Sons of the Republic

Big Brother, Can Ya Spare A Bonus?

2009-03-16T19:29:00.001-04:00

AIG's foolish bonus payments are all the rage (literally) of today's news cycle. President Obama is "choked up with anger" . Congressman Barney Frank has all but declared himself judge, jury, and career execution of those who may have received bonus cash to which they are legally entitled. Finally, and perhaps most troubling, the over zealous New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has threatened to publicly expose those evil capitalist derivative traders – and most likely other less evil AIG employees – through the use of his almighty subpoena.

In the realm of class warfare, it doesn't get any better than this. There's enough outrage for several news cycles.

For the record, I'd like to state that I find AIG's corporate actions to be some of the most reprehensible I've ever seen. I'm sure AIG will be to this decade what Enron was to the last one. I don't understand in the least sense the details behind equity trading and mortgage derivatives. Perhaps my lack of knowledge will disqualify me from making a seven figure annual salary. I can live with that.

What sticks in my craw, so to speak, is the audacity of the political chattering class to take it upon themselves to judge who is – and more importantly who is not – worthy of the elusive compensation known as a "bonus". Most of these politicians have found themselves worthy – year after year – of unwarranted pay raises and a host of fringe benefits the rest of us everyday Americans will never receive.

The bonus figure drawing such rage is around $165 million. To most people, even leftists like Obama and Frank, that's a rather large chunk of change. While you're getting your dander up, riddle me this: where was all this rage when we found out about Obama's buddy and economic advisor Franklin Raines? Over a six-year period he raked in $91.1 million - of which a paltry $52.6 million was in "bonus" cash.

At least the $165 million was "earmarked" for multiple people. AIG executives are being pilloried for "running the company into the ground". Has there been any such outrage expressed at the likes of Mr. Raines, James Johnson, or Jamie Gorelick? Has Andy Cuomo subpoenaed the financials of the aforementioned individuals? Methinks not.

In a hypothetical scenario, think about this. If Freddie and Fannie hadn't imploded under the weight of sub-prime mortgages and the cooked books courtesy of Raines and Gorelick, would AIG have fallen off the cliff? I'm no economist, but it seems to me that without the first domino being shoved, the rest stand up pretty well.

Be that as it may, here's some other points to ponder: Do you really want people like Barack Obama and his inept band of politically motivated dim bulbs deciding – in their all to finite wisdom – who is worthy of a "bonus"? Should the companies be required to have their corporate rosters (from the CEO to the janitor) pass muster before the (less than) honorable Barney Frank?

The next bonus they decry or job they weigh in the balance just might be yours.

Here endeth the lesson.

If nothing happens in Vegas, do they still need an $8 billion train?

2009-03-11T18:38:00.001-04:00

In yet another example of the Law of Consequences (unintended or otherwise), the pronouncements of the President of the United States have wrought havoc upon the very people who looked to said President as a beacon of hope and change. Well, they're getting change – just not the change they hoped for.

On February 11, 2009, Obama saw fit to lecture the big bad banks and similar industries with the following declaration:

You can't take a trip to Las Vegas or down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers' dime.

Well, the taxpayer's dime has found it's way into many different banks, companies, and industries and evidently decision makers have taken the President's counsel to heart. According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, some 340 events originally scheduled to take place in Vegas have been cancelled – costing the city about $131.6 million in lost revenue.

To be fair and somewhat balanced, some of these events may have been on the chopping block anyway simply because of the economy. Having said that, I submit that a majority of these events were simply moved to other – more acceptable – venues which would not draw the ire of the chattering class. Bear in mind, dear reader, that moving these events to other cities most likely increased the cost to the companies far and above the cost of doing business in Vegas – gambling losses notwithstanding.

So, here we find two major consequences of Obama's blackballing of Las Vegas. First off he's increased the cost of doing business to the very companies he just bailed out. Add that to the fact that blackballing the travel and tourism business from which Vegas draws its very life's blood will end up cratering an already depressed local economy and you pretty much have a perfect storm of economic disaster.

I guess the only good thing to come from a decline in Las Vegas is that there won't be much reason to spend that $8 billion on the high speed Maglev train linking Disneyland and the Las Vegas strip. I guess Senate Majority Leader Dusty Harry Reid (D-Circus Circus) won't get to play Casey Jones after all.

Here endeth the lesson.

Obama is..."surprised"

2009-03-09T22:50:00.001-04:00

Via Jim Geraghty at NRO, I came across an article which contains some behind the scenes information on Obama's disastrous visit with Gordon Brown. Geraghty had the following reaction to the article:

'Obama is overwhelmed.'

Perhaps it's just some Obama ally

speaking out of school. But these are probably some of the most terrifying words to come from an unidentified source in some time.

With due respect to Jim, I'm going to have to disagree with him – albeit just slightly. Personally I found this paragraph to be just as, if not more terrifying than the one he cited:

Allies of Mr. Obama say his weary appearance in the Oval Office with Mr. Brown illustrates the strain he is now under, and the president's surprise at the sheer volume of business that crosses his desk.

Think about this for just a minute. The President of the United States is "surprised" at the amount of work required by the job he spent over two years pursuing? The job of POTUS has to be one of, if not the most stressful job on the planet. The job follows the Oval Occupant wherever he (or she) might go. There are no vacations, respites, or any other chances to disconnect from the sheer volume of business that crosses the Resolute Desk.

The presidency has an aging effect on those who hold it. Take a look at before and after pictures of Bush (41), Clinton, and Bush (43) and the graying effect is rather obvious. Having said that, I'm not aware of any president complaining about the workload before the new carpet smell had worn out.

Most presidents, prior to sitting in the Big Chair, held some sort of executive office where they were never really "off-duty". The same cannot be said for Barack Obama. Prior to his ascension to the Oval Office, he served not-quite a full term in the US Senate. Take into account his part-time gigs as a state senator, college professor, and "community organizer" and you can pretty much sum up his professional resume in one word:

Inconsequential.

At least when compared with the Presidency. When it's all said and done, most people can't even name their US senator and even fewer give much thought to their state senator. If you can name your local community organizer, have a Vanilla Diet Pepsi on me.

Slow Joe Biden best contribution to the 2008 Race for the Oval was his statement that the presidency doesn't lend itself to "on the job training". The conventional wisdom about Team Obama was they would bring renewed "competence" to the art and science of governing.

Forgive my arrogance, but amidst a SECTREAS who can't run his office because nobody wants to be associated with his department, a SECSTATE who can't even find a decent Russian translator, and an ever ballooning pork laden budget which dwarfs every previous attempt to socialize this nation, I'm not seeing a whole lot of competence in Team Obama. What I am seeing is an easily flustered and overwhelmed lightweight who is, by most yardsticks, very much out of his league.

Here endeth the lesson.

Obama's Fuzzy Tax Math

2009-02-26T12:17:00.001-05:00

I'm still recovering from having served a two-week sentence in Chicago – in February. After much consideration, I've decided I need a new booking agent.

I've read through many of the State of the Union that really wasn't the State of the Union reviews. Obama spent a good deal of time throwing numbers and figures around whilst engaging in a revision of automotive history for which W would have been laughed off the lectern. While Henry Ford may have invented the automobile assembly line, it was a German that actually invented the horseless carriage. His name escapes me at present.

End digression.

The problem with playing fast, loose, and furious with figures is eventually somebody with a big brain comes along with a spreadsheet and starts checking your math. Well, the guys with the green eye shades over at the Wall Street Journal have gotten out their slide rules and taken Obama to task on some of his soaring and baseless rhetoric. I highly recommend reading the whole thing, but I'll give you some of the best graphs with my emphasis added.

On Obama's "read my lips" pledge that anyone making $250 large or less will not see "one dime" in tax increases:

This is going to be some trick. Even the most basic inspection of the IRS income tax statistics shows that raising taxes on the salaries, dividends and capital gains of those making more than $250,000 can't possibly raise enough revenue to fund Mr. Obama's new spending ambitions.

On soaking the richest 2% of Americans to fund his reckless expansion of an already bloated government:

Note that federal income taxes are already "progressive" with a 35% top marginal rate, and that Mr. Obama is (so far) proposing to raise it only to 39.6%, plus another two percentage points in hidden deduction phase-outs. He'd also raise capital gains and dividend rates, but those both yield far less revenue than the income tax. These combined increases won't come close to raising the hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue that Mr. Obama is going to need.

During the campaign, Obama's definition of "wealthy" slide from $300 large all the way down to $150 large. I don't think it's presumptuous of me to say there are those in Congress – The Pelosi, Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, etc. – who have a much lower "wealthy" threshold than does Obama. As we've already seen, Barry is more likely than not to acquiesce to them than they are to him. It's his way of voting "present".

So, the WSJ guys ran some experimental numbers on what threshold would be necessary to meet the $4 trillion budget Team Obama plans to spend in Fiscal Year 2010 (which starts on October 1, 2009). Here's what they came up with:

Even taking every taxable "dime" of everyone earning more than $75,000 in 2006 would have barely yielded enough to cover that $4 trillion.

Fast forward to this year (and 2010) when the Wall Street meltdown and recession are going to mean far few taxpayers earning more than $500,000. Profits are plunging, businesses are cutting or eliminating dividends, hedge funds are rolling up, and, most of all, capital nationwide is on strike. Raising taxes now will thus yield far less revenue than it would have in 2006.

[snip]

The bottom line is that Mr. Obama is selling the country on a 2% illusion. Unwinding the U.S. commitment in Iraq and allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire can't possibly pay for his agenda. Taxes on the not-so-rich will need to rise as well.

Simply put, Obama's math doesn't add up. NRO's CampaignSpot blogger Jim Geraghty has coined the phrase that "all statements made by Barack Obama come with an expiration date. All of them."

Check your wallet, dear reader. You've probably got milk in your refrigerator that will last longer than Obama's "not one dime" pledge will.

Check my math. Is $208,850 still less than $250 large?

Here endeth the lesson.

The Parable of Plan Porkulus

2009-02-12T11:52:00.001-05:00

After having read much of the commentary surrounding Team Obama's full court press to pass the non-simulative, pork laden, sorry excuse for an economic recovery plan, I've only become more frustrated by what passes for solid economic action these days.

But I digress.

Therefore, on a more lighthearted note, I've decided to share with you the Parable of Plan Porkulus. It's not entirely an original work. Unlike our current Vice-President, I did not entirely plagiarize someone else's work – I only paraphrased it to make my point. Enjoy!

In the beginning was the Election. In the face of the Election, the MSM looked out upon the firmament and said "Let there be Obama!"

And there was Obama. And Obama lacked substance.

"Be ye not concerned," said the MSM, "for what he lacks of substance we will make up for with style".

And it came to pass that the nation's marketplace became troubled and there was much concern among the people. The people, therefore did look to Obama for further light and knowledge in the form of a Plan.

Therefore, Obama did sit in the Oval Office and thought to himself "I have not the economic sense that God gave the turtle. Let me go henceforth and seek out the counsel of the Treasury."

And Obama did walk across the street to the Treasury and, upon seeking counsel, heard this lament from those who dwelt therein: "Behold, the One, we have not a viable Plan for the SECTREAS knows not how to navigate TurboTax without being beguiled by the very tax code he seeks to enforce. Wherefore seek thou counsel elsewhere."

Being much perplexed, Obama did journey to Capitol Hill whereupon he met with The Pelosi and Harry of the Barren Desert. "Behold," he cried, "I am the One heretofore prophesized by Oprah! I won the Election! Create thee with thy minions, therefore, a Plan whereby our Party can beguile the Nation unto the convincing of the People that peace and prosperity can only be accomplished through the merciful actions of a kind and gentle government."

Thus did The Pelosi and Harry of the Barren Desert descend into the smoke filled caverns of Capitol Hill and did work mightily into the night to create Plan Porkulus. In the morning The Pelosi did stand before the MSM and the evil Republicans and did boldly declare the need to pass Plan Porkulus lest another 500 million jobs be sacrificed upon the economic alter.

And it came to pass that the Republicans did look upon Plan Porkulus in all its obesity and did offer their opinions unto the People and the MSM: "It is a crock of s**t and it stinketh for behold its simulative value is without form and it altogether lacks substance."

The MSM did speak unto the people, basking in the afterglow of the Election and also having been recently in the presence of The One and did say "It is a container of a vital growth promoting substance with an interesting odor. Nevertheless, as it has been blessed by The One we find it to be fascinating and of good report."

The Wall Street Journal did look upon Plan Porkulus, and being more polite than House Republicans, did say "It is a container of excrement with an odor that few can tolerate."

Wherefore did Harry of the Barren Desert take upon himself the mantle of Plan Porkulus, boldly declaring that "It contains that which aids plant growth and it is indeed strong."

SlowJoe Biden did also look upon Plan Porkulus and did say "It is a powerful promoter of growth, but there is still a 30% chance we'll be screwed."

Wherefore The One did extend his mighty hand and venture forth among the People and the assembled worshipping throngs of MSM reporters. He did suffer the poor and downtrodden to come unto him along with the disgruntled fast food workers all the while proclaiming "This plan will greatly stimulate the growth and efficiency of this country."

Thus did The Pelosi, Harry of the Barren Desert, and their minions declare in one voice "This is a good plan!"

And Plan Porkulus became law.

This is how s**t happens.

Here endeth the lesson.

Thank you, Mr. Hanks

2009-01-23T16:15:00.001-05:00

For the record, let me plainly state that I believe Tom Hanks to be one of, if not the finest actor of his and many other generations. He has been honored by a myriad of institutions for his work as an actor (two Academy Awards) as well as a producer – most recently of the exceptional docudrama chronicling the life of America's second President, John Adams.

For the record, I think Saving Private Ryan was robbed of its true status as Best Picture. But I digress.

So, when I heard that Mr. Hanks had called me, and all the other member of the religion I follow "un-American" for having supported California's Proposition 8, I was taken aback.

Today, I am heartened by Mr. Hanks' apology. It takes a big man to admit having crossed a line in acceptable public discourse. Its good to know there are still some people who can do that.

Tom Hanks and I don't see eye to eye on the issue of same sex "marriage". Somehow we can both be civil about this difference of opinion. I just wish the rest of the anti-Prop 8 crowd would get that memo.

Here endeth the lesson.

Why I Stand With W

2009-01-07T15:03:00.002-05:00

In 1986, Sylvester Stallone starred in the cop/action movie “Cobra”. It was the quintessential Stallone hero flick which basically consists of Stallone delivering cheesy lines whilst firing several automatic weapons at the same time.

The movie’s opening scene consists of Stallone’s character Martin Cobretti pulling a John Wayne and waxing a dozen or so thugs who had taken over a Los Angeles supermarket. Having saved the day, he walks outside only to be accosted by a throng of media. A wimpy looking reporter sticks a microphone in Cobretti’s face and asks the question:

Did you use unnecessary deadly force?

Cobretti’s response, delivered deadpan was:

I used everything I had.

The legacy of President George W. Bush (hereafter referred to as W) will be the subject of much debate for years to come. It will take a long time for the BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) infested MSM will be able to get over itself and manage to produce something about W that doesn’t include the name “Hitler” or “tyrant”. With all the blame shoveling Team Obama will do in the next two years, I’m not optimistic as to how W will be treated by those whose view of history is shorter the attention span of a gnat.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I voted for W – twice. In 2000 he was the obvious choice over Bill Clinton’s designated tree hugger Algore – Florida’s confused electorate notwithstanding. In 2004, he was the even more obvious choice over Massachusetts’ junior senator, John “Lurch” Kerry – MSM exit polling data notwithstanding.

There is one major reason why I – to this day – stand with W. Faced with the first attack on the continental United States by a foreign aggressor since the War of 1812, W had to make a decision. He could – as his predecessor Bill Clinton had – choose to handle the latest terrorist attack as a criminal matter that could be “managed” and “dealt with” without the need of messy foreign military and political entanglements. He didn’t take that route.

Instead he chose to stand in the gap and fight back. He stood atop the ruins of lower Manhattan and declared that those responsible for “knocking these buildings down will hear from all of us real soon.” Even as W made this declaration, MSM luminaries like the LA Times’ Howard Rosenberg were lamenting how W’s image “fails to fill the screen”.

In taking America to war, W has ruffled a lot of feathers and irritated a lot of sensibilities in the way he has used the nation’s resources to fight a faceless and state-less foe. Instead of just rattling America’s saber, W saw fit to actually use it. After nearly a decade of mothballed disuse, W unleashed America’s intelligence gathering apparatus and ordered it to find, detain, and yes interrogate those individuals desiring to make September 11, 2001 a normal part of American life.

W did not, despite the maniacal rantings of the 9/11 “Truthers”, intend to be a wartime president. However, having been handed the responsibility of leading the nation during wartime, he has used every tool and resource at his disposal to preserve, protect, and defend the United States against a very determined foe. America had a lot of catching up to do as this enemy, in one form or another, had been waging war against her for over three decades.

War, by its very nature, is unpredictable. George Patton once quipped that “battle plans seldom survive first contact with the enemy”. W had to manage a new type of asymmetric warfare – one that transcended national boundaries – on a battlefield which ranged from the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the shifting sands of Iraq. Mistakes, of course, were made. W, like Abraham Lincoln, went through many generals until he found one who could deliver victory.

Throughout this conflict, W has endured the relentless drumbeat of partisan criticism amplified by the democratic party’s public relations arm – commonly known as the MSM. What would have been branded as treasonous in past wars was dressed up and called “loyal opposition”, “whistle blowing”, and “true patriotism”. Elected representatives, senators, and even presidential candidates declared the war on terror to be a lost cause. That America must come to an “accommodation” with the Islamofacist Murdering Thugs nearly became accepted conventional wisdom.

Through all of that, W remained stubbornly in the gap – refusing to acquiesce to the demands of an increasingly hostile Congress and a plummeting approval rating fueled by the MSM.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t agree with everything W has done while sitting in the Big Chair. I wish he’d done more to secure the border. I wish he’d listened less to Ted Kennedy on NCLB. I was not a fan of the attempt at immigration reform. I really wish he would’ve objected more strenuously to the sunset provisions which congressional liberals inserted into his tax cut package. In the end, however, those are details which we have the ability to haggle about because, though at war, the business of the nation still gets done.

In just under two weeks, W will step down from the watchtower he has faithfully manned for eight years. For a time there will be an ecstatic release from the BDS crowd – especially those afflicted with the Hot Molten Crazy strain of the disease. Eventually, however, I think his presence on that wall will be missed by the very people who have spent so much time and energy pillorying him and burning him in effigy. To paraphrase Aaron Sorkin’s fictional Colonel Nathan Jessup, they wanted him on that wall, they needed him on that wall. Now that wall will be manned by a president who has never before confronted any crisis of any type. Those same people who vilified W for doing his job now hold doubts about the man they elected in his stead.

“Domestic policy”, according to the elder Bush, “can get us thrown out office but foreign policy can get us killed.” In the final analysis – whenever it is written – I believe history will be much kinder to W than will the current BDS MSM crowd. I believe he will be seen as a president who defended his nation to the best of his ability. In short, he’ll be able to confidently say that he used everything he had.

Here endeth the lesson.

Dave Barry's Year in Review

2008-12-29T10:14:00.001-05:00

This is the week for 2008 retrospectives. Most MSM outlets will produce at least one and quite possibly several "Year in Review" specials on any number of topics. The most popular subject will be the campaign (primary and general) and miraculous election of Barack Obama to the nation's highest office.

There are as yet unsubstantiated rumors that NBC's Chris Matthews has produced a Hardball segment filmed overlooking the reflecting pool on the National Mall. Evidently Matthews predicted that Obama would walk atop the reflecting pool's waters as he ascends to give his inaugural address and would part the waters so his cabinet designees could follow him on dry ground.

But I digress. Where was I? Oh, yes. 2008 retrospectives.

I came across Dave Barry's "The Year in Review". He's kept a pretty good diary of 2008. Here are some highlights:

• O.J. actually got convicted of something.
• Gasoline hit $4 a gallon -- and those were the good times.
• On several occasions, "Saturday Night Live" was funny.

Some primary election events you might have forgotten about:

On the Democratic side, the surprise winner is Barack Obama, who is running for president on a long and impressive record of running for president. A mesmerizing speaker, Obama electrifies voters with his exciting new ideas for change, although people have trouble remembering exactly what these ideas are because they are so darned mesmerized. Some people become so excited that they actually pass out. These are members of the press corps.

The battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton heats up as the two engage in a series of increasingly hostile debates, including one in which Secret Service agents have to tackle a large, angry, red-faced man who bursts from the audience shouting incoherently. This turns out to be Bill Clinton, who is swiftly dispatched by his wife's campaign to work his magic on voters in the crucial Guam caucuses.

In politics, Barack Obama addresses the issue of why, in his 20 years of membership in Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, he failed to notice that the pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is a racist lunatic. In a major televised address widely hailed for its brilliance, Obama explains that . . . Okay, nobody really remembers what the actual explanation was. But everybody agrees it was mesmerizing.

Tensions run high in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary, which all the experts agree is extremely crucial. Barack Obama gets into trouble with rural voters for saying that rural Americans are "bitter" and "cling to guns or religion." Responding to charges that this statement is elitist, Obama responds: "You are getting sleepy. Very sleepy."

In other campaign-related news, Chicago developer Tony Rezko, a former Obama associate and fundraiser, is convicted on corruption charges, but media representatives realize that this is not an issue after Obama explains that it is not an issue.

On the Republican side, John McCain wraps up the nomination and embarks on a series of strategic naps.

And on to the general election:

Barack Obama, having secured North and South America, flies to Germany without using an airplane and gives a major speech -- speaking English and German simultaneously -- to 200,000 mesmerized Germans, who immediately elect him chancellor, prompting France to surrender.

Barack Obama, continuing to shake up the establishment, selects as his running mate Joe Biden, a tireless fighter for change since he was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1849. The Democratic Party gathers in Denver to formally nominate Obama, who descends from his Fortress of Solitude to mesmerize the adoring crowd with an acceptance speech objectively described by the New York Times as "comparable to the Gettysburg Address, only way better."

The Republican convention gets off to a tentative start in St. Paul, Minn., when President Bush and Vice President Cheney are unable to attend, partly because of Hurricane Gustav, and partly because the organizers told them that the convention was in Atlanta. The mood improves when Sarah Palin dazzles the delegates with her winning smile, detailed knowledge of what is on the teleprompter and spot-on imitation of Tina Fey. The next night, John McCain, formally accepting the nomination, pledges to run "a totally incoherent campaign." None of this is reported in the media because the entire press corps is in Wasilla, Alaska, investigating rumors that Palin once dated a yeti.

To the election aftermath:

President-elect Obama, continuing to bring change in the form of fresh-faced Washington outsiders, announces that his secretary of state will be Hillary Clinton. The position of secretary of defense, currently held by Bush appointee Robert Gates, will be filled by Bush appointee Robert Gates. Responding to rumors that he also plans to retain Dick Cheney, Obama insists that he has tried to ask the vice president to leave, "but nobody knows where he is."

In other political news, federal authorities arrest Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod "Rod" Blagojevich after wiretaps reveal that he was . . . okay, that he was being the governor of Illinois. Everybody is very, very shocked. Meanwhile, the recount in the extremely tight Minnesota Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken is thrown into disarray with the discovery that more than 13,000 of the ballots were cast by residents of Palm Beach County, Fla.

On the economic side:

In what some economists see as a troubling sign, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac invest $12.7 billion in Powerball tickets.

the price of gasoline tops $4 a gallon, meaning the cost of filling up an average car is now $50, or, for Hummer owners, $17,500. Congress, responding to the financial pain of the American people, goes into partisan gridlock faster than ever before, with Republicans demanding that the oil companies immediately start drilling everywhere, including cemeteries, and Democrats calling for a massive effort to develop alternative energy sources such as wind, the sun, tides, comets, Al Gore and dragon breath, using technology expected to be perfected sometime this millennium. It soon becomes clear that Congress will not actually do anything, so Americans start buying less gasoline.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac invest $17 billion in an Herbalife franchise.

In sports, the undefeated New England Patriots lose the Super Bowl to the New York Giants in a stunning upset that confounds the experts, not to mention Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which had $38 billion on the Pats to win.

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer becomes embroiled in an embarrassing scandal when a criminal investigation reveals that he looks like a large suit-wearing rodent. Also he has been seeing a high-class prostitute known as "Kristen" in a Washington hotel. Spitzer resigns in disgrace; "Kristen," hounded by the media and no longer able to pursue her profession, receives a $23 billion bailout from the federal government.

And finally, just so you don't think I'm a complete captitalistic, anti environmentalist...

In environmental news, Earth Hour is observed on March 29, when cities around the world display their commitment to conserving energy by turning out their lights for one hour. When the lights come back on, Detroit is missing.

I have no doubt Dave Barry may have taken some journalistic license with his recollections on 2008. You can try and figure out where he may have embellished a tad.

Here endeth the lesson.

Premature Presidential Worship

2008-12-05T09:34:00.000-05:00

I got a phone call yesterday from a rather irate Bonjo. No, he wasn't lamenting my sparse posting as of late. He had just received an email from the school district which to both our families send our young skulls full of mush to get what passes for a public education.

The email informed the reader that, after deliberation at the previous night's meeting, the school board had decided to cancel school on January 20, 2009 – Barack Obama's inauguration day. As I live in a Northern Virginia suburb which houses a rather large contingent of federal employees, this action doesn't really surprise me. Most feds have the day off anyway due to the fact that just breathing in DC on Inauguration Day will be a colossal undertaking.

What really irritates me is the school board's second action. In order to "make up" for the day given to commemorate Obama's ascension to this nation's highest office, school will be in session on President's Day.

President's Day is a day meant to honor all those who have served as this nation's Chief Executive, but specifically George Washington – who was instrumental in founding this nation – and Abraham Lincoln – the man who saved the union. Both of these great men are appropriately honored with monuments on the National Mall and various other locations around the country. Without the actions of both of these Presidents, the United States would not exist as it does today.

Until recently, America honored its heroes for great things which they had done in building up, defending, or otherwise aiding the nation. To my knowledge, never has anyone – President-elect status notwithstanding – been so lavishly honored by so many before said individual actually took office.

Here's a smattering of honoraria rendered unto Obama since winning the Race for the Oval one month ago:

Sanjae Obama Fisher was born on November 4, 2008 at 2:35 PM local time. I'm pretty sure the polls weren't even closed by then.

Ludlum Elementary School in Long Island's Hempstead Union Free School District will henceforth be known as Barack Obama Elementary School. Robert Ludlum was unavailable for comment.

Surveying crews have been spotted on the National Mall in Washington scoping out appropriate locations for the Obama Memorial. Geologists have been dispatched to South Dakota to assess whether or not Obama's likeness can be added to Mt. Rushmore. Ok, I might have made one or both of those last two up. You never know.

Barack Obama's ascension to the Presidency is, indeed, historic. In the final analysis however, all he has done thus far is win an election. He comes into Washington with quite possibly the thinnest resume of any man ever to sit in the Big Chair. Until January 20, he will not have actually had any responsibility to implement the high soaring rhetoric for which he is so famous.

Now I realize that Obama is most likely not behind all this premature hero worship being lavished upon him. I'm sure he gets all the worship he can stand during his never ending press briefings. That said, this pre-presidential honoraria makes about as much sense as having an NFL quarterback inducted into the Hall of Fame at Canton before he even takes a snap.

As for me, this President's Day I'm going to take my kids out of school and we're going to trek up to George & Martha's place – commonly known as Mt. Vernon. Perhaps Obama should do the same thing. Then he'd realize just how big the shoes are he has to fill for the next four years.

Here endeth the lesson.

By The President of the United States: A Proclamation

2008-11-27T11:03:00.000-05:00

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

Hillary’s Emolument Problem

2008-11-26T10:37:00.001-05:00

No, you don't have to go to the dictionary to find the definition of "emolument". I have taken the liberty of doing that for you. You can thank me later.

e・mol・u・ment

n. Payment for an office or employment; compensation.

[Middle English, from Latin ēmolumentum, gain, originally a miller's fee for grinding grain, from ēmolere, to grind out ]

Now that we've got that figured out, I'm sure you're wondering why Hillary might have a problem with a word most non-lawyers have never heard of, much less used in everyday conversation.

Well, over at Volokh Conspiracy (its actually a law prof blog) they've actually read the Constitution and came across a hitherto obscure (at least in my Constitutional knowledge) clause which might trip Hillary up in her bid to become the next Secretary of State. As I'm not a lawyer, nor can I credibly play one even in the blogosphere, I quote from Volokh as he quotes from Professor Michael Stokes Paulsen: (emphasis added)

So, "Is Hillary Clinton Unconstitutional?" In a word, Yes -- or, to be more precise, a Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be unconstitutional.

The Emoluments Clause of Article I, section 6 provides "No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time." As I understand it, President Bush's executive order from earlier this year "encreased" the "Emoluments" (salary) of the office of Secretary of State. Last I checked, Hillary Clinton was an elected Senator from New York at the time. Were she to be appointed to the civil Office of Secretary of State, she would be being appointed to an office for which "the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased" during the time for which she was elected to serve as Senator. The plain language of the Emoluments Clause would thus appear to bar her appointment ... if the Constitution is taken seriously (which it more than occasionally isn't on these matters, of course).

There's more Volokh legalese translation on the subject if you feel the need to swim in the details.

Whether or not this little molehill of constitutional minutiae actually becomes a insurmountable mountain between Hillary and Foggy Bottom remains to be seen. Somebody with the time, means, and motivation would have to file suit to challenge Obama's appointment on constitutional grounds. The wheels of justice turn slowly and are expensive to grease. After all, its just the Constitution.

But wait just a minute! If I remember correctly � and I checked so I am correct � one of the highlights of Obama's phenomenally thin presidential resume was his claim to be a "Constitutional Scholar". In order to fit that bill, don't you think a "constitutional scholar" would have been required to a) read the Constitution and b) at least be familiar with the clauses and limitations associated with said document? I'm not asking for much, as the "Emoluments Clause" is found in Article I, section 6.

Food for thought anyway.

Speaking of food, I need to go buy a turkey.

Here endeth the lesson.

God Bless Marine Corps Snipers

2008-11-25T14:58:00.001-05:00

Stories like this just make my heart warm. 300 Islamofacist Murdering thugs vs. 30 Marines.

Guess who won?

Here endeth the lesson.

Christmas Bedtime Story

2008-11-24T13:56:00.000-05:00

Here endeth the lesson.

November 19, 1863 - Lincoln at Gettysburg

2008-11-19T13:20:00.001-05:00

Today’s media world is one defined by six-second sound bytes. Political orators great, and not so great, give speeches by the dozen on any number of subjects to cheering crowds of the assembled masses. What they say is boiled down to what fits in the news segment between the train wreck and the office shootout as reported by the 24-hour cable channel.

The world notes little and remembers less of what is said by national leaders.

On this day, 145 years ago, two speeches were given at the dedicatory ceremony of Gettysburg National Cemetery. One was given by a man widely renowned as the greatest orator of the time. He was none other than Edward Everett, a former Secretary of State, U.S. Senator, U.S. Representative, Governor of Massachusetts, president of Harvard University, and Vice Presidential candidate. Almost as an afterthought, the President of the United States was also invited to give “dedicatory remarks.”

On the dedicatory day, November 19, Everett’s speech contained 13,607 words and lasted over two hours. After Everett’s oration, and a hymn, Abraham Lincoln rose and gave the following speech:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Some times less really is more. This speech was given long before the era of paid speechwriters and TelePrompTers. Lincoln wrote it believing (most likely) that it would be forgotten among all the other speeches he gave. Its doubtful he had much time to give serious thought to his “dedicatory remarks”. His nation was at war with herself. The Gettysburg Address was Lincoln at his oratory best – because what he said was what he truly believed. No coaching. No polling. No focus groups.

It is one speech that I wish was available on video. The closest I can get you is Walt Disney’s “Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln”. Enjoy. (The actual address comes at about 37 seconds into the video.

Here endeth the lesson.

Would Obama Hire Obama?

2008-11-13T14:33:00.001-05:00

A presidential transition comes and goes like the seasons in Washington DC. Every four or eight years the "new guy" gets elected in November and has till late January to measure the drapes, choose the china, and hire the 3,000 or so people it takes to run the upper echelons of the Executive Branch.

During this time, the President-elect gets the "Area-51" briefing. This is where he gets a sneak peak at the President's Book of Secrets and is brought up to speed on other important issues known only to the President. Such things include the fact that the real power in Washington DC is held by a four-man cabal operating in secret out of the basement of the USDA building and the Academy Awards are actually determined by National Zoo monkeys throwing darts (with the award names) at a big checkerboard with the names of the eligible movies.

How else do you explain Shakespeare in Love having beaten out Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture?

Obama has already received this briefing – one which he wasted no time blabbing to the assembled worshippers – oops…media – horde. I find it interesting how the AP quotes "aides familiar with the meeting" even though W and Obama met alone, without staff.

Obama is now privy to this nation's highest and most closely held secrets. He has access to this information solely because of the office he holds. As someone who has personally experienced the taxpayer funded rectal probe commonly known as an SSBI (Single Scope Background Investigation) – required prior to the granting of a security clearance, I can tell you there is no way Barry would hold even the lowest of clearances. The adjudication officer would take one look at the murky finances behind Obama's home purchase, his dubious associates, and his legion of Chicago thugs and put Obama's application in the shredder.

So, I must ask the obvious question? Would Obama hire Obama? Well, take a look at the "questionnaire" put forth by Team Obama with the vetting questions to be posed to anyone with even the slightest of dreams of working inside the Obama White House.

So, dear reader, what are your favorite Obama vetting questions?

I'm partial to #14. Evidently Obama would want to pre-vet your diary prior to your first day at the office. I'm pretty sure even the Patriot Act doesn't go that far.

Oh, and there there's #18. Did you work for Freddie or Fannie, AIG, or WaMu? Sionara. Yes, Mr. Raines, that means you.

#31 is a howler, but only if you notice the handwritten "Clinton" in the margin. E tu, Barry? Bill Clinton will need a few reams of paper to answer #50.

And finally, #59 – own a gun? Best throw it in the river before applying.

Here endeth the lesson.

Slick marketing won't change reality

2008-11-05T15:33:00.000-05:00

Terrorists will not be less dangerous by being contextualized in a matrix of threats that includes climate change and global poverty, or because they will be mollified by Mr. Obama's middle name. Nor will Iran be deterred from developing nuclear weapons because a President Obama will restore faith in "brand America." - Bret Stephens, WSJ Editorial 5 November 2008

Well said, Mr. Stephens.

The Circular Firing Squad

2008-11-05T13:38:00.001-05:00

The Circular Firing Squad

The MSM will be replete with effervescent praise for the victory of now President-elect Barack Obama for the foreseeable future. As a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party, it is all together fitting and proper they should do this. I offer my sincere congratulations to Mr. Obama and promise that I will offer him more respect than he and his supporters offered the current occupant of the Oval Office.

I guess that's a fairly easy promise to keep as the bar wasn't set very high to begin with.

There will also be several autopsies and post-mortems of the debacle that was McCain-Palin 2008. When all the dust has settled from this election, there will be nothing left of the Republican Party's congressional majorities of 1994-2006. The wreckage is nearly total – coast to coast and border to border. America will be subject to the whims of an ever leftward sliding Congress controlled by The Pelosi and Dusty Harry. All that stands between them and a rubber stamped Obama signature will be the Senate filibuster commonly known as the Mitch Slap. Even that threat will be diluted by weak-kneed left leaning Republicans hoping that by throwing in with the majority they might score the occasional cocktail party invitation.

In short, surveying the wreckage this Wednesday morning, no, I am not optimistic.

It is thus that I do purposely violate Ronald Reagan's 11^th Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of fellow Republicans. As evidence of my Republican party bona-fides, I present the following campaign work and votes for:

Bush (41)-Quayle 1992

Dole-Kemp 1996

W-"Big Time" Cheney 2000

W- "Big Time" Cheney 2004

And finally

McCain-Palin 2008

Someplace deep in my basement storage unit I have a box (one which the Ravishing Mrs. Cordeiro would just as soon I burn) filled with all the bumper stickers, t-shirts and other memorabilia from past campaigns. Soon to be filed there will be the McCain-Palin yard sign.

In short, I'm a party loyalist. Once the primary is over, I close ranks behind the guy the party has chosen and soldier on with him until the end – bitter or otherwise.

Taking the long view of the 2008 election cycle, perhaps there was no Republican candidate that could have run the table against Obama or any other Democrat. Maybe the tsunami of a collapsing economy coupled with an unpopular incumbent would have pulled under even the best candidate.

John McCain is a bona-fide American hero who has spent his entire life fighting for and serving his country. He was not, however, the best candidate the party could have put forward this year. He was just lucky (or unlucky) enough to thread the needle of a fractured Republican base and be the last stomach-able candidate with a chair when the music stopped.

As evidence for this assertion, I cite the gold standard for political number crunching personified by US News' Michael Barone. Had McCain's margin of victory been 3% less, he'd have been watching this election cycle from the bleachers just like Romney, Huckabee, Thompson, Guiliani and the rest of the primary crowd.

I firmly believe the Republican Party is doomed to "wander in the wilderness" until it, and whatever leaders decide to lead it, deal with the fundamental flaws which led to this embarrassing and unnecessary defeat. Here's my list:

The Religious Right and Identity Politics

In my not so humble opinion, this is where the Republicans hoisted themselves over their own petard. More time, effort, and energy was spent quibbling over which candidate was the most "Christian" or the most "pro-life" or the most obviously religious than any other issue – relevant or otherwise. Yes, Mike Huckabee, I'm talking about you. Your constant attempts to turn a political debate into an ecclesiastical one made us all look foolish – you included. Maybe mixing stand up comedy with biblical sermons works well in Arkansas, but trust me – those people were laughing at you – not with you.

Simply put, the Founders put Article VI in the Constitution for a reason. Religious tests have no place in politics. Either we figure this out or perhaps George Will is right. Perhaps America was more enlightened a century ago.

The Media

I have not, in my lifetime, seen a more coordinated media chorus favoring one political party over another. As far as the MSM was concerned, this election was over the very second Barack Obama superseded the (less than) inevitable Hillary Clinton. The day-to-day coverage of the candidates during the primary season was incredibly slanted. The general election campaign coverage was even worse. We know more about Stiletto Sarah's wardrobe than we do about Barack Obama's thin record of achievement. There is no shortage of commentary about McCain's skin cancer treatment or Palin's moose hunting ability. The same cannot be said about investigations into Obama's dubious associations.

For some strange reason I simply don't understand, the MSM has a monopoly on the debates associated with the primary and general elections. The primary debates – especially the ones featuring YouTube – redefined the term "pathetic". The questions were lame and obviously designed to trip up the candidate rather than provide an opportunity to get insight into the candidates' thought processes (or lack thereof). The general election debates set a new "lame" threshold.

The MSM – with very few exceptions – is little more than the public relations arm of the Democratic Party. For Republicans, MSM journalists should be treated as an adversary until proven otherwise. There are ways around the MSM filter – unless and until The Pelosi, Dusty Harry, and UpChuck Schumer get around to implementing the fairness doctrine.

Reagan Conservative Principles

It should be pretty obvious by now that attempting to get along by going along with liberals only makes conservatives weaker and liberals stronger. Reagan accomplished what he did by sticking to his principles – low taxes, small(er) government, are strong defense. The DC establishment hated him. Ronaldus Magnus didn't care. His road to success is a proven one – much more so than the road which got Republicans where we currently reside.

The road back from the electoral abyss has been traveled before. The Democratic party has had the Washington Trifecta before. In 1992 the Clintons rode into town on the last wave of hope and change. They promptly went a few bridges too far in their quest to re-make the world. It is both possible and indeed probable Team Obama, The Pelosi, and Dusty Harry will do the same thing again. The question remains as to whether or not Republicans will be in any shape to take advantage of the coming opportunity.

Which opportunity would that be? Well, the Bush tax cuts expire on December 31, 2009. This means Congress need do nothing at all in order to raise taxes on every single American. Now I know that President-elect Obama has promised only to raise taxes on those greedy Americans making over 250 large annually. Well, at last count it was down to 120 large, but what's a few large among friends?

So, the odds favor a tax bill written by Barney Frank, blessed by The Pelosi, and shepherded through the Senate by Dusty Harry over whatever resistance Mitch McConnell can muster. Said bill might mirror Obama's promised middle class tax cut, but I'm betting 2-1 it doesn't.

Will Obama have the courage to stand up to The Pelosi and Dusty Harry? That remains to be seen, but there's nothing in his record that would lead me to believe he would.

What I'm interested in is whether or not Republicans can find, borrow, or grow stones sufficient to stand in the breech and fight for the conservative principles upon which their party was built. On that, I'm slightly, cautiously optimistic.

Here endeth the lesson.

Shivering in the dark

2008-11-03T09:19:00.001-05:00

I have said this before, and I'll keep saying it as long as it's true: Barack Obama's economic understanding is dangerously naïve and borders on the ludicrous.

The latest evidence of this dangerous naïveté is a recently unearthed interview in which the Obamessiah held court with the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle. (Video here – audio download here)

In this wide ranging interview, Obama outlines his philosophy on energy – specifically his plans to discourage the building of coal fired electrical plants in the United States.

Before I start quoting the Obamessiah on coal, I'd like to provide you with a few details which you most likely know already. First off, the United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal. We've got more coal than we can ever even think of burning, liquefying, or placing in the Christmas stockings of short sighted Democratic members of Congress.

The United States will need more electrical generation capacity in the future. Barry thinks he can generate that power using a bunch of windmills and solar panels rather than coal fired power plants. I guess that's what you get when you add "hope" to the equation. But enough of me putting words in the Anointed One's mouth. Direct from Frisco, here's Barry:

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted. That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in wind, solar, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches. The only thing that I have said with respect to coal, I haven't been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.

Here, Obama shows just how dangerously naïve he really is. He thinks that some enterprising entrepreneur will go to the time, effort, and expense to build a coal-fired plant that will have to pay so much in greenhouse gas penalties that it will bankrupt said entrepreneur. The "billions of dollars" in revenue generated from the bankrupting penalties levied against the entrepreneur's power plant will be invested in Barry's pet energy projects.

What Barry doesn't get is the fact that prior to investing the time, treasure, and effort required to build a power plant, the entrepreneur will conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the investment. When the bean counters come back and tell him the project will bankrupt him, the plant isn't built in the first place.

But I digress. More Barry on energy:

You know, when I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, uh, you know — Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I'm capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.

Actually, Barry, they won't "pass that money on to consumers". The "cost" will get past on to consumers. Bear in mind, dear reader, that this is the second area of energy in which the Obamessiah has praised higher costs. Remember back to not too distant past when he said he would have preferred a "gradual adjustment" to gas prices rather than the steep rise endured by all Americans. Barry didn't have a problem with $4 gas, he only had a problem with how fast the price went up.

So, where does Barry's coal hating energy plan get us? Well, if you lived in California in 2001 you understand what happened the last time democratic politicians attempted to repeal the laws of supply and demand. In the electricity market, when demand outstrips supply you end up with rolling blackouts.

Its no wonder the San Francisco Chronicle didn't bother to include the aforementioned quotes in its summary of the conversation between Obama and the editorial board. Whether intentional or on purpose, I'm pretty sure those San Franciscans who spent hours stuck in elevators as the blackouts rolled thorough downtown might think twice about voting for a guy who would visit that same "necessity" on the rest of the country.

Here endeth the lesson.

Great, now I'm "selfish" too!

2008-11-01T13:52:00.000-04:00

For most of the 2008 Race for the Oval I’ve been at most “mildly annoyed” with the arrogance of Barack Obama. As a “typical white person” he’s made a lot of assumptions about me. In his view I “cling” to my guns and my religion out of a sense of bitterness. In the view of many of his supporters, I’m a pointy hatted, white robed racist of the highest degree simply because I have no plan to vote for the most inexperienced and unqualified man ever to seek the Presidency.

Now Barry has gone a bridge too far.

In Sarasota, Florida yesterday he made the following declaration which I quote for you in its entirety – or at least the entirety reported by ABCNew’s Jake Tapper:

The reason that we want to do this, change our tax code, is not because I have anything against the rich. I love rich people! I want all of you to be rich. Go for it. That’s the American dream, that’s the American way, that’s terrific. The point is, though, that -- and it’s not just charity, it’s not just that I want to help the middle class and working people who are trying to get in the middle class -- it’s that when we actually make sure that everybody’s got a shot – when young people can all go to college, when everybody’s got decent health care, when everybody’s got a little more money at the end of the month – then guess what? Everybody starts spending that money, they decide maybe I can afford a new car, maybe I can afford a computer for my child. They can buy the products and services that businesses are selling and everybody is better off. All boats rise. That’s what happened in the 1990s, that’s what we need to restore. And that’s what I’m gonna do as president of the United States of America.

John McCain and Sarah Palin they call this socialistic. You know I don’t know when, when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness.

Now look. I spend about 60 hours of every week at my chosen profession. In order to qualify for this profession I went to college. A few years after finishing my undergraduate work I went to business school. Nobody from the Government ever came up to me and said, “Cordeiro, you’re a hard working young man with a lot of potential. Here’s a twenty large for your undergrad work. Want to go to grad school? Here’s another fifty large. Good luck.”

No, dear reader, I earned that money myself. What I didn’t earn, I borrowed and will be paying back for the next two decades or so. I did all this so I could earn a living to support the Ravishing Mrs. Cordeiro, our two beautiful children, and the family dog. I did all this so we could have the minivan, the mustang, and Cordeiro Manor. I earn this meager salary because I am exceptionally good at what I do. By meager salary, I mean I have yet to cross my “rich” threshold because I have not yet managed to keep enough of my hard earned cash to require a bank account labeled “Money I don’t know what to do with” – yet.

Yes, I pay taxes. A lot of taxes. So much in taxes that I hardly bother to look at the “gross” amount of my paycheck simply because it’s so frigging depressing when compared with the “net” amount. The “gross” amount isn’t anywhere near Obama’s first definition of “rich”, though that definition spirals ever downward with each passing day. It started at 300 large, and at last count Bill Richardson had brought it down to 120 large. Using a regression analysis tool, I calculate that by election day, Team Obama will declare that anyone making over 40 large annually will be branded as “rich” and therefore deserving of a tax increase.

So now I meet the Obamessiah’s definition of “selfish” – simply because I’m unwilling to give him more of my hard earned cash to do with as he sees fit. Barry has obviously and purposely confused taxes with charity. Taxes are forcefully taken from a citizen under threat of imprisonment or other unwanted consequences. Charity is money parted with willingly. There’s a big difference. Taking a look at Team Obama’s charitable giving over the past five years or so, its easy to conclude both Barry and SlowJoe get taxes and charity confused.

SlowJoe Biden would have you believe paying more taxes is a sign of your patriotism. The Obamessiah would have you believe paying more taxes is a selfless act. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting worried about having these two guys be charitable with my money.

But what do I know? I’m a dirty, rotten, selfishly greedy capitalist with racist leanings.

Here endeth the lesson.

BarackTV – Brought to you by…

2008-10-30T09:22:00.000-04:00

Adolph Hitler

Fake Name

Not A. Realperson

Finance Violation

Fraudulent Charge

Over Donation Limit

Daffy Duck

OJ Simpson

Bart Simpson

Family Guy

And…King Kong

Yes, dear reader. Pay no attention to Team Obama's willful solicitation of illegal campaign contributions. Their excuse for accepting contributions from the above rogue's gallery is the lack of safeguards on credit card transactions. Never mind the fact Team Obama turned said safeguards off – purposefully. Even the simplest of fraud detection measures might have put a crimp in Obama's campaign style – and we simply can't have that. The fate of the free world is at stake. What's a few hundred million dollars among friends anyway?

No longer will people like Algore have to show up at a Buddhist temple to collect grocery sacks full of thousand dollar checks from impoverished monks. Obama doesn't even have to bother with that thinly veiled stunt. Forget the checks. MasterCard, Visa, Discover, or AmEx will do nicely. And names? Get real. Or on second thought, make one up. Names are so 20^th century. Whatever you feel like calling your self today will do just fine. Addresses? Zip Codes? Employer? Fugettaboutit.

In even an imperfect political world the free and independent constitutionally protected press would be all over this story in an effort to find and expose the illegal money behind a potential president. Don't hold your breath for this to happen during this election cycle. Why? Two reasons, really.

First, the donations in question didn't end up in Republican coffers.

Second, and probably more important, Stiletto Sarah's wardrobe expenses make for better headlines.

For the record, I did not watch the Obamessiah's infomercial. I'm not buying what he's selling and besides that, the rerun of Law & Order was much more believable. At least Jack McCoy's cases are somewhat factually based.

Here endeth the lesson.

*Hat Tip to Ace of Spades (warning - gratuitous profanity. Tis the nature of Ace) and Ken Timmerman for Team Obama's contributor highlights.

McCain’s Spit Veer Strategery

2008-10-29T12:30:00.000-04:00

Coach Yoast: Coach, that's a pretty small playbook
Coach Boone: I run six plays. Split veer. It's like Novocain. Give it time. It always works.

The more enlightened among you will recognize this exchange from one of the single greatest films ever made on the subject of high school football – Remember the Titans. If you haven't seen the movie, it's well worth putting in your Netflix queue. If you haven't seen the movie because you just don't like football, then I'm calling into question your patriotism.

The way I see it, John McCain has utilized a "split veer" strategy throughout his campaign. On the football field, the split veer (in all its iterations) isn't a very exciting offensive scheme. Most of the time the offensive play ends up with, as an offensive coordinator once told me, "three yards and a cloud of dust". The ball doesn't get moved very far, but it does go far enough to move the chains. It's not flashy. The crowd gets very bored and doesn't cheer much even when their team scores.

The Anointed Obamessiah, on the other hand, is all about flashy. Team Obama moves the ball seemingly at ease, but only between the 20 yard lines. When it comes down to the red zone, Barry and Company can't punch it through – more often than not due to self inflicted wounds like SlowJoe Biden's guaranteed fumbles and Obama tripping over Joe the Plumber and getting sacked by past ruminations praising the idea of "redistributive change".

The obvious weakness in the split veer strategy is the time it takes to be effective. Team Obama is currently fielding its version of the much maligned "prevent defense". In other words, they believe they've got a big enough lead they can just run out the clock whilst hoping their standard bearer doesn't fall out of his chariot and McCain doesn't get enough momentum in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Colorado to tip the scales to the red balance.

So, for those of you who are looking for a reason to back away from the ledge the MSM would happily fling you from, here's some internal polling data which hasn't been put through the CNN filter.

It's not over until the last chad falls.

Here endeth the lesson.

Godspeed, Dean Barnett

2008-10-27T18:31:00.000-04:00

It is with a deep sadness that I link to the news of Dean Barnett’s passing this afternoon after a long and valiant struggle with Cystic Fibrosis. He was 41 years old.

Dean was one of the early rising stars amongst the conservative side of the blogosphere. His writing was crisp, intelligent, irreverent, and most of all insightful. If there was an important topic about which he found himself uninformed, he went to great lengths to educate himself from the best sources available and pass that knowledge on to his readers in a way which made us all a bit smarter than we would have otherwise been.

I will miss his wit, his wisdom, and yes even his self-described “haddock cutting” Boston accent. The world in general, and the blogosphere specifically, will be a smaller place without him in it.

Breathe easy now, Dean. Godspeed.

A point of personal privilege

2008-10-16T10:43:00.001-04:00

Normally I would take this space to applaud John McCain’s performance in last night’s final presidential debate. I may, or most likely may not get around to writing that post today.

Right now, however, I feel the need to write about someone else.

If you’ve been around the blogosphere long enough, you may have read something by Dean Barnett. If you’ve been trolling the ‘sphere as long as I have, you might remember back to when he wrote his SoxBlog under the pseudonym James Frederick Dwight. If so, then you’ve been fortunate enough to witness one of the truly remarkable writers rise from a normal everyday blogger to the status he now enjoys as regular contributor to the Weekly Standard and occasional on-air pinch hitter for Blogfather Hugh.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who holds on to the delusions of grandeur that someday somebody important will read my stuff and offer me that kind of gig. Don’t worry, I’m not holding my breath.

But I digress. Not really, though. Breathing is very important.

Recently, Dean Barnett celebrated his 40th birthday. To some people this is a milestone they’d just as soon forget. Dean isn’t most people. You see, Dean suffers from Cystic Fibrosis. Casual research into this disease will tell you that most people diagnosed with CF don’t make it to 40. Dean has, and in my opinion the world is a better place because of it.

Today, Dean finds himself in the Intensive Care Unit of a Boston area hospital fighting for his life. He contracted a respiratory infection, which would be a nuisance to most anybody else, but to him is life threatening. At last report he remains in very critical condition on a respirator.

I’ve spent my fair share of time in an ICU. The beds are lumpy, the pillows are thin, the food is lousy, and every four hours some lab tech comes by and stabs you in the arm for more blood. Tubes go where you didn’t think tubes would go (yes, I’m talking about down there) and the experience is not one I would wish on anybody.

So, if you have a spare moment today, send a prayer along with Dean’s name on it. I’m sure he’d appreciate it and besides that he still owes me a Diet Coke because he lost the bet that W would dump Big Time Cheney from the ’04 ticket.

The "debate" that wasn't

2008-10-08T19:05:00.000-04:00

It has taken me this long to rouse myself from the stupor inflicted upon me by last night’s sorry excuse for a presidential debate. I’ve seen dreadful television in my time and last night was about as entertaining as one of those late night infomercials extolling the virtues of the Clapper.

So exceptionally mind numbing were most of the exchanges by the two candidates that the makers of Ambien CR saw a 36.5% drop in sales overnight. Evidently people figured out they could watch ten minutes of Obama opining on the state of the economy and get the same effect as popping a pill. Ever the fundraiser, Team Obama is now trying to figure out how to monitize the debate video.

Something very eventful did in fact take place last night. The argument can now be made that this particular debate transcript along with its accompanying video footage has now usurped Vogon poetry as the third most hazardous verbal communication known in the universe.

Vogon poetry is of course, the third worst in the universe. The second worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria. During a recitation by their poet master Grunthos the Flatulent of his poem "Ode to a Small Lump of Green Putty I Found in My Armpit One Midsummer Morning" four of his audience died of internal haemorrhaging and the president of the Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived by gnawing one of his own legs off. Grunthos was reported to have been "disappointed" by the poem's reception, and was about to embark on a reading of his 12-book epic entitled "My Favourite Bathtime Gurgles" when his own major intestine, in a desperate attempt to save humanity, leapt straight up through his neck and throttled his brain. The very worst poetry of all perished along with its creator, Paul Neil Milne Johnstone of Redbridge, in the destruction of the planet Earth. Vogon poetry is mild by comparison.

I’m pretty impressed with myself. I can quote meaningless and made up stuff nearly as well as SlowJoe Biden.

Speaking of SlowJoe, you might not have noticed it but he and the entire state of Delaware got thrown under the Team Obama bus as Barry was “taking it” to the greedy capitalists of Corporate America. In case your own major intestine was trying to throttle your brain, here’s what you missed:

And the reason that it’s a problem to go shopping state by state, you know what insurance companies will do? They will find a state — maybe Arizona, maybe another state — where there are no requirements for you to get cancer screenings, where there are no requirements for you to have to get pre-existing conditions, and they will all set up shop there.

That’s how in banking it works. Everybody goes to Delaware, because they’ve got very — pretty loose laws when it comes to things like credit cards.

Hear that all you greedy capitalistic Delawareans? Your laws are “very - pretty loose” over there. Too loose for Barry’s liking. Don’t you go hoping having SlowJoe on the ticket will spare you from Barry’s ire. Remember, all his campaign statements have an expiration date. All of them.

There is a very good explanation why a majority of US corporations are actually Delaware corporations. I could go into it, but just re-reading that single quote of Obama pontificating about that which he knows not has caused my major intestine to warn me of a possible brain throttling.

I’m sure a good solid episode of The Simpsons will reestablish my equilibrium.

SlowJoe's Virtual Memory

2008-10-03T13:00:00.001-04:00

I'm not going to even attempt to be fair and balanced in my assessment of last night's St. Louis Smackdown featuring Stiletto Sarah Palin and SlowJoe Biden. In my opinion, it wasn't even close. Stiletto Sarah out shone, out classed, and thoroughly out debated SlowJoe.

My bias may have something to do with the fact that Sarah kept winking at me all night.

But I digress.

The MSM is trumpeting SlowJoe's "victory" on points in that they claim he had a far better command of the issues than did Stiletto Sarah. That might be true if you take SlowJoe's word on every fact he claimed credit for knowing. I'm willing to cut him some slack on getting his Constitutional Articles mixed up and not knowing the exact range of a Pakistani nuclear armed missile. These things happen.

Over at NRO's Campaign Spot, Jim Geraghty has begun to document SlowJoe's "Error/Lie/Hallucination" list. Thus far he's at number 22. One of them jumped out at me and I came to the conclusion that SlowJoe might be suffering from Virtual Memory Syndrome.

See for yourself:

RESTAURANT: "Look, all you have to do is go down Union Street with me in Wilmington or go to Katie's Restaurant or walk into Home Depot with me where I spend a lot of time and you ask anybody in there whether or not the economic and foreign policy of this administration has made them better off in the last eight years."

According to this Delaware site, Katie's Restaurant is no longer in business; locals remember it on Union Street 25 to 30 years ago.

Now referencing a restaurant that had been around up until a year – maybe two – ago? That I can understand. 25-30 years though? That's a stretch, even for a virtual memory.

Had McCain made such a reference, there would be wall-to-wall MSM coverage of McCain's descent into dementia. SlowJoe? This guy can't tell anti-aircraft fire from a heavy snowstorm and has recent memories eating at a place that hasn't existed for 30 years. Of course, SlowJoe gets a pass.

Pardon my non-surprise.

Here endeth the lesson.

Dusty Harry Torpedoes Insurance Industry

2008-10-02T16:12:00.001-04:00

If I had the time and inclination of a Day Trader I'd have short-sold every major insurance company in the industry this morning. Why? Well, Senate Majority Leader Dusty Harry (D-Circus Circus) went before the microphone bank on Capitol Hill last night and boldly declared the following to prove the importance of passing the Rescue Bill as soon as possible:

We don't have a lot of leeway on time. One of the individuals in the caucus today talked about a major insurance company -- a major insurance company -- one with a name that everyone knows that's on the verge of going bankrupt. That's what this is all about.

Take a moment to re-read that statement, dear reader. In the wake of the AIG collapse, the Senate Majority leader warns of a "major insurance company" – "one with a name that just about everyone knows" is about to go belly up. What's worse is Dusty Harry didn't name a specific "major insurance company" by name. Therefore the entire industry has taken it in its collective shorts during today's trading.

Well, as of this writing any "major insurance company" that wasn't close to bankruptcy just got a lot closer. Here's a sampling:

Prudential: Down 4.21%

MetLife: Down 14%

Travelers: Down 4.2%

AFLAC: Down 6%

And those are just the major ones I know off the top of my head.

Couple Dusty Harry's loose lips with those of UpChuck Schumer which (directly or indirectly) led to a run on IndyMac Bank and the Senate Jackass Caucus has cost the American economy nearly five billion dollars in the past two months.

Dusty Harry did not find his way back to the microphone bank to apologize for his loose lipped torpedoing of the insurance industry. He sent out a spear catching spokesman to issue this weak statement:

Senator Reid is not personally aware of any particular company being on the verge of bankruptcy. Rather, his comments were meant to refer to the conditions in the financial sector generally. He regrets any confusion his comments may have caused.

Thanks, Harry. I'm sure the executives, employees, and most of all the shareholders of the aforementioned companies and others like them are satisfied with your half-hearted apology. I'm sure they'd be more satisfied had you kept your fool mouth shut instead of trying to score political points with their hard earned cash.

Here endeth the lesson.

Debate Preview

2008-10-02T09:13:00.001-04:00

Well, it looks like some of Gwen Ifill's debate prep has been leaked to the internet. Here's some of the questions you can expect in tonight's Stiletto Sara and SlowJoe Show Down in St. Louis:

Mayor Palin, Barack Obama is a handsome, charismatic demigod. How many boxes of Kleenex will you need after your crushing loss?

Senator Biden, what is your favorite color? And if you have time for a follow-up question: Why?

Mayor, you talk funny and you own a tanning bed. Why haven't you released Trig's birth certificate?

Senator, have you seen those pictures of Obama in his swim trunks? If not, I have them right here.

Mayor, what are the names, ages, and blood types of all 71 members of the Belgian Senate? And why are you unwilling to admit that your inability to instantly produce any and every fact I demand makes you unfit to stand in the way of history?

Senator, you've spoken at length. Could you please continue?

Mayor, which is your preferred method of stifling dissent, banning books or burning them? Since it's both, please explain how you can deny the accusation that you're a fascist, which I am making now.

Senator, could you please sign my book?

Now perhaps Jim Treacher just made all that stuff up. Maybe he's just illustrating absurdity by being absurd.

Then again…maybe not.

Here endeth the lesson.

Double Team Debate

2008-10-01T09:30:00.001-04:00

I wish I could say I'm surprised by today's Drudge headline "VP Debate Moderator Releasing 'Age of Obama' Book On Inauguration Day". I wish I could say I'm stunned by the obvious conflict of interest this presets for someone who claims to be an unbiased "moderator" to have such an obvious inclination toward a particular candidate.

But I'm not. This is, after all, the Age of the ObamaMedia. For them – with very few exceptions – the vote on November 4 is just a formality. The outcome is a forgone conclusion. Hope and Change are coming – personified by the Obamessiah and SlowJoe Biden.

The illusion of an unbiased Press has become so thin its as if the MSM doesn't even bother to hide the fact they believe using every asset at their disposal to put Obama in the Oval Office is their duty as world citizens. No praise of Obama is too great, and no shot at McCain is too cheap as to not be used in this effort.

I have participated in contests where it was obvious as to whom the moderator/referee favored. Victory is still possible in those situations although it is made all the more difficult by having to beat not one but two opponents at the same time.

Having said that, I fully expect Stiletto Sarah Palin to clean the floor with SlowJoe Biden tomorrow night. SlowJoe hasn't had an original thought in nearly three decades and his tendency to insert his foot to his mouth and chew on the kneecap is well documented. So I guess if with the SlowJoe handicap aided by obviously biased moderator it makes the odds even for Team Obama.

And before my left leaning readers start feigning outrage at my bluntness about "their" moderator, I'd like to ask one simple question: When was the last time you saw a Presidential Debate moderated by an unapologetic conservative moderator? Three points if you can name one moderated by a journalist who was set to release "Age of Reagan/Bush 41/Bush 43" before the debate even started.

Good luck.

Here endeth the lesson.

SlowJoe Biden: Patriotism Is All About The Benjamins

2008-09-20T14:06:00.000-04:00

SlowJoe Biden, who many people have already forgotten is Obama’s choice for VP, has a new yardstick for patriotism. It isn’t respect for the flag, the ability to recite the pledge of allegiance or sing the national anthem. Biden’s standard for whether or not you love this great nation is all about the Benjamins. Actually, it’s all about the Benjamins you send in to Uncle Sam each year on April 15.

According to SlowJoe, the more you pay in taxes, the more patriotic you are – especially if you make over 245 large in a given year.

As of this writing, I have yet to cross the arbitrary Obama-Biden “rich” threshold of 245 large. Actually, I’m well short of that line, but it is one I hope to someday cross. I consider myself a Patriotic American even though I take and maximize every single tax deduction to which I am legally entitled. I’ve even enlisted Turbotax which made me aware of several deductions which I had not taken advantage of previously.

In short, I pay as little to Uncle Sam annually as I legally and possibly can. You see, I’ve got this strange notion that myself and the Ravishing Mrs. Cordeiro are better qualified to decide how exactly to spend or invest our hard earned cash than is SlowJoe Biden or even (gasp) the infinitely wise and learned Obamessiah.

SlowJoe doubled down on this issue yesterday, invoking not only the “patriotism” incentive for higher taxes, but also including an ecclesiastical reason as well:

Catholic social doctrine as I was taught it is, you take care of people who need the help the most.

Pardon me, Joe. I’m not nearly the scriptural theologian you are, but I can’t seem to remember any scriptural requirement for government to soak the rich to “take care of people”. I seem to remember something about “rendering unto Cesear that which is Ceaser’s”, but that’s as far as it went. Simply put, that "social doctrine" you were taught dealt with what you do with your own money, not with the money you collect at the point of a gun from others. We've already seen your priorities with your own pile of cash.

If Obama and SlowJoe want more of my money, they’re going to have to prove to me that my life and my family will be better off with them taking my money than it would be with me keeping it. Simply put, Barry and Joe, the ROI (Return On Investment) numbers don’t support that.

102 Minutes

2008-09-11T08:46:00.002-04:00

I’ve spent the past few days trying to put together a fitting tribute on this anniversary of September 11th. After much thought I came to the conclusion that I could only write something from my perspective on that day as mine is the only perspective of which I have first hand knowledge. You’ll find this post below the fold.

In the mean time, if you do nothing else today, take a look at this video…and remember.

It was a normal Tuesday morning on September 11, 2001. For me the day began much like most days did – finding me waging the battle of the bulge on a Nordic Track in the garage of my Los Angeles home. At 0530, I began my workout on that dreaded torture device with Blogfather Hugh’s morning radio show murmurings in the background.

Shortly after 0546 I heard Blogfather Hugh deviate from his normal morning routine as he began to make mention of a “tragedy in New York City”. He mentioned something about the World Trade Center having been evidently struck by a plane. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t pay much attention – it was after all well before sunrise and I wasn’t really awake yet. I finished my workout and wandered into the living room and turned on MSNBC a few minutes before 0600.

My verbal reaction to the image on the screen (something having to do with sanctified natural fertilizer) woke the Ravishing Mrs. Cordeiro who then came in to find out what the ruckus was about.

She rounded the hallway corner into the living room just seconds after 0603 – the moment in which United Flight 175, piloted by Marwan al-Shehhi, tilted its wings and impacted between floors 77 and 85 of the World Trade Center’s South Tower.

We sat there and watched in stunned silence for what seemed like an eternity. 34 minutes later, as NBC’s Jim Miklashevski reported live at the Pentagon, his entire desk shook as the building absorbed American Airlines Flight 77 as it the westernmost wall.

In the midst of all this I managed to ready myself to head for my office near LAX. As I was heading for the door at just before 0700, the unthinkable happened. There was a loud rumble, audible even to the cameras in the distance, and the South Tower collapsed upon itself like a folding telescope. Lower Manhattan disappeared in a huge cloud of smoke, dust, and pulverized debris.

America was in a state of shock. New York City was in a state of panic. Unbeknownst to all but a few, two minutes earlier the passengers aboard United Flight 93 had decided to take action. Their own plane had been hijacked by the same band of Islamofacist Murdering Thugs responsible for the other hijacked airplanes.

Thirty-seven passengers and five crew members were herded into the aft section of the Boeing 757-200. The intentions of their hijackers soon became clear. Some passengers had made phone calls to friends and loved ones who informed them about the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. They looked at each other. They took a vote. They decided to rush the cockpit and attempt to reclaim the aircraft.

It is said that America’s strength is neither in her military nor in her treasure. America’s strength is in her citizens. Forty-two Americans, most of whom had not known each other prior to that morning, banded together and started to push the drink cart down the aisle to do battle with their captors. The final words anyone heard from these brave souls were those of Todd Beamer:

Are you guys ready? Okay. Let’s roll!

Six minutes later, United Flight 93 crashed nose first at 563 miles per hour into a reclaimed coal mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Thus began America’s counterattack in the War on Terror.

Having stopped for breakfast on my way to the office, I saw the North WTC Tower collapse upon itself at 0728. Though nobody knew it, at that moment the attack was over. When all the dust had settled and the smoke had cleared, some 2,996 men, women, and children perished on that Tuesday morning in September.

From the time the American Airlines Flight 11 impacted the North Tower to the time that same tower collapsed down upon itself, a total of 102 minutes elapsed. Those 102 minutes would forever change America. For weeks after that day, Los Angeles radio station KFI ran a haunting one sentence reminder at various intervals during the day. On either side of the voiceover was about five seconds of dead air – just enough to get your attention. Then a voice stated:

It could have just as easily happened here.

Los Angeles is a geographical continent and cultural world away from New York and DC. Distance and culture notwithstanding, LA ground to a halt just like most metro areas. Businesses and schools shut down and parents like me were left wondering just exactly how to explain the events of that morning to our children.

My son Corderinho, then a three-year-old bundle of curiosity, was very concerned. You see at that time I traveled often for business and he would accompany the Ravishing Mrs. Cordeiro when she either dropped me off or picked me up at LAX. When I told Corderinho that some “bad men” had crashed the planes into those big building, he looked at me with the quivering lip unique to three-year-olds and asked:

Daddy, are there bad men on your planes?

No three-year-old should have to ask that question.

A few years ago while visiting New York City, I made a pilgrimage to Ground Zero. As I stood looking out over the 20 acre hole in the ground, I was approached by a Boston PBS station reporter who put a microphone in my face and asked me how I “felt”. My answer surprised the reporter:

I am still angry.

There were no follow up questions and I’m sure the interview got tossed in the corner of the cutting room floor.

I leave you today with a performance by Billy Joel at the Concert for New York City – an event held a few weeks after September 11. He wrote this song some thirty years ago as a science fiction song, but the lyrics are very prescient. The video is interspersed with footage from 9/11 – some of which is difficult to watch.

Count me among the handful.

Ground Noise And Static

2008-09-05T11:00:00.001-04:00

On the whole I have to admit the John McCain gave a solid speech last night. There were parts of it I liked, and parts of it to which I was indifferent. It was evident that he was comfortable with the fact he wasn't going to out shine "Stiletto" Sarah Palin. McCain is much more comfortable in a setting where he can interact with his audience. TelePrompTered podiums aren't his best venue.

That said, there was one part of the speech that surprised me. Most people, men especially, are very uncomfortable speaking about their failings or vulnerabilities. Type A personality fighter jocks (a demographic in which McCain spent a good part of his life) are among the guys least likely to reveal such personal details.

So when McCain began to describe his experiences as a "guest" at the Hanoi Hilton after he turned down an offer of early release by his captors, I found these four words very revealing:

And they broke me.

I haven't heard that from McCain before. He may have spoken about it prior to last night, or written about it in his memoirs, but that admission was news to me. I think such a frank statement from a man who has been billed as a hard-nosed, street fighting tough guy will make him seem just a bit more human.

Now a word or two about the protestors who tried (unsuccessfully) to add their own soundtrack to the evening's main event.

I watched the whole speech on TV, so I was obviously limited to whatever the cameras were showing. By my count I could see at least three protestors (one man, two women) who had to be forcibly removed from the venue after they tried to disrupt it and distract McCain.

All three were shouted down by the assembled masses. NRO's Jim Geraghty noted that two of the protesters came from a spot "suspiciously near the press section." The one male protester looked like he hadn't bathed in the past six months. As for the Code Pinkos – I'm not positive, but it appeared as though at least one of them was attempting to disrobe. That, dear reader, would have been a serious wardrobe malfunction. Some people simply should not be naked.

I did some searching this morning and I can't find any reports of Obama's coronation speech having been interrupted by right winged lunatics screaming references to his shady political dealings with unrepentant terrorists and convicted felon slumlords.

McCain's reaction to these attempted interruptions was the use of a warning given to pilots regarding ground operations and radio communications:

Don't be diverted by ground noise and static.

There will be a lot of ground noise and static generated in the next eight weeks. Most of it will come from Team Obama with an assist from its press office, commonly referred to as the Mainstream Media. As the polls are now even, my money is on that static being thick enough to cut with a hunting knife.

Palin Speech Reax Roundup

2008-09-04T10:42:00.001-04:00

The New Republic's Stump Bloggers declared Sarah's performance to be "alarmingly strong".

She impressed the DNC press office, commonly referred to as the Associated Press.

She's got Gloria Steinem tied up in knots.

At the Chicago Sun-Times, Mary Mitchell summarized it this way:

Those are the kinds of jabs the Obama campaign will have a difficult time dealing with simply because Palin is a female, and the campaign will not want to appear to be sexist.

Actually, Mary, Team Obama will have a hard time dealing with Palin's jabs because of one simple reason: in addition to being devastatingly accurate, Palin's broadsides have the added value of being true.

Over the past few years of blogging, I've come to use nicknames when referring to politicians and other "celebrities" in the public sphere. After watching Sarah Palin's speech last night, despite her well earned moniker of "Sarah Barracuda", I've decided to start referring to her as "Stiletto Sarah" because this is the song that came to mind after she finished her Twin Cities debut:

She cuts you hard, she cuts you deep
She's got so much skill
She's so fascinating that you're still there waiting
When she comes back for the kill
You've been slashed in the face
You've been left there to bleed
You want to run away
But you know you're gonna stay
'Cause she gives you what you need

She cuts you out, she cuts you down
She carves up your life
But you won't do nothing
As she keeps on cutting
'Cause you know you love the knife
You've been bought, you've been sold
You've been locked outside the door
But you stand there pleadin'
With your insides bleedin'
'Cause deep down you want some more
Then she says she needs affection
While she searches for the vein
She's so good with her stiletto
You don't really mind the pain

- Stiletto by Billy Joel

Stiletto Sarah's next major event will be her debate with her vice presidential opponent SlowJoe Biden. SlowJoe is famous for taking several hours to say absolutely nothing and putting his audience in a coma during the process. After last night's barn burning performance, SlowJoe needs to be afraid…very afraid.

Here endeth the lesson.

All Experience Is Not Created Equal

2008-09-03T09:56:00.001-04:00

In deference to Kaiser's Lament about the seemingly never ending tit for tat exchanges between the two campaigns on the issue of experience (or lack thereof), I was going to leave the issue alone. Really. I was.

But then Obama came out with this (un-TelePromTered) zinger glorifying his executive experience compared with that of Governor Sarah Palin during an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper:

Cooper: And Senator Obama, my final question, some of your Republican critics have said you don't have the experience to handle a situation like this. They've in fact said that Governor Palin has more executive experience as mayor of a small town and as governor of a big state of Alaska. What's your response?

Obama: Well, my understanding is that Governor Palin's town of Wasilla has I think 50 employees. We've got 2,500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. You know, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month. So I think that our ability to manage large systems and to execute I think has been made clear over the last couple of years.

So, Obama's experience running for office trumps that of an actual elected official serving in the capacity of chief executive at both a local and state level. Now there's a take I haven't heard before.

First off, running a campaign holds little in comparison to running a municipality or a state for that matter. Campaigns have, by definition, finite life spans. On November 5^th – win or lose - the Obama-Biden 2008 campaign will cease to exist. Smart campaign staffers will make sure their paychecks clear before that date. Caterers and other service providers would be wise to demand up front payment for services rendered – or they might end up on the short end of the stick like those owed money by Team Hillary. Municipalities, on the other hand, have to deal with issues more important than the size of the next big media buy.

Secondly, Obama's belittling of Palin's tenure as a small town mayor will probably backfire. The liberal legend House Speaker Tip O'Neill made famous the undeniable political truth that "all politics is local". To be blunt, local politics is all most Americans ever really deal with. Mayors, city council members, county supervisors and other local politicians are where the rubber meets the road. They fill the potholes, ensure the trash is collected, and deal with local zoning issues in addition to other mind numbing details that make the local municipality run. Effectively managing a city – even a small one – is much harder than it looks on paper and far more difficult than anything Obama has ever attempted.

And thirdly, Obama's answer to Cooper's question simply – and obviously – skips over Palin's tenure as governor of the great state of Alaska. As NRO's Byron York noted, Alaska has 15,000 employees and an operating budget of $11.2 billion. I'm not much of a numbers guy, but those figures dwarf anything Obama has ever held executive responsibility for. As far as I know, the last executive position Obama had was editor of the Harvard Law Review. Forgive me if I remain unimpressed.

And finally, in the spirit of "Now its time for something completely different", I direct your attention to Maureen Dowd of the New York Times Op-Ed page. Some time ago, the Times put their Op-Ed page behind a subscription wall – thus sparing the majority of the news reading public from having to endure the likes of Ms. Dowd. Having failed to garner enough subscription revenue to pay for a two-block cab ride the Times took down the wall and let Dowd out again.

Well, now her nose has become firmly out of joint over the Palin selection, and she has resorted to prose that – were it a man making the same statements about a woman – would get her remanded to the Op-Ed pages of the Weekly World News. Dowd has declared Palin to be the "Trophy Vice" and "Vice in Go-Go Boots".

Why, Ms Dowd, I do believe you are jealous! Then again, perhaps your concern is not without cause. Sarah Palin could pull off the Go-Go boots ensemble. You? I'm not so sure about.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

2008-09-01T14:36:00.000-04:00

I’ve spent four of the past six weeks traveling around the country for business and vacation purposes. During that time I made a point of throwing Obama’s domestic consumption decree to the proverbial wind.

In short, I ate as much as I wanted. I drove a range of vehicles (SUVs, sports cars, and yes the family minivan) as much – actually more – than I wanted. I kept my hotel room – whether it was in the Mile High City, the arid plains of Oklahoma City, or the humid confines of Orlando – at 72 degrees or cooler for the duration of my stay. I figure its only a matter of time before Algore comes to my door and accuses me of being the driving cause behind Hurricane Gustav.

DNC Coverage: Monday

2008-08-26T14:34:00.003-04:00

Monday was the long-awaited kick off of the Democratic National Circus. Here is my synopsis of the evening:

I arrived home from work, and started to mow the lawn.
The kids came out and told me it was time for dinner.
After dinner, the kids and I rode bikes for a while. Then, I finished the lawn.
Later, Mrs. B. called us inside. I shared a short Bible story, we ate some cake, and gathered around the piano to sing some songs.
The kids went off to bed, and I finished re-caulking a bath tub, and Mrs. B. folded some laundry.
While we worked, we watched/listened to old episodes of the Cosby Show on DVD. The early seasons, when the show was good.

In all, the first night of the DNC was very enjoyable in our household!

Hillary Finished? Not Hardly

2008-08-07T01:48:00.001-04:00

I'll say this for Hillary – I didn't think she'd manage to stay out of the headlines for this long of a time. Most people thought she had accepted the fact that 2008 just wasn't her year – that she'd lay low until the presidential election was settled. If McCain won, her 2012 campaign would begin on November 5, 2008. If Obama were the victor, well, she might hold off on that campaign until after Christmas.

As for Obama, he thought he'd heeded the call of the Monty-Python-esque political cart pusher as he bellowed "Bring Out Yer Dead!". He tossed the Hillary campaign on the cart – even showed up to help her retire some of her campaign debt. Never mind the fact he totally spaced reminding the fat cat donors about the purpose of the fundraiser – it's the thought that counts.

With the Democratic National Convention only a week or so away, the question as to what to do with Hillary been brought to the front burner. History is full of party conventions which have been fraught with drama, intrigue, and deal making. Lately, however, all these gatherings are is one big Kum-bye-ya festival. Howlin' Mad Howie Dean would like nothing better than to have the Obama Coronation at Mile High Stadium remain a drama (and Hillary) free zone.

I'm not sure Hillary, and some of her hardest-core supporters got that memo. Hillary has doubts that Obama can pull off a victory in November. There's bad blood between Team Hillary and Obama's camp – bad blood which could be brought into the spotlight when the circus comes to Denver. Some of those circus performers – namely PUMA (follow the link for the acronym – I can't print it here), are holding on to the remotest of possibilities that Hillary can still be the nominee. They want to have an open floor vote on the floor of Denver's Pepsi Center and hope that skeptical Obama delegates can be persuaded to flip to Hillary.

What says Hillary about this idea? Well, since you asked:

I happen to believe that we will come out stronger if people feel that their voices were heard and their views respected. And I think that is a very big part of how we actually come out unified, because I know from just what I'm hearing that there is just this incredible pent up desire.

And I think people want to feel like 'Okay, it's a catharsis, we're here, we did it,' and then everybody get behind Senator Obama. … No decisions have been made.

I believe that's the first time the words "incredible pent up desire" have been used in a political setting. Let me run the above paragraph through Cordeiro's Monty Python Holy Grail translator so you can better understand what Hillary said:

I'm not dead! I don't want to go on the cart. I FEEL HAPPY!!!

If, in fact, Hillary manages to convince Howlin' Mad Howie & Company to allow an open vote on the convention floor it will be the political equivalent of letting a camel's nose under the tent during a sandstorm. Eventually, the camel is in the tent and the former tent dweller is outside in the storm.

Conventional wisdom dictates that Obama is and will continue to be the Democratic standard bearer. He will address tens of thousands of cheering congregants as he accepts his party's nomination on Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium – after the obligatory rock concert of course. The DNC will most likely go smoothly and be drama free.

But still the possibility of a floor fight exists, and that would make for great prime-time entertainment.

So, the circus is coming to Denver, a place near and dear to my heart and also the place from which this post originates. I've come to Denver to see it before the Democrats descent upon the Mile High City. I deny, categorically, that I witnessed a bunch of Native Americans performing a ritual rain dance near Invesco Field. Having driven through downtown Denver this afternoon – about the same time of day Obama will be giving his speech – the Colorado weather did not disappoint, pelting rain, tornado warnings and the like were plentiful.

The floor fight probably won't happen. The weather, however, is an entirely different animal.

Here endeth the lesson.

Obama Discovers Alternative Fuel

2008-07-31T09:24:00.001-04:00

I'm thinking about starting a 24 hour cable channel featuring nothing but off-the-cuff Obama riffs unaided by any electronic performance enhancing devices. I'll call it "Obama Unplugged". Here's the latest entry:

Yesterday (in yet another one of the places I used to call home) Obama stepped from behind his TelePrompTer equipped lectern in Springfield Missouri and announced that he had discovered the cure for America's dependence on foreign oil. Actually, he's discovered an alternative fuel that will make your car so fuel efficient its doubtful you'll ever need to fill your gas tank again.

What's this new fuel? Why I'm glad you asked. No, it's not Mr. Fusion. It's not a hydrogen fuel cell. It's not even one of those smart cars that are so small they wouldn't survive a head on collision with my son's bicycle.

No, dear reader, Obama has gone above and beyond our mere mortal abilities of propulsion. He's discovered that using just plain old ordinary air will get America out of her current fuel crunch. No, I'm not making this up. Stop laughing and watch the video.

See? Now dagnabbit, I told you to stop laughing. You know the Obamessiah doesn't take kindly to being laughed at or about. Now go out and make sure your tires are properly inflated or Obama will again be embarrassed by your not heeding his wise counsel.

Obama knows about as much regarding improving fuel economy as he does about particle physics. Powerline's John Hinderaker has run the numbers – you know those cold hard things we like to call factual data – and has concluded

…it would take only 11,308 years of proper tire inflation to equal "all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling."

In the process of business decision making, the accountants always want to know what the "break-even" point is – in other words, the point at which the new venture will have made enough money to pay back the original investment. No business in it's right collective mind would ever enter or advocate a new venture who's break even point was 11,000 years out.

Of course, maybe by then our great (to the power of 24 or so) grandchildren will be flying around in cars powered by Mr. Fusion.

Here endeth the lesson.

Obama Takes The Show On The Road

2008-07-25T00:25:00.001-04:00

So Barack Obama has now made his first ever trip to Berlin. I can't wait to see the T-shirt sales from the 2008 Obamamania tour. He's drawn huge crowds at every venue, whether it be the hotel gym at the Berlin Ritz Carlton or downtown at the Siegessäule.

The MSM – currently following Obama around like a bunch of love-sick band groupies – immediately compared Obama's speech to those made by Jack Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. In the unitary mind of the MSM, Obama has already won the White House – its only a matter of time before he and Michelle start making really important decisions, namely what color curtains to put in the Oval Office.

There's one glaring difference between the speeches made by Kennedy and Reagan and that made by Obama today. Both Kennedy and Reagan earned the right to stand in Berlin. Barack Obama has not earned any such right.

Kennedy and Reagan stood in Berlin during different decades but with the same enemy. They both looked across the Iron Curtain and poked America's finger in the eye of the Soviet Union. Kennedy stood in solidarity with the citizens of West Berlin – even to the point of getting away with calling himself a jelly donut in the process. Reagan dared Gorbachev to "tear down this wall" despite the best effort of linguini-spined State Department staffers who feared he was being too bold.

What risk did Obama take with his speech today? Not one. He decried Boston commuters and Beijing manufacturers for contributing to Global Warming. Notably spared by his wrath were the Germans – long manufacturers of some of the world's finest carbon emitting motor vehicles. Kennedy and Reagan wanted to help Europe grow closer to America. Obama would have America become more European.

Obama is now basking in the glow of what, by all reports will be a "successful" foreign tour. There was one type of venue notably absent from his Rock Star tour - any US military base. Evidently the Dali Bama had planned to visit Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, but the trip was deep-sixed because campaign staff would not be allowed to go with the Senator.

[Side note – Landstuhl Regional Medical Center is often the first place wounded soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines are sent to if their injuries cannot be tended to in the combat zone hospitals]

So, here's the moral of this story: no campaign staff or cameras = no Obama. He can make time for the media cheerleaders, throngs of foreign nationals, and any other wanna-be celebrity willing to lavish him with undeserved praise. But if you're an American serviceman or woman – or one of their family members living as a stranger in a strange land – Obama can't give you the time of day.

I'm sorry, Mr. Obama. You may have managed to buy a speaking platform in Berlin, but you didn't earn it.

The Unbearable Light-weighted Obama

2008-07-18T08:30:00.001-04:00

Blogfather Hugh pointed me to a piece by the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza which details Barack Obama's reaction to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He quotes from an Op-Ed written by Obama in Chicago's Hyde Park Herald on September 19 of that same year. This was long before Obama hit the big-time, so I'm pretty safe in assuming it was written by his own hand and not that of a speech writer.

Before I quote the most revealing paragraphs, I want you to stop and remember for just a minute. Remember where you were on that Tuesday morning in September. Remember what you saw, remember how you felt. Most importantly, remember the emotions evoked by the images of that morning. Now read Obama:

Even as I hope for some measure of peace and comfort to the bereaved families, I must also hope that we as a nation draw some measure of wisdom from this tragedy. Certain immediate lessons are clear, and we must act upon those lessons decisively. We need to step up security at our airports. We must reexamine the effectiveness of our intelligence networks. And we must be resolute in identifying the perpetrators of these heinous acts and dismantling their organizations of destruction.

That's about as decisive as he gets. "Identify" the perpetrators and "dismantle" their organizations. So much for soaring rhetoric. But it gets better:

We must also engage, however, in the more difficult task of understanding the sources of such madness. The essence of this tragedy, it seems to me, derives from a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers: an inability to imagine, or connect with, the humanity and suffering of others. Such a failure of empathy, such numbness to the pain of a child or the desperation of a parent, is not innate; nor, history tells us, is it unique to a particular culture, religion, or ethnicity. It may find expression in a particular brand of violence, and may be channeled by particular demagogues or fanatics. Most often, though, it grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.

So, I guess what Usama "Binny" Laden needs is a sit down real time interview with Dr. Phil. But I digress. Back to Obama:

We will have to make sure, despite our rage, that any U.S. military action takes into account the lives of innocent civilians abroad. We will have to be unwavering in opposing bigotry or discrimination directed against neighbors and friends of Middle Eastern descent. Finally, we will have to devote far more attention to the monumental task of raising the hopes and prospects of embittered children across the globe—children not just in the Middle East, but also in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and within our own shores.

Perhaps I'm heartless. Maybe I'm cynical. Either way, the last thing I wanted to understand in the aftermath of September 11 was the "source of such madness". I wasn't interested in what happened during the childhood years of Mohammed Atta that caused him to fly a plane full of people and jet-fuel into that World Trade Center tower. I didn't give a rat's hindquarters for any of the other 19 Islamofacist Murdering Thugs either.

You might say, "Cordeiro, you're still harboring a lot of anger and resentment about a single attack so many years ago." And you're probably right. I am still angry. Why? Well, I traveled a lot for business in 2001. In the months leading up to that fateful Tuesday, I flew on nearly every route the terrorists used. I liked to fly on Tuesday or Wednesday because it reduced the chances of me being stuck in a middle seat on a cross-country flight.

In other words, dear reader, it just as easily could've been me on one of those planes. Forgive me if I take it a bit personally.

America has spent the past seven years waiting for the next shoe to drop. We've been fairly successful at preventing another attack on the air transportation system and that is not an accident. The fact of the matter is America will be attacked again – it's just a matter of where and when.

So, you have to answer a question. What kind of reaction do you want from the President of the United States in the event of a terrorist attack on American soil? Do you want someone who is willing to sit down, without preconditions, with the terrorist and attempt to "understand the source of his madness"? Do you want a man who is more concerned with why the terrorist inflicted his mayhem on innocent Americans than he is about eliminating said terrorist?

No matter how much Obama tries to build his "foreign policy cred" with his European Rock Star tour complete with wall-to-wall live coverage from ABC/NBC/CBS, his lectern sign which currently reads "Judgment to Lead" needs to be replaced with "Dangerously Naïve".

Here endeth the lesson.

Mark Your Calendars

2008-07-15T09:55:00.001-04:00

Things that will be happening on Monday, September 28, 2008:

Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown
Week 4 of the NFL Season wraps up with the Pittsburgh Steelers hosting the Baltimore Ravens on ESPN's Monday Night Football
The Congressional ban on oil drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) expires

Powerline's John Hinderaker notes that in order for the non-Dynamic Duo of House Speaker The Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Dusty Harry (D-Circus Circus) to keep gas prices at or above the $4/gallon mark they will have to act very publicly to do so – just days before the general election. My understanding of the legislative process leads me to believe that if they do nothing, the drilling ban expires and there will be a mad dash to the OCS by every person who ever even thought about drilling for Black Gold.

I seriously doubt the militant environmental BANANA lobby will allow the congressional drill ban to go quietly into the night. This means there is a distinct possibility said lobby will exert pressure sufficient to require a vote on an extension of that economy crippling drilling ban. Both presidential candidates would have the opportunity to cast what might be the defining vote of their respective senatorial careers.

With W having rescinded the Executive Order banning oil exploration/drilling on the OCS, the focus of attention about just who is responsible for America depriving her people of access to their own natural resources now falls squarely on Congressional Democrats.

Personally, I'm tired of sending far too much of my hard earned money to a bunch of Islamofacist Murdering Thugs (yes, Mahmoud, I'm talking about you) for a commodity which could and should be produced in America. It will be interesting to see if Obama will flip-flop on this issue or whether he'll give McCain a giant club to beat him with all during the fall.

Here endeth the lesson.

UpChuck Schumer's Bank Run

2008-07-14T13:14:00.001-04:00

Last week the McCain camp took a beating over some comments made by former Texas senator Phil Gramm regarding the economy. Evidently Gramm called America a "nation of whiners" and made some mention about the economy being in a "mental recession". While there may be some truth in Gramm's off the cuff remarks, the overall impact of his musings on the actual economy were and are negligible.

To listen to Team Obama, however, you'd think Gramm had insulted Grandma, Apple Pie, the Flag, Baseball, and NASCAR. In truth, it doesn't take much to get Team Obama up in arms.

So, this past Friday came the news that a huge financial institution, IndyMac Bank was taken over by the Feds. In other words, the bank failed. In the wake of the Bear-Stearns flame out, this really isn't surprising. IndyMac was heavy into the home mortgage fiasco and unless you've been living under a rock for the past year or so, that's not a great market to be in.

It turns out that, while IndyMac was on the edge of the proverbial financial cliff, it had some help going over that cliff. The Senior Senator from New York (no, I'm not bashing Hillary), the (less-than) honorable Charles E. "UpChuck" Schumer gave IndyMac a good shove. According to the Office of Thrift Supervision:

The OTS has determined that the current institution, IndyMac Bank, is unlikely to be able to meet continued depositors' demands in the normal course of business and is therefore in an unsafe and unsound condition. The immediate cause of the closing was a deposit run that began and continued after the public release of a June 26 letter to the OTS and the FDIC from Senator Charles Schumer of New York. The letter expressed concerns about IndyMac's viability. In the following 11 business days, depositors withdrew more than $1.3 billion from their accounts.

I know you're all shocked. I am too. Up until now I had forgotten the State of New York has two senators.

It has long been known that Washington DC's most dangerous location is between UpChuck Schumer and a television camera. He is stricken with a terminal case of Napoleon's Syndrome and now he's cost IndyMac $1.3 billion in 11 days. What IndyMac did to deserve Schumer's wrath is as of yet undetermined although there is a distinct possibility that the IndyMac executives did not perform the requisite bowing and scraping the last time they appeared before UpChuck's committee.

So, here's your comparison for the day: Team Obama unleashed a fusillade of withering fire aimed at Phil Gramm because he offended their easily offended over inflated egos. Will Obama come out and bash his fellow Democratic senator for causing a run on a bank reminiscent of the fictional run on a London bank caused by young Michael Banks' refusal to hand over his tuppence?

I'm not holding my breath. Gramm talked about a "mental recession". Schumer is actually trying to start a real one.

Here endeth the lesson.

July 4, 1776

2008-07-04T08:00:00.000-04:00

232 years ago this morning, fifty-six delegates from the thirteen British colonies met at what would come to be known as Independence Hall in downtown Philadelphia. Most of them had spent the better part of the previous several months debating and arguing about the best course of action in regards to the ongoing conflict between the colonies and the crown.

The first months of 1776 had been anything but peaceful. Skirmishes, shootouts, and outright battles were raging from the Carolinas to Boston. Then General Washington’s Continental Army – though victorious in some instants – was dreadfully undermanned, badly supplied, and under-trained in the face of what was the most powerful army on the planet at the time.

Thomas Jefferson recorded that July 4, 1776 was an “unseasonably cool” day for Philadelphia. The aforementioned men gathered in the large room on the ground floor where they had spent so many days and nights to put their signatures to a document which could have very well become their own personal death warrants. They were, for all intents and purposes, committing high treason against the British Crown. King George would not look kindly upon their actions and would not have hesitated to execute the delegates had a few battles gone the other way.

Who were these men who had the audacity to put their names to a document so full of risk? Glad you asked.

Of the 56:

9 were immigrants

2 were brothers

One was an orphan

The average age of those in attendance was 45 - the oldest being Benjamin Franklin (70) and the youngest being Thomas Lynch, Jr. (27)

18 were businessmen or merchants

4 were doctors

14 were farmers

42 had previously served in their colonial legislatures

22 were lawyers

2 were clergymen

Most were Protestant Christians - only one was a Roman Catholic

17 served in uniform during the Revolutionary War

5 were captured by the British during the war

11 had their homes and property destroyed during the war

It is the Declaration of Independence, authored by Thomas Jefferson, which put on paper the longing of the human soul for freedom and the power to control one's own destiny. The signers boldly declared that:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. [Emphasis Added]

It should be noted that, at the time these 56 men signed their names to this bold Declaration, the outcome of the Revolutionary War was anything but certain. The war would grind on for over seven more years before Treaty of Paris was signed. I highly recommend David McCullough's 1776 to help illustrate just how tenuous America's beginnings truly were. Had Washington failed to rout the Hessians at Trenton - or had any one of a host of other narrow victories become a defeat - there's a good chance the Union Jack would still be flying over this nation and we'd still stop the world to have tea on time.

The men gathered in that stuffy room at Independence Hall pledged to each other their "lives, fortunes and sacred honor". Some gave their lives, many gave all or most of their fortunes, but all kept their honor.

So, before you go and fire up the barbeque, watch the fireworks, and do the other fitting and proper things Americans do on this the nation's birthday, take some time and read or listen to the words behind the Patriot's dream that truly saw beyond the years.

Here you will find the single best Super Bowl commercial ever produced. If you can somehow watch Pat Tillman's widow read part of the Declaration of Independence without getting just a little choked up, You. Are. Not Human.

And, just in case you haven't read it for awhile, here's the text of the Declaration of Independence.

Some years ago, Rick Moran "live-blogged" the Continental Congress. Well worth the trip down Virtual Memory Lane. Rick gives an entirely new definition to the Historical Fiction genre.

And finally, I'll sign off with Red Skelton. Think about this the next time you recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Have a fantastic Fourth!

Clark & Webb Tag Team McCain

2008-07-02T09:23:00.003-04:00

This past Sunday, Wesley Clark, (General, United States Army - Retired), waded neck deep into the political swamp and started taking potshots at Senator John McCain (Captain, United States Navy – Retired) and his military service to the United States during the Vietnam War. Said Clark:

I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.

Let’s get one thing straight, Wes. McCain didn’t “ride” in a fighter plane. He flew it. In order to fly his 23rd combat mission over Vietnam he had to first be flung off a pitching carrier deck in his A-4 Skyhawk. Taking off was the easy part. Landing that single engine/single seat plane on a carrier deck is like trying to land on a postage stamp in the middle of the ocean all the while hoping to snag one of three steel arresting cables with a hook welded to the back of your plane in order to stop you from flying off the end of the carrier into the ocean.

Very few people on the earth can do this. Only Americans do it well.

Wesley Clark hasn’t backed down from his ludicrous statement that shocked even CBS’ Bob Schieffer. Well, yesterday a man who I am sorry to say represents me in the United States Senate waded up next to Clark and added his endorsing comment. Yes, I’m talking about none other than Senator Jim “The Angry Potato” Webb (D-Washington Post).

Webb really is the accidental Senator. He owes his senate seat to the Washington Post and other MSM entities for their relentless trumpeting of George Allen’s macacca gaffe. Let me be perfectly clear – Allen ran a horrible campaign and deserved to lose. Allen lost his seat more than Webb won it.

But I digress.

Webb went on MSNBC’s Countdown (which means very few people actually saw him) and let loose with this stream of nonsense:

John McCain's my long-time friend, if that is one area that I would ask him to calm down on, it’s that, don't be standing up and uttering your political views and implying that all the people in the military support them because they don't, any more than when the Democrats have political issues during the Vietnam War. Let's get the politics out of the military, take care of our military people, or have our political arguments in other areas. [Emphasis Added]

This is just plain silly. Jim Webb’s entire campaign focused on the fact that he honorably served this nation during the Vietnam War and is a highly decorated marine. For crying out loud he wore his son’s combat boots for the whole campaign cycle! Were it not for his military credentials, Jim Webb would still be writing historical fiction books. Virginia elected Webb on the strength of his military street cred. To assert otherwise is to be someplace other than reality.

This election is about who is going to serve this nation as the Commander-In-Chief of the United States Armed Forces during time of war. John McCain is right to lay his silver eagles on the table and tell the nation that he has in fact been there, done that, and has the key to the Hanoi Hilton to prove it.

Wesley Clark would discount McCain’s wartime service entirely as a qualification to be Commander-In-Chief. Jim Webb wouldn’t discount it, but would remove discussions of military issues from the presidential debate. They would do this because their candidate has no military record to speak of and no executive experience what so ever. Actually, the Obama campaign has a hard time putting together any list of accomplishments which isn’t full of holes.

So, if military street cred doesn’t count as a qualification t sit in the Big Chair, what does? I’ll let Wes Clark answer that question:

Barack is not, he is not running on the fact that he has made these national
security pronouncements. He's running on his other strengths. He's running on
the strengths of character, on the strengths of his communication skills, on the strengths of his judgment. And those are qualities that we seek in our national
leadership.

Character. Judgment. Communication skills. I don’t have to look too hard to find huge flaws in Obama’s “character” and gaping chasms in his “judgment”. That leaves communication skills. I guess that means as long as Obama has 24/7 access to a speechwriter and TelePrompTer, he’ll do just fine.

Surprise! The Second Amendment Means What It Says!

2008-06-27T11:09:00.001-04:00

221 years ago this September, the founding document of the United States became the Law of the Land. Attached to main document was a list of ten amendments which came to be known as the Bill of Rights. Since the Constitution's ratification, and specifically since Marbury vs. Madison, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS or The Supremes) has taken it upon itself to decide the meaning of the various articles phrases, and clauses which make up this truly inspired document.

Sometimes the Supremes get it right. Sometimes they get it dreadfully wrong. This week's decisions brought a little of both. In the Kennedy vs. Louisiana case, they blew it. Simply put, if raping a young child doesn't the offender for the Death Penalty, then I question the wisdom of those who set the qualifications. I seem to remember a scriptural reference to tying millstones around those who "offend" little ones.

But I digress.

Yesterday, for the first time in the history of the Supremes, the Court took under its magnifying glass the Second Amendment which reads:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. (Emphasis Added)

The issue posed by the case before the Supremes was whether or not the City of Washington, DC had violated the Constitution by enforcing a near-total ban on private gun ownership in the District. Gun bans are supposed to reduce crime, but crime stats prove that if DC isn't America's Murder Capitol, its nearly always running a close second or third.

In short, DC is the city personification of the NRA bumper sticker which reads "When guns are outlawed, only Outlaws will have guns." Good thing in-laws can't have guns. That would be scary!

On the Gun Case, the Supremes broke along ideological lines with Kennedy as the swing vote. Gun control advocates had hoped for a different ruling whereby the Supremes would have effectively repealed the Second Amendment without the need for the long drawn out amendment process. Five votes are much easier to round up than the vote percentage required by the Constitution. Congratulations, DC residents. You can now legally own a firearm.

Which brings me to my main point. You know it takes me awhile to get to it. Elections have consequences. The list of issues upon which John McCain and I have differences is very long. Having said that, the Supreme Court is my Reason #2 why I'll touch the screen for him in November. This case could have just as easily gone the other way depending on what Justice Kennedy had for breakfast on the day votes were counted.

The next POTUS will appoint at least one and probably two members to SCOTUS. Having seen BO's (no, evidently I can't refer to him in classic three initial presidential style) foundationless judgment over the course of this campaign, the closest I ever want him to get to a SCOTUS choice is casting his advise and consent vote in the Senate.

Here endeth the lesson.

The Pickle Juice Cocktail

2008-06-22T23:52:00.002-04:00

I once listened to a wise old man tell of his reaction to a Washington Post article in which the author spent the entire column bemoaning all that was wrong with the world. After having finished the column, the man stated he believed the article’s author had spent the week “sucking on pickles”.

The MSM, in general, is populated by Pickle Suckers. They spend their time looking for the worst of the worst to write, talk, or speak about because – in the end – the reporter’s axiom rings true: “If it bleeds, it leads.”

Yesterday, the Associated Press – obviously lacking any real news to report – saw fit to fill its bandwidth quota with a declaration that “Everything seemingly is spinning out of control”. In it, authors Alan Fram and Eileen Putnam take the reader on a whirlwind tour of Katrina ravaged New Orleans and flood soaked Iowa and Missouri. The United States is gripped in a malaise fueled despair reminiscent of the Carter years. Want to get away? Your dollar is worthless and it costs too much to fly anyway.

No, you won’t find any solace in sports or TV. Between steroids and the writer’s strike there’s nothing worth watching. What is the conclusion of Fram & Putnam? Well, its not a rosy one:

Why the vulnerability? After all, this is the 21st century, not a more primitive past when little in life was assured. Surely people know how to fix problems now.

Maybe. And maybe this is what the 21st century will be about — a great unraveling of some things long taken for granted.

Fram & Putnam aren’t alone in their love of Pickle Juice. Last week ABCNews’ Sarah Namias opened up her column with this question:

Are we living in the last century of our civilization? Is it possible that all of our technology, knowledge and wealth cannot save us from ourselves? Could our society actually be heading towards collapse?

Is there no optimism at all in today’s media? Even the predictions of 1900 were not this dire and pessimistic.

Yes, dear reader, we’re all going to die. Most of us will be pushing up daisies well before the end of this century. ABC will broadcast Earth 2100 in September – just in time to convince voters the world will literally end if they put another Republican in the Oval Office this fall.

America looks to her President for leadership in troubled times. There’s a big difference between a candidacy built on empty rhetoric and one built on tested leadership. Ronald Reagan won two terms in the Oval because he made people feel good about America after the Carter debacle. Reagan made people believe America was the shining city on the hill – the example the rest of the world could aspire to.

I don’t get that vibe from Obama. I believe, as he looks out over America’s fruited plain, he sees through much the same lens as the pickle sucking MSM correspondents. He sees a country that eats too much, drives the wrong cars, and lives in better houses than it needs. Life is too good for too few.

Obama’s answer to this problem is not to improve life for the masses, but rather to worsen the life of those for whom life is better. Rather than increase wealth he will redistribute poverty. His plan for progress is to have America take a gigantic step backwards so the rest of the world can feel better about itself.

America needs a leader, not an empty suit that looks, acts, and is lost once the teleprompter goes dark. Spare me the pickle juice cocktail, Mr. Obama. I’ll stick to Guaraná.

The Obama Timewarp

2008-06-19T13:23:00.001-04:00

Barack Obama made yet another soaring rhetorical speech yesterday focusing on the Global War on Terror (GWOT). Actually, soaring isn't indicative of the rhetoric he employed. "Dangerously Naïve" is a far better description.

Some people live their lives longing for the past. Barack Obama seems to be trapped in a September 10^th world and wants the rest of American to join him in his Time Machine. He beckons us back to an era where Clintonian foreign policy still reigned, the world was at peace, and everyone gathered around the non-carbon-emitting fire and sang Kum-bye-ya every night.

In Barack Obama's virtual reality there is no Global War on Terror. American is not at war because war is wrong. He's not even sure why we need a strong military – or a military at all for that matter because, according to the Obamessiah:

My approach is guided by a simple premise: I have confidence that our system of justice is strong enough to deal with terrorists. [Emphasis Added]

Yes, dear reader, Barack Obama wants to deal with the likes of Usama "Binny" Laden, Khalid "The Schnoz" Sheikhk Mohammed, and Ayman al-Zawahiri the same way he would deal with any run of the mill street thug. Evidently to Obama there is no difference between petty crime and transnational terrorism. Either that, or he's seen one too many episodes of JAG. Perhaps in Obama's virtual reality lawyers really are the best weapon against Islamofacist Murdering Thugs.

In the real world, where most of us spend most of our time, combating terror is not something best done in a courtroom. That strategy has already been tried and has already failed in spectacular fashion. In the years and decades prior to the early morning attacks of September 11^th, America and her interests at home and abroad were under relentless attack by the same forces who flew the planes that Tuesday. Here is a short and by no means exhaustive list of terrorist attacks prior to 2001:

11/4/79 – 1/20/81 – Islamic radicals seize 66 hostages from the US Embassy in Tehran. 13 are released but 53 are held for the duration.

4/18/83 – 63 people are killed an 120 people injured when Islamic Jihad forces detonate a 400 pound truck bomb at the US Embassy Complex in Beirut.

10/23/83 – 242 Americans, many of them Marines are killed when Islamic Jihad forces detonate a 12,000 pound truck bomb at the Beirut barracks.

2/26/93 – First World Trade Center Bombings. 6 dead, 1000 injured.

8/7/98 – US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania are simultaneously attacked by forces loyal to Usama bin Laden. 302 dead, roughly 5,089 injured.

10/12/00 – USS Cole is rammed by a small, explosive laden boat. 17 sailors were killed and 39 were wounded.

Again, this list is not an exhaustive list by any means, but the response of the United States – with very few exceptions - was to do nothing.

Yes, we got outraged. We stomped our feet. Presidents (from both parties) swore that "the forces of justice would be brought to bear on the perpetrators of these savage acts." Arrest warrants were issued, indictments were handed down, and yes some Islamofacist Murdering Thugs were sent to SuperMax.

The law enforcement agencies of the United States are among the world's most elite and professional but they are ill suited for fighting a war against a very determined enemy. Wars are to be fought on the battlefield under the rules of war – not a courtroom under the rules of evidence. We should not ask our police officers to do a job best left to soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. Most of all America cannot allow un-elected and un-accountable judges to exert unconstitutional influence in areas best left to generals and admirals.

We've tried Obama's ideas once. Simply put it was an ineffective strategy which led to disastrous results the ramifications of which are still being felt. Obama boldly declares that he

refuse[s] to be lectured on national security by people who are responsible for the most disastrous set of foreign policy decisions in the recent history of the United States.

Evidently, the only people allowed to lecture Barack Obama on national security are those who put in place the policies and rules of engagement which were responsible for the most disastrous attack ever to be leveled against the United States on her own soil.

Here endeth the lesson.

Obama's Pie Plan

2008-06-16T12:09:00.001-04:00

Awhile back Michelle Obama took some well deserved flack for her comments that

in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.

Well, Blogfather Hugh did some research and found out just where Team Obama wants to start slicing and dicing your pie. Everyone knows the Social Security system is in deep trouble. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the return on investment in that system is pitiful. The actual ROI on monies put into the Social Security "Trust Fund" hovers someplace around 1%. A monkey throwing darts at a stock chart could get a better return than that – yet we as a country still require workers to shovel 12.4% of their income down that proverbial rat hole.

Before I start getting snarky emails saying "Cordeiro, workers only pay 6.2% into the system!", let me remind you that you only pay half of the Social Security payroll tax. Your employer picks up the other half. If you're self employed, as I was some years ago, you get to pay the Full Monty. Believe me, having to actually cut that check to the Treasury really, really, really, really sucks.

Where was I? Oh, yes, the rat hole. The one good thing about the Social Security is that it has a cap. Only the first $102K of your income is subject to the Social Security tax. The rest of your income, providing you make any, over and above the $102K level isn't subject to that tax. You get to keep it. What a novel concept!

Unless, of course, America is foolish enough to put Barack Obama in the Oval Office Big Chair. Obama wants that income not subject to Social Security taxes. In short, he wants more of your pie. I'm not making this up. Here's Obama's own (website) words on the subject:

Obama believes that the first place to look for ways to strengthen Social Security is the payroll tax system. Currently, the Social Security payroll tax applies to only the first $102,000 a worker makes. Obama supports increasing the maximum amount of earnings covered by Social Security and he will work with Congress and the American people to choose a payroll tax reform package that will keep Social Security solvent for at least the next half century. (Emphasis Added)

I'll refer you to Blogfather Hugh for the nuts and bolts links about how many Americans would fall under Obama's new Pie Plan, but I'm now convinced Obama only understands one tax rate and that is MORE.

Social Security was never designed to become what it is today. The system now represents an unsustainable transfer of wealth from one segment of the population to another. No matter how you slice and dice the population pie, there simply won't be enough future wage earners to support the Social Security recipients in years to come. Those of my generation (I'm 37) who believe they'll be able to get by on whatever meager Social Security check they'll receive during their golden years are simply foolish. That's assuming the system will last until then – which at this point is looking more doubtful every day.

Guys and gals like me are left attempting to save for retirement, pay for kid's education, and all the rest of life's expenses with whatever is left after government gets done sucking the very life out of our paychecks. The 100K mark is a big achievement in anybody's pursuit of happiness. You'd think once somebody reached that level, the government could congratulate him/her and say "Great job – keep the change".

Barack Obama doesn't want to congratulate hardworking Americans. He's bent on getting as much out of that paycheck as the Congress will let him. Obama, House Speaker The Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Dusty Harry Reid (D-Circus Circus) share the same tax dream – MORE.

That, dear reader, isn't a dream. It's a nightmare.

Here endeth the lesson.

Obamanomics

2008-06-10T09:32:00.001-04:00

Now that the Democratic primary race is pretty much settled – or in other words barring a Howard Dean-esque immolation Obama is now the nominee – the candidates are now starting to trade jabs on actual issues. The "right now" issue of this week is the price of gas.

It costs so much to fill the average American car today that there are loan sharks hanging out at every corner gas station. Go to a mega station and you'll find it has its own bank branch just to handle the volume of cash it takes to fill a Suburban. Everybody has an opinion as to why prices are so high – and almost everybody has their own ideas as to how to bring gas prices down to earth. Some ideas are worth trying. Other ideas are plain nuts.

Obama's ideas are recycled from the 70s and 80s – i.e. Carter-esque. A good chunk of the population wasn't around when Mr. Peanut went to Washington. They don't remember spending hours in gas lines to fill the family station-wagon with the 10 gallon ration. Well, if Obama gets his way history will repeat itself in short order. Here are the highlights of Obama's "plan"

First we have the oft-toted liberal feel-good stick-it-to-the-man "Windfall Profit Tax" (WPT). Here's Obama's pitch for the tax:

I'll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we'll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills.

Now here's what Uncle Jimmy said back in 1979 as he pitched the same kind of tax Obama is championing:

Unless we tax the oil companies, they will reap huge and undeserved windfall profits.

No matter how much perfume or lipstick you put on a pig, its still a pig. Obama may try and change the façade of Jimmy Carter economics, but the underlying effects are still the same.

First of all, someone should sit Obama down with an undergraduate Economics textbook and explain to him that corporations like Exxon-Mobil don't pay taxes. Well, they might pay taxes, but they push the cost of those taxes – like every other expense – down to the consumer. So, in a sense, Obama will levy a tax on Big Oil which Big Oil will then pass right down the line to the very consumers Obama claimed the tax was meant to help. The end result? Government gets more money. Tax payers have less money. Big Oil? Most likely Big Oil keeps doing exactly what it's doing right now – selling a product at market to the highest bidder.

How much money would be generated from a WPT on Big Oil? Well, a brief glance at history shows us that WPT proponents claimed it would generate $320 billion over its lifetime. After the WPT was finally killed off by Ronaldus Magnus in 1988, the tax had generated a paltry $40 billion. Add to that the deleterious effect it had on the domestic oil industry and you come up with a net loss.

Obama's overall economic strategy can be summed up in one single word. TAX. He wants to double the Capital Gains Tax. He wants to raise the amount of your income subject to the Social Security tax. And, true to the default setting of liberal socialist Democrats, he wants to soak the rich.

Barack Obama is no doubt a learned man. He's got degrees from Columbia and Harvard Law to prove it. He may well be an intellectual but in and of itself his education has not made him wise. No country in history has managed to tax itself from a soft economy into a prosperous one. That which a government taxes it gets less of. Carter proved this. Reagan's tax cuts actually doubled revenues to the US Treasury. W's tax cuts had much the same effect.

The depths of Obama's economic naïveté have yet to be plumbed. Personally, I'd rather he not do his supply and demand on-the-job-trainng in the Oval Office.

Here endeth the lesson.

E Tu, Scottie?

2008-06-02T13:11:00.001-04:00

E Tu Scottie?

The egg timer continues to countdown to Scott McClellan's return from the relative obscurity from whence he arose. This weekend he made the rounds of the Sunday talk shows in an effort to sell his book before it becomes fish wrap.

Interviewed by NBC's Tim Russert, McClellan pulled no punches in his harsh critique of W and his Administration – especially on the leftist's favorite club with which to beat the White House – that being the non-scandal bearing the name of Valerie Plame.

According to McClellan, Karl "Sith Lord" Rove should've been canned because he was behind the leaking of Plame's name to Robert Novak. Rove was behind it all, in the warped reality in which McClellan lived. Every conversation Rove had with anyone – including the White House grounds crew – was centered on discrediting Joe Wilson by revealing to the world that his wife worked at Langley.

There's only one problem with McClellan's logic – or lack there of. Novak didn't get Plame's name from Rove. This fact is not in dispute. Novak got the name from former deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. To be entirely candid, nobody was ever charged with a crime in the Plame affair – despite media reports to the contrary. Scooter Libby was tried and convicted basically of being stupid – lying to a federal investigator. That's a process crime and would not have happened had there been no investigation.

Nice try Scottie. Swing and a miss. Most of us figured this out years ago.

Last week I wrote about McClellan having "gone native" in the DC beltway culture. Evidently I'm not alone in my assessment. His former deputy, Trent Duffy, wrote a scathing open letter in today's Washington Post. Evidently McClellan no longer answers the phone or responds to email unless it comes from the MSM. Duffy has some questions for his former boss. Here are the best graphs:

All that aside, the revelations that you are "intrigued by Senator Obama's message" and that you don't know if you are a Republican anymore make me wonder if you ever had any convictions. If you were just drinking the Kool-Aid at the White House, have you now switched flavors with your newfound friends?

Perhaps you have had an epiphany. Maybe it is better to appease terrorists and let them fight us here instead of taking them on overseas. Maybe we should return our public education system to factories of mediocrity run by teachers unions instead of demanding and delivering educational excellence for our children. Maybe we should let the government ration health care and get between us and our doctors. And maybe we should raise taxes, punish individual enterprise and destroy the incentive for hard work to pay for more government programs.

Think about it. You may not be able to now, since you have conceded your inability to think clearly and independently inside a bubble atmosphere, be it at the White House or while on a media-frenzy book tour.

But do it anyway. On your own, without a publisher around. And let me know what you figure out. (Emphasis added)

Well said, Mr. Duffy. Don't hold your breath waiting for a response from your former boss though.

Here endeth the lesson.

McClellan Goes Native

2008-05-29T11:13:00.001-04:00

One of the toughest jobs in Washington is that of a Press Secretary in a Republican White House. I liken the job to that of a javelin catcher – and we've seen the danger inherent in that profession lately. The Press Secretary gets the honor of standing before the piranha pit commonly known as the White House Press Corps and brief them about all things even remotely presidential in nature.

In return for his (or her) efforts, he/she gets to absorb the slings, arrows, and spears hurled at him/her by the pit vipers disguised as reporters. This the Press Secretary does on a quasi-daily basis. Needless to say, most press secretaries have relatively short tenures. There rumor is they age rapidly because being in close proximity to Helen Thomas has a physically deleterious effect on normal human beings. This has yet to be proven scientifically.

Most Press Secretaries aren't very memorable. Don't believe me? Please name two Clinton (Sorry Excuse For) Administration Press Secretaries without using an online search engine. W is currently on his fourth Javelin Catcher, Dana Perino. Scott McClellan – now author of a Kiss & Tell memoir – came in at #2, between Ari Fleischer and Tony Snow.

McClellan was – on a good day – extremely difficult to watch. I don't know what he did in his life before coming to Washington on W's dime, but whatever it was it didn't involve public speaking or adversarial debate. His daily press briefings were laborious and he was easily flummoxed by the Press Corps. He was, to put it bluntly, an exceptionally inept spokesman for a President whose communication skills are at best lacking. The day Tony Snow took over the briefing room was – to say the least – refreshing.

When someone spends a lot of time in a foreign land or culture there is always the possibility that said person will "go native" to the point it will be difficult to distinguish the foreigner from the native. It happened to me once. After living in Brazil for about two years, I acted and sounded much like the Brazilians I had come to know and love. My English was awful. Coming back stateside was very much a culture shock.

Nearly eight years ago, Scott McClellan came to Washington from Texas. During this time he has interacted and dealt with the beltway media culture on a daily basis. Judging by the reaction of W White House insiders who worked closely with him during his tenure and the breathless reactions of some on the left it looks to me like he's gone totally native.

Memo to McClellan: Enjoy your 15 minutes. I'd remind you about the dangers of believing your own press, but methinks it's too late for that now. I think you'll be surprised just how quickly that egg timer goes off. End Memo.

Here endeth the lesson.

Thoughts On Memorial Day

2008-05-26T16:13:00.001-04:00

The origins of Memorial Day can be traced back to the 1860s when it was designated as Decoration Day – a day to decorate the graves of fallen Civil War soldiers both Union and Confederate. About a century later it was changed from May 30th to the last Monday in May and renamed “Memorial Day”.

Since that time it has marked both a day of remembrance and the opening of the Summer season. On this day much merriment will be made, sales will be made, and barbeques will be lit. In addition – and no doubt more importantly – honor will be rendered to those who have given the last full measure of devotion to their country. It is, to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, all together fitting and proper that we should do this.

I spent the first twenty years of my life in and around the United States Army. Father Cordeiro was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant shortly after I was born. Because of the nomadic existence inherent in the life of a soldier’s family, for all intents and purposes I have no hometown. When people ask me where I’m from, I simply reply, “I’m from the United States Army.” Thus, though I have not worn my country’s uniform, those who do and have are and always shall be – to me anyway – family.

On the National Mall in Washington DC there is a beautiful monument dedicated to those of the Greatest Generation who fought in the last truly Global War. The World War II Memorial is truly a stunning piece of architecture and symbolism. The centerpiece of the monument is a field of 4,000 stars upon which is inscribed this simple phrase:

Here We Mark The Price Of Freedom

Each of the 4,000 stars represents 100 soldiers, sailors, airmen, or marines who died in World War II. To save you the math, it equates to roughly 400,000 lives. That was the price paid for freedom some six decades ago. About two years ago I took my family to that memorial. As I watched my then three-year old daughter Corderinha toddle across the ground in front of the star field it made me realize just how big a price freedom really is.

This Memorial Day finds the nation again at war. Soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines have been and will be deployed to fight that war. I’ve sometimes found myself unsure exactly how to thank these countrymen of mine for the service they so gallantly render. Yes, there are military charities like Soldier’s Angels and the Semper Fi Fund that do God’s work for the servicemen and women wounded in the line of duty and their families. I highly recommend both of them to you.

On a more personal level, some time ago as I passed through the cavernous labyrinth that is Chicago’s O’Hare Airport I stopped for an overpriced and under-flavored meal. As I finished my meal and prepared to jog down the terminal hall to board my flight, a soldier sat down in the booth across from me. It was obvious to me he was returning from a deployment, possibly on leave but I didn’t have time to ask. The most I could do at that particular point in time was to buy him another round of Miller Lite – which I did. It wasn’t much, but I hope on that day and in that situation it was enough.

I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Yours very sincerely and respectfully, Abraham Lincoln.

Here endeth the lesson.

Needs no commentary

2008-05-20T10:50:00.000-04:00

A U.S. Navy Web site advised: "We do not know the short- or long-term health risks associated with living in Naples, Italy."

The Democrat Party's Abilene Paradox With Obama

2008-05-19T09:25:00.001-04:00

Affixed to a piece of paper pinned to the wall of my cubicle is a Post-It note with the following inscription:

Abilene via Bangs – 1,589 miles

I put this note there to remind me of an organizational phenomenon known as the Abilene Paradox first studied by noted management expert and George Washington University Professor (Emeritus) Jerry Harvey. For those of you unwilling to follow the link, the Abilene Paradox happens when an entire organization makes a phenomenally bad decision simply because nobody has the guts to disagree with what everyone seems to think is a good idea.

Every single organization – political or otherwise – has at one time or another crammed themselves in the back of the proverbial un-airconditioned Studebaker and driven the long dusty Texas highway in the middle of a dust storm to eat really bad food at a sloppy diner. Then they've re-crammed themselves back into the Studebaker furnace and driven back through the dust storm, all the while telling each other what a great time they're having. Everybody knows it was a bad idea. Nobody really wanted to go, but nobody had the guts to disagree until it was too late.

At this moment, the Democratic Party is on its way to Abilene. Howie "I Have A Scream" Dean is driving the Studebaker and telling people what a great time they're going to have at the diner. Nobody is really sure who first suggested that Obama would be the Dem's best shot at the White House. They all pretty much ignored Hillary's banshee shrieks because they'd come to expect that from her. Within the ranks there are worried rumblings about Obama as the drip, drip, drip of his questionable background, thin political skin, and parchment thin resume continue to make headlines the Party could do without. Even with the rumblings, nobody – except Hillary – has the guts to disagree with the masses and stop the Studebaker.

The Democratic Party's collective gutlessness may well be founded in the fact there aren't really any good alternatives to Obama. Hillary is loathed by nearly half the electorate. Algore is too busy flying around the world lecturing people on their postage stamp sized carbon footprint while his own carbon usage dwarfs that of many developing nations. Then, of course, there was John Edwards – the man who singularly kept Aquanet Hairspray in business for so many years.

Perhaps Obama is the best the Democrats can do. If that be the case, then they have more problems than I can here delineate. So, off they go to Abilene.

And, in case you were wondering, from Denver, the trip to Abilene – via Bangs – is 868 miles.

Here endeth the lesson.

Black Robed Thugs In The Golden State

2008-05-16T15:08:00.001-04:00

Some of you will no doubt find this post offensive. Some may even go so far as to find it hateful. Some of you will be unable to look past the subject matter and even be able to remotely understand what I'm trying to say regarding the judicial coup which took place yesterday in my home state of California.

If you find yourself in that position, you'd better stop reading now because you'll be offended by the rest of this post. If that's the case, perhaps you need to be offended.

On March 7, 2000 the State of California had a primary election in which several Propositions (or Ballot Measures) were put before the electorate. California is a fairly unique state in that it is possible for grass roots based ballot measures can be voted on by the electorate – effectively bypassing the Sacramento legislature. Each election has a slew of them and the airwaves are saturated with ads extolling voters to either vote for or against the measure. This particular election was no exception.

Among the various ballot measures before the Golden State electorate was the very controversial Proposition 22. Most ballot measures are so long and wordy that few people can make sense of them and hardly anyone ever bothers to read them. The text of Proposition 22 was surprisingly short. It read – in its entirety:

Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

Needless to say, billions of words from both sides were exchanged regarding that proposed amendment to Article II, Section 8 of the California Constitution. I will not re-flog the issues surrounding Proposition 22 – that is not my point.

My point is, that on that day in March of 2000, 4,618, 673 Golden State voters checked the box indicating they wanted this sentence added to the aforementioned section of their state constitution. The measure carried by 61.4% of the votes cast. In the interest of full disclosure, my vote was one of those 4,618,673.

Yesterday, four Californians overruled those 4,618,673. In short, 61.4% of Californians were overruled by 0.000000531% of the electorate.

A wise man once stated that "Liberals attempt through judicial activism what they cannot win at the ballot box". Truer words have seldom been spoken. Four California Supreme Court Justices took out their distorted constitutional microscope and fabricated a right to same sex marriage out of whole cloth. They spent several hundred pages justifying their "discovery" – feel free to read the legalese – but all the judicial jujitsu in the world can't distort what they did.

There exists the Constitutional principle of Separation of Powers for a reason. The legislature (or in the case of Prop 22 the "people") pass the laws, the executive executes the laws, and the judiciary "interprets" the law to make sure said laws don't conflict with any constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, rights, or other legal issues.

No, the Judiciary does not make laws. Find me a place in the Constitution (Federal or State) which authorizes the guys and gals in black robes to make laws. You'll be looking for a very long time. Have fun.

A lot of people, even good friends of mine, are celebrating this judicial coup. Its ended a very discriminatory practice – in their eyes. Again, I'm not going to debate the issues of Prop 22. That has already been done.

The fact of the matter is, the people had already spoken on Prop 22. 61.4% agreed with its implementation. You can't get 61.4% of Californians to agree on the time of day – but they agreed to Prop 22. Evidently over four million votes mean nothing to four Black Robed Thugs in Sacramento.

Those who support same sex marriage constantly refer to the changing view of the American people on this issue. If this is true, then perhaps what they should do is put it before these same people for a vote. They won't, because it would lose and lose ugly. As long as they can count on four votes in Sacramento, the other four million don't matter.

And that, dear reader, is wrong – no matter what side of the issue you are on.

Here endeth the lesson.

Veepstakes

2008-05-15T09:28:00.001-04:00

Before I begin this rant, I should probably state clearly that my personal preference during the Republican primary race was former Bay State Governor Mitt Romney. I thought – and still think – he was and is the best qualified person to sit in the Big Chair. Having said that, in every race there are victors and vanquished and in the end Mitt didn't make the cut. For better, and quite possibly worse, the Republican party has chosen and is now stuck with John McCain.

The only drama left on the Republican side is who will fill the VP slot on the McCain ticket. Sorry all you Ronulans out there. Drop me a line if you ever get internet service at that colony of yours.

In his seemingly endless quest to remain in the limelight, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee keeps the rumor mill going about his quest for the #2 spot on the ticket. According to USA News' James Pethokoukis, Huck is the odds on favored to get the nod.

Sigh.

Where he gets the idea that Huck brings anything to a McCain ticket is beyond me. Huck's idea of economic stimulation is widening I-95 from Bangor, Maine to Miami, Florida. His tax plan revolves around the idea of closing down the IRS – like that will ever pass any Congress. As for foreign policy, Huck doesn't differ much from Obama.

The issue of religion is never far from Huck – and this is where my main problem with him lies. Huck made a point of declaring himself to be the "Christian" leader – thereby calling into question the religiosity of every other candidate. I understand the bulk of his non-political life was spent behind the pulpit, but there is a limit to how much I religion I can handle on the political stage.

It was a not-so-subtle reference by Huck to Mitt Romney's religion – one which I share with him – which sealed my negative opinion about the former Arkansas governor. In a December interview with the New York Times Magazine, Huck made a reference to Mormonism – asking the reporter

"Don't Mormons," he asked in an innocent voice, ''believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?"

Now, dear reader, this little tidbit isn't something that comes easily to someone who claims to know little about Mormon theology. Mike Huckabee spent far too many years at the pulpit not to have known exactly what he was doing. He knew the furor that question would cause, and he knew the reporter would print it. Huck purposely injected religion into what should have been a secular campaign. So, on top of everything else I hold against Huck, you can now add a lack of class.

The political world is one of give and take back scratching. McCain owes the fact he has had a clear running field to Mitt Romney's graceful exit at CPAC. Mitt could have pulled a Hillary and fought McCain tooth and nail all the way to St. Paul. He didn't and the Republican Party is in much better shape because of it.

Huck, on the other hand, stayed in the race far past his Sell-By Date. He never had a realistic chance of winning the nomination which kind of makes one wonder why he stayed in so long. His electoral base is broad, but not deep enough to put any state in play which McCain wouldn't carry anyway.

McCain knows that because of his age, his VP choice will be critical. He also knows that most conservatives are already having trouble holding their collective noses to vote for him in November. Personally, I will most likely pull the lever – or touch the screen – for McCain. Should he be foolish enough to put Huck on his ticket, he'll lose my vote altogether.

Here endeth the lesson.

WSJ Delivers Oil Smackdown On Obama And Hillary

2008-05-03T13:42:00.002-04:00

Crude oil is not the only thing I think about. Really. Truth be told, I just had to fork over nearly a bill to fill my SUV and get gas for my lawnmower – so when I saw the WSJ’s Editorial Board take aim at Obama’s pseudo-oil plan, I took notice.

Trying to make sense of Obama’s plan to reduce gas prices is impossible. It’s like most of platform – long on hope and very short on specifics. Even the specifics defy the irrevocable laws of economics. Basically, Obama wants to implement a $40 Billion (yes billion) tax on the “excess profits” of Exxon Mobil. Here’s what the WSJ had to say about that idea:

You may also be wondering how a higher tax on energy will lower gas prices. Normally, when you tax something, you get less of it, but Mr. Obama seems to think he can repeal the laws of economics. We tried this windfall profits scheme in 1980. It backfired. The Congressional Research Service found in a 1990 analysis that the tax reduced domestic oil production by 3% to 6% and increased oil imports from OPEC by 8% to 16%. Mr. Obama nonetheless pledges to lessen our dependence on foreign oil, which he says "costs America $800 million a day." Someone should tell him that oil imports would soar if his tax plan becomes law. The biggest beneficiaries would be OPEC oil ministers.

There's another policy contradiction here. Exxon is now under attack for buying back $2 billion of its own stock rather than adding to the more than $21 billion it is likely to invest in energy research and exploration this year. But hold on. If oil companies believe their earnings from exploring for new oil will be expropriated by government – and an excise tax on profits is pure expropriation – they will surely invest less, not more. A profits tax is a sure formula to keep the future price of gas higher. (Emphasis Added)

To paraphrase the fictional Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise, Commander Montgomery Scott, “Ye canna change the laws of economics”. Never the less, left leaning politicians try all the time. One of the most recent examples of this was former California Governor Gray Doofus (colloquial pronunciation of “Davis”). He spearheaded the deregulation of California’s utility industry, capping rates but banning construction of new power plants. It took a few years, but rolling blackouts and soaring utility costs led to Doofus becoming one of only two or three state governors ever recalled and replaced. That’s how Aaaahhnoolllld became the Governator.

Presidents cannot be recalled. Spare me the lectures on impeachment. As far as I know, dangerous economic naïveté doesn’t rise to the pass constitutional muster as high crimes and misdemeanors. The only way to keep this kind of mindset out of the Oval Office is not to send it there in the first place.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go expand my carbon footprint and do battle with my lawn.

Here endeth the lesson.

Bill (no, not that one) And Hillary On The Factor

2008-05-01T09:52:00.001-04:00

Ok, so I finally got around to watching Hillary's visit to O'Reilly's No Spin Zone. In the interest of full transparent disclosure, I don't usually tune into the O'Reilly Factor. If I have time to watch television in the evenings, I usually prefer mindless entertainment. Last night my mindless entertainment consisted of American Idol. I'm still reeling from the dismissal of Blonde Chick when Dreadlock Boy should've gotten the boot after his phoned in performance the previous night.

But I digress. Where was I? Oh. Hillary and O'Reilly.

First off the bat was the price of gasoline – currently $3.55 at my neighborhood Exxon. Hillary bobbed and weaved quite effectively as O'Reilly shot several pseudo questions at her. She stuck to her tried and true talking points – blaming just about everybody including the American consumer for the price of oil. She agrees with McCain on a three month gas tax holiday – but she insists it be paid for by the evil oil companies as they are flush with "windfall" profits.

To liberals like Hillary the word profit is as obscene as the F-Bomb is to most people. Yes, oil companies make money. They make that money by selling their product at the best price they can get. In truth, their profit margins aren't obscene at all. At present they're able to sell every single drop of crude they can get at a price which has been determined by the market. There is a limited supply of and an inelastic demand for gasoline – therefore prices are high. If you don't know what those terms mean, look them up in any Econ 101 textbook. Then you'll know more about economics than Hillary does.

For some reason, Hillary believes that a "Windfall Profit Tax" could make up for the loss of tax revenue to the government for the gas tax holiday. What she doesn't understand is that if government increases the cost of doing business (with a tax increase) the oil companies will pass that cost increase down to the consumer. That's the way markets work. She wants to change the tax structure of an entire industry to pay for a three month consumer tax hiatus. In other words, she'd try and use a shotgun to kill a mosquito. Being that she hasn't shot a gun since her uncle took her out to the South 40 when she was a little girl, I'm kind of concerned about her aim.

Moving on to Hillary-care. Yep. Here we go again. Hillary would like to wave the MIB's Nueralizer and make the electorate forget the Clinton (Sorry Excuse For) Administration's first foray into the Universal Health Care Briar Patch that nearly destroyed her husband's presidency and resulted in the 1994 Republican congressional takeover. No matter how much perfume she pours on that 55 gallon drum of natural fertilizer, and no matter how much she extols its ability to promote growth, her Universal Health Care mandate will still look and smell like a leaky septic tank.

Taxes. O'Reilly and Hillary both congratulated each other over the fact that they're both filthy rich. Hillary wants to raise the top marginal rate back to where it was in the 1990s – someplace around 39%. In her memory, those were the good old days. Never mind the fact the Clinton (Sorry Excuse For) Administration left office with the country in a needless recession brought on by excessive tax rates. There's only one tax rate Hillary is comfortable with – that is more. Sure, she says her lust for taxes won't affect anyone making under 250 large a year. She also says she'll cut middle class tax rates. I'm old enough to remember that same promise being made by her husband. I'm also smart enough to know that promised tax cut was never delivered.

And finally, Hillary crowed about her forays into bi-partisanship. Here's where I get to laugh. Hillary's senate record is so thin it's pathetic. Not one major piece of legislation bears her name. She continually talks about her centuries of experience fighting for the people, yet she has very little she can personally claim credit for. I'm not really sure what bi-partisan ventures she's been on. Maybe she sponsored legislation naming a post office after a dead Republican.

And, for the record, I only counted one slight cackle.

Here endeth the lesson.

News Flash: SOTR Is Smarter Than Fifth Graders

2008-04-30T09:12:00.002-04:00

Movie Reviews

The Company Obama Keeps

2008-04-28T11:22:00.000-04:00

Under different circumstances, I’d be inclined to feel that Barack Obama has been treated unfairly over the past few weeks. It seems that everything he says or does gives ammunition to his opponents (both Democratic and Republican) for use against him. The guy can’t catch a break.

As if to add insult to injury, Jeremiah Wright – “spiritual” advisor to Obama – has been busy putting himself in front of as many television cameras and microphone banks as possible in order to milk the Obama campaign for every single minute of fame he can get. Not bad for a guy who has allegedly retired from the pulpit. You’d think Hillary Clinton was in charge of booking speakers for the National Press Club.

In this country there is (or at least was) a separation between religion and politics. The wise Founders enshrined that separation in Article VI of the US Constitution by declaring that no religious test would be permitted for people seeking public office. So constitutionally I am saddened by the fact that Obama is being slammed by remarks made by his pastor.

Having said that, I’m not shedding too many tears. The man whose run for the Oval I supported the most had his religion questioned at nearly every turn and opportunity by both left and right leaning pundits as well as more than a few of his opponents. Mitt Romney was peppered by religiously driven diatribes even before he actually started campaigning. More than one pundit demanded that he answer for his family’s unique ancestral family structure, the actions of his relatives on September 11, 1857, and church doctrine as to the salvation status of his long deceased family dog. I’m sure Mitt would have been questioned on his Bishop’s latest sermon had he not ended his campaign when he did.

Obama has attempted (and some would say failed) to distance himself from Mr. Wright. For his part, Mr. Wright has claimed his inflammatory remarks were “taken out of context” because the entire sermon had not been put on the sound-byte loop. Well, dear reader, Blogfather Hugh had as much of the sermons in question as are available. Read or listen to them for yourself. Let me tell you something – context doesn’t help Mr. Wright. If anything, context does little more than lump Jeremiah Wright in the same league as Ward Churchill and Michael Moore. Those boneheads occupy the lowest rungs of Cordeiro’s Sliding Scale of Humanity coming in at Miserable Vomitous Mass (MVM) and Waste Of Skin And Breathable Air (WOSABA) respectfully.

Mother Cordeiro (and a mean mother she was and is) wisely warned me (several times) that people would – rightly or wrongly – judge me by the company I keep. In my circle of friends and acquaintances both personal and professional, I can’t say that I have any unrepentant terrorists, shady political “fundraisers”, or spiritual “advisors” who want to re-work the lyrics to God Bless America. Well, there was that one lady who tried to sell me a time-share once, but what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

But I digress.

These are the people in Obama’s neighborhood – both figuratively and literally. Their association with him, and more importantly his association with them speak volumes about what kind of president he would be – especially since he’s made his finely honed judgment such an important pillar of his campaign.

Here endeth the lesson.

Obama Spins The Loss

2008-04-24T13:18:00.001-04:00

In order to understand this post, you need to have played a sport in which an official/referee is involved. In this particular case, its important to know that football is life, and the rest is just petty details.

A few thousand years ago while playing in a football game I witnessed an ongoing exchange between an opposing lineman and a referee. After the whistle had blown at the end of a series of plays, the offensive lineman complained to the official:

Ref! Ref! He’s holding me!

Ref! Ref! He head-slapped me!

Ref! Ref! He grabbed my [insert body part here]!!

Finally, after the second series and yet another number of whiny complaints, the official took the lineman aside and calmly informed him:

Son, he’s not holding you…grabbing you…or slapping you. He’s kickin’ your #%#$#@.

This past Tuesday, Pennsylvania bore witness to the sausage making that is retail politics. Hillary threw everything – kitchen sink included – at Obama and succeeded in soundly thumping him by about 10 points. The actual number may vary – Michael Barone crunches all the numbers very well – but the fact is Obama out spent Hillary three-fold and still lost.

So now the whining starts. Even before the votes were cast, Obama tried to lower expectations. As he surveyed the post primary wreckage, he cast aside his soaring rhetoric and denounced those who would “say or do anything” to win an election. I find it interesting that a losing candidate always seeks to soothe his/her supporters by claiming their opponent went to extremes they themselves would not. Yes, Senator. That place is called “victory”. After having won eleven straight contests, Obama has now lost four of the last five. In the business, we call that a losing streak.

I’m not sure how much of Hillary’s recent wins can be attributed to Operation Chaos. Personally, I’m not sure any contests have actually been taken from Obama because of OC – most likely Hillary’s margin of victory has been increased as a result. I’d love to say I participated in Operation Chaos during my state’s primary, but I was prohibited from doing so by an Act of God.

More and more it’s looking like this primary will go all the way to the Denver convention with Hillary and Obama throwing boulders at each other all the way. If nothing else it will make for high value entertainment, especially with the growing chorus of voice calling for the drafting of Algore. Memo to Howie “I Have A Scream” Dean: Please draft Algore. Please. Please. Please. End Memo.
I have little doubt Obama thought his eleven state win streak would propel him through the last contests and turn Denver into a coronation rather than a convention. With all his recent stumbles, the incessant rumors* and the drip-drip-drip of his past actions and associations, he’s learning the hard way that contests aren’t over till the fat lady sings.

Right now, Hillary has the fat lady bound and gagged in a sound proof room in an undisclosed location.

Here endeth the lesson.

*Yes, I know IMAO is satire.

Obama's Definition Of Broke

2008-04-20T23:14:00.000-04:00

We've all heard the great tales of woe from both the Obamas as to the miserable state of their finances until Mr. Obama wrote the first of his two best selling books. So great was the "strain" of their student loan debt that one might be led to believe the Obama family subsited on Top Ramen for most of the 90s and well into the current decade.

Well, that really depends on perspective. According to public records, the Obamas purchased their Hyde Park condo in 1993 for $277,500. Nothing unusual about that purchase until the detail of a $111,000 down payment is mentioned. Talk about impoverished. Would someone please tell me where two lawyers saddled with student loans come up (legally) with $111,000 just a few years out of law school?

But I digress.

Running the numbers a $166,500 mortgage at the average 1993 interest rate of 7.31% amortized over 30 years would equal a monthly payment of $1,142. Not a bad mortgage, all things considered.

There's also the issue of Barack Obama's tall tales of financial hardship. In 2000 he made his way to the City of Angels for the cornation of Algore. Upon his arrival, he was - by his own description - so broke that his credit card was rejected by a rental car company. No word as to whether or not he took the bus to the Staples Center.

Where Obama is concerned, the Devil has taken up residence in the details. In the case of his impoverished trip to LA, it should be mentioned that his 2000 tax returns show his and Michelle's combined income being reported as just over $240,000. Yes, dear reader, that is Barack Obama's definition of flat broke.

Most people I know would consider that income level to fall just short of dirty, rotten, stinking, filthy rich. Personally, its an income level to which at present I can only aspire. I cannot fathom the concept of pulling down 240 large a year and somehow being so broke I can't afford to rent a car.

Here endeth the lesson.

Petty Officer Second Class (SEAL) Michael Anthony Monsoor, United States Navy

2008-04-08T15:06:00.001-04:00

Today the media spotlight is focused on Capitol Hill where politicians and military men debate the pros and cons of the Iraq war – how long to stay, whether and when to withdraw. You’ll forgive me if I ignore them.

Today I wish to focus on one man. His country called and he answered. He was one of this nation’s elite warriors – one of those whose true gallantry is known to few and understood by fewer. Michael Anthony Monsoor was a SEAL.

You should go read about Petty Officer Monsoor – especially his brave act of supreme sacrifice for which he posthumously received this nation’s highest military honor – the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Godspeed, Petty Officer Monsoor.

Here endeth the lesson.

Obama’s Parchment Thin Foreign Policy Cred

2008-04-08T11:25:00.001-04:00

It really is amazing what passes for experience these days. Barack Obama, visiting San Francisco to scale the Golden Gate Bridge, took aim at Hillary's foreign policy experience yesterday. He actually made a good point – one for which I will gladly give him credit. Opined Obama:

When Senator Clinton brags 'I've met leaders from eighty countries' -- I know what those trips are like! I've been on them. You go from the airport to the embassy. There's a group of children who do native dance. You meet with the CIA station chief and the embassy and they give you a briefing. You go take a tour of a plant that [with] the assistance of USAID has started something. And then -- you go. You do that in eighty countries. You don't know those eighty countries.

Had the junior senator from Illinois left it at that, he'd be on solid ground. He didn't. He insisted on inserting his own foreign policy street cred to show how he outshines both Hillary and McCain. Here, dear reader, is the self proclaimed foreign policy experience of the man who would be POTUS:

Foreign policy is the area where I am probably most confident that I know more and understand the world better than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain.

<snip>

So when I speak about having lived in Indonesia for four years, having family that is impoverished in small villages in Africa --knowing the leaders is not important -- what I know is the people...I traveled to Pakistan when I was in college -- I knew what Sunni and Shia was [sic] before I joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

So, let's get this straight: living abroad as a very young child, having family in foreign lands, and spending three weeks in Pakistan (in 1981) qualifies as foreign policy experience?

Thanks to the United States Army I spent the better part of my adolescent years (many more than Barack Obama) living abroad in parts of Europe and Asia. I seem to faintly remember having an great-aunt living in Germany someplace – I don't really remember. I also spent a few years living in Brazil. I submit that I myself have more foreign policy experience than does Barack Obama. I'm pretty sure I speak a few more languages than he does.

Even with all my newly discovered solid foreign policy street cred, you'll forgive me if I don't wait by the phone for an offer to be VP or Secretary of State.

Here endeth the lesson.

$18 Million? What $18 Million?

2008-04-07T10:56:00.001-04:00

With Tax Day looming on the horizon most taxpaying Americans are painfully aware of how much their federal, state, and local governments suck from their checkbooks. Even with TurboTax it took me almost a week worth of evenings to gather together all the receipts, statements, and other documentations necessary to fill out my 1040 form.

I know how much money I make, and I know how much money the Ravishing Mrs. Cordeiro makes. Actually, she probably knows better what I make – that's just the way she is.

So, when I caught the Drudge headline link to a Ben Smith article noting the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Bill Clinton did not account for nearly $18 million in the summary of their tax filings, I had to chuckle. $18 million is a rather large chunk of coin. I'm sure an explanation is buried in the details of the disclosure form, along with the devil and a few accountants. That must have been an interesting conversation.

Hillary: Bill? What did you do with that $18 million I left on the kitchen counter?

Bill: [whispering in the phone] You mean I got me myself a Cayman island all to myself? [louder] What $18 million, honey? I was just making a sandwich and I didn't see any $18 million!

Other interesting details include the Clinton's charitable donations. Of the $109 million raked in by the Clintons over the past eight years (Dubya-nomics seem to have been very generous to them) they gave $10.2 million to charity. While on the surface this might seem quite generous, again the devil has taken up residence in the details. The Clinton's preferred charity is their family foundation.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for charitable giving. I believe in giving to causes I care about and hoping those donations are used in an effective manner. Forgive me if I find giving to one's own charity to be just a little bit self-serving. Oh, but wait. I'm talking about Hillary and Bill Clinton. Self serving is stamped into their DNA.

Hmmm. I wonder if I can set up a charitable foundation through which I can funnel contributions to be used for the purchase of a larger more spacious Cordeiro Manor and a more fitting mode of transportation for myself.

I'll let you know how that works out.

Here endeth the lesson.

Oil Gone BANANAS

2008-04-02T13:00:00.001-04:00

On April Fool's Day the Congress was hard at work serving up televised Fillet Of CEO for the cameras. The target of the ever outraged legislators was a popular one – namely the CEOs of "Big Oil" – Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, BP America, and ConocoPhillips.

As you can probably gather by reading the accounts of the hearing, there are many in Congress and surely more than a few presidential candidates who believe Big Oil is directly responsible for the fact that gas prices have once again risen past the $3 mark in most of the country. They point to Big Oil's "obscene" profits as evidence of price gouging even though – when compared to other industries – Big Oil's profit margin is roughly similar.

In blaming Big Oil for the price of gas these politicians prove their dangerously naïve ignorance about the Laws of Supply and Demand. There are no exceptions to these economic laws. Currently the supply of oil is limited by location, amount, and political issues. The ability to control the supply of oil on the world markets is what gives power to dangerous thugs like Iran's Mahmoud Amadenijad and ignorant tin pot thugs like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. Without oil, these two guys would be viewed as the non-sequiturs they truly are.

The short term answer to the current gas price crisis (one which I feel the pain of every time I have to fill my two vehicles which have 12 cylinders between them) is two fold. First is to increase the supply of oil on the markets. Believe it or not, America can do this without having to go to OPEC and beg the mullahs to open the spigots. Up until about 20 years ago, the United States led the world in oil production. For the past decade or so we have been more concerned about the mating habits of the Porcupine Caribou than we have about the price of gas. Most of the people who proclaim their environmental objections to oil exploration in ANWR couldn't find Alaska on a map, let alone locate ANWR. Neither would they be able to tell the difference between a Reindeer and a Caribou. I'm sure they'll hear about the latest discovery of a huge oil field in the Dakotas and Montana and rush to proclaim their concern for Buffalo and Antelope. It remains to be seen whether the militant environmentalists can tell the difference between those two species.

The second area affecting the price of gas is refineries. Believe it or not, your car doesn't burn crude oil. The refining process is difficult and government regulation has made it even more onerous. The term NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) used to dictate where things like refineries could be built. Well, the NIMBYs started to look beyond their backyards and morphed into BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything). Simply put, there has not been a refinery built in the nearly 40 years I have walked this planet. That, dear reader is why your gas prices spike every time there's an refinery accident someplace or any other disruption to the pipeline between the crude oil that comes out of the ground and the refined gas you put in your tank.

Much pontificating took place yesterday on alternative sources of energy ranging from cow dung to windmills. While I don't want to dash any hopes which may have been raised by these platitudes, the fact of the matter is the American economy runs on oil. No amount of congressional speechifying will change that.

As a matter of fact, all the BANANA crowd has been able to do is take the US energy situation to the point of being FUBAR*.

Here endeth the lesson.

*FUBAR is a technical term defined (in polite company) as "Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition"

Give This Kid A Medal

2008-04-02T08:52:00.001-04:00

Check out this Washington Post story about the heroic actions of a 12 year old boy in defense of his mother. The mother was being attacked as the boy sat playing video games in another room after he had finished his homework. According to the reporter's interview with the mother and son, a man attempted to strangle the mother with his bare hands and refused to stop even after repeated pleadings from her son.

The boy could have just kept screaming at his mother's attacker - most likely to no avail - but instead he took the only action left to him to save his mother's life. He found the knife most recently used to carve the family's Thanksgiving turkey and turned it on his mother's attacker. He struck the man in the neck with a fatal blow. His mother lived. Her attacker died.

True to the liberal slant of the Washington Post, the article spends a great deal of time reviewing the legal precedents of the case and wondering whether or not the boy will be prosecuted for his actions. I can't think of a District Attorney in his or her right mind that would even think of bringing charges, let alone trying to take this case to trial. The boy is a hero and should be treated as such. His mother was in mortal danger and he saved her life. What more can be expected of a son when his mother's life is in danger?

Well done, young Master Stamp. Would that my son would do the same in your circumstance.

Here endeth the lesson.

A Democratic Savior?

2008-03-31T12:01:00.001-04:00

As the electoral calendar creeps ever so slowly toward towards the Democratic National Convention in the Mile High City, the possibility increases that Hillary and Obama will continue the hammer throwing battle right through the summer

Some party insiders are fearful of what this might do to the party. Their fears are not baseless. Every day Hillary and Obama keep up the hammer toss is one more day McCain has to sit back, solidify his base, and sell popcorn to the spectators.

DNC Chairman Howie "I Have A Scream" Dean has set a July 1 deadline for the nomination to be sown up. Evidently, Hillary either didn't get or threw away the July 1 memo because yesterday she vowed to stay in the race through the Denver convention.

Meanwhile, in the deep dark recesses of the Democratic party's formerly smoke filled rooms there are people formulating a contingency plan in the event neither Hillary nor Obama manage to secure the nomination. One scenario being kicked around is the possibility that 100 or so "Superdelegates" could sit out the first ballot – thereby denying both Hillary and Obama of victory – and then those same 100 Superdelegates would offer the nomination to a different person "for the good of the party".

Who is this person to whom the party elders would turn? Why, none other than Albert Arnold "Algore" Junior. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Algore would ride into the Denver Convention Center on a white Clydesdale horse (a stallion being unable to adequately support him) and save the Democratic Party from self-inflicted defeat. Algore, the Vice-President during the Clinton (Sorry Excuse For) Administration. Algore – the candidate who single-handedly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in 2000 by inexplicably losing three straight presidential debates to a man who takes the art of mangling the English language to new heights every day.

A side note to those readers suffering from eight years of Bush Derangement Syndrome. Please spare me the "Selected Not Elected" diatribes. Eight years of screaming it doesn't make it any more palatable. Remember, if Algore had managed to carry his HOME STATE of Tennessee this debate would be moot. End digression.

So, Democratic insiders are now looking to a man who has spent the better part of the past decade jet-setting around the globe warning of impending climactic disasters of biblical proportions unless we all reduce our carbon footprints by returning to the days of the horse and buggy. Wait. Scratch the horse – too much methane emissions. Better go with just the buggy. And don't breathe too deeply or exhale too much. Remember, Algore preaches this stuff even though his personal carbon footprint is roughly equal to the combined carbon emissions of the states of Ohio, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

Oh, and one more thing. These same insiders would take the nomination from either Hillary or Obama – both of whom have received millions of primary votes – and give it to a man who has received not a single vote since 2000. Talk about thick irony.

And by the way, Al, Academy votes can't be used in the General Election.

Here endeth the lesson.

The Tomb Is Empty

2008-03-23T11:08:00.000-04:00

He is not here: for he is risen... - Matthew 28:6

A Victory in the War on Diabetes – Could It Really Be This Simple?

2008-03-18T15:25:00.001-04:00

Some readers may remember a previous post on some promising medical research in the quest for a cure for a devastating disease commonly known as Diabetes. While that research was focused on the ever popular stem cell front, I came across another researcher whose field focuses on a much simpler treatment.

Type I Diabetes – the most prevalent of the two types – occurs when a patient's pancreas ceases to produce enough of the insulin hormone to effectively break down the glucose from food or drink ingested by said patient. High blood sugar results in a host of maladies which I will not here review. I'll just simply state the disease really sucks.

One of the theories behind the demise of the patients pancreas is that the immune system mistakes the insulin producing beta cells for a disease. The immune system then declares war on the beta cells and for all intents and purposes the pancreas is a worthless hunk of tissue. Conventional wisdom and medical science has held the belief that the beta cells could not be resurrected. New research might just debunk this theory.

Dr. Denise Faustman a scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School has been conducting experiments on mice using a generic tuberculosis vaccine which evidently kills the immune system cells which took out the insulin producing beta cells. Here's the bottom line:

The real shock, however, was that with the killer T-cells eliminated, beta cells apparently regenerated enough to pump out sufficient insulin to cure the mice's diabetes. No one had any idea before this that a diabetes-ravaged pancreas might still harbor enough beta cells, or be able to resurrect them, to reverse diabetes, at least in lab animals. (Emphasis Added)

I'm not much of a medical expert, but that's pretty compelling evidence – something which in my mind is worthy of further study – and funding. Here's the pathetic part of the story: The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation declined to fund Dr. Faustman's research. In fact, they went so far as to fund three research teams whose stated goal was to debunk Faustman's hypothesis.

The linked article doesn't go into much detail as to why the JDRF declined to fund Faustman's project. I have a very uniformed guess based strictly on capitalsitic theory. Simply put, Faustman's research is too simple. The vaccine upon which her work is based has been on the market for nearly 80 years as a treatment for tuberculosis. It's a generic drug which can be mass produced for pennies a dose. Should Faustman's research result in a viable treatment for diabetes, it will be one of the cheapest cures ever found. It doesn't involve fetal stem cells or overpriced technology. The vaccine kills the cells that caused the problem and nature goes back to working the way it was meant to.

Faustman owes the fact that her work is going forward to the charitable inclinations of none other than former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca. Mr. Iacocca lost his wife Mary to the ravages of Type I diabetes in 1984. His foundation stepped in and donated $11.5 million to further the clinical trials of Faustman's research with the hopes that fewer people will lose their limbs, eyesight, and lives to this scourge. Iacocca is a businessman and evidently he understands that a good, fast, and cheap cure is better than none at all.

Thanks, Lee. Good luck Dr. Faustman.

Here endeth the lesson.

Susan Estrich Issues Mea Maxima Culpa For Eliot Spitzer

2008-03-13T12:10:00.001-04:00

Here's one for the Six Degrees of Separation crowd. When you sit and wonder exactly how soon to be former New York "Luv" Governor Eliot Spitzer could have possibly gone so far off the legal reservation in his pursuit of high priced call girls, you can only question where exactly he got his legal education.

The answer to that question is, of course, Harvard Law. Today, his criminal law professor issued a mea maxima culpa regarding her instruction of her former law student. This guilt stricken professor is none other than Susan Estrich – now a USC law professor and left leaning Fox News Contributor.

Yes, Susan, Eliot Spitzer just might have missed that class you taught about how crossing state lines and using telephones magically transforms what would normally be a local matter into one involving the unlimited resources and reach of the federal law enforcement apparatus. He did, in fact, take a whole bunch of stupid pills and wash them down with a naïve chaser.

Unlike Susan Estrich, I don't feel sorry for Eliot Spitzer. I do feel sorry for his wife and three children. It is they who have to live with the arrogant hypocritical idiot who rode a white horse by day but slummed in the gutters by night with the same people he prosecuted for crimes he himself committed. Hopefully his family will outlive his shame.

As for Spitzer himself, he's stupid. Some things you just can't fix.

Here endeth the lesson.