The Money Hole

Anyone who is looking, has seen this one coming;  It is increasingly likely that the Federal Government (read, the U.S. taxpayer) will shoulder the additional burden of defaulting student loans.  According to Citigroup: 

America’s now-nationalized student loan industry just reached a value of $1 trillion,  growing at a 20 percent-per-year pace. Since President Obama nationalized the industry (a tacked-on provision of the Obamacare bill), tuition has gone up 25 percent and the three-year default rate is at a record 13.4 percent.
 

See this disturbing story at: Kudlow Interview  The amount of student loans currently in default is $74 billion.  Were our President, in his increasingly autocratic role, to forgive this total indebtedness, he would further ingratiate himself to young voters with this fiscal slight-of-hand … since such debt really doesn’t disappear.  It just changes hands … and makes it even more likely that the United States will eventually disappear down the money hole of unsustainable federal debts … something for which our higher educational system has not prepared our young’ins.

Cyberwars

Chrome Logo

Turn around is fair play.  Microsoft killed Netscape with its Internet Explorer via software integration and predatory pricing.  Now Google is attacking Internet Explorer with its Chrome browser.  Let me explain … somehow I inadvertently downloaded Google’s Chrome (software vendors have gotten very clever at such subterfuge.)  After about six months I was tired of seeing this unused Chrome icon on my start-up screen … so I uninstalled it. Big mistake!  For weeks thereafter my Internet Explorer operated very poorly.  It downloaded slowly … it was missing many graphic images … and it often, too often, froze to the point where I had to restart the computer.

This was extremely frustrating.  I ran and reran my antivirus software.  I ran and reran my registry cleanup software.  I ran and reran my file trimming software.  I defragged my hard disc … twice.  Then it dawned on me … these problems all started when I uninstalled Chrome.  So I reinstalled it … and, voila, things are now great … as long as I use Chrome as my primary PC browser.  Clearly Google has advertently or inadvertently structured Chrome with hidden I.E.D.s vis-à-vis Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.  Chrome is obviously Google's primary combatant in the ongoing cyberwars to take over the PC interface. 

How is it going?  Google allows me statistics about what browsers are being used to reference this blog … with hits running close to 3,000 per month.  Recently, these numbers show this usage profile: Firefox – 37%, Internet Explorer – 24%, Chrome – 21%, etc.  So, Google seems to be effectively insinuating itself into PC interfaces around the world

But then who are among the real battlefield causalities? ... schlemiels like me.  I just wish I had some recourse against software vendors such as Google … and Microsoft too.

For the Want of a Nail

Why did Mitt Romney lose an election which most pundits thought he was sure to win (including myself … a non- pundit). Other than the voting loyalty of obvious major blocs that worshiped at the feet of Obama -- single women, Hispanics and blacks, Romney may well of lost because his team could not get out the vote. In fact in 2012, the Romney/Ryan ticket received 464 thousand fewer votes than the McCain/Palin ticket did in 2008. This was a shocker to me … particularly given the surge that Romney and Ryan seemed to be receiving in the waning days of the campaign.

When you couple this with another surprising statistic – the Obama/Biden ticket got almost 6.3 million fewer votes than they did in 2008, one is even more perplexed. Obviously something was seriously wrong with both candidates’s ground games, but Romney had an opening through which he could have driven an American Motors car … and he flubbed the dub. If he just could have picked up half the votes that Obama surrendered, he might well have been elected. But alas, not to be.

The question then is, what happened? And I think I have a little-reported answer. The Romney/Ryan team was depending on a piece of software dubbed ORCA to get out those voters that were expected to and should have pulled the Republican levers. This software was supposed to identify for more than 34,000 eager Romney poll-watchers specific names of those voters in key districts who needed to be rounded up and brought to the polls. However, this lauded software pooped the bed and did not perform as anticipated. And what is worse, the Romney team had no back-up plan … so perhaps millions of their expected Republican voters stayed home and watched the sad results on television … see: National Journal Article

Exactly why this software crashed to the point of non-functionality on election day is probably now being hotly debated … lack of beta testing, lack of user training, insufficient computer power, a denial-of-service attack from the Obama team, a Democrat techie mole, etc.; but what is clear is that Romney, despite his reputation for getting things done, did not have the right techies and technical managers on his campaign staff. See: SD Times Article for additional details. Too bad … for all Romney’s psychic and organizational efforts and the hundreds of millions of dollars that were expended on his behalf … the lack of this one I.P. nail may well have cost him the election battle.

One Man, One Vote

Breitbart carries a story of how the mentally disabled are voting for Democrats in great numbers as a result of semi-fraudulent activities at their group homes, see: Breitbart Story. This scheme is well known to me … for I used to help my Down Syndrome brother-in-law vote for Republicans … to the seething outrage of my liberal friends. I registered him (with his “X”) and went into the voting booth with him to show him how and for whom to vote. Even though I disapprove of this process, I did this primarily to exhibit the ludicrousness of this cornerstone of the liberal voting agenda --- “one man, one vote.”

Every warm body over the age of eighteen SHOULD NOT VOTE. The fact that one political party can organize large numbers of mentally-disabled or non compos mentis people into doing something of which they have no understanding is clearly not just undemocratic … it is immoral. Because those in the wagon have much more free time than those pulling the wagon, this gives them the opportunity to load more of the fringes of our society into the wagon … and will eventually lead to those of us pulling the wagon to be unable to continue.

How to fix things? Number one, anybody who cannot read and understand a simple English paragraph should not be given a ballot. Number two, all voters should have some valid form of picture identification proving their citizenship. Number three, there should not be any method of proxy voting which cannot be unambiguously tracked back to an individual citizen. Number four, all voters must go into the voting booth and vote alone … no helpers permitted.

Will this make voting more difficult? Possibly at the margin it will, but we have too long been permissively expanding the opportunities for voter fraud which is clearly not democratic.  And we need to stop using that phony liberal shibboleth, “one man, one vote.”

Tums for the Tummy

Democracy … that was the byword when the United States (read Hillary and Barack) backed the notion of the “Arab Spring” … which so far has brought them nothing but headaches – the four murders in Benghazi, the storming of the U.S.’s Cairo embassy, the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel, the al Qaeda resurgence in Mali, and now Egypt’s President, Mohammed Morsi, assuming the role of a dictator (see: CBS News Story). Yes, there were “democratic” elections in Egypt after Hosni Mubarak was tossed out  … which the Muslim Brotherhood won. But, since then, there has been a steady deterioration of Egypt’s democratic governance and cooperation with the United States … to the point were our President can’t even call Egypt an ally.

Yes, there has been something of a détente recently when Egypt interceded in the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza. But any clear-thinking person knows that this will be a short-lived truce. Even Obama’s former Special Envoy to the Mid East, George Mitchell, has said that the U.S. should not be rewarding bad behavior on the part of the extremists.  However, rewarding them we are (by negotiating with and thus recognizing Hamas).  But Hillary Clinton has seized on this moment, I believe, to try to change the subject away from her problems in Libya. And it will take months, if not years, before we know the full extent of what she has promised them in exchange for what I’m sure will be more Morsi duplicity. Hillary clearly does not believe that old adage that “when you lie down with dogs, you end up with fleas” … but rumor has it that Bubba Clinton has just ordered a gross of “Frontline” ampules.

Now the Egyptians are again demonstrating for the freedoms that they thought they were getting when Morsi was elected … but, alas, it is not to be … probably not for many years to come ... if ever. It appears that the one of the world’s oldest civilizations, the Egyptians, have traded a headache for an upset stomach. As part of the deal, could Hillary have promised them a shipload of Tums?

Afterward:  I got the following list of powers that Morsi granted himself from an AP story:

"— All laws and decisions by the president are final, cannot be appealed, overturned or halted by the courts or other bodies. This applies to decisions he has made since taking office in June and any he makes until a new constitution is approved and a new parliament is elected, expected in the spring at the earliest.


— No judicial body can dissolve the upper house of parliament or the assembly writing the new constitution. Both are dominated by the Brotherhood and other Islamists and several cases demanding their disbanding were before the courts, which previously dissolved the lower house of parliament.

— The president can take any steps or measures necessary to prevent threats to "the revolution, the life of the nation or national unity and security" or to the functioning of state institutions.

— A new judiciary body of "protection of the revolution" is created to reopen investigations, prosecutions and trials of former regime officials, including ousted President Hosni Mubarak, for the killing of protesters during last year's uprising. Other police officers accused of killings, however, will not be retried.

— The controversial prosecutor general, a Mubarak appointee seen by many as lax in pursuing former regime figures, was removed from his post."

Does anyone hear the sound of crickets coming from our White House?


 

High-Wire Marco

In an effort to nip the 2016 Presidential candidacy of Marco Rubio in the bud, a “gotcha journalist” from GQ magazine recently asked him “How old is the Earth?” (see: LA Times Story). Here is Marco Rubio’s full reply:

I'm not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that's a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I'm not a scientist. I don't think I'm qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's one of the great mysteries.

I say “gotcha journalist” because I have yet to see the same question asked of a leading Democrat even though, according to the referenced LA Times article, 41% of Democrats are creationists and believe that the Earth was created by God within the last 10,000 years. I thought Rubio’s answer was quite reasonable, albeit political, considering that he doesn’t want to offend those voters who might not believe the scientists who say that our orb has been around for about 4.5 billion years (which I believe). He was walking a high wire between these two diametrically opposed views and, I think, did a fine job of avoiding this “journalist’s” gotcha trap.

And of course, the echo chamber of the national media has jumped on Rubio for his response ... as to be expected.  The Democrats and the left-leaning press do a fine job of respecting diversity except when it comes to Republicans and fundamentalist Christians.  Now I have a suggestion … let this same "journalist" travel to Iran and ask Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (or even Barack Obama for that matter) if he believes in that the 12th Imam will someday re-appear and herald in the Apocalypse. Or maybe he could just ask Joe Lieberman if one should eat meat cooked in its mother’s milk. 

What passes for journalism today is shameful.

Thank You

Coming up on the day called “Thanksgiving” the subject of this reflection manifests itself. This therefore is a paean to all that makes my life good. But first let me explain what I mean by the“you” in “thank you.” Being a secular humanist I don’t necessarily mean God … but then again I don’t really want closely to identify myself with secular humanists. Too many of these people unfortunately want to take away some of the things that help make my life good. What are really wrong with church bells on a Sunday morning anyway? Secular humanist are laden with babinzoes who are too full of bile to recognize that these bells are calling to assembly a bunch of neighbors who wish me no harm. Rather, by “you” I mean everyone who has preceded me who has contributed to the state of near grace in which I find myself.

I say “near grace” for I am not kidding myself into believing that I have lived a life of transcendental enlightenment. I am not so inclined. Rather I take what snippets of grace that come my way with a kind of innocent joy (like this morning at 3:30AM when our 3-year-old granddaughter climbed into bed with us). And I herein recognize that these moments of grace are often constructs of uncountable efforts of unnamed predecessors over innumerable eons. So exactly what are these constructions for which I am indebted?

- A country in which I fear not a barrage of rockets.

- A home that keeps out the rain and keeps in the warmth.

- A wife and family that allow me to contribute and return the favor.

- A society that provides for my needs and allows me some wants.

- Friends and neighbors who forgive me my quirkiness.

- Forefathers who constructed a form of government that often seems to work.

- The legions of defenders of our freedoms who have died or been maimed in the process.

- A medical system that has kept me alive long past my due.

- My remembered father, mother, sister, friends, mentors and educators.

- The joy of watching youth blossom into understanding.

- A leftover turkey sandwich with sage stuffing, cranberry sauce and mayonnaise.

Thank you.

Nob Hill

Quite recently, while vacationing in Hawaii, I had occasion to sit next to a talkative gentleman during the Happy Hour at the bar in our spa. Over my Mai Tai, I asked where he was from, he said “San Francisco.” I said that I loved that beautiful city but I generally found the people there a little off-putting. He agreed and said that he was a motorcycle policeman there and that, during one recent Gay Pride Parade, he was on duty when the “Act Up” float came by. At the rear of the float were two naked gay men engaging in the act that might well be emblazoned on its flag. A middle-aged couple (with small children) from the Mid-West shockingly asked him if he couldn’t do something about such public lewdness. He replied that his boss’s boss was a gay female and, if had he done so, it would be a career-ending act.

Now I see that San Francisco has a proposal that would ban public nudity for anyone over the age of five (see: ABC News Story for details). Now I have no idea whether such a sane and reasonable law would ever pass muster in Baghdad by the Bay. But I strongly believe that, if for some quirk of fate, it did become law … enforcing it would be next to impossible. After all, isn’t one of the promontories in San Francisco called “Nob Hill?”

Ding Dong!

The Hostess brand is dead. Which old brand? The Drake’s Cakes brand!

Ring Ding! The Hostess brand is dead.

Wake up - the union said, rub your eyes, get out the lead.

Wake up, the Hostess brand is dead. It's gone where our Twinkies went,

Below - below - below. Ho-Hos, let's open up and sing of Wonder Bread.

King Dons' the merry-oh, get it bought, get it lent.

Let them know

The Hostess brand is dead!

Rice-a-Roni

Current rumor has it that the new Obama administration will keep Eric Holder on as Attorney General (UGH!), appoint John Kerry as Secretary of Defense (GASP!), and nominate Susan Rice as Secretary of State (SHIVER!) This is clearly what The Chosen One was talking about when he labeled this recent election as one of revenge.

Three Senators, John McCain, Linsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte, indicated today that our U.N. Ambassador, Susan Rice, was an unacceptable choice and that they would oppose her nomination based upon her avowals on five Sunday talk shows ... five days after the Benghazi attacks … where she claimed that they had been inspired by an anti-Islamic YouTube video.

In his first news conference in eight months, President Obama today sprang to Ms. Rice’s defense, saying that she was just "presenting" what the White House had told her was the best information they had on Benghazi at the time.

But wait … did not President Obama, in his second debate with Mitt Romney, say that he had stated in the Rose Garden the morning after the Benghazi attacks that they had been due to terrorism? (Which assertion was then too-conveniently attested to by the moderator, Candy Crowley.) I’m befuddled by how the Obama administration can keep these two diametrically-opposed narratives going simultaneously?

But I guess, when you are best friends with most of Hollywood, the Main Stream Media, the glamorous East-Coast glitterati, and the Pimp with the Limp, you can say and do almost anything … including appointing a clueless apparatchik as Secretary of State.

The Fiscal Cliff

I’m taking a chance by opining on the threat of the looming fiscal cliff before the President’s press conference today, but what the hay. Such considerations have not stopped me before. Here goes.

I think that the best option might well be to go off the fiscal cliff. The reason being that our petulant President’s only proposed solution to our current fiscal problems is to raise the tax rates on those who make more than $250,000 per year. He has scrupulously avoided talking about spending cuts or entitlement reforms. It is blatantly clear that we cannot fix our monetary morass only with such a tax rate increase. And, if the Democrats run true to form, any promised spending reforms will never occur once the tax rate increases are approved. I admit it is dangerous … but only by accepting the pain of the fiscal cliff are we going to begin to address our government spending problems.

Yes, our free-fall off of the fiscal cliff will cause income and capital gains tax rates to go up on us all, but we will also get concomitant substantial government spending reductions. And yes, this will probably push us back into a recession, but it is also likely that tax rate increases on those earning more than $250,000 will also put the (albeit smaller) kibosh on our GNP growth. Besides, I strongly suspect that our legislature will quickly fix the more egregious of the spending cuts (such as for the Defense Department) with emergency appropriations. In a strange way, one might look at the fiscal cliff as a form of zero-base budgeting … to me, a good thing.

I also could accept Mitt Romney’s suggestion of a cap on personal income tax deductions and “loopholes” of say $35,000 … IF accompanied by meaningful government spending cuts. This would effectively raise federal revenues without the messy business of a total overhaul of the tax code … and all the lengthy political haggling that would go along with picking and choosing among which deductions to keep or which to axe. But simple solutions never seem to be favored by Washington insiders, so I am not too sanguine about this option. Ergo, grab your parachute and yell with me “Geronimo.”

Voter Intimidation

Last Tuesday in 59 voter districts in the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, Mitt Romney got no brotherly love. He got not one single vote out of almost 20,000 cast … see: Philadelphia Inquirer Story  How can this be? Even Saddam Hussein and Hugo Chavez did not receive every single vote in their heavy-handed elections. Perhaps, just perhaps, the presence of the New Black Panther Party members at these polling places had something to do with this voting anomaly? And these intimidating thugs were there as official “poll watchers” of all things.

Our Attorney General, Eric Holder’s looking the other way when such voter intimidation takes place is just one more step in our steady, relentless march to our own perdition.  I hope against hope that this lame excuse for an Attorney General leaves his post in January ... and climbs back into the woodwork.

Afterward: And in 9 Precincts in Cuyahoga County, Ohio (Cleveland) ... Romney got zero votes. See also Weasel Zippers.  In King County, Texas, Obama got 5 votes.

2016

The Presidential election is over and Barack Obama has won.  So, what does this mean for the United States over the next four years?  Let me offer a few of my own personal prognostications:

- Iran will have 20+ nuclear weapons. The Unites States (with Israel’s reluctant agreement) will institute a policy of “containment” relative to this threat … much like we did with the USSR during the cold war. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Egypt will either have nukes or be well on their way toward same.

- Joe Biden will take a shot at getting the Democrat nomination for President. This nation’s main-stream media will kill his chances by implying that he is non compos mentis. The Democrat nod will go either to Rahm Emanuel, Chris Christie, or Bill Clinton.

- Two new Supreme Court justices will be confirmed (replacing two other liberal justices), namely Hillary Clinton (with a new hairdo) and Eric Holder.

- The Republicans will nominate an Hispanic for President … and a woman (other than Sarah Palin) for Vice President.

- The U.S. national debt will have topped $20 trillion despite numerous income tax rate increases and all the new taxes imposed under Obamacare.

- The rate of government spending increases will continue apace ... contrary to the early 2013 agreement fashioned under the fiscal-cliff threat.

- Fox News (on cable) will have far outpaced any network news program in terms of audience size and ratings.

- The expansion of Obamacare policies and edicts will have forced all health-care insurance companies out of business.

- An illegal-immigrant amnesty program will have been instituted in 2013. Illegal immigration will commensurately expand dramatically.

- Our nation’s entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Food Stamps, etc.) will not have been reformed.

- The real national unemployment rate will remain stubbornly high ... independent of the reporting-process manipulation at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

- Two new industries will have been nationalized by the Obama regime – the Airline industry and the Health-care Insurance industry (see above).

- General Motors will receive another government bailout of $40 billion +. As a result, Ford Motor will be in an untenable competitive position and may be also forced to take a government bailout.


Sooo ... once again, elections do have consequences ... a lesson still unlearned by the naive U.S. electorate.

The Fix

There are myriad theories about why Romney lost the recently-completed U.S. Presidential election … changing demographics (perhaps Rubio would have been a better V.P. choice after all), class warfare used as the wedge issue, voter fraud, etc. But, to me, I return to my oft-repeated theme … it was an election in which the heart prevailed over the head. Women, who vote in increasingly greater numbers than men, voted for Obama 55% versus 44% for Romney. This was a voting margin that outstrips all others in terms of importance.

Therefore the problem for the Republicans in future elections is enormous … not one that can be reversed with small solutions. Thus, to get back on the winning track, Republicans need a sea-change fix … and I think I have their answer … Sharia Law. I believe that, if the Republicans were to co-opt the Democrats and urge that our Constitution be modified to comport with Sharia Law (see: Sharia Law Tenets), our country would benefit greatly. For instance:

- The 19th Amendment would be obviated, particularly for Christians and Jews, and these women would lose their right to vote. This clearly would solve most of the Republican’s electoral problems.

- The current trend toward public nudity or near-nudity would also be reversed. Lady Gaga could not appear on stage except according to the hajib dress code.

- Since women would be severely restricted as to what jobs or education they could seek, our unemployment problem would be solved overnight.

- Women would be forbidden to drive cars … suddenly solving many of our traffic jams.

- Iran would stop its nuclear sabre rattling and embrace the United States as brothers … Israel, not so much.

- Homosexuality would be forced back into the shadows (so as not to elicit stoning to death) … no more Gay Pride parades with their concomitant public displays of sexual acts.

- Our Supreme Court Justices Breyer and Ginsburg would be mollified in their notion that the laws of foreign lands must be considered in adjudicating domestic legal cases.

- Our crime rates would drop dramatically or, otherwise, we would have legions of one-handed thieves.

- Our divorce rates would also plummet … as adultery would no longer be an acceptable diversion from the monotony of marriage.


Need I go on?.

Afterthought:  Perhaps alcohol consumption in the United States might also be dramatically reduced under Sharia Law?

Wooden ...

it be great if the Obama gang could govern at least half as well as they can campaign?  There are some who believe that Obama's first four years were merely an extension of his first campaign.  The question now poses itself ... given that he cannot run again, will our President now spend the next four years serving his country ... his party ... or himself?

Ham and Eggs

I have a little egg on my face about my blog on General Carter Ham's replacement surrounding the Benghazi, Libya incident (see: Ham Sandwich).  Apparently General Ham is still on the job and I am unsure as to how much of my narrative regarding him is valid.  I am sorry about this misinformation.  However, I still believe that much of the rest of the referenced blog is accurate ... and, in fact, I am now even more convinced that the death of many of the Americans there could and should have been avoided.  Stay tuned ... as I suspect it will not be until after the upcoming election before we hear "the rest of the story."

“All Politics Is Local”

Why would someone in the prime of his life enter the buzz saw of local politics … particularly in a state as corrupt as Massachusetts? Beats me. But there is such a person and his name is William Callahan ... and he is running for the State House here in the place aptly named a “Commonwealth” after the left-leaning politics of its inhabitants. For generations this state has been run by Democrats to the point that it is assumed to be their birthright. Yes, Governor Romney did govern his state for four years, but he could but make a small dent in its political hackery caused by this state’s one party rule … 87 % of its legislature is Democratic … and this has resulted in its last three Senate Presidents being convicted of felonies … stay tuned for possibly more. Generations of Democrat legislative rule here in Massachusetts has created a miasma of political privilege and disdain which, in turn, has led to fiscal irresponsibility and creeping moral corruption. We can ill afford this long ethical slide to continue. It may very soon become irreversible.

Enter William Callahan, a recently retired Colonel in the National Guard (as the National Guard’s Fiscal Officer for all of Massachusetts) who had served two tours of duty in Iran. Bill is a level-headed optimist ... still believing that he can help change things (see: Callahan's Webpage) … and I have signed on to do my small bit to help him. He is running a vigorous ground campaign here in the Middlesex’s 5th district comprising Natick, Sherbourn, and part of Millis, Massachusetts … going from door to door plying his message of restoring ethical standards in our Massachusetts government, working diligently to reduce our states’ out-of-control spending and confiscatory taxing, and improving government transparency, i.e., open up our governmental processes to the fresh air of full and timely disclosure. He is running against David Linsky, not the worst of the Democrat Beacon-Hill actors who has done some beneficial things for our communities. But he has never seen a tax increase that he didn’t endorse or a pork-barrel bill he would eschew… and, over the most recent session, has voted with the Democrat leadership over 99% of the time. This is why he needs to be replaced.

Will Bill win ... in a state whose citizens first consider the “D” or “R” following a candidate’s name before voting? It certainly is an uphill slog. But I cannot count out someone who has won two Bronze Stars for his service for his country in a hostile foreign land ... and is endorsed by U.S. Senator Scott Brown and the Natick Police Patrol Officers' Association.  But then again Massachusetts has its own form of IEDs. I am doing my small part to help this good man avoid being blown up in his attempt to make things better.  And I would appreciate anyone who might help in this effort to pass this message along.

Thank you.

(Title quote is attributed to the former Speaker of the U.S. House from Massachusetts, Tip O'Neill.)

Ham Sandwich

When the Watergate scandal was in full swing, I wore an American flag pin upside down on my jacket until Tricky Dick Nixon resigned. If I were still wearing suits, I would repeat this cry of distress today. As the Benghazi scandal continues to fester, it is becoming clearer exactly what occurred there … and it wasn’t pretty. A reader of the Powerline blog has assembled a detailed timeline of events there that helps to answer a lot of questions. Please take the time to read this fascinating hyperlink so that you too may start to connect the sordid dots: Powerline Blog Reference. One revelation in this post was that there was, despite direct orders to “stand down,” a small rescue mission sent to Libya which did reach Benghazi in time to affect things somewhat. Fascinating reading!

Now we learn that our Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta has relieved General Carter Ham, the leader of the U.S. Africa command, of his duties … see: Washington Times Story. One does not have to be a genius to understand that this was likely due to Ham’s sending of this and/or another proposed rescue mission. Now comes the interesting part. It seems clear that this rather drastic action on Panetta’s part indicates that this “stand down” order was from him … or, more likely, from President Obama. An order from below this level should not have engendered such drastic punishment to the general. Yes, General Ham was clearly wrong to disobey such an order … just as it was more egregiously wrong to issue it.

Back to the cover-up. The gang that killed Osama (and apparently helped cause four Americans in Benghazi to suffer the same fate), in the cold light of dawn, realized how this screw-up might affect the upcoming Presidential elections. So they clearly started covering their tracks … and grabbed the convenient excuse of the You-Tube anti Islamic video being the cause of the Benghazi “riots.” They peddled this concoction for almost three weeks and offered lame excuses about an on-going investigation as to why they couldn’t answer direct questions. Now that things are quickly unraveling, they are still hoping to make it to November 6th without the whole fetid mess being exposed. Nixon did avoid the more serious Watergate revelations until after his election. But given the speed of current news cycles on the Internet (the New York Times, Washington Post, etc. are doing their level best to ignore this story), I doubt if Obama will be quite so lucky. I sincerely hope not.



Afterward: A naval strike-force Admiral is also being replaced (see: ABCNewsStory).  Is this related?

Cowed

The unfolding events in Benghazi, Libya on this past September 11th are becoming very disturbing.  It has become abundantly clear that everyone in the administrative chain of command, including the President, knew in real time what was transpiring on that fateful night.  And for almost seven hours nothing was effectively done.  This is 180-degrees against American tradition and against the most basic instincts of human nature.  One can speculate until the cows come home as to why this was the case, but the actions and words of Leon Penetta, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama can only cause one to conclude that the decision was made, at whatever level, that these four American's lives were expendable.  CIA Director, David Petraeus seems to be unwilling to made the scapegoat ... see: Weekly Standard Piece, but the recent revelations of how Hillary and Barack acted whilst standing beside the coffin of his son Tyrone and talking to the father, Charles Woods (see: Another Weekly Standard Piece), suggests to me the utter calculated callousness that these political bovines were trying to use to misdirect blame.

It is inexcusable for how our administration acted and (did not) react to this Benghazi massacre.  Even if more lives were lost as a consequence of an attempt to protect our United States's sovereignty and lives, we still would have acted with honor.  Now we have lost four lives and our honor to boot.  To compound this outrage, the administration then went on to commit an even greater sin ... the cover-up.  For at least two weeks they peddled the fallacy of an anti-Islam YouTube video was the reason for the Benghazi attacks.  I needn't repeat the litany of falsehoods that our administration manufactured to try to excuse this infamy.  But thinking back on this period, it turns my stomach. 

George W. Bush was frequently called a "cowboy President." The Obama tag team are not cowboys ... merely cowed.  Unfortunately, we must endure them for at least a while longer.

Swiss Cheese

Recently, I am getting an annoying flurry of messages on my PC from my virus detection software, avast!, which say “Malicious URL Blocked!” Then when I ask for further explanation, I see:

avast! saved your computer from crashing

You just dodged a bullet

You may be wondering how you ended up with a virus, especially if you were visiting a ‘normal’ site. The latest research from the avast! Virus Lab shows that more than 80% of malware (viruses,spyware, and the like) spreads through legitimate websites, with only 1% coming from suspicious or ‘dodgy’ sites.

Now, how is it that my operating system and Internet browser, both from Microsoft, are so inept and insecure that, decades after their constructions, such malicious intrusions can happen? Simple answer – Microsoft has focused its business strategy on maintaining its revenue and profit stream … and ignoring the true wants and needs of its customers. This bloated company's software is so full of holes that is resembles a good Swiss cheese. To me, there in no excuse for this sloppiness and sloth … and this fault will eventually bring Microsoft down.  I predict that, within five years, this fate will become blatantly obvious to anyone watching.