Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Ron Paul: The Least of Three Evils

Sometimes intelligent people say things that are so dumb, I wonder whom they are trying to please. In George Will’s latest diatribe, “Ron Paul, spoiler?,” he makes nice to those groups that have advanced his career—GOP foundations, the media establishment, and DC insiders whom he presumably sees socially. Unlike other Republican commentators, Will recognizes that Ron Paul can be a critical factor in the presidential election, even if the congressman cannot hope to win the GOP nomination: “His candidacy [as a third-party candidate] might guarantee Barack Obama’s reelection.”

Will pooh-poohs the supposedly bloated figure that comes out of a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll about Paul’s possible performance if he runs as an independent. He finds the predicted quotient, 18 percent, to be much too high, and he can’t imagine how Paul would poll more than about 7 percent. Nonetheless, according to Will, “at least 80 percent of Mr. Paul’s votes would come at the expense of the Republican nominee.” Will discusses a Ron Paul third-party candidacy’s probable electoral outcome in states where the GOP would likely win by less than 5 percent. He shows convincingly that Obama would carry all these states in 2012.

“For those of us on the right who do not wish to get back to Karl Rove’s utopia, Ron Paul offers at least an opportunity to protest.”

Paul may announce an independent run, and Will is fuming about this. Although he never uses the term specifically, he considers Paul and his current supporters to be kooks. Why the hell would anyone support a candidate who thinks that “Mr. Obama is only marginally more mistaken than Mr. Paul’s Republican rivals, who do not wake up each morning angry about the 1913 Federal Reserve Act”? These wacked-out supporters “are inclined to accept no substitute because no other candidate espouses anything like his high octane blend of libertarianism and isolationism.” Presumably these wingnuts are keeping us from electing a “moderate conservative,” someone who would put our country back on track the way it was before Bam wrecked the country. Will suggests it is eccentricity, or perhaps mental illness, which fuels Ron Paul’s candidacy. Paul and his backers are trying to turn back the clock to a time before 1913.

None of the Ron Paul supporters I’ve met would fit Will’s malicious description. Most of them are not philosophical libertarians, they’re profoundly disgusted with the Republican candidates that Will finds acceptable. I am such a person. I have never scorned the state in its proper place, nor have I thought about the FRA more than ten minutes in my entire life. Although I consider it a mistake to allow government to play politics with lending rates and the monetary supply, I do not sit up nights agonizing over what happened in 1913. I loathe the media and political class and find nothing significantly different in what the two national parties have to offer domestically.

Extensive regulation of the economy, anti-discrimination controls over our social and commercial transactions, affirmative-action programs, calls for illegal amnesty, and a runaway national debt scarred Republican policy before Obama came along. An extensive study of Romney’s administration in Massachusetts shows that even in the area of judicial appointments this now reborn “conservative” candidate was at least as liberal as his Democratic predecessor.

And there is hardly a liberal position Newt Gingrich has not advocated.


Sayonara, Dear Leader

Taki's Magazine

Verbatim Post

So Kim Jong-il has kicked the bucket, and I can’t say I’m happy about it.

Oh, I suppose I’m happy for the starving North Koreans. Except I’ve never known any North Koreans, so who knows if they really are starving? (I learned my lesson about trusting US government propaganda after carefully reviewing the cases of Japan, Germany, Italy, Russia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq.) I guess it is good for democracy whenever a dictator dies, although there isn’t much difference in governments’ form anymore, and certainly not in their function. There is the probability that whoever ascends the throne will be corrupted enough that this “lucrative emerging market” will henceforth be safe to sell Coca-Cola and Levi’s Blue Jeans and we can make lots more money.

Even with such benefits, I’m sad to see the old boy go. It isn’t often one comes across such an exceptional human being.

Kimmy had a supernatural birth. No fooling. Alongside a sacred mountain, just off a secret military base, Dear Leader was born precisely where every would-be strongman ought to be—a log cabin. (Apparently they still have those in North Korea.)

On that fabled night there was not only a singularly bright star in the heavens, but a double rainbow appeared over the mountain. Moreover, suddenly the season changed from harsh winter to tender spring. Dear Leader did all that while still in swaddling clothes.

“Almost all politicians are corrupt, so it was nice to see someone who could still do it with panache.”

Having no time to waste on his path to glory, Dear Leader was walking by age three…no wait, make that three weeks according to official North Korean records! He was orating five weeks afterward, presumably to inquire why he had been so neglected during his infanthood that no one was helping him walk by his first week. Yet Dear Leader needed no “help” with anything. He single-handedly penned the destiny of his people in manifesto form at the ripe old age of two.

The next few years are a sort of blur in Kim’s life. Possibly this is because at one time he was the world’s largest single purchaser of Hennessy cognac. Reportedly Dear Leader dropped somewhere in the realm of $800,000 a year on keeping the party alive (average North Korean annual wage: approximately $1,900).

With all of that liquor to lubricate his mental faculties Dear Leader went on to invent the microwave, the radial tire, and holograms. He seems to have been working on some sort of virtual-reality pizza-delivery system, although I could be wrong.

With all of this heavy lifting a man (er, man-god) needs to relax. What better way than golf? The gentleman’s pastime! Upon learning the game, Dear Leader scored a 38 his first time out, though he was probably being modest by upping his actual score. This was on an 18-hole green and he made over a half-dozen hole-in-ones. In addition to being the best golfer of all time (he shaved 25 strokes off the previous World Record), Dear Leader was also a master equestrian, championship sprinter, and Olympic-caliber swimmer. So there.

Yet none of this should give the impression Kim wasn’t as great a thinker as Rodin ever thought of chiseling. By the time he graduated from college he had authored over 1,500 books. Presumably these tomes were in Korean, a language so notoriously difficult to learn that even the Chinese avoid it.

Kim also had a musical bent and whipped up six operas. According to the Official State Biography these were “better than any in the history of music.” What a laugh! As if music even had a history before Dear Leader came along to illuminate it!

Never one to mooch the spotlight, Kim mentored talent wherever he could find it. Sometimes he found it in North Korea, sometimes not. Can Dear Leader be blamed for anything but overzealous passion when he kidnapped South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok to craft a film? Apparently Dear Leader’s vision was for a Godzilla of his very own to make his people proud. (He could just as well have claimed credit for the original version since the Japanese have been trying to deny their responsibility for the past fifty-seven years.)

Kim also had time to set the pace in other fields, notably fashion. While creating a Nehru-type trend with his matching leisure suits and Jackie Kennedy-esque goggle shades, Dear Leader refused to settle for style over substance. Oh no, not Kim.

To beautify the Korean capital he helped all of the handicapped and height-challenged denizens. Evidently he announced a wonder drug to make people taller, administered to anyone who applied in person. When they showed up, Dear Leader sent his diminutive minions off to uninhabited islands so that their genes were prevented from mixing with the “quality stock” of slightly taller North Koreans. That was ol’ DL for you—always thinking of the greater good.

I really will miss this fellow. Almost all politicians are corrupt, so it was nice to see someone who could still do it with panache. Yes, the North Koreans have been in dire straits for years. Yet at least they are not being systematically dispossessed from their homeland and invaded by inassimilables who hate them and their culture. Plus, their dictatorship had good parades.

For those who would point out that this essay’s title is the word for “goodbye” in Japanese not Korean, you simply don’t get it. Dear Leader would have understood…after all, he reportedly spoke 12 languages.

So farewell, Kim. You might have been a bastard, but you were my kind of bastard—one who always made me laugh. The ones we have here only make me weep.

Makers vs. Takers at Occupy Wall Street

My Favourite Time of Year

Via Cousin John

Re-post from last year. Clear in full screen


PERSONAL INFORMATION OF TRAITORS PUBLISHED

Via Western Rifle Shooters Association

"This year’s National Defense Authorization Act passed quickly through the Senate and as expected President Obama signed the bill. 86 Senators in a bipartisan move, signed off on this controversial bill, which opens the door to invasive acts against Americans. Almost everyone has felt the effect of Anonymous’ presence online and off and now, the 86 Senators will feel their ubiquitous presence as well.

The collective activist group just released a massive dump of information, which begins with, ”Robert J. Portman is a Republican Senator from the state of Ohio. He has made himself a target as an advocate of the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act), but we are truly disturbed by the ludicrous $272,853 he received from special interest groups supporting the NDAA bill that authorizes the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. Robert J. Portman, we plan to make an example of you.”

Sherman

Via Carl

Tension rise as Iraq seeks Sunni VP arrest

Via The Excavator







Gingrich Wins Tea Party Straw Poll

Something is seriously wrong in the State of Denmark if Ron Paul received 3% and Mr. Neo-con himself Mitt Romney got 20%. Definitely compromised.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich scored a huge victory Monday, winning a key straw poll of Tea Party supporters.

The poll, taken among 23,000 Tea Party enthusiasts organized by the Tea Party Patriots, one of the nation’s biggest Tea Party organizations, had Gingrich winning with with 31 percent of their vote, registered in a conference call on Sunday night.

Coming in a close second was Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, with 28 percent. Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, pulled 20 percent; former Sen. Rick Santorum, 16 percent; Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, 3 percent; Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, 2 percent, and Jon M. Huntsman Jr., 0.3 percent, The New York Times reported.

The results come as Gingrich is seeing some of his once-formidable lead slipping away. In some recent polls, he is either slightly leading in Iowa or behind Paul.

"Wastebook 2011"

Via The Feral Irishman

Tom Coburn
Verbatim Post

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) today released a new oversight report, “Wastebook 2011” that highlights over $6.5 billion in examples of some of the most egregious ways your taxpayer dollars were wasted. This report details 100 of the countless unnecessary, duplicative and low-priority projects spread throughout the federal government.

“Video games, robot dragons, Christmas trees, and magic museums. This is not a Christmas wish list, these are just some of the ways the federal government spent your tax dollars. Over the past 12 months, politicians argued, debated and lamented about how to reign in the federal government’s out of control spending. All the while, Washington was on a shopping binge, spending money we do not have on things we do not absolutely need. Instead of cutting wasteful spending, nearly $2.5 billion was added each day in 2011 to our national debt, which now exceeds $15 trillion,” Dr. Coburn said.

“Congress cannot even agree on a plan to pay for the costs of extending jobless benefits to the millions of Americans who are still out of work. Yet, thousands of millionaires are receiving unemployment benefits and billions of dollars of improper payments of unemployment insurance are being made to individuals with jobs and others who do not qualify. And remember those infamous bridges to nowhere in Alaska that became symbols of government waste years ago? The bridges were never built, yet the federal government still spent more than a million dollars just this year to pay for staff to promote one of the bridges.”

Examples of wasteful spending highlighted in “Wastebook 2011” include:

• $75,000 to promote awareness about the role Michigan plays in producing Christmas trees & poinsettias.

• $15.3 million for one of the infamous Bridges to Nowhere in Alaska.

• $113,227 for video game preservation center in New York.

• $550,000 for a documentary about how rock music contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

• $48,700 for 2nd annual Hawaii Chocolate Festival, to promote Hawaii’s chocolate industry.

• $350,000 to support an International Art Exhibition in Venice, Italy.

• $10 million for a remake of “Sesame Street” for Pakistan.

• $35 million allocated for political party conventions in 2012.

• $765,828 to subsidize “pancakes for yuppies” in the nation’s capital.

• $764,825 to study how college students use mobile devices for social networking.

Read the full report: here

There's no guarantee that the North Korean military will accept another hereditary ruler.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il's death opens a period of intense danger and risk, but also potentially enormous opportunity for America and its allies. Kim's health had obviously been poor for some time, and his regime has worked to ensure an orderly transition to his son, Kim Jong Eun. The Kim family and its supporters, with everything obviously at stake, will work strenuously to convey stability and control. Indeed, the official North Korea news agency has already referred to Jong Eun as "the great successor to the revolutionary cause."

But the loathsome Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) is not a constitutional monarchy like Britain. While DPRK founder Kim Il Sung was powerful enough to impose his son, no guarantees exist that the North's military, the real power, will meekly accept rule by his utterly inexperienced grandson.

Under the surface in Pyongyang, the maneuvering has almost certainly already begun. There is no reason whatever to believe that opinion among the military leadership will be unanimous, either to support or oppose the regime's succession plan. In fact, the early reports are that Kim Jong Il's death went undisclosed publicly for days, perhaps indicating a power struggle already under way. Many generals may simply not accept that Leader 3.0 is competent or merits their support.

MORE

Suspect says woman burned alive over debt

Via Nancy

As Deloris Gillespie went up the elevator to her fifth-floor Brooklyn apartment, carrying groceries, a man was waiting. His face was one her neighbors later recognized, and she surely must have, too.

Surveillance video from inside the small elevator shows that he looked something like an exterminator, with a canister sprayer, white gloves and a dust mask, which was perched atop his head. The sprayer was full of flammable liquid.

When the elevator opened Saturday afternoon, the man sprayed the 73-year-old woman "sort of methodically" over her head and parts of her body as her bags of groceries draped off her arms, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said. She crouched down to try to protect herself, he said.

Then, Browne said, the attacker pulled out a barbecue-style lighter and used it to ignite a rag in a bottle. He waited a few seconds as Gillespie huddled on the floor. Then he backed out of the elevator and tossed the flaming bottle in.

Neighbors in the Prospect Heights building had no idea a woman was being burned alive when they quickly reported a fire.

MORE

Capitalism Versus Socialism

Via Moonbattery

north-vs-south-korea

Allen West says Holder using last Race Card in the deck...

Via Blue's Blog

Florida Republican Rep. Allen West told The Daily Caller on Monday that Attorney General Eric Holder’s use of the race card as a way to attack those who are criticizing him is “reprehensible.”

“I think this is absolutely the last card in the deck, and that shows how weak their ground is,” West said in a phone interview. “But, what that means is they want to make white individuals afraid of continuing to put the pressure on Eric Holder because they don’t want to be seen as racist, and that is something that we have got to move beyond.”

Holder had told The New York Times over the weekend, in a front page Sunday story, that he thinks those who are criticizing him have racial motivations to do so. Holder said some unspecified faction — what he refers to as the “more extreme segment” — is driven to criticize both him and President Barack Obama due to the color of their skin. Holder did not appear to elaborate on who he considered to make up the “more extreme segment.” (RELATED: NYT runs ‘Fast and Furious’ factual inaccuracy, favoring Holder)

“This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him,” Holder said, according to the Times. “Both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we’re both African-American.” (RELATED: Justice Dept silent as Holder charges critics with racism)

West said Holder can’t logically assign race as a motivation behind the criticisms for his handling of Operation Fast and Furious. “What Fast and Furious has to do with is misleading the Congress and the American people about what you knew about this program, and if you did not know anything about this program, then who’s in charge of the Department of Justice?” West said. “It has nothing to do with your race — it has everything to do with competence, with your character and with your ability to lead the Department of Justice.”

West said Holder’s use of race as a way to attack his critics is “the most insidious thing I ever heard.”

“I grew up in the United States military and it’s not about your color, it’s about your competence, it’s about your abilities to execute a mission,” West said. “If your commanding officer turns heat on you, it’s because you have failed to achieve the mission and I think what we’re doing is we’re looking at something that was a very horrible program — this Operation Fast and Furious.”

West added that the “amount of death that has resulted” from Fast and Furious — “Mexican deaths and also the death of a United States Border Patrol agent” — is unacceptable, and he said “someone has to be held accountable for it.”

West said Holder’s “incompetence” has become a pattern at the DOJ.

“We cannot continue to see the things that we see in the Department of Justice: His comments about voter rights, I mean, showing an ID? That is not Jim Crow, and he should speak out against that,” West said. “His comments as far as the voter intimidation case with the New Black Panther Party, where there was nothing resolved. We continue to see a series of blatant disregard of what is supposed to be the blind eye of justice. So, for the attorney general to now try to use race instead of looking at his inabilities to fulfill his mission, that really is reprehensible to me.”

MORE

Ron Paul’s Inaugural Address, Written by His First (and Only) Speechwriter

Godfather Politics
Verbatim Post

In June of 1976, I was Ron Paul’s speechwriter. Shortly after I joined his staff as his newsletter writer and economic analyst, I recommended that he do what I had been doing for a year: buy a Code-A-Phone telephone answering machine and make a weekly 3-minute recording for people in his districts to call. He could send the tape to his office in the district, where the machine would be set up at a local phone number. Residents could call it for free. He thought this was a good idea. So began his weekly speeches.

I wrote his first talk. He later told me that he didn’t like reading a script written by anyone else, so he had decided to record his own. As far as I know, that was the last speech anyone ever wrote for him.

He used that machine for the next two-and-a-half years. After his defeat in November 1976, he posted a weekly phone message. The weekly report became a tool for a comeback. In 1978, he defeated the man who had barely defeated him (268 votes) in 1976.

So, having been his only speechwriter, I will now offer my second speech that he will not deliver.

* * * * * * * * * * *

My Fellow Americans, as an earlier President from Texas used to say.

I would like to take this opportunity to say something that is both profound and memorable. The trouble is, only two inaugural addresses are remembered today, Lincoln’s second inaugural and John F. Kennedy’s only inaugural. Lincoln said these words: “With malice toward none and charity toward all.” Those are fine words. Kennedy said: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” I especially like the first sentence.

Given the fact that hardly anyone remembers an inauguration speech, the likelihood of my saying something both profound and memorable today is low. Therefore, I have decided to do something memorable instead.

[He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a piece of paper that he has typed. He holds it down to the podium with his left hand. He reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a pen.]

I have in front of me a piece of paper. I wrote it this morning. Let me read it to you.

Executive Order 13,601: An executive Order Revoking all Previous Executive Orders.

I, Ron Paul, do hereby declare null and void all previous Presidential executive orders.

Signed: Ron Paul, January 20, 2013.

The Constitution of the United States made no provision for executive orders. Congress never votes to create one, yet executive orders have the force of law. The Constitution says that all laws must be passed by a majority in both houses of Congress and then be signed by the President. Therefore, during my time as President, the government of the United States will be run exclusively by laws that were passed in accordance with the Constitution. I do not have the authority to repeal laws on my own. I do have the authority to repeal executive orders. I have just repealed 13,600 of them.

From this point on, you are not obligated to conform to rules and regulations issued under executive orders. Of course, the various executive departments of the United States government will do their best to ignore this, so you had better check with your lawyer.

Just in case someone is prosecuted under a now-defunct executive order, I will pardon anyone so convicted. I may have to spend the second half of my first term in office signing pardons, nine to five, but that would be a very good use of my time. I will come out of the oval office to give a few speeches and hold some press conferences, but you will know that I am doing useful work in my office. I am going to get my branch of the government off people’s backs. I say this with malice toward none and charity toward all.

I hope to have good relationship with the press. If some diligent reporter digs up some dirt on what some agency has done, legally or illegally, or in planning to do, he can ask me about it at a press conference. I’ll do what I can to fix it. Because the government is spying on the people, the least I can do is to cooperate with the press when the press spies on the government.

I will run my office with these rules:

First, I will veto any bill that I think is not authorized by the Constitution. If Congress overrides my veto, that is Congress’s responsibility. They call me “Dr. No.” That’s who I am.

Second, I plan to close hundreds of American military bases in foreign nations. They will be auctioned off, with the money going to reduce the federal deficit. I will announce the first action no later than March 1 of this year.

Third, I will ask Congress to mandate a complete audit of the Federal Reserve System annually by the Government Accountability Office. I want to know where the government’s gold is and who has legal title to it.

Fourth, this afternoon, I will order the Joint Chiefs of Staff to plan the removal of all troops from Afghanistan this year, preferably by June 30.

Fifth, I remind the voters and the world that anyone with the power to fix the nation by political action has the power to destroy the nation by political power. I am not here to make America better. I am here to veto laws that will hinder American citizens from making America better. I am here to help keep the federal government from making America worse.

In his first letter to Timothy, chapter 2, the Apostle Paul told Timothy to tell the churches to pray for civil rulers. I strongly suggest to churches they do just this, weekly. Twice a week would be twice as good.

Now, I must bring this speech to a close. I wish you the best in building a better America. I will do what I can to free you from the burden of excessive government regulations, so that you can do this.

What I believe

Via GUNRIGHTS4US/Ontoliberty

Verbatim Post

I believe that what I am witnessing in my own country absolutely disgraces the memory of those that sacrificed everything so that we could secure the blessings of liberty.

I believe the founding of this nation was a miracle,and unprecedented in human history.

I believe we have failed ourselves by not being jealous enough of our own freedom.

I believe democracy is incompatible with the concept of individual or minority rights.

I believe this nation was established as a constitutional republic.

I believe that individual rights are the reason this nation was founded and that any attempt to deny any individual their rights is an overt act of aggression.

I believe that self-defense is a fundamental,basic human right,and all arms control laws stand in opposition to that fact and are illegitimate.

I believe in self ownership and that no one has the authority to tell anyone what they may or must consume or purchase.

I believe that this country hasn’t operated under a free market system in over one hundred years.

I believe the failings we see in our economy today are the failings of socialism.

I believe what they call a public-private partnership today used to be called by its proper name,Fascism.

I believe that taxation of wages or income is modern day slavery.

I believe there is no such thing as a free lunch.Someone always pays the bill.

I believe that our own government is a much greater threat to our liberties than any group of individuals on the other side of the planet could ever be.I believe history bears out that fact.

I believe that at least 90 percent of what our federal government does is unconstitutional.

I believe that Madison was right when he said that if tyranny ever comes to these shores,it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

I believe Thomas Jefferson was right on just about everything.

I believe Ronald Reagan did Americans a great disservice by banning open carry of firearms in California during his tenure as Governor,and by signing the Gun Control Act of 1986 as President.

I believe that we are witnessing the last vestiges of human freedom being stripped from us by evil conniving men and women who cloak their intentions with lies of fairness,equality,tolerance,moderation and sustainability.

I believe that those who wish to remain free must realize the truth that people can only be persuaded by reason or force.That when free men refuse to compromise their liberty,evil men ALWAYS resort to force,and that force must be met with force.

I believe that We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

(I didn’t write that last bit,but I believe it nonetheless).

I believe the hour is getting late…

Support the Pentagon Against the Warmongers

Godfather Politics

Verbatim Post

Are you a good conservative, patriotic American? Do you have a bumper-sticker that says “Support the troops”? If you do, good.

How about supporting the Pentagon in its true assessment of the military threats against the United States of America? After all, these are the specialists that we pay to gather information, assess it, and build the strategy for our defense. When we say “national security,” we first mean not the fat bloated idiots of TSA – they can’t overcome their own sexual lusts, let alone any security threat – but we mean the generals, the staffs, and the men in uniform who fight and risk their lives for us.

Well, then, let’s support the Pentagon.

A recently unclassified Pentagon report on the military power of Iran and its military doctrine and strategic goals reveals that the Iranian regime is far from the all-powerful, technological, expansionist monster our Democratic and Republican politicians have been telling us it was. In fact, according to intelligence reports,

Iran’s first priority has consistently remained the survival of the regime. . . . To ensure regime survival, Iran’s security’s strategy is based first on deterring an attack.

Our political establishment is eager to present a picture of an Iran determined to establish a world dominion. Our military intelligence experts present a completely different picture: a desperate regime, poor on resources and technology, hanging on its warlike rhetoric for dear life. Further on the report says that Iran still doesn’t have a nuclear weapon, and that it has problems with its facilities that enrich uranium. The same thing I said in an earlier article. Far from trying to start a world war, Iranian regime is actually frantically trying to ensure its survival. So say our military intelligence experts.

Which only confirms the earlier claims by CIA experts about the ability of the Muslim world to inflict harm. It is very limited, despite their rhetoric. Islam is a ferociously barking, toothless dog.

And this brings us to the question: Why don’t our politicians listen to the experts? After all, if a politician is supposed to make the right decisions, isn’t he supposed to ask the experts as to what the reality is? And even more important, why aren’t conservative politicians listening to the CIA and the Pentagon? Why are they presenting a picture of reality that has nothing to do with the data supplied by the experts?

There is only one answer to it: Foreign policy is domestic policy with other means. The Communist governments used that tactics with amazing results: People “rallied around the flag” and any dissent and opposition to the Communist governments was duly suppressed. The same policy of “rallying around the flag” to silence the opposition is happening here in America now. What happened this last week, with our own Congress declaring American citizens to be its enemies in the War on Terror, should have convinced even those that were unconvinced. Rejecting the opinions of the experts in favor of a political agenda is a sign that the politicians have betrayed reality, and have betrayed their own people.

BERLIN - May 14, 1945

The United States is Failing and We've Done it to Ourselves

Via Don

"People are frustrated. They want us to act like a first world nation, not like what President Barack Obama is doing. He's acting like we're a banana republic. We've got to stop spending money we don't have ... What I'm doing is saying that the decisions that Barack Obama is making is acting like a banana republic."

"Have we lost faith in the free-market system of entrepreneurial capitalism? Are we no longer willing to place our trust in the creative chaos unleashed by millions of people pursuing their own best economic interests?"

========

As a nation, we are failing. We are failing ourselves; we are failing our children; and we are failing our grandchildren. We are failing our allies and our creditors, too. The evidence is all around us, and we could see it if we would simply open our eyes and look.

My only question is - where do we find such men?

Guns & Patriots

Verbatim Post

Marine Gen. James F. Amos
USMC Commandant

The series of McClatchy news articles have cast doubt on the decision to award the Congressional Medal of Honor to Sgt. Dakota Meyer. I stand firmly behind the process and the decision to award the Medal of Honor to Sgt. Meyer.

The Medal of Honor is our nation's highest award for bravery. Fittingly, it involves the most demanding of investigations and multiple levels of review. This process, followed scrupulously in this and other cases, is designed to confirm with as much certainty as possible that the level of bravery and self sacrifice displayed is worthy of this singular honor. Selflessness of this caliber cannot be measured under ordinary circumstances, because the ordinary does not evoke the extraordinary. Rather, the Medal of Honor requires that a display of heroism take place under the most difficult circumstances our service members can face. With life and death hanging in the balance, brave warriors, like Sgt Meyer and those who have gone before him, override their natural, instinctive impulses of self preservation and risk their lives to save others. Our highest honors are reserved for those who perform such deeds in combat while facing the enemy and braving his fire.

The Marine Corps has reviewed the investigations, the many and varied statements submitted by those who observed the battle in the Ganjgal Valley, the statements of those who participated in pieces of it, and the multiple reviews and endorsements confirming that Sgt Meyer exhibited the rare courage and selflessness worthy of our nation's highest military honor. The ambush and ensuing six hour firefight was without a doubt a "life defining event" for those present that fall morning. As such, it was seen and subsequently recorded from many different perspectives, each with a personal view of how events unfolded. This thorough review did not cause me to question the extraordinary heroism of, then, 21-year-old Cpl. Meyer, nor the worthiness of the award; just the opposite occurred. Sworn testimonies substantiated the events of that morning and the extreme heroism of Dakota Meyer. The facts are that he saved many lives and recovered the bodies of his fallen comrades. In this, he did not act alone; other brave warriors-soldiers and Marines and Afghans-were also in the fight for their lives.

In the final analysis, I did not find cause to question any single fact, nor minor discrepancy that may be buried in descriptions of a battle that lasted for hours and evoked such bravery in our troops. My only question is - where do we find such men?



Neil W. McCabe is the editor of Guns & Patriots.

Tips on Making Your M-1 Garand More Accurate

Guns & Patriots asked Garand expert Dr. Walter J. Kuleck, a board-member of the Garand Collector’s Association and author of several authoritative gun manuals, what tweaks can give your Garand its best competition accuracy.