Nom de plume: Rivrdog

You have it exactly Bass-Ackwards, Peter King

...when you say that Libertarian-types like Rand Paul will be the death of the GOP-ey Party.

The dopey-gopes (or is it gopey-dopes?) have killed themselves, DEAD, by signing on to the ideals of Big Government. Peter King, R-NY, is one of those dopes. Rand Paul is one of those small-government types who might yet pull the GOP out of it's grave, but it will take work.

The Big-L folks have some reality checks to pass before they gain more than their best-ever 5% share of the electorate.

I don't consider myself a Libertarian, because I have never reconciled my personal political philosophy with the Big-L idea that a Stoner Nation can prosper, an idea which I consider utter bullshit. The Big-L libertarians, of course, believe that any drug or substance of recreational use ought to be legalized. These folks flunk the History test, ignoring the realization that the USSR failed largely because it's labor force couldn't produce, and the labor force failed to produce largely because of the State's insistence on subsidizing most of the cost of Vodka so that the labor force could stay hosed and thereby inactive politically. That way, there was little likelihood of an effective political force arising to challenge the hegemony of the Stalinist Commies.

That issue, and a couple of others such as the Big-L insistence that US military force should never be projected beyond our borders, or the removal from Government of almost ALL policing authority, just don't jive with reality.

Peter King doesn't jive with reality either. Edward Snowden is just a geeky kid without much world-view, but he DID strike a mighty blow for individual freedom with his release of the proof that all our electronic media is recorded by the NSA for whatever secret use they want to put the metadata to via the "blessing" of the Star-Chamber FISA Court. To say that Snowden is the biggest Government-wrecker of our time is so overblown as a political position that it puts King himself in a very bad light. King's lack of ability to differentiate out the good in an action makes HIS world-view suspect in my mind.

Peter King ought to take the money his is wasting exploring a Presidential run for 2016 and give it to Jews for Preservation of Firearms Ownership, so as to demonstrate that he is not TOTALLY against the Second Amendment. His support of New York's un-Constitutional gun laws, by itself, is a knock on him that would destroy any of his Presidential aspirations before he ever got started.

Immigration, again

...and again, nothing has changed. There are at least twelve million illegal aliens in this Nation, and it appears that they are going to be allowed to stay. Allowed by any politico who has had a voice on the subject, because all the plans of both parties include a "path to citizenship", i.e., Amnesty for their crimes of illegally entering and remaining in this Nation.

My position has not changed. My position says that US law has defined them as criminals, no matter what public policy might be in ignoring that law or that status of those people. In this Nation, you follow the law, or you are an outlaw, and immigration law is perfectly clear: as an alien, you may not remain in this country if you have committed crimes, particularly felony crimes.

We all know why the Demoncrats and Rethuglicans both want to give the illegals amnesty: they want to buy their votes. That's the 900# gorilla in the room, but it's also the way out of this mess.

The way out is to make it desireable for the aliens to leave. They have to WANT to leave. We make them WANT to leave by making it economically unfeasible for them to live here. Here's how I would do that:

• Throw the switch. End the transfer of dinero back to their home countries. Pass a law requiring that all persons wanting to transfer money to a foreign address prove their citizenship and if not a citizen of the US, show their US entry visa. I traveled extensively in Europe as a kid, some ten years after WW2, and my parents and I had to show our "papers" to everyone, even to hotel clerks to get a room. If you have "papers", you're not afraid to show them. When the illegals can't transfer their money, a black market for doing so will spring up, and when it does, our efficient Federal agants can seize ALL that money, probably enough to pay their way. For those who DO have visas, tax their dinero 15%. That will go some distance towards paying for the horrible bill that this immigration mess has caused. In my State of Oregon, it is well over 30% of the social welfare budget and the education budget.
• We have a "path to citizenship" already. It's called Naturalization, and it works. My paternal grandfather was naturalized, along with his wife. Let's enforce the Naturalization process, maybe streamline it some (although it's pretty easy already), and all those industrious individuals wishing to become US citizens can do so.
• Give out more work visas, but have a vigorous program of checking up on the workers. The FIRST time they switch jobs without reporting it, they are gone. No exceptions.
• End the "born in the USA" birthright, aka "anchor babies". End tuition assistance for illegals and their children. End the free rides wherever they exist. We save billions of bucks, and the illegals will want to get legal faster.
• Allow and even encourage local and State law enforcement to help enforce Federal Immigration law instead of discouraging them from doing so as now happens. That quintuples the enforcement resources immediately, and furthermore, puts those resources out of the political control of DeeCee, from which all this corruption in border control comes.
• Fence? We don't need no steenking fences, we need the Army. End of discussion.

All nations are entitled to secure their borders for the purposes of internal security. Some do a better job than others. All of them do a better job than we're doing, because of our politically corrupt idea of allowing illegal immigration for the purposes of packing voter rolls and buying cheap labor. Until that corruption stops, and I don't see that happening anytime soon, because both parties want to pack their voter rolls with hispanics, the problem can't be solved.

Isn't there something more important to be discussed, such as our impending collapse of the economy?

Thursday Thuds, Astrological Edition

Yep, there must be a conjunction that the horoscope didn't report:

The Constellation Ignoramus is in the Seventh House of the Moon, so we may call this Teh Stoopid Rising.

Thud the First: The looney Kimmy is at it again, sort of declaring war, nuclear war, on the USA. What Teh Stoopid Norky apparently doesn't realize is that he is ALREADY at war with the USA. Way back in 1953, when I was playing sandlot baseball with my first mitt, a Rawlings Al Kaline, we ended the Korean War with an Armistice, not a Treaty. We're still under the terms of that armistice, and still technically at a state of war. One B-2 Spirit with a belly full of nuke AGM-86s ends this war. Might be as easy as a B-2 Spirit with a single Small Diameter Bomb detonating on the pillow next to Kimmy in his bed.

Thud the Second: Goes to State Rep Mitch Greenlick (D-33), Oregon. He's a white guy, but has made a political career of being a race pimp, creating a Diversity in Sports Hiring Law for Oregon a few years back, and steamrolling it through the Legislature. The Oregon Ducks just replaced Head Football Coach Chip Kelly, now coaching the Philadelphia Eagles, with Offensive Coordinator Mark Helfrich. Both are white. Someone put the bug in Greenlick's ear that Da Rulz had not been followed, and no person of color had been interviewed before hiring Da White Guy. If Greenlick had paid attention to the local sports press, he would have gotten all these facts, but he decided to shoot off his face anyway, and when caught short on his accusation, he doubled down on Teh Stoopid and bitched that the SPIRIT of the "Diversity" law was not being followed, apparently because a person of color wasn't hired. The law, of course, does NOT mandate hiring people of color, it is only there to see that they are given a chance at the slots that come up. Now Greenlick has to re-double down by holding a Star Chamber hearing on this boneheaded "spirit of the Law" crap. Of course, what he really wants to do is be appointed Diversity Potentate/Caliph for Oregon. Perfect Celestial Alignment of Teh Stoopid. Letter to the Editor sent.

Thud Da Toid: What can I say, it's a toss-up between outgoing Secretary of State Hildebeeste and incoming S.O.S.-Nominee John Effing Kerry. Hillary got ground up, chewed up and spit out by Sen. Rand Paul yesterday, and today, J Effing Kerry got a John McCain blow job. Perfect alignment of McCain's dripping chin with Kerry's belt buckle. GOPes rolled over on the Swift Boat Liar. One can only hope that the Liar will soon embarass himself badly enough to be consigned to the dustbin of history, or maybe better, he will invent his own foreign policy and completely screw up Obama's.

Thud the Fourth: Rocks and Shoals edition. Yep, as long as men go down to the sea in warships, some of them will have to suffer bad navigation/ship-handling, and will wind up on the shoals. Happened here. Ship had just left Subic Bay. Do you suppose all the quarterdeck crew were sober? Pretty cheap drunk in Olongapo...worse news is that the shoal is a world-recognized endangered reef.

Thud the Fifth: We don't have many Thuds in the Art World, but what good can happen to the Paris Ballet Corps now that their Chef de la Danse is a chap named Millepied? That translates directly to "1,000 feet"...(H/T to the RivrSis, my Art Correspondent).

Ah, well. Time and the stars march on, so soon this alignment of Teh Stoopid will be over. Maybe I should go back to bed and wait it out. Fighting off Teh Stoopid Rays is giving me a headache, anyway.

We're doomed, I tells 'ya!

Rand Paul, who passes for the brains behind the Libertarian Movement these days, apparently wants to run for Prexy in '16, and he wants to run on a platform of...

...wait for it...

...keep waiting...

Immigration Amnesty (disguised as Obama's "Path to Citizenship" idea), Cut Defense (the old, tried and untrue, "Fortress America" doctrine, and Legal Pot.

Yep, Rand paul wants to hog the Latino Vote, the Peacenik Vote and the Doper Vote.

Now that's a real smart plan. NOT! We need to disenfranchise those illegals, those dunderhead peaceniks and those dopers, not buy their votes!

Rep. Paul, this is a Nation of Laws, one in which you have sworn as a Representative to Congress, to uphold those laws. We are also the World's Best Hope for Democracy, not the UN, which falsely makes that claim. It is up to the US to defend the world against Islamic Terror, because most other nations choose the path of accomodating Islamist terror. Most Latinos in the Nation came here illegally, and that issue MUST be addressed by EVERY ONE of those people turning themselves in and agreeing to compensate any US institution which they leeched off of up until their surrender, BEFORE any idea of "Path to Citizenship" can even be considered.

Ron Paul, Take Your Seat and listen.

Defense isn't going to be cut. It might be cleaned up a bit, forced to adopt efficiencies and end practices of graft and bribery, but we still need to be on top of the Defense game to remain in the position we HAVE to be in vis-a-vis the rest of the planet.

I'll go with legalizing pot when, and not before, proper technical ways exist to determine pot intoxication. If we simply legalize it, as Washington State and Colorado have just done (and they tried here in Oregon but failed), we will be run over, economy-wise AND physically, by stoners. Pot IS an intoxicating substance, and as such, deserves to be controlled at least as well as we control the use of alcohol as a recreational intoxicating substance. If you don't think that this is much of an economic threat, please do just a bit of research into the decline and fall of the USSR. They allowed workers to be intoxicated, even supporting vodka breaks in factories. The resulting inefficiency, industrial accident rates, etc, contributed heavily to the fall of the Evil Empire, and they all point to the failure of any official policy towards allowing intoxication outside of the home as an escape from daily issues of privation.

As for immigration, I am ALL FOR allowing guest workers to come here and work, under these conditions:

• The US keeps track of every single one. A monthly reporting requirement isn't too much to ask of both the worker AND his/her employer. Any failed reporetees immediately have warrants of arrest issued AND SERVED, by bounty hunters if the dot-gov can't manage the necessary arrest rate. Those arrested for failiung to report are IMMEDIATELY deported. Next-day IMMEDIATELY.
• The US of A agrees to make all institutions whole that have suffered losses by having to support illegal immigrants. A simple background investigation can be designed to add up the cost of each illegal immigrant personally. Those immigrants must be made responsible for paying back those costs as a condition of gaining citizenship, and the costs must be paid back BEFORE citizenship is granted. It goes without saying that all immigrants waiting on the "Path to Citizenship" must pay taxes, and all must be willing to work to pay those taxes. No free rides, ever again.
• The "Dream Act" is rescinded. It's racist.
• The "Anchor Baby" policy is rescinded.
• The border is adequately manned by the Military to prevent further illegal immigration. Only such Fences as the military deems appropriate will be built.

Well, this is where Common Sense meets Libertarianism. How about it, Mister Paul, are you in the mood for some Common Sense, or are you just another flavor of craven politician trying to buy enough votes to remain as a net loss to a productive society?

 

It takes a worried man...

...To sing a worried song, as the old ballad goes.

I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long (there is something called a state of terror, which is beyond worry, and we'll all be terrified soon).

If Ron Paul is going to show up as the REAL "anti-Romney", we're screwed, blued and tattoed.

• Ron Paul can't beat Romney, but because of the Pauloons, WILL siphon votes, and may generate a write-in campaign which would throw the race clearly to Obama.
• Ron Paul is NOT a Republican of any kind, he is a Big-L Libertarian, and there's a HUGE difference. Republicans are from Earth, Paul is from Zargon-5.
• Ron Paul is not actually a conservative, either, but conservatives are getting so terrified about the liberal Romney that they are swallowing the smooth old guy's line that he IS a Republican.

Bottom line: I don't like Romney, and I firmlyu believe he will not only continue Big Government, he will probably renege on his promise to end ObamaCare, and he's damn sure to approve any new anti-2A laws that might come down the line.

Remember that the US Electorate has an historic tendency to split power in Presidential elections, and having a Democratic Congress and a President Romney is a distinct possibility. If that happens, there will be few changes to the burdensome government which stifles our culture and our economy at present.

Frankly, I don't think the GOP has the starch right now to change the Senate to GOP, keep the House GOP, and elect Romney or Paul, either. I thnk that the best we can hope for is simply dumping Obama, which WILL be an improvement, but if the (D)onks get the Congress back, it will be a small improvement indeed.

Thursday Thuds #10

Numerology! Edition # 10 published on the Tenth!

Thud the First: Is the sound of an occasional Marine hitting a bar-room floor tonight, passing out from the sheer joy of celebrating the birthday (OK, and the effect of the spirits, too!). That's permitted by USMC tradition, since today is the Birthday of the USMC, the 236th.

Thud the Second: Whatever made that thudding sound over at my s.i.l.'s place wasn't him hitting the floor, he doesn't imbibe. Oh, yes, it must have been the nurse-daughter, A USMC Desert Storm veteran...she has TWO reasons to celebrate, the USMC birthday AND her hub's. Happy Birthday, Wally!

Thud the Third: This is actually an "un-thud". Ron Paul, Sr, has hit the floor with many of his strange ideas on past occasions, but he made up for a lot of those past errors with his correct assessment of the Obama Presidency: becoming an "elective dictatorship". Right on, Ron!

Thud the Fourth: Is the sound of riot baton upside Flea Party knees (no head strikes!) a Thud! or just a Squish! Inquiring minds want to know, but it's beginning to look like we won't have to wait much longer to find out here in Stumptown. Two of the City Commishes, Nick Fish (the only one resembling a Law & Order commissioner, and he's not much of one) and Amanda Fritz, once firmly on the Mayor's pro-Flea Party side, have called for an end to the "occupations". The Police Chief has been told to have the eviction plan ready immediately, and he has said that it IS ready. We have a miserable week of cold rain in the forecast for Friday night through the next 5 days, at least, and that will provide some impetus for the departure of the Flea Party. My prediction: Hizzoner will congratulate all the protesters, tell them they did a fine job of awakening the City and Nation to the Evils of Capitalism, and now it's time to leave, then he will set a deadline, heavy on the kudos, and he will barely whisper the deadline at his presser. That deadline will pass, and a new deadline will be set, and sometime after THAT deadline the police will clear out the camp. My prediction, probably not before the end of next week, but definitely before Turkey Day, because the core area will have to be cleaned and sanitized for the Christmas Shopping season (which has really started already). Not taking any bets on how peacefully it will end, remembering that this town is known as "Little Beruit".

Thud the Fifth: Is the sound of Prohibition-era liquor regulation finally hitting the bottom of the dustbin of history in Washington State. Initiative #1183 passed, 60-40%, and now, big grocery stores there may sell booze. This will accelerate the end of Oregon's Prohibition-era system also (and will accelerate me crossing the bridge to buy my hooch, one bottle at a time, of course, I am law-abiding <;~). Both States operate their own Liquor Stores, which are known as Green Fronts here in Ory-gun, because their front windows used to have the lower half painted a bilious seafoam-green so the little kiddies couldn't stand on the sidewalk outside the store and admire the hooch. The curious thing about the expensive campaign to make this change to dump the so-called "liquor socialism" across the Rivah is that it featured the opposition claiming the benefits of Prohibition all over again. Every time I saw one of the opposition's ads (most paid for by Seagrams, which had a fat contract they will now lose), I screamed at the TeeVee, "you Idiots, we got rid of Prohibition 80 years ago in this country, get off my TeeVee". We'll have to go through the whole thing again now in Oregon, with Costco, Inc footing the pro-private sales initiative, and Seagrams opposing it.

Thud the Sixth: Is the sound of Penn State's athletic program, and maybe some of their scholarship foundations as well, hitting the floor and not getting up. As this pundit sees it, Joe Paterno was hired to run a football program, not be detective-in-charge of a sex abuse investigation, even if it did involve one of his staff. He complied with the law, and informed his superior of the NAMBLA-type incident brought to his attention. The PSU Administration dragged their feet in handling the matter, so somehow, POOF!, Joe-Pa is supposed to drop everything and pin a star on his chest to follow up where the PSU Administration and the local authorities just failed? I don't think so, and as a matter of fact, I don't think so enough to suggest that PSU donors with-hold their donations in protest at this scapegoating of Joe-Pa. I think such with-holding is going to happen anyway, but if the reports of the students rioting in support of Joe-Pa last night are any indication, the school will now be in more trouble, financial trouble, than it ever would have been if it just allowed Joe-Pa to quietly retire at the end of the football year three weeks from now. The uber-correct sportz press can just kiss my ass, too. Their coffers were well-lined by the discussion, which they themselves raised to a fever-pitch, so THEIR hands aren't exactly clean, either. Here's an article depicting the events of last night, but note how the holier-than-thou and victims-rule attitudes come through in the writing. I'm ready to puke. The cretin Sandusky just needs to be whipped to death and have his body thown in a pig-sty, that's all. A Grand Jury can examine whether or not the University failed in their legal duties and issue indictments if they did. The press and the culture-killing, victim-sainthood people can butt out or be prepared to be held up to severe scrutiny, as I am doing to them here. Try this on for size, you crap-for-brains airheads: if the parents and family of that lad actually had a handle on parenting skills, why in the Hell would they allow their kid to be messing around in a college athletic facility at close to midnight? Think that maybe there's a little moral and legal failure THERE? I do.

Thursday Thuds - 2

First, a shout-out to Mockingbird, who needs to be informed on what a Rave Dress looks like, on a model:

The rest of the article is here.

OK, who says I can't advise on the kultur?

The Thuds:

That reverberating first thud is the sound of the foreign policy on Libya hitting the dance floor. OK, Washingtoon smarties, now that the rebels have succeeded, how are we going to entice them to actually CONTROL former-dictator Ghaddafi's SERIOUS supply of weapons and keep them from getting to the Jihadists, who have made no bones about wanting them? Got a plan for that? The whole world's asking, Mr. President, so where is your plan? Oh, yes, there was a Thud! That means that there was NO plan. We're going to pay for THAT, and dearly, too.

The second Thud! is local. The Oregon DOT, with some sort of hand-shake tax deal to Portland General Electric, the local power company, is building a 7-acre solar power park to power ONE rest area on Interstate Five. This is Western Oregon, folks, and we get maybe 150-175 days with sunshine every year, the rest are cloudy. Solar is strictly a feel-good proposition in these parts. A wind farm would have made more sense, or, if they HAD to do solar, some solar AND some wind. $10 million down the rathole on this Thud!

The next Thud! is more of a KA-Boing! as Ron Paul pin-balls his way down the campaign highway, campaign careening all over the road. Here's an effusive praise-post, proving once again that the Pauloons are still out there. For me, the operative sentence in the post:

"But the candidate can seem less interested in winning the nomination than winning the ideological battle."

Yep, that is Big-L Libertarianism to a "T": three quarters of it makes you smile, but the loons REFUSE to do anything about the pesky 25% of their program that both makes you puke and tries to get you killed.

The next Thud! is actually the sound of yet another Mitt Romney flip-flop, this time on Anthropogenic Glowbull Warmaking, and related "carbon" regulation. Playing along with the Greens up until now, since Perry came into the race, his RINO status was beginning to look loser-ish, so he just flip-flopped, now says he doesn't know if AGW is real, and wouldn't raise emissions standards for industry if elected prexy. Romney is just an old-fashioned political whore, taking whatever position his next trick wants, and the sound you hear is his bony old whore-ass thudding on the floor.

Time for one more Thud! and this one's made by the sound of your pistol falling out of that Open Carry holster. Good, you didn't try to catch it...that can get you shot. Here's a fence-straddling post by the fairly-famous Walls of the City blog on the subject. Linky-love by Uncle. I like his bottom line, "just CARRY", but he ignores several facts, such as what do we do with the 40-60% of ordinary citizens who are scared spitless to see the Average Joe walking about with a heater strapped openly to his/her hip. O/C people, that is an "elephant in the room", and no, I do NOT think that just strapping on arms to "let them get used to it" is going to work. What will work is Alan Gura's method: find firearms freedom in the courts, and when all the court battles are done and won, THEN carry however you may wish. You can do that in AZ, AK and VT now, thanks to court and legislative actions. The rest of the country has to either play the CHL-game or arm themselves with a good pair of running-away shoes. People, those 40-60% of people are NOT going to be "educated into line" about the Second Amendment. Hell, most of them think the Second Amendment is about freedom to hunt game, that's how doofus the hoi-palloy is on the subject of the 2A. Get your Concealed Handgun License and carry concealed. No, you're not "in your face" about the Second, but you ARE armed, and safer for it.

I'll join the Paulistas on this one...

Strangely enough, Ron Paul Sr stops short of the real objective, which should be axing the TSA entirely.

Want to kill two birds with one stone, Mister President? Give the job of airport security to the National Guard in each state, which is where such security started just after 9-11-01. The Guard would have to expand, all that money stays in those States, and it is an excellent way to do Keynsian "pump-priming", if you must have Keynsian economics at all.

Yep, I support Ron Paul here. I will urge my Representative to co-sponsor Ron Paul's Bill, but I will ONLY vote for a Presidential candidate next year if they promise that their first act, in their first hour in office, will be to stand down the TSA.

Paul-watch two - Updated!

Lessee...open campaign, shoot self and campaign in foot.

That's gotta be right there on Page One in Ron Paul's campaign strategy book.

Seems GOPac has picked up on it, too.

But, true to past form, the Paulistas Pauloons Paul campaign folks seemed to have stiffed a supporter into the news copy room at Fox news, because Megan the Anchoress read a snippet that gave Paul credit for helping to start the TEA Party movement!

Look, ever since Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet, politicians have been making these sorts of ridiculous claims, and they have ALWAYS paid the price for it.

Ron Paul didn't have a farging thing to do with starting the TEA Party movement. Your humble blogger, who helped a good friend organize the Gresham, Oregon TEA party movement, has a better claim on that than does Ron Paul, but you won't see it on my resume.

The Pauloons will see to it that it's a lively pre-campaign season. I'll be on Paul-watch here, and will reliably report it, assuming that Paul doesn't employ the same passle of hackers he used last time to take down "enemy" web pages and blogs. That tactic turned into "whack-a-mole" for Paul, as the harder his minions worked to undermine the critics, the more critics turned up on these here Intartubes. I predict a repeat, because one thing that politics a-la Ron Paul teaches us is that the craziness is VERY predictable, and almost guaranteed to be repeatable.

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UPDATE: 051311 1131 PDT: Pauloons detected at the AssPress copy room also. It's all about Cannabis at AssPress, evidently.