CBS Benghazi Expose

This evening I watched the CBS-TV 60 Minutes coverage of Benghazi.  This was touted as previously unknown eye-opening disclosure of what really happened at Benghazi.

Actually, I learned very little.  Its amazing the national news media does not know, or elects not to know, that most who get their news from the Internet and bloggers are well aware of the circumstances at Benghazi that reflect failure by the Obama administration.

What was significant about the 60 Minutes program is a main media institution finally recognized and acknowledged there was a systemic failure of the Obama Administration at Benghazi.

Maybe that is good.

Drought and Trees

We finally had some nice rains since August, but the drought of the past few years has taken a terrible toll on the trees.  One of the things that attracted my wife and I to this place almost 20 years ago were the many large oak trees surrounding the house in the two acres of yard and scattered about in the pastures.  Many of the trees were 40 to 60 feet tall and up to 24 inches in diameter.  We had plenty of shade from the grueling hot Texas sun in the summer time.  We've lost nine large trees out front and four in the backyard.  I haven't counted, but there is at least a dozen standing dead large trees in the pastures.  One magnificent oak 60 feet high was struck by lightening shattering all the bark off the entire tree and splitting the huge trunk into several standing vertical  pieces.

Since the weather has cooled a little I've spent the better part of the last three weeks using my chainsaw to fell trees, trim brush from fallen trees and large limbs and stacking in huge burn piles.  I sawed the large trunks into 8 to 10 feet lengths.  A good neighbor used his big John Deere front-end loader to push the large trunks into stacks.  I've also cut firewood for my neighbor.

Since we've had the rains the county government lifted a long standing burn ban, so I've spent a good bit of time burning before the burn ban is reinstated.  It's a shame to see so many large dead trees around the countryside.  It will be years before, if ever, they are replaced by new growth.  It won't be in my lifetime.

Seller & Buyer

Let's see.  A seller (the government) offers a buyer (you and me) a product (Obamacare) of unknown value and unknown price.  The buyer refuses the offer.  Thus, the seller levies a fine (tax) on the buyer which he can't refute.

In my world that defies logic, and it's idiocy.

Obamacare Link

This is precious.

My wife subscribes to a newsletter from the White House.  Today's issue had a link to signup for the Affordable Healthcare Act (Obamacare).  She was curious and clicked on the link.  The computer immediately locked up.  We have an iMac and it isn't easy to totally lock up an iMac.  She finally had to pull the power plug, wait 30 seconds, and replug.  True to form the iMac re-set everything and was again fully operational.

I think this tells us something about Obamacare and the White House.

Republicans Eat Their Young

When I was a youth I belonged to the 4-H Club.  My father gave me a sow hog for my project.  Later she had 14 piglets.  I was greatly pleased, until the next day when I discovered she killed and ate six of them.  My Father helped me muzzle the old sow, throw her on her side and tie her feet.  Now the piglets had full access to a much needed hearty meal.  I had to watch her closely and keep the piglets in a separate pen except at meal times which I supervised.  I ultimately managed to raise a pen of eight shoat pigs which I showed at the county fair.  I didn't win anything, but I learned a lot.

As I watched national politics unfold the past few weeks I came to understand that the Republican establishment is much like that old sow hog. . . they kill and eat their young.  The likes of McCain, McConnell, King, et al rushed every day to the closest microphone with a TV camera to bad mouth and destroy Cruz and Lee and anyone else that came to their defense.  Democrats NEVER attack fellow Democrats whatever the situation.  They delight in joining the Republican chorus using every and all derogatory words and phrases they can muster to further assist the Republicans in destroying their own.

If the Republicans ever want to be significant in national politics, they better start criticizing the Democrats and lay off the young up start Republicans.  Quit fighting the youngsters and TEA Party folks.  Join them and fight the Democrats like junkyard pitbull dogs.  Else Republicans will become piglets and Democrats an old sow hog.  That's not pretty.

Democrats Stay on Message

You have to hand it to the Democrats.  They do stay on message.  They do not deviate.  They are thick as thieves and tight as a tick.  They don't kill and eat their young.  They take an issue and twist it ever which way to suit their agenda and needs, then exploit it to the max with lies and demagoguery.

Whereas, the Republicans can't get their act together on anything.  When the going gets tough they split and scatter in all directions like a scared covey of quail.  They don't have the fortitude to take a stand and fight.  They quake and grovel at the feet of the Democrats.  They rush to the nearest microphone to criticize those few like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee that will take on the Democrats in a fight.  Basically, the Republicans are wimps.

What is needed in the Republican Party is a cadre of young Conservative warriors that will take on the Democrats and fight like junkyard pit bulldogs, and the likes of McCain and Graham to sit down and shut up.

Republicans Caved

One more time the Republicans caved on a major policy fight with the Democrats.  The Republicans just don't have the spine to stand and fight.  The Democrats will fight tooth and toenail for what they want, but Republicans just don't have the stomach for a fight.  They are so eager to be loved by the Democrats that they always acquiesce to the Democrat positions.  Only a few Tea Party Republicans like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are gutsy enough to do what they said they would do if elected to serve in Washington. . . shake up the establishment, both Democrat and Republican.

All this latest political kabuki theater is nothing more than governance by crisis.  The Obama crowd pushes every issue to the brink to create a crisis to then show that they, the heros,  rode in on the proverbial 'white horse' and saved the country from impending disaster.  Horse pucky!!

Quote of the Month

Today my wife and I had lunch at a local restaurant.  The young man that waited our table when asked how the government shut-down affected him replied, "If the government is shut down why are they still deducting from my pay check?"

Hummmm!!

Loopholes

During this government shutdown politicians galore rush to the nearest microphones to expound about entitlement reforms and to remove the loopholes.

Loopholes?  I have a simple question.  How is it the loopholes come to be there in the first place?  Could it be that inane legislators don't know what they are doing and let legislation be crafted by special interest groups with no oversight and no inclination to bother to read legislation before they vote on it?

The biggest loopholes are the legislators themselves.  It's time to remove the biggest loopholes first.

Understanding Hypocrisy

The TEA Party element of the Republican Party wants to delay implementation and/or change of Obamacare.  The Democrats' refrain is,"You can't.  It's the law, and the law is the law."  Yet, Obama has changed certain parts of Obamacare at will to suit his political needs.
In the ongoing deficit and debt limit negotiations (?) the Democrats want to change the Sequester and lift the budget caps in order to bring the Republicans to the negotiating table with cap in hand to acquiesce to the Democrats' demands.  The Republicans say, "But, the Sequester is the law, and the law is the law and cannot be changed."
Talk about loggerhead hypocrisy.  It's okay to unilaterally change laws so long as it serves the Democrats' interests.  Otherwise, forget it because "the law is the law."
I recently commented to my daughter-in-law who is an attorney and smarter than I am that I could not understand the hypocrisy of the Democrats.  She said, "Not to worry.  If you understood, then you would be one of them."  So, I've quit trying to understand the Democrat liberal mind.

Question for Obama

Question for President Obama:

Sir, did you read the entire text of the Affordable Care Act, i.e. Obamacare, before you signed it into law?  Did you have full knowledge of all the various ramifications and requirements before you signed it?  Can you explain in meaningful and understandable terms any specific section of the law?  Can you say anything in twenty-five words or less?

There is cause to question if you really know what you are doing as chief executive of our nation.

Obamacare

Many political pundits say Obamacare will die of its own burdensome weight.  And, rightly so, maybe.  Ronald Reagan said the closest thing to eternity on earth is a government program.  Slavery in the United States would have died from its own burdensome weight had it been allowed to live on into the 20th Century killed by advances in agricultural and manufacturing technology like the cotton gin, the mechanical reaper, the sewing machine, etc. Yet, our nation engaged in a Civil War and paid a tremendous and horrible price to eliminate slavery then and there.  Was it worth the price?  That's debatable.  Are we to leave Obamacare in place and let it die an eventual death in 10 or 20 years, or Is it worth the price to kill Obamacare now as it is and bury it once and for all, else suffer the consequences until it does fail from its own burdensome and financial weight?

Our leaders seem to never study history and learn its lessons.  Too few people in high places in government have an understanding of history, and little else, I might add.