Despicable Thuggery

This inscription is found as part of the WWII Memorial in Washington D.C.

"Earned our undying gratitude,"  I wish the current President of the United States and members of the Democrat Party could comprehend such words and honor them.

Instead today we saw a great injustice attempt to be perpetrated upon some of the rapidly vanishing cadre of WWII veterans.  69 years after many stormed the beaches of Omaha, Sword, Juno, Gold, and Utah and others stormed ashore at another place called Inchon some of those went to see the WWII Memorial as part of an effort called Honor Flight.

Veterans from Iowa and Mississippi went to the memorial today to find a very strange sight.  The normally open memorial was barricaded.  The excuse being it was closed due to the government shutdown.  These veterans showed they still had courage even though many are now confined to wheelchairs.  While Rep. Steve King and others launched a diversionary attack that distracted the unpaid Park Police, the veterans breached the barricades to see the memorial dedicated to their sacrifice and valor before they to finally joined their compatriots among G_d's Battalions.

I squarely blame the Democrats for this cheap and tawdry attempt to punish those who risked all to defend this country.  To attempt to score cheap political points by disrespecting these veterans' service.  To be respected, one must earn respect.  Today all the Democrats have earned is an even greater amount of contempt.

President Harry Truman is best know for a few turns of phrase.  But one that applies in this case comes from a citizen.  "Give'em Hell Harry!"  Lets give the Democrats Hell over this.

Full Circle

Well it certainly looks like the United States will be making some kind of military action in revenge for the killing of civilians by chemical weapons in Syria.  Even though the issue remains cloudy as to who did it, the word of the United States is now on the line.

Secretary of State John Kerry has been making the case along with Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel before the Congress on this matter.  I would find the irony delicious that we have John 'Genghis Khan' Kerry pushing for American intervention in a country with far less military and political significance than South Vietnam except the dangers from one mistake in this country called Syria are far greater than any faced by the United States in South Vietnam with a defeat.

I was expecting at some point for Kerry to buttress his argument with one more sound byte - 'It became necessary to destroy the town to save it'

It would have been fitting and encapsulated what could easily become another street without joy.

What Is Frightening?

That the things I have been worrying about since the President drew his bold red line have been echoed by Laughing Wolf over on Black Five.  It is sobering to know someone else has been comparing the sitting President with the fictional Robert 'Bob' Fowler from Clancy's Sum of All Fears and finding the real President wanting in comparison.

Or the alliances in the region are mobilizing in much the same way they did in 1914 in Sarajevo.  One madman kills a noble that almost no one knew about and the gears of war started to turn as all the years of treaties came into effect as Austria tried to browbeat Serbia into giving up the assassin.  So the Serbs called in their Russian allies while Austria called in Germany.  And it just escalated from there.  What resulted from all of that smart diplomacy was four years of brutal carnage that killed millions and set the stage for a greater conflict.

An even more brutal question to ask will there be a US lead alliance in regards to the murky issue of who gassed whom in Syria?  The British Parliament just said no to Prime Minister Cameron's request for supporting the Americans, the first time they have said no since 1782 and the American Revolution.  The French and Germans are going soft as well; they should when it concerns American consistency, they just have to look at the series of slights and insults this Administration has delivered to England along with betraying European missile defense for a nebulous promise from Russia.  A Russia that supplies Europe with a majority of the natural gas it will need to stay warm this winter.  A Russia that supports the Assad regime in Damascus.  Europe sees more downsides than upsides for joining the American charge.

Then there are the Middle Eastern nations to look at.  Iran likes Assad in power and has threatened Israel if the US attacks.  Saudi Arabia finds itself wanting Assad in power in order to keep the Muslim Brotherhood out of power.  Saudi Arabia is also supporting the current government in Egypt for the same reason - fear of the Muslim Brotherhood.  And the United States, because of the decisions of this Administration, finds itself in opposition to Saudi Arabia, a long time ally, and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood both in Egypt and Syria.  Turkey has refused to assist the United States in regards to Syria so Greece had to be asked to allow the US to use Greek air bases.

If this is not a powder keg with a fuse lit, then I do not know what is.  And for what reason is the US getting involved when there are no geo-political reasons that can protect American interests?  Because of one reported attack on civilians by someone using chemical weapons.  No one knows if it really was Assad's forces that did it or even the rebels themselves that did it by accident.  This is far worse in murkiness than when USS Turner Joy thought it was being attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats.  But we have a President who said this was a Red Line even though in the past when Saddam used nerve agents on Kurds or Assad's father obliterated a town with artillery to stop a Muslim Brotherhood insurgency no one protested so loudly that these heinous attacks were used as reasons to depose either tyrant.

As Laughing Wolf said, we are going to be held hostage to the least stable actor in this drama.  Isn't that a cheery thought.  So if you are a devout praying person, please pray harder.



Addendum on the parallels from 1914.
There is the diplomatic war that was fought in concert with the war effort.  England wanted the neutral powerhouse the United States to enter the war on their side.  Wilson became President in no small part because he promised to keep the country neutral to the conflict that was devouring Europe so people with similar feelings voted for him. 

Churchill as First Sea Lord engaged in stratagems that are a bit shabby and dishonest viewed from this end of history; from painting British ships in American colors to putting war materials aboard passenger liners, but what he wanted was England to emerge victorious.  Meanwhile the Royal Navy was hunting German U-boats where they could.  All these actions forced Germany to abandon the cruiser rules and turn to unrestricted warfare on the open seas against any ship they found. 

So the German U-boats became wolves prowling for kills.  Any kills.  It was scant comfort to the families of the dead from these attacks that Germany had followed the rules of war by announcing a zone around England where unrestricted warfare would be prosecuted.  The Huns in the U-boats were now butchers.  The same was not used to describe German commerce raiders but those ships did not skulk below and strike from hiding, instead they still operated under the cruiser rules and treated their captured as well as could be expected.

Another arrow in the cap that helped tilt American opinion in favor of England was a master stroke of counter-espionage by British spooks.  I am referring to the famous Zimmerman telegram where Germany's Foreign Minister tried to entice Mexico into attacking the United States.  That really incensed the American public when it became news and further destroyed any warm feelings that sections of the populace felt towards Germany.

The sinking of the RMS Lusitania was just the final act that brought the US into WWI on the British side.  While the US tried to stay out of the war, events conspired against the President that stripped him of any freedom of action.  And that is how the United States entered World War I on the side of the Serbian assassin since England was an ally of the Russians who were the ally of the Serbs who sheltered the assassin.

Drone Debate

Sen. Rand Paul [R-KY] just concluded an almost 13 hour long filibuster of the US Senate. This filibuster has delayed the confirmation by the full Senate of Brennan to head the CIA. The reason why Sen. Rand spoke, with able assistance for 13 hours, is very simple as he wants a simple answer to a very serious question.

Sen. Paul wants to know if the Obama administration, via the CIA that Brennan is nominated to head, is willing to use drones to kill American citizens on American soil without the due process of the law. Yes or no, that is all Sen. Paul wanted to know.

The response he got from Attorney General Eric Holder can be charitably called a 'maybe' answer. Two strawmen were brought out by Holder in his answer – Pearl Harbor and 9/11. There is a simple logical fault in using these two examples, neither attack was carried out by American citizens. Unlike Hassan Nidal at Ft. Hood or Timothy McVeigh at Oklahoma City.

In the case of Nidal and McVeigh, regular means were used to apprehend the killers. A routine traffic stop detained McVeigh long enough for them to connect the rental truck VIN to him. Nidal was bodily tackled and stopped in his killing spree.

So this administration wants a blank check to determine if an American citizen is an imminent danger. Without recourse to the American judicial system to rule if they have enough evidence to make such a finding. And then to send a remote control aircraft to kill that American citizen. Let me rephrase that, this administration wants to have the ability to assassinate American citizens on US soil without any oversight.

If you are not disturbed at that thought, just contemplate the government getting bad intelligence and sending out a drone on that information. Remember that wedding party in Iraq that American aircraft bombed by accident? Now imagine that happening on Main St in Peoria, IL – a drone fires a Hellfire missile at someone's SUV. Its noon in Peoria. The Hellfire hits and detonates, exploding the gas tank for good measure. Besides Betty Sue and her twin girls getting murdered because of bad information, how many people in the surrounding area just got killed or maimed also.

Now do you think armed drones over the US is such a good idea?

P.S. You may want to look up a movie from the 1980s called 'Blue Thunder' with Roy Scheider. LAPD is loaned a new helicopter. An armed helicopter that can also spy. Scheider's character Murphy finds out the organization supplying Blue Thunder has an ulterior motive of eliminating domestic threats. This administration is trying to replace Blue Thunder with something almost like a video game, just press the R1 on your X-Box controller to fire a Hellfire missile to blow up the target and get Achievement Points which is now a medal that can be worn between the Silver Star and Bronze Star.

Irrelevant Electoral College

Looking at the epicenters of blue in a sea of red from last Tuesday that handed so many Electoral College votes to Barack Obama even as Mitt Romney seemed to have won the popular vote, the natural question is what happened?  Well besides such things as St. Lucie county in Florida having 141% voter participation which hints at major voter irregularities.

Since 2008 there has been a serious push to make the President of the United States be selected by the popular vote.  That push was lead by many on the progressive-socialist side.  If that had been true on Tuesday we would be talking about President-elect Mitt Romney instead of a re-elected Barack Obama.

Which lead me to look at the map of the results.  At those masses of blue in a sea of red.  Like in past elections, states like California that might have gone red went blue due to population density.  Cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles nullified every bit of red.  Same in New York state, the deep blue of New York City outweighed the rest of the red state.  So both states went blue and all their Electoral College votes went to Barack Obama. 

Best way to truly prove what happened in California and New York is to look for large areas of blue but the states stayed red and gave their Electoral College votes to Mitt Romney.  Two such states are Texas and Mississippi.  Sparsely populated regions in both states went light blue to dark blue.  The more populated areas of both states went red.

This is how the Electoral College is supposed to work.  Each state being a battleground between the candidates.  To ensure each state has a voice and impact on the selection of a President.  But Tuesday it did not happen that way.

So what did happen?  This country has finally been defeated by Public Law 62-5 that was passed in 1911 and then made permanent in 1929.  Under House Speaker Cannon[R-IL] in 1911 the House fixed its size at 433 members plus 1 each for Arizona and New Mexico if those territories became states before the law went into effect in 1913.  In 1929, this law was re-authorized and made permanent by another Republican House Speaker Nicholas Longworth.

Public Law 62-5 fixed the maximum number of House seats and, until another state is added to the Union, set the maximum size of the Electoral College at 535 votes.  Even if Puerto Rico is added as a state, the 435 House seats will be re-apportioned among the 51 states while two more Senate seats will be added, thus raising the EC votes to 537.  Because the Constitution delegates to the House how it runs itself, there will be no change to that 435 number unless Congress changes it or another amendment is added to the Constitution.

The unexpected consequence of this law has, over the intervening decades, made the Electoral College a national popular vote by proxy.  When originally passed in 1911 California only had 11 votes [House + Senate seats = total EC votes] while Mississippi had 8.  In 2012 California has 55 votes and Mississippi only has 6.  So as the population densities migrated to major urban areas, the now limited number of EC votes also flowed there.  So it became possible to win the Electoral College vote by only winning in a limited number of states.

So where do we go from here?  Either we toss away the last bulwark against a scared voting populace and do away with the Electoral College to embrace a national popular vote.  Or the House is forced to add seats and thus re-balance itself and the Electoral College.

Judging by the Progressive Left's attempt to get a President elected by national popular vote or making each state apportion its EC votes according to the vote percentage each candidate received, I do not even think many of them realize what Public Law 62-5 did to the landscape of national politics.  Perhaps most have just assumed the House has always had 435 seats and never thought on it.  If this is true, then the Progressive Left is a very useful bunch of suckers.  And we truly no longer deserve a Republic.

Fast and Furious Goes South

I am looking at two different reports sourcing off the same newspaper: the El Tiempo.  Fast and Furious was supposed to allow US government agents to trace the flow of weapons into drug cartel hands in Mexico.  What has resulted, as previously documented, was some 2,000 weapons of various types vanishing into the badlands of northern Mexico.  Along with the deaths of 300+ Mexican citizens and two US agents - Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata.

The old saying is a broke clock is right two times a day.  In this case, it seems the BATF F&F clock was right once.  Two long arms and 14 Five-seven pistols have been recovered in an interesting locale.  In the city of Medellin Colombia in fact.  During a raid of the drug cartel that replaced Pablo Escobar's in fact.  A cartel just as violent as Pablo's.   But F&F was never aimed at the Ofcina de Envigado, it was aimed at the Mexican drug cartels like the Sianola Cartel.

But we will never hear anything about this from the mainstream media.  For example: the DoJ IG is supposed to report to Congress on September 19th on Fast & Furious.  Notice there is nothing there yet.  However it seems CNN has gotten the 'dope' on the matter and exonerates Eric Holder and his band of law breakers, you see it was those ATF agents in Arizona who are at fault for going rouge.  If CNN's anonymous leakers are correct, the IG is going to try and whitewash away the culpability of Holder and his crew.

While looking this information up, stumbled across what seems to be a DEA caused My Lai massacre in Honduras.  In the town of Ahuras, a DEA agent called for air support after claiming being under fire.  As a result four people, including a pregnant woman, were killed.  It seems the agent was not assisting the locals, but was leading the mission.

Day of Days?

Statue of Themis, Goddess of Justice

 Two monumental events might take place today in Washington D.C.  The Supreme Court might hand down their ruling on what is the Democrats' and Obama's signature piece of health care legislation.  The other will occur in the House of Representatives and their vote on whether the Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder is in contempt of that body in regards to Fast and Furious.

Much has already been written on the health care matter.  How anyone can claim 2,000+ pages of legal mumbo-jumbo is in fact a single law is beyond me.  Especially when one of the supporters has to declare you have to pass it to find out what is in it.  If that does not strike one of midnight deals in done in closed rooms full of nefarious plotting, what will?

Now what a piece of work Eric Holder and because of the Executive Order issued by President Obama, this whole administration is?  All Rep. Issa wanted was any documentation relating to the time Justice appeared before the committee under oath and told a falsehood that had to be retracted.  It is true it's the cover-up that makes things worse.  If this administration had been honest and forthright after the murders of Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata we would not be in this situation. 

Because of seemingly boundless perfidy that screams out for redress, today we may witness the sword of Justice.

Update Saturday 30 June 2012. 

Well its been an eventful two days since the Supreme Court has handed down its ruling.  To say people are angry and overjoyed might be an understatement.  What the Roberts court delivered seems akin to Solomon actually splitting the baby in two.  Time will tell if what was rendered was truly wise but in the short term it has energized the Romney campaign and all who oppose the legislation.  It has turned the mandate into a penalty tax that Democrats now have to defend while recognizing the states can resist federal encroachment without suffering penalties.

As for Eric Holder, he was found in contempt by the House.  Seventeen Democrats joined their Republican colleagues in this vote of contempt so it's bi-partisan.  Many other Democrats, lead by Rep. Pelosi, had a conniption and walked out in protest, thus silencing their constituents voice.  And to show how Eric Holder does not think the laws of this land apply to him, he went on a Disney vacation after the vote.

Reagan, Berlin, and Now

In case anyone missed it because the media decided to worship their sun god Obama, yesterday was a special day.  Twenty five years ago President Ronald Reagan sounded the clarion call for freedom in what used to be West Berlin.  He demanded of Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!"  Which wall?  Why the Berlin Wall of course, a gray concrete monstrosity that encircled West Berlin in an attempt to prevent people from escaping that paradise called East Germany.  Many paid with their lives in the attempt.

That day in 1987 is fondly remembered in countries of the former Warsaw Pact.  For example Poland and a guy named Lech Walesa struggling to free themselves from Soviet tyranny and dreaded visits by the secret police.  It told them they were not forgotten even when some in the free West, like the rioters in West Berlin protesting Reagan, wanted to forgot so they could 'normalize' relationships with the USSR.  The classic do not provoke the Russian bear least get eaten type.

Just a few years later, many Germans, East and West, were busily smashing those concrete walls with hammers.  And a market for bits of the Wall rapidly sprung up.  Pundits in the West declared it was the end of the Cold War.  One even bravely proclaimed it to the be end of history.

So where are we in 2012.  Obviously we did not reach the end of history that was predicted in those heady days.  As for the end of the Cold War.  Has it really ended?  Looking at things across the globe in objective terms, that answer is also no.

The USSR, the arch nemesis, no longer exists this is true.  Many of the countries it controlled with bayonets and bullets are no longer its satrapies.  But has the country that replaced it, Russia, given up the idea of global ambitions?  With Putin at the helm and supplying such rogue governments as Iran with the means of nuclear warfare along with its efforts to undermine US foreign policy, that answer most definitely is no.

That other communist super power of the Cold War, the Peoples Republic of China, still exists.  And its power and influence has grown whilst that of the USSR has waned.  Even if it's economy appears headed for the wall, the ambition and military might of this country can not be ignored as US re-alignment of its military posture towards the PRC shows.

So now that I have offered evidence that the Cold War has not died but merely changed a few labels, what is the US doing to answer this challenge?  One I have already mentioned, the shift of focus from Europe to the Pacific.  There is also increased interfacing with countries being threatened by the PRC, except in one instance - the current administration has denied Taiwan 66 F-16 fighters.  Meanwhile the US Navy, who would bear the brunt of fighting for the US to assist allies and itself to keep the sea lanes open, is seeing its strength drop from a hoped for 313 ships to 'around 300.'  Aegis cruisers are being retired and $3billion DDGs of the Zumwalt class are simply too expensive.  Meanwhile the Littoral Combat Ship is being produced in two incompatible types.  US Air Force fighters are getting older while the F-22 has finished production and still waiting for the first F-35, which means the F-16 will still roll off the production lines.  Of course a lot of this procurement assumes Washington D.C. will get its act together before mandatory sequestration strikes the Dept. of Defense budget and guts everything.

So while the Cold War seems to be still alive though socialists are loathe to admit it with their constant harping it's over, foolishness and shortsightedness in elected officials in Washington D.C. still seems rampant.  So do not mind me if I am getting a pre-WWII in the Pacific vibe from all this.  Only firm clear leadership can sort out this problem before another Pearl Harbor is experienced

Science Fiction

Governor Luis Raoul Panablanco sat at his desk in the governor's mansion, the flags of Texas and the North American Union at his back to frame the picture, the Great Seal of the State of Texas above his head on the wall behind him.

...

At nine minutes, thirty-two seconds into his scheduled half-hour speech, he was saying:

"... as the proof that God is on my side is that on the very morning that I banished the Alamo mutineers into orbit, a sunspot appeared! The first sunspot in more than three years appeared in my hour of need! God has stretched out his hand to me!"

At eight minutes, fifty-five seconds into its scheduled flight, a cruise missile, stolen from the NAU Air Force, whistled down the street, bobbed over the fence surrounding the governor's mansion, rolled to miss a large oak tree, and crashed through the window and drawn drapes of the governor's office at 650 klicks per hour to explode a metric ton of high explosives where the governor's desk would have stood if it hadn't been moved to the other side of the room to accommodate the television crews.

In the event, the fact that the governor had moved his desk did him no more good than the fact he was wearing the best bulletproof vest on the market. The place of honor at his funeral was occupied by a hamburger patty of governor, bodyguards, and television crew.

-------------------------------------------------------
  pg 24-25. The Revolution from Rosinante. Alexis A. Gilliland. Del Rey. 1981

Meanwhile President Obama and his administration are going forward with drones over US air space.  For example the EPA is using drones to spy on livestock in states like Nebraska.

What Do You Stand For?

The above video is powerful and its message is not just about Catholics and President Obama's health care package; a package that has granted waivers to two whole states and exempted the Amish and Muslims from even complying because neither faith has a fundamental objection to the concept of insurance.  So right there this is an un-Constitutional law since it is implicitly denying equal protection.

Then it gets far worse.  This whole package of rules and regulations endangers all vestiges of the separation of church and state.  In fact this back door in the dark of the night party line passed legislation is going to erases that boundary.  It grants to the federal State the totalitarian power of being the final arbiter of what should be or should not be taught by any faith or creed.  This is why Catholics, Christians, and Jews are all standing up and saying no, it makes them subservient to the secular State.

Fluke's Followers are Fools

The media circus abound the Obama administration and Catholic charities continues.  The Catholic charities have dug in their heels because the ruling threatens their very existence.  Democrats have tried to shift the focus from the threat of government diktat to it to be a threat to a right they hold sacred, access to birth control with the testimony of Democrat activist Sandra Fluke.  Meanwhile HHS, IRS, and other alphabet agencies involved in this effort have just issued a call for suggestions on how to improve/change this contentious issue.

About page 10 of that document something becomes clear, even though President Obama promised accommodations right now, HHS has another idea.  They will review and accept advise on this accommodation but any change will not happen until the expiration of the one year grace period which they call a safe harbor time.  Which can also mean these agencies could decide at a later date not to implement any accommodation. Perhaps after the November election which sees Obama re-elected or Obama sent packing.  It kicks the problem down the road while hoping everyone falls for the promise the controversial issue has already been taken care of.  This is the peril of administrative law, no Congress enacting the specific law while a cabal of bureaucrats decide to enforce a law of their creation.

But lets get back to Sandra Fluke.  She testified under oath to Congress that contraceptives costs for law students at Georgetown like her will cost $3000 during her whole time at school.  She says this a hardship.  Lets guess she will be at law school for the average three years.  That is thirty-six months.  Now divide the $3000 by 36.  The monthly cost then should be $83.34.  My question is, like many others, is why is this a hardship for Ms. Fluke and where is she shopping?  The costs for attending Georgetown are very expensive as this listing of tuition and fees show, perhaps she is tapped for cash. However as the Wall Street Journal article I link to shows she could have visited Wal-Mart or Target for contraception pills, spent about $150, and have enough pills for three years of frolic.  Ms. Fluke's grasp of costs seems a bit flawed which raises questions of what her billing practices will be when she is in the real world, unless she just wants to work for the government where it seems costs are never a factor.

Of course the worse thing about Ms. Fluke's testimony is the damage it does to the concept of female empowerment.  She is refuting everything Aretha Franklin and Annie Lennox are singing about in this video about Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves.  It seems the song Ms. Fluke sings is "I Want Someone Else to Pay for Me."  She wants to be a kept woman, this time kept by the government and paid with other peoples money.  Yes she has come a long way, right back to dis-enfranchisement.

Jealous Tyrants

There has been a lot of religious talk of late and how the secular sphere intersects such.  Of faith held beliefs colliding with secular beliefs.  Of confronting Moloch.

In the Peoples Republic of China; what a contradiction as the people have no say in how they are oppressed, just ask the employees at Foxconn who were awakened at midnight in their barracks, fed a biscuit and a cup of tea, and then churned out iPad2s with a new screen, religious oppression proceeds.  That government has imprisoned nine Roman Catholic priests.  Eight are of the 'underground' church that has the support of the Holy See in Rome but this church is oppressed by Beijing who pushes a state approved catholic church.  The Vatican and Beijing have been at an impasse over this matter for years with Beijing appointing catholic cardinals without Papal approval.  Here is a case of a 'modern' state oppressing and imposing beliefs on the people they are supposed to serve.

The Soviet Union went a step further when the likes of Lenin seized the reigns of power.  All places of worship were forcibly closed.  All monasteries were closed.  The Russian Orthodox faith was suppressed.  And yet it was the Soviet Union who collapsed while the faithful persevered.

In Germany in the 1930s similar things were tried.  The National Socialists ordered the crosses atop churches be replaced by their party symbol.  Youth groups like the 700,000 strong Protestant youth group were shut down.  There could only be one deity in Germany and all were supposed to swear fealty to the Fuhrer.  Thus there was no room for the likes of the Jews or the Catholics or Protestants.  Even pagans were oppressed.  It took six brutal years of war that ravaged a whole continent before this evil was ended.

So what has all this history to do with confronting Moloch?  Its very simple, in all three cases presented above an oppressive secular government has attempted or is attempting to wipe out any other locus of power.  These other sources of normative mores, I think that is the term, rebuke what the secular mandarins want to impose.  They deny the validity of this secular dogma.

Now we are seeing this secular dogma being attempted here in the United States.  Health and Human Services has issued a draconian ruling that will have drastic impact upon religious non-profits of all beliefs.  These non-profits have one year to comply with the demands of Moloch ... errr...  the Obama administration's diktats.  What are these demands?  These religious non-profits MUST offer as part of health insurance things they find morally offensive and evil.  A good example is RU-486 which is also called the Morning After Pill.  A woman will be prescribed these pills in order to kill off a possible fertilized zygote.

After the trials of Nuremberg and what happened at My Lai, soldiers are now expected to refuse unlawful orders.  What the Obama administration is demanding of religious non-profits is an unlawful order.  It is an attempt to impose secular state beliefs upon individuals.  What next, will Cesar Obama demand all offer burnt sacrifices at the altar of Obama as divine being?  That did not work well for Imperial Rome nor France after their revolution.

That the Obama administration is going ahead with this is the height of hubris and folly since the US Supreme Court just struck down 9-0 another attempt to subjugate the religious.  In that case, the Obama administration tried to tell religious ministries they could not discriminate in any form on whom is hired.  The Supreme Court firmly rejected this concept.  If this ruling had been allowed to stand then we could have seen a Buddhist temple compelled to hire a follower of Santaria.

So where do we go from here to stop this latest ploy?  Sen. Rubio(R-FL) has already introduced legislation that attempts to neuter this nefarious ploy.  Much must still be done.  A strong message has to be sent to Washington DC on how wrong this ruling from HHS is.  If we do not stand together for religious freedom as outlined in the US Constitution now, then we risk far more than all these non-profit hospitals shutting down.  We risk the total loss of liberty.  Either we hang together or we hang separately as Benjamin Franklin once said.

More Fast And Furious

The details of this ATF operation keep getting more sordid. As new details emerge, the thin veneer of this being a serious official investigation is getting thinner and thinner. I expect what little patina is left of the official line that this was an operation intended to track and identify supply lines of guns from the United States to Mexican drug cartels will dissolve.

For a decent summary of the Phoenix ATF and its Fast and Furious, Forbes has this lengthy article up. I disagree with Miniter that this is Obama's Watergate as I disagree that this is comparable to Iran-Contra. This operation is far worse in my opinion, since by deliberate acts by officials of the US government, thousands of weapons were allowed to slip into the hands of criminals who then proceeded to use these weapons to destabilize a friendly nation, murder civilians, and murder two agents of the US government itself. Watergate was a botched burglary while Iran-Contra had the strategic aim of rescuing American hostages and bringing down a hostile government in Nicaragua.

Even as Frank Miniter was writing that article for Forbes, events and new information was emerging to further damage the official explanation of Operation Fast and Furious. I consider the following information the most disturbing. Previously the information had indicated ATF had allowed weapons purchased by suspects to simply vanish and later appear at crime scenes on both sides of the border. Also ATF agent Camino has testified before Congress he had read the first part of Fast and Furious' case logbook and three times other ATF agents had left a stash house alone. What could be so disturbing than that? How about the head of the ATF unit responsible for Fast and Furious, Voth, authorizing another ATF agent, Dobson, to purchase weapons with government funds, sell those weapons to a suspect, and then deny Dobson's request to seize those weapons before they slipped across the border and vanish. I am not a lawyer but with these actions it seems the US government has gone from being a mere accessory to murder to an active participant in murder.

While these revelations have come out about what went on inside the ATF, another crack in the deniability armor has widened. Even after President Obama has been shown on video tape talking about operations aimed at curbing the weapons flow into Mexico, the White House and Sec. Holder of the Dept. of Justice have denied they knew anything of these operations. Until an email from ATF agent Newell that he sent to his friend O'Reilly in the White House emerged. Still the White House has denied that they knew any details on the operation. New emails between Newell and O'Reilly have emerged showing Newell supplied O'Reilly with a chart showing the flow of weapons into Mexico.

Naturally Rep. Issa and Sen. Grassley would like to interview Mr. O'Reilly who serves as one of President Obama's national security advisors, but Mr. O'Reilly is not available to the committee. He is out of the country, O'Reilly is presently in Iraq. How convienient this trip is. And how pathetic and desperate this attempt to keep O'Reilly and his testimony under wraps. Just a few years ago President Bush would have regular secure video-teleconferences with Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq. You mean to tell me that O'Reilly could not use the same facilities to answer questions from Iraq posed to him by Rep. Issa and Sen. Grassley?

There is another piece of new information contained inside that CBS report which opens another avenue of investigation for Rep. Issa and Sen. Grassley. It seems the Pheonix ATF office has been running another operation called Wide Receiver. One photo that is linked to that operation is not a .50 caliber rifle as Ms. Attkinson states, instead the picture shows an M-2/M-3 .50 caliber heavy machine gun. Which is a completely different animal than the likes of a Barret M-82 sniper rifle.

So there is still much to be discovered about all these various covert operations carried out under the aegis of the Obama administration. Obama and Holder can keep trying to deny any culpability in all these operations, but the evidence and Harry Truman's adage of 'The Buck Stops Here' points to the White House. An outraged Mexican government wants justice for the 200+ citizens murdered by these weapons. The families of Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata, all US citizens, want justice for their murdered family members. To prove the United States is still a nation of laws, justice has to be thorough and fair in this case since so many people whom citizens entrusted with great power are implicated. For those same people to try and deflect, obfuscate, or even deny will surly mean the end of this great experiment called the United States.

Who Benefits?

One of the big questions police ask when trying to solve a crime is who does the crime benefit? Does it benefit the victims of the lawyer who just scammed his clients? Or the scorned wife the one who killed the mistress? Very important question to ask.

I ask this question because Operation Fast&Furious has been touted by administration officials to have the objective of tracing guns sold in the US to higher ups in various Mexican criminal gangs. That is the alleged benefit Fast&Furious bestowed upon US law enforcement. What has been document proves how untrue this statement is.

Rep. Issa and Sen. Grassley's investigation has shown agents of the US federal government have allowed known felons to purchase multiple weapons. This is federal law that all FFL[Federal Firearms Licensees] are bound by if they want to sell guns, they will perform background checks on all who try to purchase weapons and if the person has a felony record then the sale is denied. To violate this law results in the FFL owner being prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law with a good chance to serve time. And it seems Fast and Furious short circuited this safety feature.

In violation of standard ATF procedures, many guns - including AK-47 clones, AR-15 clones, .50cal sniper rifles, pistols, and other firearms - that were part of this operation were allowed to cross the border into Mexico and arm drug cartels. Acting ATF station chief Mexico City Camino testified to reading part of the management log for Fast&Furious, on three separate occasions agents walked away from houses that stashed the suspect guns.

The ATF personnel in Mexico were deliberately kept in the dark about the full scope of Operation Fast&Furious. ATF Attache Darren Gil and his assistant Carlos Camino noticed a spike in seized arms that traced back to the Phoenix ATF office op called Fast&Furious. It has emerged that when ATF Mexico would run recovered gun serial numbers through e-Trace, if it was a Fast&Furious gun they would get zero information back. When the Mexican authorities ran serial numbers through e-Trace, they also got zero information if the weapon was connected to Fast&Furious. It turns out the agents managing Fast&Furious were telling the e-Trace people to not divulge information. Meanwhile Gil and Camino were voicing their concerns to Washington DC repeatedly and getting no substantive answer. In fact they were under the impression Fast&Furious was an op aimed at arresting FFL holders selling weapons illegally. When Gil asked for permission to pass information relating to these guns to Mexican officials, he was not allowed even though he had only an incomplete understanding. After the murder of Mario Gonzales Rodriguez at the hands of a drug cartel, Camino briefed Mario's sister and former Attorney General of Chihuahua of the Fast&Furious connection. What is telling is Camino told her out of a sense of duty, he wanted her to know the truth before the media told the world and he did it in spite of official silence from Washington DC.

Not only was ATF Mexico kept out of the information loop, parts of the ATF in Washington DC was also. Specifically the Office of Strategic Information and Intelligence[OSII]. Steve Martin of OSII has testified he conducted briefings where Fast&Furious was brought up. The large number of guns being found in Mexico that traced back to this operation was briefed. And he has also testified that OSII recommendations were ignored. Eventually OSII stopped bringing Fast&Furious up at briefings because they felt it had been covered and nothing was being done.

So in Mexico we had Darren Gil and Carlos Camino asking about when Fast&Furious was going to be shut down since they thought it was an FFL case. Steve Martin and others in OSII were asking about Fast&Furious. Southwest border czar Ray Crowley was asking what would be done. International Affairs Chief Daniel Kumor was also asking when Fast&Furious would be shut down. All were told Fast&Furious would be shut down soon, this was mid-2010. In fact Fast&Furious would not be shut down and any arrests made until the end of January 2011 and after the murder of agent Brian Terry in December 2010 at the hands of cartel members armed with Fast&Furious weapons.

If Fast&Furious had truly been aimed at tracing weapons further up the food chain than mere straw buyers, wouldn't it be advisable to tell Gil and Camino about it so they could brief the US Ambassador and their Mexican counterparts? Instead Mexico ATF was kept in the dark. So when Mexican forces, during the course of normal raids, turned up Fast&Furious weapons they had no idea what was going on. And when Fast&Furious case officers told e-Trace not to report weapon information to the Mexican government or to Mexico ATF, it further served to hide what the true scope of Fast&Furious was.

This darkness that cloaked this operation is very troubling. If this was truly such a straight forward operation to arrest illegal gun buyers then why was all the behind the scene manipulations allowed that stymied what should have been key players the knowledge they needed to assist the operation? What is emerging is a poorly thought out mission where no thought was given to unforeseen consequences.

Besides Mario and Brian, how many other people will die at the hands of weapons Fast&Furious let slip? The true total will not be known for years since over a thousand Fast&Furious weapons are still unaccounted for. And for every death these weapons cause, ATF Agents Terry English and Hope McAllister, who managed Fast&Furious, should be charged as accessories to murder. Same charge should be brought against anyone who knowingly assisted them or allowed Fast&Furious to continue even as the death toll in Mexico mounted. This corruption, this malfeasance, this violating of laws needs to be rooted out thoroughly - to prove our justice system still works and to assure our ally in the drug war Mexico that the United States is still trustworthy.

An Observation

So shall Obama sulk on his estates, nursing his wounded ego whilst the nation burns? The answer seems to be yes. He wants the government to shutdown instead of compromising. That is extortion and not leadership.

De Gall

Democrats in Congress have 'deemed' budgets to be passed under Pelosi's ruler ship. Democrats in the Senate refuse to submit any semblance of a budget. President Obama's budget this year vanished quicker than a cheeseburger in the White House. And now the House, Senate, and the President are at loggerheads over the national debt ceiling.

So how does our President handle this situation? First he demanded Republicans cave to his conditions of his mad spending is off-limits. When that failed, he tried the tactic he used against Bibi Netanyahu by storming out of a meeting with Rep. Cantor and others. So as we cruise to the first week of August when this nation is supposed to collide bloodily with its debt ceiling, Obama does things that further exacerbate how out of touch he is with a thing called reality and voter opinion.

First he is giving $900million of our tax money to Hamas in Gaza. The Hamas that just fired more rockets into Israel from Gaza. Next he is going to throw a birthday party for himself that will cost $35,800 per ticket. His birthday happens at the same time as the country hits the debt limit. They say timing is everything, in this case Obama's clock is way off as he watches the light reflect off the chandeliers and mirrors of Versailles.

Debt Ceiling Analogy

President Obama obviously broke away from another grueling game of golf to browbeat the citizens of the United States today. His objective for this presser? Why we must raise taxes and take more of your money even as energy prices and food prices rise. As Sec. of Energy Dr. Chu just said said about incadescent lightbulbs, he knows better than you on what to do with your money. First the President wants Congress to surrender to his demand to raise the US debt limit.

Raising the debt limit is not the catastrophic thing Obama and his bootlickers say. The debt limit is like the limit Norm has on his bar tab at Cheers. Keeping that limit prevents him from spending all his money on booze. Same with the debt limit. If it is not raised, then Norm Obama has to pay down his current bar tab before buying another beer. Put that way, I much prefer to keep the debt limit where it is. Don't you?

Monday News

First some really cool news for one very lucky Marine in Afghanistan. Mila Kunis has agreed to attend the Marine Corps Ball with the Marine. Semper Fi Marine! And a big thank you to Ms. Kunis.

The family of murdered US agent Brian Terry are now pondering civil lawsuits against those invovled in Operation Fast and Furious. First my condolences go out to this family who lost a loved one in such a tragic way. Keep letting your representatives in Congress know that the truth about this operation needs to come out. Closure and healing can not happen as long as there is even a whiff of cover-up. The guilty must be punished.

And for all those who worry about the Mayan calendar signalling the end of the world. Your Armageddon may get pre-empted later this year by Nibiru crashing into the Earth. If you beleive any of the listed doomsday scares in the linked article, can I sell you some land and food for cash now? Last month an asteroid 55ft in size, 2011 MD, passed far closer than that comet ever will. Still no sign of the 12th planet... maybe the legendary 12th Iman is on Nibiru? Inquiring minds do not care.

The Further Adventures of Captain Underpants

Ace over on Ace of Spades has been slogging and blogging on this story the whole long Memorial Day Weekend. Bascially Rep. Weiner has downgraded this malfunction of an eruption from being a hack to a prank, in fact he now wants all the media attention to go away. But it does not look like it will, when the LA Times produces an editorial stating Weiner's story smells fishy Weiner has trouble with a capital T and its not Twitter's fault.

A scandal has hit the mainstream with a few things occur. You get CNN interviewing you about it. O'Reilly says the FBI needs to investigate. And the likes of Amanda Marcotte try to make the innocent woman in Bellingham, WA the predator. And Weiner's wienertweet has gottan all three. To cap this major feat, someone subtitles the bunker scene from a Hitler movie about the scandal. And Weiner has arrived on this front also, behold the result -

Shutdown Bumper Sticker

To mark the possible shutdown of the federal government. And those deemed non-essential, something to assauge that feeling of abandonment. The bumper sticker version can be ordered through CafePress here at the Sufa Shop.