Earmarks and the Urge to Drain the Swamp

Mark Steyn on Sneering

Are There Dual Tracks for Mishandling Classified Information?

 During the Vice Presidential Debate, Republican Vice Presidential nominee Governor Mike Pence (R-IN) impeached his opponent Democrat Vice Presidential nominee Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) on how mishandling of classified information is administered.

Both of the VP nominees have sons on active duty serving in the Marines (as advertised by Sen. Kaine's lapel pin), so Pence's analogy of how the Pentagon would not suffer fools gladly should have hit home.  


However, as a good soldier to his boss Democrat Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Kaine reiterated that FBI Director Comey claimed that no reasonable prosecutor would bring a case against Clinton. Of course, that begs the question whether a prosecutor should reinterpret 18 US Code Sec. 1924 to require intentionality or if a Law Enforcement Officer ought to informally adjudicate a case in the first place.


During her first Presidential Debate, Hillary Clinton  kept urging viewers to fact check what her opponent says.  It would only be just if inquiring minds would apply the same principle to Sen. Kaine's   unequivocal denial that the military would decline to court marshal someone under their jurisdiction who handled classified information in what FBI Director Comey characterized as an "extremely careless" way.

One suspects that it would be more fruitful to wait for Tim Kaine to let Mike Pence finish a sentence. Of course, people could save time fact checking and just ask General Petraeus. 

How to Reign In the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court will start consideration of cases in its new term on the first Monday in October.  Many High Court observers expect that SCOTUS will have a diminished case-load during the 2016-2017 term as it awaits confirmation of  Associate Justice Antonin Scalia's replacement.

***

A more philosophical question is what should be the role of the Supreme Court.  Chelsea Clinton has mentioned on the hustings that openings the Supreme Court will allow her mother to fundamentally redefine the parameters of the Second Amendment.  

Most likely there would be no outright repeal of this fundamental freedom given by God, but it would take a narrow reading of the organic law and assert that this right is limited to organized militias. This would effectively make it a dead letter, like the Tenth Amendment.

So instead of being final arbiters of cases, the Supreme Court would act like a super-legislature, only they are unelected and there is virtually no way to upend their ukases

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) while campaigning for President proposed having retention elections for the judiciary, as they do in Iowa.  That sounds more appealing on the campaign trail then it would be applicable in the Federal City. However, it does voice the frustration of many Americans who feel cut out of the governing process.  California twice approved referendums defining marriage (which was primarily a state issue), yet in Obergefell, the Supreme Court overturned the will of voters under a Right of Dignity interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment and then expanded this right of same-sex marriage to all 50 states.

Two longer shot prospects not considered by judicial watchers are the possibility that Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump (R-NY) might win and actually live by his promise to nominate conservative judicial candidates.  

The other way to remedy judicial tyranny would be limitations on Article III power.  While Congress can theoretically reign in lower courts, it is unlikely to do so. This would leave such reformation to application of an Article V Convention of States.  While that emergency level has been in place for 227 years, it has never been successfully invoked yet. But as more and more power is taken away from states yet they are saddled with the brunt of implementing dictates from the District of Calamity (sic), this may become a more feasible possibility. 

Trey Gowdy Chary of Self-Assessments

DOJ Handed Out Clinton Email Immunity Like Candy

Representative Jason Chaffets (R-UT 3rd), the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, expressed exasperation at trying to bring justice to the Clinton Email case. The news that Hillary Clinton's 25 year aide-de-camp Cheryl Mills allowed access to her computers only if federal investigators gave her immunity.  Chaffets quipped that immunity was being handed out like candy. 

Bryan Pagliano, the IT "expert" who Hillary turned to in order to dispose of her unwanted State Department emails, was granted immunity but refused to testify before Congress despite being subpoenaed. Immunity deals were also proffered to Clinton aide Heather Samuelson and then State Department Information Resource Management Director John Bethel.

One nuance that came out during FBI Director Comey's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee was supposedly that the Department of Justice, not the FBI, gave proffers of immunity to Clinton email subjects.  But this came on the same day that Comey insisted that he should not be considered a weasel. 

Although it is little solace from those suffering from too many sweets, Uncle Sam ought to remember that too many candies rots the teeth, like the respect for the rule of law. 

Impeaching FBI Excuses of Non-Prosecution of Clinton Email Mess

Netanyahu: "UN has become a moral farce"

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before the United Nations General Assembly, he neither minced words in mealy mouthed diplomatic-speak nor pandered in progressive platitudes.  

Netanyahu called out the numerous ironic admonishments from the United Nations.  Nevertheless, Netanyahu expressed optimism that the General Assembly will change because Israel is on the right side regarding Iran and ISIS and eventually this understanding will trickle down to Turtle Bay. 

On Honest History

Robert Heinlein on Armed Societies

A Somali Muslim stabbed eight people at the Crossroad Center Mall in  St. Cloud, Minnesota before being fatally shot three times by Jason Falconer, an off duty law enforcement officer.  The assailant shouted Allahu Akbar (Arabic for "God is Great") and asked one stabbing victims if they were Muslim before he was felled by the legal concealed carry permit holder. There were several mall cops on duty but they were unarmed.

Once again it seems that guns don't kill people as much as gun free zones kill innocent people. Thankfully, a trained concealed carry citizen could mitigate the madness at the mall.

On Respect for the National Anthem

The bicentennary of the penning of Francis Scott Key's of the Star Spangled Banner was in 2014. Our National Anthem is based on a poem "The Defense of Fort McHenry" about the bombardment of Baltimore by the British during the War of 1812.  The British had just burned Washington, DC  and their forces were heading North to beat "rebel" American forces in Baltimore.  What stood in the way of British military dominance was Fort McHenry, which blocked warships from entering Baltimore harbor.

The British bombarded Fort McHenry for 27 hours.  Key was aboard a Royal Navy warship negotiating the release of a prison.  During the aerial siege, the American lawyer was taunted that soon the Stars and Stripes would be replaced by the Union Jack.  On the dawn of September 14, 1812 when Francis Scott Key saw the American flag still flying over Fort McHenry, he was inspired to write: 'Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?".

Shelli Jones Manuel 

Shelli Manuel, an accomplished musician and vocalist, was inspired to educate people about the Star Spangled Banner when she interviewed Baltimoreans about the National Anthem in the city of the song's birth, yet 80% of the adults and none of the youths knew any of the verse.  No wonder people chuckle nervously at scene in The Naked Gun (1988) when Detective Frank Drebin stumbled along when singing the Star Spangled Banner at a ballgame.

There have also been movements to replace the Star Spangled Banner as the National Anthem with the Woody Guthrie folk song "This Land Is Your Land" (1940).  Guthrie's ditty was written in reaction to his repulsion to hearing Kate Smith sing  Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" (1918) on the radio, as he thought that the lyrics were unrealistic and complacent. Guthrie tinkered with the tune to occasionally include overtly political verses which showed communist sympathies. It may be a fun song to sing around a campfire but does it really depict universal American values?

Pit Bull singing Nuestro Himno (2006)

In 2006, there was a push by a bunch of Latino pop stars like Pit Bull and  to make "Nuestro Himno" a de-facto hip-hop Hispanic National Anthem. Clearly, a Spanish version of a National Anthem takes away from the unity of one song brings a nation. This was foisted on the public in the midst of the 2006 push for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.  What a way to Balkanize the country! 

But there is also the trickiness of translation.  The first stanza of "Nuestro Himno" was fairly accurately rendered, although references to bombs and rockets were referred to as "fierce combat" so as not to sound too militaristic.  However, the second stanza seems to totally rewrite Key's lyrics, expressing "we are equal, we are brothers."  An alternate version of "Nuestro Himno" including rapping in English exhorting: "Let's not start a war With all these hard workers They can't help where they were born."  Did they channel Woody Guthrie with some Latino flair? Fortunately, Nuestro Himno got mixed reviews and seems to have faded into the sunset. 

Miley Cyrus at 2015 VMA

In 2014, Miley Cyrus backed a "We the People" petition to President Obama to change the National Anthem from the Star Spangled Banner to "Party in the USA". Of course that publicity stunt should have been taken as seriously as Miley Cyrus would be by a Music Conservatory.  Still, the petition only fell 90,000 votes short of being addressed by the White House. Shelli Manuel and the Veterans of Foreign War also muted this mutiny of our National Anthem.

Why is it that there are multiple moves to replace the Star Spangled Banner as America's National Anthem?  Obviously, education is a key component for the anthematic cognitive dissonance. Our educational system seems to stress social history in lieu of patriotic concentrations.  Moreover, students are conditioned to consider the United States a warmonger, misinterpreting the "bombs and rockets" as aggression rather than standing in self-defense.

Another aspect which people wonder "What the Hail?" about our National Anthem is the tune.  Key was a lawyer and poet, not a composer. Hence he borrowed the already established tune "The Anacreontic Song" (To Anacreon in Heaven). Unfortunately, that was a popular English tavern tune which was used as a sobriety test-- members could be refused another round if sang off key or flubbed the lyrics.   Key ought not be chagrined at borrowing popular melodies, as that is what Guthrie did for "This Land Is Your Land" too.

There has been some consternation about stylized instrumental arrangements of the Star Spangled Banner, like Jimi Hendrix guitar solo rendition at Woodstock (1969) or Jose Feliciano's soulful arrangement at Tiger Stadium during the 1968 World Series.  

Tastes can differ but so long as the musician does not make a mockery of the National Anthem like Rosanne Barr did in 1990, we can tolerate it so long as the lyrics are not butchered or altered.


To combat this ignorance and indolence about the Star Spangled Banner, Shelli Manuel took a multi-faceted approach.  After singing at a subdued 2014 bicentennary celebration for the Star Spangled Banner in Baltimore, Shelli Manuel sprang into action.  So in Manuel organized Sing It America to educate the public about our National Anthem.  The group convinced the United States Senate to honor and give thanks to the Star Spangled Banner  to have a year long celebration of the Star Spangled Banner. Moreover, Senate Resolution. 550 (2014) expresses the Senate sentiment that all the current verses of the Star Spangled Banner remain the National Anthem in perpetuity, including the "Forgotten Prayer Verse". 

But aside from symbolic Senate votes, Sing It America launched a comprehensive educational program to help students learn about the Star Spangled Banner.  

In the Bicentennial year, the National Symphony Orchestra premiered a new symphonic arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner at "A Capitol Fourth". But Shelli Manuel wanted to demonstrate that the Star Spangled Banner can be performed well in a variety of arrangements and settings.  So Sing It America arranged a Marathon 24 hour celebration of the Star Spangled Banner on the 201st anniversary from 5am to 5am on the National Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Dozens of groups will sing the National Anthem every hour on the hour.

This dedication to the Star Spangled Banner shows that the National Anthem is not just a pro-forma tradition before sporting events.  The Sing It America Marathon and educational efforts invite Americans to deeply enter into the meaning of the Star Spangled Banner and see the lyrics of our National Anthem as a credo reflecting our freedom, our history, acknowledgement of Divine Providence, and self defense.

It is a pity that Colin Kaepernick and other pro-football has used protests of not standing during the Star Spangled Banner prior to NFL games to promote perceived social inequities. 

Ronald Reagan Likens Government to a Baby

For Hillary Clinton, What Does "C" Stand For?

The FBI's pre-Labor Day document drop of notes regarding Democrat Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's (D-NY) interview about the Clinton offical e-mails on a private server contained an incredible conceit.

The notes revealed that the former Secretary of State told her FBI interviewers that that she did not realize that a "C" marking of a paragraph in official messages indicated "Classified".  Wags wondered what Mrs. Clinton thought the "C" stood for.

Greg Gutfeld on Voting for Hillary Because She's a Woman

Winston Churchill on Socialism

P.J. O'Rourke on Education and Labor Day

George Bernard Shaw on Liberty

H.L. Mencken on Education

Did EpiPen Inject Crony Capitalism into Drug Price Gouging?

There has been an uproar over the exposure of Mylan Pharmaceutical raising the cost of EpiPens over 500% since the company acquired rights for the drug in 2007. These anti-anaphalaxis injection devices spiked to a cost of $600 for a two pack, prompting an exasperated mother to exclaim that her family no longer had a college fund but were saving to pay for Epipens.

After a tremendous hue and cry from the public and calls from many in Congress to investigate EpiPen price gouging, Mylan tried to remedy the medical marketing mess.  First the big Dutch pharmaceutical  announced that low income (families of four making under $97,000) would have no out of pocket costs. When this did not quell the controversy, Mylan later announced that it would produce it's own generic which would cost half as much.

From a public policy perspective, it is worth considering if EpiPen is an example of how crony capitalism injects price gouging.

• Mylan's exclusivity was beginning to erode but the FDA blocked Teva Pharmaceutical's generic alternative by requesting more data.  In addition, Sanofi Pharmaceutical withdrew Auvi-Q because of dosing concerns.  So EpiPen had a virtual monopoly thru 2017
• Under the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Law (2013), the federal government offers  states a financial incentive for schools to stock EpiPens.,
• Mylan's CEO Heather Bresch is the daughter of West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), who has been conspicuously silent about the EpiPen outrage
• Mylan Pharmaceuticals has been a significant foreign corporate contributor to the Clinton Foundation and has partnered with the Clinton Foundation since 2009.

One of the consequences of Obamacare is that many heath insurance consumers are being forced into high deductible health plans, meant that consumers could not qualify for volume formulary discounts. 

More and more it seems that there is a nexus between requiring Americans under Obamacare into having high deductible insurance and pharmaceutical profits. 

The only remedies seem to be public outrage aimed at the District of Calamity to alleviate outrages or wait for a total collapse of the Obamacare insurance system.

Sam Adams on Liberty

Ambassador John Bolton: Vote for Hillary-- Not Indicted Yet

 

Obama's Leverage with Iran?

After months of claiming that the Iran Nuclear Deal was on a separate track to the negotiations with Tehran about the four American hostages, now the Obama White House takes a different tact.

The ironically named Obama White House Spokesman Josh Earnest does not deny that the $400 million in cash to Iran served as leverage to release the hostages.

It is telling that now the Obama White House is wearing weakness with the Islamic Republic of Iran as a badge of honor of keeping the "peace", getting deals done and allegedly saving American taxpayers money. 

Yet it seems that President Obama has things inverted, as hostages and cooperating to participate in farcical Farsi conceits seemed to be levers to get Mr. Obama to acquiesce to dumb demands which America will later regret

Lord Acton on Liberty

Is Mr. Trump Really Mr. Brexit?

As Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump (R-NY) took on a third campaign manager in as many months, he assumed a new image.  On Fox and Friends, Trump anointed himself "Mr. Brexit".




A day did not pass before a primary champion of the Brexit Leave movement, UK MEP Daniel Hannan, disputed Trump's claim.





This leads casual observers to wonder if Mr. Trump is really Mr. Brexit.  For those who dig deeper, the question really is what Trump meant.  

• If Trump sought to cast himself as the "comeback kid" who defied the polls, that may be credible.  

• If he sought to associate the Trump campaign with the triumph of the working class over the elites, there might be some parallel.  

• If Trump sought to compare the Leave Movement with his form of populist anti-free trade nationalism, this is a dubious nexus.

Thomas Paine on Principles

Angus King Exemplifies the Artifice of Independent Politicos

Senator Angus King ("I"-ME) sought to be coy about with whom he would caucus when he was elected in 2012.

King's rationale supposedly was that he wanted to get the most for Maine.  So it was understandable that he would align himself with the majority Democrats after the Presidential election.  King played the same fan dance in the run up to the midterm elections, claiming that he might caucus with the GOP if they won. 

 Yet even after the GOP wave victories, King still announced that he would caucus with the Democrats.  Either King does not understand the way things work as a minority member of the Senate or his non-aligned words were of wind. 

Some non-conformists have hailed third party candidacies as it opens up choice and may stop the merging of parties.  However, Angus King's revealing rhetoric on MSNBC's "Morning Joe exemplifies that an independent is at best a subterfuge or more likely indicating lacking the courage to stand up for a label which  he or she will later embody.

Pat Caddell's Prophetic Predictions Against the Political Class

[Even though Pat Caddell's caustic philippic from CPAC 2013 was targeted at the GOP Establishment Class, the charges of mixed messaging and poor expenditures of paid media still rings true for Donald Trump in 2016]

One of the most striking speeches at CPAC 2013 were Pat Caddell’s remarks on the “Should We Shoot All the Consultants Now?” panel.  Caddell indignantly observed:

When you have the Chief of Staff of the Republican National Committee and the political director of the Romney campaign, and their two companies get $152 million at the end of the campaign for the “fantastic” get-out-the-vote program… some of this borders on RICO violations. 

Rush Limbaugh was so impacted by Caddell’s caustic comments that he spent nearly twenty minutes of airtime reading the excepts, because El Rushbo could not get his hands on any audio.  

Serendipitously, Politichicks TV Michelle Moons caught Caddell’s emphatic indictments against Mitt Romney and his reliance on self-centered political consultants on video.  Unfortunately, it was shot at an unfortunate angle and has spotty audio quality.   Still, the damning appraisal deserves to be heard by anyone interested in public policy and good governance, so listen again with earphones in necessary.

With this in mind, this animation attempts to put a better face to Caddell’s prophetic condemnation of the Cocktail Party’s Political Class.   Since Caddell often would make asides during his remarks, the audio was slightly edited to keep focused the corrosive effect of crony capitalism among the GOP establishment.




h/t: Breitbart
h/t: Politichicks

Why Visit No Man's Land?

Cynics have long lamented that the system is rigged and that all politicians are liars.  Alas, some of the headlines in 2016 confirm this jaundiced world view.  

Mark Twain once quipped: “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re misniformed.“ With this in mind, why visit “No Man’s Land”?

• Nearly all polls showed that UK votes would reject Brexit, yet the referendum to leave the European Union won by a large margin.  Were the polls rigged? Was media coverage slanted? Or were there forces which tried to influence the outcome but failed in this instance?

• Senator Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT)  kept beating Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D-NY) in Democrat Presidential primaries but due to the allocation system and Super Delegates, the preordanined winner became ever closer to her coronation... uh that is nomination.  Were the Democrat primaries preordained?  How much was the winner helped by the Democrat National Committe headed by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL 23rd)

• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was investigated for a year and a half by the FBI over her private homebrew email server for official government business.  FBI Director Comey excoriates Hillary Clinton over the many irregularities associated with her email set up , then declines to suggest to the Department of Justice to press charges.  Are there special rules for Washington Establishment insiders? 

• The Main Stream Media seized upon every seemingly outrageous soundbyte from Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump (R-NY), but rarely gives the full context or hyperbolizes the worst interpretation.  Is all of the press slanted?  Where can ordinary Americans find news?

While America still has vibrant First Amendment freedoms, people need not settle for the official story, especially if it seems sketchy. The Internet allows for corrections of the record, covering news which the Main Stream Media conveniently declines to cover and the sharing of opinion so one can better discern the truth of the matter.

Check your sources.  All reporting has a viewpoint.  Often it is shaped by opinion or emphasis. Once you recognize that fact, it helps you discern between facts and slanted perspectives.  

Challenge your news sources.  Sometimes, timely reportage requires unnamed sources (e.g. “Senior Government Officials”) who must remain shielded. But if news is based totally on anonymous sources or relies on one source, be confident that the “jo-whore-nalist” is intellectually seducing you. 

But on the other hand, don’t believe everything that is published on the Internet. If the news piece can substantiate itself through reference to other reliable sources, one might lend the report more credence.

Assess what is not reported.  This can be hard for someone who is not a news junkie. But an insidious power of the media is not only what they report but what they don’t report. When reporting on a political crime, one party is often immediately reveled whereas those in the other party rarely are immediately identified.  Many liberal Main Stream Media will give short shrift to some stories (such as possible pay-for-play connections between  Hillary’s State Department and the Clinton Foundation) whereas they are covered on other media can be telling.

It may not be convenient to avoid political minefields of corruption and deception but A No Man’s Land may provide a map avoiding the obstacles on our path.