Tag Archives: culture

A Longer View

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Some of what Ben Domenech had to say at Real Clear Politics:

The sudden deluge of scandal which dominates the discussion around President Obama’s administration at the moment has handed a golden opportunity to Republicans.  Yet if they aren’t careful, they’ll squander this opening completely by allowing their intense dislike of the president to cloud their judgment, missing the broader political lessons for the sake of personal point scoring.

And

Here’s the hard thing Republicans have to do if they don’t want this crisis to go to waste: they have to ignore their id….  They must willfully set aside Obama’s presence in the fray…and go after the much bigger prize.  Obama isn’t running for office again.  Liberalism is….  Making this about the inherent falsehood of the progressive project will help conservatism win.   …these scandals cut at the core conceit of Obama’s ideology: the healthy and enduring confidence of big government to be good government.

Given Republicans’ demonstrated skills these last several decades, most recently with the fiscal cliff “negotiations,” though, I’m not sanguine that they can set aside their id, much less glimpse the long view.

Of What Are They Afraid?

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British PM David Cameron, in another step in his push to give the British people a vote on their continued membership in the EU, has

given his Conservative Party’s backing to a draft bill that would commit the UK to holding an EU referendum by the end of 2017[.]

Of course many of his governing coalition partners oppose this bill—they not only want continued membership in the EU, they want the matter closed without the people’s further input.

Opposition cronies also oppose the thought of acknowledging the people’s view—and the primacy of that view—in the matter, fearing the referendum might actually come out in favor of leaving the EU.  One such crony, John Cridland of something called the Confederation of British Industry, insists

For those of us in the business world, it feels like a diversion from what we should be doing in Europe, which is restoring growth, through trade deals, and championing the reforms that we want to see….

Europe is more important than Great Britain?  What “reforms” does Cridland seriously think he’s going to get through the EU?  Why not focus on helping Great Britain first?

The EU, in fact, is doing nothing serious for Great Britain; it does, in the larger picture, endanger British fiscal soundness with the EU’s own continued demand for bailouts of spendthrifts (which only condones that irresponsibility).

Of what are the opponents of the British voice so afraid?  Or is it simply that the people shouldn’t be allowed waste government resources on making a choice that their Betters already have made for them?

The Morality of the Left, Redux

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Via Peter Baker of The New York Times, comes this…gem.  Baker quotes David Axelrod, long-time senior advisor to President Barack Advisor and heavy-hitting campaign supporter in 2012, as saying this:

[T]he reality is that while you want to be truthful, you want to be straightforward, you also want to be practical about whatever you’re saying.

So, the plain, unvarnished truth isn’t practical, is that it?

Just a Bunch of Low-Rent Chicago Hoods

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Here’s a short list:

  • Fast and Furious and Attorney General Eric Holder’s steadfast refusal to cooperate with Congress’ investigation of this crime
  • Department of Energy’s use of taxpayer money to loan millions to cronies at Solyndra, Fisk, A123, et al
  • President Barack Obama’s initial attempts to downplay the IRS’ politically targeting government-disfavored groups and men by holding up their tax-exempt applications and/or singling them out for “investigation:” “If the reported actions are true,” he said on the heels of the IRS admitting it had done these things and issued their faux apology
  • Obama’s “firing” of acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller by allowing him to resign: Miller was resigning anyway in a couple of weeks, and he’s being allowed to stay on for a couple of weeks
  • For all that, IRS continues to collect tax data by trolling taxpayers’ digital activities, scraping eBay auctions, Facebook posts, and, for the first time ever, credit card and e-payment transaction records.
  • Obama’s dissembling about events surrounding Benghazi and the terrorist murders of our Ambassador and three others, including lies to the press, through Carney’s mouth, about “a single” talking point edit
    • the “penultimate point” from original talking points:
      • The Agency has produced numerous pieces on the threat of extremists linked to al-Qaeda in Benghazi and eastern Libya. These noted that, since April, there have been at least five other attacks against foreign interests in Benghazi by unidentified assailants, including the June attack against the British Ambassador’s convoy. We cannot rule out that individuals had previously surveilled the US facilities, also contributing to the efficacy of the attacks
    • State spokeswoman Victoria Nuland’s concern:
      • …the penultimate point could be abused by Members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to Agency warnings so why do we want to feed that either?
    • White House’s David Adams’ concurrence with Nuland:
      • I’m with Toria [Victoria]. The last bullet especially will read to members like we had been repeatedly warned
  • Obama’s politicizing the outcomes of the Benghazi and IRS failures, then claiming that it was the Republicans who were politicizing them by seeking the facts of these matters
  • DoJ’s secret seizure of AP phone records, which included those for phone lines in the House of Representatives press gallery—which means phone records of Congressmen talking with the press via telephone were included: DoJ was collecting communications records on Congressmen, too
  • HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius pushing, among other organizations, insurance companies (which she regulates) to contribute private monies to help make up the shortfall in government funding of the government’s insurance exchanges
  • Obama, et al., claiming that Republican budget cuts caused the Benghazi security failures, even though Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charlene Lamb testified under oath before Congress that budgetary considerations were not a factor in her decision not to beef up Benghazi security
  • More than 2,200 illegal immigrants, over 600 of which had criminal records,  released earlier this year by DHS’ ICE, using the sequester as the excuse, and the release kept hidden from Congress for months until threat of subpoena

And Obama is the leader.