Sequestration Frustration

"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that, too." – Somerset Maugham

If you haven't been reading my work for the last year and couple months, you know that I've been discussing the spectre of Sequestration for a while now. It's become quite popular, suddenly, but amazingly, not a peep about it was discussed by either candidate in the entire run up to the election. 

Let's pretend you don't know that Sequestration was the cop-out to negotiation between the Democrats (Government isn't big enough to solve every problem) and the Republicans (the Government could be a 'little' bit smaller, unless my constituents are involved) when kicking the can during the debt ceiling 'debate'. Theater is a better word than debate, but I don't like getting bogged down in semantics. 

So these 'automatic', 'across the board' cuts were to placate the Tea Party People, and reduce the growth of the government by 10% - which instead of rolling up their sleeves and performing vertical banded gastroplasty on the morbidly obese Congressional continuing resolutions - (Reminder, there hasn't been a Budget since 2009 when Nancy Pelosi lost her gavel) they decided a nice trim would do the trick.

Now, it's armageddon.  

Well, if you listen to NPR All Things Considered, it is. Airplanes will fall out of the sky, your food will be poisoned, children will be picked up out of Head Start kindergarten classes and kicked out to the curb, and seniors will starve to death because they won't get their meals on wheels.

The monsters.

Let's go over the reality, for just a second. It's not popular to do that, but I write for Blasphemes.blogspot.com. I don't have a lot of friends to lose anyways.

Sequestration will make cuts for 9 years. 2013 through 2021. Hypothetically. That's a savings of $1.2 Trillion, yes, with a T. It was intended, when originally proposed by the White House to reduce the rate of increased spending by only 2%. Republicans called the bluff and figured that any cuts vs smart cuts would be better than nothing. It's assumed that it wasn't a bluff but a ruse set by one rascally rabbit for Elmer Fudd in the Senate and Yosemite Sam in the House. I'm sure that once seeing the federal debt hitting 15 Trillion then, and 16.6 Trillion now wouldn't hurt them, politically. Never mind, there's still no real budget, and ignoring the lack of Constitutionality of this whole mess - they went along, like so many other classic Warner Brother's Looney Tunes.

A quick reminder, since there has NOT been a budget in four years (despite the law requiring it) - these are planned spending items - not the baseline budget items. Baseline isn't zero, it's based on last year's spending. What it comes down to is that since Congress hasn't done it's job, it's given up their power to play with money, and have given it to the Executive Branch.

Hold on, isn't Mr. Obama spreading fear and intimidation about the cuts that will starve granny and force millions of toddlers to blind ignorance for the rest of their lives? If he's got the purse strings, what's going to get cut? You're going to suggest that the TSA will actually have a reduction in naked body scanners? Well, maybe he'll have to buy 99 of them instead of the planned 100. Well, that's nearly as ambiguous as the discussion of "Jobs Saved" by the stimulus. Bottom line - we're talking about "discretionary" spending, of 500 Billion on defense and 700 Billion non. Medicare, Social Security, and everything else is not touched, reformed, or discussed. It's the petty cash drawer.

What it's going to come down to are the priorities set by the President himself - no one else. If Elmer and Sam figure out how to turn this one around, they can educate folks on which pet programs Mr. Obama favors, over those that he doesn't.

Don't worry, the Executive Branch has old Chicago Machine Bosses on the payroll. They'll take out Elmer and Sam and then find a way for them to blame each other for another fine mess the other one has gotten themselves into.

Numbers come from ideamoneywatch.com

Will sequestration undermine U.S. national security?

Cyber War With China

House Intel Chair Mike Rogers Calls Chinese Cyber Attacks ‘Unprecedented’

House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said it was “beyond a shadow of a doubt” that the Chinese government and military is behind growing cyber attacks against the United States, saying “we are losing” the war to prevent the attacks.

“They use their military and intelligence structure to steal intellectual property from American businesses, and European businesses, and Asian businesses, re-purpose it and then compete in the international market against the United States,” Rogers said this morning on “This Week.”

“It is unprecedented,” Rogers added. “This has never happened in the history of the world, where one nation steals the intellectual property to re-purpose it – to illegally compete against the country…and I’ll tell you, It is as bad as I’ve ever seen it and exponentially getting worse. Why? There’s no consequence for it.”

Read more ....


This is one of the biggest issues that no one is discussing. The idea that the US has been at war in cyberspace for several years is no longer an abstract concept, but something that we must all come to terms with. Conclusive proof that China, Iran, Russia, and others have been purposefully hacking into or supporting "unaffiliated" cyber militias should be a wake up call to every policy maker that our views on foreign policy and diplomacy are out of date in the digital age, and that bringing ourselves up to speed will mean investing in computer science education in our school systems and at the corporate level. Having computer illiterate people at high levels of American corporations is a massive security flaw that we must plug.

These attacks generally include sending something like an infected excell spreadsheet in an email with a subject line that reads something like "meetings this week" or "employee schedule." The fact that a cyber security firm was fooled by such a simple exploit should be a very clear reminder that we aren't prepared.

Further reading.

But remember, Stuxnet - so it makes one wonder what other kind of Manhattan Project is going on?

Why Would Anyone Invade A Home in Texas?

Intruder fatally shot after allegedly barging into west Harris Co. home

One suspect is dead and two others in custody after a home invasion in west Harris County last night. And now, we're hearing from the mother of the man who used his father's gun to defend his family.

Mara, never slept last night. She and her family are still reeling after the most frightening night of their lives.

"You know, I have an alarm system. And I feel safe here," she said. "I never thought about that, that this will happen to us."

Harris County deputies say just before 9pm, three men rang the doorbell at Mara's home on Brook Garden near Cloudbrook. She says her husband looked through their peephole, saw three young guys and thought they were their son's friends.

"When he opened the door a little bit, the guy points the pistol at his head," said Mara.
Mara was in the kitchen making cakes when the intruders yelled at her, her husband and their 21-year-old son to get on the floor. At least one of them was armed.

"My husband sees that we are in trouble he said, 'Go to the bedroom and get the gun,'" said Mara.
Mara's son retrieved the gun from under his parent's bed. His mom followed him to the back bedroom, but so did one of the intruders.

"And he said, 'I'm not going to hurt you. Lay down!' But he was yelling, screaming, and when he start approaching me closer and closer, my son shot him," she said.

Mara says that's when the other two suspects fled, but they didn't get far. Two neighbors spotted them running down the street, trying to get away in a Ford Explorer.

Those two suspects, whose identities have not yet been released, are charged with aggravated robbery.

Mara says they've never seen those suspects before. The dead intruder hasn't been identified. All we know right now is he was in his 20s. An autopsy on his body is scheduled for today. (source)

Breirbart says that studies have shown that 24 out of 25 gun uses are for self-defense. But all you need is a double-barreled shotgun, right?

Targeted killings: OK if Obama does it

Salon.com study finds "liberals" more likely to favor targeted killings once they know it’s Obama's policy.
                

Its fairly well documented in psychology (its just cognitive dissonance working) when people support things done by people they trust even if the thing is deplorable.

Its just an indication that people aren't as 'principled' as they might hold themselves out to be.

I'm more shocked that there needed to be a "study" conducted to confirm this.