Sarah Palin
STALL, BABY, STALL
It's unbelievable (literally) the rhetoric on "America's Energy Security" coming from President Obama this week. This is coming from he who is manipulating the U.S. energy supply. President Obama is once again giving lip service to a "new energy proposal"; but let's remember the last time he trotted out a "new energy proposal" - nearly a year ago to the day. The main difference is today we have $4 a gallon gas in some places in the country. This is no accident. This administration is not a passive observer to the trends that have inflated oil prices to dangerous levels. His war on domestic oil and gas exploration and production has caused us pain at the pump, endangered our already sluggish economic recovery, and threatened our national security. The reality behind the president's rhetoric is that instead of "drill, baby, drill," it's "stall, baby, stall."
DON’T SQUANDER SYRIA
Amidst the many dangers posed by the political conflagration now engulfing the Arab world, we are presented with a unique opportunity in Syria. Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, like his father from whom he inherited the regime, is an unadulterated rogue. He is an illicit nuclear proliferator, has a large stockpile of chemical weapons including Sarin gas and blister agents, and is a major sponsor of terrorism. If the Assad regime is overthrown, it will constitute a major blow to both the Iranian regime and Hezbollah. In turn, Lebanon's March 14 Democracy Movement and the Iranian Green Movement will be empowered by the defeat. This is an opportunity we dare not squander.
HALF-FULL REPORT 3/25/11
Week after week after week - when will this torrential deluge of news stop or at least slack off? It hasn't let up for a couple of months now. Well, let's jump in and go with the flow. We'll start with a follow-up to Islam in Libya, since everyone's so focused on what Zero is doing there. What's confusing us all is Zero's state of confusion regarding no clearly stated end-game. As Sarah Palin told Greta Van Sustern on Fox Wednesday (3/23), "Be in it to win it, or if there's doubt we get out." Palin sees the purpose of the mission in Libya is for Gaddafi "to end up dead," or the mission is a failure. That would be the best outcome (see Roger Simon make the case), but there better be a Plan B. Here it is. From the history discussed in Islam in Libya, we saw that Libya has from its inception 2,600 years ago been divided in two: Greek Cyrenaica and Punic Tripolitania. The two were unified by King Idris only in 1951 - and even then there were two capitals: the parliamentary one of Tripoli and the royal one of Benghazi. This bifurcation has emerged once again today, with the Libyan Opposition controlling Eastern Libya or the old Cyrenaica, and Gaddafi controlling Western Libya or Tripolitania. So obviously, Plan B is to split the country in two, with "reunification" a la East/West Germany a goal of the future. Who gets the oil? Here's the map:
PREPARING FOR ARMAGEDDON
In response to Jack's article last week, A Tsunami of Insanity, in which he described the Financial Armageddon bearing down upon us, I was asked on the TTP Forum: "OK, Skye, do you have a list of things you are doing to prepare for the storm?" Yes, I do. I'll be discussing this in detail at the Las Vegas Rendezvous, but here are a few of the high points: *Don't live in a city. A small town in a small county will be much safer - so long as the town and county aren't populated with a lot of Progressives. Check the voting data for both the town and the county. A small conservative/libertarian town in a low population gold mining county will do relatively well as the dollar depreciates. A town where 40% of the income is dependent on the continuation of corn ethanol subsidies would be a very risky location, no matter how rural.
ISLAM IN LIBYA
Remember this scene in many a John Wayne movie? He's walking down the street of a Wild West town when he sees a gang of bad guy thugs beating up a young kid and molesting his mother. He walks right on by, saying to himself with a shrug, "That's none of my business." In another version of the scene, he rushes off to get approval of the town council before he dares intervene. Don't remember? That's because there never was such a scene. We know exactly what Wayne would have done - gone to the victims' rescue without hesitation. That's what makes him a hero. Any comparison between John Wayne and President Zero is obscene. Nonetheless, imagining this faux movie scene should give conservatives pause regarding Zero and Libya. After all, when the world's scum - like Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Robert Mugabe, Louis Farrakhan, and Michael Moore - denounce Zero as a "warmonger," and moonbat fruitcakes like Dennis Kucinch and Ralph Nader are demanding his impeachment, it has to mean that Zero for once is doing something right.
HALF-FULL REPORT 03/18/11
It's great to be back in the HFR saddle again - yet I'm so grateful to Jack Kelly for doing such a marvelous job in my absence. Thanks, Jack! And we have an additional reason for gratitude to Mr. Kelly this week - for he was able to prevail upon his friend, LtCol. Ralph Peters, to fly all the way from Washington to speak to us at the Vegas Rendezvous! You all know what a fantastic, pull-no-punches LtCol. Peters is as a writer. Wait ‘tll you hear him in person explain the jeopardy our national security is in. It will be memorable. Also memorable - particularly for your pocketbook - will be famed wealth preservation expert Hank Brock. Hank conducts seminars all over the world costing thousands of dollars per person on how survive the coming Financial Armageddon we're facing (see A Tsunami of Insanity this week). Rebel and I have gotten to know Hank as a friend, and are so appreciative of his graciousness in coming to speak to us. There's no one better to learn from regarding how to come out of this mess financially alive than him. You also really don't want to miss Dr. Dave Janda explain what happens to our healthcare system as ObamaCare is dismantled, Alex Alexiev brief us on how these Arab revolts are going to turn out - or TTP's resident genius Skye hold forth on any issue of science and technology in the world. Yes, there'll be Jack Kelly, Joel Wade, yours truly, and a surprise or two - plus, best of all, your fellow TTPers! So be sure and call or email Miko - 703-992-4529, [email protected] - to sign up right now for The Platinum Vegas Rendezvous May 6-8. * * * * * * Is Hillary making her move, as the HFR has been predicting since December 2009? Is it a coincidence that all of a sudden the pinkostream enemedia is chock full of stories targeting Zero's ineptness, just as HRC announces she won't serve in his putative second term? Her run for the White House roses may have begun, folks.
2012 CAN’T COME SOON ENOUGH
Is it really any surprise that oil and gas prices are surging toward the record highs we saw in 2008 just prior to the economic collapse? Despite the President's strange assertions in his press conference last week (3/11), his Administration is not a passive observer to the trends that have inflated oil prices to dangerous levels. His war on domestic oil and gas exploration and production has caused us pain at the pump, endangered our already sluggish economic recovery, and threatened our national security. The evidence of the President's anti-drilling mentality and his culpability in the high gas prices hurting Americans is there for all to see. The following is not even an exhaustive list:
A TSUNAMI OF INSANITY
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Sitting with friends here, we are stupefied and silent as we watch video news footage such as this of the truly unbelievable destruction of the Japan Tsunami: {youtube}w3AdFjklR50{/youtube} Until I break the silence. Watching the gargantuan mud and debris-filled wave sweep into oblivion everything in its path, I mutter, "That's just what Barack Obama is doing to America." An Emirati fellow asked, "Jack, what do you mean by a tsunami hitting America like what we just saw in Japan?" "It's a tsunami of insanity, caused by an earthquake of insanity. Countries can go crazy just like people. It was clinically deranged of the American people to elect a man with absolutely no qualifications or experience whatever, and who they knew attended a church for 20 years listening to a preacher praying for God to damn America. "Yet they did it anyway. A majority of American voters placed their livelihoods and security in the hands of this man - so now a tsunami of economic and national security destruction is bearing down upon us." He absorbed this, stroked his beard, then asked, "So... is this Obama's tsunami or America's tsunami upon itself?"
CONSERVATIVES FOR CORPORATE WELFARE
Cutting spending in Congress is so difficult because every area of the budget is defended by an army of special interests and perverse alliances that often defy reason and common sense. Nowhere is this more evident than with the federal government's ludicrous $6 billion subsidy of ethanol, which I and Sen. Ben Cardin, D-MD, have proposed to eliminate. This week on March 09, we introduced in the Senate a Bill To Repeal the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit. Within hours on that very day, the senior political columnist for a conservative newspaper, The Washington Examiner, condemned our bill as "Tom Coburn's Tax Hike." This illustrates why the ethanol subsidy endures despite widespread opposition from the Left and the Right. On one hand, the Examiner columnist declares, "government support for ethanol is among the most destructive and wasteful giveaways to special interests today." Yet, on the other hand, he says doing away with the subsidy is a "tax-hike" that would leave money in appropriators' pockets, at which point many Republicans run for the hills. This analysis is inaccurate and destructive on several levels.
GORILLAS, SAVAGES, AND REDEMPTION
Hotel Mille des Collines, Kigali, Rwanda. Ever see the movie Hotel Rwanda? It's about the manager of a hotel in Africa who did his best to provide a refuge from one of the greatest atrocities in history - the slaughter of over 800,000 innocent people in 100 days. I'm writing this from that hotel. This is a story of grotesque horror and magnificent inspiration. Let's start with a question: Which one is the murderous savage? 
Hint: gorillas are vegetarians. I took the bull silverback gorilla's picture two days ago on the slopes of the Gahinga volcano in the Virunga mountains of Rwanda. He paid almost no attention to me at all. The picture of the guy with the "panga" knife was taken in 1994 by a journalist who was lucky he wasn't hacked to death - like hundreds of thousands of others butchered by this guy and his buddies. Sure enough, he's the savage. Yet the savages of Rwanda are not all natives, for this is a story of Belgian and French savages as well, with one of the latter being the president of his country at the time.
THE PLATINUM VEGAS RENDEZVOUS
It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it - somebody from TTP had to spend a week in Vegas figuring out among the myriad of choices the best hotel deal for the May Rendezvous. And only SuperMiko could resist being plied with all sort of exotic libations and amenities to come up with what's truly #1 for TTPers. So he did it. The Vegas Rendezvous, Friday May 6 to Sunday May 8, will be at The Platinum at the Strip. Just a block away from the Strip itself right behind Bally's & Paris, and a half-block from the monorail that takes you along the entire Strip, The Platinum is a no-smoking, all-suite, casino-less boutique hotel that has gone all out to welcome TTP. The room rate for TTPers is $119 a night. This is for a suite with a king size bed and pillow top mattress, living room and sofa, full gourmet kitchen, 42-inch plasma tv, double-size whirlpool tub and walkout balcony. Of course, The Platinum has a great bar where TTPers can gather, and we have our own dining and meeting rooms. The food is great too - Miko can attest to that. All of you who attended a Rendezvous before well know what an extraordinary experience they are. If you've never been - now's your chance. TTPers are a community of rational pro-Americans and we love each other's company. You simply have to be there!
THE NEWEST AFRICAN FARCE
Juba, South Sudan. The first thing you see upon arriving here are huge billboards declaring, "Welcome to Africa's Newest Nation." Yes, the giant country of Sudan - the size of the entire USA east of the Mississippi - is splitting in two, between the Arab Moslem north and the Black Christian/Animist south. It's a teachable moment in the lunatic history of African geopolitics. There are make-believe countries, colonial constructs that have no unifying or historical basis for legitimate nationhood - such as Pakistan. Africa is a make-believe continent. Few people grasp the enormity, the sheer size of Africa. Take a look at a world map. It is as far from Casablanca, Morocco to Mombassa, Kenya as it is from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok in Russia (4,000 miles). You could fit the largest country in the world, Russia (6.6 million square miles or msqm), the second largest country in the world, Canada (3.85 msqm), and the largest island in the world, Greenland (840,000 sqm) all into Africa (11.7 msqm) with room left over. Yet until around 150 years ago, it was called the Dark Continent not just for the skin color of its inhabitants but because, save for a handful of ports and coastal enclaves, it was unknown, terra incognita to the West. Then, in 1859...
THE COUNTRY THAT DOES EXIST
Berbera, Somaliland. I originally called this place the country that doesn't exist, because no other country in the world will diplomatically recognize it as a sovereign nation even though it's been so for 20 years. Nonetheless, this is a real country with a sovereign functioning government. This is no pariah-outlaw state. That's Somalia, the truly non-existent failed state that Somaliland seceded from. The story of Somaliland is a heroic saga, epically inspirational. Let me tell you the story.
THE BLACK NORKS OF ERITREA
Asmara, Eritrea. I came here to see if the rumor is true, that Eritrea is the North Korea of Africa. Strategically situated at the entrance to Red Sea, it's ruled by Isaias Afewerki (ah-for-key), ranked by international agencies as one of the world's worst dictators, in the same league as Robert Mugabe, Kim Jong-il, and the Castro brothers. The Heritage Foundation's Index of World Freedom ranks Eritrea #176 out of 179 countries. Transparency International's Index of Corruption ranks it as one of the world's most corrupt countries. Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index ranks it as having the least press freedom on earth along with North Korea. There are a number of exile opposition groups, in Europe, the US, and elsewhere in Africa that are clamoring and hoping for a Tunis or Cairo in Asmara - a popular revolution that will do to Afewerki what happened to Ben Ali and Mubarak. Possible but exceedingly improbable. And therein lies an important lesson for us as we try to recapture our freedom in America.
DYLAN IN YEMEN
They'll stone you when you're trying to be so good They'll stone you just like they said they would They'll stone you when you're trying to go home They'll stone you when you're there all alone But I would not feel so all alone Everybody must get stoned Bob Dylan wasn't thinking of Yemen when he wrote Rainy Day Woman #12 and #35 for his Blonde on Blonde album in 1966 - but might be now. "Everybody must get stoned" is the motto of the country. I'm in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, where all those anti-government demonstrations are taking place according to the media, where the next Arab Dictatorship is going to fall as the Great Arab Revolt sweeps ineluctably across the Middle East. Except there are no demonstrations here. No tension. No palpable anger. There is peace and calm instead. Everywhere I go, I'm asked where I'm from, and when I say "America," everyone smiles, nods, and says "Welcome." Yemen's culture is one of the world's oldest, going back 4,000 years. Yet it is tragically nearing extinction - because everybody must get stoned. Yemen is killing itself with addiction to a drug called qat.
CELEBRATING RONALD REAGAN
This Sunday, February 6, 2011, is the centennial of the birth of the Greatest American of the 20th Century, Ronald Reagan. Annually on this day, TTP runs our ode to him, The Great-Souled Man. For his 100th birthday, however, we thought that it's worth spending time watching him and listening to his words. Yes, it's Super Bowl weekend, but taking a break now and then to watch one of the following will give you such an appreciation for this extraordinary human being. It will commemorate him in your mind in a special way. We begin the celebration with his hilarious appearance on the What's My Line television show in 1953 - yes, 1953.
HALF-FULL REPORT 02/04/11
This has been a week both sobering and thrilling, depressing and hopeful, serendipitous and its antonym. (Serendipity is finding something where you least expect it. Strangely, there is no word expressing its opposite: not finding something where you most expect it.) In other words, it's a truly half-full week. Might as well look at why it's half-empty first. This is not going to be easy, because it involves conservatives who are friends and whom I admire - yet who have allowed their limbic brain to be paralyzed with fear and shut down their prefrontal cortex. I am ashamed of them. I hope they soon regain their capacity for rational and moral thought. I am referring to the host of conservative pundits in print, the Web, on talk radio and TV news - no names here, it's easy to figure out who they are - who are so freaking out in support of Mubarak they want to see Mubarak's thugs commit mass slaughter on the demonstrators in Cairo peacefully demanding freedom and democracy. They have gone so morally insane that they seem to actually want Tiananmen Square-style bloodshed in Tahrir Square. Why aren't conservative leaders proclaiming their support for freedom and democracy in Egypt, proclaiming their solidarity with the protestors, and are instead siding with Mubarak's thugs? This is beyond disgusting.
WHAT RUSSIA HAS LOST
Last week on January 24, a suicide bomber attack at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport killed 36 people. According to Russian intelligence, the terrorist act was perpetrated by someone from one of the predominantly Moslem areas of the North Caucasus region. It's been nearly 12 years since Putin began building his reputation as a tough, no- nonsense leader by promising rather crudely to pursue terrorists everywhere, catch them in airport toilets and "waste them in the outhouse." By picking Domodedovo Airport for the ninth serious terrorist attack in Moscow since then, the terrorists are telling the Russian people that Putin can talk all he wants but is incapable of protecting them. This latest tragedy highlights a number of conclusions about Putin's policies and the fate of Russia that were already discernable - for what's now crystal clear is that Russia under Putin has not only lost its war with terrorism, but more than that, it has lost its way as a civilized state and society and faces a very uncertain future.
THE OPPORTUNITY OF EGYPT
It's a sign of age when you see pictures of two million people massing in Cairo's Tahrir Square, and the very first question that occurs to you is: How do they all go to the bathroom? It's a puzzle. What isn't a puzzle is the next question: What do these masses of Egyptian demonstrators want? Let's start the answer by recognizing that it's very clear what they do not want, what they are not chanting and demonstrating for: Radical Islam and an Iranian-type Islamic theocracy. Sure they are 90% Moslems (about 10% of Egypt's 80 million are Coptic Christians), and when the muezzin calls out prayer time, the demonstrators kneel en masse to pray. Yet whenever someone starts shouting religious chants over a loudspeaker, the crowd shouts back for him to stop. Yes, this is all a moving target. Yes, thugs from Napoleon to Lenin to Mao to Khomeini succeeded by taking over, not starting, an already ongoing revolution. So yes, Egypt could go sideways and we could have a Islamic mega-disaster. But there's never opportunity without danger, for dangers are what make opportunities possible. Therefore - will all the doomsaying handwringing conservatives please stop their ceaseless worry-worting about the Iqwan - Iqwan Muslimi, the Moslem Brotherhood - and focus on how we can take advantage of the Arab Revolt instead? Focus first on three basic facts.
HALF-FULL REPORT 01/28/11
Wasn't that just the greatest State of the Union speech ever? All that pent-up expectation that Zero was going to channel Bill Clinton as The Comeback Kid pivoting off the humiliation of facing a newly-elected Republican Majority to join them in declaring "The era of big government is over" - well, he certainly burst that balloon, didn't he? What a turkey of a talk - so bad it may be right up there with Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech. It's being ridiculed as his Sputnik Speech for his stupid "Sputnik moment" shtick, and his WTF Speech for his witless "Winning The Future" slogan that deserved the acronym everyone knows has another meaning. The HFR prefers to entitle Zero's 2011 SOTU - in honor of his paean to "solar shingles" as an example of "tomorrow's energy" as opposed to "yesterday's energy" of filthy hydrocarbons - as his Solar On A Shingle Speech. Even better, he phoned it in. It was a going-through-the-motions, desultory, listless performance with no fire. "I struggled to keep my eyes open, Jack," one Congressman told me. "He droned on and on, blathering about what he wants when he knows there's not the slightest chance we'll vote it. He even said he wants us to revive the dead DREAM Act! What a space cadet... we're all calling him President Sputnik now."
AMERICA CAN NO LONGER AFFORD BARACK OBAMA
Americans are growing impatient with a White House that still just doesn't get it. The President proves he doesn't understand that the biggest challenge facing our economy is today's runaway debt when he states we want to make sure "we don't get buried under a mountain a debt." That's the problem! We are buried under Mt. McKinley-sized debt. It's at the heart of what is crippling our economy and taking our jobs. This is the concern that should be on every leader's mind. Our country's future is at stake, and we're rapidly reaching a crisis point. Our government is spending too much, borrowing too much, and growing too much. Debt is stifling our private sector growth, and millions of Americans are desperately looking for work. So, what was the President's response? At a time when we need quick, decisive, and meaningful action to stop our looming debt crisis, President Obama gave us what politicians have for years: promises that more federal government "investment" (read: more government spending) is the solution. What he is really promising America is a bullet train to bankruptcy. Our country can simply no longer afford Barack Obama.
WHY THE LEFT BLOOD LIBELED SARAH PALIN
A primary goal of the American Left is to attach a sense of criminality and violence to the American Right in order to make it socially and otherwise unpalatable to support or otherwise identify with it. By calling the Left out for its behavior, Sarah Palin exposed its agenda. But the logic of the blood libel remained. Trusting the public's ignorance and the liberal Jewish community's solidarity, the leftist media in the U.S. immediately condemned Palin for daring to use the term, hinted she was an anti-Semite for doing so, and argued that by defending herself, she was again inciting violence. Many conservative thinkers and politicians have long viewed Palin as a liability. By remaining in the spotlight, they allege, Palin is helping the Left. They argue that the media have already destroyed her ability to communicate with non-conservatives. Since she is viewed as a conservative leader, by failing to shut up she is making it impossible for other potential leaders whom the media don't despise to connect with the swing voters they will need to unseat Obama in 2012. This position does more than harm Palin. It matter not whether these conservative thinkers support Palin. What matters is that by telling her not to defend herself from libelous attacks, they are accepting the Left's right to criminalize all conservatives.
GAY TYRANNY IN BRITAIN
If you live in Britain, here's a question shortly coming to an examination paper near you. What have mathematics, geography or science to do with homosexuality? Nothing at all, you say? Zero marks for you, then. For, mad as this may seem, British schoolchildren are to be bombarded with homosexual references in maths, geography and science lessons as part of a UK Government-backed drive to promote the gay agenda. In geography, for example, they will be told to consider why homosexuals move from the countryside to cities. In maths, they will be taught statistics through census findings about the number of homosexuals in the population. In science, they will be directed to animal species such as emperor penguins and sea horses, where the male takes a lead role in raising its young. Alas, this gay curriculum is no laughing matter. Absurd as it sounds, this is but the latest attempt to brainwash children with propaganda under the camouflage of education. It is an abuse of childhood.
HOW CONGRESS CAN QUICKLY OVERTURN ROE V. WADE
"I am committed to protecting this constitutional right," announced President Zero in his commemoration of the 38th anniversary of the most constitutionally ludicrous - and murderous - Supreme Court decision in US history, Roe v. Wade on Saturday (1/22). Thanks to the Revolution of Nov. 2nd, Roe is being targeted as never before, and exactly where it should be: in the states. 29 states now have pro-life governors, and in 15 of them, pro-life legislators control both legislative chambers. In dozens of states this year, pro-life laws are going to be passed, such as banning abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy and mandating ultrasound screenings. Meanwhile, back on Capitol Hill, the House is going to fully defund Planned Parenthood and any use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions in any way. At last the pro-life forces are on the offense while pro-abortion forces are playing defense. However... the ACLU, NOW, and every other liberal legal outfit will try to stymie these efforts in court. They will find some pro-abortion federal judge somewhere to block them or tie them up for years on appeals. What if there were a way to short-circuit the whole appeal process? What if there were a Constitutional short-cut to overturning Roe v. Wade? There is.
HALF-FULL REPORT 01/21/11
We begin with an important announcement: The dates of the Vegas Rendezvous are Friday, May 6 to Sunday, May 8. Miko is nailing down the best hotel - although he says he'd like to know if you prefer one Downtown (less expensive) or on/near The Strip. Let him know at [email protected]. We'll have details soon. But we wanted you to know the dates so you could begin planning. See you in Vegas! * * * * * There's little doubt about who is the HFR Hero of the Week, right? Who else but Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, along with all 174 members of the Republican Study Committee, "the caucus of conservatives" in the House, proposing budget cuts of $2.5 trillion. They are going to teach Americans a civics lesson that will be the most memorable in modern history. This is the lesson of the great legislative asymmetricality enshrined in the Constitution only rarely taught. Finally, this supreme example of the genius of the Founders will be learned, to the enormous benefit of America and to the utter anguish of the Left.
THE COMING ASSASSINATION OF SARAH PALIN
This is what truly terrifies me. Every American should pray to God that it won't happen. Yet the fear of it keeps me up at nights. The death of Sarah Palin by an assassin's bullet could very well prove to be the death of America - and the Left wants both. The Left hates Sarah Palin for the same reasons it hates America - for Sarah Palin embodies the very best of America and its values, as she is the literal embodiment of the American Dream. The "climate of hate" the Left constantly accuses the Right of creating is a creation of theirs. The examples of vicious vitriol towards President Bush, including a film depicting his assassination (it won awards and praise from film critics), were so innumerable they gave rise to a distinct form of mental disorder: BDS, Bush Derangement Syndrome. PDS, Palin Derangement Syndrome, is BDS on steroids laced with LSD. It's a brain infection that's been on full display by the Enemedia and the Loughner Left since the Tucson Massacre. To their frustration, this latest attempt to destroy her has failed. After her address to the nation accusing them of blood libel, polls found that her popularity had increased rather than plummeted. Thus the Loughner Left is more enraged at her than ever. Which is why there are news reports of an "incredible" spike in death threats against her.
DEFUNDING OBAMACARE
Tomorrow (1/19), as one of the first acts of this 112th Congress, the House is due to pass language I introduced to repeal Obamacare: "as if such Act had not been enacted." America's voters sent Republicans a mandate for repeal in November, and I have long argued that we have an obligation to keep faith with them by taking swift action to fulfill our campaign promises. Holding a repeal vote at the outset of the new Congress eliminates doubts as to our commitment. It also reflects my frequently expressed belief that repealing Obamacare should be Congress's top priority. Now, I look forward to working with my colleagues on the next part of my Obamacare repeal strategy: attaching language to block funding for its implementation and enforcement onto every appropriations bill or continuing resolution from this point forward.
HALF-FULL REPORT 1/14/11
Whoa. Let's hope the rest of 2011's weeks aren't as intense as this one. Here's one key focus. Remember two weeks ago (12/31/10), the HFR predicted that 2011 would see Black Swans of the Right? That "black swan" game-changing events out of the blue precipitating a crisis, which the left specializes in using to expand government power, would now turn in our favor instead? That's what happened when the Loughner Left jumped the shark with the Arizona Massacre. The very term "Loughner Left" has gone viral on the Web. The label I gave the Enemedia on Tuesday (01/11) has stuck and quickly. What didn't stick is the Enemedia's grotesque attempt to blame the Arizona Massacre on Sarah Palin, the Tea Parties, and all conservatives in general. The great majority of Americans laughed at the accusation - and so did John Boehner and the Republicans in Congress. Thus Boehner & Cantor are proceeding with the straight up-and-down vote on HR 2, to take place next Tuesday (1/18). They even shrugged at the Dems' demand they change the bill's name due to it's "violent" rhetoric. It remains entitled: Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act. Note the word: repealing. As we saw in Making Boehner's Bones, Boehner intends to repeal ObamaCare outright, not just defund it piecemeal.
THE ENDLESS LIBERAL RACIST MASSACRE
Since Saturday (1/08), our media have reveled in the aftermath of the avoidable slaughter in Tucson, where a young madman - ignored by "tolerant" social, educational and law-enforcement systems - gunned down, among others, a federal judge and a nine-year-old girl, while gravely wounding a Congresswoman reaching out to her constituents. Caught out in his incompetence, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Arizona's Pima County, railed against conservatives, whom the "lawman" blamed for the massacre on his turf. Other leftists rushed to blame the Tea Party (conveniently overlooking the murderer's internet claim that The Communist Manifesto was one of his favorite books-oops!). The fact is that the shooter wasn't a political creature, but a psychopath. And a hyper-liberal social climate allowed him to go unchecked, despite no end of warning signs and documented complaints from his fellow citizens. Meanwhile, another massacre occurred on the doorstep of our nation's capital, but the media and left-wing activists ignored it. That's because it was part of the Endless Liberal Racist Massacre.
MAKING BOEHNER’S BONES
As the Loughner Lefties at the New York Times realized they jumped the shark in blaming the Arizona Massacre on Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Right, they smoothly shifted their strategy yesterday (1/12). In a transparent ploy to monkey wrench the 112th Congress' program to dismantle ObamaCare and other Dem disasters, the NYT is now claiming that Boehner & Co must "play a less partisan role," and not "allow the House to slide back into confrontational politics." Translation: Republicans need to surrender to the Democrats. And Boehner's response? As Eliza Doolittle said to Professor Henry Higgins, "Not bloody likely!" Zero and the Dems (and the Enemedia) are going to get the shock of their lives when they learn what Boehner has planned for them. Get ready for this, folks, for it's going to knock the polka dots off your undies. This is going to make Boehner's bones.
WE WILL NOT BE STOPPED FROM CELEBRATING THE GREATNESS OF OUR COUNTRY
There is a bittersweet irony that the strength of the American spirit shines brightest in times of tragedy. We saw that in Arizona. We saw the tenacity of those clinging to life, the compassion of those who kept the victims alive, and the heroism of those who overpowered a deranged gunman. Like many, I've spent the past few days reflecting on what happened and praying for guidance. After this shocking tragedy, I listened at first puzzled, then with concern, and now with sadness, to the irresponsible statements from people attempting to apportion blame for this terrible event. President Reagan said, "We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions." Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state, not with those who listen to talk radio, not with maps of swing districts used by both sides of the aisle, not with law-abiding citizens who respectfully exercise their First Amendment rights at campaign rallies, not with those who proudly voted in the last election.
THE LOUGHNER LEFT
Do you know what the editors of the New York Times look like? Would you recognize them if you saw them? We all know what leftie talking heads on television look like, such as Chrissie Mathews, Keith Olberman, Katie Couric, et al. But how about Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos website, the bloggers of the Democratic Underground, or the writers of the New York Daily News? Now we know what they all look like. Even the talking heads, now we know what they really look like. From this moment on, this is the face they all have, the face that will appear in our mind's eye picture of them whenever we read what they write or hear what they say. This face:
HALF-FULL REPORT 1/07/11
Hasn't this been quite a first week of 2011? It started bizarrely for me with a flood of emails and calls Monday morning (1/03) asking if I was still alive or dead in a dumpster. The Drudge Report was carrying this headline in red letters: Reagan Aide Jack Wheeler Murdered, Body Found in Landfill I had to reassure everyone that:
It's not me. I'm not in a dumpster in a landfill -- I'm home in my easy chair writing this. John Wheeler was always getting confused with me in Washington as he liked to be called by his nickname Jack (like John/Jack Kennedy). I ran into him several times at different DC functions and found him to be a very nice fellow. But I'm no John, just Jack. This is a terrible tragedy and a mysterious one. But for all those who've emailed their concern, it's not me, I'm fine.* * * * * Tuesday morning (1/04) began with an all-together different phone call. My wife answered, and tears quickly began streaming down her face. They were tears of relief and joy - for our son was back home from war. Brandon's unit, 2/6 Marines, saw more combat than perhaps any other in Afghanistan during the last six months, for they were deep in Apache country: Helmand Province. 17 of his men are not coming back. He is so thankful for all the prayers TTPers sent his way that helped sustain him. His mother and I are so thankful for his service with honor, and his safe return. It is with so much pride that we salute our son, Capt. Brandon Wheeler, USMC, and all those who served with him. * * * * * Wednesday morning (1/05) America got to say goodbye to Speaker-no-more Pelosi. It was a sickeningly long goodbye. Electric day-glo blue suit, perfectly coiffed and streak-blonde dyed hair, perfectly frozen smile, perfect oleaginous delivery, Pelosi Galore thought the moment was all about her with her endless and endlessly obnoxious self-serving speech - 12 minutes! Would she ever shut up? - before finally turning the gavel and speakership over to John Boehner. Thank God she's gone. No one has to pay any attention to her ever again. She's history.
GERMANS MUST NOT BECOME STRANGERS IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY
Uncontrolled immigration may at any time threaten the state structures and undermine the stability of a society. The Chinese empire therefore had its Great Wall, the Romans had their Limes. At no time were the securing of the territory and the regulation of immigration something trivial. The complications arising from these issues threatened states and societies to their core and penetrated them deeply. And each time they were accompanied by orgies of bloodletting and violence. In the German media this is frequently concealed. Immigration issues are often treated with a raised admonitory finger, and an attitude that probably can be the best characterized with the slogan: "Peep, peep, peep! We all just love each other." This approach is as unhistorical as it is silly. The growing influx in many European countries are consequences of the predominantly unhistorical, naïve and opportunistic migration policy of European governments. In all countries concerned - whether Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark or Norway - one makes similar observations about the group of Moslem migrants, namely:
THE ANTIPODAL SUCCESS OF CLOWARD-PIVEN
If you Google "Cloward-Piven" plus "Obama" you'll get over 53,000 hits. The "Cloward-Piven Strategy" has been fingered by dozens of conservative academics and pundits as the roadmap Zero is using to drive America to ruin. In 1966, Richard Cloward and his wife Francis Fox Piven, as hard-core Marxist professors of sociology at Columbia, wrote an article in the premier journal of the left, The Nation, that launched their strategy: The Weight of the Poor. That strategy is defined as forcing political change through orchestrated crisis. Its goal is to precipitate the replacement of capitalism with Marxist socialism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse. Sure sounds like exactly what Zero is doing, right? And sure enough, as we enter 2011, we find the Cloward-Piven Strategy succeeding in spades - antipodally. Webster's defines "antipode" as 1) of or relating to diametrically opposite points on the earth's surface (e.g., the antipode of the North Pole is the South Pole), and 2) exactly or diametrically opposite. That is, Zero, Pelosi & Reid put C-P into effect masterfully, and the result is just what the theory predicted - collapse - except that the revolution this effected was a bourgeois middle-class taxpayer one that is replacing the Democrats' socialism with a renewal of economic liberty and capitalism. Cloward & Piven's impoverished masses - "the workers" - rising up to smash The System turned out to be patriotic God Bless America Tea Partyers! You just don't get irony better than this. Call it antipodal irony.
HALF-FULL REPORT 12/31/10
Finally, finally, finally... 2010 is over. At last we can get on with 2011, the year America's Rescue begins. I can hardly wait. So can the TTP Forum's "Mae" - Lynda Mae Calhoun, who thanks in no small part to your prayers had a successful surgery and is well on the road to recovery. Congratulations, Mae! Paul Ryan can't wait for 2011 either. You learned about what he's up to in Barry’s Dream yesterday (12/30). Now there's an Update. House Dems got the vapors last night when they learned that Ryan, as Chairman of the Budget Committee, will have the power to set spending ceilings without a vote of the full House. This is a big deal. Any budget that comes out of Congress now cannot exceed Ryan's limits, which will force really serious spending cuts. Add this to Boehner's replacing the Dems' "pay-go" fraud (they exempted all their giant spending bills from it), with the Pubs' "cut-go" rule. This requires that any increase in one government program (including entitlements!!) mandates a concomitant decrease in another. Cut-go forbids any entitlement spending increase be made up with tax increases. All next year, it's going to be like witnesses to Dante's Inferno to sit in the House Gallery and gaze down upon Dems writhing in agony on the House Floor like it's the bottom rung of Hell. When they realize the torture is likely to be eternal - i.e., for the rest of their political lives - expect a lot of them to call it quits.
BARRY’S DREAM
Ah... you may think this is about Barry Soetoro's dream to ruin America. Nope, this is about another Barry, who once upon a time was also a US Senator who ran for president. His dream was to rescue America. Americans were disastrously bamboozled into electing one Barry and just as disastrously not the other. Fifty years ago, the other Barry wrote down his dream. Just think of how much greater, how much safer, how much richer, and how much freer we would all be today if Americans had the brains and courage back then to put him in the White House instead of his precise opposite. But what's happened happened, and we are where we are, not where we might have been. For where we are right now, poised to enter 2011, is possessing the best chance to make Barry's Dream come true than at any time in the ensuing half-century. It may be our last chance, but perhaps for that very reason it is our best chance.
COMMITTING TO VICTORY
Since Operation Cast Lead two years ago, Iran has helped Hamas massively increase its missile and other military capabilities. Today the terror group that rules Gaza has missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv. It has advanced antitank missiles. As Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said Saturday (12/25), “We are now stronger than before and during the war, and our silence over the past two years was only for evaluating the situation.”
That evaluation has not tempered Hamas’s aim of annihilating the Jews of Israel. As Obeida’s colleague Ahmed Jaabari said Saturday, Israel’s Jews have two choices, “death or departing Palestinian lands.”
Last week the PA announced it will ask the UN Security Council to pass an anti-Semitic resolution defining Jewish building in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem as illegal. This move dovetails nicely with PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’s statement over the weekend that “Palestine” will be Jew-free.
As Abbas put it, “If there is an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, we won’t agree to the presence of one Israeli in it. When a Palestinian state is established, it would have no Israeli presence.”
To date neither of these racist bids to deny Jews basic rights to their homes and land just because they are Jews has been opposed by any government or human rights group. This includes, of course, the Obama Administration.
There is only one way for Israel to counter the Palestinians’ war plans for 2011: commit to victory over them.
HALF-FULL REPORT 12/24/10
Merry Christmas Eve! It's a good time to turn our eyes towards Heaven, for the Congress from Hell has finally ended. The Enemedia is celebrating the 111th Congress and its Lame Schmuck Session as "the most productive in history," modern or even ever. That's certainly true if you, as does the Enemedia, have a Hate-America agenda. For anyone Pro-America, the 111th has been the most destructive in US history, modern or even ever. So - the multi-trillion dollar, fate-of-America question is: will the 112th ride to America's rescue and undo the damage? The scientifically precise answer is... Maybe. The Zero Presidency and Reid-Pelosi Congress have made many folks aware of this terrifying truth: that Democrats are more dangerous to America than terrorists. The damage any conceivable attack on America perpetrated by Moslem crazies is miniscule compared to the damage Democrats have already wrought upon our country in the last two years - and they intend via their Man in the White House to perpetrate vastly more. This just-ended Lame Schmuck Congress adds an instructive codicil to this: that RINO Republicans are just as dangerous as America-destroying Democrats.
THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
I want to wish you the Merriest of Christmases this Saturday, but according to the song, the First Day of Christmas is the day after Christmas, December 26. Ancient Christians celebrated "The Holidays," as our militant secularists insist on referring to them now, starting with the day after the birth of Jesus and ending on January 6th with the visit of the Magi in Matthew 2:11 known as the Epiphany. Start with 12/26 and end with 1/6 and you get: the Twelve Days of Christmas. You may be really tired of hearing Christmas songs by now, including this one, yet you may still be wondering what the heck partridges in a pear tree and eight maids a-milking have to do with the birth of the founder of Christianity. So I thought we might take a break from Serious Thoughts About World Events, and take a look at the song's origin, meaning, and current urban myth. For it turns out that all of the song's twelve gifts are Christian symbols.