Bradley Manning is No Nathan Hale

So this article comes as no surprise to anyone that's ever heard of Berkeley: home to a school that kicks military recruiters off its campus, is the cesspool of all liberal activity in this country, and overall is a downright detestable city that prides itself on the furthering ignorance throughout the world.  Bradley Manning, dejected lover that he is, is a hero (note, I hate all Mannings, so I will freely admit my bias immediately).

Now my purpose in writing this isn't even to talk about Wikileaks all that extensively. I believe my co-writer here has already shown what an assbag Julian Assange is.   Frankly I'm just not sure how hurtful the leaked documents have really been to our national security.  Most certainly it's strained ties with some foreign nations (Lebanese aiding the US against Hezbollah, the Chinese being a-ok with a unified Korea), but a direct impact on US troops overseas?  I just don't see it. Yet.

But none of the matters.  This punk stole US classified documents and leaked them to non-US personnel with the specific intent of it being leaked.  It's treason, and there is absolutely no gray area here. Should the guy be executed? No, probably not (irony: his sexual orientation alone would get him executed in Iran).  But let's break this down a bit.  His very act would likely result in his execution by most of the nations who have been exposed through the leak. Russia? Check. Iran? Check. North Korea? Check. The list goes on.  

Here, we want to give Manning a frigid medal.  Admittedly that's a part of what makes our nation awesome.  Not the treason part. No action will forgive what Manning did. But rather, the right for cities like Berkeley to support this treasonous activity by awarding him.  Sure it makes our nation awesome, but I don't have to like it.  Unlike those on the left, while I may have an opinion on what Berkeley's doing, I don't for a second question whether they could, or should.

The peace and justice commissioner, Bob Meola was quoted saying "If he did what he's accused of doing, he's a patriot and should get a medal,"  But I simply don't see it that way.  We award a lot of pioneers that have helped paved the way to equality in this country.  But make no mistake, this isn't about bullying, DADT, or any other crap liberals will use to justify treasonous activity.  He sold classified documents with the intent of the information being leaked.  To my recollection, there isn't a single patriot I can think of that was "brave" enough to do something like this.  As usual, calling people like this a patriot desensitizes us to actual heroes.

So of course the story isn't about treason though. It's a poor dejected boy, bullied at his school, accused of being gay, and a prisoner trapped in a military he only joined to prove to his father that he was a man.  Let's not forget that he was suffering due to DADT.  the issue here is that DADT is in place not to avoid homosexuals in the military, it's for their protection.  Without pinning our military as a bunch of homophobes, truth is DADT was put in place to avoid hostile activity towards open homosexuals serving.  While one can argue whether that is still the case today is irrelevant. As Congressman elect Col Allen West said, while people are dying overseas, domestically we're worrying about who is sleeping with who.   Seems like we need to put things into perspective.

But anyway, why do we always need to look at the why? Motive is for proving criminal intent in court.  More importantly, even why the why is obvious (i.e. Fort Hood, Christmas Day bomber, etc), we still pretend the motive must be vague and deeper. 

Intent detracts from the point.  Rather than focus on the fact that treason was committed (and the administration was a decade behind in damage control), we're worried about whether his dad played catch with him enough as a kid, and whether Natalie Furstenberg and Phil McElroy were too mean to him as a kid.

The Science of Things

This is a must read for anyone looking for a return to scientific normalcy.

CUTS! The Musical

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (her parents were nice to give her a short first name) wrote in a Huffington Post article today about why she voted against the debt commission report. Now you might be asking yourself did she disagree with the cuts to programs, the elimination of the mortgage interest tax exemption, or the increase in the retirement age? You would be completely wrong because the way she sees it, the worst thing going on in our country is the wealth distribution that is slanted towards the rich. Of course its slanted towards the rich, that's why they're the rich, and pay a larger share of taxes by far than anyone else.



So obviously her first initiative is to blame Bush. Afterall, as only those on the left know, between 2000-2008 the entire government was run by one person. Certainly a democrat led from 2006-2008, you know, the years the recession started, had nothing to do with it. Or a democratic president in 1999 that repealed Glass-Steagull definetly had nothing to do with this. Don't misunderstand me, the republicans are certainly culpable as well but everyone is already giving them enough shit so I thought I'd go farmer on it and spread the manure around. Ms. Jan (last name too long) points to the fact that if were at our pre-recession levels of unemployment, 2005 and 2006, both GOP dominated years, we'd be increasing the tax revenue. She ignores the fact that the unemployment rate increasing and the recession coincide with democrats coming to power.

She goes on to say that cutting Medicare is wrong. I love when we make fiscal matters moral. Like Al Franken reading from the bible, it just seems disengenuous. But anyway, of course it sucks to cut Medicare, same way it sucks to cut defense spending, welfare, food stamps, and infrastructure spending. All spending cuts kind of suck, that's why fiscal solvency is not fun. Someone has to feel the pinch, luckily the debt commission went non-partisan with cuts and spread them around to everyone. So sure titanium hips might not be covered and you need to use aluminum, but the DoD won't have a new jet engine for the F-22.

As mentioned earlier, Cam Jansen doesn't want to cut social security or any entitlements. Of course they're also the things her constintuency votes her into office. (Now I'm with my cohort, vote for those who vote for you, but still) So what we're going to do is ignore the overwhelming factors that are pushing our future deficit. Now the commission recognizes that SS is not pushing the debt, yet. But with shrinking revenue and the baby boomers, it will. Across the board cuts are the fairest way to make everyone feel a pinch that in 30 years, will put America on solid ice and heading back towards landmass.

I'm Pretty Sure Fergie is a Man

So I was thinking about Stevie Johnson today - you know, the guy that dropped the game winning pass against Pittsburgh in overtime last week.  He went out and blamed God via twitter using perhaps the most improper grammar I have ever seen. I say good for him.  You always see these athletes thanking God for their athletic prowess - why not blame him for their screw ups as well?  Makes sense to me.

I'm sure that between war torn Sudan, AIDS, crack babies, North Korea, Iran, that tranny hooker that is president of Venezuela (I think his name is Julian Assange), and Al Franken, God has time to watch a leisurely Sunday football game and try to influence the outcome.  Particularly a guy that was drafted in the 7th round. By Buffalo.

Unfortunately, this isn't the worst thing that will happen in football this year.  Besides the obligatory verbal diarrhea that we'll here from Rex Ryan any given week, the Black Eyed Peas will be performing at halftime at the Superbowl this year.  It's almost enough reason to not watch the game, even if the Patriots make it, on the outside chance that I may catch a glimpse of that troll Fergie, and turn to stone.  

Seriously - Bruce Springstein, AC/DC, The Who - all recent performers.  Now the friggin Black Eyed Peas.  What's next? A Lady Gaga/ Justin Bieber duo?  The Black Eyed Peas might be the most talentless group to ever "grace" the stage.  This is a group that got 4th in a talent show at a crappy high school. The founding fathers must be rolling over and projectile vomiting in their graves.  Ruining last year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was one thing, but the Superbowl? Cmon.

So what does this have to do with employment? Nothing. I just hate the Black Eyed Peas.

The fallacy of government spending, and they Keynesian approach, is that it assumes spending = jobs.  And let's face it, you can spend a lot of money without stimulating crap.  Given me $787 billion, and I can guarantee you I wont create (or save) a single job.  The only difference is, if you give me that money, I'm outright telling you I wont do shit with it.  The biggest difference between tax cuts and spending is this:  While it's true that both can leave you with a big pile of nothing at the end of the day, spending is more dangerous. And here's why.

The government is a succubus.  Remember that girl your friend used to date? She always brought him down, and made him a miserable slag, but he couldn't get away? That's a succubus.  The government will spend your money with no intention of ever giving it back.  In fact, the solution to any government issue, is to throw more money at it, or create another regulatory agency. Which costs more money. You can't trust the government to spend in the short term, because it will become long term in the budget.  

It's true that tax cuts may not create job growth either.  Just because operating costs are decreased doesn't mean a business will hire.  But, at the very least, we can guarantee that the government isn't recklessly wasting our money.  After all, it wasn't theirs to begin with.

Quick Hits

Today Obama forgot to mention the Coast Guard when talking to the armed services in Afghanistan. The Coast Guard, unless appropriated by the Department of Defense, is not allowed to operate outside of US waters, certainly not in a landlocked country with 4 drops of rainfall a year. This is a man who is destroying our national Healthcare and we're complaining about him omitting a branch of the armed services that definetly wasn't present, that is retarded. I don't like him but everytime you complain about something so unimportant, and this may be the pinnacle, you kill your future arguments that may have merit.

Helen Thomas is an anti-semite. One rant landed Mel Gibson labeled an anti-semite, justifiably so, and this woman just keeps at it. Dear liberal media, please just give up defending her, she is now in the land of no return. You only hurt your already diminished credibility evertyime I hear this wingnuts praises sung.

An open letter to thin skinned Americans, stop complaining everytime you see Christmas. I know it offends your delicated sensibilities of believing in nothing and your own individual nothingness, but no one cares that you're upset. It's a holiday that's important to the vast majority of Americans. Is it that hard to just let people have one day a year when they can be happy without you being a little complaining bitch?

Michelle Obama, you're fat. While I don't know your specific measurements, I can say with a high degree of certainty anyone in the medical profession would tell you to lose weight. While I think it's important to curb this obesity epidemic, perhaps you could strengthen your argument by not having a husband who stops for greasy burger every other week. I know we have an obese surgeon general, but it's still really stupid. Telling people to do what you and your family don't do is the pinnacle of elitism.

Oops...

Sorry, I got carried away with my last post (Obama will do that to you) and forgot the main crux of why I started writing that - to introduce you to Nikki Haley, South Carolina's new Governor--elect.  This is an interview with the spitfire.

Although it's too early to start talking about Nikki being the VP hopeful for '12, let's see how her first term goes, but I'm optomistic about this woman.

Raising Taxes Increases Unemployment, Which Helps Create Jobs, Right?

As you may have read in my previous post, by extending unemployment benefits, you create jobs.  Therefore, now that unemployment rose from 9..6% to 9.8%, more people will be unemployed and receiving unemployment benefits, which helps create jobs, which means unemployment will shrink.  Ergo, we need to get those wage earning assholes unemployed again so we can stimulate job growth.  You're following this, right?  

Based on Sherrod Brown's logic, this must be why the Democrats are against keeping all of the Bush tax cuts (side note: the crats get pissed when you call health care reform Obamacare, but it's totally acceptable to call this the Bush tax cuts) - unless we let them expire and increase unemployment, we'll never get out of this vicious cycle.  

Okay I've managed to confuse myself.  It can really only be one way, right?  If you allow the tax cuts to expire during a recession, or whatever the kids are calling it these days, you're going to prohibit job growth.  I was listening to a special on Laffe's curve the other day (originally written on a piece of napkin. The graph, not the special, I think) and it seems to make sense to me.  As the clown that writes this page with me explained the other day, at a certain point, the wealthy contribute less when their taxes increase, and therefore overall GDP will eventually go down.  Guess what? It's the reason the rich are rich.

What's really frustrating though, is that when bad news comes out, Obama is nowhere do be seen. You'd think the master of spin would be out today, saying how "we turned another corner today, and this is why you enemies should have elected the Democrats back to office."  But alas, only when surprising, I repeat, SURPRISING job data comes out do we see Obumbles.  Odd though, he understands all of this better than we do - he just has the darnedest time explaining it to us simpletons.  And when the facts are out, well, there's no way we'd be able to see the positive in this, so he might as well not even try.

Moral of the story? Don't count your chickens before they hatch. Don't come out and blab about recovery summer (a very close second in absurd statements made by the administration only to "the stimulus worked"), don't say we turned a corner, don't blame the Republicans for the economic disaster when your party was in power when it happened (the lost decade? the Crats were in power for half of it).  Now I don't blame Biden that much, only because he has two go to moves: plagiarize speeches, or make shit up (by the by, that speech was not the only thing Biden has plagiarized). Fact is, Biden was elected because any time he gaffes,  it's laughable.  I use the term "gaffes" loosely here, but for clarity's purpose you can also use the word "speaks."  

Here's who I do blame - Obama (shocking, right?). I'm sick of being treated like a two year old.  Now "I couldn't paint you a picture, I probably can't hit the ball out of Fenway, and I can't play the piano" (see what I did there? I stole a speech from Good Will Hunting - my idea came from Biden).  But here's what I do know a little about.  Economics - I stress a little.  But truth is I don't need to know anything about economics to know that when unemployment continues to flirt with 10% after we've spending nearly a $1 trillion to fix it - it didn't work. So stop lying to me, stop saying that we're on recovery road, stop coining stupid phrases like "recovery summer."  But most importantly, stop spending to get out of the recession, and create common sense tax relief to support and inspire job growth.  Interesting side note, Google "incentives and economics."  You'll learn all you need to know about why the free market system works, and government takeover doesn't. My next prediction? Fall (didn't really need an adjective there), followed by "Woeful Winter."

They Come in the Night

The head of the FCC has recently said that there needs to be a bit more of a lock down on the media. As he puts it, the media has a "case of substance abuse." Now I don't agree with what a lot of the media says. Sure, our country would do well with the likes of Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Glenn Beck, and Joy Behar no longer populating the television. But that isn't for us to decide. The First Amendment provides for both freedom of speech and freedom of the press. These are the quintessential freedoms that are nation was founded upon. If you don't like what someone is saying, you have the right to not listen to it. Sure a lot of what they say is bluster, but who cares and where do you draw the line? Jerry Springer had his final thought on that raucous talk show of his, was his opinion too much if it strayed to politics? Whoopi Goldberg stormed off the view when Bill O'Reilly said Muslims committed 9/11, is that too far?

The problem is, the last person drawing the line should be the government. The government has the most to gain by silencing their critics. You want to see so much bipartisanship your head will spin, announce a bill that will silence the media, who despite their failings and biases, are still the vanguard of accountability in our democracy. Don't simply say I disagree therefore your argument should be silenced. Engage the argument, point out it's shortcomings, admit it's strengths, and try to have both yourself and the other party walk a way a little bit further on in the evolution of our collective conscious.

The market will always help to determine and even out the distribution of opinions that are dominating the airwaves. This is why Fox News presently has the top 7 shows and Air America was shut down, people simply did not want to hear personalities towing the line for a president they perceived, rightfully so, as out of touch, weak, and with no clear direction. The same thing will happen to these same hosts if they simply tow the line for the new GOP majority if they don't create the fiscal responsibility they were voted in for. The problem is not the media, the problem is the government saying the problem is not them but the media portraying their shortcomings. No, Mr. Obama, you don't have a PR issue, you have a shitty ideas issue and until that changes, satan (Van Jones words, not mine) over at Fox News is going to keep taking you to task and thank god they will. If it wasn't for the same treatment of Bush by left outlets, we would not have had the surge or the drubbing the republicans rightfully deserved in 2006.

I Already Like Bristol Palin More Than Her Mother

All right I get it.  Sarah Palin serves a purpose for the Republican Party.  I just hope she never serves the people as part of the Republican Party.

No offense to Sarah, honestly. I like her message, I like her as a pundit, but she's really vulnerable to attacks from the left.  Is that enough to say she shouldn't run? No.

But the fact is she plays an important role for the Republican Party by rallying mid-America, and creating awareness.

However, I came across Bristol Palin's response to Olberdouche calling her his "worst person in the worrrrrrrld" (by the way, didn't he suspend that segment?).  Okay I admit I'm biased towards anyone who trashes Olberman, but all the same, a good article none-the-less.

Dancing with the Blue Bloods

The head of Dancing with the Stars wants Meghan "Log Cabin Syrup Republican" McCain to join the cast for next season. I think she'll do better than Bristol Palin. You see, Bristol slowly got fatter as the season progressed, I think it's called eating your feelings, whereas Tanker McCain already knows how to move her Henry Knox-esque body. Question is, who is the hotter pageant mom giving their kid a complex from their projection, Sarah Palin or Cindy McCain.

...Since "Deficit Reduction" Never Means "Cutting Spending"

Great article on Obama's "post shellacking wrap up."

On a side note, have people ever thought about the phrase "if you like your health care plan, you can keep it."  I mean, think about it for a second. I know I can go to the doctor's and my co-pay is $15. I know that if I get admitted to the hospital, it's $100. I literally know nothing else about my plan.

I guess my point is that I personally, and I believe the average American, doesn't know enough about their health care options to really know whether their plans are being fundamentally changed by health care reform in order to cut cost.

Maybe the burden's on me to figure this out, because who knows what changes we're gonna see if this health care bill stays as is.

Black Gold and the Green Movement: Another Obama Miscue

So I was reading an article today, on how the Obama Administration has reneged and decided to ban new drilling in the Gulf.  Supposedly, the ban may extend to the Atlantic and Pacific as well.  Good God.

Okay so I live in Tampa, and was a stone's throw away from having to swim in Quaker State for the next 5 years.  But banning more drilling is about the most idiotic thing I can think of.  As usual, the administration misses the mark.

The cause of the BP oil spill had nothing to do with drilling.  It had everything to do will ill planning, not having proper protections in place, and assuming the worst case scenario meant impossible.  Oops.  It's amazing that Obama, who could not have appeared more indifferent about the suffering of Gulf Coast states seems to think drilling is the problem.

What needs to be done is to increase protections from things like oil spills from occurring.  Now a ban does this, because hey, if you aren't drilling, you can't spill oil.  And of course, drilling at maximum capacity increasing the danger of another spill to levels of significant concern.  But isn't there a middle of the line solution here?  A "30,000 instead of 0 or 40,000 troops" if you will?

We need to keep drilling for several reasons.  First, the green movement just hasn't completely caught on yet.  For starters, climate change extremists need to stop lying.  Secondly, they need to sell it better.  The left is already sold, of course, but many on the right remain skeptical.  Here's how to sell it (and the message needs to be stronger) - lack of dependency on foreign oil.  Banning future drilling does the exact opposite.  In a fragile transition towards cleaner energy, the Obama administration wants to increase our dependency on foreign oil, and thus further strain the relationship between greenies and skeptics.

Besides, the US has some 21 billion barrels of oil in reserves.  Considering the strong push towards green energy, what exactly are we hanging onto this for - are we expecting the green movement to fail? It sure seems like it.

Anyway the resultant conclusion here is the following:

-The Obama Administration can't get anything right
-Charlie Crist proved why he lost to a Republican whose name no one knew 8 months ago
-And, like Dodd-Frank, the stimulus, health care reform, and national security, we just don't get it.

Another Relgious Bruhaha

The Smithsonian Gallery has an ant-covered Jesus this year for the Christmas seasoning preview. This, like anything, and I mean anything that has to do ever so tangentially with religion, has caused quite the uproar. Let's just get this out of the way. Christmas has become so secular, I'm happy to see Jesus getting his props for his big day. Now, I have no idea why Jesus is covered in ants though it does give some credence to my theory that Jesus was actually made of strawberry jam. I will turn to our good friend Moe Szyslak of Simpsons fame for the explanation. "It's Po mo. Post modern? Weird for the sake of weird." Thanks Moe. I've met a number of artists in my day and whatever figgy pudding is rattling around in their skulls should never induce anyone to anger.

But this goes beyond Jesus and the Giant Arthropod. Anytime someone does something offensive to any religion anyone of that particular religious proclivity tends to get their g-string in a bunch. I'm as religious as the next Ned Flanders, but I simply don't care what some jag-off from Chelsea who probably went to New School cares about my faith. If you're relationship with the almighty, whether it be God, Allah, or Ryan Reynolds, is so tenuous that a person burning a book can get you riled up, you need to check yourself before you wreck yourself. And in the case of Pakistanis, before you take to the streets demanding Facebook be shut down.

People are never going to stop harshing on people for religion, mainly it's because they don't understand how someone can believe in something bigger than themselves. But don't let them get to you or the terrorists win. Take the guy in Florida, you know, the outcast from Dukes of Hazard. He wanted to burn the Koran and Muslims got all pissed off. What I say to that is consider who you are letting get in the way of your natural feelings for your religion. This guy had a beard like he was going to duel Andrew Jackson (AJ would have powned him) and all of about 15 followers of the craziest variety. So no, ants on Jesus won't piss me off because the guy who painted it's name doesn't even come up in a quick google search, and he's the center of a controversy, that's how unimportant he is.

Just Like the Girl at the Bar in College, Always Check a Pundits Credentials

Ann Coulter is found of pointing out that Keith Olbermann went to the agricultural Cornell, not Ivy League Cornell. In that same idea, I would like to point out that Meghan "I have to google what blue blood means" McCain went to Columbia and majored in Art History. Now as much as I love a "cool, young conservative woman for other conservative women to look up to", because who doesn't want to listen a mid 20's blue blood (no I didn't have to google it) who somehow thinks supporting gay rights makes you an edgy republican, (most conservatives I know already do), I actually had to learn in college to get work in the real world. Listening to her is as crazy as taken advice from someone who went to a Wisconsin state school and got a degree in social work. What? People do listen to Suze Ormon? Yikes.

Cop Out 2: This Time it's Fiscal

The debt commission has released its full report today and I for one am quite happy. A four trillion dollar reduction in the national debt by 2020 is just the kind of big swinging dick proposal we needed to right the solvency ship. And as I've previously stated, everyone in Congress is against it therefore it must be good. Both parties hold one half of the key resolving this issue. The republicans come armed with the knowledge that cuts to entitlement programs and not solely taxing the rich will help. Democrats bring with them the idea of cutting waste in the military, and be sure there is plenty, and a desire to raise revenues. Combined they attack this problem from both sides and will meet in the middle much faster. We wanted partisanship, unfortunately it is coming in the mutual dislike of the debt commission's proposals.

So I was speaking with Legalized Brother, who is a raging liberal but like hipsters, he won't admit it, and the subject of taxes came up. Now this might be a shocker but his first idea was to tax the rich. (We'll ignore his retracement on the idea once I told him he was in that bracket) There are three problems with this approach. Actually four. 1. Laffe's curve. Great economic research that showed taxing the rich hurts GDP, and thus economic and tax revenue, growth. 2. A recent study found the actual tax rate off the rich strays very little from 19.4% because of their deductions and fastidious accountants. 3. The rich are responsible for massive amounts of campaign donations so congressmen won't bite the hand that feeds. 4. It is never going to happen.

Taxing the rich is the greatest non-answer in government history. It is a solid idea in theory, but one that will never be implemented. It's like cutting Medicare waste. Sure it'd be nice but it's not going to happen so let's find another way. The clown car that is Congress loves to give solutions it will never implement because then they don't have to make tough choices. Yes, the retirement age needs to go up. It will suck. It's just like any other economic entity, home/business/some parts of Ireland still, that needs to work with the money it has. It always sucks to cut back on your pear schnapps but when times are tough, you need to start drinking Natty Ice.

This is what the debt commission did. They made the tough choices for Congress. Now all they have to do is not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. This isn't one of those lame do it for the kids moments. Forget the kids, they'll probably be obese anyway. This is about securing our own lives. A 10 year horizon is incredibly short. Most of us not named Jimmy Carter will probably still be around then. This is our chance to do something great, and hopefully Congress will put on its big boy pants and do the job they were sent there for.