For years the liberal left has been rewarded for irresponsible behavior.  When is the last time you heard a liberal Democrat talk about widening the party tent?   The liberal left wing of the Democratic Party is totally in control.   They are not interested in appealing to people with different ideas; their goal is to silence anyone who dares have a different idea.

It is almost impossible for a moderate Democrat to win a primary election in most states.   What do you think would happen to a Democrat running in a primary election who said he or she was open-minded about abortion or gay marriage?  Negotiating with the liberal left is like playing chicken with a suicidal maniac.  In a game of chicken the most responsible person always loses.

There are only two solutions to this kind of problem.  One is that some competent authority steps in and punishes irresponsible behavior.  In a perfect world, that would be the main stream media.  But in the United States the main stream media is far too biased to do that.  In a lot of cases the main stream media is the problem.

That leaves the second alternative where responsible people become outraged and start demanding action.   There are signs that this is starting to happen.

First there was the backlash against the Duck Dynasty witch hunt.  People not only stood up for the Ducks, they made it clear that they are tired of this crap and they aren’t going to take it anymore.

Now we have the backlash regarding immigration reform.  John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan were going to try and slip immigration reform by what they considered to be the naïve Tea Party coalition.  They bought into the Democratic lie that Republicans will be punished if they don’t bend over and allow Democrats to pass immigration reform.  That is utter nonsense.  If immigration reform had passed, Republicans would have gotten none of the credit and there would have been an immediate influx of new and excited Democrats.

The good news is that the Republican establishment is no longer operating under the illusion that the Tea Party was just a bunch of “B” rated politicians out of touch with polite society.  There is no “Tea Party.”  There is just a whole lot of people sick and tired of left wing radical Democrats enabled by the spineless Republican establishment.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/7/backlash-immigration-plan-floods-boehner-website/

The Republican establishment is starting to fear its’ base more than they fear the liberal left and the main stream media.  That is a very good thing.

TDM

On Thursday, August 14, 2003 I was at JFK airport in New York City, trying to catch the last plane leaving for the West Coast.  I almost made it.  I was on the jet way getting ready to enter the plane when the power went out.  We were ordered back into the terminal.  At first it didn’t look that bad.  But it was bad.  I ended up camping out in the baggage claim area for a couple of days.  Then the toilets started to back up.  Finally, in desperation some of us pooled resources and bribed a passenger van to take us to Philadelphia.  Unfortunately many people spent the weekend waiting to get out of JFK.

A lot has changed since 2003, but if anything our dependence on our power system has increased.  I am sure a lot has been done to correct the problems that caused the 2003 blackout, but fear another major event is all too likely.  A recent news report confirms that fear.  Last April there was an alleged terrorist attack on a PG&E site in San Jose:

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_25072628/attack-pg-e-substation-sparks-concerns-about-possible

Few people noticed because the FBI is still claiming that no terrorism was involved.  But the FBI probably doesn’t believe there was terrorism involved in Benghazi either and it sees no evidence of IRS corruption.  Sadly the FBI has lost most of its credibility.

Jon Wellinghoff, former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, says that he believe this was an act of domestic terrorism.  He has an argument.  There were more than 100 shell casings found at the scene, none of which had finger prints.  Someone lifted the lid to an underground vault and severed six fiber optic cables.  The weapons involved were AK-47’s and the facility may have been marked with small rock piles to help the snipers find the right targets.  While this is not exactly proof that al Qaeda was involved it is evidence that someone worked hard to plan this little adventure.

The good news is that even Democrats are paying attention.  Henry Waxman said this incident makes it clear our electric grid is not adequately protected.   I am relatively sure that the administration did not report this as a terrorist attack because they refuse to admit anything is a terrorist attack.  The theory is that if they call it something else, it isn’t really terrorism.  The good news is that it does appear as though the power industry is taking this seriously and is working to beef up security.

There is more to the story.  The perfect time for such an attack would be when alternative power sources are reduced.  Say for example when there is a major drought in California reducing the availability of hydroelectric power.  Or say when a cold wave in the Midwest diverts natural gas from California power plants .  Sound familiar?

I am certainly not predicting an attack.  Terrorists are not stupid and they usually attack when it is least expected.  If anything releasing this story now reduces the potential for an attack.  That is probably why these people went public with the information.  As for me, it is probably time to get around to fixing my backup generator.

TDM

The liberal left is desperately trying to get immigration reform passed.  The latest effort was the recent poll by CNN claiming to show that Americans are totally for legalizing illegal immigrants.  I looked at the poll and it is another example of a liberal push poll guaranteed to deliver the desired results.  Here is the first question:

“What should be the main focus of the U.S. government in dealing with the issue of illegal immigration: developing a plan that would allow illegal immigrants who have jobs to become legal U.S. residents, or developing a plan for stopping the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. and for deporting those already here?”

Note that the choice is between letting people who have jobs stay and trying to deport 11 million people.

The second question was similar:

“Here are some questions about how the U.S. government should treat illegal immigrants who have been in this country for a number of years, hold a job, speak English and are willing to pay any back taxes that they owe.

“Would you favor or oppose a bill that allowed those immigrants to stay in this country rather than being deported and eventually allow them to apply for U.S. citizenship?”

Most of us don’t have much of an issue will illegal alients who meet this criteria.  The problem is that a whole lot of them don’t come close to meeting this critieria.

How about this for a question:

Do you think we should slow down the inflow of illegal immigrants before we start passing laws that will encourage even more people to come here illegally?

I bet the vast majority of people would agree with that one.

In spite of CNN’s best spin efforts, immigration reform is unlikely to pass for one simple reason.  No Republican in his or her right mind would trust President Obama to keep his part of the bargain.  No matter what Democrats promise, in reality Obama will just ignore the law and do what he wants.

TDM

The IRS scandal is now perilously close to the President because of the O’Reilly interview.  Up until now, President Obama successfully distanced himself from the scandal.  Regardless of who was involved there was no evidence that he was in the loop.  But in his angry response to Bill O’Reilly, President Obama just may have provided direct evidence of his personal involvement.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/02/transcript-bill-oreilly-interviews-president-obama/

President Obama confirmed that Douglas Shulman, former head of the IRS, visited the White House 157 times.

Obama went into detail explaining why Shulman was visiting the White House using the word “we” frequently.  Then O’Reilly asked if Obama specifically talked to Shulman: Following is the response by Obama:

I do not recall meeting with him in any of these meetings that are pretty routine meetings that we had.

That is a classic non-denial denial.  Any trained reporter or prosecutor will recognize that.  Obama did not say that there was no meeting between him and Shulman.  He also didn’t say the IRS targeting of conservatives was never mentioned.  Instead he said he did not recall meeting with Schulman and then admitted such meeting were routine.  Wow!

Obama tried to blame the whole IRS scandal on Fox News.  Then he incredibly claimed that there wasn’t even a smidgen of corruption.  For one thing that is ridiculous because Lois Lerner pled the 5^th Amendment to avoid testifying.  But a more important question is how could Obama know there was no corruption if he was not personally familiar with the internal IRS investigation?  If the IRS investigation is a sham, as was alleged in testimony today, then Obama may have admitted having knowledge of a cover-up.

I do not know if Republicans have the stomach to pursue this.  If a select committee and/or a special prosecutor is appointed than this could become very serious.  Obama should have been prepared for this interview.  He should have said that he would await the results of the internal investigation along with everyone else.  But his anger and arrogance over powered his judgment.

It is impossible to predict growth of a spine by a congress that has yet to show evidence of such.  But in testimony today it became clear that the IRS continues to target conservative opponents and plans to continue doing that in the future.   At some point even the cowardly lions in the Republican establishment may be shamed into taking action.  If they do, at a minimum, Obama has come perilously close to bringing this scandal into the oval office.

TDM

Two myths were destroyed on national television Sunday.  One was the myth of Peyton Manning as world’s greatest quarterback who could never be defeated.  Peyton Manning is a great quarterback and by all acocunts he is a great human being.  But he looked very mortal during that game.  It takes a team to win and it takes a team to lose.  But, it is Peyton Manning who suffered the big blow to his image.  In some ways this is ridiculous.  In less than 24 hours he went from hero to has been, at least in the minds of some of the fickle sports media clowns.  But, regardless of how fair it is, the myth of Peyton Manning took a really big hit yesterday.

The other myth was that of President Obama.  He was absolutely shredded by Bill O’Reilly.  I sometimes get very annoyed with Bill O’Reilly who just may have the biggest ego in the history of television.  It was particularly disgusting to hear O’Reilly pump up himself as the world’s greatest interviewer prior to this session with Obama.  But  at least on this day, Bill O’Reilly did a pretty good job.  He asked questions no one else has dared to ask Obama and he exposed Obama like never before.  Obama’s answer on Benghazi  was absurd and obviously evasive.  His answer on the IRS scandal ridiculous.  O’Reilly had Obama on the defense the entire session and when Obama tried to take a cheap shot at Fox News, O’Reilly just dismissed him with a wave of his hand.

Most people who listened to the Kennedy – Nixon debate in 1960 thought that Nixon won hands down.  If you read the transcipt, Nixon won hands down.  But on TV, Kennedy, who was actually seriously ill, showed up with a great tan and he looked healthy.  Nixon, who really was healthy, looked pathetic.  Those who watched the debate thought that Kennedy won.  The point is that sometimes what is said doesn’t matter nearly as much as the image of the encounter.  That is why I think this interview really hurt Obama.  He looked and acted defensive.

The main stream media will try to spin this as a good showing by Obama, but they will be wrong.  When a President of the United States sits down with a news reporter, the President is expected to dominate.   If he doesn’t win,  despite the spin, he loses.

TDM

In 2006, Hillary Rodham Clinton was odds on favorite to win the Democratic nomination for President.  She was also odds on favorite to beat any Republican in the general election.  How’d that work out?  Now the same people are convinced that Hillary is a shoe-in to win the Presidential election in 2016.  Are they right this time?

In 2006, Hillary started her campaign before everyone else.  She spent more money than everyone else.  The result was that she peaked in the polls before everyone else.  The Clinton strategy with regard to the election of 2008 was to suck as much cash and oxygen out of the room early so that no serious contender would have a chance.  It didn’t work.

So this time, Hillary is using the same strategy, only she is starting about a year earlier.  Don’t assume that the same failed strategy she tried in 2006 is going to work any better this time.

Political candidates, just like everything else in nature, seldom remain stationary.  They are either moving up or they are moving down.  Hillary is already at the top, which means the only direction she can possibly move is down.  The reason she is polling so high at the moment is that she is being compared to nobody.  Somebody always does better than nobody.  What the polls really show is that the Democrats literally have no bench.

In case you doubt that, name five Democrats who are legitimate Presidential candidates, other than Hillary Clinton.  Are you having trouble coming up with names?  Perhaps the following list will help.

http://2016.democratic-candidates.org/

This is a pretty pathetic list.

Now try to name 10 Republicans who are legitimate Presidential candidates.  Odds are your biggest challenge is winnowing the list down to only ten.  Following is the list of people mentioned as possible Republican candidates:

http://2016.republican-candidates.org/

It is simple.  If you have more qualified people competing for a position, you end up with a much stronger winner.  I believe that the real reason Republicans lost in 2012 was that Mitt Romney had no serious competition.  It seemed like every primary was between Mitt and the next “not Mitt” and eventually we ran out of “not Mitts.”

We’ve heard this coronation tune for Hillary before.  It didn’t end well for Hillary in 2008 and it is unlikely to end well for her in 2016.  She peaked too early in 2006 and she is peaking two early in 2014.  I predict she will be left with Twin Peaks, but no oval office.

TDM

There many Republicans upset with what they consider to be the Abuse of Power by President Obama.  That is not news.  But this time there is something very significant.  This time the men accusing the President of Abuse of Power have very serious legal talent.  I doubt that many people realize the caliber of the men involved.  I am specifically talking about Senator Ted Cruz, from Texas and Senator Mike Lee, from Utah.  The main stream media would like to dismiss both men as just a couple of uneducated Tea Party politicans.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  These are two of the most capable constitutional attorneys to ever grace the halls of congress.

Let’s start with Ted Cruz.  The following is according to wikipedia.org.  Ted Cruz is not just a constitutional attorney, he is a legal superstar:

He was valedictorian of his high school class in 1988.  He graduated cum laude from Princeton with a Bachelor of Arts from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1992.  He won the top speaker award at both the 1992 U.S. National Debating Championship and the 1992 North American Debating Championship.  He was a semi-finalist at the World Universities Debating Championship.  He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1995 with a Juris Doctorate.  He was the primary editor of the Harvard Law Review and the founding editor of the Harvard Latino Law Review. 

Ted Cruz served as law clerk to Michael J. Luttig at the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in 1995 and was a law clerk for William Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States in 1996.

Cruz was on the Bush legal team with regard to the disputed 2000 elections with the Supreme Court of Florida and the U.S. Supreme Court.  Bush named Cruz associate Deputy Attorney General in the U.S. Justice Department and he was the Director of Public Policy Planning at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.  He was appointed to the office of Solicitor General of Texas.  He has authored over 80 United States Supreme Court briefs and has presented 43 oral arguments, including nine oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court.  He has more experience appearing before the U.S. Supreme Court than any practicing lawyer in Texas or any current member of congress.   

I could go on, but I think you get the point.

Senator Mike Lee is not quite in the same league as Ted Cruz, but he also has a solid record as a constitutional lawyer.  Again, according to wikipedia.org:

His father was the founding dean of Brigham Young Universities Reuben Clark Law School.  His dad later served as Assistant U.S. Attorney General and then as U.S. Solicitor General. 

Mike Lee received a BS from Brigham Young in 1994 and was President of BYUSA.  He was student body president during the 1993-94 school year.  He graduated from BYU’s Reuben Clark Law School in 1997.  He went on to clerk for Judge Dee Benson of the U.S. District court for the District of Utah.  The following year he clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.  He then joined the Washington, D.C. practice of Sidley Austin, where he specialized in appellate and Supreme Court litigation.  He later was appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney in Salt Lake City and prepared briefs and argued cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.  He served as General Counsel to Utah Governor John M. Huntsman. Jr. 

No one should make the mistake of underestimating these men.  When men like this start accusing the President of the United States of Abuse of Power it is time to pay attention. Neither of these men can be dismissed as just another politican making outrageous and unsupported allegations.

Watch the following video of Mike Lee questioning Eric Holder.  This is a highly skilled lawyer who does his homework and does not make mistakes. He is a man to be respected.  He is a man to be feared:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOBexxvYg0k

Notice how carefully he interviews Holder.  He is extremely well prepared, eloquent, focused and relentless.  When you combine this type of talent with a super star constitutional lawyer like Ted Cruz, this just may be the real dream team of constitutional lawyers.  America’s Got Talent and that talent is taking direct aim at the President of the United States.  It would be wise to pay very close attention.

TDM

The Pope participated in a really nice event where young children released a couple of innocent pure white doves as a beautiful symbol of peace.  Almost immediately a large crow and a seagull saw the doves and attacked.  Both doves appear to have survived the initial assault and flew off into the sunset.  If these were true doves, they are probably dead now.  That is because doves raised by humans don’t have the skill set to survive in the wild.  In addition, being pure white makes for pretty pictures but it also makes the doves a target that even a crow and a seagull couldn’t resist.  The next time they will probably be attacked by a more skilled predator than a crow or a seagull.

By the way, wild doves are almost never pure white.  So odds are these doves were from a breeder.  This probably didn’t end well for the doves.

Sometimes when doves are released they aren’t really doves, they are homing pigeons.  That actually is more humane, because the homing pigeons circle a few times and then fly home for dinner.  In most cases this strategy prevents them from becoming dinner.

In many ways this dove release is an apt description of the real world.  While we all would love to think of a world where gentle creatures can just all get along with peace and love, that ignores reality.  In the real world there are real predators and if someone bigger and stronger is not around to provide protection the innocent get devoured.

It still was a very heartwarming scene, at least until the crow and the seagull got involved.

TDM

On the evening of December 7, 1941 Orson Wells was scheduled to put on a live performance on the Gulf Screen Guild Theater radio program.  He put on a remarkable presentation called:  “Between Americans.”  Wells did a brilliant job of explaining what is so special about this country.   One of the things he pointed out is that Americans get upset when they see injustice.  That is because our shared heritage is the freedom from tyranny and oppression.  Here, even if we don’t agree with someone, we still stand up for them if they are treated unfairly.  It is what distinguishes us from the rest of the world.

The Obama administration appears to have been abusing power for some time.  It doesn’t get much worse than using the IRS to target political appointees. Or so I thought.  Now we know it can get worse, much worse.   Incredibly the DOJ, who can’t seem to find the time to investigate Fast & Furious, Benghazi, or the IRS scandal is sanctimoniously launching an investigation of Chris Christie.  Then The DOJ doubled down by indicting Dinesh D’Souza for making an undisclosed $20,000 campaign contribution.  How obvious can you get?  This is particularly disgusting when you compare what D’Souza did to the bizarre story of Hillary Clinton and Peter Franklin Paul.

Just as Orson Wells pointed out on a bleak winter evening in 1941, the American people tend to become outraged at this kind of crap.  There are already signs that the main stream media is waking up.  Don Lemon pointed out that Barack Obama blaming Fox News and Rush Limbaugh for misleading the American public is absurd.

It is quite possible that the feeding frenzy on Duck Dynasty, Chris Christie and now Dinesh D’ Souza was a huge mistake.  The Republican establishment has been terrified to investigate this President or anyone else.  They seem more worried about hurting Hillary Clinton’s feelings than asking her legitimate questions.  People were already furious about the lack of action.  Now this restraint has been repaid with a witch-hunt assault on two top Republicans for a traffic jam and a $20,000 campaign contribution.  Don’t be surprised if frustration changes to rage.

When you combine this with the complete collapse of ObamaCare and some really scary economic news, a lot of people are really upset.  This truly is the winter of our discontent and we should all be prepared for stormy weather.

TDM

The Washington Examiner is reporting that Moody’s has downgraded the entire health insurance industry, changing the outlook for health insurers from “stable” to “negative.”  The reason given for this decision is that ObamaCare has failed to enroll enough younger healthier participants.  This is a clear indication that the financial analysts recognize that ObamaCare has put the entire health insurance industry into a death spiral.  In addition, the arbitrary decision by the Obama administration to change regulations after insurance carriers had already set prices has made the situation worse.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/moodys-slashes-outlook-on-insurers-cites-obamacare-uncertainty/article/2542744

This also includes some wording that is destined to scare investors:

Moody’s also said it was “unclear” whether the impact of the new tax on health insurance policies was properly accounted for by insurers in their 2014 forecasts.

In other words, it looks bad and it might be worse than it looks.  This is proof that ObamaCare is collapsing even faster than I thought possible even a couple of weeks ago.  It will be interesting to see how the financial markets respond.  If they believe this report, then the effect on the entire health insurance industry will be instant and obvious.

I must point out that the insurance industry is the cornerstone of our economy and if we start having insolvency issues with regard to health insurance carriers it will be a very big deal.  When you combine this with the other troubling trends in our economy it is hard to be an optimist.

No amount of spin by the liberal left or the main stream media can fix this.  It is increasingly obvious that ObamaCare is a complete and total disaster.  The sad reality is that politicians rarely make difficult decisions until faced with imminent disaster. Well wecome imminent disaster.  If things continue as they are, they will soon have no choice but to take some kind of action.  This is now impossible to predict.  But, it is sure a blue Moody’s in Washington today.

TDM