A transgender friend of mine told me that Nancy Pelosi used to be a black straight man!

Just say it they'll believe it

While addressing the California Democrats State Convention in Los Angeles on March 9th, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told attendees she was told by an anonymous Republican that his party doesn't care about "really hungry children." Via RCP

I asked a Republican friend why his party remains so opposed to extending the vital lifelines for struggling families and really hungry children. This colleague’s response was telling in its blunt nature and it’s stunning in its honestly. What he said was to the Republican caucus, these people you are talking about are invisible, and the Republican caucus is indifferent to them. Invisible and indifferent. This is just plain wrong. That is not the leadership the American people deserve and it is up to us to demonstrate clearly how Democrats are different.

Here’s the rub; tools like Pelosi pride themselves on their highly evolved awareness that the rest of us could only hope for. Their awe-inspiring good intentions and their admirable sense of right and wrong is all they need to be right.  So sure is Pelosi and her ilk they that they are always right, any disagreement or dissention can only be an insult on their superior intellect and should be derided with extreme prejudice early and often.  In fact, any opposition to their position immediately triggers instant hatred of the knuckle-dragging offender. Indeed, whatever the left decides to believe magically becomes the new science, completely exempt from any scientific scrutiny. Because of their towering intellect, belief alone is all that’s needed.

But here is the real reason the Pelosi’s of the world have to resort to this kind of rhetoric. They know, deep in their hearts that they have to rig the game to win because their argument is fundamentally flawed both in terms of common sense and basic human nature.

So when Neanderthal Republican says that “Hey, you know what we outta think about reigning in some of this over the top spending, you know so we don't stick our kids with the bill” Pelosi’s only response is “Republicans want to kill all the Children!” Because in the end, that’s all she’s got.

How to beat the Bear

The short answer - energy independence. Sounds simple, right? But unfortunately the world is full of nihilist who insist on crippling our ability to work from a position of strength. From the XL pipeline to LNG exports, the environmental nut-cases are on a suicidal course to ensure that Russia regains its superpower status. Not by Russia's show of force but by the West’s alarming display of weakness. And not just in the US. Continental Europe has their share of idiots too. Just look had the hundreds of billions of Euros Germany flushed down the toilet easing on down the road to stupidity with their investment in ‘renewable’ energy. As the west sleeps, the Bear has taken the initiative to put themselves in the position to dictate terms as they effectively invade another country. All the while, the West wets their collective pants and wags a rancorous finger at Putin. And the finger Putin gives back is not his index finger I can assure you.

Does anyone remember the days when the US had an agreement with the Poles to add a missile defense system to their arsenal? Heady days then, amirite? Then came Smart Power - where Obama caves to Russia’s request to renege on the agreement in exchange for diddly-squat. Good times, good times.

But the real power in the world today is energy. Just ask the average Venezuelan. They have the largest oil reserve on the planet but are unable to refine it due to the heavy sulfur content. Back in the days before Thugo Chavez, the US developed the technology to refine this crude and everybody wins. That is until Chavez decides to go all Lenin on everybody and the US shuts down their ability to refine their crud. Doh!

The lesson is to partner with your allies for energy or develop your own reserve and thereby ensuring both national security and economic freedom. You’d a thought we would have learned this in the 70’s when the Arabs decided to flex their collective muscles when they cut off oil from the Middle East. Carter went so far as to create the Energy Department so we would have a government agency to monitor just how screwed we were.

But now, through technology, many countries have discovered the ability to recover energy that in the past was untouchable. Good for us, no? Well now enter stage left the environmental knuckleheads, with no discernible evidence, has decided that all energy is bad, so they mount a crusade to shut down the XL pipeline, LNG exports, Nuclear power plants, Coal plants and any other type of energy source. I am convinced that they will not be happy until we are living in caves with synthetic bearskins and flint knives and wiping our butts with our hands.

So rather than seeing energy independence as a national security necessity, this administration sees it as a political tool. They are incapable of seeing beyond the next election. The greenies have them so tied to the millions of dollars needed to fund their elections that they are willing to forgo the security of, not just Europe. but our own borders as well. Now that’s Smart Power folks.

It might be too late for Ukraine but there are other Baltic states that are more than just a little nervous. Right now the US needs to send a signal to the world that we are prepared to meet Russia head on and hit it where it will hurt the most - in the wallet. Europe is Russia’s largest energy market. Take that away and Putin will be nothing more than a regional thug.

The Prankster-in-Chief

 

While President Bush the younger was called many things, prankster was never one of them. Cowboy diplomacy, they said, simpleton, lamented the political hacks, he lacks nuance they bellowed. Send us someone with sophistication, who can truly lead us into the 21st century.

Then came the answer to their prayers - The ONE, who preached Smart Power, diplomacy, No preconditions to unilateral talks with the Mullahs of Iran, and a ‘overcharged’ ‘reset’ button with the Russians. Bush wasn’t sophisticated enough to understand that we live in a different world. Gone is the Cold war, gone are the bogy-men of the past. The future is one of enlightenment, mutual understanding and tolerance. Obama even schooled Romney during the debates by telling him to stop living in the 1980’s man.

Unfortunately, for The One, nobody got the memo. I’d like to say Obama’s foreigner policy is akin to a trailer park after a tornado, but that would insult tornados. Just for reference let’s take a look at just some of The One’s foreign policy greatest hits shall we:

• Surrendering to Russia over Missile Defense - Effectively hosing the Poles and the rest of Eastern Europe and what did we get in return - <insert crickets chirping here>
• Ending the War on Terror - Yet he forgot to tell the terrorists
• Announcing a Surge while Declaring an Exit - He never believed in it to begin with according to Robert Gates’ book.
• Apologizing to France for America’s “Arrogance” - This one was rich given it’s the French.
• Giving DVDs to the British Prime Minister - Tin ear anyone? Not to mention giving the queen and iPod with all his speeches on it, SWEET.
• Siding with Marxists in Honduras - What happened to spreading freedom? Oh yeah, that was that darn cowboy policy from that putz before him.
• Bowing to Emperors and Kings - No comment, it speaks for itself.
• Embracing Genocidal Killers in Sudan - Again, tolerance.
• Throwing Churchill out of The White House - Sucks up to Mullahs and dictators and goes out of his way to piss off our closest and longest lasting ally.
• Egypt - Hey, here’s an idea. Let’s undermine Mubarak with no plan to fill the vacuum other than the Muslim Brotherhood who has vowed to destroy the west.
• Iran Nukes - We can trust these guys, honest
• Benghazi - It was a Video!
• Syria - Got schooled by Putin
• Crimea - Got schooled by Putin, Again
• Alienating Israel - You know do they really have to recognize you guys as a Jewish state? I mean really, Potato potahto, am I right?
• Libya - See Egypt above just change the name from Mubarak to Gadhafi and Al- qaeda for Muslim Brotherhood
• Venezuela - Gets a big bromance hug from Thugo Chavez

So rather than learning from history - that bad people are gonna be bad no matter how much rhetoric you throw at them - this administration’s lead foreign policy gambit is, er, Global Warming.

 
My guess is that George W. was called many things by Putin, but Prankster was not one of them.

Vermont is the canary in the coalmine folks

And the hits just keep on coming. Vermont, with the population roughly that of Nashville, is spending more federal money, $167.9 million, than any other state in the nation on uninsured residents, according to Newsweek calculations based on data from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) and the U.S. Census Bureau.

And that’s not all. Going forward, the estimate cost of Vermont’s highly vaulted single payer system is somewhere north of $2.2 billion ANNUALLY! As Vermont Watchdog reported:

Condon, a Democrat from Colchester, said he thinks a single-payer system in Vermont would “cost more” than a couple of previous estimates. Those estimates pegged the cost for single-payer at anywhere from $1.6 billion to $2.2 billion annually.

That’s at least $3,500/resident increase ANNUALLY by my calculations. The money shot? Condon said the most obviously honest thing possible (emphasis mine):

“It’s a government program [so] I think it’s going to cost more than that. Given that, I think it would be in the best interest of Vermonters to redirect our energies away from single-payer health care to trying to improve the system we’re in now,” Condon added.

No kidding? Government = higher costs, who would have thunk it? Well me for one.

Kerry’s sure got his priorities right, No?

Sec of State  and part time villain on Scooby Doo John Kerry

How far in the sand can this administration bury its collective head? Secretary of State John Kerry, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt his “Global Warming is the greatest WMD threat in the world” gaff was not a faux pas, doubled down by issuing a guidance paper to all diplomats (emphasis mine):

Over the weekend, ahead of a round of low-level climate treaty talks that kicked off today in Bonn, Germany, Secretary of State John Kerry sent a fresh signal that he plans to keep global warming at the top of the State Department’s agenda.

The signal came in the form of Kerry’s first policy guidance message to all of his far-flung diplomats.

Ok, Let’s see here -  Ukraine is in turmoil, Venezuela is about to explode, the Iranians are closer to a nuclear weapon than ever, Hamas  unveiled a statue in the likeness of a rocket aimed at Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan is an unmitigated mess, North Korea is run by a madman, Libya is still basically ungoverned and the first policy guidance Kerry sends out is on CLIMATE CHANGE?

The world is falling apart and Kerry want's to talk about the seats on the Titanic.It's almost as if we've entered the - wait, what's that sound....

Dee de dee de, dee de dee de...

Then, the scene faded from color to black and white as the camera swung 180 degrees, stopping on a medium shot of a short man with black hair wearing a perfectly tailored Kuppenheimer suit. A lit Chesterfield smoldered in his right hand as he addressed the camera in deep sonorous tones that belied his lack of height:

"Submitted for your approval, an excursion into a bizarre alternate universe. Destination: a country that was once a shining beacon but is now presided over by a man whose unbridled arrogance and environmental hypocrisy are matched only by the mindless blathering of his loyal government minions, a nation formerly called the United States of America but with each passing day becomes more and more a part of The Twilight Zone."

Exit question: Am I wrong here?