The Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Staright

Over the weekend during President Obama's trip to Afghanistan, the White House inadvertently made public the name of the CIA station chief in Afghanistan, listing him in a press release. Can these guys get anything right?

townhall.com/news/politics-elections/2014/05/26/white-house-mistakenly-reveals-cia-officials-name-n1843495

The UCSB Killer

On January 12, 2013 I posted a blog about young killers and violence and hypocrisy in America after a mass killing. The profile for these guys was young white male, age 17-24, heavy consumer of violent video games, and lives at home. Regarding the young perp who just stabbed, ran over, and shot and killed 7 people near the UCSB campus, check his profile - 2 out of 3 on the scale. 

Whenever we as a nation get serious about violent movies/video games and mental health treatment, we will see a drop in these horrendous episodes. Oh I forgot - it's okay to spew this garbage out because young people don't really act out as a result. Right. 

On Behalf of a Grateful Country

The Truth Begins to Leak Out

In 2009 Nidal Hassan shot and killed 13 of his fellow American soldiers at Ft. Hood and wounded 30 others. The Obama Administration promptly slapped the label of "workplace violence" on the horrendous rampage, which is still the government's official view of the case. Apparently the new FBI director didn't get the message on the party line. 

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing the following exchange took place between Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tx) and new FBI Director Comey:

Cornyn - “Do you agree with the intelligence community’s assessment that Hasan was inspired by al-Qaeda to conduct that attack?” 

Comey - “Yes, sir. Based on everything I’ve read, again, I wasn’t in office at the time, but I’ve read about it since, and I do.”

You have to know who you are fighting before you can effectively fight back. Maybe there is hope in Washington yet. 

www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/05/21/FBI-Director-Agrees-Fort-Hood-Hasan-Shooting-was-Inspired-by-al-Qaeda

Change in the UK

England had elections this week too and a new wind is definitely blowing there. The UKIP party is a populist and anti-EU party and it made big gains, adding 90 new seats. Political analysts compare the UKIP to the Tea Party in the U.S. and its gains seem to signal that the English working class is restless and wants England to be more like Churchill's or Thatcher's England than the current version which is increasingly run by faceless bureaucrats from Brussels. It will be interesting to see if this momentum continues to build and whether England departs from the EU.

www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/05/23/the-night-of-the-righ

Ribbet. Ribbet.

"France's national rail company SNCF said on Tuesday it had ordered 2,000 trains for an expanded regional network that are too wide for many station platforms, entailing costly repairs."

www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/20/us-france-trains-idUSKBN0E021720140520

Everything is Fine, Fine...

Here is a GDP chart for the last 2 years. Despite all the assurances that our economy is improving, the figure to the far right shows that this is not true. CNN cheerfully assures us that it's probably because the 2014 first quarter was so cold in much of the U.S., but then why did Canada, which was much colder, do well? Cue the crickets. Or why did 800,000+ Americans simply quit looking for jobs last month? That, of course, improved the unemployment numbers because the pool of people searching for jobs shrank, but was it an indicia of an improving economy? I think not. 

Despite all the tap dancing from the politicos, the American economy is barely alive and barely sputtering and wheezing. It is a sign of the underlying resilience of our economic system that it is kicking it all, but the Feds seem intent on centralizing all economic activity in the government and marginalizing the private sector whatever the cost. You can see very graphically part of the cost in this chart. Idiots. 

money.cnn.com/2014/04/30/investing/gdp-economy/    (Chart)

townhall.com/columnists/wayneallynroot/2014/05/22/vegas-is-proof-positive-that-only-low-taxes-can-save-the-us-economy-n1841290

Seen on Bumper Sticker

War may not be the answer
But it does get their attention!

Observation Point

“The days of acceptable Christianity are over ... It's no longer easy to be a faithful Christian ... They threaten us with consequences if we refuse to call what is good, evil, and what is evil, good. They demand us to conform our thinking to their orthodoxy, or else say nothing at all.” 

Professor Robert George, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

Exhibit A

Here is my Exhibit A to support my argument for Republicans to close ranks in November. It was just the first example I happened across after writing the previous post. This Democrat from Florida expounds on how communism works - it's a good thing. That's right - communism - where breadlines wait for you! Or Cuba where the newest car is circa 1953. Do we really need more boneheads like this guy? Be sure and go to the site and watch the video. The picture shown incidentally is from approximately 1989-90. 

www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/05/21/Dem-Rep-Communism-Works

Closing Ranks

Congratulations to Monica Wehby and other GOP candidates in Oregon for their primary wins last night. Now it's time for winners and losers to close ranks and move on to do the same in the November general election in true blue Oregon and nationally. 

Ben Carson has a salutary column this morning about the necessity of doing this and specifically Wehby's position on abortion, which is different than his own, yet he still supported her. I was in the same boat  as Carson regarding Dr. Wehby but believe that she has the best chance of unseating Sen. Merkley in the general election and it definitely cannot be said that Merkley is any way better than Dr. Wehby in any category. 

The same is true across the country. The media has been full of stories about Establishment GOP and Tea Party fights in primaries across the U.S. That's what primaries are for - to pick a potentially winning candidate for a local setting and this is a good and necessary process. Once the primary process is done, however, it's all about beating the other side which almost always has a worldview very, very different from anyone in the GOP. 

No, it's time for Establishment and Tea Party, conservative and moderate, and every other type of Republican to join together and support each other's candidates in November because the last 5 years have vividly shown us the alternative and how it is ruining the country. 

townhall.com/columnists/drbencarson/2014/05/21/charting-a-course-between-principle-and-pragmatism-n1840923

See Ya!

Another big company has said goodbye to California. Pratt & Whitney is moving  its APU division and 530 high-end jobs to Texas, Georgia, or Florida - anywhere but California. Too bad Oregon's tax policies are such that we aren't attracting much of the out migration. Don't forget to turn out the lights!

www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/may/15/pratt-whitney-relocation-texas-florida-georgia/

Fast Track

If you are on a train a fast track with all green signals is a good thing. If you are waiting for surgery to fix a medical problem like my best friend at the VA, then it's also a good thing. One has to wonder, though, when convicted secrets-leaker Pvt. Bradley Manning gets the high green for a sex change operation over lots of veterans who have served their country honorably. Then again, I have been wondering about the priorities of the Obama Administration for a long time. 

www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/05/16/Obama-s-VA-Fast-Tracks-Expensive-Sex-Change-For-Convicted-Traitor-Bradley-Manning-At-Same-Time-Vets-Die-on-Phony-Waiting-Lists

Enough is Enough

The U.S. Department of Agriculture - the USDA!! - is putting out a bid request for .40 caliber submachine guns as follows:

"...ambidextrous safety, semiautomatic or 2 round [bursts] trigger group, Tritium night sights front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore group) and scope (top rear), stock collapsible or folding," and a "30 rd. capacity" magazine."

This is crazy! We don't live in the Soviet Union. Who are these people and what are they doing? Congress needs to investigate and put and end to this before one of these wing-nuts starts shooting!

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/05/14/Dept-Of-Agriculture-Orders-Submachine-Guns-With-30-Round-Magazines

Is Hillary Clinton Damaged Goods?

That was the idea floated by Karl Rove over the weekend. She had a fall last year and smacked her head. He points to a few items like thick glasses that might be consistent with a hypothesis of brain damage but not much else.

I am not much impressed and dislike this sort of thing as much when used by Republicans as when Democrats are the offenders. Remember Harry Reid's insinuations about Mitt Romney not paying his taxes. It's bull pucky on either part. The Democrats are very vulnerable on a variety of issues, not the least of which is Hillary and her role in the Benghazi debacle, to fool around with this nonsense. If Republicans are the party of principles, then let's be principled.

Why the Pentagon is Having Problems

We have to have a strong national defense and part of that involves constantly modernizing our equipment to the cutting edge and beyond. For decades, however, the Pentagon has shown an almost unerring ability to go way over budget and still get unusable systems that are either canceled outright or marginally meet the original design requirements. Here is another case in point.

The Marine One fleet of Presidential helicopters is being replaced. This is a needed upgrade, but Sikorsky was the soul bidder resulting in a total cost of $20 billion for 19 helicopters!  The unit cost for each helicopter of the new fleet is the same as a Presidential 747! Yes, these helicopters need to have special gear because of who they will be carrying but this is an astounding price tag. In contrast, a recent contract was signed with Boeing by DOD for the latest version of the Apache attack helicopters delivering 82 of these cutting edge birds for $1.2B, which is roughly $18.8 BILLION less than the new Presidential fleet. 

Strong defense yes; waste and gold-plating no!

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/05/11/Obama-Admin-Approves-20-Billion-For-New-Presidential-Helicopters

www.militaryaerospace.com/articles/2014/03/ah64e-helicopter-contract.html

Thanks Mom

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 2 Tim. 4:7

You have done this, mom. You have always been there for us. Losing dad at 14 was hard and I don't wish it on anybody, but you stepped in and carried the load which sometimes has been crushing. You were always there when we needed you and even today, your prayers and presence play an important role in my life for which I do not nearly often enough express my gratitude. So today, thank you. You have fought the good fight and prevailed with God's grace. You have almost finished the race. And you have through all these years kept the faith. You are loved.    Rick

Diversity Means

"... 'diversity' means never having to listen to an opposing point of view."

Thinking is so much easier that way!

online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304431104579549943039965948?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304431104579549943039965948.html

Well That's OK Then

I keep getting this Old Testament (1 Kings 18:20-40) buzz about things around this country these days. An example? The Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club is hosting a black mass performed by real deal satanists and using consecrated elements purloined from a Catholic church. They clarified that they don't intend by all this to denigrate the Christian faith at all by this. 

Phew! I'm glad they cleared that up. Has somebody got the goats lined up? Should we bring our gas masks for the sulfur?

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/05/07/Harvard-Extension-School-the-Black-Mass-and-Not-Quite-Satanists

The Dark Lords

Harry Reid, that paragon of virtue from Nevada, announced yesterday that the Koch brothers were behind the woes of climate change. Well, if you believe in man-caused climate change in the first place, it's hard to lay it at the feet of the Kochs, but it's such fun to try. These guys have replaced W as the favorite whipping boys of the Left. Let's think about some other things that the evil Koch brothers are behind:

• The type 2 diabetes explosion and obesity in the U.S.
• Nuclear weapons
• Acne
• Your favorite losing on American Idol.
• Whoever ate the last piece of pizza in your refrigerator you were saving for lunch.
• Broccoli
• The nonstop barking of your neighbor's dog when you had dinner guests on the patio.

This is fun! Harry really should begin to wear his white robes and carry around the stone tablets to add to his prophetic gravitas. Oh, and lose the teeth. 

www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/05/07/Harry-Reid-Blames-Koch-Brothers-for-Climate-Change

Global Warming Solution

"'Methane Backpacks' Capture Cow Farts, Turn Them Into Green Fuel"--headline,Yahoo! Small Business Advisor, May 6

Wall Street Journal, Best of the Web, May 7, 2014

What do you think, $500M or so in subsidies for this one?

A Win for the Home Team

Consistent with the context of the writing of the Constitution and 200+ years of American history, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday affirmed the right of government assemblies to open sessions with a Christian prayer. Although a narrow 5-4 majority, a win is a win and both protects the freedom of religion in this country from those who would sterilize the public arena from any hint of Christianity in particular. Well done Supremes. 

That's Moses incidentally with the Ten Commandments in hand at the apex of the roof of the Supreme Court building in Washington, DC. 

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/05/05/Supreme-Court-Upholds-Prayers-at-Public-Meetings

Oh C'mon!

The Minnesota Senate approved a bill that would ban calling Asian carp logically enough, Asian carp on the fear that someone of Asian descent might be "offended." Lame. Seriously lame. Apparently they have nothing better to do in the Minnesota Legislature. Next people with eye problems will be pressuring them to re-name walleyes because they are offended. Sheesh.

minnesota.cbslocal.com/2014/04/28/asian-carp-gets-a-makeover-in-minn-senate/ as cited on World Net Daily

                                                 www.wnd.com/2014/05/asian-carp-too-offensive-for- minnesota/?cat_orig=diversions

Something You Can Do

Lisa Wipf sends a reminder to make a donation to the crowd-funding campaign to produce a movie about Kermit Gosnell, the abortion butcher described by many as the biggest serial killer in history. He was convicted by a jury for related crimes but this in no way atones for the brutal deaths of so many infants at his hands and several adults because of his callous indifference. If you want America to see what is really going on in the abortion mills, a $25 donation will help get the job done. 

www.indiegogo.com/explore?utf8=✓&filter_title=Gosnell

Abandon Ship!

I have been blogging about how companies are fleeing high-tax states like California, Toyota being the most recent example. Now they are starting to flee the U.S. for the same reason.

Pfizer is looking at an acquisition of British drug giant AstraZeneca and one of the key reasons is that it would allow Pfizer to reincorporate in Britain and move its corporate headquarters to London. By so doing it would save an estimated $200M/year in taxes that it now pays to the IRS. Few people know that the U.S. has the highest corporate tax rate in the Western world and there are cries in Congress to ratchet it even higher. 

Public budgets are out of control in this country. There is a massive transfer of wealth out of the private sector and into public coffers. If we want to have a vibrant economy then it has to stop. If it doesn't, then we can expect money - and jobs - to continue to flow out of this country.

finance.townhall.com/columnists/danieljmitchell/2014/05/04/greedy-politicians-get-their-comeuppance-as-taxpayers-escape-n1833139/page/2

The Story Unravels

Sharyl Attkisson, who was cashiered by CBS News for doing her job of actually reporting the news, released a story today that Hillary Clinton's Deputy Secretary of State sent a damning e-mail to the Libyan government the morning after the Benghazi attack  that killed our people.The e-mail places clear responsibility for the killings on Ansar Al Sharia which is "affiliated with Islamic extremists." There is no talk about videos, demonstrations, or any other red herrings. 

The picture incidentally is Hillary's career dissipation warning light going off. 

www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/05/01/Benghazi-Email-Hillary-Clinton-Deputy-Names-Islamic-Extremists-Not-YouTube

Econ 101

Principle: If the price of something goes up, people tend to buy less of it.

Application: Raise the the minimum wage, employers will hire fewer workers. 

Illustration:  "Officials at colleges in Illinois are warning that if the state hikes its minimum wage, it will have to cut hours for and even fire some student workers."

townhall.com/tipsheet/danieldoherty/2014/05/01/illinois-colleges-if-the-minimum-wage-is-increased-well-fire-student-workers-n1832210

So who are we really helping by raising the minimum wage besides the politicians trying to prove they "care" and the few left employed with their extra $25-$30/month?

Standing on His Record

Gov. Kitzhaber is running for his fourth term as governor of Oregon. Unfortunately, he has to stand on his record which includes:

• Cover Oregon. Worst in nation. $248M spent; 0 signups.
• Columbia Crossing. $190M spent; no bridge.
• Oregon High School Graduation Rate. 2nd worst in the country.
• Oregon DMV. Worst in country.

You have to give him credit for consistency. 

Benghazi

"Phony scandals don't come home in body bags."  Dan Bongino, former Secret Service agent and Congressional candidate in Maryland.

www.wnd.com/2014/05/phony-scandals-dont-come-home-in-body-bags/

Hard to Put a Smiley Face on This One

"The U.S. economy nearly stalled in the first three months of 2014. Gross domestic product grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.1% in the first quarter, a big drop from its 2.6% pace in the fourth quarter of 2013, the Commerce Department said Wednesday...

There were many sources of discontinuity between expectations and the Commerce Department’s initial estimate of GDP in the quarter..."

There almost always are many "sources of discontinuity" from the Commerce Department on economic reports, especially when an election is upcoming. Perhaps if they would take off the blasted rose-colored glasses they could see things more clearly. Okay, wait for it - it was Bush's fault because...

blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/04/30/economists-react-to-u-s-gdp-grim-but-old-news/

Can You Not Read the Signs of the Times?

The House Energy and Commerce Committee just got the following information on Obamacare by contacting insurance carriers, as the Obama Administration had been stonewalling: 

"... as of April 15, 2014, only 67 percent of individuals and families that had selected a health plan in the federally facilitated marketplace had paid their first month’s premium and therefore completed the enrollment process. Nationwide, only 25 percent of paid enrollees are ages 18 to 34."

townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2014/05/01/oh-my-only-67-percent-of-obamacare-enrollees-have-paid-premiums-n1831854

Ever tried to keep a business afloat when your customers were only paying 67% of your bills? Now we get to pay huge premium increases and tax increases to bail out the failing system. Can this train wreck get any better? 

Rocky Mountain High

"The Colorado Symphony Orchestra said Tuesday it will play a series of "cannabis-friendly" fundraising concerts sponsored by the state's burgeoning pot industry.

The state's only full-time professional orchestra hopes the unusual shows dubbed "Classically Cannabis: The High Note Series" will boost its audience as it struggles with dwindling attendance and shrinking budgets.

"The cannabis industry obviously opens the door even further to a younger, more diverse audience," symphony CEO Jerome Kern told The Associated Press."

I am not making this up. Maybe Bartok will sound better this way. 

hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CLASSIC_CANNABIS?SITE=KGW&SECTION=DEFAULT&TEMPLATE=ENTERTAINMENT.html