Chavez

Did it escape anyone's attention that Chavez has 18 months of rule by Presidential Decree granted to him by a lame duck assembly after Chavez's humiliating defeat at the ballot box (even after massive voter fraud). So how is it that a politician that was essentially voted from office suddenly gets dictatorial powers?

This marks the entry of Venezuela into a very dark world. This will cause the U.S. a great deal of trouble and vastly more for their democratic neighbors in South America. But watch this: that sphincter in the White House will do absolutely nothing about it. Maybe even suggest a summit. This is a catastrophe and there is silence from Obama.

Just a few things

I simply cannot stand any more of these "tax cut" debates and rants. Let's make it clear and without the leftist spin placed on the matter by the lapdog liberals of the media:

Our current rates are what they are. Call it level X. If by inaction, they rise ... then the choice/deed of inaction causes taxes to rise, then it would be a tax rate increase. A tax hike. If by action they were allowed to remain the same, then it is taxes remaining the same -- a choice made by the relevant legislators. If they were to decrease, then that too, would be an action, a deed.  So by "forcing Obama" to sign the extension, we are not making a tax cut. We are not "GIVING" tax breaks to the rich, or for that matter anyone.

Taxes are the UNNATURAL state of affairs. The neutral state is no taxes -- taxes by their nature are an affirmative action to take money from one group of people to spend on the common good or to distribute to others. That is reality.So any time a body imposes taxes on others, it is not a gift in any way sense or word: it is a taking. If unwilling, it is a form of state-sanctioned theft. Feel differently? Well on your tax return you are able to fill in the blank for what you would willingly give  -- EXTRA -- to the the IRS. I would be willing to bet that the percentage of people in the USA filling any number into that blank would be less than 1/10 of 1%.  Which means that all those Democrats and Liberals who loudly proclaim how important and civic minded the tax system is, miss the essential point: they don't walk the walk. They don't send in whatever sum they made in the previous year that is surplus to their needs. That would be the ultimate extension of their belief system. Therefore they are hypocrites.

For my part, I don't want to fund blueberry research in Maine. I don't want to fund bridges to nowhere. I don't want to extend unemployment benefits beyond 99 weeks. I don't want to provide free medical care for persons in this country illegally. I don't want to pay for ballots and RMV license documentation in two languages or poultry marketing in Korea. Or pay for Pelosi's 757. I want to cut government spending to infrastructure and military -- with precious little else. You corn farmers out in Iowa? You don't deserve subsidies to produce corn to make ethanol that we don't need. 

Speech should be free. Freedom to hate as well as love -- the limit of such freedom where it physically hurts another, either way. Where the population becomes inured to yet another taking, another removal of property and rights, we become a herd of sheep to be ruled by elites in Washington. I do not want this for my children.

WikiLeaks -- like farts in Church

Assange, the feared Dark Lord of Information, is now on Interpol's most wanted list. We are meant to keep a sharp lookout for this purveyor of semi-classified smut, lest he do irreparable damage to us all. Ok, well that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy....

And Sarah Palin demands that he be hunted down like Osama.... Hang on, but isn't Osama still out there ... drinking tea, making bombs and sending us the occasional Christmas message of hate and loathing? So, don't get me wrong,  but wouldn't it be better to just kill Assange, instead of spending a whole lot of money invading a country of goat herders, buying off local Mafia chiefs and generally making life dangerous for Americans on the ground there? Ummmm....  Lemme see, so in this case wouldn't that mean invading Iceland or Sweden (or some such place)? So instead of Mohammed and Abdullah, it would be Bjorn and Olaf trying to pop a cap in our heads? On the other hand, we could, probably, buy them off with a couple of cases of Sam Adams -- that wouldn't be too bad, and I image our servicemen and women wouldn't mind a spot of fraternization with those locals.... Heck, we'd be lucky to EVER leave ... let alone "withdraw." Contrast that with Kabul!! Let's fire up the C130s!!

Seriously, undoubtedly one of my favourite elements in this whole mess is that Hillary has a whole lot of 'splaining to do with various two-bit, third world, bovine quadrupeds masquerading as "elected Presidents," etc.  I mean, how delicious that Hills has to kiss-heine for the embarrassment of having sent her State Dept. minions to spy at cocktail parties. "I am so sooorrryy Ms. Kirchner that my minion was being so nosey...." LMAO!!!  Frikkin Putin has wet his pants laughing again: a veritable tide of mirth-induced urine flow is threatening the Kremlin.

An even more tasty element is that all these Wikileaks concern the Obama administration -- does that sound too gloating, am I a "hater?"  The context is this: the O-bots laughed their asses off as the previous WikiLeaks tended to harm U.S. troops and foreign persons that assisted our troops during the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their contempt was easy to see, as only fascist militarists, Republicans and unwashed Afghans/Iraqis were going to get hurt -- and what was that in comparison to the need to exert First Amendment Rights. Remember the Pentagon Papers?!!!

By contrast, these Leaks are daggers to the Obama administration's heart, unmistakable signs of ineptitude and hubris. After the first load of documents, the competent President would have said "get this bastard before he gets us." Instead, Obama appears to have believed his own press: he seems to have thought that the previous Leaks were directed to the Hated One (George Bush) and now that he was in charge everyone would sing Kumbaya (isn't that Kenyan?) and forgive and forget. IDIOT. Or is that "idiots" with a stress on the plural ... I wouldn't have thought that Rahm E would have let that pass.

Real damage? The whole world has clear and convincing evidence that this Administration is amateur but not necessarily untrustworthy.  It is not that anyone thought we kept secrets anyway -- everyone knows that a few shekels in Washington will buy you all the intelligence you want from any one of a number of Senators or Congressmen.  It is just the pathetic cheapness of it all: sort of like Hugh Grant picking up a hooker off of Sunset. We look like a bunch of "wankers" in the British vernacular.  It exposes us as being so unbelievably ineffectual, taking seriously what 3rd assistant undersecretaries "drop" at cocktail parties -- we look like hicks on the World Stage.

Say what you like about the Bush Administration -- and about Bush in particular -- but there is no way Lord Voldemort/Cheney would have let this sort of thing pass.  Or imagine this on Ronnie's watch with Ollie North overseeing your manhunt? How long do you think Assange will make it if Putin' dirty laundry is aired for public viewing? Interpol would not scare me too much. The FSB would.

No doubt about it, Jimmy Carter is alive and well living channeling through hearts and minds of the West Wing.