Lies, Damned Lies, and Politicians

Personal integrity is defined as fairness and straightforwardness of conduct and an adherence to the facts. Inclusive in this definition is the fact that one does not prevaricate or tell lies for those who do not wish to consult a dictionary. However, those who pursue politics as a career choice seem to have forgotten the value of personal integrity. I suppose that it could have started with former President Clinton and his “creative” accounts of his sexual misconduct while in office and the Democrats defending such lies told to a court and a Federal Grand Jury as those normally told by a married man to avoid his wife’s ire, but I think that it goes further back than that.

Regardless, it seems that personal integrity is something not even desired in a political candidate any longer. I mean, everybody lies right? So why bother with the truth when you would be far happier with a lie anyway. I mean, what is the big deal about lying your proverbial hind parts off? Then I return to reality and realize that it takes an inordinate amount of time to fact check politicians to discover their lies and this eats up valuable time spent trying to understand their policies. You see, if they have you running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to find the truth, you certainly cannot understand what they are trying to do in Washington and they therefore have removed you from the political process.

Once upon a time, you could count on the news media to watchdog the workings of government for you, but no longer. Essentially, the evening news has become the propaganda arm of the Democratic National Committee. Examples include Dan Rather and the CBS Evening News reporting a story which they strongly suspected to be false regarding President George W. Bush’s National Guard service and reporting it anyway and then defending their reporting against all indications that their story was a lie. Newsweek met with Democrat leaders to discuss the best way to tear apart Senator Joe McCarthy in the 1950’s and in the past couple years reporters have been making political donations to the Democrats in direct defiance of their employer’s policies prohibiting such donations are other examples. Examples of political prejudice in the news media are nearly endless and at long last the American people are beginning to recognize the fact that they have been played. Personally, I don’t believe a word of the news until I have verified it with three sources.

Recently, Michelle Obama refreshingly spoke the truth at a political rally. She said “For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country. Not just because Barack is doing well, but I think people are hungry for change.” Yes, many people took offence at what she said, but it was the truth. However, when her husbands spin doctors got to her she clarified her earlier statement and said “For the first time in my lifetime, I’m seeing people rolling up their sleeves in a way that I haven’t seen and really trying to figure this out — and that’s the source of pride that I was talking about” and then when asked if she had always been proud of her country, she replied “absolutely.” Allow me to translate, “I completely screwed the pooch when I told the truth earlier and I damaged my husband’s public image. So I am repairing it now with words put in my mouth by Barracks handlers.”

Today, the matters facing governments are increasingly complex and advances in science and technology make it even more so for the voter trying to figure out what the issues are, how they should be addressed, and who should implement the solutions. However, you cannot research political options to find a viable solution if you are constantly checking the record to find who lied about what and when. It is for this reason that personal integrity is so vitally important in those holding public office. Particularly given the fact that the news media has failed us in being the public watchdog and we must rely on ourselves if we are to learn the truth. As such, we have moved a step closer to losing the liberty we now take for granted. Do not let the liars in public office remove you from the political process or rob you of your freedoms. Hold their feet to the fire and demand personal integrity in your public servants.

Veritas numquam perit

What’s A Conservative to Do?

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh the other day, and I heard him comment about Barrack Obama and how he says nothing to the American people, but platitudes. He then played some excerpts from a speech that Senator Obama gave to illustrate his point that he was all fluff. The American people have not had a political leader since Ronald Reagan who inspired greatness in our citizens, but Reagan also coupled his vision with action. Hope, optimism, and an excitement for the future are for naught unless these feelings are coupled with a definitive plan in order to realize the American potential.

Here is where I found myself in agreement with Mr. Limbaugh, offering hope without also offering a course of action is a tease. It makes you feel good now, but when you travel down the road of life a few miles you begin to feel used and the Democrats are without question the greatest of the tease artists. I recall Virginia Governor Tim Kaine giving a rebuttal to one of President Bush’s State of the Union addresses. All he said during his entire rebuttal was that “we can do better.” He must have said that over a dozen times and he never addressed what could be done or how, just that he and the Democrats could do better. Since that speech, Governor Kaine signed into law a draconian set of penalties for traffic infractions that only apply to Virginians. If a driver from any other state committed the same offense, he would get off easy by comparison. If this is what Governor Kaine meant when he said “We can do better,” I am not impressed.

The last State of the Union address by President Bush was rebutted by Kathleen Sebelius, the current Governor of Kansas and she just gave similar, vapid platitudes and suggested no course of action. When I listen to Democrats speak all I hear are the condemnations of the opposition and vague promises of something better down the road. However, Democrats being true to their nature never seem to get around to the part where they actually do any work to bring about their promised utopia for the American people.

Take as an example the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. She is the poorest excuse for a Speaker I have seen in my lifetime. She was full of promises and vigor when she started the job, but after being slapped down by her fellow democrats on installing John Murtha as her second in command and being exposed as a witch for brow beating the Air Force for a bigger jet than Denny Hastert’s, she has only gone down hill. She promised the most ethical and open Congress in American history, we didn’t get it by a long shot. In fact, she granted the chairmanship of a committee to a congressman that used his staff as his baby sitters and personal errand runners at the taxpayer’s expense. She promised that she would end earmarks, but that hasn’t happened. She promised that the Democrats would change America and then froze out the Republicans in order to give the Democrats all the advantages in pushing through their political agenda, but the Democrats failed to carry the ball on their legislative initiatives. She promised her liberal, activist constituents that she would get us out of the war, she couldn’t do it. What she did do was to travel to Syria and consort with our enemies and that has emboldened terrorists worldwide in the process, not what I would call a good thing for the woman who is two heartbeats away from the highest office in the land.

Despite Nancy Pelosi’s abysmal failure as the Speaker of the House and the fact that the Democrats can’t seem to muster a plan of action for the nation, with the exception of fishing for grounds for impeachment via incessant hearings and investigations, nothing has changed in Washington D.C. since the Democrats took over the House and Senate. All we hear from them is “we can do better,” “Join us,” “We need change” or any of the other various and sundry sound bites designed to hook the American people into voting for them ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Worse, there is no clear alternative to the Democratic Presidential candidates currently running. As much as I hate to admit it, it looks like the next election for the President of the United States is going to be another exercise in choosing the lesser of two evils. Where the hell is Pericles when you need him?

What Makes Me Angry - Update!

You know, I really hate it when the left takes a position and then backs off when they find out that they are going to get spanked. Take the Berkley debacle that has been unfolding lately, the City of Berkley staked out a hostile position on the Marine recruiting office and engaged Code Pink as their agents in dislodging the Marines from their community. I say that they employed Code Pink as agents for Berkley because they all espoused the Code Pink cause, praised them for their work and gave them a parking spot and noise permit in order to better harass the target they so despised. In fact, I strongly suspect collusion between the Berkley politicians and Code Pink prior to the insane actions of said politicians on the council.

What is more shocking is the blatant hostility that the council has shown for the United States armed forces and the families of service members that reside in their community, but I digress. When Berkley realized that they had stepped on a political landmine, they did an about face and began covering their hind ends. For example, Councilwoman Betty Olds said “I’m ashamed of my vote. The protesters should have free speech - this is where Free Speech was born, after all - but to tell the Marines they are not welcome is shameful. If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t even go for the parking spot.” I am sorry Ms. Olds, but you are a gutless coward. You and your compatriots had your Kumbaya moment on the council and stated your position with conviction. However, when you hear the battle cry of the forces in opposition, you falter.

That is the behavior that has become the hallmark of the liberal politician and I cannot begin to describe the ire that rises in me when it occurs. It is people like you Ms. Olds, that are destroying my homeland and it is people like you who dishonor those who have died for your right to rant. Further, it is people like you that talk about “progressive values,” but you have no idea what that even means. It is progressive values that have butchered well over one hundred million people in the last century. It is progressive values that created the Gulag archipelago in the former Soviet Union. It is progressive values that have invented the cruelest and most unusual tortures used by despots the world over. However, when one challenges such values, those who espouse them flee like cockroaches when you turn on the lights.

For once Ms. Olds, stand by your liberal B.S. and take the heat. Nobody put a gun to your head and forced you into the actions that you now realize were grossly against the beliefs of everyday Americans. You supported and still support those who call the Marines war criminals, you gave them a parking spot in front of the recruiting office, your council pressured the police to stand by passively while Code Pink violated the law, and you authorized a letter to be sent to the United States Marines telling them that they are “uninvited, unwelcome intruders” in the City of Berkley. You were proud when you did these things and you should be proud of them now, if not you are just another politician with a yellow stripe down their back a mile wide.

At least the fruitcakes of Code Pink have the guts not to change their tune when they are challenged on their wacko ideas. If only the liberal politicians who court them had the same courage.

----UPDATE----

The Berkley City Council has met and “revised” their position. What that means in liberal speak is that they realize how badly they screwed the pooch. This is what three of the liberal members of the city council had to say:

Capitelli and Olds also said, “The recommendation to inform the Marine Corps recruiting office that they are not welcome in our city, was insulting, hurtful and wrong.”

Gordon Wozniak said, ‘We failed our city. We embarrassed our city.’”

Ya think? This is who these people are and they do this stuff every day out of some ridiculous notion that they are slaying some evil dragon for the common man. Perhaps Mike Savage was right, liberalism is a mental disorder.

The Same Old Song and Dance

That the Berkley crowd has condemned the Marine Corps recruiting office in their city is not surprising, but the fact that the city government fully supports Code Pink as it’s agent to evict the Marines from Berkley, is insane. The City Council made an official proclamation that the Marines were unwelcome intruders in the City of Berkley and ordered the City Attorney to explore methods of going after them aggressively by whatever means it could find. The city also gave Code Pink a parking space, assembly permit, and their blessings in harassing the military personnel and recruits at the Marine Corps office in an effort to remove the “intruders.” What Berkley did not count on, was the support of everyday Americans for the military.

Additionally, the Federal Government did not take kindly to Berkley showing their true colors either and Senator DeMint is working on legislation to remove Federal funding for the City, a move that I fully support (read my post “Illegals Got You Down? Put Them on ICE” Sept. ’07 for my ideas on this topic). This is because the armed forces is a branch of the Federal government and by declaring the United States Marines unwelcome and uninvited intruders in the city is the same thing as declaring the Federal government unwelcome and uninvited in the City of Berkley. This is insanity because you cannot pick and choose what parts of government that you want like a buffet line.

Liberals have been at this game for 48 years and it is high time that they be disabused of the notion that they can reject the parts of government that they don’t like and keep the parts that they do approve of and still remain on the Federal dole. I think that it would be justice if Berkley lost all Federal funding. For far too long have we allowed the left to rant and rave about their cause of the week without paying the freight for such behavior. I believe that municipalities should be allowed to initiate lawsuits to recover damages against individuals and organizations that:

· Damages public property

· Causes law enforcement to expend their budgets for massive arrests, riot control, and crowd dispersal secondary to such protests

· Allow or encourage their members to become unruly or violent

Further, criminal sanctions should be imposed upon persons or organizations that knowingly prevent the government from performing its function secondary to their actions and such charges should be a felony. Once it was thought that by allowing such nonsense we allowed people to show dissent, but by allowing such behavior we have only encouraged adults to act like children and groups to interfere with the daily operations of government while the taxpayer is bled dry. If Code Pink wants to demonstrate outside of a recruiter’s office and use foul language that is their business, but if they seek to disrupt the operations of said office by blocking the entrance and actively preventing others from seeking the services of that office, then they should pay the price for their shenanigans.

If such were the case, then the reputation of General David Petraeus would have been secured against the crass libel of MoveOn.org. However, we consider such an attack to be “free speech.” But free speech is not absolute; one cannot shout “fire” in a crowded auditorium. Additionally, libel and slander for political rhetoric should also be punished when used against citizens who are not politicians, such as that initiated against General Petraeus.

I am certain that the liberal left does retain a modicum of sanity. For example, Berkley Mayor Tom Bates said, “…did not adequately differentiate our respect and support for those serving in the armed forces and our opposition to the Iraq war policy” when the American response to the City proclamation became apparent. Despite the Mayor’s back peddling on this issue, we know the truth. The liberals in Berkley have no respect or support for the men and women who serve their nation in the American military. They have made their disdain clear with their proclamation and the declaration that the United States Marine Corps is an uninvited and unwelcome intruder in the City of Berkley.

By the way, if you are wondering why there is a hammer and sickle posted with this article, I propose it for the new City of Berkley seal as they have certainly earned it.