“to uphold and defend”….
Undoubtedly, you the informed reader of this blog, have heard about the uneasy situation in Honduras. I’m sure you have also heard the media crowd duly reporting that it is a “military coup”. Horsefeathers. It is very clearly (and undeniably) a constitutional response to a power-hungry president. I, however would rather look at a few surrounding circumstances just for the sake of my own amusement.
1. Hugo Chavez doesn’t like what’s going on. Well, that’s my first indication that this is probably a GREAT thing in the making. “Mr. I Own Venezuela” is a tin-pot dictator who himself has decided (at the point of a gun) to be El Presidente for life. Anything he doesn’t like is most probably a big step in the right direction. This of course doesn’t even take into account the fact that Mr. Chavez is complicit in this attempt at usurpation of power by willfully and knowingly printing and providing ballots for the unconstitutional referendum that Former President Zelaya had planned to carry out.
2. The United Nations has condemned the actions of the Honduran Congress (i.e. the forcible deportation of the dictator-to-be Mel Zelaya). Does this surprise anyone? Hmmm… the UN on the wrong side of an issue, where have we heard that before? Oh, right, it was every other day since June 26, 1945. If the Honduran Congress is acting on the letter of the Honduran Constitution, the UN can shove off. Isn’t this the same crowd who were griping about the US invasion of a sovreign nation (Saddam’s Iraq)? What happened to all that ‘sovreign nation’ sentiment? Eh, who cares what they think… they all believe in man-made global warming too.
3. The President of the United States has made statements supporting Zelaya (the ousted power grabber in chief). Now THAT bothers me. What does it say about the present administration’s oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of our nation when they clearly don’t care whether or not the Constitution of any other nation is followed or respected? Notice I didn’t say that it surprised me… anyone with an ounce of Constitutional knowledge in their skull knows that nationalization of private entities would make the founding fathers vomit. I’ll tell you one thing, if Barack tries this whole “re-elected till I get tired of it” trick, I sincerely hope that our military leadership follows the example of their Honduran counterparts.
What really chaps me is that this whole thing is being played off my the media as “just another military takeover” in Central America, when it is the exact antithesis of that very situation. You had an elected executive attempting an ‘end-around’ on the Constitution of his nation. When he tried to use the military to complete the task, the military leadership told him to drop dead. Yup, sure sounds like a coup d’etat to me. This is the very spirit of constitutionally-bound Patriotism. A heartly congratulations and well desereved “‘atta boy” to the Military leadership of Honduras from Hellfire & Brainstorm. Apparently, they have ‘a few good men’ in their ranks as well.
Loony toons… every last one of ‘em.
Filed under: Economy, Education, Foreign Policy, Politics, Taxes, Uncategorized, Waste
A couple of subject are under my microscope today. Each of them is appaling in it’s own right. First, we have Gov. Blagojevich in Illinois. Is there anyone on the planet that actually believes this guy to be innocent? Now in all fairness, I must give this man his due process.
Evidence toward his guilt: Audio recordings of the man saying that he is trying to profit off of the appointment and may actually appoint himself if nobody wants to pay him what he thinks the senate seat is worth.
Evidence of his innocence: He says that he hasn’t done anything wrong and that ‘they’ are out to get him in order to make it easier for the democrats in Illinois to raise taxes.
Verdict: Guilty as the day is long.
Now, what makes this amusing is that he is making the rounds today on all the lefty morning shows protesting his innocence and demanding that this is some sort of unfair ‘witch hunt’. Then he says that he is being denied due process and makes the case that his being “railroaded” legally speaking is dangerous to all the rest of us because if the government can deny him his due process then they can do it to us. As far as answering to the tapes:
“I can’t address what is on those tapes”.
Does anyone hear a tinge of “I don’t recall senator” in there? In order to believe this guy you have to:
a) Disregard audio recordings of the man describing his intent to commit a crime and conspiring with someone else to do so.
b) Believe that he has a witness (any witness) that will be able to put any of that ‘back in context’ so that we can all understand what he really meant by “this think is f*ing golden, you don’t just give it away for nothing”.
c) Intentionally ignore the fact that he immediately shifts focus to this being a personal vendetta against him when he is directly questioned about any of it.
Blago has to be clinically insane. Egomania and an ability to disregard the obvious truth on this scale is a sickness. I think he honestly believes that he has done nothing wrong. Either that, or he is working hard on a basis for a book deal later. When the democrats are throwing their own under the bus, there’s a good chance that they are pruning ‘obviously diseased’ branches off the vine. I say ‘obviously diseased’ because the whole liberal vine is infected with ignorance and arrogance on a lethal scale. Kinda like a tapeworm. Yeah, that’s a good analogy.
On to more lunacy!
Nancy Pelosi is at it again, opening her skeletal maw to spew forth stupidity on a grand scale. Now we are being informed by her highness that government provided contraceptives will stimulate the economy. Uh, well I suppose if we were all prostitutes that might be true. The long and the short of this is that she is trying to cut costs on wards of the state by making less of them. Good plan. While your at it, why don’t we just put all of our seasoned citizens on old rusted out freighters that have no more use in the fleet, run them out in the deep water and sink em! That would mean less Medicaid payments, less Medicare part ‘B’ costs, less stress on the medical industry, less frustration for the younger drivers in florida… the list goes on and on…
This type of idiocy is beyond words. Almost. I actually wonder why Nancy is trying to cut down on her voting base. Poor, stupid, dependedent people vote for democrats. It’s a fact. The more dependent people there are, the better off the democrats are in terms of keeping power in DC. So this seems a little counter intuitive. I suppose that we have to consider the long-term effects of this program. First, just because you hand ‘em out doesn’t mean that they’ll be used. Second, if you give something to the dependent class and get them used to it, then you can use it as a threat in future elections. “If you vote for them, they’ll take away your *insert entitlement here*. Heck, they’ve been doing that for years with the old folks and medicare (Which is probably why the frieghter thing I mentioned is a no-go). None of what they have listed in the stimulus bill will to the first thing to lift the economy. In fact, most of it will damage it further. We’re talking about state and county-level projects that ought not be funded on that level by government, much less by FEDERAL government. Art Programs? Money for schools to teach Native American language classes? How the heck does that help? How about a tax cut, you idiots? Here, check this out:
If congress sends ME the money, then I use it to buy things. If they send me enough money for long enough (or let me keep my own money in the first place) then I am more likely to buy things like cars, televisions, movie tickets, dinner out… you get the picture. All of those things are (guess what) part of the American economy!!!! Giving money to local governments to build their pet projects does little to nothing for anyone but the contractor who gets the job. But then again, he’s being taxed through the floor so that it can be built. What I would LOVE to see is a local county or state government apply for a big chunk of the money (but not disproportionately large) and allocate it for a big fat tax cut to the taxpayers of that municipality. Could you imagine the positive repercussions if, say, the State of Georgia did that? Suddenly, there would be a flash of monetary input for the market and the lending institutions as people pay down debt. Either way, that helps my personal economy. If we all do better, then so will the economy. If the engine requires gas, why don’t they give us all a little gas and let us get the engine started again? Well, that makes a little sense, so I guess that won’t be happening. Perhaps I could get a billion or so in the meantimeto do a study on why my cat is snoring right now. Loudly, in fact. Yeah, a billion should cover it. I mean, some of that has to buy earplugs for me and the dog… and buying earplugs stimulates the economy, right?
Um, can Elmo count that high?
Filed under: Finance, Foreign Policy, Politics, Uncategorized, Waste
Many of you will remember the days when you actually waited impatiently for the end of Sesame Street to hear the phrase: “Sesame Street was brought to you today by the letter ‘A’ and the number ’12′ (or whatever the generously inclined alphanumeric benefactors were for that day). Well, I want to know if they are going to have an episode that is brought to you by the number 3,000,000,000,000…
Given that congress stands ready to burden the children of today with a ‘bailout’ tax bill that carries the same number, I would suggest that “The Count” get himself a packet of no-doz and a pot of coffee. It’s gonna take a hell of a long time to count that high…
One! One Woefully Wasted dollar! Ah AH AH… Two! Two Terminally Taxed Toddlers! Ah AH AH!
Who on earth REALLY thinks that this is a good idea? I mean seriously… do these idiots go home and tell their kids that if the piggy bank doesn’t have enough that they can raid the “Monopoly” box for the rest?
AUGGGGGGHHHH!!!! I could spit nails. In fact, I might. Just to see if it helps.
I think we can… I think we can…
So I get news today that Barack is going to be emulating Good Ol’ Abe Lincoln for his trip to Washington for the Inaugural. What a pandering load of horseapples. He’s NOT Abraham Lincoln any more than I am Queen Elizabeth. Barack has decided that rather than take the fast, secure and easy to guard plane ride to Washington, he is going to take a circuitous TRAIN route to the inaugural. WHAT? You want to use the technology of yesteryear and travel along hundreds of miles of usually unguarded railroad just to play at a flimsy (completely useless and incorrect) illusion? Lincoln took the train because it was the fastest way to get there at the time… now, it is certainly NOT. Especially when you are going from Chicago to Philly to Delaware to Baltimore to DC. Could this be an omen of things to come? Is this “Change we can believe in”? How many otherwise useful police and secret service officers will be standing out in the freezing cold northern winter (since global warming seems to have taken the year off) to guard all this rail line? What kind of expenditure is this to the taxpayers? Couldn’t those officers be doing other things than guarding an overly long, and completely outdated route to Washington? Way to look out for the middle class there, Barak. Think of the absolute limits of an expenditure for a flight.. private plane, existing secret service detail, MAYBE an armed escort of F-16′s… done. Instead we have countless man hours protecting and monitoring rail lines for weeks and months ahead of the trip, the guards at every bridge and overpass on the day of, the guards, surveillance and planning at each stop along the way… we’re already into hundreds and hundreds of man hours, plus equipment and gas. You know that train is going to be retrofitted with Bullett Proof Glass… which ain’t cheap. This really burns me up. I hope all of his “change” doesn’t reek of the 19th century.
You know what though, maybe that’s not such a bad idea. Medicare will start demanding that doctors “bleed” patients to cure ailments and leeches will be used for all sorts of fun illnesses. Of course this would lead to a severe and rapid decline in the number of people on medicare (which might solve some of the budget overruns). We could start hanging convicted murderers in the square rather than giving them years and years to suck up taxpayer cash in appeals and frivolous lawsuits about broken cookies. Now THAT’s change we can believe in…
Update!
So the three of you that read this blog will be glad to know that somebody took my ‘Gunboat for Hire‘ idea and ran with it… hey, what can I say? Half of the name of this blog is ‘Brainstorm’.
Apparently, Blackwater will be sending their ship, The MacArthur, into the pirate-ridden waters of the Gulf of Aden. They have been approached as a ‘security solution’ to the shipping issues that have been experienced in that region. Sweet. American Privateers with a reputation for pulling the trigger…Capitalism strikes again! Get ‘em boys! (and fly that flag high while yer doin it!)
blackwater-joins-fight-against-sea-piracy
Pirates!
If you don’t live under a rock, you know that there have been multiple high-profile, extremely expensive episodes of piracy around the horn of Africa in the last few weeks.
Most of this, if not all of it, comes from the coast of Somalia, which is a completely lawless country. The Sirius Star (which is kind of a redundant name if you have any knowledge of astronomy) is carrying a full load of Saudi oil which was bound for points abroad. The cargo and the 25 crew are all now hostages off the coast of Somalia while the pirates deal with Prince Faisal and his crowd.
There used to be a way to deal with Pirates… it involved blowing them to smithereens or forcibly (and by coincidence lethally) putting them in a “gravity driven neck stretching device”. Nowadays we have better cannons with which to obliterate these terrorists (that’s what they are), which largely frees up the necessary rope for other uses.
Now, this is just the capitalist in me, but this sounds like an extremely good opportunity for someone with a military (preferably Naval) background to start an “Escort Service” for ships. Heck, I might even look into it myself. Think of the benefits… a killer tan, you get to carry a gun and the unique satisfaction of helping to solve the world’s “Islamic Terrorist Overpopulation Problem”. I could call the company “Death Boat” in a play on the similar, but opposite term “lifeboat” and the slogan could be “Even one Pirate is too many”. I would be a millionaire in a very short time and could probably solve the problem in about 6 months. Then I sell the company to an international conglomerate and retire. You see, capitalism is a GREAT system. The market has needs, I offer solutions and everyone benefits… well not everyone, but the pirates get what they deserve.
I’m currently taking applications for Captains, Gunners and Navigators. A hatred of thievery and a drive to enforce international shipping law is a must. Salaries commensurate with experience. Naval gun experience a big plus!!