The Sky’s The Limit

On Monday evening’s newscast, NBC network anchor Brian Williams tried to tie the recent spate of tornadoes in the US Midwest to anthropogenic global warming. After Williams spoke with several “smart” people, each wondered that “we must be doing something to the Earth.” He related this fact to weatherman Bill Karins…who immediately corrected Williams that the increased number of tornadoes was more likely due to the La Nina phenomenon rather than as a result of global warming.

It was quite refreshing to hear Mr. Karins put forth a cause for the tornado activity different from global warming (when he could have just as well be intellectually dishonest and join the global warming causation chorus). But even though in the end viewers were rightly informed about the cause of the tornadoes, it is quite telling about the mindset of Williams and his “smart” friends. There is a recent proliferation of deadly tornadoes, so WE MUST BE doing something wrong. Man is the root of all evil on Earth, so why not cut to the chase and blame us first! This is the true pity and fallacy of the theory of anthropogenic global warming. It is a theory constantly in search of an outcome…there are more tornadoes, so they have to be caused by global warming.

“Smart” people are sure of it!

As a Republican, I couldn’t care less which of the two Democratic socialists wins the Democratic primary and becomes the nominee for their party. But I’m bothered by the rotten system by which the candidate is chosen. It is an unfair mish-mash of pledged (committed) delegates and “super delegates”. The pledged delegates are actually earned by the candidate by the votes that were cast in the individual state primary elections. The super delegates are another story indeed — they are governors, senators, big mucky-mucks in the party, Congressmen, and others so chosen by a convoluted system.

At the present time, Barak Obama has 1,592 pledged delegates and Hillary Clinton has 1,424. The total delegates required to win the Democratic nomination is 2,025. Neither candidate can win the nomination outright, as there aren’t enough committed delegates in the remaining states in the primary process. As of today, numerous super delegates have voiced (declared) their support for one candidate or the other. But this declaration carries no weight in the nomination process! The only place that super delegates may aver their affiliation is at the Democratic National Convention. Until the convention, the talk of super delegate support is just that — talk.

It was interesting to watch the talking-head political shows over the weekend, and their attempted coronation of Obama as the Democratic nominee. Most commentators have stuck the proverbial fork in Hillary Clinton; she is done! But her “doneness” is a matter of opinion for these commentators, who are blatantly trying to shape the political landscape with their chorus of calls for Sen. Clinton to drop out of the race. Even before a floor fight at the convention, the media potentates have decided that they will try to bulldoze over Obama’s competition in favor of their political and media darling. He who cannot be criticized and he who must be supported, at all costs.

But I think that Sen. Clinton is righteous and justified in her staying in the race. Since no outcome can be decided UNTIL the convention, then why shouldn’t she take the risk and try to run the table, as it were? There is a lot of time between now and the convention in Denver in August. One never knows what information or issues may arise regarding a so improperly vetted candidate like Sen. Obama. It was just recently that the Obama-Wright controversy got some airing at all in the MSM (although there has been a penchant to drop this negative information about Obama like a hot potato) as well as his relationship with the former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers. What other skeletons are in his closet? MAybe we will find out between now and the convention! And I fear without a inter-party horserace that we would never hear of any of Obama’s potential failings.

So, in the end, I think that Sen. Clinton staying in the race until the convention is good for America. I might find every single one of her platforms and proposals inane and harmful to the USA, but I think that more damage is done to our electoral system by outright excluding her from the process just because the media wishes to fulfill their wish for an ordination of their favorite son.

There’s an old Turkish proverb that says: “The devil takes a hand in what is done in haste.” I think this would be especially true if the system weren’t allowed to work to fruition and if just the media were to give their favorite candidate a pass and the heave-ho to someone that they find particularly odious.

Since when did the media become super delegates?

In one of the most contemptible acts of egotism and hubris, the smiling generals in Myanmar have ratcheted up their hypocrisy in regards to providing aid to the survivors of the aftermath of the devastating typhoon. We now have members of the junta, in full view of foreign media and television cameras, handing out foreign aid packages to hand-picked recipients in elaborate ceremonies. The kicker is that they are putting labels on the foreign aid packages that declare “Courtesy of General…”. They are trying to make political hay out of human tragedy and suffering! This action now defines a new low in despotic governance, and trust me there have been many historical low points in our world history.

And to add insult to injury, the aid is not reaching those areas most in need of assistance. This is so primarily because the ruling military junta is following through with historical political grudges and they are “featherbedding” in those areas that have shown support for their regime.

If you couple this contemptible behavior with the facts that the Myannmar military capability for responding to a crisis is antiquated and limited and that they are still reticent to accept foreign aid with any terms attached (like having foreign aid workers come to Myanmar to equitably distribute the aid), then you have a looming disaster of epic proportions that will surely be visited upon the hapless Burmese people.

People that were outraged by the US response to Hurricane Katrina should be similarly outraged and sickened by the needless loss of life caused by the intentionally feckless response by a totalitarian leaders. The Katrina response was caused by ineptitude at all levels of government in the US…but the post-typhoon crisis is caused by wanton and callous disregard for human life by the country’s leadership.

If the world allows this tragedy to unfold before its collective eyes without doing something to force these despots to help their countrymen, then we all share culpability in the ensuing suffering and deaths in Myanmar.

With news reports that perhaps as many as 100,000 people died in the recent cyclone in Myanmar, it is essential that the smiling benevolent generals allow foreign aid, even that from the USA, to stream into their country. This action will avert an even larger catastrophe and human tragedy as a result of the chaos that has engulfed the country.

This single cyclone has thrust this closed country from modern third-world status to firmly into the Stone Age. The ruling military regime has it within their control and power to allow supplies, medicine and aid workers into their country to help their countrymen. And they control whether they partake of the aid from the most generous country on Earth, America. To have politics and petty political peevishness rule the day over common sense is criminal.

Now is the time to act, before we see an escalation in cyclone-related casualties that will not only shock but sicken the remainder of the world.

In a speech in North Carolina on the evening of the May 6th presidential primary, Sen. Obama let his real feelings slip about our country and our military. Here is the text of his comments:

“The man I met in Pennsylvania who lost his job but can’t even afford the gas to drive around and look for a new one. He can’t afford four more years of an energy policy written by the oil companies and for the oil companies; a policy that is not only keeping gas at record prices but funding both sides of the war on terror and destroying our planet… He needs us to take a permanent holiday from our addiction for oil by making automakers raise their fuel standards, corporations pay for their pollution and oil companies invest their record profits in a clean energy future. That’s the change we need.”

Sen. Barak Obama

Funding both sides on the war on terror? Suddenly the security interests of the USA puts us on “one side” of the war on terror? I though he was running for president on OUR side? That comment reeks of the feelings of a dispassionate internationalist commenting on our country and its interests. And since when are the oil companies are to blame for the war or terror? As I clearly recall, weren’t several groups of wild-eyed ideologues responsible. Didn’t THEY: wheel a truck full of high explosives into the parking garage in the World Trade Center; steer a Zodiac boat into the US Cole in Yemen; crash jetliners into the WTC and the Pentagon…among many other provocations and overt acts of war. Couple these things with the countless jihadists in Afghanistan who have started and continue the War on Terror, and I find no culpability in the petroleum industry.

But if he couldn’t blame “Big Oil”, then he wouldn’t be able to carve huge chunks of ultra liberal red meat for his supporters from the carcass of the much overworked and much despised (by Democrats anyway) Bush-Cheney-Big Oil trioka.

In Obama’s mind it’s all “Big Oil’s” fault…and our fault. Our military has been reduce to being a side in the War on Terror. They are not our husbands, wives, sons, daughters or loved ones. They are viewed antiseptically by Obama as combatants whose sacrifices may or may not be worthy of our support…and whose goals are less than honorable. As if the interests of the USA could be politicized in such a way for political gain. It is wrong and it is shameless.

Remember, these are his words. What nuanced positive interpretation of these comments could even his most rabid supporters attach to these words? This was not a gaffe. It was a slip of his deepest personally held feelings. Thinking and discerning folks should get a cold chill up their spine with their reading and re-reading of these comments. Not the “tingle” up the leg that the fawning Chris Matthews gets when he waxes on all things Obama.

And where was or is the MSM in the analysis and dissection of Obama’s comments?

Crickets please…

With the voting results available from two more large black population states, we should be left with a lingering question in our minds: Are black voters blatantly biased or discriminatory? According to the estimates, over 90% of black voters selected Barak Obama in last night’s presidential primaries.

On the other hand, Hillary Clinton won approximately 60% of the white vote in both states.

Why the racial disparity? Are white voters that much more racially enlightened than black voters? I don’t know…I don’t think so, but I can remember Chris Matthews and other talking heads admonishing white voters in New Hampshire for being afraid to vote for a black man when New Hampshire surprisingly gave Hillary Clinton an unexpected presidential primary win (it seems) all those months ago. Where is Matthew’s similar chastisement for black voters for their seeming unanimity of voting outcome? Why isn’t this fact a page one, above the fold story in the New York Times and Boston Globe…or the topic of serious discussion and analysis on all the talking-head cable TV analysis shows?

I think we all know why. In the MSM, black voters are considered to have pure racial intentions. They simply cannot be racist or biased or discriminatory. Even though the results of their voting indicates otherwise, the explanation must reside elsewhere.

If Barak Obama is the “Great Uniter” that he claims to be, the presumptive agent of change, then these results should bother him greatly. He gave his speech on race in America not that long ago, and he said we need a national discussion on race relations. I say that if voting results like those from NC and IN are indicative of anything, it is a huge problem in black American population. The ONLY conclusion one can make from analyzing the data is that the ONLY reason the 90+% of blacks voted for Obama is because he is BLACK.

I would expect that Obama needs to comment on this fact. However, I suspect that regardless of his claims to being different and an outsider from politics as usual…I suspect he is an ordinary vote whore who will capitalize on ANY advantage, including the motives and biases of those voting for him.

Race relations are not going to improve if we continually see voting results like those of last night. By their own actions, black voters insure that we will live in a racially-divided country. Their actions are every bit suspicious and odious as the overt white bigots who they decry.

If we are to move past the issue of race…we need to move past the monolithic block voting that we saw last night. Ending racism and racial divisions cannot rest solely on the shoulders of white Americans, it must begin and end with us all. Actions do speak louder than words.

Hillary Clinton’s proposal to have an extended gas tax holiday over the summer pretty much frames the philosophy of the Democratic party. In her plan, she proposes to suspend the gas tax over the summer months (perhaps until September) and replace the revenues lost with a “windfall profits” tax on oil company profits.

This plan is wrongheaded and anti-American on so many levels. First, what business is it of the government to review the profits of private corporations and then determine those that are “windfall.” After all, it wasn’t that long ago that oil companies were in deep financial straights and there was a lot of consolidation going on at the time (remember Exxon and Mobil before the merger, anyone?) . There wasn’t any particular clamoring in the halls of Congress to save the foundering domestic oil industry. But now, when the tides have turned and there is record worldwide oil demand and the attendant price increase, Hillary Clinton and others in Congress want to punish a legal business entity for its success. It’s all part of the demonization of the oil industry. If it’s petroleum-based, it must be evil.

What happens one day in the future when Hillary or some other legislator determines that the fruits of YOUR labors are exorbitant, and as a result you or your corporation must pay a windfall profits tax? It’s OKAY to feel that bad old “Big Oil” might be raking in excessive profits because their product is so indispensable in our modern existences. However the situation becomes totally different if the penalization affects your bottom line and YOUR livelihood.

But politicians don’t really care about fairness or capitalism. They care about populism and pandering, and keeping the barbarians from the gate. And if they can make the barbarians vote for them, all the better! So as a result we get this “plan” from Hillary.

Now, maybe she thinks her plan is the best in the world and will give true economic relief to cash-strapped Americans. I can tell you that the windfall profits tax plan is a perfect candidate for the law of unintended consequences. Imagine that this tax is suddenly levied on oil companies. What will stop the oil companies from turning around and increasing the per gallon cost of gasoline to offset the new tax? In one word: Nothing! And if they don’t increase their prices, what incentives do oil companies have to continue exploration and production at levels equivalent or greater than those prior to the new tax? In one word: Nothing!

This could lead to tighter oil supplies, and a corresponding increase in price. The whole thing, well intentioned, could put the US in a catastrophic upward oil/gasoline price spiral. I would definitely call this an unintended consequence.

I wish that the politicians could resist the temptation to increase taxes (or even speculate an increase) without adequate study or planning. The government has no place interfering with the profits or losses of public business entities. They should ensure that the playing field is level and provide the framework for unimpeded interstate and worldwide commerce. Their primary role should be to step out of the way and let capitalism run its course.

We citizens should demand this of our government and our politicians if we place any value on a free market, capitalistic system.

A cyclone may have done in less than a day of destruction what years of political opposition in Myanmar couldn’t do. That would be to expose the military government there to the full view and scrutiny of the world for its iron-fisted hold on the former Burma. There were several TV reports by the BBC and Reuters that showed high ranking military personnel magnanimously handing out relief supplies to their distressed countrymen. The fact that they were handing out relief supplies didn’t bother me — it was the fact that these events were obviously staged for the international media. Smiling generals passing out boxes of government rations to storm-dazed citizens may play well with the ruling junta, but it leaves me re-considering the political hypocrisy that is modern day Myanmar. And it makes me wonder why we’ve left this place in a virtual political vacuum for so long.

Just after the cyclone, the Myanmar government all but refused foreign aid until the true scope of the disaster became clear — perhaps as many as 30,000 people lost their lives in the past three days. Where the leaders were able to turn their backs on foreign assistance in the wake of 2004 tsunami, the sheer magnitude of the human loss and property destruction was overwhelming in its effects.

It seems the smiling despots just couldn’t account for enough relief for these suffering people.

I hope that this tragedy allows the rest of the world to get a close look into this closed society. Sunlight is the best disinfectant in the world, and the government needs close scrutiny under lots of direct sunlight. The Myanmarese people have suffered human rights and other privations at the hands of a few military strongmen for far, far too long. Hopefully those that perished in the cyclone didn’t so so in vain. Their deaths may help to provoke the world to become more involved with this country, and to eventually demand the human rights for the Myanmarese that every person deserves.

It seems that the power of persuasion of their liberal media allies has not escaped the Obamas. They are doing a full court press media blitz today in an effort to get us all to “move forward” because they’ve heard “…time and time again that Americans are tired of hearing…” about the Obama-Wright connection.

“They (the American voters) don’t want to hear about this division, they want to know what are we going to do to move beyond these issues,” she said. “And what made me feel proud of Barack in this situation is that he is trying to move us as a nation beyond these conversations that divide.”

“With that, I’m hoping that we’ll talk about something else.”

Michelle Obama

Earth to Mrs. Obama: It’s not YOU and your husband who gets to decide who moves these conversations. It is the voters…who, contrary to your assertions, seem to want to know more. This should be an interesting coming 72 hours. We will see if the Obama’s, acting more as media masters than media darlings, can change the conversation to their liking.

If they do, they are covering over the problems that really need answering with an ultra-complicit media.

And it will be done to all our detriment.

The political and MSM apologists are furiously at work putting a spin and massage on the Barak Obama-Jeremiah Wright imbroglio. Over the past 72 hours I have heard countless interpretations and excuses proffered by these talking heads (who either outright aver their residence in the Obama camp or obviously reside their by their own words). Folks who see a problem with the Obama-Wright connection must be racist…must hate the “black” church…be grasping at straws. We’re even told that the sins of the pastor can’t be visited upon the congregant, Obama. Even in his most most recent repudiation of the Reverend, Obama stumbled more than a drunken man waking home on a rocky road. Simply put, he didn’t have a good excuse for this one and even he couldn’t swallow his own explanation! Fabrications and out-and-out lies are a hard thing to swallow.

Please, we’re all adults here. I wouldn’t be bothered by this whole dust up if it wasn’t for one fact: Obama sat in that church for 20 years. Furthermore, he was married there, brought his kids there and listened to the “firebrand” preacher Dr. Rev. Wright there. For twenty years! Long enough for Sen. Obama to have heard the words that would become the title of his first book, The Audacity of Hope. He attended long enough to willingly sign on to the Black Value System, as codified by Rev. Wright. Could it have been that his wife Michelle elbowed him at the right times to sit and stand…and when she heard the words “Audacity…”, otherwise he snoozed comfortable in his pew? I don’t think so!

But he did not attend long enough, or was absent at precisely the right times, to hear the racist bile streaming from the good Reverend’s mouth? Or perhaps, he was one heavy church sleeper. Again, I don’t think so! One needs to completely suspend disbelief that Sen. Obama could have had such a close and cozy relationship with his church and with his pastor for such a long period of time without any knowledge (prior to 2007-8) that Rev. Wright made such reprehensible statements to the church congregation.

Where is the indignation by the MSM, who ended the political career of US Senator George Allen after he uttered a single word, the now infamous “macaca”? Certainly there was a LOT of research put into this word to ultimately put an end to Allen’s political career…as well as a LOT of tea leave reading for his intent for it to be “racially divisive”. But we all know why Allen suffered for the utterance of a single word…that pesky little “R” attached to his name. No forgiveness or Mulligan for Allen by the very investigative MSM. Otherwise, he might very well still be Sen. Allen. Think about it!

But here we have Sen. Obama, his intent tempered by 20 full years of attendance at this church…with this pastor…with these comments. And as I have said in the past, Obama’s GREATEST sin is the fact that he has allowed his two kids to hear this racist drivel. Again I ask, where is the MSM’s drive to find out more or where hides their indignation? Oh, come on…we can’t let those facts get in the way of Sen. Obama’s successful election, can we?

But we don’t get investigations or indignation from the MSM! We get hand waving and excuse making…as though they were the media or marketing branch of the DNC. Suddenly, and issue that reveals so very much about the character of a man we all know very little about is of little importance to self-proclaimed serious news journalists. This is all the more disturbing to me when this man that we all know precious little about may very well be slathered with the stuff that makes for an easy electoral victory by the very same MSM and become our president.

Based on Sen. Obama’s “repudiations” and “explanations” of the past few days, where the smooth-talking orator was finally put back on his haunches, we may have expected some skepticism and some questions to arise in MSM the nation? Their response, save FOX News and talk radio — a collective yawn. But the stream of “I, I, I…humina, humina, huminas” and other verbal stumbles from Sen. Obama indicates to me that there IS something there…if only just a few more layers of the onion were peeled away.

But that’s not my job (I don’t have the resources), and it shouldn’t be. I, like most of you, am a consumer of news. And I fully expect those folks who proclaim themselves “journalists” to do their damn jobs…and do them right. Do them thoroughly. Do them vigorously. Not act like “in the tank” shills for Sen. Obama…or anyone, regardless of their politics. You may despise me for saying this once again, but the Obama-Wright issue and its wholesale negligence by the MSM is just another example of the corrosive media bias that consumers of news must endure.

Don’t believe me? Prove this to yourself one and for all by counting the number of stories that wonder about Sen. Obama and his judgment for his 20 year connection to Rev. Wright, and then count those stories of a more apologist tone that beg the reader not to condemn Obama for the sins of his pastor. I think that you’ll then see what I’m talking about.