credit: algop.org
The Least Aware Man In America:
Pity poor Barack Hussein Obama. He never has any idea what’s going on. Criminal IRS harassment of his political enemies? Mr. Obama had no idea; he heard about it in the media. Johnathan Gruber exposes the arrogantly abusive and deceptive genesis of Obamacare? Mr. Obama barely knows the guy; what did you say his name was again? You name the scandal, poor Mr. Obama had no idea what his Administration was doing.
NOTE: For those tempted to suggest I don’t use the prefix “President” in speaking of the CIC, please observe the tags accompanying this article.
Over the weekend there was a historic anti-terrorism rally in Paris. Perhaps a million people, 44 major world leaders, worldwide news coverage and headlines, and Barack Obama, and every Obama mini-me was absent. The leader of the free world, leading from behind as always.
The first excuse was no one in the White House knew about it. Aren’t American presidents supposed to have people–you know, like a Department of State?–that are supposed to be up on such things? And how is it possible Mr. Obama’s White House was in the dark when the rest of the world, including the media, knew all about it and managed to get there on time? There are pictures, video even! Then it really wasn’t all that important. Then the White House sort of admitted that maybe they really should have sent some high level mouthpiece. Now we discover the Secret Service was never tasked with the trip. Sheesh.
At least the White House hasn’t yet claimed Mr. Obama was doing the vital work of the American people, though Jimmy Carter chimed in with that. Mr. Obama remains the laziest man ever to be president. As always, there was nothing on his official schedule that would have prevented his presence in Paris.
What a pathetic, and dangerous, little Muslim Marxist we hired–twice–to damage our nation and the world.
credit: spiritualriver.com
It’s Good To Be Dah King (and his enforcers):
Helping America’s poor, aged and sick is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ reason for being, but hundreds of its top officials are traveling in style and luxury at taxpayer expense.
Records obtained by the Washington Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act show that HHS executives spent $31 million taking 7,000 first class and business class flights between 2009 and 2013, including 253 trips for which a one-way ticket cost more than $15,000.
Half the records listed the price of a coach ticket for comparison. For that portion alone, the upgrade boosted the cost by almost $14 million, from $4.9 million to $18.5 million.
Federal employees are allowed to fly business or first class if the flight is longer than 14 hours, but only 1,400 of the 7,000 flights met that description.
I’m old enough to remember a time when going to work for the government entailed sacrifice and nobility in the pursuit of the worthy goals of helping others and preserving democracy. Fundamental transformation indeed.
The Media Screws Up–And Makes Amends
You know the drill. The media gets it wrong, so wrong it’s almost impossible to imagine how they screwed it up so badly, and after being harangued for weeks delivers a two sentence mealy-mouthed pseudo-retraction or faux apology on page 237, just under a bra ad.
Here’s the story of a newspaper in Kentucky that got it horrifically wrong, and actually did the right thing in issuing a very obvious and sincere apology. It will not, of course, spread to the lamestream media.
Something of a palette cleanser.
credit: dodlive.mil
SEMPER FIDELES:
Wouldn’t you like to hear a story about US Marines rushing to the rescue of a 60 year-old woman being robbed by a couple of idiotic thugs, right in front of a Marine recruiting office?
Traitors:
I was born in South Dakota, and lived there many years by choice. I’ve always had some level of respect for SD Senator John Thune. I have much less now.
Gas prices are down, so it’s the perfect time to hike gas taxes! Ooops! I mean gas fees, not taxes, fees:
On Wednesday, the new GOP chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works panel, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), said a hike in the gasoline tax is on the table as a means of paying into the Highway Trust Fund. As President Barack Obama would no doubt note, that fund is of vital importance for keeping the nation’s roads and bridge up to code.
‘It’s not a tax,’ Inhofe said. ‘It’s a user fee.’
Outside Beltway, that’s a distinction without a difference.
Inhofe’s embrace of a new, ahem, ‘user fee’ for those who purchase the gasoline was shared by the new Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT). ‘We’ll have to look at that. I’m looking at everything—every possible way of taking care of the highway bill, ’Hatch echoed.
‘I prefer not to increase taxes but to me that’s a user fee,’ the retiring Utah senator added. ‘People who use the highways ought to pay for them. And that’s a small price to pay to have the best highway system in the world.
How can we know this is a horrifically bad idea? Dick Durbin is all for it. Read the whole article and you’ll find Thune moaning about how hard it is to pass such taxes.
But isn’t Thune just being realistic? Isn’t it smart to consider all options? Sure. That’s how we keep adding new taxes and regulations rather than cutting them and reducing the size of a government that will, sooner rather than later, swallow us all.
credit: gainsvillelive.com
What’s the Junior Varsity Up To These Days?
This whole terrorist thing is just overblown, so yesterday. Just ask Mr. Obama. He minimizes the threat every chance he gets while releasing some of the worst terrorists in the world from Gitmo to take up the fight.
In Africa, those JV players, Boko Haram, have apparently slaughtered an entire town of some 2000, killing every living thing and burning it to the ground.
But how is this possible? Doesn’t Mr. Obama have all terrorists everywhere on the run? Didn’t First Lady Michelle Obama pose for sad-eyed photos holding up a hashtag begging for the return of hundreds of girls kidnapped by Boko Haram? How could they possibly be committing acts of terror after a display of that kind of steel-spined American resolve?
At least Michelle O had the taste to look sad about ignoring terrorism and responding with wimpy gestures. Her husband does it with faux-anger and dim-witted smirks. And the “girls” are still being used as sex slaves; they’re not back.
credit: matrixbob.wordpress.com
Ann Coulter said, and posed, it best.
credit: three stooges.net
A Strong White House Response:
But not to worry! President Obama is on the job, even though he and his mouthpieces refuse to actually identify those that would cut off all out heads with dull knives. The indispensable Power Line has the story:
Today we learn that the White House is convening a conference on February 18 to counter ‘violent extremism.’ The conference will be convened ‘in light of this past week’s shootings in France, and earlier attacks in Canada and Australia.’ The AP reports:
‘The meeting will highlight domestic and international efforts to prevent extremists and their supporters from radicalizing, recruiting and inspiring others in the United States and elsewhere to carry out violent acts.
The White House says the Feb. 18 summit will build upon a current U.S. strategy to address the threat of violent extremism. The White House says cities such as Boston, Los Angeles and Minneapolis-St. Paul have taken a leading role as part of their approach to crime prevention and community safety.
Care to bet that the “violent extremists” will end up being American veterans returning from the battlefield, Tea Party types, law-abiding gun owners, Republicans, you know, the really dangerous types already identified by the Obama Administration. Doesn’t it just give you shivers of patriotic pride?
Rabid Bookworms?
If you don’t visit my friend Bookworm’s Bookworm Room on a daily basis, you’re missing some of the finest commentary on the Internet. She’s the kind of woman that makes me want to bear her children…er, you know what I mean even if I don’t. Consider this:
In other words, this is going to be the most peculiar lame duck period in American history. Past lame duck presidents have been quietly ineffectual. They’ve been the past, while the political machine and the people are already looking to the future. Obama, however, once untethered from the Constitution and from any concerns about the voice of the American people, isn’t really going to be a lame duck at all. He’s got a whole new future planned for us and there’s nary a lame duck in set.
Fasten your seat belts, friends, because we’re in for President Rabid Dog over the next two long and dangerous years.
What Bookworm said. The article has a link to a new Navy commercial that asserts that for our enemies to get to Americans, they have to get through the Navy. That’s a great sentiment and an effective commercial, but the Navy doesn’t operate on the Rio Grande, nor can it guard the myriad other ways terrorists can get to us. Indeed, they already have.
The Republican Presidential Race In Damned Few Words:
Jeb Bush: Supposed Republican pushing some of the most anti-conservative schemes known to man.
Mitt Romney: A decent guy too decent to actually tell the truth about Democrat politicians bent on destroying the nation. Had his chance.
Chris Christie: Thinly veiled Democrat. Very thinly veiled. Gun grabber.
Rand Paul: Only slightly less loony than his Dad.
Doesn’t anybody here know how to play this game?
Paying It Back:
Infant saved by female Israeli Police officer in the aftermath of terrorist bombing grows up, joins the IDF and meets the officer that saved her. Patriotic, lump-in-your-throat stuff. May we and our allies always raise such women–and men.
College Thoughts:
I know I’ve already written on this topic this week, but I’d like your thoughts, gentle readers. I attended college in the mid-80s, taking a degree in English education and vocal music in 2.5 years, while working part time. It cost me about $10,000.00, not counting gas and other normal expenses. I did it to obtain the degree necessary for my second career, so I was properly motivated and had very clear and obtainable goals. Above all, I had the maturity and intellect (you’ll be the judge of that one, won’t you?) to pull it off. My GPA was 3.89; it’s hard to be perfect. I didn’t take a single remedial course and carried 22 credit hours each regular semester and as many credits as I could take each summer and interim session.
Isn’t that what a college student should look like?
Final Thoughts:
I spent the day grading tests over the only lecture I do all year on the literature, history, culture and music of the Medieval and Renaissance periods. Tomorrow, I let the kids–very carefully and under controlled circumstances–handle actual period weapons: swords, battle axes, shields, etc. The girls love it most. The wild smiles on their cherubic little faces are wonderful to behold. The boys have to be cool, you know. Anyway, I’m a bit bushed.
More coming this week on a variety of topics, and soon, another article on the Michael Brown case.
Stately McDaniel Manor 
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