Category: Politics

  • Cuomo’s righteous regulators send pipeliners packin’

    Cuomo’s righteous regulators send pipeliners packin’

    If you haven’t seen those laughable Start-Up New York television ads, then you must be one of those who has cut the cord. New York, a blue state with an oppressive tax and regulatory business atmosphere typical of those states where liberals infest the statehouses, has been running these promotional ads for a couple of years now, promising business owners and entrepreneurs big tax breaks if they’ll just relocate to New York. I call them laughable for the obvious reason: any business owner who does due diligence is going to find that Andrew Cuomo and his bureaucratic accomplices are liberal to the core, to the point of screwing their own citizens on even the basic standards of living to uphold their liberal values.

    Living far from the Northeast and disinclined to travel there, I really have no dog in this fight other than a few energy investments. However, after watching another of those incessant commercials, I opened an email from an energy investment source to learn that the State of New York’s regulatory agencies had ruled against construction of two natural gas pipelines that would have brought badly needed natural gas in great abundance to the blue states of the Northeast, where inexpensive fuel for heating homes and powering industry is habitually in short supply. The liberal insanity inherent in promoting a business-friendly environment while simultaneously preventing a cheap fuel source for those businesses inspired these observations.

    There is a huge reservoir of natural gas trapped in a geologic formation called the Marcellus Shale that underlies an area extending from West Virginia up through Ohio and Pennsylvania and into western and upstate New York. There is enough natural gas in this formation to meet the needs of the Northeast and more for generations, ending their dependence on imported energy supplies from distant, expensive sources, driving down costs in an area that historically pays substantially more than any other region of the nation.

    So all they need is for the energy companies that have found and produced this natural gas to spend a few billion dollars building pipelines to get their product from the Marcellus fields to the eastern markets, right? Well, the energy companies agree, and aware of the strict regulatory barriers they face in crossing these blue states, primarily New York, the eager Start-Up State, they studied the situation with all its challenges and duly submit their proposals to the regulatory bureaucrats in New York.

    “Nope,” say the bureaucrats to the cheers of the liberal environmentalists/anti-fossil fuelists who would much rather see millions of New Yorkers and New Englanders shivering in their homes in mid-winter as fuel imports run low, than allow these horrid Big Oil companies bring a plentiful supply of their product to a market where it is much needed, ensuring that basic creature comforts are met in these blue states and done so at a reasonable price. It’s called basic economics, folks, but as we all know, that sort of reasonable rational thinking simply does not find a pollination receptor anywhere in the liberal brain cavity, especially those awarded the coveted status of government bureaucrat, the liberal brass ring.

    Let ’em grab it with their cold blue fingers as they contemplate the insanity that is liberal logic.

    Crossposted at American Thinker

  • Army Retains SFC Martland

    Army Retains SFC Martland

    Martland

    Jonn and I have written previously about SFC Charles Martland and the attempt by the Army to separate him for “assaulting” a child-rapist in Afghanistan.  The earlier articles can be found here, here, here, and here.

    According to Fox News, the Army yesterday changed its mind. They have now opted to retain SFC Martland vice discharging him.

    Sometimes sanity reigns – even inside that 5-sided asylum near the Open Air Brothel on the Potomac – and the good guys win one.  IMO this is such a case.

    Congratulations, SFC Martland.  Kudos to Rep. Duncan Hunter (and others) for publicly supporting him.

    And while SFC Martland never should have been considered for discharge in the first place, kudos also to the Army for finally seeing the light and doing the right thing here.

  • Will a Trump win grow a spine in Republican leaders?

    Donald Trump appeals to a large segment of American conservatives because he is exploiting a weakness they have long recognized and grown increasingly angry over as the condition worsens. Republican Party leadership, especially in Congress, are a craven bunch who so fear the liberal media and the tyranny of political correctness that they have allowed media-protected Democrats to walk all over them, even in matters where Democrat bureaucrats are criminally culpable.

    I am reminded of this by the latest dismissive letter sent to two Senate committee chairmen by hotshot Washington attorney Mark MacDougall on behalf of his client, Bryan Pagliano, Hillary’s I.T. guru, in which he essentially tells them to go pound sand, chiding them in the process for relying on the media for their legal misinterpretation of his client’s constitutional rights:

    “With all appropriate respect, whether and when a citizen may assert a constitutional right is not up to your legal staff,” the lawyer wrote. “Whatever agreement Mr. Pagliano may have reached with the Department of Justice in no way constitutes a waiver of his Fifth Amendment rights.

    “Much of the media reporting with regard to Mr. Pagliano – that is apparently relied upon by your Committees – is inaccurate and misleading.”

    From Fast and Furious through the IRS scandals and Benghazi to the present Hillary e-mail investigations, the Democratic Party’s entrenched bureaucrat buddies have spit in the collective eye of the Republican congressional leadership – not quite ignoring them completely, but responding to them with such deliberately disdainful delay and minimal compliance with their demands as to casually convey the Democrats’ utter contempt for the supposed equal powers of the legislative branch of federal governance. And how does the Republican congressional leadership react to such disrespect? Well, for example, Republicans supposedly responded to the Obama administration’s complete intransigence in the case of Fast and Furious by citing Attorney General Eric Holder for both criminal and civil contempt of the House. And what did that get them except for a pair of big sneering middle fingers on Holder’s way out the door more than two years later?

    Three years after IRS official Lois Lerner was exposed for politically weaponizing the IRS to suppress conservative voting in the 2012 elections, nothing has been done to this federal bureaucrat, who hid her criminal behavior during the performance of her job behind the Fifth Amendment. That is a protection that should not exist for federal employees when it regards criminal job activity. Nevertheless, while Republicans in Congress blustered and threatened to no end, Lerner is free and drawing a six-figure retirement, protected by her bosses and a co-conspiring federal Justice Department full of Democrats.

    The Obama administration knew from the outset as it took power in 2009 that the way to consolidate political power was to politicize the prosecutorial process in such a manner as to be able to punish enemies and protect friends, the essence of Chicago politics. It is the prosecutorial form of jury nullification: no matter how clear the criminality, you simply ignore it until it has faded into political oblivion or, if pressured, devise murky justifications for why it is not possible to indict. A nation of laws survives as such only as long as those responsible for enforcing those laws willingly apply them to themselves, which the Obama administration clearly never had any intention of doing. We should have known that a political cartel with its toes splayed deep in the muck of Chicago’s Democrat swamp would quickly move to corrupt the Justice Department so that it then had nothing to fear, so that any criminality involved in expanding its power could be nullified.

    Eric Holder was perfect for that job because he had learned at the feet of the Clintons, masters of the legal obfuscation process, and Holder held a card the Clintons didn’t: the Black Ace of Race, which he didn’t hesitate to play to counter criticism and block congressional investigations. In this he was constantly aided and abetted by Democrats, especially members of the Congressional Black Caucus, sitting in committee meetings, solemnly nodding agreement every time Holder slapped that black ace down on the Republicans’ evidentiary table. Had we had a courageous contingent in Congress to counter such corruption, Republicans should have been able to have contained it, especially once we had gained back our Republican majorities. The Constitution does grant enforcement powers, including incarceration, to Congress to deal with such nullification of the nation’s laws by executive scofflaws, but it takes men and women of principle to enforce the necessary provisions. And as we have seen, they simply were not there.

    With the Obama administration and its completely politicized Justice Department poised once again to nullify the crimes of another media-protected Democrat, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump’s appeal to America’s conservatives sick of this flouting of law and order on behalf of protected elites can only grow. This ongoing Republican chicken-heartedness has left conservatives holding a vacuum of fortitude. While Donald Trump’s vows to prosecute Crooked Hillary may sound like nothing but hot air to some, such threats may well carry him to victory because even in politics, nature abhors a vacuum. Trump has found the vacuum, and he’s filling it.

    This brings the question: if Trump wins the presidency, will the Republican leadership finally grow a spine?

    Crossposted at American Thinker

  • Are there any Americans left?

    Sitting on the patio watching as the breeze scatters cherry blossoms across the lawn. Not a cloud in the sky. Serenaded by a lawnmower somewhere in the background and competing songbirds. Life is rather pleasant. Right here. Is this what I was supposed to want? Is this the dream? Is this the product of my pursuit of happiness found at the end of a long road of hard work? My pot of gold? I suppose it is if one is content. Or maybe I got this whole concept of pursuing happiness or living the dream somehow backwards.

    The United States of America is unique, exceptional, in that it is the only country on the face of this planet founded on the concept of individual liberty bound by a Constitution that guarantees it. A country founded on the belief that all are free to pursue life, liberty and happiness. The pursuit of happiness? Yes. The only requirement is that the pursuit aligns with the laws of the land.

    From the beginning of our country people have taken up arms, fought and died to guarantee the pursuit, not define it. No one has ever fought or died in war to defend what you believe. They fought to defend your right to believe it. As we continue our civil war with every identity group demanding that others kow-tow to their world view, it is important to make that distinction.

    If your life centers on a sexual relationship with a member of the same sex, you can do that here in the land of the free. You have no right however, to expect me or anyone to embrace your lifestyle or make special concessions for it. The reasonable expectation that you do have is that because of your beliefs, no one is going to throw you from the top of a tall building.

    It is quite obvious when many of these groups declare their desire for fair and equal treatment that what they clearly want is dominance. They want to oppress any opposing point of view and destroy anyone who does not accept their way. That is not pursuit of happiness. That is not freedom. That is totalitarianism. Absolutism. There is only one way and it is our way. That is not American. Or to quote our President, that is just not who we are. Perhaps if you believe that way, it is the end of America you seek. You seek to end the exceptional rule. You want a rule where I now must agree to fight for what you believe and not your right to believe it. You want a rule where I must forego my view of the pursuit of happiness and embrace yours.

    I am an American. Freedom is my birthright. It is also yours. I will defend our birthright. I will never bend myself into a politically correct pretzel out of fear of being labeled a bigot for not accepting what you believe.

    Considering the millions of immigrants who have entered this country illegally and the thousands more that continue to pour across our wide-open borders, one must wonder how many of them want to become Americans. How many of them got up that morning and said I am walking across this desert and that border because I want to be an American? How many of them have even the slightest idea of what being American means? Why did they come here? They know America is a wealthy nation, the land of plenty and they want some of it. Fair enough. But they are coming here to obtain some of that wealth with no understanding of what created it in the first place or what it takes to preserve it. But, in fairness, neither does many supposedly college educated Americans these days.

    There is certainly a cultural civil war underway. Identity groups want everyone to listen to them and no one else. They appear not to care if America lives or dies preferring to stand on our flag rather than beneath it. Immigrants continue to pour in by the millions. There is no evidence they seek to be Americans, preferring instead to fly the flags of the failed nations and cultures they fled. At this rate, some future generation may look around and wonder if there are any Americans left.

    America the place may end some day. America the idea never will.

    © 2016 J. D. Pendry All Rights Reserved

  • Some needed truth about Trump followers

    Some needed truth about Trump followers

    As I noted in a piece here at TAH the other day, critics of Donald Trump like to point to his substantial following as being made up of the great unwashed, the benighted and impoverished lower classes who cling to their guns and religion, xenophobic and intolerant of all unlike themselves. It is a favorite theme not only of the snotty liberal media who look down their Pinocchio noses at conservatives and traditionalists, but also of the elitist Republican establishment that is royally pissed at losing control of the candidate selection process this election.

    Except, it appears, that isn’t true at all, as many of us have been saying for some time now. The opposite truth has actually been substantiated by some honest liberals (yes I know it’s generally an oxymoron) who have properly done their homework, those at The Economist, an intellectual publication usually too socially liberal for my conservative tastes. As their research and their graphs in this recent article demonstrate, almost two-thirds of Trump supporters earn more than $50,000 and more than three-fourths have at least some college. Have a look:

    Votes by income

    What would be interesting to see now is how this stacks up against an assessment of Hillary’s followers. After all, if, as the mainstream media claim, she is the candidate of minorities and the poor, then those income and education figures should take a rather substantial hit. And for those among you who have been reluctant to consider voting for Trump if he becomes the Republican nominee, as you can see, you’re in good company if you do vote for him..

  • Oklahoma stiffens penalty for Stolen Valor

    The Oklahoma State Senate sent a Stolen Valor bill to Governor Mary Fallin’s desk yesterday. The Senate approved the new legislation in a 44-2 vote while the House passed the bill 84-9;

    The bill increases the fine tenfold for impersonating a member of the military by wearing decorations or medals. If signed into law, the fine for the misdemeanor offense will jump from $100 to $1,000. Co-author Sen. Brian Bingman said it’s about protecting service men and women’s integrity.

    “Unquestionably, the sacrifices that they’ve made protecting us — we wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for putting their lives on the line for our freedom,” Bingman said.

    Off the top of my head, we’ve written about Oklahomans Steven B. Pancoast, who was the chief investigator for the Oklahoma Veterans’ Affairs Department, Bruce Allen Pendlay who faked his suicide when he was exposed after decades of pretending to be a Special Forces soldier and Terry Lee Farmer, a phony Vietnam veteran.

  • The Dongoose, our Republican Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

    The Dongoose, our Republican Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

    Pundits all across the political spectrum have been unable to explain the Trump phenomenon with most falling back on the condescending conclusion that it’s just another one of those occasional populist movements with a base appeal to the great unwashed, those tens of millions out there in flyover land that Obama described as clinging to their guns and religion. There’s a better explanation and its appeal is psychologically deeper than these lazy pundits are looking.

    Hillary Clinton, since her emergence from Arkansas as the carefully spoken, Eastern educated, Midwestern mate of the “Aw shucks’ good ol’ boy governor who smooth-talked his way into the White house, has always evoked a visceral response from those of us on the conservative side of politics. That queasy sense that something about this woman just isn’t right turned to outright revulsion when Slick Willie’s gross disrespect for the high office he held opened a can of worms that was more like a cask of copperheads. As revelations of their sleazy and criminal past and present emerged, Hillary came to be the focus of our disgust and anger more so than her degenerate mate, who in spite of all his licentious behavior retained enough of his good ol’ boy charm to maintain some likeability, much like an errant ne’er-do-well uncle. Hillary, standing by her no-good man and attacking the women he allegedly raped and sexually assaulted came to be seen as the scheming enabler in a marriage bereft of any purpose other than political progression, particularly her own. Adding to Hillary’s negative aura were the many insider reports coming out of the Clinton White House about her fuming fits and petty shows of disrespect for those there to serve her husband’s official and personal needs, especially those in military uniform.
    Hillary Clinton left the White House with much of the country loathing her while also being fearful of her future political ambitions. It was well understood that her carpet-bagging senatorial campaign in New York was but a step on her path to become the first woman president and her success was followed with a sense of trepidation by those of us who followed the determined path of this venomous politician. It has been that way ever since and now that she is closer than she has ever been, millions of Americans are hoping for something or someone to prevent this horrible woman from leading this country to further Democrat designed decline.

    Enter Donald Trump, the brash, outspoken, shoot-from-the-lip, New York billionaire who brooks no political drivel from any source and is fearless when face to face with his opponents. Trump used his twelve gauge delivery to shot-gun the stage in the Republican debates, clearing away those candidates unprepared to deal with this super-confident phenomenon that none of them had ever expected to be there, much less blowing them away with his stage-sweeping bluster. During that first debate, I turned to my wife and remarked that if Hillary happened to be viewing, she must be having some very uncomfortable thoughts about facing such an unconstrained political pit bull on a debate stage with the whole world watching. My wife’s broad grin confirmed my thought that there must be millions of watching Americans who were seeing and feeling the same thing.

    And that, all you clueless pundits, is a major reason for the Trump phenomenon; conservative Americans see him favorably as a non-Romney type Republican candidate who will get Hillary on the debate stage and give her the verbal whipping of her life, bluntly demanding from her answers to all those questions about her lurid and even criminal past that we have all longed to see someone ask, without permitting her to weasel out with her usual smokescreen responses. With Donald Trump, for the very first time, American conservatives will have a clever, determined and fearless mongoose going after this Clinton cobra, this dark, menacing thing that has been slithering through the tall weeds of American politics for three decades now. The cobra can spit and she will most certainly strike but as Wikipedia will tell you, the mongoose has an immunity to snake venom while the cobra has little protection against those fierce claws and sharp teeth, just the kind of fight American conservatives are yearning to see, with their money and their votes riding on the Dongoose.

    Rudyard Kipling would love it: American conservatives have their very own Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.

    Rikki

    Crossposted at American Thinker

  • Tell Me Again Which Group Are the “Low Information Voters”?

    Oh, this is rich.  The “money quote” up front (emphasis added).

    A survey has found that tens of thousands of voters, including Demi Moore and other celebrities, have mistakenly registered as members of a conservative minor political party in California in a mix-up over its name, a newspaper reported Sunday.

    The Los Angeles Times said that a telephone survey of 500 members of the American Independent Party found nearly 3 of 4 people did not realize they had enrolled in a political party that opposes abortion rights and same sex marriage and calls for building a fence along the U.S. border.

    A little history, folks.  If you’re in your 50s, or are a student of history, you may find that the name “American Independent Party” rings a bell.  It should.  It was founded in 1967; notorious segregationist George Wallace and retired USAF General Curtis LeMay ran as the party’s nominees for POTUS/VP in 1968.  While the party is no longer overtly racist, it’s today one of the most conservative political parties out there.

    So, why did so many liberal-leaning Californians – including a number of celebrities – register as members of the American Independent Party?  “They made a mistake and were trying to register as ‘Independent’ “, or something to that effect, is the theory.  The state’s voter registration materials were “too confusing” has also been advanced as a theory.

    Yeah, right.  The truth IMO is more like, “They didn’t know jack – and still don’t – because they’re too damn lazy to sit down and educate themselves.”  But putting it the other way sounds far nicer.

    Still, those on the political left love to call conservatives “fools”.  Go figure.

    Fox News has an article on this.  It in turn includes a link to the basic LA Times article that broke the story.  If you have a few, they might be worth reading.

    Karmic retribution?  Perhaps.  But I prefer to think of it simply as God proving that He has a sense of humor – and loves irony.  (smile)