REFLECTIONS

Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –

In this issue:

1. Strategic 2. ObamaCare 3. NWA
4. Games 5. Solar 6. Data Dump

1. Strategic. As congressional democrats march like lemmings to the Holy Grail of nationalized health care, I worry that we conservatives are missing something big. Why would a party with such political smarts commit seeming political suicide by passing, sight unseen a 2,700+ page monstrosity last week? One answer may be that they are thinking strategically and we are thinking tactically. I ran across some commentary last week that described a FNC debate between conservative strategists and democrat strategists. The conservatives were focusing on the expected electoral carnage to be visited on the democrats in November. The democrat were extolling the virtues of what they had just perpetrated on an unwilling and enraged public. It was like they were in the same room speaking completely different languages. The democrats really believe in what they are doing. Dennis Prager described it as almost a religious fervor. And when things are faith-based, no amount of logic will turn those of the faith. The leftists have two other things going for them. One is that they still have the half trillion dollar slush fund left over from TARP and the stimulus to use to buy votes in November. The other thing they have is a belief that Obama’s policies are actually turning the economy around. They look at the artificially inflated stock market (the increase driven almost exclusively via federal dollars) as proof that the economy is turning around. And if the economy is better, they won’t get annihilated in November. On the other hand we conservatives believe that we have the truth on our side. We have an actual, measurable awful economy to contend with. We have a doubling of the national debt in just a couple years. We have nationalization of wide swaths of the formerly free market economy. We have massive taxes on the way this year with the passage ObamaCare and the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. We have legislation coming out of the democrat congress that changes everything; that nobody has read; and that is so complex and massive that nobody understands either the long term or short term implications. The big question for conservatives should they take control of congress this year is what do they do after they take over? How do they turn around the move toward a European socialist economic governmental model? Clearly the leftists don’t believe anyone will be able to undo what they have just done and will be celebrating the passage of this terrible legislation for the next year at least. One approach would be Jack Wheeler’s Double D strategy – defund and disobey. A new conservative majority in the House can simply defund each and every new Board, Commission, Administration, Department, person that has been set up to administer ObamaCare. They need to defund each and every federal judge that refuses to pull the plug on ACORN. They need to disappear the remaining TARP and stimulus slush funds. They need to shut down and privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Simply defund the left and their entire house of cards will fall apart. The left doesn’t think it is possible. It is time to prove them wrong.

2. ObamaCare. Harry Reid’s “manager’s amendment” ended up getting passed with a series of 60-40 cloture votes. The final vote was 60-39. The voting was straight party line. The legislation inflated to over 2,700 pages by the time it was passed. And given that the time between the introduction of the amendment and the first cloture vote was a mere 36 hours, nobody who voted on it had read the entire thing. I do expect that nobody inside the Beltway understands it either. Buried in the language was a passage that changed House and Senate rules, making any motion to change, repeal, defund or otherwise modify the legislation out of order. It remains to be seen whether this will stand with future congresses or not. Senator Coburn threw a monkey wrench into the wheels of progress by objecting to the appointment of senate members to a conference committee. This means that there will be no conference committee between the House and Senate on this, and there will be some yet to be determined number of ping pong bounces between the two houses of congress until it passes. There is still the outside chance that Pelosi will be able to ram this thing through the House and retain the same voting majority for passage. One of her Whips, James Clyburn (D, SC) started making noises last week about the lack of bribes and payoffs to house members for their votes. Expect the other house of the Parliament of Whores to step right up to the trough and gag down their bribes also. Given all of this, the WH started talking about delaying passage of the final bill until February. The longer it goes, the better it will be for all of us. The only drawback on any delay will be a delay in implementation of new taxation until after the November elections. This is not yet over.

3. NWA. A Nigerian-born Islamist tried to blow up a Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit Christmas Day. He tried to ignite the same sort of mixture that Abdul Raheem (Richard Reid) tried to use in 2001. A neighboring passenger saw smoke and the terrorist fiddling with something under his pants (which were pulled down). The passenger jumped him, pulled the explosive off him and subdued him in flight. The terrorist claimed to have training from Al Qaida in Yemen. Interestingly enough, this bozo had been reported by his father to both the British and American governments. The Brits refused him a visa to enter the country. That information never made it to the feds / DHS who were apparently too busy concocting new rules for harassing law abiding American passengers and new inflight rules. The new rules prohibit anyone from getting out of their seats the hour before landing. Perhaps they will supply piddle packs so people can take a leak while in their seats. Nobody is allowed to have anything on their laps during the last hour of flight. And of course, security here in the US was cranked up another notch as DHS is now patting down little old ladies and people in wheelchairs. It is long past time to start profiling terrorists. Perhaps it is also time to start running all Muslims through the wringer and leave the rest of us alone. Amsterdam does not do the same level of security as we do here in the US. We also have the continuing example of El Al Airlines in Israel for hot to do this correctly. DHS is a joke, as are inflight rules and new screening procedures. Why do we all have to suffer when the feds aren’t doing their jobs properly?

4. Games. Glen Reynolds in InstaPundit Friday noted that the game manufacturers are stepping into the breach left by Hollywood’s refusal to make positive movies about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Hollywood leftists left the playing field wide open by making movies hostile to both wars and incredibly hostile to the people who are volunteering to fight them. The game manufacturers are not so limited in their imagination, and are producing very military and mission friendly games. They are selling a bunch of them also. Congratulations to the game manufacturers.

5. Solar. DiFi (Dianne Feinstein, D, CA) continues the leftist NIMBY opposition to renewable energy by last week introducing legislation intended to turn over a million acres of the Mohave desert into a pair of national monuments. Both parcels of land had been eyed by developers for large solar and wind electric projects. They had also been adopted by all the usual suspects in local environmental organizations as the last this, best that, only some of this other, and must be absolutely protected from development. Given her opposition to the projects and the opposition of the greens to both projects, the developers have effectively dropped their plans. All the opposition green groups were suitably pleased with the success of their obstruction. NYT, Tues.

6. Data Dump. The British Met Office has been under pressure to release the original temperature data so that all researchers could have the opportunity to reproduce their scientific results. On Christmas Eve, they did a data dump, claiming to successfully meet the Freedom of Information Act requirements. As the skeptics started sorting through the data, it became quickly apparent that the data dump was boob bait for bozos, containing no raw data. Everything appeared to be the product of the Climate Research Unit (CRU) data manipulation processes. At this time, it looks like the Met is fully in bed with the CRU scientists and are doing their level best to continue the cover up. Watts Up With That, Thurs.

More later — AG

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.

Note: Interesting Items can be found also at the following locations: MatSu Valley News and the home page. Rod Martin’s The Vanguard site is also a long-time supporter of this column. Alex Gimarc is a long-time member of the Town Hall Conservative group.