How many gun crimes have been committed by Law-Abiding citizens?
ZERO.
How many laws have gun-crime Perpetrators obeyed?
ZERO.
What’s the chance your gun control legislation will stop criminals and gun crimes…?
ZERO.
Is there a reason for your existence in the Senate…?
‘The best defense is a good Offense…’
How often have you heard that phrase? More importantly, how often have you wished House Republicans would employ that philosophy? It’s very potent, strategically…
It keeps the opponent on Defense, and allows the GOP to effectively set the narrative.
We all know Obama’s main strategy is to defeat House Republicans in 2014, so ‘Botox Nan’ and her Democrat cohort can rule the House, and finish what they started in 2009.
That said, the question is why isn’t Speaker Boehner going on Offense?
A column ran today on how House GOP’ers can “Keep the Pressure on Democrats”.
Deroy Murdock lays out several excellent scenarios where Boehner & Co. can employ the ‘Best Defense’ by introducing House bills that put Democrats in a bad light, pitting them against themselves, putting Republicans in a good light by contrast.
E.G.; bring up a bill that defunds Obama’s weekend golf junkets, and restores funding for White House tours. Dems must choose – Obama’s playtime, or Girl Scout visits.
Bring up a bill that repeals forcing union ‘prevailing wages’ that gooses the cost of fed-funded projects 22%; use half of savings for debt reduction, the other half for programs that assist disabled children living below the poverty level. Unions vs disabled kids…
Bring up a bill that defunds Obama’s multi-billion $ green-jobs fraud. (As Murdock says, “…at $575,000 per green job created…Platinum jobs is more like it”) Use half of the savings for debt reduction, the other half for Low Income Home Energy Assistance.
Force Democrats to choose between green-money payoffs for their biggest campaign donors…or heating for Grandpa’s apartment in the middle of winter.
Best of all, these aren’t ‘gimmick’ bills – they solve real problems: debt, waste, poverty.
Republican Speaker Boehner has had two years to implement such a strategy. We all know Democrats never hesitate to attack, so what’s Boehner waiting for…?
Is it a lack of Guts? Does the other side have dirt on the GOP to control their moves?
How do you ‘keep’ pressure on an opponent you never pressure in the first place?
Mr. Speaker…?
For those who think Class Warfare rhetoric from politicians ‘no big deal’, Thomas Sowell has an article at National Review Online that might help with perspective.
Boiled down, he condemns the ‘intellectuals’ who constantly try to apply a grand theory to explain group differences in outcome, inevitably leading to resentment and hostility.
He speaks in ethnic and genetic terms, but it’s easy to apply this same commentary to our wildly successful Free Market economic system, now attacked by the Liberal Left.
Put simply, in such a system ‘Opportunity’ is available, but ‘Results’ are not guaranteed.
Some achieve, many do not, for a variety of reasons.
But the Left applies their concept of ‘Fairness’ to stoke fires of envy and rage against the Achievers, in order to build their version of a more acceptable societal order.
Taken in that context, one can argue that there’s a concerted effort being mounted to provoke a new-age ‘Capitalism Holocaust’…using resentment and malice against those who have achieved success…to enable the buildup of a Big Government nanny state.
Sowell’s last paragraphs clarify. Liberals (wrongly) theorize that either genetic determinism or discrimination explain differences in outcome. Their False Dichotomy is that it must be either one or the other, creating ‘racial and ethnic polarization’.
“The false dichotomy…leaves less-successful groups with the choice of believing that they are inherently inferior or else that they are victims of the unconscionable malice of others.” (emphasis added)
“When innumerable factors make equal outcomes virtually impossible, reducing those factors to genes or malice is a formula for needless and dangerous polarization, whose consequences have often been written in blood across the pages of history.”
Thus the dangers of Class Warfare rhetoric, provoking a new-age Capitalism Holocaust.
In that Perspective, loosely adapting Shakespeare now seems apropos…
‘By the Pricking of (Capitalist) thumbs, something Wicked this way comes…’
The next time you hear how bad Free-Market Capitalism is, ask…
If it’s so bad, why is America the leading world power?
If it’s so bad, how does America give more foreign aid than all other nations…
…combined?
If it’s so bad, how is it our ‘poor’ have such a high standard of living compared to the rest of the world?
If it’s so bad, why is America every immigrant’s destination-of-choice?
And, if you think it’s so bad…how is it you’re still here?
This just in – your veterinarian bills will be going higher, thanks to…Obamacare!
Dr. Dolittle will soon become Dr. Chargemore; as medical device taxes increase per O’care guidelines, vet costs will go up, and, typically, passed on to the customer. You.
Yep, when medical device manufacturers fabricate products that perform dual-use roles in human and animal care (IV’s, syringes, CT scanners, etc), they’re hit with a new tax.
Which they pass along to the veterinarians…who will invariably pass them along to you.
(Veterinarians don’t accept hand-licking from 4-legged patients as payment for services rendered; they prefer a folding-money or ATM version…from the 2-legged owners.)
One can only hope Nancy “We have to pass it to find out what’s in it” Pelosi owns lots of cats…because while Democrat politicians exempted themselves from Obamacare…
…they couldn’t manage to figure a way to be exempt from its hidden costs.
So, in a ‘fair’ world, Pelosi’s cats could end up helping to pay for your CAT scan.
(Updated)
The bogus jobs report is out, claiming a 0.2% jobless rate drop in February.
‘Unexpectedly’ (of course) dropping from 7.9% to 7.7%.
Oh joy, sweet joy…the ‘Obama’nomic recovery is working! Milk-n-honey, flowing again!
Ignore the 130k 296,000 unemployed who lost hope in February, dropping from the job market. (Updated, from IBD reports Friday afternoon. That’s 60,000 more people dropping out of the Labor Force than found jobs in February!)
Ignore the fact that, if the total Labor Force numbers were what they were in February 2012 – just one year ago – today’s unemployment rate would be 8.3%.
And, as everyone (not living in caves, grass huts, or hollowed-out tree trunks) knows, the Obama-Sequester he and the media are blaming on Republicans started March 01.
A BCP Prediction: April’s unemployment rate will ‘unexpectedly’ go back up, and the mainstream media lapdogs…errrr, concerned news outlets…will screech from the rooftops (in unison, of course) “the GOP sequester did it!”.
‘Cuz the media lapdogs…errr, concerned news outlets…are nothing if not predictable…
(Recapping…expect a bogus April jobless report reflecting a bogus ‘unexpected’ rate rise to be blamed on bogus ‘spending-cut’ legislation based on a bogus assertion that ‘the Republicans did it’. Everyone clear on that?)
And, we can’t stress ‘unexpectedly’ enough…
Sue F responds to “Honey I Shrunk the 97%’ers”, expressing her amazement that people don’t wake up to the fact Democrats are not the party of the people…
(…unless it means keeping people on the government reservation).
The BCP take? Republicans need to step up their messaging game.
It’s not about changing every non-believer’s mindset…just change enough of them to win back the levers of power. Republicans have a great message, but a terrible track record at getting the message out effectively.
Consider one HUGE example:
Presently, Republicans control only one-half of the Legislative branch in Congress, but are blamed (by the Left and their mainstream media pawns) for all the economic ills our country’s going through now.
Yet, the Democrats controlled the ENTIRE Legislative branch of government BEFORE and DURING the economic downturn (Jan 2007 through Dec 2011)…
…but out-of-power Republicans were blamed for that collapse then as well!
Sadly, this means it’s not about ‘the message’…but who controls delivering it…
In 2004, at the height of the Kerry-v-Bush campaign, Evan Thomas (Newsweek editor) claimed that the mainstream media Leftward ’slant’ consistently delivers 15 percentage points for Democrats in national elections.
Neutralize that one fact, and Democrats would become a permanent minority.
Of course, it would only take billions of dollars in buying up news-media outlets to neutralize their advantage…know anyone with some spare change?
Anybody got the Koch Brothers’ phone number?
Darn those pesky facts…!
As reported, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has more than doubled since Mar 2009.
The DJIA “tracks the stock prices of 30 large blue-chip companies…”
From that same time, March 2009, the income of your normal American family fell 6%.
Lest we forget, Obama and his Democrat cohort were sworn in to power January 2009.
So, next time Big Government Liberals or the mainstream media (but I repeat myself) claim the Democrat Party is the ‘champion of the Little Guy’, ask them…
Since when did GE, Dupont, B-of-A, and ExxonMobil qualify as a ‘little guy’?
Nothing succeeds like success.
And nothing defines ‘success’ better than Profits…and a rising stock price.
As Jeffrey Anderson of the Weekly Standard so astutely points out…
“…the big government-big business alliance…benefits the Big Guy.”
Dow Jones up 116% since March ’09, American family income down 6%…
Sorry, 97%’ers, looks like your Robin Hood has been robbin’ the ‘hood!
We’ve lost a great friend and Walnut Creek MAU co-volunteer, Nicholas Hoppe.
Cheerful, kind, loving, and gracious, he fought brain cancer to the end.
He loved his family, his friends, and his horses with a quiet dignity and integrity that inspired all who knew him.
We were fortunate to be your friend, and we’ll miss you Nick.
Rest in Peace, knowing you’re gone but never forgotten.
To keep the masses under control, t’were best to hide that they’re being controlled.
Ever wonder why citizens of Detroit and Chicago keep voting ‘more of the same’?
Or, for that matter, America’s citizenry…asking for 4 more years of record high job losses and gas prices, record low GDP growth, record drops in household income?
The bonds of tyranny rest more comfortably on those who don’t realize they’re chained.
Politicians provide that tyranny…and a compliant news media cushion it with velvet.
Ask yourself…why, after 50 years and trillions of dollars, are we still losing the War on Poverty? Why can’t we control Illegal Immigration? Why have our schools failed?
The answer’s simple…it’s not in certain politicians’ best interests to solve these issues.
(Because then those issues remain EXPLOITABLE…!)
Consider – high school and college graduates, recent immigrants (legal or otherwise), and the poor (by definition) are usually at the lower end of the wage scale.
A vast array of demographic polling reveal low income voters favor the Democrat Party.
But, as personal income rises past the $50k-per-year mark and they learn free-market enterprise systems benefit and empower them more than government handouts, they migrate to the party supporting that concept – the Republican Party.
Based on this proven demographic, if a Democrat Party doesn’t want to continually be losing their voter base, it’s in that Party’s best interest to hide the fact that free markets expand individual opportunity – and government control suppresses that opportunity…
They must keep their ‘loyal’ following poor! (Or, failing that, maintain a critical backup program to replenish the losses; i.e. a porous ill-managed immigration system.)
So the next time you wonder why an elected highly-educated elite can’t solve the War on Poverty as they spend $1 trillion a year of our tax dollars on ineffective programs …
…or why an elected highly-educated elite can’t solve problems of Illegal Immigration…
…or why an elected highly-educated elite fail to build an effective education system…
…remember what the Democrat Party needs to keep getting elected to office…
…a low-income, ill-informed voter base.
Sadly, poverty, poor education, and illegal immigration are more advantageous as an Exploitable issue to the Party that needs them to stay in power…Democrats.
If solved, the same deplorable conditions – poverty, poor education, porous/uncontrolled immigration – are devastating to that Party’s politicians!
Thus, these highly-educated elite politicians hammer ineffective policy into Chains…
…and the mainstream media make Velvet their constricting grip.