Targets and Temper Tantrums

By William L. Garvin

Heads up, Mitt…you’re about to be Palin-ized by the main stream media.  No matter what you say or do, you will be subjected to blatant distortions by the mainstream media propaganda arm of the Democrat party.  You undoubtedly expected the 118,775 broadcasts of negative commercials by the Obama campaign (according to the New York Times) but you probably never expected the manufactured controversies of the media.  You’ll be damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

That’s the way liberal media works because numbers are boring.  There’s forty-one straight months of unemployment over 8%; there’s four straight years of $1 trillion deficits; there’s a $16 trillion national debt; there’s record numbers of people in poverty; there’s record numbers of people on food stamps; there’s the lowest workforce participation rate in fifty years.  The GDP only grew at 1.5% last quarter, which is one-third what a healthy economy needs.  This is the slowest recovery ever yet there’s a president who thinks the private sector is “doing fine.”  He says his economic plan is working and tells private sector business that “you didn’t build that” but that’s all boring.

Instead, let’s fabricate controversy out of your use of the word “disconcerting” in reference to the London Olympics.  Let’s fabricate a controversy if you praise Israel.  Let’s fabricate suspicions about the tax returns you’ve filed with IRS.  Let’s demand every detail of every tax return even though only seventeen members of Congress released their returns to McClatchy News.  Let’s criticize your overseas investments even though it’s estimated that Nancy Pelosi made $1-4 million dollars from her Asian investments last year.  Of course she refuses to release her tax returns.  Let’s fabricate and distort your role at Bain Capital.  Let’s speculate about the role your religion will play in how you would govern but ignore the impact of Reverend Wright and Black Liberation theology.  Let’s fully explore your every childhood prank but ignore the President’s two years of high school as a self-professed “stoner.”

Truth will not matter.  Facts will not matter.  It’s true that the traffic patterns and security concerns in London resulted in monumental traffic jams.  It’s a fact that British airport workers were talking about going on strike during the Olympics.  It’s true that the government had to activate thousands of military personnel because private security was inadequate.  A rational person might just think that would be “disconcerting” and “wonder how it will play out.”  If you’re the anti-Obama, that will be enough to turn the stiff upper lip of the Brits into pouting petulance and political tantrums.  It spontaneously combusts the vulture media into a frothing frenzy.  However, in a rare moment of lucidity for MSNBC, their resident Brit, Piers Morgan, admitted that there was “nothing factually inaccurate” about what you said.

If you subsequently praise an ally such as Israel by pointing out that their per capita GDP is higher than surrounding countries, expect to be skewered and Chick-fil-A’d.  If you praise Israel’s entrepreneurial and start up ingenuity, expect it to be linked to your insensitivity to Palestinians.  Of course the President’s State Department can say that the status of Jerusalem is “subject to negotiations” and the President’s press secretary can refuse to state that Jerusalem is the capital and holiest city in Judaism but that’s not being insensitive to Israelis.

When you’re a media creation, you can give away billions of dollars in taxpayer money to your campaign donors and their green energy companies while the media refuses to cover or investigate.  You can watch them dole out huge bonuses to corporate cronies just before they declare bankruptcy.  If you’re a Democrat, you can say there’s a language called “Austrian.”  You can refuse to release college or health records.  You can take “poetic license” with your autobiography.  You can say there’s a Mexican holiday called “Cinco de Quatro.”  You can say there are fifty-seven states.  You can repeatedly say the military has a position known as “corpse-man.”  None of these gaffes will be conspicuously noted in order to perpetuate the contrived “brilliant intellectual” media myth.  You, however, Governor Romney, will find every word you utter distorted, disparaged and distributed in prime time but the apologies (if they exist) will be late night on the weekend.  All the charges will be in bold headlines on the front page but the acquittals and exonerations will be in fine print on the back page.  You will be Palin-ized!

Taxing Patience, Credibility, and Sanity

By William L. Garvin

(My prayers and condolences go out to the victims, their families and friends in Aurora.  May God hold them all in His comforting arms.)

What is wrong with them?  Why won't they learn?  Why do they circle the victims like vultures over carrion waiting to strip the flesh from the aching hearts of grieving families?  Again, the mainstream media rush to judgment is as irresponsible as the instantaneous froth and fury that erupted on the internet.  However, it's easier to understand the "cheep tweets from the cheap seats" in cyberspace than the harmful and erroneous "reporting" by "respected" journalists.

Last week, The Washington Examiner published an article speculating that the villain in the latest Batman movie, who was named Bane, would be tied to Romney and Bain Capital.  Rush Limbaugh tied his radio show commentary on this article into Hollywood's liberal bias.  Both missed the fact that Bane attacked the wealthy, the one percent of Gotham City.  Furthermore, Chuck Dixon (who created Bane for DC Comics in 1993) immediately refuted the Examiner article saying "Bane is a force for evil and the destruction of the status quo. He's far more akin to an Occupy Wall Street type if you're looking to cast him politically. And if there ever was a Bruce Wayne running for the White House it would have to be Romney."  Nonetheless, after the Aurora theater massacre, cybersilly was filled with the usual acerbic vitriol blaming Limbaugh for the acts of the murderer.  Predictably, they were also shrieking for gun control and the confiscation of weapons, second amendment and its supporters be damned.  This sort of no holds barred invective, while crass and undesirable, is tolerated on the internet.

What should not be tolerated is the irresponsible reporting by ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Good Morning America anchor and Chief Investigative Reporter, Brian Ross.  Mark Twain said "Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please."  This was obviously the intent in the following exchange:  Stephanopoulos-- I'm going to go to Brian Ross. You've been investigating the background of Jim Holmes here. You found something that might be significant.  Ross--There's a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, page on the Colorado Tea party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last year. Now, we don't know if this is the same Jim Holmes. But it's Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado.  Stephanopoulos--Okay, we'll keep looking at that. Brian Ross, thanks very much.  There are several people in Aurora with the name of Jim Holmes but they chose to focus on the single name with Tea Party connections even though he was more than twice the age of the shooter who was already in custody.  They previously tried to blame Sarah Palin and talk radio for the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords;  Dan Rather swore by an obviously forged document, and they previously tried to blame Christians for the Oklahoma City bombing.   All these slanted presentations of political biases were broadcast under the guise of news.  Here they go again.  Since both ABC and NBC have recently admitted doctoring videotapes which they incessantly repeated on "news" programs, this is just one more nail in the disintegrating coffin of mainstream media objectivity.

In the twenty-four hour news cycle of modern times, there is an insane rush to get it first.  This primal force trumps the need to get it right.  When this is coupled with an editorial bias, the result is the airwaves and the print media are merely extensions of the political battleground.  As has been noted, "In war, the first casualty is truth."    Make no mistake about it, this is not an "inadvertent" or isolated example; this is the status quo.  This is a deliberate strategy.

Of course, ABC and Brian Ross have subsequently apologized but as usual, it's too little and too late.  Jim Holmes, the fifty-two year old conservative Hispanic has had to disconnect his telephone because of the death threats he is receiving.  He also has to worry about his family and friends.  How are you going to unring the bell, ABC?  As Winston Churchill noted, "A lie can get half way around the world before the truth can get its pants on."  ABC and these two should be hanging their heads in shame.

P.S.  To the pusillanimous troglodyte author of my recently received hate mail:  If I couldn't spell any better than you, I wouldn't sign my name either!  Have a nice day.  Bill 
 

Felonious Assaults Against Logic

By William L. Garvin

So let me get this straight, the president who has ZERO business experience and whose staff is shockingly devoid of business knowledge or experience wants to focus on Mitt Romney’s business success?  Well, not exactly.  Stephanie Cutter, the president’s deputy campaign manager, prefers to charge that Romney is a felon rather than address the president’s failed economic policies.  It’s another blatant attempt to deflect and diffuse.

With forty-one straight months of unemployment over 8%, with real unemployment at 14.9%, with the labor participation rate being at an all time low, he needs to pretend there’s a smoking gun in Romney’s previous tax returns.  Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former white house aide, continued the color inside the character assassination lines:  “Whatever is in there is far worse than the first year.”  As mayor of Chicago, one might surmise that “Dead Fish” Rahm is somewhat of an expert on felonies, murders, and cover-ups.  However, with an extension of the same “guilty until proven innocent” reasoning, how should we view the “executive privilege” refusal to provide the documentation of the “Fast and Furious” fiasco by the president, Eric Holder, and the Department of Justice?  There MUST be something terribly damning to the president and the attorney general that is “far worse” than what we already know!

In the president’s illogical world, all success is granted by government.  He said as much last Friday:  “If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen."  Being a self-made multi-millionaire is a presidential crime if you’re the food stamp president.  Of course, it’s not a felony if you marry it like John Kerry or inherit it like John Kennedy…and you’re a democrat.  Keep throwing it against the wall…something might stick.  Romney should release his tax returns right after the president releases his college transcripts and the corrected version of his “composite” autobiography.

Then there’s the NAACP booing Mitt Romney for promising to repeal ObamaTax, aka ObamaCare.  Unlike the president, Romney showed up.  Who did the president send?  Joe Biden, the court jester and gaffe master supreme.  If you’re into imagining insults (as they are), there’s one right there.  Of course Eric Holder also showed up to illogically equate voter identification with poll taxes.  Ironically, the NAACP required identification to gain access to their conference.  With his obsessive need to sue sovereign states, Holder is doing all he can to keep Florida from purging dead people from their rolls.  As Obama, Emanuel, Axelrod, Daley, et al from the Chicago political scene knows, the dead can rise from their graves…to vote early and vote often!

Then there’s the outrage manifested by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid over the USA Olympic team uniforms being made in China.  He wants to gather them up, put them in a pile and “burn them.”  Now he could have been outraged that we have the highest corporate tax rates in the world.  He could have been outraged that the Obama anti-business policies are driving manufacturing business out of the country.  He could have been outraged that Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric and Obama job czar, is moving their x-ray division from Michigan to China.  He could have been outraged that GE paid no corporate taxes.  He could have been outraged that the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is being made with steel from China.

He could be outraged about the General Motors manufacturing plants in China, Spain, Venezuela, Russia, South Africa, France, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Thailand, Australia, Ecuador, Japan, India, South Korea, England, Vietnam, Poland, or Egypt.  He could be outraged that the president’s budget couldn’t get a single democrat vote.  He could be outraged that he hasn’t passed a budget in three years.  He could be outraged that the president unilaterally gutted the bipartisan Welfare Reform Act signed by Bill Clinton.  He could be outraged that the Navy is spending $26 per gallon for biofuels instead of $3.60 at a time when the military budget is being cut $500 million.

He could be outraged about Egyptians throwing shoes and tomatoes at the Secretary of State.  He could be outraged about Iran being appointed to the United Nations Committee on the Status of Women.  But no…he chooses to wax apoplectic about Olympic team uniform manufacturers even though they receive no taxpayer dollars.  I suppose that’s actually an improvement.  At least he’s no longer fixated on cowboy poetry, college football playoffs, steroid use or bad boxing decisions.

"Devolution” of the Teaching Profession

By William L. Garvin
When the UAW fights and gets jobs back for Chrysler workers caught drinking booze and smoking dope on their lunch breaks, it’s bad.  When the California Teachers Association blocks a proposed law to streamline procedures for terminating teachers in cases of sexual and other egregious conduct, it’s quite another matter.  Such is the latest chapter in the “devolution” of the teaching profession.
For those of us who grew up in an era where female teachers wore dresses and male teachers wore coats and ties, the contrast is striking.  While the coarse and arrogant contemporary culture likes to mock the mythical Mayberry days, there are some startling contrasts.  “Back then,” students who didn’t do their homework or failed tests were flunked and held back a grade.  Not everyone made the team and not everyone who made the team got to play.  There was only one valedictorian and only one Most Valuable Player.  You were graded on performance and citizenship.  The teachers seemed to like us but in that bygone era of accountability, they seemed more concerned in our ability to master the fundamentals of reading, writing, mathematics and the sequential knowledge skills of a higher order than our self esteem.  Interestingly enough, we didn’t know if they were Republicans, Democrats, communists or socialists, gay or straight.  We didn’t know if they believed in Jesus Christ, Buddha, Mohammed or no god at all.  If they were union activists, their discussions on labor matters were confined to the teacher or faculty lounge.
It’s a radically different teaching world today and there seem to be no restraints on activism in or out of the classroom.  It is easy to recall the teachers who deserted their classrooms to join the protests in Madison, Wisconsin.  They appeared totally at ease on camera falsifying their sick leave and getting phony doctor’s excuses from government university doctors.  Teachers in Oakland even took their students with them to join the Occupy movement protests.  When teachers go on strike, they often encourage their students to walk the picket lines “in solidarity.”  The lines of propriety in terms of sexual conduct are also being breached with increasing frequency.  If you think it is only a minor problem, you might be shocked to know that last year the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing was audited and found to have a backlog of 12,600 cases!  After two shameful, disgusting, and highly publicized cases of sexual misconduct in Los Angeles schools, legislation was introduced to expedite the disciplinary process.
Even in cases of serious sexual misconduct, administrative discipline often takes years and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.  The proposed legislation would require an evidentiary review of the charges with full due process rights before an administrative law judge.  The ALJ would then present a recommendation for disposition to the school board who would then decide the discipline (which could still be appealed in court).  CTA brought their political muscle to bear and killed the bill in committee, proving once again that they are probably the most potent union force in governmental politics today.  According to Wikipedia, “The CTA is the most influential spender in California politics, spending more money on politicians and to influence California voters than Chevron, AT&T, Philip Morris and Western States Petroleum Association combined.”  It’s not about the children after all, is it?  As Albert Shanker, the former president of the American Federation of Teachers reportedly said: “When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children.”  CTA has proven the truth of his statement.
Of course, the vast majority of UAW members do not get stoned at lunch.  The vast majority of teachers do not molest their students.  In fact, many of these union members strongly object to their dues being used to defend those who should be fired!  Many of these same folks also object to the liberal political priorities and lavish lifestyles of their union leaders.  That’s why things changed in Wisconsin when the forced confiscation of dues was eliminated.  More than one-third of the American Federation of Teachers quit the union.  The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees lost 55% (34,000) of its members.  In the United States, only about 7% of the private sector remain union members.  If students were their top priority, a responsible union would want to have drug users and pedophiles eliminated from the workplace.  If the teachers can find a responsible union in California, then we might be able to save the children.

Tipping point on freedom in America

By William L. Garvin

 

"Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it."            Richard Lamm

As we celebrate the 4^th of July with barbecues, fireworks, parties and parades, it appears our country is marching inexorably towards a tipping point.  Rather than a Declaration of Independence, we are morphing into a Declaration of Dependence.  The rugged independence and spirit of self reliance that characterized our previous national success is quickly evolving into a sycophantic dependency on Big Government to solve all our problems and guarantee everyone every pleasure of their insatiable hearts.  The hand up is the perpetual hand out.  Equal opportunity is equated as equal success.  Government should provide you unlimited unemployment benefits, welfare, contraception, cell phones, food stamps, college educations and amnesty.  Government, not our Creator, is now the cornucopia of inalienable rights, benefits, and privileges.  Lost from the entitlement generation is the caution of William Jennings Bryan.  “The chief duty of governments, in so far as they are coercive, is to restrain those who would interfere with the inalienable rights of the individual, among which are the right to life, the right to liberty, the right to the pursuit of happiness and the right to worship God according to the dictates of one’s conscience.”

Take the Affordable Care Tax that has now been ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court.  Forget for the moment that it was a 2,700 page monstrosity passed in the middle of the night along Democrat party lines.  Forget that no one had read it.  Forget that no one could understand it.  Forget that it was never debated on CSPAN as President Obama promised.  Forget that Health and Human Services has now issued hundreds of thousands of pages of implementing regulations that will require an army of lawyers and accountants to decipher.  Forget the Cornhusker Kickback and the Louisiana Purchase.  Just deal with the basic supply and demand principle.  If thirty million more people will now have insurance and access to the health care system, where are the doctors and nurses going to come from to handle this additional workload?  Many states such as California are already suffering a physician shortage.  Throw a few million more Medicaid/MediCal patients into the mix and what do you think you will have?  First, you should anticipate that many Baby Boomer physicians will hit the retirement exit door sooner.  Secondly, expect many of the physicians who continue to practice to restrict or refuse MediCal and Medicare patients.  Thirdly, expect that the Independent Payment Advisory Board with their “complete lives system” philosophies will restrict the services and the level of compensation which will exacerbate the second point.  Remember that Obamacare is also taking $500 billion from Medicare and is supposed to reduce physician fees.  The Associated Press reports that 12.8 million people “start getting health insurance rebate checks in the coming months.”  Bernanke better get busy printing that money and Chinese IOUs!

The fourth point to consider is that affordable insurance does not equate to accessible care.  Given the excessive new patient workload and demand combined with the already deficient supply of medical personnel, delay in service is unavoidable.  The other unavoidable option is rationing.  Of course, the aforementioned Independent Payment Advisory Board would never consider that as an option.  After all, they’re the government and they are here to help.  You can trust them with your life…and you will!

Meanwhile, the new Muslim Brotherhood President of Egypt has vowed to secure the release of the “Blind Sheik,” who masterminded an attempted bombing of the World Trade Center.  Forgive and forget.  At the same time, Iraq’s government seems to be on the verge of collapse less than six months after the U.S. departure.  Approximately 234 people were killed in Iraq in June.  Finally, the European Union is placing further restrictions on Iran’s oil imports.  Not to worry though.  China has increased their oil imports from Iran by 22%, with U.S. approval.  Russia runs war games off the coast of Alaska.  Afghanistan and Pakistan continue to deteriorate and Russia stonewalls on Syria.  The President provides 800,000 lawbreakers with temporary amnesty.  The top law enforcement officer in the country, Eric Holder, is found in contempt but continues to stonewall and also receives presidential amnesty.  As Jonathan Swift aptly noted, “Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.”  We’ve reached a tipping point on freedom in America.