Showing posts with label Protecting America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Protecting America. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Transcript: Mark Levin on the Republican Party's disintegration

The brilliant Mark Levin is one of the few pundits offering blunt and honest criticism of the feckless Republican Establishment that is now in the throes of "re-branding itself".

The autopsy report. They don't even know how to name a report. The autopsy report. Here's the deal, folks: Reince Priebus was ahead of the Republican National Committee when Romney lost. Why hasn't he been fired? Why hasn't he been fired? Karl Rove ran the biggest independent PAC in America, or one of them. He won 1.3% of his races. Why do people keep promoting him? On TV, donors, and so forth. These losers are not going to save the Republican party...

...A year ago, a poll was done, it's not every year, except this year so far, and I believe it's Gallup, the political ideology of the American people. 'While 47% of Americans continue to describe their views as conservative, 35% moderate, 21% liberal. For the third straight year, conservatives outnumber moderates, after more than a decade in which moderates mainly tied or outnumbered conservatives. I'm giving you this information for a reason.

February, 1, 2013, Gallup did another poll of the individual states. Which ideology outnumbers which ideology in the states? Conservatives outnumber liberals in 47 out of the 50 states. So what's the problem here? Well, the word conservative can be a little ambiguous. But what's the real problem here? If you're going into elections and your political party, where every survey and poll shows that Americans identify themselves more as conservatives than liberals, and you can't beat Barack Obama, what's the problem here?

The problem is execution. The problem is your being outworked, you're being outsmarted. The problem is you're not standing on "conservative principles." You're not believable. You're not an alternative to Obama. You're not an alternative to Pelosi and Reid. Less and less people view you that way. I mean, I'm amazed by this. When we look at the last thirty years, who was the most successful Republican president electorally? Ronald Reagan. Of course the times have changed, but the principles haven't. Just apply them, wisely.

That's like saying, 'the times have changed, so our Constitution needs to be living and breathing.' No it doesn't! These principles are invaluable. These rights are inalienable. The fact that the modern politician in the Republican party is incapable of articulating them and applying them to modern society is the problem with that politician. The fact that the chairman of the Republican National Committee can't do it and the Speaker can't do is a problem with the Republican party and it's leadership. And damn it, if it's not changed, if these people aren't thrown out, we're going to lose. And the Republican party is going to split, and there's going to be two parties.

I liken President Obama to the Captain of the Titanic. And First Mate John Boehner, instead of sounding the alarm, is helpfully steering the mighty ship right into the iceberg.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

A YOUNGER, HIPPER MESSAGE: Karl Rove, John Boehner and Jeb Bush Announce Exciting Republican Re-branding!

What could go wrong having a guy like Karl Rove -- who won a neat 1.3 percent of his elections last time around -- running a GOP "re-branding" effort?


These nitwits need to go. Boehner and Rove may have hundreds of millions of dollars at their disposal, but they don't have us.

They're losers. Failures.

They were swept into power in 2010 on a tidal wave of Constitutional Conservatism.

And instead of embracing it, they spit on it.

The dinosaurs in the GOP need to go. Don't give the RNC a penny. Don't give American Crossroads a cent. Donate only to candidates who embrace First Principles, who adore the Constitution, and who readily admit our dire predicament.

Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul wouldn't be in the Senate if it weren't for us. We hold the power in this country. The government serves us, not the other way around. And Boehner, Rove, and the rest of the losers are anachronisms who can and should be ignored.

As Mark Levin says, "If you’re selling a bag full of dog crap, you’re still gonna go broke."


Monday, March 18, 2013

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Sends Nuclear-Capable B-52s Over Korea as Warning to Non-Nobel Peace Prize Winner

As the first Nobel Peace Prize winner to direct the killings of over 4,700 individuals using drone-based warfare (including children, if the Puffington Roast is to be believed) and to reverse himself on a missile defense shield, President Obama added another feather to his hawk cap this week:

AP: Pentagon highlighting bomber missions in Korea


The United States is flying nuclear-capable B-52 bombers on training missions over South Korea to highlight Washington's commitment to defend an ally amid rising tensions with North Korea, Pentagon officials said Monday.

Pentagon press secretary George Little said one B-52 flew over South Korea on March 8, and the deputy defense secretary, Ashton Carter, said during a visit to Seoul that another bomber mission is scheduled for Tuesday.

B-52 bombers are capable of launching nuclear-armed cruise missiles, but Little said those participating in the Korean exercise are not armed with nuclear weapons... the Pentagon used the occasion to draw attention to the role B-52 bombers play as part of an American nuclear "umbrella" over South Korea and Japan - both of which feel threatened by North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

"We're deeply concerned about North Koreans behavior and rhetoric," Little told reporters.

In a more dramatic demonstration of that concern, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Friday announced that the U.S. is beefing up its defenses against a potential North Korean missile attack on the U.S. He said that over the coming four years the Pentagon will add 14 missile interceptors to the 26 it already has in place at Fort Greely, Alaska, at an estimated cost of $1 billion.

Obama's reversal on a missile-defense shield is particularly troubling. As The Wall Street Journal puts it, his about-face represents a "A tacit admission that the U.S. will soon be vulnerable to attack."


Saturday, March 16, 2013

Stuxnet, the first known cyber-weapon, found to have been introduced into Iran years earlier than originally thought

Symantec recently released a fascinating report on an early version of Stuxnet that it dubs version 0.5. It too appears to have been specifically developed to sabotage Iranian nuclear facilities by targeting the centrifuges hat perform uranium enrichment.

• Stuxnet 0.5 is the oldest known Stuxnet version to be analyzed, in the wild as early as November 2007 and in development as early as November 2005.
• Stuxnet 0.5 was less aggressive than Stuxnet versions 1.x and only spread through infected [Siemens Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)] Step 7 projects [which control centrifuges].
• Stuxnet 0.5 contains an alternative attack strategy, closing valves within the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, Iran, which would have caused serious damage to the centrifuges and uranium enrichment system as a whole.


The success of Stuxnet 0.5 remains unknown. However, the chart in figure 4 references uranium enrichment production at Natanz to key milestones of Stuxnet development. Interesting events are dips in feed or production amounts and lower levels of production given the same or greater feed amounts (shown as gaps between the two lines).

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Historical chart illustrates the biggest problem in America today: Congressional Recidivism

Many fine writers have observed that there exists a de facto Ruling Class in Washington. Once men and women get to Congress, no matter how inept, inane, or diabolical they prove to be, the power of incumbency makes dislodging them akin to prying a Reese's Cup from Michael Moore's pudgy fingers.

An exhaustive study -- "Reelection Rates of Incumbents in the U.S. House" (PDF) -- performed in 2006 illustrates the dramatic changes in reelection rates since America's founding. It aggregates the results of every House election cycle between the years 1790 and 2006.

Over the years, the reelection rate of incumbents has increased steadily, likely the results of pork, quid pro quo funding to campaign contributors, and legislative skulduggery (the McCain-Feingold bill, for instance, could have been called The Incumbent Protection Act):


Until the Woodrow Wilson era, incumbent reelection rates hovered between 70 and 80 percent. Since then, however, massive wealth redistribution programs at the federal level -- the New Deal, the Square Deal, the Fair Deal, Great Society, etc. -- began cementing incumbents in place. Constituents dependent upon federal largesse became permanently addicted to these programs and the incumbents who fueled them.

Had the various branches of government shown fidelity to the Constitution, none of these programs would have come to be.

Term limits are one option to resisting incessant federal power grabs, but so too would be leveling the playing field for challengers.

Only a return to Constitutional government will solve the Congressional Recidivism problem.


Thursday, February 28, 2013

Take a Bite of the Pie

Michael Ramirez is the finest political cartoonist of this, and perhaps any, generation:


He is one of the few who can be said to regularly speak truth to power.


Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Rendered Speechless Twice in a Day

Doc65 at Cast Boolits posts a keeper:

Any of you that have read my posts know I'm rarely at a loss for words, in fact I find that I tend to get a bit long winded from time to time on subjects that I'm passionate about.

I was totally at a loss for words TWICE today.

A few months back I was out west shooting at what I thought was an old rarely used gravel pit on county land, I'd shot there a few times as there was a fair amount of evidence that others did too: boxes, cans, sadly some glass, etc. While I was putting a few rounds over the Chrony an old farmer in an Ford with a snow plow on the front pulls up, so I stop shooting & talk to him for a few minutes, turns out it's his property, he just lets the county stage gravel there for county road maintenance. Well at that point I'm figuring I'm about to get run off, but no, he says he was about to post it a while back till he noticed that after each time he saw my Jeep(it's a bit distinctive being Ex USFS light Green) there was less leftovers than the day before, so I was welcome to shoot as much as I wanted, just not before sunrise "as the missus has trouble sleeping sometimes & I like to let her sleep if she can..."

About a month ago I was on my way back home & noticed him over at the house fighting with the snowplow mechanism. Seems it's been broken for some time, and he had a few rather steep quotes to fix it. I looked at it & it was going to need some work, but nothing too difficult, so I talked him into following me into town to my house where I could work on it(getting him to agree was no easy task), we got it in the garage & I sent him home in my Jeep, that was a Saturday morning, Sunday afternoon I called him & said when he got a chance come get it... I had all the pivot points rebuilt & re-enforced, a couple of supports re-welded & had the hydraulics working again. He asked what he owed me, told him, nothing, it was the least I could do, & still believe that. When he arrived we talked for a while & he grudgingly said that if they were better off financially he would have insisted on paying, but as it was he'd brought a couple boxes of beef, mixed steaks, roasts & burger(there was easily a hundred pounds of beef, worth more than I would have charged IF I were going to charge, but it was a situation where arguing it would have been disrespectful so I just said thanks you & we put it in the freezer).

Well time went by & I had stopped a couple other times when I saw him out & a couple weeks ago he invites me in for coffee, I notice an old Winchester 94 in the corner, so I ask if I can look at it, he says go ahead, it's obvious it hasn't been fired in a LONG time. I put it back & told him if you ever decide to sell it, let me know & I'll give you a fair price for it.

That brings us to now, Friday evening he called & asked if I'd come out to breakfast Sunday(today), there's a few things he'd like to talk about, and a couple things he'd like me to look at. I said sure I'd be there. So we had breakfast, he looks at his empty coffee cup & gets up, I figured he was just going for a refill, but he walks into the other rooms & comes back with the old 94, says "me & Betty talked about it & think this has been standing in the corner long enough, we think Danny would want you to have it..." This is where I go speechless the first time as what just happened sinks in, They're only son, Danny, died in the 75 during the evacuation of Saigon, the trifold Flag & his Purple Heart & Silver Star are on the mantle is the only reason I know this as neither of them talk about it, the 94 was his rifle & it stood in that corner for 40 years.

I think I stammered something about not deserving it, I got a look from Bud that said arguing wasn't going to fly along with a few insistent words from Betty.

A little while later Bud & I were looking at one of the trailers that had a few issues, mainly just needed a few welds reinforced where they were cracking & he goes quiet for a minute & looks like he's a long way off thinking, then he comes back, looks at me & says "Ya know, we get a couple agricultural deer permits each year, ain't used 'em in ages, I think it'd really make Betty happy if next fall you'd use 'em with Danny's old rifle & if ya fill em you could skin 'em in the shed..." Well, now I'm speechless for the second time in an hour, had to clear my eye, must have gotten something in it, all I managed to say, I think, is "I'd be honored"

I feel like I've just been adopted as the grandson they never had.

Dang, I'm tearing up.


Hat tip: Gifford.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

It would seem that the Second Amendment has "too much wiggle room"

It appears that Eric Holder's Department of Justice is unfamiliar with a little-known document called "The United States Constitution":

A leaked internal memo from the National Institute of Justice --the research, development, and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice– shows that none of Obama’s gun proposals will work without registration and forced buybacks amounting to confiscation of Americans’ guns.

The memo illustrates this by showing why high capacity magazine bans, gun buybacks, and “assault weapons” bans have failed to work in the past.

For example, according to the memo, the high capacity magazine bans that were in place from 1994-2004 had little impact because the bans contained too many exemptions. The memo says one of the key errors was that “the 1994 ban exempted magazines made before 1994 so that the importation of large capacity magazines manufactured before 1994 continued [throughout] the ban.”

Moreover, the memo points out that while the price of the magazines rose sharply, it was not driven up far enough to make them “unaffordable.” ... According to the memo, for a high capacity magazine ban to succeed Obama needs to ban not only the manufacture and sale of said magazines, but also the importation and possession. There also must be a federal buyback of all high capacity magazines already in circulation to ensure private owners haven’t held on to any covered by the ban.

....the memo says the first “assault weapons” ban failed to work for many of the same reasons magazine bans and gun buybacks failed to work–there was simply too much wiggle room for gun owners. Moreover, the memo says that because “assault weapons” are used in such a low percentage of crimes, the only way a ban can be effective is if it eliminates every “assault weapon” in the country.

According to the memo, the only way to fix it is to couple a ban with “a gun buyback and no exemptions.”

In my readings of America's founding -- including the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers -- I don't recall coming across the term "wiggle room". I'll have to review the Bill of Rights and see if I missed it.

The painting (above) depicts Patrick Henry.


Beretta offers free eBook on CCW

Very nice.

...wondering about how to carry? What kind of holster you should use? Location on your person?

What kind of clothes work best...?

If any of those ... questions (and more) have piqued your interest or come across your mind as you prepare to take personal defense into your own hands then there’s a pretty simple and easy to understand new resource out there for you...

Beretta USA has just published a short 10 step eBook to help get you started on your journey to arm yourself. Just click on the photo above/right, enter your name and email address and you can download the short, to the point and easy to read tips for concealed carry (CCW, CHL, CWP) permit holders today!

On a related note, high-cap magazines appear to be in stock at several local stores.


Hat tip: BadBlue Guns.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Reason #3,906 to support the Sequester: DHS to see major budget cuts

According to the Heritage Foundation, the Budget Sequester "cuts the DHS off at the knees."

They say it like that's a bad thing.

... the DHS will be hit hard if the sequestration is allowed to proceed as planned. Some of the areas highlighted are:

• The TSA would have to furlough front-line screening personnel at airports, likely causing significant delays at major airports throughout the U.S.

• The Coast Guard would have to reduce air and surface operations by 25 percent, put off maintenance of its aging fleet, and delay moving into its new headquarters.

• Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) would need to downsize its workforces of both CBP officers and Border Patrol Agents.

• The Department’s Science and Technology Directorate would be forced to cut major projects entirely, including research on protecting the U.S. electrical grid, and drastically slash others.

• Funding to the National Cybersecurity Protection System would be significantly reduced.

Hey! I've got an idea!

Maybe DHS could sell the couple billion of rounds of ammo it's stockpiled into the private market which so desperately needs it.

That way all of the airport crotch-grabbing and Southern border non-enforcing can continue apace!