I have been watching iCasualties.Org daily for the past 5 weeks. This is not a morbid curiosity; I have done this because I noticed back then that June 2010 was the worst month for US casualties of any so far in the Afghanistan war…ANY point during the 9 years we’ve been fighting it.

I noticed, upon further investigation, that the numbers were on pace to be even worse in July (which they ultimately were) and that there was not one [expletive deleted in deference to the posting guidelines] mention of this anywhere in the major media outlets. I was angry, however unsurprised I might have been, but I determined that I would quietly watch…and “listen”… to the news to see if anyone else was paying attention over these past 5 short weeks. They were not.

Over 50 Soldiers have died since I started paying attention, and the only news story I’ve seen tells of the 7 Soldiers that died last weekend. A death here or 2 or 3 there don’t, apparently, qualify as news. Meanwhile, our metrosexual President (unable to talk to the American people or the families of our fallen heroes because he’s been just too busy riding his girl’s mountain bike adorned in that goofy looking helmet which keeps him safe on his harrowing ride along the treacherous streets of Martha’s Vineyard), seems completely indifferent to these numbers.

I wouldn’t want to talk to these families either, if I were him.

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It should be lost on NO one how incredibly diverse and divisive the news coverage of events in DC on 8/28 has been; the white guys are talking about God and Country while the black guys are threatening to beat them up over it as they express their intolerance for insufficient levels of freebies and shout out their demands for even more nannyism from the State. And, of course, those who dare disagree with them are racists and bigots. [Full disclosure-I'm a white guy AND a Christian which, I guess, makes me a racist and a bigot.]

It’s sad, really, and especially ironic that we find ourselves engaging in a national debate over Dr. King’s speech where a few thousand African Americans used their podium to rail against how far they still have to go to achieve King’s dream while a hundred times that many Americans cried out for going back to that place from whence King came as he pursued his dream; God.

The fact that Sharpton, like King, is a Reverand would lead most of us to expect invocations of God and our greater purpose in pursuing Him in our daily lives and our struggle for equality. King mentioned God four times in his I have a Dream speech, and Beck mentioned God twice in the first 5 minutes of his own “Restoring Honor” speech at the Lincoln Memorial…a few steps and 47 years away. Sharpton mentioned God not once in his own speech, choosing instead to refer to “us” and “them” and “we” and “they” on multiple occasions while simultaneously calling for unity:

Whichever of these two approaches one chooses to adopt, “Restoring Honor” or deepening the American divide because “the Dream has not been achieved” depends on one’s point of view. Move forward, inspired by hope that is derived from what has already been accomplished, or stand still…fists clenched…trapped by what hasn’t.

It’s in Chapter 1 of Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities”, at the very beginning, that we are given a testament to an America Dickens could not possibly have foreseen when he wrote it. The now-famous quote eerily spells out, in fairly accurate detail, just where we find ourselves today living as the backdrop to an Obama-Biden dream world only they and their circle of elites are able to enjoy.

It is the best of worlds for those relentlessly enjoying posh vacations, or playing endless rounds of unaffordable golf at inaccessible (to most) country clubs, or keynoting speeches in the private homes of rich donors (scrambling Democrats at risk of losing their seats in Congress in tow, desperately hanging on to their coattails) while not being on any election ballots.

It is the worst of worlds for everyone else.

I came across this campaign ad from Sean Mahoney’s (R Cand. NH-1) website and it got me to thinking about Charles Dickens [full disclosure: I've gone on record in support of Mahoney in New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District]. I kept thinking back to Obama’s promise of this summer being the “Summer of Recovery”, as I considered Mahoney’s suggestion that ours has been more like a “Cruel Summer” instead:

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CentCom is reporting that the last American combat brigade has left Iraq. With all the other news going on around the US, there is an unfortunate likelihood that this will be missed…or used to check off a “to do” from the agenda of a political maelstrom that has run amok in recent days.

Whatever might not be said in the days ahead, we owe these men and women a debt of gratitude we will never be able to fully repay. And yet this country needs to make every effort to try. For every Soldier you see…be they at the store, or in the airport, or climbing aboard a Greyhound bus…take a moment to shake their hand and say to them “thank you for your service”…it’s the very least any of us can do.

4,415 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines lost their lives in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Along the way, millions of Iraqis were freed from the bondage of a despicable tyrannical regime, terrorists were shown the resolve of the American people, and the Iraqi people were given a chance at a freedom that many countries, today, still do not enjoy.

To the returning heroes, I give thanks. To the families of the fallen I give my sincerest condolences and heartfelt appreciation for the sacrifice you have been asked to endure. To the Iraqi people I pray for your safety and security and your best fortunes in the days ahead, knowing the fight for your freedom is an enduring one.

To the American people, I pray you open your hearts and your arms wide, and welcome these brave men and women home, and give them the full mettle of your love and your support…and your understanding that they have sacrificed for you in ways you may never fully comprehend.

Welcome home, Soldiers, and may God bless you and your families and the United States of America.

… the modern-era style of Justice that is.

Let us not forget that a Dictatorship’s Justice works to tip the scales in favor of those who already support it, those who can be “bought” to support it, and those with no other choice but to support it… and the hope and change it promises to bring to its citizens.

There is no shortage of countries, past or present, that can be studied in order to better understand the lengths to which Dictatorships will go, or the limitless reach of the enforcement arm of their regimes being used in order to achieve their objectives; overthrow the will of the people, marginalize any organized dissidence, crack down on (and orchestrate witch hunts against) anyone that successfully challenges and undermines the Central authority, or worse - file suit against whole “regions” and - take them to Courts they can manipulate to further their agenda.

Once the hold on (and reach of) power is established, and the dissidents silenced - by personal ruin or jail - the Dictatorship uses its Justice to shield perpetrators of voter intimidation at the polling places…and then…it manipulates the ballots themselves to ensure it never loses another election.

To further ensure control of the proletariat, the propaganda wing is charged with the task of controlling the narrative by mocking, marginalizing, and impugning dissident voices, and giving full sunshine and audience to all claims of impropriety on the part of the opposition and all calls for investigation into any who would dare speak out against the Central Authority and the whims of the Dictator himself.

Such may not be the state of affairs in America today, but just how impossible is it, really, for that to change?

Back in March of 2010, “Harry: Money, Mob & Influence In Harry Reid’s Nevada” (written by Daxton Brown) was published, and contains some pretty damaging stuff about our US Senate Majority Leader. Brown, highlighting some of the darker sides of Reid over at Free Republic, suggests that Reid simply can not plausibly separate himself from “a substrata of money, mob and influence in Nevada going back fifty years.”

A section of the back cover says this:

One simply cannot be the most powerful Politician in Nevada without either knowing where the corruption begins, or willfully turning a blind eye to its corrosive nature.

We can all certainly agree with that. But a closer inspection of what’s inside the book brings to light a sordid tale of Reid’s graft and corruption going back as far as the 70’s, as told in the book by former Campaign Manager Don Williams. Williams’ story connecting Reid to Mustang Ranch Owner Pimp Joe Conforte, including trash bags of cash and car trunks full of “extra” absentee ballots, has now hit the streets in an exclusive at Your Politics News:

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The story flaming across the headlines about that little slice of otherwise anonymous private property a couple blocks away from Ground Zero has certainly summoned emotions; both sides of the issue have made sound and succinct arguments on their respective behalf.

Those believing this is wholly about private property rights make a good case; it matters little what people do with their private property so long as they do so within the rule(s) of applicable law. Despite a generation of Liberal-creep on our private property rights, most Americans can agree on this point of law. Yep-check one for the pro-Islamic center (or whatever they’re calling it now to deflect hysteria amongst the general population).

Those believing the very idea of putting a symbol of Islam in such close proximity to that place where 3,000 innocent civilians died at the hands of a few Muslims using their faith as the rationale for executing them, calling it “insensitive”, are also correct; why allow placement of a zero-value-added thumb in the collective eye of people that will never forget (and in some cases never fully recover from) what happened that day? It feels like they want to make a shrine to what the Martyrs accomplished 2 blocks away. Yep-check one for the anti-Islamic center…they’re right too.

Both sides have a point, and both sides are right. What to do then?

Howard Kurtz has a piece over at WaPo that does a decent job of linking and pull quoting the most relevant (though I accuse him a little of cherry picking to help make his personal point) reactions from both basically coherent sides of this issue.

What is not mentioned in Kurtz’s piece, or anywhere else for that matter, is the real driving factor behind all this emotion; there is no foundation on which to place any trust that the Muslims behind this plan aren’t up to some nefarious “other” agenda… remember, it was proven on 9/11 that we can never be 100% sure of anything.

We were told in the days immediately after, and for 8 years hence, to be ever-vigilant but to go on with our lives. Of course that guy doesn’t work here anymore-he’s been replaced by one far more interested in apologizing to Islam for American transgressions than in coming together WITH Islam to help them rid their ranks of those still seeking to out-DO 9/11.

We’ve learned because of 9/11 that we’re never completely safe, we’re never completely secure, and we’re never fully immune to acts of terrorism all around the country at any time and in any place. This is the innocence America lost that day, and to be asked by supporters of this plan to forget all that we’ve learned now is just to ask too much. And, it should be lost on no one that those who defend the development of this so-called Park51 project on the grounds of fredom of speech and religion are the very same people who mean to exempt opponents of the plan from exercising these same rights in expressing their opposition to it.

Most unfortunate for everyday Americans is that we’ve had control of the discussion taken away from us by Politicians. Instead of allowing this dialog to finally take place amongst we, the People in the aftermath of that horrific day of inhumanity, our Political heroes have seized the topic to make a few points of their own in hopes of making big scores against their opponents and trying to find the right side to be on in order to garner a few more votes…midterms are not that far off you know.

We know we’ve been told since 9/11 that Islam is a religion of peace. We we’ve been told to move on; the whole of the Nation of Islam is not our enemy…only a small segment is…and that we should embrace this religion as openly as we do every other religion in America because it’s who we are as a People. Of course, who ELSE we are as a people is a society that expects mutual respect and understanding one with another alongside that tolerance we’re expected to show.

And here is where the argument continues to break down. Islam continues to fail at cleansing itself of that small percentage of its membership we accuse of being radicals or fundamentalists or whatever the term is these days. Islam continues to choose silence on the issue of this “small number” of its faithful, and it continues to seek concessions from America and Americans while making no effort to offer concessions it return.

America is many things, but Americans…in light of all the public trust our Government has squandered…seek to trust AND verify. The Imam(s) asking us to trust them on this Park51 development proposal are asking this without giving us any reason to. They are hiding behind the laws, and under the skirts of the Politicians in support of this development plan, and many of these same Politicians are calling us bigots hoping to shame us into shutting our mouths about it…this is no way to conduct a national dialog on an important issue.

They do a lot of that whenever we oppose a thing they think they can curry some favor with in the polls.

Personally, I see the completion of this development project as a boon to all of us who have seen our religious freedoms destroyed in recent years by these very same Liberal mouthpieces who are so hell-bent on seeing Muslims exercise theirs in Lower Manhattan. I hope the Liberals know what they have asked for at Park51, because they are certainly going to get it…we really meant it when we said “Never Forget.”

Even before I saw this Politico piece I was planning to point out how odd it is that Obama keeps picking the wrong side of all the major issues of the day.

Seventy percent favor Arizona’s immigration law so Obama calls in the DOJ dogs to take the State to Court. Sixty percent favor repeal of healthcare reform so Obama takes a victory lap around the country, with a hand out for donor dollars, telling us we’re just afraid of what we don’t understand (and, of course, gives us the obligatory “the GOP is nothing but a bunch of fear mongers” speech).

Nearly 70% are opposed to the ground zero mosque…heck, even within his OWN party there is a deepening chasm…and what does the leader of both the free world AND the not-going-to-be-in-charge-much-longer party do? He steps in it with both feet, speaking out in support of the mosque when (as the WaPo rightly points out) he never really had to even open his mouth on the matter.

Sixty five percent of us are angry at the Federal Government, so what does Obama do? He changes the bloody subject in the National dialog and picks a fight with the GOP over Social Security…an issue his first term hasn’t even mentioned so far, and one he’s had no intention of trying to address as he spends the country willy nilly into the abyss of economic collapse.

Rasmussen has him at nearly 60% disapprove, and it all sorta makes sense. He seems more interested in being President of (and choosing sides with) the least among us…that 30-40% of us out there that go along with any old thing he says and does, paying little to no attention to the mid and long term effects of his ineptitude.

It’s no wonder then that even Politico’s Roger Simon (not the smart one mind you, but the one who gets bitterly drunk and writes straw man articles about how people who oppose the mosque are equivalent to slaveowners and segregationists) sees Obama’s as a one-term Presidency.

Politicians in general, and Democrats (most especially) in particular, don’t give a rip about the human condition of those to whom they pander to sate their lust for personal power and self-aggrandizement. Countless times over the past several generations we’ve been made to suffer their whims and fancies and cultural experimentation but, while targeted demographics have enjoyed short-term benefit…by and large the whole of the Country has ultimately been all the worse off for these things.

Not only do the left and right hands have no idea what the other is doing, it would appear they are not even part of the same body. What else explains the misguided notion that investing in Unions and propping up under-performing teachers might enjoy a greater return than feeding the poor? Further, why would Democrats think the best way to cure obesity would be by starving those very same poor people?

Granted, in the video that follows, Malcolm X’s context here is in regard to African American’s separating from the rest of American society (full video HERE) but if you replace the words “whites” and “the man” with “Federal Government”…and replace “Negro” with “American citizens”… you will see the wisdom of his words on a much larger scale than he could possibly have possessed at the time that he uttered them. View the shortened video HERE:

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[update: Benishek statement on Allen's announcement, is pasted below the fold:]

Jason Allen has announced that he will NOT seek a recount in his primary race against Dr. Dan Benishek:

Petoskey, MI – Michigan First District Congressional candidate Jason Allen, R-Alanson, will not pursue a recount of the official election results certified by the State Board of Canvassers on Friday.

“Over the last few months we had a spirited campaign and I am truly humbled by the support I have received across the First Congressional District,” Allen said. “This past week I have been speaking to Republican leaders across the state, my supporters and most importantly my family, to determine the best course of action. As a result of those conversations, I have decided not to pursue a recount.”

After all the precincts had reported on election night, the Secretary of State website showed a one vote difference between Allen and his primary opponent Dan Benishek. The certification process resulted in the numbers changing to give Mr. Benishek a 15 vote lead.

“It is time to put the primary behind us and move to the general election. It is time for all conservatives to band together to defeat Gary McDowell. I look forward to working with Dan Benishek in the fall campaign. The First Congressional District is long overdue for conservative representation in Congress. I believe Dan Benishek will be an outstanding Congressman for Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula,” Allen said.

The record turnout in the Republican primary holds promise for a strong showing November. Over 70,000 voters turned out to vote in the Republican primary, which has historically seen about 40,000 voters participating in the last 10 years.

Jason Allen is to be commended for doing the right thing here, and stepping aside so that Upper Peninsula Michiganders can get on with their lives, and the Candidate they chose can get on with fighting the Dem. opposition through to victory in November.

We appreciate you Mr. Allen, and we root - now - for Dr. Dan Benishek.

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The Washington Examiner is reporting that President Obama has sent “ethics czar” Norm Eisen to the Russian front, and is shuttering the last vestiges of his romantic comedy titled Transparency and Open Government choosing, instead, to hand ethics and transparency over to Obamafia lawyer and White House Counsel Bob Bauer:

Bauer’s own words — gathered by the diligent folks at the Sunlight Foundation — show disdain for openness and far greater belief in the good intentions of those in power than of those trying to check the powerful. In December 2006, when the Federal Election Commission proposed more precise disclosure requirements for parties, Bauer took aim at the practice of muckraking enabled by such disclosure.

On his blog, Bauer derided the notion “that politicians and parties are pictured as forever trying to get away with something,” saying this was an idea for which “there is a market, its product cheaply manufactured and cheaply sold.” In other words — we keep too close an eye on our leaders.

In August 2006 Bauer blogged, “disclosure is a mostly unquestioned virtue deserving to be questioned.” This is the man the White House has put in charge of making this the most open White House ever.

As Moe Lane would say…

Heh-heeh-heh. Heh! Heh-haah-haah!! Haaah-haaahhh-HAHHH!!!!
MWBHAAH-HAHH-HAAA-HAAAAAH-HAAAA-HAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

OK, OK, I’ve got control of myself nowHA-HAAH-HA-HAAAAHHH!!!!!
No, realAH-HAH-AHH-HAAAHHHH!!!!!

Today’s Manchester Union Leader has a story that stopped me dead in my tracks; “GOP activist questions Congress candidate Guinta’s finances.”

Full.Stop.

Unless you are Charlie Rangel you do not wake up in the morning, slap your forehead, and remember a $500,000.00 bank account you have failed…twice…to disclose. This is, according to the Union Leader, exactly what has happened in the case of Frank Guinta. This revelation raises every political red flag I can muster in light of Pelosi’s “most ethical Congress in History” and her Democrat sidekicks Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters:

CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE Frank Guinta lists a previously unreported personal bank account holding between $250,000 and $500,000 in new financial-disclosure documents filed with the House of Representatives.

The disclosure comes after Guinta loaned his campaign $100,000 on March 28 and $125,000 more on June 27, bringing the total amount Guinta has loaned his campaign so far to $245,000.
[snip]
In an interview Wednesday, Guinta denied that he has received any loan, maintaining that the savings accrued from years of work and frugal living. His previous reports listed three bank accounts with combined savings of between $17,000 and $80,000. Asked how he could have forgotten to list an account with $250,000 to $500,000 not once but twice in earlier disclosure reports, Guinta called the omission “an inadvertent oversight.”

Indeed. So was (were) Rangel’s “alleged” transgressions. In fact, a closer look at Charlie’s shenanigans (page 35, Count IX) as penned by the House Ethics Committee sounds eerily similar to Guinta’s predicament and leads me to think there’s a bigger problem here than just a bad memory.

The Union Leader piece rightly asks why Guinta would even HAVE that much money in a single account given FDIC coverage when you consider his other disclosures which prove him to be fairly savvy in matters of investing money. I ask the same question. Politicians like this, the GOP absolutely does not need right now.

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[UPDATE: A day later, the second actor in this frat house nonsense...State Rep. Candidate Halloran...has now fallen on his own sword, and withdrawn from the race. There IS justice...and there is STILL an opportunity for Democrats to learn something; be better on the issues and maybe you'll get elected and keep your seats. Suck at this game, as you have for many years...and resort to sophomoric pranks and stupid and destructive jokes... and you won't.]

[h/t NowHampshire]

It all started on Facebook. NH State Rep. D.J. Bettencourt (R) posted an update “about the plane crash that killed former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.” According to Seacoast Online (Portsmouth), State Rep. Keith Halloran of Rindge (D) commented with the following:

“Just wish Sarah and Levy were on board”

Not finished, yet another Democrat (State Rep. Timothy Horrigan (D) of Durham, came back with this little gem a little further down thread:

“Well a dead Palin wd be even more dangerous than a live one…she is all about her myth & if she was dead she cldn’t commit any more gaffes.”

In the case of Halloran, according to the SeacoastOnline article, “[l]eaders from both political parties called on [the] Democratic candidate for New Hampshire’s House to apologize Wednesday for posting a death wish for Sarah Palin on Facebook.” It appears Halloran has issued the standard Democrat apology…shallow, meaningless, and insincere…but Horrigan’s fate is more grim. The Manchester Union Leader tells us he has resigned along with his shallow, meaningless, and insincere apology.

I won’t even bother pointing out the level of howls and screams we’d be subjected to in the news cycle were these insensitive fools to be Politicians with an “R” after their name. I would like to remind folks, however, that we live in truly wonderful and delicious times when the party that runs our country is made up of such outstanding members of society, with all the care and empathy and worry for their fellow man of a serial killer, that it would even occur to them to wish for someone else’s death (or revel in the notion of it). And on Facebook no less…not the sharpest tools in the shed those two…

So much for civil political discourse.

Jason Allen and Dan Benishek faced off in what proved to be a very tight GOP primary on August 3 for Michigan’s 1st Congressional District seat once occupied by Bart Stupak. At the end of the night, Benishek was up by a single vote.

In the days since, as each precinct and each county has been working to review and verify and certify, Allen and Benishek have had to ready legal teams and file paperwork and assemble staff in order to prepare for a recount fight…should one come. That decision rests soley on Allen’s shoulders.

Over those 9 days Benishek’s margin has crept up, not down, and with every county that has certified their numbers in preparation for the official meeting with Michigan’s Board of Canvassers on August 23, the margin widens. Latest numbers [subscription required] indicate Benishek is now up by 17 with 3 counties to go:

With only three counties left to either announce or complete their Election Night canvass, 1st Congressional Republican candidate Jason ALLEN has not yet decided whether to pursue a recount if he’s still down after Friday’s official certification by the state Board of Canvassers.

Currently, Allen is down 17 votes, a number both Allen and leader Dan BENISHEK agreed on today. The big county observers will be looking at is Otsego, where Allen has the potential to squeeze out a couple extra votes.

The cited article from MIRS News goes on to suggest that a recount will cost between $75,000 and $100,000 of already cash-strapped Michiganders’ hard-earned dollars, and will likely drag on for quite some time.

Dear Mr. Allen: Is it in the best interests of the people of the Upper Peninsula…or is it in the best interests of you personally… to spend more time and more money on recounts at a time when conceding and working together WITH Benishek will almost guarantee a defeat of the Democrat in MI-1 in the General election in November?

A letter, re-printed with permission below the fold, suggests that you “do the right thing” by Michiganders and end this while there’s still time to keep your honor and dignity…and political future… intact.

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We’ve seen it splattered all across the front pages; more spending for jobs, more spending for bailouts, more spending for Unemployment, more spending for Teachers and Unions and special interests. We’ve also seen deficits rise and the National debt reach numbers that don’t fit on WalMart calculators.

America is bankrupt and they (the ruling Political class) don’t even know it…or they don’t seem to care anyway. What else explains why they’d happily starve the “least among us” or force them to trample each other to death, fighting over a paltry scrap from the Master’s table?

And for all that so-called “stimulus” money that promised jobs we still don’t have, homes we still can’t afford, and infrastructure improvements (that would keep America working for a generation) that remain undone, why are we paving roads that cars can’t drive on?? Why do I have to find out about it while skimming state news about National candidates instead of seeing it splattered all across the so-called Media?

Why, with all the troubles and travails our fellow Americans continue to suffer, are we spending $150K on real bridges to nowhere? Granted, my reference is piddly little old New Hampshire…granted it’s a pretty bridge (however useless it might be for improving the lives of the locals) and granted, it’s only $150K; chump change to the rich and powerful to be sure. But I have personally been on this road many times (traveled it often to several sweet fishing spots) and I can tell you the bridge is nice to look at…and of no intrinsic value to our economic recovery. Watch the video…and pay close attention to the pic at the very end.

Hey Harry? Nance? You paying attention to where all our money is going as you spend it willy nilly in that mad dash of yours to cross the finish line first in the General election?

H.R.1586 began its life as an “ACT To impose an additional tax on bonuses received from certain TARP recipients.” My oh my, has she come a long way since 2009. Now, she is the FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act, and carries with her $26.1 BILLION dollars in Teacher bailouts (and for other purposes).

By a vote just completed in the House (247 yay to 161 nay), and after Speaker Pelosi intimated that she “hoped” food stamp monies would not be cut in order to pay off the Unions that helped her and the Democrats get elected in ‘08, the House just agreed to the recently passed Senate amendments and readied this bill for the steady left hand of President Obama.

Remember now, the money will be going to Teachers (including the ones insisting on Viagra benefits) and it will be going to Police and to Firefighters too. “It’s for the Children” they cry…and with this money perhaps we can avoid any future preventable deaths of children like the one recently in Philadelphia; an innocent child dead because the closest Firehouse was closed due to lack of funding.

I have already described the actions of this Congress as impudent. I, along with many others, believe the idea of “bailouts” has become far too pervasive in our Political culture…and I believe the disconnect between the Political aristocracy in America and the rest of us helpless rubes is going to ruin this country for generations to come…unless major change takes place very soon.

That a “bailout” of this magnitude can’t stand on its own merits and must - instead - be buried in an FAA funding bill speaks volumes. That Democrats running Congress these days, desperate to avoid being fired by the electorate, would continue spending money we don’t have…even if it means taking food off the tables of an already economically devastated “class” of Americans…only proves they have nothing but their own interests in mind, and not one clue about the effect of their actions on the people they no longer adequately represent.

[update-I just saw this LA Times piece which actually explains why the Dems aren't running on their record of accomplishments...heh]

There’s no other conclusion to draw. President Obama, on the heels of so many historic legislative accomplishments, continues instead with his strategy of hoping to inspire the Democrat base with the energy and verve he thinks they’ll derive from the steady drumbeat of hammering on history.

Obama’s recent speeches and weekly radio addresses are clear indicators that he has not only conceded 2010 to the Republicans…but that he’s actually begging them to take back Congress before it’s too late. Obama knows he is in over his head, if the numbers of Democrats that are peeling away from him like dead skin from a bad sunburn are any indication, and he understands that November 2 is exactly the sort of life preserver he’ll need if he is to have any chance at a second term in office.

Despite the fact that George Bush is 2 years gone, and 4 (technically) from having had much GOP-style impact on legislation, Obama just can’t seem to quit him. We, the People, know from personal experience however that George Bush has had nothing to do with the pain and suffering of the current American collective; blame for that rests solely at Obama’s feet.

Today’s party of “NO” might be the Republicans…and they’ve said NO with good cause… but our NO warnings have gone unheeded and Obama has gotten all that he has asked for. Unfortunately for him, most of the rest of us remember that it was the Democrat party that was the party of NO before it reinvented itself into the party of “YES WE CAN.” Funny what a being the majority will do for the collective memory of our Political Heroes, ain’t it?

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[img via Moonbattery]

Honestly, I don’t care about the frequency with which our King and his Queen vacation from the tough grind of their having to talk out of both sides of their mouths. And I’ve long since grown accustomed to taking a shiv in the back at the 4th rib from the Monarchy on a fairly routine basis. And I’m fine with them going places I’ll never be able to afford to see or getting really cool stuff I’d never dream of being worthy of owning…but, can we please stop now with the nonsense of being asked to believe that our rulers are just private folk; simple and humble and understated like the rest of the riff raff that walks the streets and pays their bills?

Please?

And could someone please tell the White House and that Gibbs creature to shut the hell up already?

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Talk of revolution and rebellion and secession is on the rise. Protests in the streets, angst from the American citizenry on display at town hall meetings, grassroots uprisings in neighorhoods all across a once-docile and submissive America…these things are becoming increasingly commonplace.

Why?

Well, if Rasmussen is to be believed, it’s because 91% of Americans are fed up with the Federal Government and the so-called Political Class, and they aren’t going to take anymore abuse. Sound familiar? Worse still, those that “rule” us think things are just fine and suggest even MORE Government intervention in our lives will be needed to heal what ails the collective. From Tabitha:

There is a fundamental disconnect between the people that we have elected to put in office and the people that make up the United States of America. We can have long conversations about how and why it happened, but the fact of the matter is that the people that are in Washington right now are there because we put them there. We are the ones with the power to change that.

At a time when the country has gone nearly bankrupt, not enough people are working to pay the National bills (let alone their own), record levels of Americans are stuck at home with their hands held out to the Federal Government, America’s debt hovers around a number our grandchildren can’t afford to pay down…and being in a position around the world that finds us a laughing stock in terms of our will to fight and win wars…there is little reason to be confused about Raz’s numbers. What remains is finding the will in the American people to actually do something about it.

And our leaders? They think we’re on the right track. Tabitha points to a Tapscott piece in the Examiner worth taking a clip from:

So how do we explain these two Americas? Rasmussen says his data shows that “the American people don’t want to be governed from the left, the right or the center. The American people want to govern themselves.”

President Reagan understood this. In his first inaugural address, he reminded us that “from time to time, we have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?”

Reagan in 1981 and Rasmussen in 2010 are pointing to the same fundamental truth: Our Political Class wants to govern Mainstream America, indeed thinks it’s their right and privilege to tell the rest of us how to live because they think they are smarter than we are. But that attitude flies in the face of what America is and always has been about, though imperfectly so, to be sure.
[snip]
Such attitudes are unsustainable in a democratic republic and will sooner or later get the Political Class tossed off the train for good.

I’m just going to come out and say, up front, that I do not condone the idea of an armed insurrection. It’s foolish on a number of levels, not the least of which is the unnecessary cost of American blood and treasure.

I am not going to condone a rebellion…or a revolution…or a secession by a collection of States that still believe the 10th Amendment actually means something, though I’ll be moving to wherever such a thing might occur. As an American and as a patriot, however, I am also not going to condemn these things in large part because of the instructions we were given 234 years ago that still mean something to me today [emphasis mine]:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

My people were here 70 years before that was written. They will be here 70 years from now (God willing) and I expect of them what is expected of us by our Forefathers. Their only means of separating themselves from tyranny and despotism was by way of the gun and the cannon and the bayonet. Their service and their sacrifice, however, and their wisdom and their foresight gave us a much more accurate and deadly weapon; the ballot box. How smart we allow ourselves to be about what is happening to us at the hands of the Government that no longer serves the interests of the people or the founding documents on which their livelihoods are based, our Forefathers left up to us to figure out.

America has a difficult set of problems. We caused them, and only we - “we, the People” that actually cast these votes - can solve them.

For wholly different reasons, I suggest you first have a reading (if you haven’t already) of Erick’s piece this morning about the Elites vs. “we, the People.” It sets the stage nicely for a review of several other little tidbits of news in recent days.

First, we have Harry Reid being praised for slicing through GOP resistance to a State aid bill (with the help of the Maine cupcakes, of course) which “promises cash-strapped governors $16.1 billion to help meet Medicaid payments next year, and $10 billion would go to state and local school boards to preserve teacher jobs.” There’s a slight problem though..well, ok - several slight problems.

This bill is called the FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act, and I’d note there is nothing in this title about Teachers Unions or Medicaid. And, there most certainly is nothing in there about taking food off the tables of the poor in order to pay for it. It takes the Politico piece for us to find out what the crooks and hobgoblins in the Senate are up to:

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