Sep 26, 2012

Two Americas

Eating caviar in Zuccotti Park amongst
the Occupy Wall Street protests.
I hear about the 47% who are on food stamps or on some kind of Federal assistance - and then I hear about the folks who are standing in line to get a cell phone that's 'slightly' better than the phone they already have in their pockets.

That's the red state and the blue states. That's the state of the nation. There's such a divide between what is important, and why it's important - it isn't about Obama or Romney - it's about the complete and total disconnect from America First World and the other half.

What can be done about it? Well, I suppose a compromise for both camps of economic theory. To understand that the one half is going to pull the other one into the crapper fairly soon - and I actually can make a case for the have-nots doing it, but the other half already struck first with the housing market and financial meltdowns. And their complete and total refusal to understand that the 'takers' have no other option than to ask for a handout - or hand up - but they're just getting a finger from that side. At least, that's how it looks when Romney talks about the typical Obama voter.

To have a rational discussion about supply side economics - or Trickle Down (I always envision a two story outhouse for the visual) - it's fairly clear how spot on it works. Once the millionaires and the big corporations took huge hits in 08, they stopped spending. Immediately. It took, what, two months to trickle down to pink slips across the country? And now, since the 1% and companies, like Apple, are sitting on huge piles of cash, there's an outcry that they should start hiring or spending that money - That would be someone asking for supply side economics to open the spigot, would it not? Kind of ironic to bash that system when it's clear that's what you're asking for - even if you don't 'believe in it'.

So, there's a fiscal cliff on the horizon. No one, and I mean no one is talking about it. Tax breaks are expiring, 10% cuts in, er, everything is coming. And the current players in Washington caused it, and what have the done to address it? Go on vacation to bash their opponents in their re-election campaigns. Is it too soon to worry about the debt crisis (16 Trillion) before the economy is repaired and folks are back to work? I don't know, and neither does anyone else -- but what's dangerous, is that's what these politicians were paid and placed there to figure out.

At some point, someone's going to have to come to the rational middle, yes, both sides of the fringe, and realize that if half the country is playing out the Walking Dead - and the other half is watching it on AMC - it's all going to go to hell. And really quickly.

The 'rich' are going to have to discover, like they did in the Gilded Age, that if they fund the hospitals and the schools, their own personal habitat is less likely to be filled with zombies. Their own children will not be getting the polio and less likely to watch a reality show if the personal health and education of the society is improved. What's that worth?

And the other side of the fringe is going to have to concede that not all that charity work should be done by fifteen layers of bureaucrats in marble government facilities. If the problem is too large - then that's where government programs could assist - not necessarily operate unending programs. Like a consultancy.

To take it to the next level - maybe the PEOPLE should be more assertive and active in what programs should be funded and prioritized? A Kickstarter, hell, even a Reddit, of registered voters could tell the elected officials what the priorities for their communities are. The school playground is falling down, but there are 43 kids in your kid's class room. We can either hire another teacher, or fix the playground. Or maybe we can fund both, but we're going to have to ask for a bake sale. We could raise taxes, but wouldn't a voluntary hand out be more effective? A one time raising of funds over a constant and un-retractable pile of money once accounted for is expected to rise with inflation, forever? "Well, if we don't spend it, we won't get the funding next year" mentality is killing everyone.

Maybe it's just a pipe dream, but it doesn't seem impossible. Is it?


Sep 25, 2012

Safe!

Well, at least the needs of the ref's might now be brought up in the public forum.

Sep 19, 2012

Posted Without Comment




Agreement



Oh come on, now, there are MANY things both Democrats and Republicans agree on. Like expanding the TSA, allowing the FED to print as much money as it wants, keeping the military spending high, staying in Afghanistan, keeping Guantanamo open, increasing federal spending when there isn't any...

Sep 18, 2012

The 47%

To put in context what Romney was blabbing on and on about at that dinner that was taped (honestly, candidates, you should ALWAYS ASSUME there's an open microphone in the room!) and was discussing the 47% -- here's what he was talking about.


As of the latest accounting, it's actually just over 46 percent of Americans who pay no federal income taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center (PDF). Here's how that breaks down.
Who Does and Doesn't Pay Income Tax?

Sep 17, 2012

Hitler's Chidren

Seeing as how Little Hitlers is one of the MOST read post on Blasphemes.com... I thought some of you would be very interested in this... (not the Elvis Costello song, of course)

Their family name alone evokes horror: Himmler, Frank, Goering, Hoess. This film looks at the descendants of the most powerful figures in the Nazi regime: men and women who were left a legacy that indelibly associates them with one of the greatest abominations in history. What is it like to have grown up with a name that immediately raises images of genocide? How do they live with the weight of their ancestors' crimes? Is it possible to move on from the crimes of their ancestors?

Director
Chanoch Ze'evi
Producer
Chanoch Ze'evi

Original post by One F

The Foreign Policy Speech Romney Should Give

The Foreign Policy Speech Romney Should Give www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com By Robert A. Hall

Good evening, my fellow America Patriots. I use that phrase advisedly, because it is American Patriots—those who love this country and cherish our system of free political institutions, free enterprise and limited government—I wish to address. You and I know those institution have made us a prosperous and happy people and our country both a shining ideal to which the world’s poor and oppressed want to come, and the target of those who loath liberty.

From the founding of our Republic to the events of the present day, those institutions have been under assault from enemies abroad who hate our freedom and prosperity, and from misguided individuals at home who believe that they can create an all-powerful and utopian government that can better make decisions for you than you can for yourself. They believe that America’s constitution and prosperous economic system are no more entitled to a claim of exceptionalism and our loyalty than any other system or culture.

We have seen the results of that utopian belief in unlimited government power on our prosperity. We have seen it in a job crisis that has kept the official unemployment rate above 8% for years, and the real unemployment rate, counting those under-employed, those who have had to take part-time jobs, those whose benefits have run out and those who have given up looking, that is far higher than 8%. We see it in the continuing weakness in the housing market, in the unprecedented growth of government debt, and in private sector businesses--which the president says are doing fine—increasingly unwilling to expand investment to create jobs in the face of government growth and economic uncertainty.

And we see it in the failure of this president’s foreign policy on diverse and disastrous fronts across the globe. It is of President Obama’s manifest foreign policy failures that I wish to speak to you tonight.

It is no secret that far too many in the media believe the duty of a journalist is not to present unbiased facts to American voters to let them make up their own minds, but to advocate for an agenda, shaping the debate so as to help the president’s political campaign, even at the expense of the country. We saw that when they were inadvertently caught on tape, like the president promising the Russian strongman more flexibility after the election, coordinating their “gotcha” questions to help the Obama campaign.

In support of their efforts to politicize the news and to shape the agenda, they have created the meme that it is not what is happening in the world that is the problem, but rather my speaking out about it. The same people who cheered then-Senator Obama in 2008 and Senator Kerry in 2004 when they criticized President Bush’s foreign policy while American troops were in battle now insult your intelligence by saying that this president’s foreign policy should be off limits during a campaign, or that criticism of him is based not on his clear failures but his ethnic heritage. Unfortunately, this contemptible lie propagated by the Obama campaign water-carriers in the media resonates with some voters who are less attuned to events and less inclined to seek out the facts.

The facts are these. What we are seeing today across the world is the direct result of perceived American weakness, of this president’s unwillingness to champion American values and to support America’s friends like Israel and the friends of freedom like the Iranian resistance against those who wish both us and freedom ill.

We see an American Ambassador and his staff murdered with the connivance of the very people this president sent American troops to risk their lives for and billions of your tax dollars to aid. We see American soil in American embassies assaulted by radicals in coordinated attacks by whipping up mobs over the excuse of a poorly-made, little known private video, while governments to whom we have given billions of your tax dollars in aid turn a blind eye, secure in the knowledge that this administration is so eager to buy them off, it will go on paying tribute regardless of their actions.

We see it in timid half-measures toward Iran, even as they seek nuclear weapons while promising the destruction of America and Israel. Must we lose New York City, Washington DC or Tel Aviv before we get serious about dealing with the mad mullahs?

We see it in the willingness of a tyrant like Hugh Chavez to suppress freedom in his country while threatening American interests and the security of his neighbors, secure in the knowledge that his leftist rhetoric makes him off limits to serious opposition from this administration.

We see it in an administration willing to provide thousands of guns to ruthless Mexican drug cartels, destabilizing that country and killing hundreds of Mexicans and two American agents, to further their anti-gun agenda. And then they lie and withhold information to cover it up.

We see it in an increasingly aggressive China willing to muscle both our allies like Japan, South Korea and the Philippines as well as their old allies like Vietnam, secure in the knowledge that our strong natural desire for good economic and political relations with them, and our need for their continued funding of a portion of our burgeoning debt means that we must acquiesce in their domination of their smaller neighbors.

We see it most of all in the unwillingness of this administration to name the enemy that seeks to destroy our way of life. That enemy—let us be clear—is Islamic Extremism and Islamic Supremacism. The president and leaders on both sides of the political aisle are perfectly correct in saying that we are not at war with Islam and I assure you we will never be at war with Islam under a Romney administration. Indeed, we must never forget that the most frequent victims of the daily catalog of murders and outrages by the extremists are decent Muslims who want to live in peace and freedom, seeking only prosperity for their families. But President Obama has never understood, in fact seems incapable of understanding, that it takes two sides to make peace, only one side to make war. Islamic extremism is growing, is often funded by our erstwhile friends, numbers millions of adherents and is able to manipulate the emotions of tens of millions more poor and ignorant Muslims who are understandable frustrated at the poverty created by the lack of economic and political freedom in their countries. And they are at war with us, with western civilization, and with the majority of peaceful Muslims, and have been for decades. Wishing it were not so will not change that painful fact. They give us only the options of defense, or defeat and death.

That Islamic extremism is not centrally directed as were the Nazi or Stalinist regimes does not make it either less understandable or less of a threat to our lives and liberties. That the threat can spring up undirected among our own citizens does not make the deaths of our soldiers in Little Rock or at Fort Hood any less casualties of that war than those who have sacrificed while wearing the uniform of the Republic in Iraq or Afghanistan. And when I’m president, their families will receive the appropriate recognition of their sacrifice. That is the least this country can do for their service.
This frightening growth of Islamic extremism is fed by an American posture of apologetic weakness. Over thirty years of attacks, terror and murder of Americans, westerners and their fellow Muslims should have taught us that they will always find an excuse, be it a cartoon or a clownish YouTube video to ferment violence and mob terror. We must not feed the beast. We must stand with that majority of Muslims who desire peace, freedom and prosperity. We must support those Muslims who have to courage to speak out against extremism and terror. We must lead from the front, and abandon weak euphemisms like calling war “overseas contingency operations.”

We cannot defend women’s rights and other human rights at home if we fear to speak out against the oppression of women under Shari’a Law abroad. Being for tolerance for gay people at home is meaningless if we are supinely silent about the murder of gays in Iran and other intolerant countries at the hands is Islamic extremists.

American freedom, American prosperity and the aspirations of tens of millions of people around the world, Muslim and non-Muslim, depend on American strength, American leadership and American courage. If we fear to defend liberty out of fear for our lives, we shall find we have lost both life and liberty. We must stand with the friends of freedom and against extremism and aggression and terror.

We must honor and support the service and sacrifice of our gallant troops, and those of our allies, on whom our freedom depends. The future of all decent people in the world, regardless of nationality, religion or ethnic heritage, depend on our making that American policy. The president talked of change and in our foreign policy, change now is desperately needed. As your president, I will lead us to a new foreign policy that values freedom and life and prosperity, and stands against murder and extremism and terror. And I will not apologize for it

Thank you.

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in theMassachusetts Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of theAmerican Republic: And what you can do to prevent it. You can e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com

Mittens Made His In...

Golly Mittens, if it wasn't your ill timed gaffe about the Tweet sent from the US Egyptian Embassy asking the mob to not kill them, just before the embassy in Libya was hit -- this one screams more about you, who you surround yourself with, and the strategery (and apparent lack of) in this campaign.

You may have lost the election last week over that gaffe - if anyone gave a rip or was paying attention - but it's these little needles that keep popping wounds all over your campaign, every day, that's going to do you in.

Sure - there are three debates coming up. You may think that's a swell thing to hang your hat on... and it might be... unless your hat rack was also made in China.

Sep 14, 2012

Why So Pissed?

Violent protests against the now infamous anti-Muslim video surprisingly haven't ended with flowery statements of peace from President Obama, or Mrs. Hillary. Thousands of demonstrators currently are assaulting U.S. and Western diplomatic compounds in Tunisia, Sudan, and Yemen, and authorities are trying to quell the attacks with tear gas and bullets.

Since Tuesday's fatal aggression by militants in Benghazi and Cairo, protests have spread to Afghanistan, India, Bahrain, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Kuwait, Syria, Pakistan, and Qatar.

The message of the American flag-burning protesters seems to be universal: "Death to America."

In Iraq, one banner read: "Freedom doesn't mean offending two billion Muslims."

The production values of the video really are THAT bad. "It looks like bad, I mean, bad cable access. And I know what bad cable access video looks like, because I work in cable access," a reader confided in me.  Bad, I mean, terrible audio - white dudes in black face - green screen ability below used car shop skill levels, horrific acting, even the beards are costume shop clearance isle fare. No wonder the offended are murdering people.

I think it's time to give that another look:


It was so bad, I hear even Ben Affleck passed on it.

Hey, Sam Bacile, you have all the right to make this - but when you yell fire in the Middle East, you have to know what's coming. Just ask Salmon Rushdie... and he made a book of literature, not a pile of camel dung shot on a rented Sony PD 150 and cut on the free editor Microsoft Movie Maker that came with your computer. You may not want to eat out anytime soon, Sam.

Not Buying the Cover Story

Now that I've had a few seconds to get a couple beers in me, and really look at the evidence before me - and to respond to a comment in my previous post, I've come to a new conclusion.

This isn't about a film school reject's offensive, reprehensible, and irresponsible YouTube video montage. It's about pure rage, resentment, and a coordinated attack against American sovereignty. You know, the kind of coordinated attacks against American Embassies that led up to 9/11 exactly 11 years ago?

The Obama administration is doubling down on its theory that the attack a week ago on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was a "spontaneous" act, despite the Libyan president calling that idea "preposterous." 

The sharply divergent views on what led to the deadly strike in eastern Libya played out across the airwaves Sunday and are sure to generate more questions this week. In two interviews over the weekend, Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif joined other members of his government in declaring the attack a planned assault, possibly by an Al Qaeda-tied group. 

"The idea that this criminal and cowardly act was a spontaneous protest that just spun out of control is completely unfounded and preposterous," Megarif told NPR. 

But U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, in a string of interviews, stood by the administration's position that the Libya attack was just part of the wave of protests over the anti-Islam video circulating on the Internet.

Sep 10, 2012

Teacher's Union Strike


Frankly, I think that the whole thing was a set up.

It's an elaborate play by Rahm to privatize the entire CPS. The teachers walk after not getting their pay raise, and after the mayor imposed a longer day with zero discussion. Of course they're going to strike - they're pissed off and are being vilified on the national stage. How hard is it going to be for Rahm to make the case that the whole system should be handed over to the 'charter schools' so that this sort of 'disruption' never happens again?

Then the teachers will be laid off, and schools closed, and quite suddenly the Chicago schools become a business, not a function of government. Is it a coincidence that many of the charter schools are named after people who have funded union-busting initiatives and legislation?

The losers are the blood-wrung stones that are the Chicago taxpayers, and their kids.

Bear Hugging The President

Mr. Obama's bus tour through Florida made a pizza stop in Ft. Pierce on Sunday. Upon meeting restaurant owner Scott Van Duzer, Obama exclaimed: "Scott, let me tell you, you are like the biggest pizza shop owner I've ever seen."

Duzer then wrapped Obama in a bear hug and lifted him into the air, much to the delight of onlookers -- and likely the chagrin of his security detail.

Duzer is a registered Republican who voted for Obama in 2008, and plans to do so again in November.

Sep 7, 2012

The Set Up



Followed immediately by, yeah, by getting you out of the White House.

Truth is, folks, who's a better manager of handling the collapse? Mitt's done that with failing companies, and the folks who brokered the deal made money. Obama's team ran Chicago into the ground, and there's a looming teacher strike and the worst murder rate in the Western world. 

There's your choice. Who would you rather get your pink slip from? 

Sep 4, 2012

Same Old Song

This one is getting more traction than Dirty Harry talking to an empty chair...

One thing you can see, is how Mr. Obama has aged in 4 years.

And if he keeps repeating himself, wouldn't you think he wouldn't need the prompter anymore?