Another Sunday, another good day for an open thread. A few days back I posited a query to all liberals seeing if they are finally at a point where they might be growing disenchanted with The One They Have All been Waiting For. Evidently, we aren’t there yet, because not one of them is ready to criticize anything about their benevolent leader. Hard to believe though considering that there is so much material for which to do so. Starting with the sequester scare, followed by Obama’s recent pledge of hundreds of millions to Syrians and Palestinians. Now how can cutting a few hundred million dollars from some government agencies result in having to shut down White House tours, and vaccinations for children, yet somehow we found the money to help Syrian refugees. You would think liberals and the media would question that.

I am also always amazed at the false perceptions so many liberals have of conservatives. A notion implanted in their minds by the educational system and the media. My effort going forward will be to dispel those notions. I have begun a personal dialogue with Mitch who is a little older than I first believed and has a better sense of humor than I would have given him credit for. I don’t know how much political common ground we have but that will be discovered in the weeks ahead. I do hope that we can just have civil conversations, regardless of our disagreements, and I am happy that that has been the case thus far. I think Mitch is surprised to learn that I am just a normal human being rather than the false notion of conservatives he has construed in his mind. I think if conservatives can begin to reeducate the numerous misinformed liberals that have bought into the medias and democrats false ideals of who we are, we can begin to bring back some semblance of normalcy and civility. I have told Mitch that we here at the blog would welcome more liberal posters who could articulate their positions rationally and without lashing out at some false notion, but that far too often, all we get are hyper emotional rants.

This entire country needs to learn how to dial down the rhetoric. Do I think that we are in a really bad place in terms of debt, spending, restriction of liberties, and the soon to be calamity of Obama care? Yes to all the above. But it will require determined, measured, and well articulated positions on the conservative approach to convince those who are ingrained with false ideals, rather than just name calling.

A case of corruption in Bell, California today reached is conclusion with the conviction of 5 ex city employees, including the mayor, who used the city treasury to enrich themselves beyond all reasonable measures. Funny thing though, in most if not all, main stream media reporting, their party affiliation is not identified:

(Reuters) – Five former elected officials from the scandal-plagued California city of Bell were convicted on Wednesday of misusing municipal funds by collecting exorbitant salaries in a case that drew national attention as a symbol of public corruption.

Now I can guarantee you that had these folks been Republicans, that fact would have led each story in the head line. Fact is though these ex officials are all Democrats, so it’s just another case of media malpractice which continues to misinform and mislead the low information voter. Because of this malpractice, we have so many liberal heads full of garbage as to what constitutes conservatism, that it may take decades to actually cut through and penetrate the bone deep ignorance of so many, but that will have to begin with a press that is willing to be objective rather than hyper partisan and emotionally charged. I am not holding out any hope. As it is, this story will just fade away, and little concern will be expressed by those liberals who profess to care so much for the middle class, who in this case were completely taken advantage of. Waiting for condemnation and outrage from our resident liberals.

 

Well again there are quite a few issues to address and I have trouble landing on just one, so consider this an open thread on a few issues du jour that are on my radar.

1. Immigration Reform – The brilliant Harry Reid announced today that immigration reform would be landing on the Senate Floor in the next work session possibly in April, meaning once again that Democrats will attempt to rush something through, as they did with the stimulus and the health care bill, which as we all know hasn’t turned out real well. Aside from that, it seems to me that entitlement reform and tax reform should take a much higher precedence than immigration reform. The main reason we continue to operate from continuing resolution to continuing resolution is because of Harry Reid’s gross irresponsibility in not passing a budget. This allows the Democrats of course to move from crisis to crisis and blame republicans for obstructionism. It’s insanity. But so is this entire government at the present time. Tax reform and entitlement reform are desperately needed.

2. Eric Holder should resign. Period. – This is a direct quote from our illustrious Attorney General:

“I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions become so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if we do prosecute — if we do bring a criminal charge — it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy,”

So perceived economic concerns now take precedent over adjudicating corporate crime. The Attorney General is responsible to uphold the laws of the country, not to evaluate economic impact. I have said before that the only regulation our federal government needs to effectively regulate the free market, is a fair and responsible Justice Dept. We now know that we don’t have one.

3. If anyone had any questions about cronyism within the Obama regime, this should remove all doubt. Close friend, Chicago elite, and former 2008 campaign bundler, Penny Pritzker is reported to be on the verge of being appointed to head up the Commerce Dept. Her qualifications? Being well connected, and raking in millions after over seeing the failure of Superior Bank in Chicago of which she ran. This appointment would be unconscionable and should raise HUGE red flags with every one. Of all the disappointing appointments Obama has made, this one would certainly be the icing on the cake.

Just an aside – the title “Are We There Yet” is a question directed to many Obama supporters wondering if they have finally come to the realization that what Obama promised with his soaring rhetoric, is far removed the results he is producing.If not, I wonder when that time comes for them.

There are many other issues of extreme import, so feel free to discuss what’s on your mind as well.

And let’s not forget extremists! That is at least according to Sen. John McCain who thinks that civility and decorum in the Senate is much more important than adherence to the Constitution and an effective, fiscally responsible government. According to McCain, those who have the temerity to challenge the regimes overtures of drone strikes on Americans, on American soil, and filibustering a nomination is extreme, and his girlfriend Lindsey Graham has called the notion ridiculous and not worthy of an answer. Meanwhile, we learn that over 89.3 million people are no longer in the work force, up from 89 million just last January, however 296,000 non farm jobs were added, bringing the unemployment rate down to 7.7% which will be hailed as a great triumph by liberals everywhere. How we lose more people in the workforce than we add, and still have an unemployment rate tick down is beyond me. But the smoke and mirrors of this regime seem to never end.

Our current federal government is riddled with self interested, big government, career politicians who have lost all sense of responsible, Constitutional government, and seem much more interested in the weekend cocktail party than representing their constituents. We have BIG, BIG problems in this country folks, and we don’t have very many politicians interested in resolving them.

Currently, there is such a target rich environment of liberalism gone awry and just good old fashion Democratic incompetence that it has become difficult to zero in on just one issue to write about, so I thought I would compile a hodgepodge of liberal haughtiness if you will in a fun weekend thread. So here goes – first up;

– The impoverished school children of Alabama score a huge victory much to the chagrin of state Democrats who were hoping to keep them as subjects of the oppressive teachers unions.

– Despite VP Joe Biden’s recent insistence to buy a shotgun and randomly squeeze off a few a rounds for protection – the Colorado State government is seeking to ban the weapon.

– Harry Reid has called on reporters to do their duty, and just report the Democratic talking points

– Either not knowing the best path forward, or actually asking his advance team, otherwise known as the liberal mainstream media, for advice, President Obama asked a reporter yesterday “What do you want me to do”

– The Obama recovery is in full swing – yesterday it was reported that personal incomes realized the most dramatic decline in 20 years. Important to note here that despite the drop in personal income, President Obama just ended a vigorous campaign trying to convince Americans that a 2.4% reduction in Government spending would result in something just short of an apocalypse.

– And speaking of the sequester apocalypse, the President is now backing away from that claim, saying; and I quote: “This is not going to be an apocalypse I think, as some people said”. This despite the fact that just two days ago, he said this: “If Congress allows this meat-cleaver approach to take place, it will jeopardize our military readiness, it will eviscerate job-creating investments in education and energy and medical research,” Obama warned in a speech at the White House”.

– And not to be outdone by the White House, Democratic Representative Maxine Waters claimed that the sequester would result in the loss of 170,000 jobs – WOW!

– And last, but certainly not least – a three year Democratic witch hunt on Gov. Scott Walker has come to a quiet end with no charges being filed, and no crimes committed. This of course was cause for State Democrat communications director Graeme Zielinski to compare Walker with notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

A head spinning week of liberal brain damage to be sure. Can’t wait for next week.

Haven’t had a true open thread for a while. So what’s on your mind? As for me, I am amazed at how Obama continues to escape responsibility for the anemic economy, persistent high unemployment, continued high gas prices, and a foreign policy that resulted in the death of an Ambassador.

Tell us what’s on your mind and please keep it civil.

This weekend we honor a great American. MLK was a true visionary, and devoted his life to advance a noble cause, a cause of which we as Americans unfortunately still struggle with. MLK risked his life for that cause, and in that battle, he is credited with one of the all time great historical quotes, and personally one of my favorites:

“I have a dream that one day my four children will one day live in a nation where they will  not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”

Nearly 50 years later it seems as though we have not only not lived up to that dream, but have lost sight of it altogether. Today we have politically devolved to the point that we still judge people by the color of their skin, or at least I should say some of us do, and unfortunately that includes the President, who ironically was one of whom benefited the most from MLK’s efforts. Today, our current Democratic Party seems to over look content of character in favor of color of skin to rile up an over emotional political constituency and to advance a political agenda. Liberals within the party have an inherent mistrust of the individual character believing that individuals if left to their own accord are inherently racist, inherently unfair, inherently selfish and because of those character flaws, will not make good decisions. Therefore, they promote a large federal bureaucracy that will serve to “level the playing field”.

Conservatives on the other hand, believe in the individual character. Conservatism is the inherent belief that if left to their own accord, the individual is not racist, is fair and unselfish and will make good decisions. The Constitution was also written in that firm belief in the individual character by mandating smaller, more decentralized government that empowered the individual over the federal bureaucracy and that fact is the reason why America has advanced so far, so quickly. By contrast, many liberals see the Constitution as a racist, and misogynistic document, no doubt as a result of the fact that it was written by older white men of Faith, and completely ignore the fact that that document has resulted in a country that has offered the most civil rights to more people than any other governing document in the history of the world. And it did so, because of the inherent belief in the individual character, just like MLK implored us to believe in so many years ago.

My hope is that we as a country will eventually coalesce around that dream but considering the current state of our political discourse, and the completely irresponsible media, I am afraid that that hope is fading. The over emotional, hyper sensitive liberals in the media and in politics seem to be drowning out the rational adult voices in our society and until that dynamic changes, America will continue to lose sight of the dream.

UPDATE: Speaking of inherent mistrust of character. I ask you – how is this kind of rhetoric helpful?

I’ll make some predictions for 2013:

Does the fact that we’re entering the teens mean we’ll become moody and easily depressed?

Just wait till next year!  A thing always said by Chargers fans.  As they went 7-9 this season, they are keeping to their usual level.  But, the other thing all Chargers fans say – next year we’ll be 14-2 and go on to win the Super Bowl!

Chris Christie will be re-elected governor of New Jersey.  He’ll immediately be talked up as the front-runner for the 2016 GOP nomination.  This will be completely ignored by the Republican leadership who will be on the lookout for someone much more moderate and centrist than those crazy, TEA Party right-wingers we nominated in 2008 and 2012.

New York City Council Speaker (its that large that it needs a Speaker?) Christine Quinn, if she decides to run, will be elected Mayor of New York…unless she winds up squaring off with potential GOP candidate, and former Madam, Kristin M. Davis.  Given a choice between a political hack who will run on the fact that she’s gay and a madam, I think New Yorkers might go for the madam.

It will be announced some time in March or April that we are back in recession…just about the time we start to emerge from it (it started back in July or so).

When the I-pad 5 gets released I’ll once again fail to rush out and buy it.

The Syrian Civil War will come to a (temporary) end as the Assad regime crumbles…Civil War II will involve a battle between barbarians to decide who gets to rule over the carcass.

Hillary will be forced to cancel her Benghazi testimony over a terrible case of the hiccups.

In an effort to stave off bankruptcy, California will offer to sell Bakersfield to Nevada. Nevada will counter with an offer to cut cards for double or nothing.

In order to keep his promise for openness and transparency in his Administration, Obama will propose the creation of a Ministry of Truth.

Iran will announce that the earth-shattering kaboom was most emphatically not a nuclear test.

Obama will believe them.

The Department of Health and Human Services will announce that celibate religious orders will be required to provide health insurance covering birth control.  Oh, wait…that was a 2012 prediction.

Did the 2012 apocalypse disappoint you?  Well, cheer up:  only 3 years left until the Gorpocalypse!

What are your predictions for 2013?

Reminiscent of Thelma & Louise’s movie ending flight over the cliff to destruction – that is exactly what I suggest conservatives allow to happen. In fact, going further, I believe that the GOP should rubber stamp everything Obama and the Democrats want to do for the next year, including military spending cuts, and little if no curtailment on entitlement increases. There is no question that the policies prescribed by Obama are doomed to fail, and in fact have so far, and there will be no other way to crystallize that in the minds of voters and the media, but to allow it to happen in full bloom. Every Republican needs to stand center stage and say unequivocally that while they disagree with the Administrations agenda, elections do have consequences and they will not stand in the way of the policies Obama endorses. Then, the GOP needs to remind the voters on a weekly basis, the results of those policies as they relate to unemployment, the debt, interest rates and the cost of living. As Count d’Harcots accurately pointed out to me earlier, the messaging is the main obstacle conservatives need to overcome, and it should become quite difficult for the Democrats to continue to sell their message of compassion, misguided as it is, when the economy is in shambles, poverty is rampant, and unemployment is persistently high, and the American voter is actually living the nightmare and being reminded of it everyday.

So spread your wings everyone and let’s take flight!

A HAT TIP TO DBSCHMIDT AS WELL FOR THIS PLAN TO ALLOW THE IMPLOSION OF LIBERALISM UNIMPEDED.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan:  Just wanted to point out that which ever party can successfully mobilize white, middle class voters in 2014 and beyond will win huge.

We switch back to Standard Time tonight.

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