It’s the Oil Stupid

So here we are in yet another crisis – this one economic. As usual, our government is focusing on what they think we think is the obvious problem in an effort to get re-elected in 2010 – not to fix the actual problem long-term, which is what we pay these dolts for. McCain lost the election because he injected unsuccessful drama into the situation, halting his campaign, flying back to Washington, and voting for the pork that he promised to make people famous for. On top of that, the bill ultimately failed.

Now we have to fix the car companies. While it is true that government regulation had a role in their failure, are we really stupid enough to believe that these same idiots can undo the damage they have done. Additionally, the car companies and their UAW counterparts are not blameless. They have acted as an arrogant monopoly in America since the 1950s, were completely caught by surprise by competition, and stubbornly failed to adjust. They might as well be members of Congress themselves. Congress should have an independent auditor evaluate the damage they have done to the car companies, pay it, and move on. The rest is the car companies’ problem – not mine.

Add to that the recent revelation that we have actually been in recession for about a year now, and we should all see that these recent crises are not causes, but symptoms. Of what? To paraphrase Bill Clinton – IT’S THE OIL, STUPID! The big oil price run-up started in early 2008 and the beginning of the recession followed shortly thereafter. Duh! It’s happened before, it’s happening now, and thanks to our short-sighted Congress, it will happen again.

Fixing the oil problem is the key to economic stability – stability that will allow us to address other problems, such as national security, social security, health care, and crime. Obama has this one right. We need to invest and successfully develop alternative energy sources now, while the price of oil is low, without waiting for economic recovery, and the resulting re-spiking of oil prices. He campaigned on it; he should make sure it happens. All else depends on it. I repeat:

IT’S THE OIL STUPID

It always has been, and it always will be until we change it.

Thank You Mike Huckabee

Seemingly lost in the furor over Barack Obama’s latest political problem – his long and close association with his hate-baiting minister – is recognition for the man who brought us this controversy. That man would be Mike Huckabee. It was Mike Huckabee who allowed his faith to become a campaign issue.

It was Mike Huckabee who appeared for a time to benefit from his faith. It was the rest of the politicians running for President of the United States who followed (as opposed to leading) in seeking to take advantage of their faith or at least to use their faith to not lose votes to someone else who might become “the next Mike Huckabee.”

It was Barack Obama, however, who didn’t see the day coming when Saturday Night Live (God help us) would force the press to actually look at him. The free ride always ends eventually and politicians are notoriously short-sighted in these and other matters, which explains a lot about the way they run our government. Yep, it’s still OUR government.

The only thing that is somewhat surprising is that the Clintons couldn’t find a blacker, more controversial minister to endorse them. Bill was the first “black” president after all.

Make no mistake. All of the candidates have this moment on the horizon. McCain’s will come when the violence in Iraq flares up again, as it inevitably must as a determined enemy makes its next move to counter the successful surge architected by General David Petraeus.

Since McCain threw Rumsfeld under the bus, he will look like an idiot when someone has an excuse to say that his idea was no better than Rumsfelds. He, like other politicians, see the present almost exclusively. The Rumsfeld strategy worked spectacularly. A determined enemy reacted – as we should have expected. A new set of eyes were necessary. The course of action was inevitable and based on the enemy’s moves. No one could have seen those enemy moves in advance. As then, there will be a new set of moves, which no one can currently see. A new set of eyes may well be needed again.

What about Hillary’s moments to come? Please! Her moments are never-ending and can never be justified except by a biased press that turns its head the other way for 20 years.

So thank you Mike Huckabee, for this moment of truth, unintended though it may have been.

Immigration Reform – Deformed (Mexican Food)

The immigration bill was killed; now it’s alive again. It apparently has more lives than a cat. I am being called a racist on the news shows (even on Fox News by Geraldo) because I believe the laws of the land ought to be enforced. You know, the ones on the books making invasion of the United Stated illegal since 1986, signed by Reagan and enforced by no one since then.

So for those of you who may agree with me, here is the next argument intended to assault your integrity as soon as the new version of this idiot bill sees resistance. I’m preparing you for it now, so don’t say you weren’t warned. ”Oh, you don’t mind eating Mexican food, but having a few Mexicans around to cook it for you is objectionable, you racist.”

Here is the correct response. “No you [add expletive if desired. You’ve earned the right at this point] moron. I love legal Mexican food, preferably cooked by legal Americans of Mexican descent. And by the way - that Mexican-American crap, or any other hyphenated American. I don’t want them cooking my food either. I want Americans in America, who think of themselves as Americans - not any kind of hyphenated American, and if I had my way, anybody who thinks of themselves as a hyphenated American would be deported to wherever they used to hyphenate, since that is obviously where they would prefer to be. Anything else?”

No, they won’t learn a thing. But the important thing is they will not have tricked you into feeling guilt you had no business feeling.

Meanwhile, Bush and the Congress are continuing to ignore the will of the people – that they do their jobs in enforcing current laws (like the 1986 immigration law and the 2006 fence authorization) rather than create a third law to ignore. These are the activities that serve as the principal argument for term limits. Can’t we extend them to include the Congress?

Maybe Cheney becoming a fourth branch of government isn’t such a bad idea. Who in their right mind would want to be associated with what we have in there right now. That’s all I can stand to write right now as my stomach is bothering me, and believe me, it’s not the excellent Mexican food I had for lunch.

Immigration Reform - Deformed

The proposed immigration bill being sold to us by the Bush administration and the leadership in the U.S. Congress is the equivalent of the Iraq surrender bill. This is the Mexico surrender bill born of the same mindset, the same misguided expediency, and with the same consequences.

The irresponsibility of the Bush administration and all the prior administrations in not enforcing the laws currently in place is astounding. I, along with many others, believe that this has been the result of pandering to the Hispanic vote. It succeeded. If my belief is correct, President Bush, will have the blood of Americans on his hands when the WMDs that may have crossed the border under his watch are used on us. That, sadly, will be his legacy, just as intern sex and 9/11 are Clinton’s legacy.

Legacy calculation:

• War in Afghanistan +10
• War in Iraq +15
• Best economy ever +5
• Supreme Court Appointments +7
• 10,000 people die from WMDs that crossed our borders with the blessing of the U.S. Government -2,000,000
• Destruction of the Republican party -4,000

Incidentally, other administrations share the legacy hits on the WMDs on a sliding scale, with those to whom the highest urgency should have been most apparent taking the biggest hits as follows:

• Bush 43 -2,000,000
• Clinton -1,500,000
• Bush 41 -500,000
• Reagan -100,000
• Carter -4,000,000 (for nurturing terrorism)

The Congress, complacent in this, will have an equally disgraceful legacy as the enablers of the no-border policy and the obstructionists of all that truly protects us.

But I digress.

How is the immigration bill surrender? It is the attitude that you cannot deport 12,000,000 law-breaking, illegal aliens. It is true that you can’t if you don’t try. John McCain, in defending this crappy bill in typical government fashion, has said that deporting 12,000,000 people would overwhelm the legal system. Oh, so it IS possible, then Senator?

What does private industry do when faced with a sudden, temporary, overwhelming, necessary project? It quickly creates a large, temporary organization where everyone understands that there is a defined end to the project and after which their employment will end. It streamlines the process by which it achieves the necessary production (like military tribunals to deal with the invading force) and does not allow it to overwhelm the remainder of its organization. Mitt Romney knows how to do it. He did it in business, he did it in the Olympics, and he just can’t wait to do it in Washington – his words on his commercials. Well Governor, can/will you do it?

In addition, we are currently all up in arms about the irresponsibility of a tuberculosis patient, Andrew Speaker, who endangered hundreds of people by defying a CDC no-fly order repeatedly. Many believe, as I do, that he should be in jail. Not one of us believes his plea of ignorance or his sincerity in apologizing after the fact and after being apprehended. It doesn’t help that he is a lawyer either. His activity could well be dwarfed by what could be coming across the border while we turn our heads the other way.

What does the CDC know about the dangers crossing our borders? How many Americans have already been killed by illegal aliens either while committing crimes or driving with or without a license?

I take back my previous statement about Bush having American blood on his hand if WMDs are used. He and the Congress already have blood on their hands – innocent blood. The only question is “How much more blood do you really want on your hands?” Don’t tell me. Show me – now.

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Pelosi?

You should be – whoever you are. If you’re not you should be seriously questioning what is wrong with you. If you can’t do that by yourself, then get help. Once you have completed this first step, you have a duty to ask yourself what is wrong with those who do not yet fear this woman as you do. So in the interest of providing you that help, assuming you need it, and of getting this country back to having a reasonable line of succession and having a reasonable Congress, let me help you with a few observations.

Nancy Pelosi is two heartbeats away from the Presidency of the United States. And one of those heartbeats, despite its strength of mind and character, grows increasingly fragile as time passes. You should now have a sense of constitutional urgency about the situation.

Nancy Pelosi recently visited Syria – a terrorist state and enemy of the U.S. – for what? She says she was bringing the Presidents message. Well, the President is a big boy and is capable of delivering his own message. Better yet, he has Condoleezza Rice, whose job it is to deliver the Presidents message and does it better than anyone else. Here is the message “We don’t talk to terrorists.” By going at all, she acted to rescind the message – not deliver it. We, here at the bottom, understand this message. Some at the top – like the Speaker of the House – apparently don’t. If she does, she is lying about it. Either way, she doesn’t belong in a position of power in our government. You should now have a picture of a confused, back-stabbing liar. Convinced yet?

OK, I’ll continue. She is now talking about visiting the terrorist government of Iran. Does she have a list of terrorists that she needs to contact? It would have helped if she had published that list during the campaign – more honest too. I am a little surprised that she hasn’t visited Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro yet, but we have time and Fidel hasn’t been all that well lately. You should now have a picture of a dishonest politician who did not reveal her real agenda during her campaign. Convinced yet?

No? OK. All this exists against the backdrop of refusing to pass a war-funding bill capable of being signed into law before her Middle-Eastern vacation to aid and comfort America’s enemies, which, of course could not be postponed for the purpose of passing decent legislation. Passing legislation? Yes, her job - the one that she doesn’t much care to be bothered with. You should now have a picture of a woman unable and/or unwilling to do her own job, but who is hell-bent on making sure she keeps others from doing theirs, thinking that will make her look good.

So why am I not as critical of Harry Reed in the Senate? I am; he is her partner in incompetence and publicly has supported her undermining of foreign policy at the expense of our troops and their mission. He has also pushed a similarly nonsensical bill through the Senate. But he’s not the one who is two heartbeats away from the Presidency.

Anyone who does not condemn her vacation activities is complacent in aiding and comforting the enemy, and is not worthy of any position of authority in the U.S. government. This especially applies to anyone of any party running for President of the U.S. Even if you don’t condemn her activities on ideological grounds, you should condemn them on constitutional grounds. This is not her job, and those Presidential candidates who refuse to speak up are saying that it’s OK for the Congress to have its own separate, contradictory foreign policy when they become President (Apparently, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards are all OK with that.). Even if you don’t condemn her actions on a constitutional basis, you should at least be suspicious of someone who justifies her anti-American activities with a vacant, robotic stare except when she declares that “…there’s a new congress in town…” Who is the cowboy now?

You should now have a sense of constitutional urgency that a lying politician, unable and/or unwilling to do her own job, interfering with those who want to do theirs, acting like the cowboy Al Gore once accused President Bush of being, and providing aid and comfort to our enemies, is just two heartbeats away from becoming the leader of the free world. Suddenly, the freedom of the good guys appears in greater jeopardy while the freedom of the bad guys looks pretty solid.

Remove Nancy Pelosi!

Responsible politicians will work for Nancy Pelosi’s removal from her position. Republicans should work to convince their counterparts on the other side of the isle. Democrats should realize that she doesn’t represent mainstream Democrats – just the crackpots who voted to remove the U.S. military from contact with schools in San Francisco. If Nancy Pelosi became President, where would the U.S. military be removed from next? Would there be a U.S. military at all? Probably not. The U.S. military was weakened substantially under Clinton, and he wasn’t nearly as radical as Pelosi.

This is dangerous for the top, the bottom, and everyone in-between.

The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Is Real – Sort of

Hillary has recently resurrected the concept of the vast right-wing conspiracy. She has been widely criticized for it, having been called paranoid, desperate, and unoriginal, since this is at least a decade-plus old concept of hers.

But let’s put aside the utter stupidity of putting this out there again, looking desperate and forcing her husband’s impeachment back into the minds of voters accompanied by images of her looking like not the assertive, aggressive woman she needs to look like to be the first woman to make a serious run for the presidency, but the meek, abused, pitiable figure of a mentally-abused woman who ultimately stood by her man – right or wrong – insulting Tammy Wynette in the process.

As I say, let’s put that aside. There is, indeed, a vast right-wing conspiracy. Of course, you have to define right-wing (not to be too Clintonian about it). Defining it as right of the Clintons and referencing the election results of 1992 and 1996, we get a clear clue as to what the right-wing conspiracy really is. It’s called a majority of the American electorate. It is the majority that did NOT VOTE FOR Bill Clinton (and especially Hillary) in either election.

The conspiracy grew smaller in 1996, the year in which Hillary was less visible and the Newt Gingrich Congress pulled Bill back toward the center, than 1992, when they ran on a 2-for-1 blue light special platform. History tells us that the vast right-wing conspiracy is likely to grow back to its 1992 level and beyond, as Hillary is decidedly left of Bill.

1992 Election results:
Clinton – 43.0%
Bush – 37.4%
Perrot – 18.9%
Other – 0.6%

1996 Election results:
Clinton – 49.2%
Dole – 40.7%
Perrot – 8.4%
Other – 1.6%

That’s right, Hillary. It’s called a majority.

Libby is less Guilty than Clinton

I could be wrong, but this is what it looks like here at the bottom.

Ever since Bill Clinton was impeached in December, 1998 we have been told so many times that it was all about sex that the Pavlovian among us have been trained to believe it. It wasn’t about sex. It was about rape (Juanita Broaddrick) and sexual harassment (Paula Jones) – crimes that people typically either go to jail for or lose their jobs over.

While it is true that the very narrow scope of Ken Starr’s investigation was the Monica Lewinski affair, there is no doubt that without the preceding and underlying scandals, it would not have reached the constitutional crisis stage. Nobody really wanted to impeach Clinton. He forced it. It was a political loser from the beginning for Republicans. If they had been successful in the impeachment proceedings, Al Gore would have been catapulted into the White House, and would have been reelected in 2000 on the sympathy vote. The analogy is locking up Al Capone for tax evasion instead of the many other more heinous crimes that was his true legacy.

In the Clinton case, there was, at least, an acknowledged crime committed. Even his supporters acknowledged that he lied about sex; they admitted that he lied. What else could he have done, after all? Well, for one thing, he could have told us that it was none of our business and refused to answer questions about it. Perjury is a crime. There was plenty of evidence to suggest that other, more serious crimes were committed – crimes like rape and sexual harassment.

Scooter Libby, on the other hand, may have lied or not. He may have honestly had a memory lapse or not. He may have been attempting to use delaying tactics to soften the blow when it was finally discovered that there was no underlying crime committed or not. Since there was no underlying crime, Libby had no reason to lie. There goes the motive. But apparently, Patrick Fitzgerald, a United States Attorney with a previously stellar reputation in my native Chicago, decided that in the national arena of anti-Bush politics, a motive is a minor annoyance – like lying about “sex.”

So let’s see. Clinton gets off (no pun intended, honestly) because he lied about sex, even though it was not all about sex. It was about rape and sexual harassment. Libby is put on trial because he may or may not have lied about NOTHING.

The Republicans are vilified about spending millions of our dollars to prosecute someone his supporters admitted committed the crime he was accused of. Democrats spend some number of dollars that the Republicans are too afraid to discover and tell us about to prosecute someone who, it appears, is probably not guilty of doing anything.

So, more time and money is wasted for the personal gain of politicians who feel the need to put on a show is a higher priority than doing the peoples work. Nice job, elected officials.