The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that obama has spent 20% more in each of the last two months than his campaign has taken in. Combine this with the results of the CBS News - New York Times poll released on Thursday, and you have the reason that many obama supporters have that sick "it's slipping away" feeling this Monday morning. Even as suddenly sobered mainstream publications downplayed obama's visit with the families and victim's of the Colorado Movie Massacre - a real damned if you do and damned if you don't moment for obama - supporters told WSJ that the campaign has spent too much and began a bludgeoning campaign against Romney too early to be able to keep it up until November. What's worse for obama is the information to be gained in the CBS Times poll. For the first time ever the poll showed Romney in the lead. But it was the so-called "inside" numbers that has petrified obama loyalists: his overall favorability rating amongst independents has slipped to a rock-bottom 28%.
Think that one through: less than 3 in 10 independent voters participating in the poll had a favorable view of obama. Folks, this is the CBS Times poll, one that will never be viewed as tilting right. Even worse - if that is possible in later July of an election year - the people who took the poll conceded that it was skewed 6.5% in favor of democrats. Do not ask me to explain how they justify that. The only thing I take from the 6.5 percent admission is that the poll - paid for by two organizations that virtually admit to being obama functionaries - is jacked up in favor of the left by some factor of 6.5 to compensate for something. What that something is is quite irrelevant. I won't agree that it was justified or accurate. In the defense of the poll takers, they tell you they are doing it and "explain" why. What the rest of the electorate needs to know is that if - despite all the prestidigitation - Romney has still catapulted ahead of obama than it is clear Romney is gaining momentum while obama support is dwindling and doing so in a train station marked for the "downbound" run.
Romney is about to embark on a foreign tour that cannot help obama. He is so weak on foreign policy that all Romney has to do is avoid a Gerald Ford type of screw-up (remember the debate between President Ford and soon-to-be President Carter when Ford pronounced that Poland was not behind the Iron Curtain?) Obama has his supporters holding their breath and praying that all of his anti-Israeli rhetoric during his term doesn't come back to haunt him. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was stepping gingerly with Chris Wallace on Fox on Sunday as Wallace sought to get him to admit what many suspect is a preference for Romney. I really don't think Mr. Netanyahu has any profound or singular admiration for the Governor; with the PM, anybody to the right of obama would do fine.
For Mr. Netanyahu, the real challenge was to avoid any extra inadvertent trashing of obama. He succeeded as only he could: there was nothing for obama supporters to latch onto while at the same time ensuring that no one would believe for a second that Mr. Netanyahu actually likes obama. He noted for the record that obama has said publicly that he supports Israel and has been told nothing to the contrary in private. I know that made me feel a lot better.
Mr. Netanyahu also noted that obama has stated publicly that for Iran to acquire nuclear capabilities is not an acceptable development. Obama has also said his administration will not conduct a policy of containment with a nuclear-armed Iran. The flash point there - that is, the day that Iran will have the bomb absent some kind of intervention, be it by military intervention or diplomatic treaty - could be as little as a month away, the Israeli PM said. On that day, the United States will have to fish or cut bait. If obama is still in charge?
Monday, July 23, 2012
Friday, July 20, 2012
Evil on the loose in Colorado and questions for obama
Sitting and listening to obama making remarks about the slain people in Colorado, shot by an evil 24-year-old at a movie complex, a movie complex showing the new Batman movie to packed audiences. Immediately after obama's remarks, police reveal that the suspect's apartment was booby-trapped with up to nine bombs. One of the bombs was set to explode if someone opened the front door. Strangely, police learned of the booby-trap from the suspect, who also told police that his car, parked just outside the movie complex where all of the shootings occurred, was set with bombs.
So this profoundly evil person randomly kills one dozen or more people, including at least two extremely young children (ages 6 and 7 according to reports) while injuring dozens more, but in its aftermath he surrenders peacefully and alerts police to additional mayhem about to unfold.
obama has cancelled his "campaign" events scheduled for today. Governor Romney has, as well. It is striking to hear obama in this moment, sounding like a leader, sounding like the leader we thought he could be. Even those who voted against him believed he would be a formidable leader. Many feared that his leadership abilities would mask the senselessness of his politics, who anyone even slightly familiar with his background knew would be ultra-left.
Well, his policies and plans are all ultra-left. His problems are two-fold: first, his leadership qualities have largely disappeared, perhaps because he wasn't prepared for the backlash, not just from the right (which he had to expect) but from the center and center-left. It appears that his determination to get his obamamess approved clouded both his political perceptions and those of his inner circle. In those first days they mouthed words that indicated they were more than willing to sacrifice a second term for the president and a democratically-controlled congress if they could get obamamess through congress. Not many people believed that. And they clearly didn't really mean it. But there is every chance it will come true.
People supporting Governor Romney are still trying to get their arms around the reality that the far left has vice-grip control of the news media. Many people grew up loving newspapers, eagerly scooping up the home-delivered version early in the morning and using it to get their days off to an informed start. Everyone was aware - in a background kind of way - that people in the media were liberal. But we also trusted their basic honesty and truthfulness. We trusted the actual reporters to bring us the news straight up, saving the opinions for the editorial page and op-ed page.
As a journalism major at the University of Maryland, I learned the theory behind the posture of the press. It was based on the English writer, philosopher and statesman, John Milton, and his famous observation that in a free market place of ideas the truth will always emerge. Reporters, then, believed in the basic goodness of their system; if they told the facts - the "truth" - it would contribute to the public's clear understanding of what was going on. Reporters believed in the basic truths and rationality of their liberal positions, and they believed they contributed to the goals of their political beliefs by informing the public. If being liberal was good, then the truth would benefit good and, vis-a-vis, the liberal cause.
Between those years - the period of time in the immediate aftermath of Watergate - and the election of President Bush in 2000, the media underwent a profound change. It was as if they collectively decided that they didn't have to bother pursuing truth, unless it happened to be in league with their political beliefs. Now the front page of the New York Times and the Nightly News on NBC resemble the DNC talking points. In the next months those forums will be filled to the brim with pro-obama press releases and anti-romney hit pieces. What the unsophisticated keep missing is the way the press controls the news by what they print and, just as importantly, what they do not print.
Late last week the Congress held a function that was advertised as a meeting between new members of the Egyptian Parliament and United States' congressmen with the overall goal being to educate the new Egyptian legislators on the intricacies of democracy.
But some of the Egyptian "legislators" were members of groups that were on the US list of known terrorists. Folks on that list are prohibited from coming into the United States. One of these "legislators" was a devout follower of the Blind Shake, now serving a life sentence for conspiring to blow up more than a few public places in and around New York City. That was bad enough, but at least one of the "legislators" was himself a convicted terrorist. Yet the State Department - which issued the visa to this man - said they were unaware that he was on a known terrorist list. Is this merely some kind of bureaucratic foul-up, or has the obama administration decided it knows more about who should be allowed in the US than the people who put this man on the terror list.
This incident highlights the massive problem with the mass media. There have been no reports whatsoever about this incident in any media outlet save for a few center-right blogs. What's far worse, the lone-Muslim in congress, Mr. Ellison of Minnesota, has released a snarling hit piece on Congresswoman Michelle Bachman, who has learned of the event and publicly criticized it.
The 2008 campaign was nothing short of a coverup of obama's past. Instead of the microscopic vetting currently unleashed on Governor Romney, obama has still been able to sail along literally untouched by probing mainstream reporters. Few will forget the televised conversation between NBC's Tom Brokaw and Public TV's Charlie Rose (now on CBS) which took place a few nights before election day, 2008. They both candidly admitted they knew nothing about obama. Nothing at all. They didn't know his history, they didn't know his views on many issues, and they didn't know exactly what he meant when he voiced that "hope and change" mantra that is now nothing more than a lead weight around his neck. Yet these men were both highly visible members of the national media, the same people who tell us they have a Constitutional Duty to inform the public. It was their duty to vet obama, to find out how he got into Harvard and who paid for it, who he learned his politics from, who influenced him, who he would rely on once elected and, most importantly, what legislative initiatives was obama likely to undertake once in the oval office. How could a man who had a simmering dislike for the British and Israelis and a fast-blooming interest in the dictatorial methods of Mr. Chavez and Mr. Castro and even
So this profoundly evil person randomly kills one dozen or more people, including at least two extremely young children (ages 6 and 7 according to reports) while injuring dozens more, but in its aftermath he surrenders peacefully and alerts police to additional mayhem about to unfold.
obama has cancelled his "campaign" events scheduled for today. Governor Romney has, as well. It is striking to hear obama in this moment, sounding like a leader, sounding like the leader we thought he could be. Even those who voted against him believed he would be a formidable leader. Many feared that his leadership abilities would mask the senselessness of his politics, who anyone even slightly familiar with his background knew would be ultra-left.
Well, his policies and plans are all ultra-left. His problems are two-fold: first, his leadership qualities have largely disappeared, perhaps because he wasn't prepared for the backlash, not just from the right (which he had to expect) but from the center and center-left. It appears that his determination to get his obamamess approved clouded both his political perceptions and those of his inner circle. In those first days they mouthed words that indicated they were more than willing to sacrifice a second term for the president and a democratically-controlled congress if they could get obamamess through congress. Not many people believed that. And they clearly didn't really mean it. But there is every chance it will come true.
People supporting Governor Romney are still trying to get their arms around the reality that the far left has vice-grip control of the news media. Many people grew up loving newspapers, eagerly scooping up the home-delivered version early in the morning and using it to get their days off to an informed start. Everyone was aware - in a background kind of way - that people in the media were liberal. But we also trusted their basic honesty and truthfulness. We trusted the actual reporters to bring us the news straight up, saving the opinions for the editorial page and op-ed page.
As a journalism major at the University of Maryland, I learned the theory behind the posture of the press. It was based on the English writer, philosopher and statesman, John Milton, and his famous observation that in a free market place of ideas the truth will always emerge. Reporters, then, believed in the basic goodness of their system; if they told the facts - the "truth" - it would contribute to the public's clear understanding of what was going on. Reporters believed in the basic truths and rationality of their liberal positions, and they believed they contributed to the goals of their political beliefs by informing the public. If being liberal was good, then the truth would benefit good and, vis-a-vis, the liberal cause.
Between those years - the period of time in the immediate aftermath of Watergate - and the election of President Bush in 2000, the media underwent a profound change. It was as if they collectively decided that they didn't have to bother pursuing truth, unless it happened to be in league with their political beliefs. Now the front page of the New York Times and the Nightly News on NBC resemble the DNC talking points. In the next months those forums will be filled to the brim with pro-obama press releases and anti-romney hit pieces. What the unsophisticated keep missing is the way the press controls the news by what they print and, just as importantly, what they do not print.
Late last week the Congress held a function that was advertised as a meeting between new members of the Egyptian Parliament and United States' congressmen with the overall goal being to educate the new Egyptian legislators on the intricacies of democracy.
But some of the Egyptian "legislators" were members of groups that were on the US list of known terrorists. Folks on that list are prohibited from coming into the United States. One of these "legislators" was a devout follower of the Blind Shake, now serving a life sentence for conspiring to blow up more than a few public places in and around New York City. That was bad enough, but at least one of the "legislators" was himself a convicted terrorist. Yet the State Department - which issued the visa to this man - said they were unaware that he was on a known terrorist list. Is this merely some kind of bureaucratic foul-up, or has the obama administration decided it knows more about who should be allowed in the US than the people who put this man on the terror list.
This incident highlights the massive problem with the mass media. There have been no reports whatsoever about this incident in any media outlet save for a few center-right blogs. What's far worse, the lone-Muslim in congress, Mr. Ellison of Minnesota, has released a snarling hit piece on Congresswoman Michelle Bachman, who has learned of the event and publicly criticized it.
The 2008 campaign was nothing short of a coverup of obama's past. Instead of the microscopic vetting currently unleashed on Governor Romney, obama has still been able to sail along literally untouched by probing mainstream reporters. Few will forget the televised conversation between NBC's Tom Brokaw and Public TV's Charlie Rose (now on CBS) which took place a few nights before election day, 2008. They both candidly admitted they knew nothing about obama. Nothing at all. They didn't know his history, they didn't know his views on many issues, and they didn't know exactly what he meant when he voiced that "hope and change" mantra that is now nothing more than a lead weight around his neck. Yet these men were both highly visible members of the national media, the same people who tell us they have a Constitutional Duty to inform the public. It was their duty to vet obama, to find out how he got into Harvard and who paid for it, who he learned his politics from, who influenced him, who he would rely on once elected and, most importantly, what legislative initiatives was obama likely to undertake once in the oval office. How could a man who had a simmering dislike for the British and Israelis and a fast-blooming interest in the dictatorial methods of Mr. Chavez and Mr. Castro and even
Iranian President (and resident madman) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad become President without anybody knowing about that. Obama didn't have to lie to conceal these peculiarities, the press never asked him about these issues.
Few in the general population knew any of this before the 2008 election. What is unsaid is that the media - which has abandoned any pretense of objectivity - knew that if they did vet obama, obama wouldn't be elected president.
Now it is four years later and despite abysmal economic conditions brought about by unrelenting federal spending, massive and unrelenting unemployment that has hit the middle class extremely hard and bludgeoned minorities, especially the black population, gargantuan defense cutbacks, a far-left foreign policy that many think has isolated Israel against a world gone mad while showing open disdain for longtime allies like England, India, Canada and even France, and now an openly stated hatred of our basic economic system - that would be capitalism - combined with an open and viral dislike (is "hatred" too strong a word?) for private business and those who operate it, obama is only an eyelash behind Governor Romney in the national polls.
I hope - and it is only that, a hope; it is not even close to being an expectation - that someone in the media will ask obama some tough questions before the November elections. It might be that some of these questions will have to be posed by Governor Romney in the debates.
For instance: might some reporter inquire about these topics?
What did obama mean when he told Mr. Putin that he would be able to be more negotiable about nuclear weapons after the election. I'm guessing that obama is familiar with Jonathan Shell's Fate of the Earth and its support of unilateral nuclear disarmament. Does he agree with that premise?
If Israel decides its people are in real danger from nuclear weapons that can be launched from its sworn enemy Iran, will be support it, militarily if need be, if Israel launches a military action against Iran?
How bad must the economy get before you put a brake on tax increases and federal rule-making? Would you ever consider cutting income taxes and corporation taxes? Would you ever consider adopting the kind of reforms adopted under President Reagan?
Without such a vetting, how can any of the obama fans amongst the press decide that he should be president again, or is a better candidate than Mr. Romney? What policies of obama are they just crazy about? What policies of Romney do they dislike, and why.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Baseball is redemptive but obamamess is not
There is something redemptive about Baseball. The great game, the National Pastime, the ethereal game, has equations that are not always predictable. From 1966 to 1983 the Baltimore Orioles appeared in six World Series. In quite a few of the years that they were not in the Series they played in the Major League Playoffs, and even in the years when they didn't actually make the Playoffs they chased the teams that did make it to the season's last weekend, and even the last game.
In 1982, for instance, they overcame a three game deficit in the last week of the season to tie the Brewers for first place in the AL East with one game to go. That was the only day the entire season that the Orioles had even a share of first place. And even though they did lose that last game, most fans remember the dramatic late charge in Earl Weaver's last penant race, and the fans at a jam-packed Memorial Stadium refusing to leave until the Earl of Baltimore came out to acknowledge the multitudes cheering in tribute.
In 1983 with Weaver retired the Orioles beat back the Yankees in September, then the White Sox in the AL Championship Series and the Phillies in the World Series. Nobody knew then that it was Cal Ripken's only Series and the only one he and Eddie Murray would play in together. Jim Palmer carried the Orioles in 1982 in his last great season. In 83 he was beset by arm problems, although he emerged from the bullpen, of all places, to win the decisive third game in Philadelphia (even though the Orioles beat the Phillies, 4-1, the teams had come back to Philadelphia for game three after splitting the first two in Baltimore. Everything was on the line when Palmer came in to a sloppily played game on the rug. All he did was restore order long enough for the Oriole bats to secure the win. The great man was on the Oriole roster to start 1984, but was put on waivers after several spotty outings.
The Orioles were in a tailspin that would hit rock bottom when they started the 1987 season with 26 straight losses. In 1989 the team was populated with a load of rookies and Cal Ripken. Eddie Murray had been traded and Frank Robinson was back in charge of the team. Right from the start of the season they played way over their heads, riding the only good season that No. 1 starter Jeff Ballard would ever have: 15 clutch wins. Their competition in that heady season was eventual World Series Champ Toronto, who sported Joe Carter, Roberto Alomar and other notable sluggers. Nonetheless, as September turned into October, the Orioles were but one game behind the Blue Jays, and the two teams were set to finish the season in a three game set in Sky Dome. Friday night's game was a classic and the two teams battled into extra innings. The Jays finally won on a wild pitch. This made Saturday's game do or die for the Orioles. Making matters worse, scheduled starter Pete Harnish somehow stepped on a nail at a Toronto construction site and had to be scratched. Into the breach stepped the kind of man baseball is famous for. Dave Johnson, not the one who played second base for many of the Orioles greatest seasons (then managed the Mets, the Orioles and currently the Cindarella Washington Nationals), but the lad from a small "other side of the tracks" suburb of Baltimore called Middle River. Unheralded for many years as he knocked around the minor leagues, Johnson was picked up by the Orioles as an extra arm for their AAA minor league team in Rochester. There, he pitched extremely well and was called up by the Birds in mid-season. He made a mess of great starts while regular members of the starting staff spent time on the disabled list. In September, however, he had been hit hard several times and sent to the Oriole bullpen. When Harnish went down, Frank Robinson called for Johnson and all he did was hold the Blue Jays scoreless until late in the game. The Orioles jumped out in front and looked like they might make it a final day of the season affair, until the bullpen faded late and Toronto rallied to win.
There hasn't been a whole lot of excitement on the field for the Orioles since 1989. Oh, they did make the playoffs in 1996 and 1997, and actually won the AL East in 1997, but more than a few Oriole fans feel the price of that success was way too high. In 1996 the Birds had a new local owner, Peter Angelos, a trial attorney who made millions in asbestos litigations. He promptly convinced legendary GM Pat Gillick to come to the shores of the Chesapeake. Gillick had tremendous success with Toronto, winning several World Series. He apparently thought he would have an unfettered hand in Baltimore and he quickly made a series of deft moves that made the Orioles into a near-contender. At mid-season, however, the Orioles were about five games out of first and looked sloppy at times. Worse yet in Gillick's eyes, the Orioles were not young. He wanted to parlay some of the aging vets into a new crop of young talent that other more serious contenders would part with to get their hands on some of the Orioles older talent. When words spread through the team of Gillick's intentions, one of the vets on the block, Bobby Bonilla, met with Angelos and somehow convinced him that the team the Orioles had on the field at that moment could make the playoffs. Angelos ordered Gillick not to make the trades he wanted to make. True to his word, Bonilla and his mates rallied in the second half and won the brand-new Wild Card berth in the Playoffs. They then pulled a tremendous upset in the first round of the playoffs, beating the Indians 3-1 in a best of five series. Thanks to a critical homerun by Brady Anderson, the Orioles won both opening games in Baltimore. The Indians rallied to win game three in raucous Cleveland, and looked poised to even the series when they nicked Mike Mussina just enough to take a lead into the ninth. But with two outs in the ninth, Roberto Alomar, who had followed Gillick to Baltimore, stroked a clutch single to tie the game and the Orioles won in extra innings. That moved the Birds into the AL Championship series against the hated Yankees. In game one the Orioles were victimized by one of the worst calls in Baseball History. A young fan, Jeffrey Maier, 13, leaned over the left field wall and, with a large baseball glove, managed to deflect a ball over the wall that sure-handed Tony Tarasco looked poised to catch. But instead of calling the obvious fan interference, Rich Garcia somehow ruled the ball a home run, turning a certain Orioles win into an extra-inning loss. Garcia was the so-called left field umpire and only had a few feet to move before making the call. Incredibly, after the game a group of reporters showed him the replay and he said, well, I guess I should've called interference and awarded him a double. Huh? Even when he sees a replay he still couldn't get it right. Sure it would've been a gutsy call and it would've changed New York's image of the smirking Maiers for all of time, but isn't the idea to do the right thing? The Orioles won game two in New York and had it not been for the terrible call, would've come home for game three up 2-0. Instead, the Yankees righted their ship on Friday in Baltimore, rallying late against Oriole ace Mussina, and went on to win the series 4-1. In 1997 the Birds were in first place from Opening Day to the finish line, and easily beat Seattle in the first round of the playoffs. But Cleveland gained revenge on the Orioles in the AL Championship Series, coming from behind to win game one in Baltimore and going on to win the series, 4-2. Since that season the once proud franchise has endured 13 straight losing seasons. Crowds that once filled beautiful Camden Yards for every home game are now staying away in droves. Baltimore fans tend to blame owner Angelos, whose famous meddling on the baseball side pushed Gillick out and has kept many great baseball people from coming to Baltimore. Is this the season that turns it all around? It's far too early to tell, but just being competitive at this time of the season is a switch for a team that has seen its pennant and playoff homes dashed by Mothers Day in recent years.
In Baltimore on Saturday, the Orioles, with a hardly-safe-feeling hold on the new second wild card spot, and with their offense locked in first gear, played the host for the hard-hitting Tigers, who came to town after the All-Star break and quickly started knocking the Oriole pitching staff all over Camden Yards. The Bengals had already crushed the Birds on Friday. On Saturday, the Orioles manufactured a 4-1 lead going to the ninth. All-star closer Jim Johnson came on and promptly blew the save. In the eleventh the Tigers forged ahead, 5-4, only to see the Birds battle back to tie. None of this prepared anyone for the fateful 13th. Detroit pushed a runner to third with two outs and Quinton Berry, who had already knocked in several critical runs, promptly drilled a single to his best friend, Adam Jones', zip code in center field. The Tigers again led, 6-5, and Detroit now had scored five clutch runs from the ninth on. Jim Leyland, this late in a game where he'd used every position player, still had his proverbial gun loaded in the bullpen. On came flame-throwing Al Benoit and it looked like the Tigers had won their second straight game since the All Star break. Wrong. First, J. J. Hardee, sporting an 0 for 28 streak at the plate, hit a long home run to tie the score with one out. An upset Benoit proceeded to let a change-up get away from him against All-Star Oriole outfielder Adam Jones, who didn't try all that hard to avoid the floater and took a glancing blow to the forearm. He gladly reported to first base and was still aboard when Taylor Teagarden came to bat. The Orioles had traded for Teagarden in the offseason, hoping he could give All Star Catcher Matt Wieters some off days. But injuries had kept him on the disabled list all season until Saturday morning, when he was activated. He entered the game in extra innings, but struck out in his first at bat in the 11th inning. In the 13th, however, he drilled a long line drive to right center that carried over the wall a few inches to the left of a place where the wall's height gains nearly five feet. The final score was 8-6 Orioles.
Going into Sunday in the new two-teams-are-in Wild Card race, the Angels and Orioles have the top spots. Los Angeles is 48-40, Baltimore is 46-41, Tampa Bay is 46-42, Cleveland is 45-42, Detroit and Oakland are 45-43 and Boston and Toronto are 44-44. Unless something changes, baseball has done itself proud in coming up with this idea.
At the finish of his NAACP talk this week the audience gave Mitt Romney a standing ovation. It was a classy ending to a presentation that received loud boos when Romney candidly admitted that he would quickly move to repeal obamamess, i.e., obamacare once he becomes President. Polls of the general public indicate about two-thirds of all Americans support Romney on that position, and one can bet the house the percentage will rise dramatically as soon as people come to realize how much more in taxes or penalties the average middle class taxpayer will pay when obamamess is up and running. More than one supposed expert has called obamamess the largest tax increase in world history. Obama has tried to suppress that news about the costs of the program for no other than political reasons. The law is front-loaded with benefits and back-loaded with taxes and penalties. This is for certain: by mid-2014 Obama's promise that obamamess would pay for itself will seem like one really bad joke, or one huge lie, depending, I suppose, on whether you like or dislike people who do this sort of thing to get their way.
Just think about it one more time. Obama himself was very popular and the subject of some of the most fawning press coverage the free world has ever seen. Left wing sycophants were talking about warm feelings running down their legs and swarthy handsome lads roaming the beaches, and dropping Nobel prizes on a man who had done exactly nothing. Actually, he had done less than nothing because we really knew nothing about him. Just ask Tom Brokaw and Charlie Rose, who had one of the most amazing and appalling on-air conversations a week before the election. They both admitted that they knew nothing about who the man was. All they really knew was that he was further to the left than any other candidate that ever walked the face of the earth. Even today they carry on about what Mitt Romney did with his money while asking little about what obama has done with the public's money. Kudos on that comparison to Mr. Limbaugh.
Against such a backdrop obama introduces a 2,700 page piece of legislation that to this day has been read by virtually no one from cover to cover. Yet obama told Congress that the nation's only hope was for the Congress to act quickly. During what passed for a national debate, obama, in a moment of candor, admitted to a woman during a White House Town Meeting that obamamess would ask her mother to take a pain pill for a cardiac condition, rather than undergo life-saving surgery, because she was too old. This, even though it was a given that the woman was in otherwise good health, had a great upbeat spirit and strong will to live. When the bill, on its face, calls for a committee of experts, that includes accountants, to make life and death health decisions, he accuses people critical of the so-called death panels of playing politics. So immature and so arrogant is the title for that chapter.
In 2008 obama grabbed 90% of the black vote. No one expected otherwise inasmuch as obama was the first person of African heritage to be a major-party candidate for the nation's highest office. Now, in 2012 things are dicey for the regime. Black unemployment is ridiculously high and black teen unemployment is off the charts. You want to see someone in the regime get red-faced? Say to him or her, matter-of-factly, that blacks fared far better under President Bush. Red faced or not, the statement is true. At the NAACP get-together last week, the mainstream media; i.e., obamapress, played over and over again the clip of Romney being booed when he said, candidly, that the first order of business in a Romney presidency would be the total repeal of obamamess. What the press didn't show was the standing ovation at the end of the speech, the many black leaders huddling with Romney after the speech, splashed against the bulletin board for obama's speech at the convention. You didn't see that bulletin board? That's because obama ducked the convention rather than confront his dismal performance for black citizens. No one expects Romney to win the black vote, but if black turnout drops by, say 12% and Romney's share of those who do vote swells to, say, 15%, obama will not be re-elected.
In 1982, for instance, they overcame a three game deficit in the last week of the season to tie the Brewers for first place in the AL East with one game to go. That was the only day the entire season that the Orioles had even a share of first place. And even though they did lose that last game, most fans remember the dramatic late charge in Earl Weaver's last penant race, and the fans at a jam-packed Memorial Stadium refusing to leave until the Earl of Baltimore came out to acknowledge the multitudes cheering in tribute.
In 1983 with Weaver retired the Orioles beat back the Yankees in September, then the White Sox in the AL Championship Series and the Phillies in the World Series. Nobody knew then that it was Cal Ripken's only Series and the only one he and Eddie Murray would play in together. Jim Palmer carried the Orioles in 1982 in his last great season. In 83 he was beset by arm problems, although he emerged from the bullpen, of all places, to win the decisive third game in Philadelphia (even though the Orioles beat the Phillies, 4-1, the teams had come back to Philadelphia for game three after splitting the first two in Baltimore. Everything was on the line when Palmer came in to a sloppily played game on the rug. All he did was restore order long enough for the Oriole bats to secure the win. The great man was on the Oriole roster to start 1984, but was put on waivers after several spotty outings.
The Orioles were in a tailspin that would hit rock bottom when they started the 1987 season with 26 straight losses. In 1989 the team was populated with a load of rookies and Cal Ripken. Eddie Murray had been traded and Frank Robinson was back in charge of the team. Right from the start of the season they played way over their heads, riding the only good season that No. 1 starter Jeff Ballard would ever have: 15 clutch wins. Their competition in that heady season was eventual World Series Champ Toronto, who sported Joe Carter, Roberto Alomar and other notable sluggers. Nonetheless, as September turned into October, the Orioles were but one game behind the Blue Jays, and the two teams were set to finish the season in a three game set in Sky Dome. Friday night's game was a classic and the two teams battled into extra innings. The Jays finally won on a wild pitch. This made Saturday's game do or die for the Orioles. Making matters worse, scheduled starter Pete Harnish somehow stepped on a nail at a Toronto construction site and had to be scratched. Into the breach stepped the kind of man baseball is famous for. Dave Johnson, not the one who played second base for many of the Orioles greatest seasons (then managed the Mets, the Orioles and currently the Cindarella Washington Nationals), but the lad from a small "other side of the tracks" suburb of Baltimore called Middle River. Unheralded for many years as he knocked around the minor leagues, Johnson was picked up by the Orioles as an extra arm for their AAA minor league team in Rochester. There, he pitched extremely well and was called up by the Birds in mid-season. He made a mess of great starts while regular members of the starting staff spent time on the disabled list. In September, however, he had been hit hard several times and sent to the Oriole bullpen. When Harnish went down, Frank Robinson called for Johnson and all he did was hold the Blue Jays scoreless until late in the game. The Orioles jumped out in front and looked like they might make it a final day of the season affair, until the bullpen faded late and Toronto rallied to win.
There hasn't been a whole lot of excitement on the field for the Orioles since 1989. Oh, they did make the playoffs in 1996 and 1997, and actually won the AL East in 1997, but more than a few Oriole fans feel the price of that success was way too high. In 1996 the Birds had a new local owner, Peter Angelos, a trial attorney who made millions in asbestos litigations. He promptly convinced legendary GM Pat Gillick to come to the shores of the Chesapeake. Gillick had tremendous success with Toronto, winning several World Series. He apparently thought he would have an unfettered hand in Baltimore and he quickly made a series of deft moves that made the Orioles into a near-contender. At mid-season, however, the Orioles were about five games out of first and looked sloppy at times. Worse yet in Gillick's eyes, the Orioles were not young. He wanted to parlay some of the aging vets into a new crop of young talent that other more serious contenders would part with to get their hands on some of the Orioles older talent. When words spread through the team of Gillick's intentions, one of the vets on the block, Bobby Bonilla, met with Angelos and somehow convinced him that the team the Orioles had on the field at that moment could make the playoffs. Angelos ordered Gillick not to make the trades he wanted to make. True to his word, Bonilla and his mates rallied in the second half and won the brand-new Wild Card berth in the Playoffs. They then pulled a tremendous upset in the first round of the playoffs, beating the Indians 3-1 in a best of five series. Thanks to a critical homerun by Brady Anderson, the Orioles won both opening games in Baltimore. The Indians rallied to win game three in raucous Cleveland, and looked poised to even the series when they nicked Mike Mussina just enough to take a lead into the ninth. But with two outs in the ninth, Roberto Alomar, who had followed Gillick to Baltimore, stroked a clutch single to tie the game and the Orioles won in extra innings. That moved the Birds into the AL Championship series against the hated Yankees. In game one the Orioles were victimized by one of the worst calls in Baseball History. A young fan, Jeffrey Maier, 13, leaned over the left field wall and, with a large baseball glove, managed to deflect a ball over the wall that sure-handed Tony Tarasco looked poised to catch. But instead of calling the obvious fan interference, Rich Garcia somehow ruled the ball a home run, turning a certain Orioles win into an extra-inning loss. Garcia was the so-called left field umpire and only had a few feet to move before making the call. Incredibly, after the game a group of reporters showed him the replay and he said, well, I guess I should've called interference and awarded him a double. Huh? Even when he sees a replay he still couldn't get it right. Sure it would've been a gutsy call and it would've changed New York's image of the smirking Maiers for all of time, but isn't the idea to do the right thing? The Orioles won game two in New York and had it not been for the terrible call, would've come home for game three up 2-0. Instead, the Yankees righted their ship on Friday in Baltimore, rallying late against Oriole ace Mussina, and went on to win the series 4-1. In 1997 the Birds were in first place from Opening Day to the finish line, and easily beat Seattle in the first round of the playoffs. But Cleveland gained revenge on the Orioles in the AL Championship Series, coming from behind to win game one in Baltimore and going on to win the series, 4-2. Since that season the once proud franchise has endured 13 straight losing seasons. Crowds that once filled beautiful Camden Yards for every home game are now staying away in droves. Baltimore fans tend to blame owner Angelos, whose famous meddling on the baseball side pushed Gillick out and has kept many great baseball people from coming to Baltimore. Is this the season that turns it all around? It's far too early to tell, but just being competitive at this time of the season is a switch for a team that has seen its pennant and playoff homes dashed by Mothers Day in recent years.
In Baltimore on Saturday, the Orioles, with a hardly-safe-feeling hold on the new second wild card spot, and with their offense locked in first gear, played the host for the hard-hitting Tigers, who came to town after the All-Star break and quickly started knocking the Oriole pitching staff all over Camden Yards. The Bengals had already crushed the Birds on Friday. On Saturday, the Orioles manufactured a 4-1 lead going to the ninth. All-star closer Jim Johnson came on and promptly blew the save. In the eleventh the Tigers forged ahead, 5-4, only to see the Birds battle back to tie. None of this prepared anyone for the fateful 13th. Detroit pushed a runner to third with two outs and Quinton Berry, who had already knocked in several critical runs, promptly drilled a single to his best friend, Adam Jones', zip code in center field. The Tigers again led, 6-5, and Detroit now had scored five clutch runs from the ninth on. Jim Leyland, this late in a game where he'd used every position player, still had his proverbial gun loaded in the bullpen. On came flame-throwing Al Benoit and it looked like the Tigers had won their second straight game since the All Star break. Wrong. First, J. J. Hardee, sporting an 0 for 28 streak at the plate, hit a long home run to tie the score with one out. An upset Benoit proceeded to let a change-up get away from him against All-Star Oriole outfielder Adam Jones, who didn't try all that hard to avoid the floater and took a glancing blow to the forearm. He gladly reported to first base and was still aboard when Taylor Teagarden came to bat. The Orioles had traded for Teagarden in the offseason, hoping he could give All Star Catcher Matt Wieters some off days. But injuries had kept him on the disabled list all season until Saturday morning, when he was activated. He entered the game in extra innings, but struck out in his first at bat in the 11th inning. In the 13th, however, he drilled a long line drive to right center that carried over the wall a few inches to the left of a place where the wall's height gains nearly five feet. The final score was 8-6 Orioles.
Going into Sunday in the new two-teams-are-in Wild Card race, the Angels and Orioles have the top spots. Los Angeles is 48-40, Baltimore is 46-41, Tampa Bay is 46-42, Cleveland is 45-42, Detroit and Oakland are 45-43 and Boston and Toronto are 44-44. Unless something changes, baseball has done itself proud in coming up with this idea.
At the finish of his NAACP talk this week the audience gave Mitt Romney a standing ovation. It was a classy ending to a presentation that received loud boos when Romney candidly admitted that he would quickly move to repeal obamamess, i.e., obamacare once he becomes President. Polls of the general public indicate about two-thirds of all Americans support Romney on that position, and one can bet the house the percentage will rise dramatically as soon as people come to realize how much more in taxes or penalties the average middle class taxpayer will pay when obamamess is up and running. More than one supposed expert has called obamamess the largest tax increase in world history. Obama has tried to suppress that news about the costs of the program for no other than political reasons. The law is front-loaded with benefits and back-loaded with taxes and penalties. This is for certain: by mid-2014 Obama's promise that obamamess would pay for itself will seem like one really bad joke, or one huge lie, depending, I suppose, on whether you like or dislike people who do this sort of thing to get their way.
Just think about it one more time. Obama himself was very popular and the subject of some of the most fawning press coverage the free world has ever seen. Left wing sycophants were talking about warm feelings running down their legs and swarthy handsome lads roaming the beaches, and dropping Nobel prizes on a man who had done exactly nothing. Actually, he had done less than nothing because we really knew nothing about him. Just ask Tom Brokaw and Charlie Rose, who had one of the most amazing and appalling on-air conversations a week before the election. They both admitted that they knew nothing about who the man was. All they really knew was that he was further to the left than any other candidate that ever walked the face of the earth. Even today they carry on about what Mitt Romney did with his money while asking little about what obama has done with the public's money. Kudos on that comparison to Mr. Limbaugh.
Against such a backdrop obama introduces a 2,700 page piece of legislation that to this day has been read by virtually no one from cover to cover. Yet obama told Congress that the nation's only hope was for the Congress to act quickly. During what passed for a national debate, obama, in a moment of candor, admitted to a woman during a White House Town Meeting that obamamess would ask her mother to take a pain pill for a cardiac condition, rather than undergo life-saving surgery, because she was too old. This, even though it was a given that the woman was in otherwise good health, had a great upbeat spirit and strong will to live. When the bill, on its face, calls for a committee of experts, that includes accountants, to make life and death health decisions, he accuses people critical of the so-called death panels of playing politics. So immature and so arrogant is the title for that chapter.
In 2008 obama grabbed 90% of the black vote. No one expected otherwise inasmuch as obama was the first person of African heritage to be a major-party candidate for the nation's highest office. Now, in 2012 things are dicey for the regime. Black unemployment is ridiculously high and black teen unemployment is off the charts. You want to see someone in the regime get red-faced? Say to him or her, matter-of-factly, that blacks fared far better under President Bush. Red faced or not, the statement is true. At the NAACP get-together last week, the mainstream media; i.e., obamapress, played over and over again the clip of Romney being booed when he said, candidly, that the first order of business in a Romney presidency would be the total repeal of obamamess. What the press didn't show was the standing ovation at the end of the speech, the many black leaders huddling with Romney after the speech, splashed against the bulletin board for obama's speech at the convention. You didn't see that bulletin board? That's because obama ducked the convention rather than confront his dismal performance for black citizens. No one expects Romney to win the black vote, but if black turnout drops by, say 12% and Romney's share of those who do vote swells to, say, 15%, obama will not be re-elected.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Power and Disgrace Simultaneously
It was Lord Acton (John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton) who originated the famous and dependably truthful statement "absolute power corrupts absolutely". Whether the Chief Justice of the United States pondered that thought as he proceeded down the darkened and dastardly path recently traveled is unknown, but I'd bet it at least crossed his mind. It should have. He might have done better had he considered another of the great historian's other momentous thoughts: "Great men are almost always bad men." Lord Acton lived from 1834 to 1910. He was one of the world's most erudite and learned historians. He was also a devout Roman Catholic. He was fortunate in that he missed Hitler and Idi Amin and the Rawanda disasters. His statements were in play in those awful situations. And it was in play during the Supreme Court's deliberations of obamamess.
Chief Justice Roberts got carried away with his power, shamefully so. He is the poster child for someone with a runaway ego.
The thing that has baffled me in the aftermath of the Court's sniveling anti-intellectual decision, however, is how Roberts thought he would accomplish anything positive by doing what he did. Perhaps if he had spent his time actually reading the terrible statute before he went ahead and gave it a second life, he wouldn't be the fool he is now perceived as. Oh, the left is mouthing nice sickly-sweet things in public and laughing a sinister sneering laugh when they think they're alone with each other. "We got another one boot licking his way into the cocktail parties," you can hear them whisper, if you listen closely from a concealed corner in Justice Ginsburger's chambers. How someone could be a devout conservative for his entire adult life and then sell his soul the first time being a conservative meant something momentous is completely beyond most Americans. What Roberts did would be comparable to Churchill, after saying only unconditional surrender will end the second world war, went out and started negotiating with the first nazi to fly the coup in Berlin, or Kennedy, after vowing to get the US to the moon, then cut NASA's budget so severely that the only thing left for it to do was make Muslim people feel better about their contributions to space exploration. I'm sorry, did somebody take that line already?
On Friday obama was telling people that the economy had made important steps toward a turnaround. The hand-picked audience hesitated, trying to decide if that was supposed to be a joke or something that owed its existence to a smudge on the tele-prompter, then dutifully, if somewhat half-heartedly, began to clap. obama said some 84,000 jobs had been created in the last reporting period. To be even slightly meaningful, that figure needed to be about five times higher, but no one at obama's speech was aware of that. What that says about those folks is about the same thing that Roberts' opinion says about him. Ah the ease of playing the fool.
Roberts has spent his entire judicial career espousing a conservative agenda and a view of the constitution that compels a direct reading of the Constitution and an implementation of its obvious principals. If a statute contravenes the plain meaning of constituional principals, it must be voided. At least that is what Roberts has done throughout his career and what he said he would do if approved by the Congress. It was not what he actually did to obamamess. With that repugnant uberleft enactment Roberts decided that it was unconstitutional, but could become constitutional if, instead of a mandate to the American people to spend their money per obama's dictates, it was instead viewed as a tax. But obama swore, up one side and down the other, that obamamess was not a tax.
Such back alley meandering had never been attempted by a chief justice. And this wasn't a situation where he had four justices following him on this zig=zag to feeble thinking. The four uberleftists who joined him in upholding obamamess could've cared less how Roberts assuaged his conscience. They started with the premise that the law was perfectly fine because it was a leftist enactment. Ginsburg lied about American History in her dogmatic diatribe. No indeed, the only person who was torturing stare decisis into a blood-stained oblivion was the Chief. He was a-flipping and a-flopping to the combined disgust of most Americans, and when he was done he had boot-licked his way to the top of the Formerly Conservative Fools Bootlicking the Left round up. You Go, Flip! Like a child with his hand in a cookie jar, Roberts realized there was nobody who could make him do something noble and just. No there wasn't! It was just Flip, and Flip had the authority to do whatever he wanted and damn if he didn't. Lord Acton saw this coming; the power corrupted and the yearning to be great made Flip a bad man.
Can he redeem himself? Only if he resigns right now.
Chief Justice Roberts got carried away with his power, shamefully so. He is the poster child for someone with a runaway ego.
The thing that has baffled me in the aftermath of the Court's sniveling anti-intellectual decision, however, is how Roberts thought he would accomplish anything positive by doing what he did. Perhaps if he had spent his time actually reading the terrible statute before he went ahead and gave it a second life, he wouldn't be the fool he is now perceived as. Oh, the left is mouthing nice sickly-sweet things in public and laughing a sinister sneering laugh when they think they're alone with each other. "We got another one boot licking his way into the cocktail parties," you can hear them whisper, if you listen closely from a concealed corner in Justice Ginsburger's chambers. How someone could be a devout conservative for his entire adult life and then sell his soul the first time being a conservative meant something momentous is completely beyond most Americans. What Roberts did would be comparable to Churchill, after saying only unconditional surrender will end the second world war, went out and started negotiating with the first nazi to fly the coup in Berlin, or Kennedy, after vowing to get the US to the moon, then cut NASA's budget so severely that the only thing left for it to do was make Muslim people feel better about their contributions to space exploration. I'm sorry, did somebody take that line already?
On Friday obama was telling people that the economy had made important steps toward a turnaround. The hand-picked audience hesitated, trying to decide if that was supposed to be a joke or something that owed its existence to a smudge on the tele-prompter, then dutifully, if somewhat half-heartedly, began to clap. obama said some 84,000 jobs had been created in the last reporting period. To be even slightly meaningful, that figure needed to be about five times higher, but no one at obama's speech was aware of that. What that says about those folks is about the same thing that Roberts' opinion says about him. Ah the ease of playing the fool.
Roberts has spent his entire judicial career espousing a conservative agenda and a view of the constitution that compels a direct reading of the Constitution and an implementation of its obvious principals. If a statute contravenes the plain meaning of constituional principals, it must be voided. At least that is what Roberts has done throughout his career and what he said he would do if approved by the Congress. It was not what he actually did to obamamess. With that repugnant uberleft enactment Roberts decided that it was unconstitutional, but could become constitutional if, instead of a mandate to the American people to spend their money per obama's dictates, it was instead viewed as a tax. But obama swore, up one side and down the other, that obamamess was not a tax.
Such back alley meandering had never been attempted by a chief justice. And this wasn't a situation where he had four justices following him on this zig=zag to feeble thinking. The four uberleftists who joined him in upholding obamamess could've cared less how Roberts assuaged his conscience. They started with the premise that the law was perfectly fine because it was a leftist enactment. Ginsburg lied about American History in her dogmatic diatribe. No indeed, the only person who was torturing stare decisis into a blood-stained oblivion was the Chief. He was a-flipping and a-flopping to the combined disgust of most Americans, and when he was done he had boot-licked his way to the top of the Formerly Conservative Fools Bootlicking the Left round up. You Go, Flip! Like a child with his hand in a cookie jar, Roberts realized there was nobody who could make him do something noble and just. No there wasn't! It was just Flip, and Flip had the authority to do whatever he wanted and damn if he didn't. Lord Acton saw this coming; the power corrupted and the yearning to be great made Flip a bad man.
Can he redeem himself? Only if he resigns right now.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Our man Flip
The power is slowly returning to the grid along the Atlantic Seaboard. Unless you were without that power for the better part of five days, as my home has been, you cannot imagine the emotion in that statement. The thunderstorm of the century struck so suddenly and so unpredictably that even NOAA didn't have Baltimore in the storm's clutches until after the calamity had begun. I was south of Baltimore on Friday afternoon and early Friday night. Other than being very hot - 104 degrees in both Baltimore and Washington - there was nothing unusual about the day or the forecast. As I sat in the Tombs Friday evening, eating one of the best Hamburgers anywhere, there was no talk or chatter about the weather in the immediate future. That is because no one saw it coming. Driving home Friday night (after lingering longer than planned at "Politics and Prose," a wonder to behold and still an independent book store,) I noticed a display of lightning off to the west. I assumed it was heat lightning since storms were not a serious threat in the minds of forecasters. Those displays could not be ignored and seemed to intensify and change as I closed in on Baltimore shortly before 11:00 pm, and even a weather know-nothing like me could see the heat lightning had morphed into storm lightning. Light rain began, off and on, as I neared home in northeast Baltimore and within one-half an hour after I got home, all hell broke loose in a quite literal sense. I stood transfixed at the French Doors, watching the western sky and the torrents of rain and hellacious wind that was screaming at me. At my back property line stood a 200-foot Tulip Poplar, the remaining twin of what once was a stereo presentation of Regal Horticultural majesty. The first of the twins bit the dust in late August, 2011, when the overblown Hurricane Irene managed to take it out. We were in Vermont, dealing with a canceled flight home and driving a Western course around the storm when my neighbor broke the news on my cell. "I hate to tell you," he said, "but the tree hit your house when it fell." Damage estimates ranged up to $30,000 and I know I am supposed to be happy that my homeowners policy paid for all but about $5,000 of the damage done. Now I was watching as the remaining twin blew around like it was a piece of al dente spaghetti. But not for long. Within five minutes the tree was bouncing off the ground of the Maryland School for the Blind. I'm supposed to be happy now because the twin, at least, missed my house. Within another five minutes that little bit of relief changed. The storm had blown most of its anger at Baltimore and was moving off to the east when suddenly a crash - a grand old oak tree two houses away, fell to the ground, taking a wad of electric lines with it. Power gone. Saturday and Sunday came and went without power or even a sign of a BGE lineman. On Monday evening I did chat with a lineman from southern Mississippi, who said you'll be getting your power back. "Tonight?" I asked. "No," he said, "but sometime before the week ends."
After all the junk the left screamed at President Bush when he flew over New Orleans before coming back for a first hand look, I would have thought obama would've been at ground zero from day one, seeing as the disaster was all around him. But obama was on vacation. Again. The left screamed when Bush went home for vacation. Would America be so lucky now.
Tenacious does not apply to obama but it certainly applies to this heat wave. Even when the temperature couldn't hit the century mark, the near total humidity made it seem that way. Tempers were getting thin. My parents, 83 and 85, were in the same boat. I thought they'd be back on the grid far sooner than we were because they live in a more "genteel" neighborhood. I was wrong. As I write, they still have no power and a lineman told my visiting brother-in-law that tomorrow seemed possible. But another came and said the first guy was wrong and power would be back on for them tonight.
Anyway, with the power on I am left to confront one of the most awful and embarassing decisions in the history of the Supreme Court, and I'm not talking per se about the Court's really awful obamamess decision. The decision I speak of is the one made by a man many of us were told was totally reliable: John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Until a day or two before that awful decision was revealed, I never doubted that Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito would vote in favor of a decision that struck down most or all of the ridiculous obamamess. I believed that Kennedy was in play and as he went so would go obamamess. Along with most other Americans, I found out that opinion was wrong. I had a clue that it would be wrong about a day or two before it was released. That's when Rush Limbaugh let on that somebody who was in a position to know thought the real worry was "Flip". Limbaugh said that in fact Kennedy's vote to throw the mess out was never in doubt. His decision and reported behind-the-scenes struggle to keep Roberts from shooting his career in the heart confirms this.
Roberts needs to resign. He should do so at once. He is said to have voted to reject the ridiculous expansion of governmental power and ridiculous reduction in liberty because of the pressure he felt from the left. The left was saying that if the Court threw the obamamess embarrassment out it's reputation would be forever sullied. In fact, just the opposite is 100% true. A Court that cannot throw out such an embarrassing and absurd expansion in federal power, at the expense to personal freedom and liberty, has no real reason to exist. If something this bad isn't unconstitutional, what, pray tell is? How about forcing citizens to provide shelter and aide to a federal army? How about the freedom of speech? How about the freedom of religion. This Court will struggle to reject a direct attack on Christianity. Only a quick resignation combined with a clear and certain admission that he made a terrible mistake could begin to put a dent into the damage done to the United States Constitution.
If I take a deep breath and try really hard to figure out how perverted someone's thought process could become to do what flip roberts did. He was selected by President Bush because he was exactly what Bush said he needed on a liberal court: someone smart enough and strong enough to stand up to the liberal hoard. He was approved by a conservative majority in the Senate who were convinced by him that he was what he appeared to be: a dependable conservative who would continue on the path he had started, which was the conservative path. Instead he deceived and embarassed even those who stood behind him while these same liberals he gussied up to in upholding obamamess.
Is roberts so bloody silly that he thinks he will be embraced as a true friend by the uberleft? I hope not because they will forever consider him as the spineless conservative who turned on his friends so he could bootlick his detractors. Did he think he would be considered a great thinker for doing what he did. I hope not because he won't. Even moderate liberals, like me, realize that obamamess is not constitutional. It takes away personal freedom in a power grab of unprecedented proportions. It forces citizens to purchase something even if they do not want to. It serves as a vehicle for this uberleftist president to turn a great hoard of IRS agents loose on the electorate to ensure they are obeying this ridiculous law while at the same time giving these government thugs permission to harass and intimidate everyday middle class citizens.
What thoughts caused a man to make such a ridiculous mistake, and in doing so, to write a garbled and sophmorish decision that even first year law students recognized as silly. What do you get when you take a deceitful power hungry man and force him to write an important legal opinion that "upholds" a law that is not constitutional in any sense to the word. He knows in his heart and mind that the taxes included in this awful mess will drastically change the America most of us love. Tens of thousands of small businesses will give up and close rather than try to pay the fees the law demands. Add to the tens of thousands which close the thousands of other business ventures that will never open. What will Americans do who would've earned a living working for these companies? What will the government do which sucks up the taxes these companies pay if they give up and close or never open to begin with?
After all the junk the left screamed at President Bush when he flew over New Orleans before coming back for a first hand look, I would have thought obama would've been at ground zero from day one, seeing as the disaster was all around him. But obama was on vacation. Again. The left screamed when Bush went home for vacation. Would America be so lucky now.
Tenacious does not apply to obama but it certainly applies to this heat wave. Even when the temperature couldn't hit the century mark, the near total humidity made it seem that way. Tempers were getting thin. My parents, 83 and 85, were in the same boat. I thought they'd be back on the grid far sooner than we were because they live in a more "genteel" neighborhood. I was wrong. As I write, they still have no power and a lineman told my visiting brother-in-law that tomorrow seemed possible. But another came and said the first guy was wrong and power would be back on for them tonight.
Anyway, with the power on I am left to confront one of the most awful and embarassing decisions in the history of the Supreme Court, and I'm not talking per se about the Court's really awful obamamess decision. The decision I speak of is the one made by a man many of us were told was totally reliable: John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Until a day or two before that awful decision was revealed, I never doubted that Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito would vote in favor of a decision that struck down most or all of the ridiculous obamamess. I believed that Kennedy was in play and as he went so would go obamamess. Along with most other Americans, I found out that opinion was wrong. I had a clue that it would be wrong about a day or two before it was released. That's when Rush Limbaugh let on that somebody who was in a position to know thought the real worry was "Flip". Limbaugh said that in fact Kennedy's vote to throw the mess out was never in doubt. His decision and reported behind-the-scenes struggle to keep Roberts from shooting his career in the heart confirms this.
Roberts needs to resign. He should do so at once. He is said to have voted to reject the ridiculous expansion of governmental power and ridiculous reduction in liberty because of the pressure he felt from the left. The left was saying that if the Court threw the obamamess embarrassment out it's reputation would be forever sullied. In fact, just the opposite is 100% true. A Court that cannot throw out such an embarrassing and absurd expansion in federal power, at the expense to personal freedom and liberty, has no real reason to exist. If something this bad isn't unconstitutional, what, pray tell is? How about forcing citizens to provide shelter and aide to a federal army? How about the freedom of speech? How about the freedom of religion. This Court will struggle to reject a direct attack on Christianity. Only a quick resignation combined with a clear and certain admission that he made a terrible mistake could begin to put a dent into the damage done to the United States Constitution.
If I take a deep breath and try really hard to figure out how perverted someone's thought process could become to do what flip roberts did. He was selected by President Bush because he was exactly what Bush said he needed on a liberal court: someone smart enough and strong enough to stand up to the liberal hoard. He was approved by a conservative majority in the Senate who were convinced by him that he was what he appeared to be: a dependable conservative who would continue on the path he had started, which was the conservative path. Instead he deceived and embarassed even those who stood behind him while these same liberals he gussied up to in upholding obamamess.
Is roberts so bloody silly that he thinks he will be embraced as a true friend by the uberleft? I hope not because they will forever consider him as the spineless conservative who turned on his friends so he could bootlick his detractors. Did he think he would be considered a great thinker for doing what he did. I hope not because he won't. Even moderate liberals, like me, realize that obamamess is not constitutional. It takes away personal freedom in a power grab of unprecedented proportions. It forces citizens to purchase something even if they do not want to. It serves as a vehicle for this uberleftist president to turn a great hoard of IRS agents loose on the electorate to ensure they are obeying this ridiculous law while at the same time giving these government thugs permission to harass and intimidate everyday middle class citizens.
What thoughts caused a man to make such a ridiculous mistake, and in doing so, to write a garbled and sophmorish decision that even first year law students recognized as silly. What do you get when you take a deceitful power hungry man and force him to write an important legal opinion that "upholds" a law that is not constitutional in any sense to the word. He knows in his heart and mind that the taxes included in this awful mess will drastically change the America most of us love. Tens of thousands of small businesses will give up and close rather than try to pay the fees the law demands. Add to the tens of thousands which close the thousands of other business ventures that will never open. What will Americans do who would've earned a living working for these companies? What will the government do which sucks up the taxes these companies pay if they give up and close or never open to begin with?
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