over the killing of Trayvon Martin, and got it wrong.  HUGELY wrong.

Now an elderly couple has been forced to leave their home out of fear that vigilantes will break in and hurt them.  They've received all kinds of hate mail, threats and been forced out.

It's another sad chapter of this story of rushing to dead or alive vigilantism put on by President Obama, "Reverend" Sharpton, and the New Black Panther Party, and a lot of stupid people out there who are being lead along like SHEEP being prodded along by a shepherd in the WRONG DIRECTION!

Is President Obama going to call these senior citizens to apologize for what's happened to them?  Is "Reverend" Sharpton going to stand beside this couple on camera to tell the vigilantes to leave these poor people alone?  Is Spike Lee going to apologize for doing what he did?

I'll be shocked if they do.

And what about the idiot in California who started this?  He's done major damage.

This is the worst case of group-think that I've ever seen, from the observer-in-chief all the way down to the twits taking part in the demonstrations.  Shame on all of you!

Martin Shooting in Florida is an Example of a Modern Day Lynch Mob: People are Acting Totally Irrationally Without All the Facts

I’ve been watching President Obama and other black leaders lambast the guy who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, and their choice of words was equally as irrational as the black lynch mobs who have put a $10,000 bounty on the head of of his shooter.

Isn’t it bad enough that a man was shot and killed, without turning to the sort of vigilantism that blacks themselves have said that they have been the victims of in the past?   When will this cycle of viciousness end?

The race baiters like President Obama and Reverend Sharpton need to shut up, get the facts, mourn the dead and let the law take its course.  I’ll bet that neither of these leaders will admit that they screwed up, should the local authorities determine that the shooter was defending himself.

The New Black Panther Party should drop this idiotic bounty on this guy and let the wheels of justice turn WITHOUT their “assistance.'” A witness said that the victim was beating the hell out of the shooter, prior to the gunfire, which puts this into another category of law enforcement entirely.    That’s why the police haven’t arrested the shooter and are still investigating.

And ALL the people who have signed the petitions, and are holding rallies all over the place should remember that it is the job of the police and prosecutors to enforce the law AS IT IS WRITTEN, not as the lynch mob thinks it SHOULD BE.

Romney Is Going to Have a Hard Time Winning Michigan’s Primary: He Promised to Help the People of Michigan in 2008, But Then Got into Trouble in the Years Since

Mitt Romney’s campaign is in trouble in Michigan. 

As part of the 2008 primary season, he promised that he was going to help the people of Michigan get back to work if elected President, and people believed him.  Auto workers turned out in droves to support him.  He won the 2008 Michigan primary with their help and the support of a lot of others, but eventually withdrew from the race in favor of John McCain.

McCain lost to Obama, and Obama took office. 

The economy continued to tank.  The unemployment rate in Michigan skyrocketed, and the talk turned to bailing out the auto industry to save it.  

Romney went on record opposing the bailout and made critical comments about the bailout, which a majority of the auto workers, both laid off and current, supported.  The Obama Administration went forward with the bailout.

When Romney went public with his opposition to the bailout, it looked like he had broken his promise to help the people of Michigan to get back to work.  When he said that the auto industry should go bankrupt, that didn’t sit well with people in Michigan cities where the auto companies were the largest employers.  I can remember people down here talking about Romney’s statements and how displeased they were with him.

I think if Romney carries Michigan this time around, his majority will be a lot slimmer than it was in 2008, because I don’t see the auto industry supporting him this time around, the way they did four years ago.

There is no guarantee that Romney will carry this state at all.  It all depends on who turns out to vote on Election Day.  Whether the rest of Michigan was for the bailout, or against it, he’s lost a major block of voters.  That’s how it is.

Iran and North Korea Are Waiting in the Wings for the U.S. to Downsize Its Military: Cutting 500,000 Troops Will Lead into the Next Ground War, as History Has Already Shown Us

Every time an Administration cuts the United States armed forces, and focuses in on increasing air assets, the decision bites us hard and we end up in another land war.

That’s been the pattern since Truman downsized the U.S. military, following the end of World War II.  We went from an Army of eight million soldiers to an Army of 500,000 under arms.  The Soviets were emboldened enough to blockade Berlin, North Korea was emboldened enough to invade South Korea, then China was emboldened enough to enter the Korean War after most of North Korea was overrun by U.S. and U.N. troops.  This pattern was repeated again and again when a U.S. President would cut troops in favor of air superiority. 

We are definitely in danger of repeating history.  President Obama wants more unmanned drones instead of ground troops, but drones cannot maintain the peace as effectively as a powerful ground force can.

North Korea, Iran and Venezuela have been emboldened over the last ten years because we were fighting two major wars at the same time, and much of our military strength was involved in occupying Afghanistan and Iraq.  Before that, they were afraid of the American military, but they’re still in the mind-set that our military is too worn down to take them on at the moment. 

Those nations mentioned should be afraid of the U.S. military and where they might strike next.  Instead, if we cut the size of the Army and the Marines, we may end up fighting another ground war against an enemy who thinks they can win.  Especially North Korea.

They can make cuts elsewhere instead of getting rid of our ability to fight two major wars simultaneously.  And these kinds of cuts should not be made while we still have 97,000 troops in combat in Afghanistan.

GOP Sanctions Florida for Holding an Early Primary: Here We Go Again

The GOP hit Florida with sanctions today, because Florida had the brass to do what the remaining 48 states should have done as well: hold an early primary date.  Here we go again…

Here’s what I think of this:  New Hampshire and every other state in the union should have voted on the same day.

“That’ll never work?”  Wrong!  We hold a general election on November 7th in all 50 states, in no fewer than five time zones.  These candidates ran around to every county in Iowa, and there’s 99 of them.  They can make it work.

Instead, we are forced to follow idiotic rules of both parties that disenfranchise voters whose states who have dared to voice their opinion on the matter.

Except this time, the GOP is acting stupidly….last time it was the Democrats who robbed Florida and Michigan of their say in the selection of the respective nominees.   The GOP took half our delegates and laughed at the way the Democrats were handling it.

I don’t respect the GOP decision to punish Florida or any other state for violating the “no early primary” rule.  Every state should have pushed back after what happened four years ago, and scheduled their primary when THEY wanted it, regardless of the GOP or DNC preferences. 

If every state scheduled an early primary, these rules would collapse and a fairer system would emerge.   But when one or two states buck the system, the national Dems and Reps try to make examples out of them and end up punishing the people who they need to turn out on Election Day.

12/14/11 Update

Politics has taken a back seat for a while.  I should be back into it after the New Year, with the upcoming elections, and the 2012 nonsense just around the corner.

Finance Super-Committee Says “We Blew It”: Are We Really All That Surprised that Congress Can’t Get the Job Done?

The Congressional “Super-Committee” (that really isn’t all that super) is preparing to announce that they “blew it” and have failed to come up with ANY cuts to the budget whatsoever.  So now they’re wasting time, arguing over how they’re going to announce that they’ve failed.

Are we really all that surprised?  This is Congress we’re talking about, after all.

If they were serious about this, they would have begun meeting three months ago, when the “super-committee” was announced.  They just started meeting a week or two ago.    The only thing super about this committee is the super-hype.   I hope they all get voted out of office.

And so should any Congress person who votes to remove the triggers, which were put in place by the last budget ceiling bill.  If anything, they should be ADDING to the triggers that will go into effect in 2013 (which was also a mistake.)  They should be going into effect the day after Thanksgiving.  That would give the cuts some teeth.

Unfortunately, the military will take the brunt of the cuts, amounting to some $600 billion.  It’s unfortunate.  The military has a lot of rebuilding to do to get into trim to fight the next war, as they should be, and always are, preparing for.  Getting out of Iraq will help the military do that, and will also help our budget.

Hard choices will need to be made, but not by this Congress or President.   They’ve wasted far too much time; we’re at 101% of GDP, and it’s getting worse.   Talk about lame ducks---we’ve got 535 of them in Congress.

I’d be in favor of a financial blockade of all 535 members.  No contributions to any of their campaigns until they come up with a way to make steep cuts, in the trillions, not in the billions like the Democrats want.  It would only work if established donors joined this blockade.

When austerity comes to this country, it isn’t going to be pretty.   The government should make the changes now, while there’s still a choice over what to cut.  Because the day is coming when entire departments will be slashed, and the national government budget crashed, and the prized entitlements that the Democrats are so viciously defending will go away too.  I would think they’d want to make changes now, so that their entire program, whatever it is, doesn’t collapse.

This Congress must not delete or delay the triggers.  The only thing they should change is the start date—move it from 1/1/2013, to 1/1/2012.

That’ll never happen either.

Why Are We Surprised That Gadhafi Was Executed? The Libyan Rebels Said What They Were Going to Do, and Then They Did It

What’s with all this international racket about Gadhafi being executed?  

The Libyan rebels said what they were going to do, and then they did it, regardless of the international community’s wish to place him on trial for crimes against humanity.   This madman murdered tens of thousands of people over the last 40+ years to stay in power, including many thousands more in the last six months alone.

It’s their country; we’re only interfering in their internal affairs.  If they wanted Gadhafi alive, NATO shouldn’t have bombed his convoy to begin with.   It’s a final fiasco to the international fiasco that this intervention has been from the get-go.

If they really wanted Gadhafi alive, they could have tried for a capture in Niger with no Libyan rebels around.  But they chose to attack his convoy on Libyan soil with Libyan rebels already firing on the convoy.  We will fit that decision into the “well, DUH!” category.

No investigation into Gadhafi’s death is necessary.  Everyone already knows what happened.  Gadhafi was captured after being wounded, and summarily executed by his own people.   The international community ought to get off its high horse and let this nightmare that they’ve contributed to reach its final conclusion. 

Instead of wasting time on investigating how Gadhafi came to die, perhaps the international community would best be served by investigating where Gadhafi put billions in Libyan money, and how best to return that stolen money to the new Libyan government.

Liberal Media Asks “Who is Responsible for Organizing the “Occupy” Movement?” Their Friends Are, That’s Who!

Some liberal media outlets are asking who is responsible for the “Occupy” movement across America.

Their liberal, socialist and anarchist friends are, of course.   

The strength of the protests seems to be dependent of how bad off the local economies are.  In the United States, the range of protesters is anywhere from 16-5,000 protesters.   The largest protests have been in Los Angeles and in Washington, DC (an estimated 5,000 protesters each). 

Overseas, the protests have been much bigger as they have huge problems in places like Spain, where their big protests have drawn anywhere from 40,000 to 500,000 people.  They’re protesting against austerity measures being taken by their governments.  And they’re already accustomed to Socialist governments in Europe.  Greece has had huge protests, and they’ve turned really violent.

The protests that are taking place in Arab countries are part of the ongoing Arab Spring protests and happened to coincide with the protests taking place in the West. 

The “Occupy” protesters in America are calling for an October Revolution and should be taken as a  warning.  What are they proposing to replace our current economic system with?  A Soviet-style economy?  That’s already a proven failure.

Those protesting do not represent the other 98% of people who disagree with them.  They have their own agenda, except for the idiots who have joined in and have no idea of what they’re protesting, or even what they want if they should gain any traction.

I think the political impact that these protests will have in 2012 will not make much of a difference.  Obama’s going to have a very tough re-election bid, and many incumbents, regardless of which party they belong to, will also be out of their jobs as well.  We already know that’s going to happen.  Congress is at an 11% approval rating.

I also think that the press coverage is out of proportion to the actual protests taking place, and that they’re trying to cash in on the unhappiness of the American public, most of whom have no intention of joining the Occupy movement and do not feel their interests are represented there.

Florida Goes After Unfair Primary Election System Again: They’ve Scheduled Their Election for Late January, In Violation of Rules that Favor Four States Over All the Others

Florida has again violated the peculiar primary election system that allows Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada to hold their primary elections first, at the expense of the other 46 states. 

They’ve gone ahead and scheduled their primary election for January 31st, which violates RNC rules that state there can be no elections, except for the four favored states, prior to March 6th.  If a state does, they risk losing half of their voting power at the convention under the GOP rules, and all of their voting power at the Democratic convention. 

Florida and Michigan bucked the system four years ago and were punished by the DNC for doing so, and to a lesser extent by the GOP.  (The DNC discounted all Florida and Michigan votes, the RNC docked half the votes).  

The other 45 states should also schedule their primaries prior to March 6th.   What better way to force both parties to change their rules and come up with a system that addresses the needs of ALL the states, and not just the current four?

I have nothing against voters in those four states.  But it’s a system that never should have been agreed to by either party in the first place.  

Liberals Should Remember That They Created the Very Environment that Allowed Right Wing News Media and Talk Radio to Thrive In: If They’re Unhappy With Getting Trounced on TV and on Radio, They Should Realize That The Ones They Should Be Blaming Are Staring Back at Them in the Mirror

Lots of liberals blast Fox News for leaning right (aka pointing stuff out that the liberals would rather sweep under the carpet.)  They go after people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and other conservative talk-radio people for getting people fired up about the never-ending conservative vs. liberal debate on just about every issue.

And they cannot figure out why liberal talk radio programs and channels do not succeed on the air.  Air America went bankrupt because their business model set itself up to fail.  They couldn’t match the audiences that Limbaugh, Hannity and Savage get, nor could they attract the kind of advertisers who purchase airtime by the bushel from their conservative rivals.

And they don’t want to admit that by dominating the news with their own viewpoints for decades, they gave birth to an audience that got tired of the liberal slant on things and was hungry for the other side of the story.  And when conservative talk radio and Fox News came around, their appetites increased. 

Perhaps if the liberal media had done their jobs in presenting the news, without trying to influence it as they have tried to do over the decades, the audience for conservative news and talk radio wouldn’t be so huge and liberal news networks wouldn’t be getting creamed in the ratings, week after week after week.

I don’t have a lot of sympathy for those who cry about Fox News not being a “true” journalistic entity due to THEIR slant on stuff.  Reap what you’ve sown, liberal media.

Key to Saving U.S. Postal Service is Quite Easy: Congress Needs to Quit Making Them Prepay 75 Years Worth of Pensions in Ten Years

In 2006, the USPS made money, and their outstanding debt was $2.1 billion.

In 2011, their projected losses exceed $11 billion, and they’re running into their outstanding debt ceiling of $15 billion and are looking at closing 3,700 post offices, laying off 100,000 people, ending Saturday deliveries and overnight deliveries, and closing down the USPS in mid-2012.

What happened?

People started paying their bills online, and doing other things via the Internet.  That accounts for part of the drop.

The other thing that happened is that Congress passed a law in 2006 that stated  the USPS must prepay 75 years of pensions in 10 years in order to keep their pension plans in good shape for the future.   According to this article, within three years of implementation, the Post Office was $10.2 billion in debt.

Who is the idiot who thought up this dumb law?

75 years worth of pensions in 10 years?  I think prepaying 5-10 years is much more reasonable than 75 years.

If Congress wants to save the Post Office, they should revoke and then rewrite this insanity.   They can fund the retirement program at a much more reasonable rate than what they’re doing now.  And without killing the Post Office too.

WikiLeaks Blames Guardian Newspaper for Allowing Previously Blacked Out Information in U.S. Government Cables to Be Seen: Baloney! WikiLeaks Posted the Information, So They’re Ultimately Responsible and Should Take the Responsibility

All of the data (251,000+ documents) that WikiLeaks has is now accessible on the web, with names of informants included.   All one needs is the password, which is being circulated online.   WikiLeaks is blaming the Guardian newspaper for posting the password, but who posted the material in the first place?

That was not the Guardian, or any other publication who did that.  WIKILEAKS did that.  And they should take total responsibility for any harm that comes to people whose identities were not protected, as WikiLeaks promised that they would.

This is all on WikiLeaks, and Julian Assange,and no one else.  They should quit trying to throw blame onto others.

U.S. Espionage Act of 1917 is Outdated and Needs to Be Fixed: Current Law Can Convict People Without Judges Ever Seeing the Materials

In the last three years, five people have been charged with violations of the 1917 Espionage Act, including one fellow who disclosed that the FBI and the NSA were spying on the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

But at the time that he was convicted, no one knew that; not even the judge assigned to the case.  The man who was convicted was a former FBI Hebrew translator who came to be in possession of top secret material in the form of wiretaps from the Israeli Embassy.  Entire conversations between Embassy officials, their top supporters in this country, and Embassy  conversations with members of Congress were captured electronically, as were emails, faxes and other digital mediums. 

The Obama Administration buried what had happened deep so that it would never come to light, as spying on an ally isn’t a very nice thing to do.

The translator, who was afraid that Israel was going to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, passed the information on to a blogger, who held onto the information for a while, then broke the story in the last few days. 

The government uses the Espionage Act to discipline federal employees who violate government secrecy.   I don’t have a real issue with that point, as the government does need to keep some stuff classified and expects its employees to be secret-keepers and to keep the trust. 

But once someone is charged, like the translator mentioned above who WAS correctly charged with breaking the law, if the government sees fit to bring the case to court, the judge should have an idea of what sort of materials were disclosed.   To blindly allow a conviction without seeing the materials reeks of star chamber justice, which is illegal under U.S. law.

The next time the government brings a case, the judge should tell the government to give him/her more information, or face the possibility of the judge throwing the case straight out of court.

Once the material is given away or sold, the cat’s out of the bag anyways.  Assuring the judge and the jury that a crime by others isn’t being covered up under a veil of secrecy isn’t as big a deal as the original loss of the data or material. 

FCC Drops Fairness Doctrine: This is a Step in the Right Direction

The Federal Communications Commission decided to drop the Fairness Doctrine, and 83 other obsolete measures that were media-related as part of its reorganization (“reform agenda”).

The dropping of the Fairness Doctrine is good news, as it will protect talk-radio, both conservative and liberal, from being effectively silenced.  It will give the consumer the choice of what kind of talk radio they prefer to listen to.

I don’t know about the other measures that they dropped, but the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine from the agenda is a step in the right direction.  I’m still looking at all the others.

British Riots Make No Sense: Rioters Come From a Wide Variety of Backgrounds, Have Nice Jobs and And Are Not Gang Members

Like many, I’ve been watching the riots taking place across Britain and find myself wondering…why are people over there doing this?

I thought that it was gangs at work, as described by the Prime Minister, but the British courts have started dispensing justice to accused rioters, and it’s a veritable who’s who of British society: primary school workers, lifeguards, organic chefs, musicians, children of millionaires (I did a double take when I read that), college students, real estate agents, opera stewards, postmen, charity workers, hairdressers, professional and semi-professional football (British) players, Olympic ambassadors (another double-take), and dozens of other respectable sorts.   And tons of kids are standing before the judges too.

They have been charged with a wide variety of crimes, including stealing, various forms of theft, concealment of stolen property, throwing bricks at police and police vehicles, violent disorder, assaulting an ambulance crew, mugging, lying to police, racial crimes, inciting violent disorder (Facebook), arson, destruction of property (public and private), handling stolen goods, carrying weapons, using weapons during the commission of a crime, obstructing police, assaulting police officers, and up to eighty other crimes not listed here.

The sheer volume of what was taken is extraordinary too.  One guy broke into a bicycle shop and stole the equivalent of $32,500 worth of cycles.  What was he going to do with all those bikes?  Ride them around?  Try to sell them?  He was also accused of breaking into two other shops and stealing money, cigarettes, and other assorted stuff and causing major damage to both shops.

Another idiot stole the equivalent of $65,000 worth of plasma TVs, computers, and other electronic equipment.  He’s been denied bail and will be back in court next week.

The police are also said to be going after people who were invited to attend the riots on Facebook, and very stupidly said “yes” to the invites as well, or joined the pages.   The police really like having their suspects lined up in a row like that on a Facebook page.

I’m sure there are some gangs involved in the mischief, but the majority seem to be unthinking and greedy people who took advantage of the trouble.

Unbelievable.

Point of Order: Changes to the Electoral College Require a Constitutional Amendment; States Can’t Write Laws to Arbitrarily Change It Without Taking a Few Steps First

I’ve become aware over the years of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, or an agreement between several states to throw their Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote.

It’s back in the news as California governor Brown signed the compact, making California the eighth state to join the compact.

This smells of election rigging, and here’s why.  If the majority of voters of California choose, for instance, a Republican candidate for President, but his/her Democratic candidate wins the popular vote nationwide, all of California’s electoral votes go to the candidate that the majority of California voters didn’t choose.

This is inherently unfair, and runs the risk of disenfranchising large blocks of voters (the other 49% of their populations??!)

I also couldn’t help but notice that the eight states (and DC) that are in this Compact either lean or are heavily Democratic:  Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, Hawaii, Washington, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, Vermont and California.

Definitely smells of election tampering.

States can decide themselves how they determine their electors, as enshrined in the Constitution in Article II, Section 1, Clause 2.   However, it is unknown if this compact needs Congressional approval, as it seems to indicate in the same article, same section, under Clause 3.   The whole thing may not even be Constitutional. 

I think one of more of the small states will challenge it in court if their influence is threatened, and it’ll end up going to the Supreme Court eventually. 

Veterans Administration Really Needs to Get It Together and Start Taking Better Care of Our Returning Veterans Who Are Suffering from PTSD and Other Mental Issues

There’s a report out that eighteen veterans a day are committing suicide.

And the VA continues to make veterans who are already feeling suicidal wait a minimum of eight weeks for someone to see them.   They can’t continue doing that!  Nor can they just hand a suffering veteran a pamphlet and a bag full of sleeping pills and anti-depressants to deal with their Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Delaying disability paperwork for months is irresponsible, too.  It’s gotten to a point that lawsuits are underway, and one judge called the VA’s handling of veterans as “unchecked incompetence.”

Would the veterans do better seeing civilian medical experts, rather than government ones?   I think the answer is “yes.”  SOMETHING’S got to change, because the current system is failing those who need it the most.

We can do much better than this.

The Way That the U.S. Government is Releasing Bin Laden Information, They Have BECOME WikiLeaks: We Don’t Need to Know Everything

The government has released much more information than they should have concerning materials seized during the raid on Bin Laden. 

Particularly troubling is the release of information contained in Bin Laden’s diary, which describes new specific terror plans to disrupt the U.S. and the West.

Anyone in counterintelligence will tell you that you don’t tip off the enemy that you know about their plans.  You allow it to continue, while turning some of the operatives involved, so that the entire operation can be taken down in one stroke, instead of having them disappear into the shadows, only to have them reappear months later with plans we don’t know about.

Our government should keep al-Qaeda guessing as to what we actually do know, while chasing down every lead.

The government needs to control the information much more than they have.

Double Standard Hypocrisy: It’s OK for the Muslim World to Celebrate America’s Failures, But When Our Citizens Do The Same to Celebrate Bin Laden’s Downfall, the US Gets Criticized for Offending Muslim Sensibilities?

I’ve got a bone to pick with the double standard that we’re seeing in international relationships between America and the Muslim world.

It involves the take down of Osama bin Laden and the subsequent spontaneous outburst of celebration of Americans around the country, that was widely reported in the media, both here and abroad.

Before continuing, I need to say that I was not one of the ones who was out there who was celebrating the death of a mortal enemy.   I was relieved that the SEALs got him, that’s for sure.  And I was glad that our enemy had been delivered into American hands, thanks to the tireless efforts of the military and our intelligence community.  

But I do NOT celebrate death, even to a misguided soul like bin Laden’s.  I would have preferred taking him alive, in spite of the dubious state of our legal system when it comes to habeas corpus and military commissions.

But now, four days after bin Laden’s death,  those who were out at all hours of late Sunday night and early Monday morning who chose to celebrate bin Laden’s downfall are being criticized for being insensitive to Muslim sensibilities.  HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!

It occurs to me that the ones who are criticizing the outpouring of emotion over here show NO such awareness or sensitivity to AMERICAN sensibilities in recent years when Muslim governments organized anti-American demonstrations over OUR misfortunes. 

The hypocrisy in the media and the Muslim world is ASTOUNDING!

After ten years of sacrifices, I think our fellow Americans have earned the right to observe the passing of bin Laden HOWEVER THEY CHOOSE TO.  And the rest of the world should GET OVER IT! 

Pakistan is No Ally of Ours: They’ve Been Playing Both Sides From the Get-Go, Got Caught Red-Handed, and Has Egg in Their Faces

Is there anyone out there who REALLY believes that Pakistan had no idea that Osama bin-Laden was living less than eight hundred yards from a Pakistani Army base? 

I don’t.

It appears our government doesn’t buy that idea at all. 

They launched the operation to get bin-Laden without Pakistani involvement, penetrated Pakistani airspace, mounted a major attack within eyesight and earshot of thousands of Pakistani troops, killed bin-Laden, blew up one of their own choppers after it suffered engine problems, loaded bin-Laden’s body and the booty from his hideout and withdrew from Pakistani airspace in a back-up chopper.  Our leaders then notified the Pakistani leadership that the attack had taken place, but not while the U.S. task force was still within Pakistani airspace.

The reason why is they couldn’t trust the Pakistanis. 

They might well have notified bin-Laden to head for the hills as the choppers were inbound.   Or had their troops fire on the SEALs.

There are elements of the Pakistani military and intelligence service who have been actively aiding the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and there was no guarantee who the Pakistani President might have notified in the Pakistani military hierarchy, or if foreknowledge of the attack would reach those bin-Laden supporters.

Pakistan doesn’t know what they’re doing with their internal security.   I think Pakistan is a bigger risk than Iran is right now, as Pakistan already has nuclear weapons, has a major Taliban presence, and is protecting them.

I do not believe that the Pakistani President knew that bin-Laden was where he was.  But I think that ObL had to have the help of elements of the Pakistani military to camp out half a mile from a major Pakistani military base.  And I don’t think that the Pakistani President looked hard enough, or asked the right people the right questions.

And the fact that bin-Laden’s been there SIX YEARS?

Pakistan can’t be trusted.  They were never really on our side to begin with; they were the ones who STARTED the Taliban in the first place.  

The mujahedeen that we supported in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the 1980s ended up fighting Pakistani-backed Taliban forces in the 1990s Afghan civil war, and lost.   Surviving mujahedeen formed the Northern Alliance, which the U.S. supported against the Taliban in 2001.

Pakistan is a state sponsor of terrorism.   The aid needs to be cut immediately; they aren’t doing what they pledged to do with the funding and fight terrorism…they’re aiding people like bin-Laden.  Why are we giving them billions of dollars?

Congratulations to the U.S. Military on Getting bin-Laden

After nearly a decade of war and covert operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the U.S. military went after bin-Laden, after intelligence confirmed his location.   And they got him.

Congratulations and THANK YOU to the U.S. military for closing the book on bin-Laden.   Hopefully it’s a step closer to bringing the Afghan war to a close.