Friday, August 19, 2011

LURID COURT TV!! - Blogging By Numbers!!!

Confession time: That was a misleadingly sexy title. There's nothing lurid about this blog piece, nor is there anything riveting enough in it to make the cut for a popular cable TV network. There will be a few things pertaining to courts, though. Important stuff. Feel cheated? Used? I guess this makes me the cyber equivalent of a guy with a black van and candy. Wait...That was a rather creepy analogy - doesn't even really work when you think of it. I guess I'm more like one of those guys whose online dating profile picture was taken 20 years ago and you've flown halfway across the country to meet me only to discover I'm wearing jogging pants and a Looney Tunes tank top and you want to cry because you've blown most of your savings and all of your AirMiles to get here.


Anyway....It's Blogging By Numbers Time!!!!

1 - The official Facebook fan club has been moved. We like "likes", so come on over and and join the party.

2 - It's been a bad week for the Obama administration in the courts. The administration, who has often used an activist judiciary to vacate electoral decisions and nullify laws which have inconvenienced them, have been dealt some significant setbacks. Last Friday, the 11th Circuit declared Obamacare’s individual mandate unconstitutional. This is a victory for the 26 states currently fighting the mandate, and also fast tracks this fight to the Supreme Court, much to the chagrin of the President, who had hoped to keep this tied up in legal limbo until next year. The court did not mince words in their decision, stating;.

"It is over inclusive in when it regulates: it conflates those who presently consume health care with those who will not consume health care for many years into the future. The government’s position amounts to an argument that the mere fact of an individual’s existence substantially affects interstate commerce, and therefore Congress may regulate them at every point of their life. This theory affords no limiting principles in which to confine Congress’s enumerated power."

Essentially, the 11th Circuit ruled that Obamacare is unconstitutional.

On Monday, a federal district court in Wyoming struck down regulations the Interior Department have been using to delay the issuance of drilling leases. This is a victory for American energy independence and a slap in the face to the President, as the decision was handed down from a partisan judge picked by Obama under ethically shaky circumstances.

The Imperial Judiciary the President had banked on are not playing along. Let's hope the Constitution continues to win the day.

3 - I hear they're thinking of bringing Sex and the City back to TV after all these years. I thought they already had a show like that. It was called the Golden Girls.

4 -I'll try to do this in the best taste possible considering the levity of - and the seriousness attached to - this situation, so buckle up junior.

My brother wants to go to New York. You know, do all the touristy things - Stay near 5th Ave, see Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, catch a show, go to Barney's and buy expensive pants...I don't know, whatever you do when you go to New York. My brother is king of the deal, but sometimes, the emperor finds himself without his robe. A few days ago, bursting with the energy of that bald guy from the Six Flags commercials, he called me to boast of the mother of all deals.

His flight from Canada to New York? Peanuts!! His ride from the airport to the city? As cheap as a duplex in Cleveland. His accommodations? Inexpensive and near the action. This deal did not take him much time at all to find. For some odd reason, everything was really cheap this one weekend. This one weekend in September. The weekend of September 11th - The 10th anniversary of September 11th.

Yep, things are pretty cheap when there's a good chance your flight is going to be one way, your limo is going to get hit with an RPG, and the coat check at your restaurant has a special ticket for suicide vests. My brother only realized this as we were speaking, which made the tirade of one liners I unleashed while I was talking to him on the phone all the more delicious.

OF COURSE - I do not think anything will happen to my bro. It's probably one of the safest times ever to go to New York, considering the heightened security, and he'll get to pay his respects to those whose names we remember and pray for every year...still though.

5 - Last weekend a few people told me I should blog about a certain subject which seemed like a good idea at the time - but I don't remember what it was. Bet it would have been awesome though.

6 - Have a great weekend!

Cordially

Joe

Thursday, August 04, 2011

Debt Disgrace - The White House and The Media Spit On Americans

According to Vice President Biden, and former speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi, if you are a Republican and believe America should  approach  it's fiscal future with prudence, targeted tax cuts and gradual reductions in spending, you are a terrorist. You read that correctly - a terrorist. The media, who less than a year ago made farcical pledges to cut words like "cross hairs" and "targeting" from their lexicon claiming such commonplace political expressions could incite mass murder, quickly forgot their pledge and let their freak flag fly, calling the GOP everything from segregationists to suicide bombers. Ironically the most vicious verbal assaults from the media and Democrats came on the day Gabbie Giffords returned to work - you'll remember her shooting was what prompted the media, led by the very important hair of John King, to take their vow of verbal chastity in the first place.

So outrageous and egregious has been the conduct of the left, that the usually even tempered voice of reason, Jonah Goldberg, penned a blistering rebuttal in NRO's the corner at the shameless partisan game the media has been playing.

- but the winter of the left's discontent had been brewing long before the uninspiring debt compromise had reached it's crescendo.

A few months ago my ear  in Washington, a former PR man and French Euro-liberal was at the ready, setting the mise-en-scène of a dire landscape to come. Even before most had begun to grasp such concepts as austerity measures and debt ceilings, my dear friend was fervidly insisting that if the debt ceiling and taxes were not raised, people would be lining up at bank machines with handguns to shoot themselves like  Bender at the Suicide booth in the first episode of Futurama. As most people do their banking at home, if a suicidal frenzy swept the nation over the collapse of America's banking system, I suspect people would be more inclined to depart this mortal coil with a good Chardonnay and a bottle of Ambian. As a spin doctor and European used to singing the praises of socialism, I know my friend is a master of conjuring specters of free market bogeymen even when the mechanisms that drive his beloved institutions have been collapsing like drunken narcoleptics for the last quarter century - but he's certainly on message. The late Michael Crichton, referred to this practice as conjuring up a "State of Fear", and subsequently wrote a novel of the same name that I consider one of the most important books of the last quarter century.

We all know the liberal shell game, but what about the recently passed debt deal? Like any movie reviewer worth his salt would ask; "Is it any good?"

The answer for the most part is - no.

The deal's one saving grace is that it's a step in the right direction. but let's dispense with the notion that there are any real cuts in spending - there are simply decreases in increases. Spending is still rising across the board, but Republicans have forced the Democrats to pull in the reigns. Rep Boehner and Ryan looked at what the CBO thought was an appropriate amount to keep program A or B solvent, and refused to allow the President to spend anymore beyond that point. (this is what Vice President Biden calls terrorism and it is why he is a moron.)

- But this is the the bill's most fatal and unforgivable sin. The drastic reduction in military spending. America's constitutional Republic is based on whatever comes out of forced compromise from two sides who refuse to budge. It's to be expected that each side has to hold their nose and concede this or that to get a lollipop in return, but this concession was a dreadful folly on the part of House Republicans.

There are drastic cuts to the defense budget and a 10 year freeze on defense spending. The 15 to 20 % graduated reduction is based on the assumption that the US will not be drawn into any protracted conflicts over the next decade. These cuts will come out of "personnel, procurement, and training." That's a dangerous chance to take.

As for the non-defense stuff, you can parse the details here and there, but most experts still say a year from now we'll have already borrowed what we managed to cut. We may continue to be standing still at that time, but at least with a little help from the Tea Party folks, we've managed to keep the President and his allies from pushing the country over the economic cliff and into the jaws of a hungry China. So before we start slinging eggs at our fellow conservative friends and colleagues, remember that in Obama's Washington - this is actually a small sign of progress.

Addendum;

Yes, there is a lighter and funnier "Blogging by Numbers" coming soon for those of you who come here for the armpit noises and fart jokes.

Cordially

Joe