Political Clown Parade

Barry Does Berlin

2013-06-18T04:51:00.001-04:00

The Insufferable Airhorn wraps up his G8 Summit with a bilateral meeting with French President Francois Hollande today, boards Air Force One around 1:30PM Eastern and arrives in Berlin around 2:25PM.

On Wednesday he’ll get the opportunity he was denied as a presidential candidate in 2008 to give a speech at Berlin’s most famous landmark, the Brandenburg Gate.

Germany’s Deutche Welle notes that, “when he came to the German capital five years ago, Barack Obama was given a regal reception. But as he heads back to Berlin for the first time as US president, he'll find that ‘Obamania’ is a thing of the past.”

Constanze Stelzenmueller, a transatlantic relations expert at the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Berlin confesses that, "He's become somewhat demystified."

Germans who viewed him as the great hope of world politics in 2008 are markedly disappointed that his regime hasn’t changed U.S foreign and security policies.

Revelations about the scale of the U.S. National Security Agency’s Internet surveillance program Prism have caused great angst in Germany, where data privacy is seen as an important aspect of personal freedom—so much so that even Google Street View has raised hackles.

Past comparisons overshadow the Insufferable Airhorn’s Berlin visit. Fifty years ago this month, John F. Kennedy wowed a large crowd with the morale-boosting words “Ich bin ein Berliner.” In 1987, President Reagan stood with the gate behind him and demanded that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev "tear down this wall."

With his favorability tanking back home, the errand boy sent by grocery is seeking to stroke his ego with his mostly symbolic visit to Berlin. He’s hoping that he can show the sheeple that he is still liked abroad.

The Insufferable Airhorn And Ba-Donk-A-Donk Butt’s Excellent Adventure

2013-06-17T18:52:00.000-04:00

The First Lady, according to British and Irish press reports, will quarter in the $3,300-a-night Princess Grace Suite of Dublin’s Five-Star Shelbourne Hotel along with her entourage of 30 and secret service for the family.

Air Force Two was flown to Europe along with Air Force One because the president and the rest of the family will be separated. This we can blame on Great Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron who announced in late February that he was declaring the G8 Summit “WAG-free” to ensure that leaders remain “focused” on issues without the distraction of having their wives and girlfriends in tow.

“The White House is billing Michelle’s trip to Dublin as having diplomatic significance, but her itinerary suggests otherwise. She and her daughters will visit the Trinity College library to explore President Obama’s Irish family roots, attend a performance by the world-famous Riverdance troupe, and visit the Wicklow Mountains national forest.”

After visiting Dublin, Ba-Donk-A-Donk Butt and her daughters will join the Insufferable Airhorn in Berlin for the second leg of his European trip.

“I am the leader of the free world, the deity of demagoguery, the remarkably absent president, the emperor with no clothes and my messianic status does not allow me to descend to a lower level.”—Barack Obama

A note from our attorneys: This is not a real quote

CNN Cheerleaders Devastated; Snowballing Scandals Begin To Manifest Themselves

2013-06-17T10:30:00.000-04:00

We learned today that a CNN poll is showing that the errand boy sent by grocery clerks cannot be trusted. He’s dishonest, untrustworthy, a liar.

57% of those polled disagree with his views on the size and power of the federal government and 53% say he cannot manage the government effectively. No shit, Dick Tracy.

This poll, coming from the same people that have habitually showed better presidential approval numbers than any other pollster, reveals that this remarkably absent president is at his lowest rating in more than a year-and-a-half.

The CNN/ORC International survey released Monday morning comes as the White House has been reacting to controversies over a massive U.S. government surveillance program; the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups who applied for tax-exempt status; the administration's handling of last September's attack in Benghazi that left the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans dead; and the Justice Department's secret collection of journalists' phone records as part of a government investigation into classified leaks.

The poll indicates that for the first time in Obama’s presidency, half of the public says they don't believe he is honest and trustworthy. And Americans are split on the controversial National Security Agency anti-terrorism program to record metadata on U.S. phone calls, but they support the NSA program that targets records of Internet usage by people in other countries. That doesn't mean they necessarily like what is going on: Just over six in 10 believe that government is so large and powerful that it threatens the rights and freedoms of ordinary Americans.

Gee, I hope this news doesn’t hurt his chances for reelection. I kid.

Woodsterman Channels Sally Field

2013-06-16T11:53:00.002-04:00

I have to say when I announced the winners of the 2013 Paul Revere Awards I never dreamed that one winner in particular would be so appreciative. He’s acting like he won the Publishers Clearing House contest.

He’s over at his site displaying photographs of the awards ceremony replete with celebrities offering their congratulations. It’s like its Christmas in June over there.

The NSA crept over to Odie’s humble abode, bugged the joint and set up some surveillance cameras.

Odie had already rolled up the carpet, installed an Academy Awards-like stage with spotlights, took a bath, brushed his teeth, raked through his beard and even put on a tuxedo.

I think he’s almost proud enough to channel Sally Field. If the NSA is still recording the celebration, they just might catch him saying, “You like me, you really like me.”

Calm down hon. Yes, we do like you.

And then there’s this demonstration of astonishment—Earl of Taint went and changed his website banner citing that he was now the “Award Winning Earl of Taint” and even included his “hunk of InnerWeb Candy.”

He wrote in his blog post, “There you go. The award is 100% authentic. Meaning it was obviously sent to me by mistake because I clearly don’t belong in this elite group of people that write things, with words, in a linear fashion, consistently. I’m deeply honored regardless. And I’m not giving it back. I cannot live without it.”

All the winners have written to me in emails or in the comment section expressing their appreciation for the recognition of their hard work, but these two guys take the cake.

I’m proud of all the winners. Next year, the winners will get a big bag of personalized M&Ms to go with the trophy.

Right Jabs For June 16, 2013

2013-06-16T07:40:00.002-04:00

Politics is not a playground, it’s a battlefield. Here are a few links from conservative bloggers who are waging a war of words against the misanthropy, priggishness, prejudice, luddism, illiberalism and irrationalism of the mainstream media bobble-head dolls and groupthink poodles of the press corps.

But first, this little tale (pun most certainly intended):

The strapping young Marxist and his shrill spouse will be trekking to sub-Saharan Africa later this month. They are due to travel to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.

Originally, their plans included a Tanzanian safari to drink in the beauty of that fascinating travel destination where they could view the splendor of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru, relax on the beaches of the islands of Zanzibar, Mafia or Pemba and tour The Serengeti National Park known for its unbelievable density of animals.

That density of animals would have required the president’s special counterassault team to carry sniper rifles with high-caliber rounds “that could neutralize (or what we poor folks like to call killing) cheetahs, lions and other vicious predators if they became a threat according to a leaked document.

But, alas, the safari has been canceled.

Gun grabbers are pissed finding hypocrisy in the president’s “short-lived plan to rely on armed men for protection from wildlife, using the same kind of weapons his administration wants banned from public use to protect against human predators.”

“Mr. Obama shouldn’t need special counter-assault teams to neutralize threats,” Second Amendment Foundation founder Alan Gottlieb said. “He’s got the IRS for that doesn’t he?”

And now, on to other news from the dextrosphere:

And thus, the bozo leviathan blunders on. Big Politically Correct Brother sees everything…and nothing.

… be patient. The White House powers-that-be have a plan, and they will implement that plan on their schedule.

You’ll press 1 for Spanish and 2 for English…

…and justice for us.

The left provides tyranny with the social motive to come into being, but in the long run the left is only the midwife of tyranny. Its ideology and activists dismantle democracies and burgeoning democracies and replace them with tyrannies.

When I grow up, that's the team I want to play for.

If Sarah Palin had become president…

The disbelief you once had that a society could willingly stroll to a totalitarian condition? You’re watching it happen.

It’s almost like it was designed to fail or something.

It is a great irony, and history will marvel at it, that the president most committed to expanding the centrality, power, prerogatives and controls of the federal government is also the president who, through lack of care, arrogance, and an absence of any sense of prudential political boundaries, has done the most in our time to damage trust in government.

Benghazi had death under terrifying circumstances, the IRS scandal had the most feared federal agency on the rampage against innocent citizens, the Justice Department scandal had reporters targeted for doing their jobs. But it is the NSA scandal that has provided the context for all the others, that has brought them together as a bleak and brooding menace threatening American life as it has always been lived.

Government surveillance never sounded so smooth...

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there and a special thanks to all my readers.

Happy Flag Day

2013-06-14T08:11:00.002-04:00

Announcing The 2013 Paul Revere Awards

2013-06-13T10:10:00.001-04:00

Last Sunday, BC the proprietor of I’m 41, presented the winner of the 2013 Coolest SOB in the Conservative Blogosphere Award. Many excellent sites were listed as nominees for the award and those who walked away with top honors certainly are deserving of the recognition.

BC was honoring the late Andrew Breitbart when he envisioned the awards and wanted to call attention to bloggers that espoused “class, common courtesy, etiquette, selflessness and a genuine respect for the efforts of other conservative bloggers—no matter how minimum.”

I was disappointed that so many of the bloggers I know didn’t fare well in the voting process. The sites listed below in alphabetical order are being presented the First Annual Paul Revere Award sponsored by Political Clown Parade.

Capitalist Preservation

Diogenes’ Middle Finger

I chose Paul Revere as the icon for the award because he was an American patriot who’s legendary “Midnight Ride” to warn the colonists of Massachusetts before the historic battles at Lexington and Concord played a vital role in America’s struggle to gain independence from Britain.

Paul Revere was not born to wealth—he was an ordinary man who lived an extraordinary life. Revere was a patriot, a businessman, an involved citizen, and a popular and well-respected member of his community.

An obituary in the Boston Intelligence commented, "Seldom has the tomb closed upon a life so honorable and useful."

These bloggers are but a few of the brave and resolute men and women who hold down jobs and raise their families while standing guard over liberty. They don’t have big advertising on their sites nor do they have a bevy of contributing writers. They pore over information and bring their opinions to their readers in order to inform and warn.

They have the keen zest of the citizen whose patriotism is of the lusty type that causes them to take an active part in politics. They add humor and common sense. They deserve to be recognized.

I will be contacting each winner via email to provide them with a personalized badge which they can place on their website if they so chose.

Thank you to each of them for all that they do and may God bless them.

UPDATE: Two of my favorite bloggers who were never nominated but are tops on my list are Adrienne’s Corner and Zilla of the Resistance. They are receiving the Paul Revere Award as well. Thank you both.

Linked by Doug Ross

Sit Quietly And We Will Control All That You See And Hear

2013-06-11T05:31:00.005-04:00

When I was just a kid there was a TV show I loved to watch. That show was The Outer Limits.

Each episode would open with a “Control Voice” warning the viewer, “There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image; make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to—The Outer Limits.”

Throughout history, compassionate minds have pondered the dark and disturbing question: what is society to do with those members who are a threat to society, those malcontents and misfits whose behavior undermines and destroys the foundations of civilization? Different epochs have found different solutions to this disturbing problem.

Peggy Noonan, in her Op-Ed for The Wall Street Journal writes, “The security age began on Sept. 12, 2001. The enormity of the surveillance state since has grown. Americans, in the shock after 9/11, didn’t mind enhanced security, and in fact were mostly grateful for it and supportive of it. But built into that support, and the acceptance of the surveillance mentality’s intrusions, was I suspect, a broadly held assumption that we’ll just do it now, and down the road we can stop it. It’s just an emergency thing. We can make it go away when we no longer want it. But can we? Do government programs tend to remain static, or wither? Or do they tend to grow?”

The web is ablaze with debates about government surveillance of ordinary citizens. The focus is on the Fourth Amendment and the FISA courts, the NSA and the recently revealed Code Name PRISM.

The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution reads, The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Back to The Outer Limits. One episode, O.B.I.T., opens with this narrative:

“In this room, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, security personnel at the Defense Department's Cypress Hills Research Center keep constant watch on its scientists through O.B.I.T., a mysterious electronic device whose very existence was carefully kept from the public at large. And so it would have remained but for the facts you are about to witness…”

The Outer Limits was a science fiction anthology created in 1963. Science fiction then. Now, not so much.

There is another electronic device with which we became familiar. The “telescreen” in George Orwell’s 1984 enables “the Party” to monitor its members almost all of the time. In Orwell’s dystopian novel, technology (the telescreen and microphones) are generally perceived as working toward moral good but can also aid and abet the most diabolical evil.

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen,” is the first line in 1984.

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

These are the official slogans of “the Party” and are referred to as “doublethink”. They are illogical but are central to the psychological control of the masses—the low information voter, if you will.

If the government’s constant propaganda induces fear and doubt then its citizens will accept anything. A common enemy keeps the people united. The man who is independent is doomed to fail and the man who accepts the collective is free from want and danger. The powerlessness of the people to recognize the contradictions bolsters the power of the authoritarian regime. Every citizen lives to serve the nurturing mother state.

Keith Koffler at White House Dossier opines, “President Obama and his fully politicized White House have shown their contempt for the Constitution, the rule of law, the other branches of government and the watchdog institutions of our society time and time again.”

“Laws are meant to be circumvented. The Supreme Court is to be vilified for making the ‘wrong’ decisions. The press is to be bullied and intimidated. Opponents in Congress are cynical, politically motivated extremists who want to oppress Americans they don’t like.”

In the dark and brooding video below, a totalitarian propaganda world is ruled from above. A young girl witnesses the fate of a tortured worker and the murder of her protesting mother. The girl rises up and confronts the dehumanized regime occupying her Motherland.

She can be all it takes to spark off a revolution…

Old McBama’s Farm Of Scandals

2013-06-03T23:04:00.001-04:00

On Friday, May 31, 2013 Sen. Rand Paul brought the funny while he outlined his vision for the growth of the Republican Party to a sold-out crowd at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

Moments after taking the podium, he began drilling the Obama Administration over the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups for extra scrutiny last year.

“You know, I hardly know where to start. It’s kind of like Old MacDonald’s farm of scandals,” said Paul. “Here a scandal, there a scandal, everywhere a scandal.”

(My apologies to artist Grant Wood for parodying his 1930 American Gothic painting. I simply couldn’t resist.)

Hearing from some top Hill sources that IRS scandal about to explode. Low-level agency workers miffed at being blamed. About to return fire.
— Joseph Curl (@josephcurl) June 3, 2013

Photoshop™ Of The Day: Insufferable Airhorn

2013-06-03T14:08:00.002-04:00

The Art Of Deceit And The Paid Liar

2013-06-02T20:21:00.002-04:00

There was an interesting exchange between House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and CNN’s R2DoubleD2 today on the cable new channel’s “State of the Union” program.

Issa’s bluntness was uplifting. The scandal surrounding the IRS’s decision to target Tea Party groups was, he believes, “mostly likely the employees in the Cincinnati IRS offices were acting on orders from Washington, DC.

Issa said, “The administration is still—their paid liar, their spokesperson, picture behind, he’s still making up things about what happen[ed] and calling this local rogue.” [Emphasis mine.]

“The reason that Lois Lerner tried to take the Fifth [Amendment] is not because there’s a rogue in Cincinnati,” he added. “It’s because this is a problem that was coordinated. in all likelihood, right out of Washington headquarters.”

On May 21, Carney said: “I think that the tenor of the president’s public comments about it, both in his statement Tuesday night and his public comments the next day reflect his feelings upon learning about the apparent conduct by our IRS officials in Cincinnati.” A day earlier, Carney discussed “matters involving the office in Cincinnati” in an exchange about when the White House learned of the episode.

IRS officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved with investigating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. So, the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati, where IRS official Lois Lerner initially said actions were undertaken by “front-line people.”

An IRS employee was asked if the scandal could be the work of a few local rogue agents. "It's impossible," the employee said. "As an agent we are controlled by many, many people. We have to submit many, many reports. So the chance of two agents being rogue and doing things like that could never happen."

The interrogator then asked: "With respect to the particular scrutiny that was given to Tea Party applications, those directions emanated from Washington, is that right?"

"I believe so," the IRS employee said.

2013 Coolest SOB In The Conservative Blogosphere Contest

2013-06-02T09:22:00.002-04:00

Everybody likes a little good, clean fun right? BC, at I’m 41, has launched the second annual Coolest SOB in the Conservative Blogosphere Contest.

The contest is so named out of a reverence for the late Andrew Breitbart. Breitbart, to whom BC had sent an email tip, replied thanking him for the tip and BC was impressed that he had taken time from his busy day to respond to “a nobody blogger.”

BC contends that Andrew was not the only blogger out there that excels in all-around coolness, class, common courtesy, etiquette, selflessness, and genuine respect for the efforts of other conservative bloggers.

This year, your humble scribe has been nominated as “The Coolest SOB in the Conservative Blogosphere.”

I’m still giddy over my award from Zilla and by the 2012 PUK Award sponsored by IOwnTheWorld. I hope that my readers and their friends will help Political Clown Parade rake in another award.

Voting began today and runs through Saturday June 8^th. Vote often for your favorite SOB. There are some awesome blogs vying for the title of The Coolest SOB.

Thanks in advance for your support and best of luck to all the nominees.

Charlton Heston To J. Edgar Holdup: "You Sir, Are No Moses"

2013-05-31T10:57:00.002-04:00

The review of Justice Department abuses relating to the press is being conducted by J. Edgar Holdup. A special counsel in this case would be appointed by J. Edgar Holdup. The FBI probe of the IRS scandal was ordered by J. Edgar Holdup. In all these cases, the restoration of public trust depends on an attorney general worthy of public trust.

Michael Eric Dyson stupidly asserted on MSNBC that J. Edgar Holdup is the “Moses of our time.”

Charlton Heston weighed in saying, “You sir, are no Moses.”

Jonathan Turley posited, “The attorney general has done little in his tenure to protect civil liberties or the free press. Rather, Holder has supervised a comprehensive erosion of privacy rights, press freedom and due process. This ignoble legacy was made possible by Democrats who would look at their shoes whenever the Obama administration was accused of constitutional abuses.”

Who Likes Good News? Everyone? Then Good News Everyone!

2013-05-30T19:50:00.001-04:00

I’m a little late opining on the desecration of the majestic beauty of the Black Hills of South Dakota by enshrining the Hopiate of the Masses on Mount Rushmore.

The pampered poodle stenographers of a dying media have, since 2007, wielded their power to secure the double immaculation of a corrupt Chicago politician with a flair for mimicking speech patterns and an innate talent for reading from teleprompters.

“Historical judgments take time to form and Obama is still in office,” said George Washington University history professor Edward Berkowitz. “It could be that he will be one of the great presidents, worthy of having his likeness carved on a mountain, but certainly not yet.”

Professor Paul Wahlbeck, a professor and chairman of the political science department at GWU, said he is “reluctant to venerate political leaders while or shortly after they served,” but still remains optimistic.

“History undoubtedly will accord President Obama a special place by virtue of being the first African American President,” Wahlbeck said in an email to The College Fix.

Five days after the story at The College Fix was picked up by national news outlets, the good professor hastily clarified, “my comment that President Obama would receive a special place in history did not mean it should be on Mount Rushmore.”

Professor Farnsworth has good news for everyone: Plans are being formulated by the DNC and George Soros to remove Abraham Lincoln from his memorial in DC and replace him with ‘Ol Jug Ears with his feet up on the Resolute Desk.

Won’t that be nice? We’re so lucky we’re able to worship a tin god.

Not Only Did I Lie About Lying, But I Lied About Lying About Lying And You’d Better Believe That’s The Truth

2013-05-29T10:51:00.001-04:00

That From These Honored Dead

2013-05-25T06:40:00.003-04:00

Image Credit: TheAtlantic

For every man, woman and child who wakes up on Memorial Day the responsibility of remembering those who gave their last full measure of devotion falls to us.

It is a day to remember not only our fallen warriors but those they left behind.

On a day not too far off, the last connections we have to wars past will be severed. The memories of those who died in World Wars I and II and Korea will belong to history.

On a cold winter day in November of 1863, President Abraham Lincoln said in his Gettysburg Address:

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.”

As a free people we should remember that Memorial Day is not about the end of school, the beginning of summer, barbecues or auto racing; it’s about our fallen heroes, their widows, widowers, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and children.

Rumpswab Who Is Not Good At Math Also Not Good At Law

2013-05-24T07:53:00.005-04:00

On Friday, May 10, 2013 Lois Lerner, head of the IRS Tax-Exempt Unit, apologized for targeting conservative groups by improperly delaying and scrutinizing their applications for tax-exempt status at a conference held by the American Bar Association.

The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty and Zachary Goldfarb noted, “The IRS’s subsequent conference call with reporters was clumsily handled. At one point, Lerner attempted to do arithmetic on the phone and blurted out: ‘I’m not good at math.’”

The following Wednesday, Lerner gave an opening statement before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in which she lied about lying about having done nothing wrong.

“I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws, I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee,” Lerner said.

Upon the advice of her attorney she then invoked her constitutional right to plead the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination and declined to testify.

Trey Gowdy, who sits on committee dealing with the IRS scandal objected saying, “Mr. Issa, Mr. Cummings just said we should run this like a courtroom, and I agree with him. She just testified. She just waived her Fifth Amendment right to privilege. You don't get to tell your side of the story and then not be subjected to cross examination. That's not the way it works. She waived her Fifth Amendment privilege by issuing an open statement. She ought to stand here and answer our questions.”

The fact that she restated some of the same answers she gave the inspector general during his investigation prompted the panel’s chairman Darrell Issa to remark, “At this point, I believe you have not asserted your rights, but have effectively waived your rights.”

And the stench we are smelling is from the collective pants-shitting of the regime.

On next year's 1040, I'm gonna scrawl "I'M ON ADMINISTRATIVE LEAVE" in crayon.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) May 23, 2013

Savage Wars

2013-05-23T10:25:00.002-04:00

A cell phone video taken by one witness and given to ITV television showed a young man with bloody hands holding a large knife and a meat cleaver.

The man walked over to the camera and said: “I apologize that women had to witness this today. But in our land, our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government. They don’t care about you. We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. Your people will never be safe.”

He was one of two men, believed to be Somalis, who hacked to death a British soldier like he was “a piece of meat”. They are but two of hundreds of thousands of Somali immigrants living inside the United Kingdom. Some 70,000 live inside London proper.

The archetypal English garden has been immortalized in poetry and music for centuries because of its pristine green lawns, serene lakes and climbing roses around the door. The UK’s practice of importing savages is tearing apart what Britons took centuries to build.

The butchers who perpetrated this latest atrocity wanted to be seen and warned in the most gruesome of ways that we will be murdered in the name of Islam.

As America watches and waits to see how the UK deals with this horrific slaughter, we hear meaningless condemnations of Muslim leaders who say one thing for public consumption and something altogether else sinister in their mosques.

The world is witnessing an irreversible demographic turning point as the chilling video below warns.

Photoshop™ Of The Day: A Unicorn Rots From The Head Down

2013-05-22T08:38:00.002-04:00

Please Help Oklahoma

2013-05-21T09:09:00.005-04:00

Image Credit: TulsaWorld.com

“When a man is in despair, it means that he still believes in something.” —Dmitri Shostakovich

I was gripped by this image of two men, one holding the American flag, as they gazed upon the utter destruction left in the aftermath of the tornado that wiped out much of Moore, Oklahoma on May 20, 2013.

My pitiful attempt to comprehend how these two men must feel seeing their lives churned up by the forces of nature left me weeping for them. After I dried my tears, I went to the Red Cross site set up to help Oklahomans to make a donation and pray.

I hope you will do the same. They are our brethren. May God bless them and may He place His Hand upon their shoulders and give them comfort and the strength to carry on.

God bless Oklahoma.

Pray For Oklahoma

2013-05-20T22:06:00.001-04:00

As of 8:22PM Central Time, Reuters News Agency, reported that 51 people have perished in the massive tornado that laid waste to the town of Moore, Oklahoma. The death toll is expected to rise.

The photo provided by Paul Hellstern of The Oklahoman captures the terror of nature’s wrath in the face of the man who carried a little girl, a student from Briarwood Elementary School, to safety.

God bless him and may God comfort and protect all those affected by the tornadoes that have ravaged that area in recent days.

Armed Forces Day: A Prayer For Our Troops

2013-05-18T09:55:00.003-04:00

Our men and women in uniform are in harm’s way constantly from combat, car bombings, and rocket-propelled grenade and mortar attacks. Our worst day in America is so much better than their best day. Extremes of cold and heat and uncomfortable conditions, to say the least, plague these soldiers. They are sacrificing time that could be spent with spouses and children. Yet they continue to faithfully and bravely serve.

"Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect them as they protect us. Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need. Please place a hedge of protection around each and everyone. I ask this in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen."

He’s Going To Need A Bigger Umbrella

2013-05-17T07:35:00.001-04:00

With three scandals rocking Dear Leader’s regime, a dark cloud of dishonesty, corruption and ineptitude has descended over the White House in recent days.

The rain started pouring down when Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a joint press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House on Thursday, prompting the president to order Marines to hold umbrellas over them.

“I am going to go ahead and ask folks, why don’t we get a couple of Marines—they’re going to look good next to us,” Obama joked.

Obama vehemently denies abusing government power, while telling a US Marine to hold his umbrella. #CantMakeThisShitUp
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) May 16, 2013

Photoshop™ Of The Day: Drunk With Power

2013-05-16T07:38:00.001-04:00

And The Voices That Annoy Him Are Those Of The Founders

2013-05-14T05:58:00.001-04:00

Presented for your dining and dancing pleasure—“In IRS Scandal, Echoes of Watergate” by George Will:

The burglary occurred in 1972, the climax came in 1974, but 40 years ago this week—May 17, 1973—the Senate Watergate hearings began exploring the nature of Richard Nixon’s administration. Now the nature of Barack Obama’s administration is being clarified as revelations about IRS targeting of conservative groups merge with myriad Benghazi mendacities.

This administration aggressively hawked the fiction that the Benghazi attack was just an excessively boisterous movie review. Now we are told that a few wayward souls in Cincinnati, with nary a trace of political purpose, targeted for harassment political groups with “tea party” and “patriot” in their titles. The Post reported Monday that the IRS also targeted groups that “criticized the government and sought to educate Americans about the U.S. Constitution.” Credit the IRS’s operatives with understanding who and what threatens the current regime.

Jay Carney, whose unenviable job is not to explain but to explain away what his employers say, calls the IRS’s behavior “inappropriate.” No, using the salad fork for the entree is inappropriate. Using the Internal Revenue Service for political purposes is a criminal offense.

It remains to be discovered whether the chief executive is guilty of more than an amazingly convenient failure to superintend the excesses of some executive-branch employees beyond the Allegheny Mountains. Meanwhile, file this under “What a tangled web we weave”:

The IRS official in charge of the division that makes politically sensitive allocations of tax-exempt status said Friday that she learned from news reports of the targeting of conservatives. But a draft report by the IRS inspector general says this official was briefed on the matter two years ago.

An emerging liberal narrative is that this tempest is all the Supreme Court’s fault: The Citizens United decision—that corporations, particularly nonprofit advocacy groups, have First Amendment rights—so burdened the IRS with making determinations about who deserves tax-exempt status that some political innocents in Cincinnati inexplicably decided to begin by rummaging through the affairs of conservatives. Ere long, presumably, they would have gotten around to groups with “progressive” in their titles.

Remember, all campaign “reform” proposals regulate political speech. And all involve the IRS in allocating speech rights.

Liberals, whose unvarying agenda is enlargement of government, suggest, with no sense of cognitive dissonance, that this IRS scandal is nothing more sinister than typical government incompetence. Five days before the IRS story broke, Obama, sermonizing 109 miles northeast of Cincinnati, warned Ohio State graduates about “creeping cynicism” and “voices” that “warn that tyranny is . . . around the corner.” Well.

He stigmatizes as the vice of cynicism what actually is the virtue of skepticism about the myth that the tentacles of the regulatory state are administered by disinterested operatives. And the voices that annoy him are those of the Founders.

Time was, progressives like the president 100 years ago, Woodrow Wilson, had the virtue of candor: He explicitly rejected the Founders’ fears of government. Modern enlightenment, he said, made it safe to concentrate power in Washington, and especially in disinterested executive-branch agencies run by autonomous, high-minded experts. Today, however, progressivism’s insinuation is that Americans must be minutely regulated because they are so dimwitted they will swallow nonsense. Such as: There was no political motive in the IRS targeting political conservatives.

Episodes like this separate the meritorious liberals from the meretricious. The day after the IRS story broke; The Post led the paper with it, and, with an institutional memory of Watergate, published a blistering editorial demanding an Obama apology. The New York Times consigned the story to page 10 (its front-page lead was the umpteenth story about the end of the world being nigh because of global warming). Through Monday, the Times had expressed no editorial thoughts about the IRS. The Times’ Monday headline on the matter was: “IRS Focus on Conservatives Gives GOP an Issue to Seize On.” So that is the danger.

If Republicans had controlled both houses of Congress in 1973, Nixon would have completed his term. If Democrats controlled both today, the Obama administration’s lawlessness would go uninvestigated. Not even divided government is safe government, but it beats the alternative.

For your ironic reading pleasure: the Nixon Articles of Impeachment watergate.info/impeachment/ar…
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) May 14, 2013