Nobody Knows Nothin’!

By William L. Garvin

 

From 1965-1971, HOGAN’S HEROES was a popular television series starring Bob Crane and a terrific assortment of supporting actors.  The plot centered on a group of prisoners in a German POW camp during World War Two.  The allied prisoners were headed up by Colonel Hogan who did his best to outsmart Colonel Klink, the camp commandant.  One of the most memorable characters was the rotund Sergeant Hans Georg Schultz, played by John Banner.   Schultz was an affable but inept prison guard who, whenever becoming aware of Hogan’s plans and schemes, adamantly proclaimed “I know nothing!  I see nothing!  I hear nothing!”   Sergeant Schultz was the prototype for the Obama administration leadership team.

 

When the mainstream media finally became aware of the “Fast and Furious” fiasco that put thousands of guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, the Obama administration knew, saw and heard nothing.  When a Department of Justice attorney resigned in protest of DOJ policy to not prosecute cases against minorities, (a la the New Black Panther Party), the Obama administration knew, saw and heard nothing.  The national debt is now over $16.8 trillion and this administration knows, sees, and does nothing.  The Keystone pipeline is still stalled by Environmental Protection Agency obstructions while crony capitalism “green” projects sail through but the Obama administration knows, sees and does nothing.

 

The Internal Revenue Service targets Tea Party and other conservative organizations for special scrutiny but fails to subject liberal organizations to similar onerous treatment; the Obama administration knows, sees and hears nothing.  The Department of Justice singles out Fox News reporters and AP reporters for criminal investigations but the Obama administration knows, sees and hears nothing.  Eric Holder’s signature on that subpoena is such an inconvenient truth!  Four Americans die in Benghazi after multiple requests for security are denied, military aid is not rendered, and someone smokes up a hot air concoction that an obscure video is the causative factor and the Obama administration knows, sees and hears nothing.  That’s how tyranny operates.

Take the case of “True the Vote”, a Houston-based nonprofit formed by Catherine Engelbrecht and her King Street Patriots Tea Party group.  In an interview, Ms. Engelbrecht describes the IRS abuse of power: “We applied for nonprofit C-3 status early in 2010. Since that time the IRS has run us through a gauntlet of analysts and hundreds of questions over and over again. They’ve requested to see each and every tweet I’ve ever tweeted or Facebook post I’ve ever posted. They also asked to know every place I’ve ever spoken since our inception and to whom, and everywhere I intend to speak in the future.”

Engelbrecht’s application allegedly triggered aggressive audits of one of her family’s personal businesses as well. The FBI began a series of inquiries about her and her group; the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms began demanding to see her family's firearms in surprise audits of her and her husband’s small gun dealership--which had done less than $200 in sales; Occupational Safety Hazards Administration audited their small family manufacturing business; and the EPA-affiliated TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environment Quality) did a surprise visit and audit due to “a complaint being called in.”  The Democratic Party of Texas filed a lawsuit against her; so did an ACORN affiliated group.  Ultimately, the IRS determined that it actually owed a refund to Engelbrecht; the BATF found nothing wrong in any of its repeated visits and audits; OSHA’s fine-toothed comb found reason to demand $25,000 from Engelbrecht’s family business; and TCEQ demanded the Engelbrechts spend $42,000 on additional storage sheds.  “This is what the beginning of tyranny looks like," Engelbrecht said.

 

The excuse offered up by David Axelrod, the President’s Chicago mouthpiece, is that government is just “too big” for one man to govern.  Actually, that is what the Tea Party has been saying all along.  If President Obama showed as much interest and enthusiasm for governing as he does for fundraising, he might not have to discover these scandals in the Friday newspapers.  However, it is impossible to believe that there was no knowledge of any of these situations in the White House.

 

If in fact, he is surprised by all these problematic issues (not to mention Democrats and unions protesting the ObamaCare “train wreck”!), it shows a fundamental lack of organizational discipline, a lack of communication within his executive team, and a lack of personal and professional accountability throughout governmental agencies.  Given the previous lack of presidential experience in management or leadership, the sad state of current governmental affairs was entirely predictable.  The lying, cover-ups and governmental oppressions were not.

 

Ostriches, Obfuscation, and Oscillation

By William L. Garvin

“Little wheels spin and spin, big wheels turn around and around; Little wheels spin and spin, big wheels turn around and around.”  Buffy Sainte-Marie

Finally! Some of the media ostriches have pulled their heads out of…the sand.  It’s a miracle to behold!  The White House press corps even asked the president’s press secretary some probing questions.  In response, Jay Carney’s water gulping made Marco Rubio look refined.  That’s what happens when you have no experience with challenges to your talking points or when a compliant media maven fawns over your every utterance.

 

You could obfuscate about a stimulus that didn’t stimulate and the media ostrich buried its head in the sand.  You could claim executive privilege when the chief executive said he was not involved in “Fast and Furious” and the media buried its head in the sand.  You could ignore the Department of Justice ignoring its duty to defend DOMA or enforce the laws against voter intimidation (a la the New Black Panther fiasco) and the media buried its head in the sand.  When a respected DOJ attorney resigned in protest over the overt discrimination in case selection, the media buried its head in the sand.  When lawsuits were filed over the targeting of applications for 501(c) 4 status and anything that mentioned tea party ”,“ patriot” or a conservative theme by the Internal Revenue Service, the press buried its head in the sand.  When question after legitimate question after legitimate question was raised about the murders in Benghazi, the press buried its head in the sand.  When Dr. Kenneth Gosnell was charged with murdering three babies out of the hundreds of late term abortions he performed, the press buried its head in the sand.  Maybe as Bob Dylan wrote, the times really are changing.  Some of his verses seem appropriate to the moment:

“Come senators, Congressmen

Please heed the call

Don't block at the doorway

Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

There's a battle outside

And it's ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows

And rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changin'”

 

So Gosnell has now been convicted of murder.  Where will the media heads be?  Now that the IRS has admitted they targeted the tea party, where will the media heads be?  Will they look at the applications that have been pending for up to four years?  Will they explore why the affected organizations were required to provide names of their donors and all of their emails for extended periods of time?  We’ve heard the President and the head of the IRS say they heard about the problem from the media just last Friday.  That’s simply more obfuscation.  The Inspector General’s report said that “a high-ranking IRS official knew as early as mid-2011 that conservative groups were being inappropriately targeted.”  A year later, the IRS Commissioner told a congressional committee that it wasn’t happening.  More lies and more obfuscation.  Why did congressional representatives of both parties let the matter drop and why did the press let it drop?

 

On top of that, it’s now known that the Secretary of State was personally told the night of the Benghazi atrocity that it was a terrorist attack.  It is now known that there were TWELVE revisions of the CIA talking points and all references to al Qaeda, terrorists, and Ansar al-Sharia were deliberately removed.  That is not a limited or “non-substantive involvement” as the White House claims.  It is also not a “distraction” as President Obama now claims.  It is also not malevolent or diabolical as Senator Feinstein obfuscated. 

 

You see, Hillary, it does make a difference.  Who denied the requests for additional security from the Benghazi compound?  It wasn’t budget cuts as proffered by Democrat apologists; the State Department is spending more money this year than last year!  Who made the decision to tell our troops to “stand down” and not go to the aid of the embattled Americans?  No one knew how long that attack was going to last.  No wonder the military force was “furious.”  Who invented and pushed the theory that some obscure video was to blame?  Maybe the press will oscillate to its original purpose and intent.  Maybe they will no longer accept the lies and obfuscation.  Maybe, just maybe, they will restore luster to their tarnished profession.

Crying in Their Liberal Beer

By William L. Garvin

 

“OMG! …Could it be? …Finally …It must be …Fantasy …is Reality … Catastrophe …blame Tea Party!”  Deep in the labyrinths of the liberal media mind, it is critical to make the dots and synapses connect to fit predetermined conclusions.  No hypothesis is suspect; no theorem is ill-founded; no syllogism is illogical if the conclusion fits their ideology.  Traditional journalistic principles take a back seat (if they are even allowed on the bus!) to the drumbeat of progressive propaganda.

 

Some have opined that the many mistakes made by the mainstream media in reporting on the Boston Marathon bombing emanated from the need to be first in the 24/7 news cycle.  There is a more primal and nefarious reason.  In the words of Chicago mayor and Democrat heavy hitter Rahm Emanuel: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."   The bombing crisis gave the progressive media mavens ample opportunity to conspire and contrive to influence the low information vote by massive disinformation.  The unvarnished truth is that they will go to any lengths and stoop to any low to disparage and impugn the character of any and every conservative voice or voter.

 

It’s not new.  Brian Ross of ABC News immediately and erroneously linked the Aurora Theater shooting to the Tea Party.  Janet Napolitano appeared to be more afraid of military veterans, pro-gun, pro-life, anti-illegal immigration or conservative Christian citizens than she was of Islamic extremists in her infamous 2009 memo.  Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Piers Morgan (two “Mouths that Roared”!), the Huffington Post and numerous mainstream journalists erroneously linked Sarah Palin and the Tea Party to the Gabby Giffords shooting.  At least Brian Ross apologized for his egregious errors.  Keith Olbermann (remember him?) should have made his own “worst person in the world” list for advocating ALL conservative talk show hosts be silenced.  Liberals will stand for anything but dissent.

 

But Boston takes the cake.  Before the smoke had even cleared, there was CNN’s “national security analyst” Peter Bergen intoning that “right wing extremism” could not be ruled out.  He also referenced “…right wing groups trying to attack…the Martin Luther King parade in Oregon in 2010.”  No such incident ever occurred but that’s beside the point.  MSNBC’s Chris (“The Human Car Wash”) Mathews spouted and spitted that “Normally domestic terrorists, people, tend to be on the far right.”  Excuse me?!  That’s the bile spewed by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Not a single perpetrator at Aurora, Columbine, Newtown, Tucson, or Virginia Tech belonged to the Tea Party, the NRA or the Republican Party!  But hope springs eternal in the liberal mind.

 

“Let’s hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American,” pleaded Salon’s David Sirota.  Michael Moore immediately tweeted “Tax Day. Patriot’s Day.” in his usual misguided attempt to lay blame.  Making Moore their muse, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer picked up the theme and waxed eloquently on the battles at Lexington and Concord and the Revolutionary War while Anderson Cooper speculated that “Tax Day” was when federal income taxes were due and that may have played a role!  Marching in lock step, ABC and NBC reprised other April scenes of violence:  Columbine, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma City and Waco.  ABC referred to Oklahoma City and Waco as “right wing attacks.”  All were liberal “dog whistles” to slander conservatives.

 

Now that the bombers have been identified as radical jihadists (or members of “conservative Islam,” according to the Los Angeles Times!), every effort seems to be made to make excuses for the younger brother.  Mama Jihadi has been given far more television than her hateful histrionics deserve.  Apparently the venom and vituperation displayed by the networks early on, hoping against hope that they finally had their homegrown conservative act of violence, is fully dissipated.  Now, it’s “let’s not rush to conclusions.”  Now, the survivor is just a normal pot smoking college kid who was under the sway and influence of the dead older brother.  Have some sympathy and understanding.  What a shame.  Why oh why couldn’t he have been a Tea Party leader?  Life just isn’t fair.  Especially when you work in progressive media and have an agenda to promote.  Barkeep, another beer, please;  this one’s full of tears.

Brave New (Progressive) World

By William L. Garvin 

As our culture quickly coarsens and lurches towards its self-proclaimed, progressive utopia, proponents of traditional values see nothing but a contemporary version of hell.  Liberal leaders continually assault faith, family, and self-reliance.  The trinity of faith, hope and charity is “evolving” into indolence, obesity and promiscuity.  Acts and actions that were heretofore unthinkable seem to be all too commonplace in this contemporary secular society. 

Take the case of Dr. Kermit Gosnell and his “House of Horrors” abortion clinic.  How could any individual possibly conceive of making a living by killing late term babies?  Finally on trial for eight counts of murder, the doctor’s obscene practice and methodology is enough to turn the stomach of any rational member of the human species.  In filthy conditions, using barbaric, outdated, and unsterile equipment, and utilizing unskilled staff, he would induce labor in late term pregnancies, deliver the babies, and then…sever their spines with scissors!  What kind of society would foster such a monster? 

It could only come in a world where the value of life is deemphasized and no longer viewed as sacred.  A perfect example of this “progressive” thought came from Alisa LaPolt Snow of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates.  This Planned Parenthood spokeswoman was being questioned about the Florida implementation of the federal Born Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002.  Florida Representative Jim Boyd asked her “If a baby is born on a table as a result of a botched abortion, what would Planned Parenthood want to have happen to that child that is struggling for life?”  The nonplussed Ms. Snow replied “Well, we believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician.”  In other words, a living, breathing baby could be left to die by this inhuman proposition and is entitled to neither life, nor liberty, nor the pursuit of happiness!  What morally repugnant blackness of soul could possibly allow this to occur?  Unfortunately, this mirrors the pro-abortion and non-support of “born alive” bills that President Obama exhibited as a state senator in Illinois! 

Abortion is big business in this country and the largest provider of abortion services in the United States is Planned Parenthood.  According to their latest annual report, they “performed” 332,278 abortions in 2009; another 329,445 in 2010; and a record 333,964 in 2011!  There is no question that Gabrielle Giffords, the Newtown school children, and the Aurora theater victims deserve a vote but Mr. President, ONE MILLION babies also deserve a vote! 

Currently, approximately 52% of Americans identify themselves as “pro-life,” but are forced to support Planned Parenthood with their tax dollars.  An analysis by the Susan B. Anthony List states that PP received record taxpayer funding of $542 million dollars via government grants, government contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements this last year.  This is nearly half their annual budget.  However, Planned Parenthood has REDUCED their contraception services by 12% and their prevention services by 29% since 2009.  The way to make money is committing abortions and getting the message out that “there’s nothing wrong with killing your babies.” 

These views are reinforced in tangential fashion by commentators such as MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry’s observation that we must “…break through the private idea that kids belong to their parents.”  As presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton once opined: “It takes a village.”  Even the legal system seems predisposed to assaulting traditional values.  A federal judge ordered the Food and Drug Administration to allow girls under the age of 17 to purchase the “morning after” pill without a prescription or parental notification.  Let’s give them free condoms, free contraception, free abortions, promote promiscuity, and then act shocked when huge numbers of youth are carrying sexual transmitted diseases! 

This tableau requires an extension of government responsibility and a lessening of individual accountability.  It requires Chris Mathews to say only whites can be racists.  It requires the politically correct Associated Press to remove “illegal immigrant” from their style guide.  It requires the election of liberals who think Guam may tip over if too many people are on one side or gun control advocates who don’t know that magazines can be reloaded!  It requires an educational system where students learn how to cheat from their teachers and an “if you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t competin’!” mentality.  It requires the elevation of “cool” over “competence” and the worship of style over substance.  Emotions must trump thinking and actions must be divorced from results let alone consequences.  Isn’t that pretty much what we have today?  That’s why we have butchers like Kermit Gosnell who call themselves doctors. 

The Tyranny of a Liberal Education

 

By William L. Garvin 

"Ideally, a liberal education produces persons who are open-minded and free from provincialism, dogma, preconception, and ideology; conscious of their opinions and judgments; reflective of their actions; and aware of their place in the social and natural worlds.  Liberally educated people are skeptical of their own traditions; they are trained to think for themselves rather than defer to authority.”

The American Association for the Advancement of Science 

There was a time when recipients of a liberal education could engage in proper debate and discussion based on facts, logic and reason.  Questions could be formulated, positions established, arguments made, and conclusions drawn.  Those days appear to be dwindling.  Under the combined onslaught of politically liberal education systems, politically liberal Hollywood and pop culture, and agenda-driven politically liberal media, we are faced with a generation of “educated” but brain-dead zombies.  Like their popular walking dead, they are devoid of original insight but continue to lurch forward regurgitating their progressive, politically correct propaganda.  When their orthodoxies are challenged, being unable to intellectually defend their positions, they tend to turn inward to their social peers, where their mocking, name calling, and crude invective is not only tolerated but encouraged, even lauded.

We’ve recently seen a fading comic-actor try to force his way into political relevance by producing a video and mocking a dead actor.  The crude central theme was to pretend Charlton Heston’s support for second amendment rights was because of sexual inadequacy.  Now that’s the liberal fighting spirit…pick on someone who can’t fight back.  The pathetic attempt at satire was neither edgy nor funny.  Slightly below the incredibly low bar that had already been set was another B-list “comic” who tweeted crude, lewd, and unfunny comments about the Pope.  If you really want to be edgy, let’s see these brave new leftists pop off about Mohammed.  Or face off with the violence and misogyny in rap videos…or video games…or horror of horrors, Hollywood movies!

These are the same lib-zoms who rallied to the support of Sandra Fluke and think that other taxpayers should buy their contraceptives.  Of course they blithely ignore the impact of their musical bed lifestyle (modeled by their Hollywood heroes).  First, fifty percent of mothers under thirty are bearing their children out of wedlock.  If they are single moms, look out for the high correlation between single parenthood, poverty, and crime.  Secondly, the Center for Disease Control says in 2008, there were nearly twenty million new venereal infections bringing the total in the United States up to 110,197,000 infected individuals.  Thirdly, maybe that’s part of the reason Planned Parenthood aborted 333,964 babies in the 2011-2012 fiscal year alone.  Good thing there were no scientists who could cure cancer, or Shakespeares, or Beethovens, or Rembrandts in the one million abortions PP “performed” in the last three years!

On the religious front, lib-zoms did lose their battle to exclude the cross-shaped steel beam found in the World Trade Center wreckage from the Memorial and Museum.  Sorry about that American Atheists.  However, the principal of an elementary school in Alabama cancelled the Easter egg hunt for the kids because “the egg hunt is associated with Easter, and Easter may be offensive to some people.”  Then there’s the Florida Atlantic University instructor who told his students to write “Jesus” on a piece of paper and then stomp on it.  A student who refused to do so was then initially suspended for violations of the student code of conduct.  By the way, Dr. Deandre Poole is not only the instructor in this tawdry scenario, but he is also the vice chairman of the Palm Beach Democrat Party. 

Then there’s the Easter service that the President attended.  "It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us back ... for blacks to be back in the back of the bus ... for women to be back in the kitchen ... for immigrants to be back on their side of the border," preached/pontificated Rev. Luis León at St. John's Episcopal Church.  Naturally, no one has challenged Reverend Leon to name one religious right captain who is guilty of any of the scurrilous allegations he made in his ad hominem attack.  Certainly the President didn’t.  Just another hit and run assault by the left that will remain unchallenged.

In today’s brave new world, politically correct lib-zoms will tolerate anything but someone who disagrees with them.  They’re all for free speech unless it’s dissent or opposition based in fact.  Their minds are made up and they won’t be confused with facts!  But as Aldous Huxley noted, “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."   

Tanks for Nothing?!

By William L. Garvin
“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set.  We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”  Barack Obama, July, 2008

When you have to cancel White House tours, will the Easter egg roll be far behind?  What a foolish, foolish display of pettiness and phony politics.  In reality, sequestration has not resulted in planes falling out of the skies or thousands of airline passengers waiting in line for hours and hours to be assaulted by TSA personnel.  The President who incessantly cried fiscal wolf now says there is no imminent fiscal crisis.  Apparently, $16.7 trillion of debt doesn’t really matter!  Unfunded liabilities of trillion after trillion after trillion don’t matter either.  Record income tax revenue isn’t enough to stem another trillion dollar deficit to add to the national debt but still he insists there’s no immediate crisis.  There’s no budget either.

That explains why the Postal Service can spend $2 million on another GSA-styled conference.  That’s why Congress refuses to allow them to NOT deliver mail on Saturday.  What’s a measly $2 billion in savings?  Also, Janet Napolitano could have saved the $50 million she spent on spanking brand new TSA uniforms so she didn’t have to release 2,200 criminal aliens.  Tom Vilsack could have stopped wasting money with his stupid ads teaching college kids how to use a microwave instead of threatening to stop inspecting meat.  He might have also considered his super expensive “awareness program partnership” with Mexico to popularize our food stamps.  Since recipients are approaching fifty MILLION, the world seems to be pretty aware of the benefits.  By the way, Tom, how about cancelling those conferences in California and Oregon which feature “guest chefs” and “exceptional wines” for tastings?  By the way, where did the money come from to give Egypt another $250 million on top of the twenty fighter jets and 200 tanks already squandered?

Speaking of tanks brings us back to Janet Napolitano and her hoarding of ammo and weapons in the Department of Homeland Security.  By most estimates, DHS now has over 1.6 billion bullets.  One analysis concludes that is enough to fight the equivalent of a 24-year Iraq war, given that American troops were firing 5.5 million rounds per month at the war’s height.  Another analysis pointed out that DHS has enough ammo to shoot everyone in the United States, legal or illegal, at least five times!  Various other federal agencies also purchase large quantities of ammunition which liberal fact checkers/apologists invariably rationalize as needed for “target practice” and “training scenarios.”  Largely ignored are the specific requests for “.357 hollow point” bullets which are not used in target practice or training scenarios!  Of course, the 7,000 “personal defense weapons” capable of fully automatic fire and the 30-round magazines are perfectly understandable…aren’t they?

When it takes a thirteen hour filibuster to get the Attorney General to clearly say that an American citizen should not be killed by an American drone without due process, it’s no wonder that conspiracy theories proliferate.  When the use of drones and internet spying proliferates, when the government is not forthcoming, let alone transparent, many people readily believe the internet theory that DHS has purchased “2,700 tanks.”  Ms. Napolitano has an ignorant history of linking military veterans to “terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.”  Similarly, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the radical left equivalent of the Westboro Baptist Church, defines “rightwing extremist groups as primarily hate-oriented or anti-government” which “may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration."  Of course the SPLC demanded the Justice Department and DHS “crack down on Americans expressing opposition to an increasingly tyrannical federal government.”  Only liberals should have freedom of speech!

The SPLC has now been joined at the hate hip by the Los Angeles Times.  Its editorial opined that “They are white, right-wing Americans, nearly all with an obsessive attachment to guns, who may represent a greater danger to the lives of American civilians than international terrorists.”  This is the prevailing liberal mindset.  This is the liberal culture of deliberate racial divisiveness.  This is the deliberate fanning of the flames of hatred.  The Times editorial queried:  “What can be done to reverse this tide of belligerent ignorance?”  Physician, heal thyself.  Times editors should look in the mirror and try to tell the truth!  Until they do, more and more Americans will “bitterly cling to their guns and religion.”

Stop Your Lying!

 

By William L. Garvin

 

“Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.”  We are currently seeing the American dream become an American nightmare.

For a prime example, look at our leadership in Washington, D.C.  First of all, they lurch from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis like an alcoholic on a cheap whiskey bender stumbling from lamppost to lamppost.  Grasping their temporary support, they pause long enough for inebriation to temporarily subside only to lurch forward in their stumble bum gait to the next temporary respite.  When confronted for their irresponsible behavior, they first deny having had more than one drink.  Then they concoct a fantasy that the world faces impending doom without them being allowed to proceed along their sotted way.  Finally, they blame the bartender for having built a bar where they were served alcohol.  Apparently one thing they will never admit is the truth—they are economic drunks about to reach a certain disastrous end.

Naturally, the current discussion about sequestration epitomizes the model for lying.  You see, one side (which includes ABC news) says that there are no actual cuts in sequestration.  In fact, the government will spend more this year than they did last year even AFTER sequestration occurs.  In fact, the government will spend more each and every year than they did the year before until 2020 UNDER sequestration.  All this artificial device does is slow the rate of increase.

Of course the other side says that times will immediately become apocalyptic.  Police, firefighters, and other emergency responders will lose their jobs.  Thousands of teachers will be turned out of the classroom.  Planes won’t be falling from the sky but it will take you hours longer to get on them.  Our military will be decimated and national security will be compromised.  Plagues and locusts are soon to follow!  Naturally, the President blames the Republicans.  However, even Bob Woodward and the New York Times point out that sequestration was a White House proposal (thank you, Jack Lew) and was signed into law by Barack Obama.

So who is the biggest liar?  One thing to immediately note is that the federal government has only a minor role in paying the salaries of teachers, police officers and firefighters.  Those costs are borne by local governments which by law have to balance their budgets.  Many state and local employees have not only foregone pay raises but have also taken pay cuts, much like their private sector counterparts.  Not so the federal government payroll.  Not so the congress or their staffs.  They continue merrily along their tipsy way.  With fiscal Armageddon less than a week away, the President jets off to Florida to play golf and the Congress goes on vacation!  To paraphrase Ricky Ricardo, “D.C., you got some ‘splaining to do!”

Then there’s the whole gun control debate.  When the administration and its media propaganda arm want to terrorize the low information voter, the nom de plume is “military style assault rifles.”  However, when the Department of Homeland Security wishes to purchase 7,000 rifles which use NATO ammunition and are suitable for “personal defense use in close quarters,” the assault rifle magically morphs into “personal defense weapons” or PDW’s.  This newly coined pseudonym also requires thirty-round magazines and is “select fire,” read FULLY AUTOMATIC.   In addition, DHS is also requesting another twenty million “hollow point” bullets to go along with the 1.6 BILLION bullets it has acquired over the last ten months!  Additionally, the President has signed legislation to allow the use of drones in the United States.  Some estimates predict as many as 30,000 drones will be in use domestically in the next ten years.

Ben Franklin once said, “Never trust a government that doesn’t trust its own citizens with guns.”  He probably was part of a conversation with Thomas Jefferson who said, “The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”  Further founding father wisdom came from George Washington who noted, “A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.”

If your home is broken into and you are in danger of being robbed, raped, beaten or murdered, you can follow Joe Biden’s advice and “go out on the balcony” and fire both barrels of your only weapon, a shotgun, into the air.  This is wrong on so many levels.  You could also follow the advice of Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin.  It’s your choice, America…for now.