Sword and Sextant

With our money we don’t have, of course. Lets get to the juicy shit!

The government’s plans include giving stakes in the new company to GM’s union and bondholders, although the ownership structure of the company is still being negotiated, said the source who is familiar with the company’s plans.

Huh, the unions get a piece. Weird, huh? Despite seeing this coming, I wonder what kind of Commie nonsense runs in Obama’s head when he thinks the workers, whose representative group helped prevent any profitability of GM in the first place, deserve an ownership stake. Its all the workers’, right? AMIRITE?

Next:

In addition, the government would extend a credit line to the new company and forgive the bulk of the $15.4 billion in emergency loans that the U.S. has already provided to GM, the source said.

So basically, we (the taxpayers) are fucked out of the bulk of $15.4B dollars. Not only that, but they can get more loans, under the guise of a line of credit! Is it any wonder that Obama wasn’t a CEO before being President? Something tells me that Transformationally Post-Profit Industries is an inevitability when he’s finished remaking our country.

Just getting warmed up:

The government has given GM until June 1 to restructure its operations to lower its debt burden and employee costs.

How in the hell do you cut employee costs when restructuring the union contract has been avoided at all costs? What is there to cut when everything is itemized, and categorically unworkable? How will they lower the debt burden in the face of new CAFE standards that force them to sell more expensive cars in an effing recession, and under great fiscal duress? Our President has the business sense of a dictator sometimes, in that he just does shit, knowing he’s got the power, regardless of the impact. He wants it that way, damn the consequences to the little people.

I’m on record doubting that Obama will ever relinquish the US gov’t stake in the banks, and I feel similarly about GM. He’s just getting a taste of industrial control, and total control is the cocaine of liberals in power, in my fabulous opinion. I’m not very excited to see where this money is coming from, and I’m afraid I know the answer.

Our taxes are going up, or our debt is going to just keep threatening the future of this nation, and hang over the heads of our children, eventually injuring the country. A while back, Obama, whilst fear-mongering for his stimulus package, said we may never recover from the financial crisis unless we do as he says. Turns out, we may never get out of this crypto-nationalist crisis because of the One.

I will personally congratulate myself for seeing this about 1.5 years ago. Here’s a bit of groundwork for our inevitable tax hikes.

Oh shit, you mean we can’t just keep spending like this without bringing in money? WTF, I thought that would go off without a hitch. Just kidding, the President knew this was coming for as long as I did.

This is the classic hedge. So, after promising a tax cut for 95% of citizens, here come the inevitable tax increases. Don’t believe me? Just frigging wait it out. He won’t get tagged for this dishonesty, as the MSM loves everything he does, and his election was historic (Yes, I’m referencing exactly what you think I am.)

Since I understand a bit of Obama math from previous numerical snafus from the Fearministration, lets see if I can nail this one on the head. Obama will cut taxes, or claim he already did (Making Work Pay was a $400 tax cut of sorts), but then jack them up, all the while papering over the net increase. Its quite similar to the cut $18B, but ask for $85B in spending, followed by the requisite crowing over being such a budget slasher.

Its like playing chess with the chess dragon. Even if you win, he eats you, so you lose. Knowing exactly what Obama is gonna do still results in higher taxes and I lose.

When I was a young child, I had instilled within me the concept of American Exceptionalism. It meant that our country was freer, richer, stronger, and giving. When the chips were down and the world was at the brink of disaster, the Americans could show up and save the day at all costs. When Germany countrolled most of Europe, slaughtered Jews wherever it went, and threatened to extinguish the rich traditions of its centuries-old neighbors, America stormed the beaches and overthrew North Africa, blew up 1/4 of Japan in two bombs, and stormed Berlin to deliver us from evil. When the USSR began building its borders and infiltrating sovereign neighbors with Communism at gunpoint, and posted nuclear warheads in Cuba, we faced them down by other means, and crushed their despotic economic model. We were the heroes of the world, and our lives meant something special.

I was taught that it was better to make five dollars raking the yard than it was to get 10 dollars from Mom. I was taught that we had more than others because Dad didn’t come home until 7 at night, and he was so exhausted that some days he’d just go to bed. I was taught that no one ever achieved the American Dream working only 40 hours a week.

Instilled within me is the spirit of individualism, and from it flows my life. I converse with others who feel similarly about their responsibility for their own actions. I sit in wonder of my grandfather, who came from abject poverty in a broken home to run the biggest inland military manufacturing plant in America for 20 years. I revel in stories of making it on your own, without handouts and charity. I bask in the glow of the quiet dignity of earning one’s own keep, meager or otherwise, and having the freedom to utilize my bounty as I see fit.

I am worried, though, that my fellow citizens were not blessed with my upbringing. There is an old quote from a Scottish politician that a republic can exist until the people realize they can raid the treasury for personal benefit. As such, they will vote in those who promise the greatest spoils from their nation, until the money is no longer present. Our nation is doing that right now. In a non-coincidental fashion, KFC is a perfect case study of this.

Last week, KFC piloted their Kentucky Grilled Chicken product, and offered a coupon for one free meal to try it out. The result was nigh-armageddon, as lines blocks long clogged roads and demand closed several stores before the company Yum! Brands finally reneged on the coupon. Lord, save us. The promise of ONE free meal drove thousands to clog drivethrus all over the nation for the savings of about $4.50 plus tax? The draw of one handout is enough to cause such furor? Who pulled into a line 15 cars long and decided they had time to get ONE free meal at a fast food restaurant? Thousands of today’s Americans did, that’s who.

These are the same Americans that demand services from their own Government that they were never meant to get in to. Healthcare? You want lawyers determining whether you should go to the doctor or not? Welfare? You want appointed officials to give you money for nothing at the expense of your fellow working man? Where is your dignity? Auctioned off to your providers, no doubt.

Our corporations lack immunity to the spectre of helplessness, as well. When the going gets tough, they don’t restructure or close down shop to try again, as we’re taught to as children. Nay, they whine to the Feds, who are all too happy to gain more power and influence in their malignant fashion. The government concocts a tall tale about being too big to fail, and they send billions to these banks and businesses, with strings attached, and nothing of merit changes, including their further need for cash in the near future. The Gov’t now controls parts of our private industry, and the economy suffers as zombie businesses inflict failed practices on the populace for a bit longer. Now, the banks, supposedly cured, realize their cure contained a strain of a far worse disease, in federal control. Everybody loses, except the gov’t, which can’t lose.

As we open the doors of our lives to our federal saviors, we slowly lose our individualism. You may smoke, but not inside of ANY building, including those you own. Property rights are a little yesterday these days, aren’t they? You may drive a car, but you’ll miss the tax break unless you get the hybrid with 150 less horses under the hood. The economic disadvantage is akin to a tax hike compared to your more environmentally inclined brethren. The government, each day, finds new ways to tax behavior they deem unnecessary or unhelpful to their worldview and they rob us freedom of action each day.

I don’t fault the gov’t for this, but the people. Their learned helplessness is a brilliant display of the most despicable aspects of the human character, and its much harder to cure than to dive deeper into. My fellow Americans look to their federal angels a little more each day. Problem is, the day will come when there is nothing left. European countries, centuries ahead of us in this trade of ease of living for freedom, are running out of money. Eventually there will be none left for them to spend. And then what? The answer is all over the history books, and its revolution. Can we get our people thinking about taking care of themselves again, or are we headed for the 1984 scenario, in which Big Brother provides all things, including a brutal police force to keep you in line. People actually get arrested now for questioning gay adoption privately in the UK, so we’re not as far as you think.

At the end, its not about politics or worldview, but a belief that you are responsible for yourself. You are the keeper of your own fortunes and losses. A vote for Obama donated many of your liberties to the state. Lets hope a different vote will someday return them to us.

There is condensation, and a shred of actual good judgment.

Here’s the deal on the prisoner abuse photos being blocked.

Here’s a story on infinite detention, which is just another reality of holding the most dangerous murderers in the world.

I will first congratulate Obama for moving in this direction, as it is the correct direction. I am determined to never appear as those Bush-haters who just couldn’t even admit the most minor good things about the man. This is a good pair of policy shifts, and he deserves credit for having the fortitude to fight off the crazies this will enrage, and the beginnings of backing away from the prosecute Bush thing, which I believe is coming.

Its a great thing when the great heights of utopian partisanship meet the fact that you can’t release the best criminals in the last 40 years once you have them, much less treat them as citizens. The only remaining disappointment will come when Obama runs the ship in lockstep with GWB, but receives no adverse coverage for it.

Check this out. 9% increase in domestic/4% increase in defense. Nothing new here. Obama wants to spend way more than ever before, even atop his stimulus.

Let’s look at two sentences that illustrate how big of a lie this whole “savings” push is:

The administration is proposing saving $91 million by eliminating funding for plans to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

And…

The budget plan requests $197 million to explore other options for disposing of the material.

Alright, so really no savings whatsoever. Actually, its a request for about $100M more! Our President is lying right to us. He wants to come off as a budget hawk for political points, but he’s only asking for $17B in savings, whereas Bush asked for $34B last year with a much smaller budget, and he’s the one being ridiculed as the creator of the deficit that Obama inherited (despite the fact that he voted for Bush’s budgets each time).

There is no defense for this cloak and dagger misinformation to the public. I wonder, will any media outlet have the nuts to call this out? Will any liberal provide a rationale for this below-board presentation by the One?

As the punditocracy and liberal media cheer what they misinterpret as the death of conservatism, its useful to remind them what it is they know that they despise, most likely because it is beyond their comprehension.

Hannity is not the voice of my conservatism, as the entire movement is based on individualism. Same goes for Rush, Levin, and Beck. I’ll say that I was quite disgusted with a recent monologue where Sean said “If this… you aren’t a conservative.” Problem is, it was about 12 items long.

The entire state of mind boils down to a few things. Pay attention, now.

1. Respect for individual rights.
This entails keeping the government away from your life, but allowing it to enforce the law. It also leaves those who refuse to do their daily work to rot. It means a meritocracy, where the Kennedy’s could never happen, but where any man can rise up to greatness. You are the sum of your skills and work ethic.

2. Respect for capitalism.
This entails allowing the wants and needs of people to drive the economy, according to their free action. Again, laws are enforced to prevent corruption and cheating, but otherwise you may spend all your money on circus peanuts or retirement. Keeping the government away from this area is paramount to maintaining American life.

3. Staunch belief in accountability.
If you make riches, you bathe in the glow of your success. If you make a mess or break a law, you go down in flames. Its not just the American way, its the only way to happiness. Its why GOP scandal-causers get shooed from office immediately. You get punished for mistakes, regardless of whether you own up to them or not.

I will now give systemic examples of liberalism violating each of these tenets. Pencils up.

1. The government has allowed entitlement programs from liberals to create an underclass of society that lives in the shadows of liberalism. Under the streaming utopia they paint lies poverty-stricken, generational leeches that have been taught to suck at the teat, but not to milk a cow. Liberalism has destroyed the drive and ingenuity of these citizens, and offers not a chance to escape the cycle, but only richer payouts in return for votes. They have dehumanized these people, and they never speak of it.

2. The Obama administration has nationalized the banking system right out from under us. Even though they caused the financial crisis (the Guvamint and Obama, as he personally sued Citibank using the Community Reinvestment Act of 1979), they now feel as if the people who have shepherded the greatest economy in history are no longer qualified to do so, and that lawyers are the best bet for the job. They also now rob money from private equity firms, despite federal law that is upheld by the courts.

3. This is the easiest. Ted Kennedy is on the Senate. Robert Byrd is in the Senate. Bill Clinton was President for 8 years. JFK was President for a time. No one bats an eye. Barney Frank was caught having relations with an intern. William Jefferson was found with 500K in a deep freeze. Harry Reid is on tape accepting a bribe. Chris Dodd is embroiled in an insurance scandal that is not being covered in the least. John Edwards had a mistress he funneled campaign money to while his wife was battling cancer. Obama is connected to known terrorists and hate preachers. These people are not only unpunished, but lionized as the leaders of modern liberalism (excepting JFK, but he’s remembered for being ultracool, and not for being a shameless adulterer).

There you go. Tip your waitresses.

Gag me with a rolled-up Constitution. Not like we use the damn thing anymore, anyway.

Why on Earth are we prepared to let some other country decide whether OUR citizens are criminals? Why on Earth is our current fearministration claiming to want to look forward whilst letting the wheels turn on the most childish, fiercely partisan political reprisal in history, despite their own damn party leaders signing off on the “crimes” for years on end? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

John Bolton, one of the clearest voices on foreign policy in over a decade, has a few sage words for us to all consider:

The question here is not whether one agrees or disagrees with the advice the lawyers gave, or with their superiors’ operative decisions concerning interrogation techniques. Nor is it even whether one believes our Justice Department should launch criminal investigations into their actions. (I believe strongly that criminalizing policy disagreements is both inappropriate and destructive.)

(Emphasis mine.)

So, two things:

1) Disagreeing with a war/policy is now grounds for retroactive criminal hearings, despite Congressional approval at every turn, regardless of what they ever said. The budgets and votes continually passed both houses.

2) AG Holder is apparently going to allow Spain to tell us whether or not our own foreign policy is merited 6 six years after the fact. Why is Europe determined to destabilize the entire world every time someone pays a huge price for keeping the world from upheaval by whatever barbarians knock on the door?

(From disarmaments to the Non-Proliferation Treaty to the UN, Europe just loves to stuff every advantage they have over evil forces in the shitter whenever they can. What is the goddamn point of building defenses from those who would kill or enslave us if they’re just going to remove the deterrent forces once the sun shines again? This IS the parable of the grasshopper and ant in real life. While the Euro-grasshoppers dance and play in peace, the ants are building the safety nets, and trapping any threats. The grasshoppers now find out we had to kill some spiders to keep their playtime safe, and they’re going to throw their keepers in jail. When the next plague of locusts comes, though, the Churchills, FDRs, and GWBs of the world will be disgraced in jail. I’d say good luck when that happens, but the ants will always dutifully return and save the day at great cost to all, only to be stared down once more when the sun comes out. This has become the price of vigilance, apparently.)

Interesting and ironic that Spain is thinking about this. Of course, Spain got hit by a terrorist attack a few years back, while the US, piloted by the most hideous goblin President of all time, enjoyed peace on their borders. Even bullies understand use of force, but liberals in Europe, and those here cannot. Shoot and imprison the bad guys, and they are powerless. Simple.

If you have the flexible mind to comprehend such parallels, read through “The Gathering Storm” by Winston Churchill. Letting the Germans rearm has eerie familiarity with letting terrorists get a foothold in the world under the guise of their peaceful religion. (Of course, they follow one of the batshit crazy versions of Islam whose parallels in Christianity are continually laughed at and marginalized (rightly so) on television and print here in America, unless they are dangerous. In that case, we eradicate them, Waco-style. Waco didn’t go well, but that group needed to be stopped, in any case. Let us similarly stop the terrorists.)