Whatever Happened To The Promises?

It seems the crackdown the Feds are doing on medical marijuana dispensaries is none too popular among Democrat voters.

Medical marijuana advocates have reacted angrily to reports of the Obama administration threatening dispensaries, including some in the Bay Area. California voters passed a medical marijuana law in 1996, and many people use the drug to help ease pain related to HIV and AIDS and other illnesses.

But in recent weeks, federal prosecutors have announced broad prosecutions against medical marijuana dispensaries across California, reportedly threatening landlords with eviction, property seizures, and imprisonment.

That sort of action in a state where medical marijuana is legal is leading even California politicians to protest.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano and state Senator Mark Leno, both out gay Democrats from San Francisco, held a press conference Wednesday, October 19, to call for an end to the federal crackdown.

In a recent statement, Ammiano said the Department of Justice's stance means "a tragic return to failed policies that will cost the state millions in tax revenue and harm countless lives."

He continued, "Whatever happened to the promises [Obama] made on the campaign trail to not prosecute medical marijuana or the 2009 DOJ memo saying that states with medical marijuana laws would not be prosecuted? Change we can believe in? Instead we get more of the same.

It is too bad most Republican politicians are too stupid to capitalize on this discontent. Well not too stupid in their minds. Cracking down on people using the wrong kind of plants for medicine make perfect sense if it keeps even one person from abusing pot. Especially if the pain, suffering, and premature deaths caused by the denial of medicine are not assigned to their actions. It is how politicians traditionally get away with murder.

H/T Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Ray Stevens On The President

Hilarious.

H/T Patriot Action Network

Cross Posted at Classical Values

We Know Nothing

Democrats in the House are having trouble getting ∅ to articulate a plan that he promised them in June would be ready by September.

The lawmakers — encouraged by Obama's mention of mortgage relief in his address to Congress last week — were quickly deflated just days later when their efforts to learn the details of the White House plan proved unsuccessful.

"The administration has been AWOL on this issue," charged Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.), "and the American people are suffering because of the mismanagement."

"In my entire political career, I've never seen anything this irresponsible," he added.

Me either. But to expect a socialist to come up with a plan to fix the problems caused by socialism is expecting a bit much. Especially with the House being currently majority Republican.

The Keys To The Next Election

Cynthia Yockey has some thoughts on why Obama will win the election in 2012.

Last week Allan Lichtman, a professor at American University, renewed his 2010 prediction that Obama will win in 2012. Prof. Lichtman developed a system of 13 keys to winning the presidential election in 1981 that has correctly predicted the winner of the last seven elections. According to Prof. Lichtman, only six keys are needed to win and Obama has nine...

She follows that with the following point.

I think the Left is correct in asserting that the social conservative agenda is identical to a promise to impose theocracy. The inability of the Right to see the totalitarian nature of social conservatism when it is a political agenda to use government force where persuasion has failed mirrors the inability of idealistic Leftists to grasp that you can’t have free markets (aka capitalism) and socialism at the same time because there is no correct way to have a socialist planned economy that isn’t immediately both totalitarian and corrupt.

She got that right.

Go read the whole thing because there is way more of interest.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Another Rube Self Identifies

David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun says:

Viewing him now on TV in his promise-not-realized persona made me both sad for what might have been and angry for letting myself believe in the TV imagery of a night in Grant Park in November.

Knowing something about shared memory and the way the national psyche intersects with media, I believe millions of viewers like me unconsciously associate the Obama they now see on TV spinning and dodging and looking like a worried man with the giant they thought they saw in 2008 -- the one we kept comparing to Roosevelt, Kennedy and Reagan as great media presidents.

I admit I thought he was a going to be a great TV president -- in fact, the last great TV president, the book end to JFK, given the way media were headed.

But I now know I was looking at neither greatness nor the end of the TV Era.

Almost enough to make you cry. Almost. Except I saw all this coming (look back over my election coverage in 2008). As the title says: Another Rube Self Identifies.

Of course he fails to identify the core problem. His belief in socialism. I'm referring to the reporter of course. ∅bama I already knew about.

You will always have the rubes among you.

Which is why we will always have con men among us. Predator. Prey. Oddly I prefer to be neither.

True Blue

Cenk Uygur is complaining about Obama's political strategy. The essence of his complaint is that Obama has none and that there is no point in waiting for one.

We're holding our collective breath in vain.

If you will hold it a little longer you can prove you are true blue.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Asleep At The Wheel

Why will America come back before too long? Because it appears to be the only country in the world asking the most important question of the day.

The truly fundamental question that is at the heart of the disaster toward which we are racing is being debated only in America: is it possible for a free market economy to support a democratic socialist society? On this side of the Atlantic, the model of a national welfare system with comprehensive entitlements, which is paid for by the wealth created through capitalist endeavour, has been accepted (even by parties of the centre-Right) as the essence of post-war political enlightenment.

This was the heaven on earth for which liberal democracy had been striving: a system of wealth redistribution that was merciful but not Marxist, and a guarantee of lifelong economic and social security for everyone that did not involve totalitarian government. This was the ideal the European Union was designed to entrench. It was the dream of Blairism, which adopted it as a replacement for the state socialism of Old Labour. And it is the aspiration of President Obama and his liberal Democrats, who want the United States to become a European-style social democracy.

But the US has a very different historical experience from European countries, with their accretions of national remorse and class guilt: it has a far stronger and more resilient belief in the moral value of liberty and the dangers of state power.

One thing to keep in mind kids. Don't get cocky. There is a LOT of Trash hauling still to be done.

Palin Tweet

According to Sarah Palin Information (not an official Palin site), Sarah tweeted this video:

I’ll be talking about this and more on September 3rd. http://fb.me/129u9eYLN

I think she is in.

You can find further links at the Sarah Palin Information site link above.

BTW thanks to Frank a commenter at Classical Values who was asking me if I thought Palin would run.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Throwing The Election

In Christophobia I discussed how making the Republican 2012 Campaign for President a religious crusade could be a disaster.

I gave the example of an election campaign for Federal Senator run on that basis. I looked at the numbers in Obama/Keyes vs Kerry/Bush and found that Keyes lost almost 60% of the votes of his own party.

Now I'm wondering if this isn't an intentional strategy to throw the election to Obama?

If only the Republicans would stick to Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally limited government and Free Markets. Speaking of the Constitution, did anyone notice a Drug Prohibition Amendment?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Christophobia

So I'm having the usual discussion with a Socon and he accuses me of not liking Jesus.

M. Simon, your post attacking me makes you sound like a “Christophobe.” Your logic shows your contempt for Christianity and distrust of us Christians.

You got me. It was caused by me being FORCED in public school to attend Christian assemblies. In public schools that were at least half Jewish. We never had a Jewish assembly.

So Christian outreach reached me. The results could have been predicted although they may not have been desired.

I no longer dislike Christians as a group. Just those trying to ram their faith down my throat. I have my own faith. Thank you very much.

====

The cycle goes like this: The Ds get in and wreck the country. The electorate gives the Rs a shot. At first they attend to fixing most of the problems that the Ds caused. When they have that in hand they decide that what the country really needs is God. Their version of God. And the electorate rejects the Rs and we are back in a different kind of misery.

Moral socialism begets economic socialism.

And the Rs are too stupid to see this. Mostly.

“If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.” – Ronald Reagan

===

Here is what you are up against if Republicans make faith central to the coming election campaign:

Obama/Keyes vs Kerry/Bush

Keyes lost about 60% of the votes of HIS OWN PARTY. Not an election winning strategy.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Doing Well In Business

If you want to do well in business have a friend in government. Evidently Exxon-Mobil is short of friends.

Unfortunately, Exxon has discovered firsthand what it’s like to deal with what Investors Business Daily calls “regulatory pirates” in the Gulf of Mexico:

ExxonMobil, and its Norwegian partner Statoil made the biggest discovery of all — a field worth a billion barrels of oil — 7,000 feet below sea level in its “Julia” field in 2007.

Exxon tried to keep its discovery secret to keep marauders away. Sadly, the pirates in this instance are U.S. regulators — and their aim is to stop them.

That’s right: Instead of marvel at the continuing treasures of the New World, or hail the human ingenuity that made retrieval of so much oil possible, or simply quantify how this discovery will boost U.S. energy security, Interior Department bureaucrats moved instead to snatch Exxon’s permits and shut the whole thing down.

They may not have paid enough to the right party.

Here is a group that paid plenty and is unhappy with their ROI (yes it is a pun using a foreign language - the nominal meaning is Return On Investment)

Let’s see. Obama has lost Wall Street, the progressive grassroots, and even a few unions. Now it looks like another funding source for his re-election bid might fade as well — high-tech Silicon Valley. Politico reports that the innovation center once celebrated the fact that they had backed a President who uses a Blackberry, but now think he’s just another middle-aged man with some ubiquitous personal technology...

Let us not forget that he is a middle-aged BLACK man. That still counts for something. Not as much as it used to. In any case if you make efforts to strangle the electrical supply - which the boys in the valley totally depend on to make their products and make them useful - people interested generally take notice. Making oil more expensive isn't helping either.

Go to the "paid plenty" article for a multitude of links.

How The Government Works

The Congress (the House actually) authorizes spending. The President (effectively) signs the checks. The Social Security checks. And yes the money is there. It is in all those certificates in the Social Security Lock Box. He could start cashing those. If you don't get a Social Security check next month it is because the President decided you weren't worth the money. Or he wants you screaming at him.

I propose you start the screaming early.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Pelosi Power

Nancy Pelosi who currently has no effective power in the House of Representatives is planning on exercising her power to prevent a balanced budget.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has so far played a minor, background role in the negotiations between President Obama and congressional Republicans over raising the debt ceiling. But she sought to change all that Friday, in a private meeting with Obama to drive home her earlier pledge to oppose any deal that cuts the nation's entitlement programs.

I doubt she has the power to sustain her desires. Looming even bigger is the fact that the nation lacks the resources to sustain her desires. So far Congress has been unable to repeal the law of Supply and Demand. I predict they will do no better with gravity. Congress does have a bit of expertise in this area that is unsurpassed though. The Critters involved know how to increase friction. Very handy if you want to slow things down.

Blue D Hell (say it fast)

The title was inspired by the picture at this posting: [Fill In Blank] Industry Furious At Obama by my friend Ed Driscoll.

Daley: Obama Policies ‘indefensible’

I try to keep up. Really I do. But I missed Bill Daley, White House Chief of Staff, basically saying that the White House was clueless on economics. This report was from 17 June.

White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley took heat from business executives Thursday for the Obama administration’s regulatory expansions. Daley also said he didn’t have any good answers for some of what President Obama is doing and expressed frustration about the “bureaucratic stuff that’s hard to defend.”

“Sometimes you can’t defend the indefensible,” Daley said at a National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) meeting.

Daley couldn’t answer basic questions and continually faced criticism from the executives in the room. The business leaders even applauded each other’s criticism of the administration. “At one point, the room erupted in applause when Massachusetts utility executive Doug Starrett, his voice shaking with emotion, accused the administration of blocking construction on one of his facilities to protect fish, saying government ‘throws sand into the gears of progress,’” wrote Peter Wallsten and Jia Lynn Yang in the Washington Post.

You have to read the whole thing. It is scathing. And I would not have known a thing about it had I not visited Ulsterman for updates.

When Daley, as the current Obama White House Chief of Staff came out publicly and declared there were policies initiated by the administration that were indefensible, that was just stunning. That story is being so under-reported. The White House Chief of Staff is calling President Obama indefensible. That is exactly what that was. And has there been any retraction? No. Did the president demand clarification? No. Daley said it and Daley was left untouched. It was an incredible power play on his part, the implications of which I don’t know at this point, but I do intend to find out.

Yeah. It was under reported. So I decided to have a look around and report it. We shall see if the story gets legs. Because right now it doesn't have any.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Howard Dean: Palin Is An Obama Beater

This is some news. Howard Dean says Palin can beat Obama. And not just when it comes to making news.

Dean says his fellow Democrats should beware of inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom that Obama would crush Palin in a general-election contest next year.

“I think she could win,” Dean told The Hill in an interview Friday. “She wouldn’t be my first choice if I were a Republican but I think she could win.”

Dean warns the sluggish economy could have more of a political impact than many Washington strategists and pundits assume.

“Any time you have a contest — particularly when unemployment is as high as it is — nobody gets a walkover,” Dean said. “Whoever the Republicans nominate, including people like Sarah Palin, whom the inside-the-Beltway crowd dismisses — my view is if you get the nomination of a major party, you can win the presidency, I don’t care what people write about you inside the Beltway,” Dean said.

Yep. Just about anybody could beat Obama.

So the question is: who will the Rs nominate? At this point in time my money is on Palin. I think the TEAs will break very favorably towards her once she announces. Once the TEAs have a candidate it is all over for the rest of the field.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Looting Has Begun

What does social breakdown look like? Spengler has a few thoughts about Egypt.

From Arab-language online media, it appears that Egypt's economic troubles have metastasized. Last month, rice disappeared from public storehouses amid press reports that official food distribution organizations were selling the grain by the container on the overseas market. Last week, diesel fuel was the scarce commodity, with 24-hour queues forming around gasoline stations. Foreign tankers were waiting at Port Said on the Suez Canal to pump diesel oil from storage facilities, as government officials sold the scarce commodity for cash.

This is the sort of general breakdown I observed in 1992 in Russia, following the collapse of the communist government. As an adviser to finance minister Yegor Gaidar, I heard stories of Russian officials selling unregistered trainloads of raw materials on foreign markets and depositing the proceeds in Swiss banking accounts. Anything of value that could find a buyer overseas was sold. I didn't last long as an adviser; looting and pillaging wasn't my area of competence. Russia, it should be recalled, is largely self-sufficient in food and is among the world's largest oil producers, while Egypt imports half its food. Russia had enormous resources on which to draw. Egypt, Syria and Tunisia have nothing.

So how are things going in Syria?

Robert Fisk wrote in the London Independent on May 30 that Turkey fears a mass influx of Syrian Kurdish refugees, so that "Turkish generals have thus prepared an operation that would send several battalions of Turkish troops into Syria itself to carve out a 'safe area' for Syrian refugees inside Assad's caliphate." The borders of the affected nations have begun to dissolve along with their economies. It will get worse fast.

I think what Spengler meant by fast was like today.

Israeli forces fired on a crowd marking the anniversary of the 1967 Middle East War by trying to enter from Syria, where human rights groups said Syrian troops killed 25 protesters in a village in the country’s north.

A general strike took place for the second day today in the Syrian city of Hama in mourning for dozens of people killed there by security forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad last week, according to the independent Web site Syrian Observatory, which is monitoring the unrest.

“The city is completely closed and the army has pulled out, but the people are scared” that the army may attack again, Mahmoud Merhi, the head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, said by telephone from Damascus.

Ah yes. The Israelis fire on a crowd - top of the news. Syrians kill 25? Not quite so important.

And the people of Hama are scared? Why not? There is some history there.

The Hama massacre occurred in February 1982, when the Syrian army, under the orders of the president of Syria Hafez al-Assad, conducted a scorched earth policy against the town of Hama in order to quell a revolt by the Sunni Muslim community against the regime of al-Assad. The Hama massacre, personally conducted by president Assad's younger brother, Rifaat al-Assad, effectively ended the campaign begun in 1976 by Sunni Islamic groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, against Assad's regime, whose leaders were disproportionately from president Assad's own Alawite sect.

The death toll estimates run from 10,000 to 40,000. I wonder how many boy Assad will bag this time?

And of course I wonder what kind of plan our esteemed man from Chicago ne (Hawaii) has developed to cope with coming events. We shall know in time. I'm betting that it will be - borrow money from China to give to the crooks in the various Middle East governments.

The White House Underground According To Ulsterman

It has been a while since I did an Ulsterman update so here is an interesting tit bit.

Q: Can you repeat what you told me before – how Richard Daley stepping down and Bill Daley coming to the White House, and then Rahm Emanuel becoming Chicago’s Mayer. How all of that relates back directly to Valerie Jarrett and Barack Obama. You connected those dots better than anyone else I’ve heard from, but you didn’t want to publish it before. Can we share that now? What you said regarding that?

A: I won’t allow you to publish it. I WANT you to publish it. And I want to qualify that by explaining to you that I am running without fear now. I am not alone here. This has become much bigger than me, or the group of us that were working prior to the Midterms We are in every good hands now, and this thing has a real possibility of seeing the kind of outcome I thought impossible just a few months ago. And don’t get hung up on people believing or not believing what we are discussing here. That is not the point of this. As I told you some time ago, the real motivation of this operation is letting those know who are watching that we are also watching, and that no amount of effort on their part is going to fully prevent the truth from getting out there. And I am being absolutely honest with you when I say that at no other time since we began this have I been so confident in our eventual success.

Now getting back to your question about Richard Daley stepping down, Rahm stepping in, and Bill Daley’s entrance into the Obama administration, it is foolish for anyone to not think all of that is no connected to something far greater than simply political repositioning. You have already reported on the Jarrett-Richard Daley connection, so no need for me to get you up to speed on that. What you might not know is that Richard Daley had something of a falling out with Jarrett, and by default, the Obama’s prior to Obama becoming a U.S. Senator. Now when it comes to Chicago politics, the Daley machine owns all of it. Everything. This includes information – every kind of information, on anyone of political importance in and around Chicago. When Obama went “national” as a Senator, Jarrett’s influence went national right along with it, right. By then she was the primary guide for Barack Obama’s political career. Every decision went to her, through her, and ultimately had to be approved by her. Obama did nothing without her approval. This has largely continued to this day in the White House, though as I just indicated, Bill Daley is fighting to alter that arrangement. So what happens when the great keeper of Chicago secrets, Richard Daley, announces he is stepping down? A huge power vacuum that sent the Obama White House into panic mode. Daley had a working agreement with Obama and Jarrett to keep a lid on the “unsavory” details related to each of them. Details stemming from years working among the most powerful and corrupt forces in Chicago politics, including Daley himself. And while many dislike the man that is Richard Daley, none will dispute that when a deal is made, he holds to it. And he has held to his deal with Jarrett and Obama. Almost every avenue investigated against those two has been effectively shut down in Chicago. With Daley’s departure as mayor, that will no longer be so easily accomplished, and the figure now in control of that apparatus is none other than disgruntled former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

Truth? Fantasy? Who knows? But interest in palace intrigue has been very long standing. As long as there have been palaces. So I'm passing along the gossip.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Man From Chicago ne (Hawaii)

People tell me ridicule is the best medicine for a bad politician. So I have decided I need a new way of referring to the Resident.

In honor of Donald Trump I have decided to refer to the Resident as often as possible as:

the man from Chicago ne (Hawaii)

Nice turn of phrase don't ya think? The man from Chicago ne (Hawaii). Pass it on.

What's Not Up?

This may explain Obama's fondness for arugula. Arugula is an aphrodisiac. Well at least according to the story linked.

...this peppery plant has been documented as an aphrodisiac since the first century A.D.

Of course given the woman he is married to any man would need extra help. One bale or two?

And there is that old stand-by: Better Than Viagra.