President Obama famously said "plug the damn hole" to aides in his frustration over the Gulf oil spill that threatens the Gulf Coast area as well as his poll numbers. Forty days into the Gulf oil spill and BP thinks they may have a handle on the continual flow of oil causing havoc among wildlife and now coastal beaches and marsh lands. The top kill approach of pumping drilling mud into the huge broken pipe spewing millions of gallons of oil into pristine waters has a 60 to 70% chance of plugging the damn hole. The administration is taking flak for their lackadaisical approach, mismanagement of the clean up efforts, and red tape responses to Louisiana's request for permits to dredge and construct barrier islands to protect the coast. If the damn hole has indeed been plugged, the disaster may be mitigated to the existing oil slowly moving to coastal areas with huge ecological and human ramifications.
It's easy to understand Obama's frustration especially when you consider the efforts to stop the slow moving oil would seem futile if the damn hole isn't plugged and millions more gallons of oil continue spewing from the ocean floor. It's akin to cleaning up from a flood while the waters are still rising. It would be futile, although sandbags and trenches could mitigate loss of valuables. Maybe the president will learn a lesson from this current frustration and extent a hand of understanding to Arizona's frustration and the reason they enacted a new immigration enforcement law. In reality they were screaming out to the federal government, plug the damn hole. In reality Arizona is simply trying to do everything they can to mitigate the damage of illegal immigration because the federal government will not plug the damn hole.
Obama keeps speaking of comprehensive immigration reform, which is akin to cleaning the Louisiana coastline line before you plug the damn hole. Most Americans believe and rightfully so that you can't constructively deal with the current illegal immigrant populous until you stem the flow of illegals from the southern border. The idea that you must pass a comprehensive bill that deals with all aspects of our current immigration laws and puts illegals on a path to citizenship without plugging the damn hole first is ludicrous. Here's where Obama and the democrats lose credibility. In reality they don't want the damn hole plugged.
When president Bush, with help from John McCain and Ted Kennedy crafted a comprehensive immigration bill, aka.... amnesty bill several years back, the American people pushed backed. The idea that the federal government was going to make a pathway to citizenship to those that broke our immigration laws along with a tepid border security component was not what Americans wanted. John McCain learned a lesson. The lesson was, plug the damn hole first. President Bush who had received fairly good support from the Hispanic community thought that maybe he could co-opt their support long term for the republican party, but in so trying he aroused a sleeping giant. The conservative base of the republican party as well as many conservative independents and some democrats rose up in force and the first seeds of the current Tea Party movement took root.
Now we have the current administration trying the same tactic. Their insistence that you have to deal with the current illegals while trying to stem the flow is absurd. We know and understand that they have no intention of stopping the flow, or it would have already been done. Their insistence on putting current illegals on a path to citizenship is a cynical attempt at a massive new voter drive. Where would the incentive be to stop the flow of illegals when you could significantly increase your democrat voter roles with every coyote's brutal transport of a truck load of starving, suffering dreamers of a better life. Democrats understanding of the plight of poor Mexicans only extents to the perception that they will become a loyal and trusted voting block insuring their reelection and continuation of power. They would soon be taken for granted just like the African American vote is for the democrat party. Their constant playing of the race card in the debate of the Arizona law signals that lip service and faux understanding of Hispanic issues are politicized for incessant power.
The Arizona law continues to have broad support among the American people, and the democrats cynical attempt to characterize it as racist and unconstitutional will fail. In reality the Arizona law has far greater racial profiling safe guards than the current federal law, and is a fairly benign and weak law. That doesn't seem to stop the democrat party from trying to activate it's Hispanic and pro amnesty base to come out and vote this November. The problem is, they are once again awakening that sleeping giant. The conservative majority that believes in the rule of law and sane immigration and enforcement. I just have one thing to say to president Obama before he tries to clean up the mess of illegals already in this country, and it is akin to cleaning the Louisiana coast before you....plug the damn hole!
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After taking almost two weeks off from blogging, it's time to jump back in the saddle and reignite the passion for commentary. I apologize to all my faithful followers who consistently read Cooperscopy and have no doubt wondered why a new blog post has been slow to appear. Well, I'm back, well rested, and ready to go. But, I must honestly admit there are so many pressing stories out there it's difficult to decide which story to focus on. I could comment on the rhetoric versus reality debate centered around the new Arizona immigration law that continues to draw attention, not because the law is out of the ordinary but that the administration continues it's demonization of it even in the face of overwhelming support from the American people. Jan Brewer's numbers continue to rise and her campaign supporting the bill seems to be gaining speed. We can fairly conclude that the administrations tactic is a cynical attempt to activate its base by motivating Hispanics and pro amnesty democrats to come out in November.
I could also comment on Felipe Calderon's appearance before a joint session of congress, where he trashed the new law with a resounding standing ovation from the democrats in attendance, and then later admitted to Wolf Blitzer that if illegals try to work in his country without permission, they in his words, "send back them." I could also comment on the growing number of administration officials that admit openly that they haven't read the law even though they seem eager to condemn it.
I could also write a blog commenting on the new Rasmussen poll that shows the growing percentage of Americans that want Obama care repealed. Sixty three percent now favor repeal, a huge number when you consider the next highest number was fifty eight percent. I could mention that the GOP seems unwilling to take advantage of this overwhelming number and continue the drum beat for repeal and use it to beat up on democrats that voted yea. Why they haven't seized on this is curious to say the least.
I could also write a blog on the BP oil spill, and how this administration continues to point fingers and rhetorically beat up on BP while refusing to mobilize a consistent clean up effort. Bobby Jindal the governor of Louisiana seems to be causing his stock to rise as he energetically gets in front of clean up efforts without any help from the federal government. Obama is planning a visit to the Gulf on Friday before he leaves for a Memorial day vacation to Chicago. Maybe I should write about the double standard in the media that did castigate George W. Bush for far less indifference. Maybe if the media would have done as much with this president the clean up efforts would have ramped up sooner.
Maybe I should comment on the controversy over the administration's offer of a job to Joe Sestak if he were to not run against Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania primary. This is a bubbling scandal with huge ramifications. The president indicated in his news conference today that a statement will be forthcoming. Why he couldn't just clear the matter during the news conference portends for more trouble and a very carefully crafted legal wording, such as Al Gore's, "No controlling legal authority," to try and nip this in the bud. Sounds a little more complicated than a simple denial.
It's great to be back and well rested, even though the stories available for comment are many. As this president's problems continue to grow, the material for blog posts does also. It's going to be an exciting next six months leading up to the midterms.
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It may be well past the time when our illustrious attorney general, "Eric Holder," was relieved of his position and sent packing back to his law firm made famous for it's pro bono defense of Guantanamo detainees and their general sympathetic approach to terrorist activity. It's clear that he is in no position to prosecute terrorists or even find a suitable venue to do so. His original and obvious political decision to try Khalid Sheihk Mohammed in New York city was a public relations disaster, which has since been walked back. Of course he was trying to send a message that the Bush administration was unlawful in their pursuit of terrorist information through enhanced interrogation and the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Rather than find justice he was willing to produce a show trial while terrifying New York City with security and logistical nightmares. The public understood his intentions for what they were....ideological, theoretically driven, with not a hint of practical or national security related safeguards. He has hired nine attorneys in the justice department who have either advocated or represented terrorist detainees.
This week he was questioned before a congressional committee and refused , through a verbal contortionist exercise, {watch video here}, to acknowledge that radical Islam might be a motivating factor for the three most recent terrorist attempts on this country. It would have been funny, but the sobering reality is our chief prosecutor in charge of bringing these people to justice can't even acknowledge their motive. Rather than calling terrorism for what it is, he seems to want to pacify and endear himself to the terrorists and their sympathizers which in reality is emboldening them by signaling weakness and fear. This gentler and kinder approach to terrorism has not abated the attacks and in fact they have ticked up. Of the thirty failed attacks on this country since 9/11, ten have occurred in the last year since the announcement of the closing of Guantanamo Bay.
We have him last Sunday pronouncing that the new Arizona immigration enforcement law could lead to racial profiling. But this week when asked at that same congressional hearing room, {videos shown here}, if he had read the law, and he said he hadn't. He also revealed he had picked up his opinion about the law from media accounts, or things he's read or seen on television about the law. Well, we all know what direction that is going to push someone. Even though there is overwhelming support for this new law, the media spin continues to misrepresent what the law says and they incessantly focus on protests and boycotts of Arizona. It would be prudent for the AG to actually read, and perhaps study the law before he gets in front of the microphone and condemns it while signaling he may file suit against it.
I don't know about you, but when an attorney general of the United States seems to be taking an ideological approach to every issue before him without regards to the safety and well being of the American people, it can be very unsettling. Arizona's new immigration enforcement law is simply applying the existing federal law to state enforcement, because the federal government is not doing it's job and the result is chaos in that border state. The Arizona law actually goes further in the statute to avoid racial profiling then the federal law. You can not make a claim that this law violates civil liberties while claiming the federal law does not, unless their claim is that they aren't enforcing federal law so therefore it can't have a racial profiling element. But, that begs the question, "why isn't the attorney general enforcing existing laws?"
If the attorney General wants to make the claim that border security is a federal mandate and the states have no right to engage in the enforcement of that, you could possibly have a point. But, inherent in that claim is the obvious admission that the federal government is not doing it's job. The Racial profiling angle is ludicrous and without merit and is an obvious attempt at racial division for political gain. The problem with this tactic is that it is not working. If anything the Arizona law is gaining greater support, with the exception of the councils in sanctuary cities that claim illegal immigration is a boom to their economy as they vote to boycott Arizona. Maybe the governors of border states should offer free one way transportation of all illegals to those sanctuary cities. Or better yet, maybe law biding citizens who believe we are a nation of laws should boycott those cities for failing to adhere to our immigration laws.
As a conservative, I relish the fact that the administration and the attorney general's tack on this issue as well as their approach on terrorism is a huge political loser for them. My natural inclination is to encourage them to keep it up, because the American people and their common sense will sift through the ideological rhetoric and discover the truth and punish them in November. But, the stark reality is they are putting our country at risk, and the luck they've encountered from the last several terrorist attacks will eventually run out. The porous border will at some point enable a backpack bomb or a suit case nuke into the country, and put at risk thousands of American lives. So, my patriotic duty must call for the removal of Eric Holder as Attorney General, over my desire to see them continue this political suicide mission that will result in the decimation of the democrat party this November. Although, there is still a part of me that hopes they push an amnesty bill before the midterms...Shame on me!
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Over the weekend president Obama gave a commencement speech in which he attacked all the new media outlets and technological gadgets that bring us 24 hour news and information at our fingertips. He said, "all this is not only putting new pressures on you, it is putting new pressures on our country and our democracy." An apt translation would be as follows, " If I, or the federal government doesn't get a handle on the dissemination of news and information, we may not be as free to control the reigns of power with impunity." This is a chilling concept that our president is criticizing the technological breakthroughs that put the American people in the know, and has given them a wide variety of voices and the individual freedom to choose their source of information. Instead of the old media which is obviously biased and inconsistent with the sensibility of most Americans, we now have multiple choices and can choose for ourselves whom we believe. He also mentioned that, "with ipods and ipads, X Boxes and PlayStations ....none of which I know how to work...information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment..." This is incredible to believe that a president of the United States, the land of the free, is declaring war on information and the availability of it.
I don't know about you but I would have expected words like these to come from a "Hugo Chavez" or a "Fidel Castro," Marxists socialists, that can only protect their regimes by controlling what the people hear, and whom they hear it from. He also said, "You are coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank all that high on the truth meter." Hmmm....Bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments? That sounds to me like a free an open debate in the market place of ideas. That sounds like what we're suppose to be exposing our kids to when we send them to college. The opportunity to hear and debate and decide for themselves where their ideological tent stakes should be driven and form an understanding of what they believe. Is he actually saying that we should censor our children from certain voices? I guess that's what he meant when he attacked Fox News, and discouraged Americans from listening to Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. I guess that's why this administration pushed the net neutrality laws, to control internet content, and the fairness doctrine to control radio content
How ironic it is that those now in power who came of age in the sixties and seventies and called for openness and freedom of thought are now pushing censorship and political correctness. How inconsistent their message is when they routinely blacklist dissenting voices and go so far as to remove politically incorrect speech from the ivory towers of higher education that used to stand as pillars for freedom of thought and expression. This president will never succeed in taking our first amendment rights away, but the fact that he is indirectly attacking them is troubling to say the least.
I for one, have no problem with censorship as long as it is self imposed. Governments ever increasing tentacles become longer as well as stronger and choke the liberty out of it's citizens when they censor the dissenters. All technologies can be animated and silenced with the individual's push of a button. I for one believe my children are intelligent enough to hear many inconsistent voices and still have the ability to sift the wheat from the chaff. Hearing lies won't make me believe them. In fact the more lies I hear the more I want the truth proclaimed and am determined to shout it from the housetops. Mr. president, stop insulting the intelligence of the American people while setting yourself up as the arbiter of truth. We are informed because we crave information, and no potus will be allowed to turn back the technological gains that have given us a voice. Let's all remember that this president fought the secret service to keep his blackberry. Do I detect an air of hypocrisy?
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Trouble has gripped the administration in the last several weeks that threaten their lazy spring of demagoguery and Wall street smack down along with a hail Mary attempt to achieve a cap and trade bill. It's obvious they will try and use the vilification of Wall street, the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, while they misrepresent the new Arizona immigration law, and label domestic terrorism as a real and present danger, all to their advantage for the midterms. The problem is these scenarios are all blowing up in their face faster than a short fuse fire cracker..
The president's continued vilification of Wall street and Goldman Sachs in particular rings a bit hollow when you understand he received almost one million in campaign contributions from them. His said recently, " I do think at a certain point you've made enough money," referring to Wall street and his attempt to gain populist support for the Dodd bill. Without going into the weeds of the current bill under consideration the obvious intent is government control while still accepting a too big too fail narrative to the nations largest financial institutions while making no attempt to reign in government entities like Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, which were at the heart of the financial meltdown. The outcome would continue huge profits for the largest firms and insure continued large donations to the politicians that control their bottom line. The old adage used to be, "don't look a gift horse in the mouth." This administration has decided to put a bit in the horses mouth so you can control where the gifts go by regulation, control and intimidation.
Next we have this administration facing increased scrutiny for their failure to understand and jump on the immediate danger the oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico posed to the coastal areas. The new narrative coming out of administration officials is, "since day one," they were on the scene. They seemed to have borrowed Hillary Clinton's failed campaign slogan from the primaries where she repeatedly said "from day one she'd be ready to assume the responsibility for the country." But, a NYT article verified this administrations slow response to the spill, although much of the media is running cover for Obama on this issue in stark contrast to their excoriation and over blown sense of outrage at the Bush administrations somewhat slow response to Katrina. This all comes with new knowledge that BP gave half a million dollars to federal candidates, and the top recipient of BP related donations in the 2008 cycle was Barack Obama. And here we all thought, or were told that republicans were on the side of big oil. All this besides Obama's recent announcement to explore other offshore drilling possibilities doesn't bode well for him to now try and demagogue the offshore issue. Most know this announcement was simply meant as a cynical ploy to gain support for a cap and trade bill in the senate. Now Obama must dust the powder off his face from that short fused fire cracker. The only question remaining is, will the left try to use this to put an end to offshore drilling or will this reopen the debate for more onshore drilling in areas like ANWR and here in the lower forty eight? I suspect the latter is true. Drill Baby Drill onshore, may be the new mantra. The environmental extremists bare some culpability for the unintended consequences of forcing drilling fifty miles offshore. The fact that this disaster occurred so far off shore with a well one mile below the surface in very rough waters make this well difficult to cap, and troublesome controlling the direction of the slick.
This administrations misrepresentation of the new Arizona immigration enforcement law aided by the sycophant media doesn't seem to be having an effect on the populous. A new CBS poll shows that 51% think the law is about right while 9% think it doesn't go far enough, while only 36% think it goes too far. Obama's claim that law biding citizens will be harassed while going out for ice cream was way over the top, and apparently most Americans seem to be taking what he says as a grain of salt. The obvious result from a year long attempt at rhetorical flourish reminiscent of Sonia Sotomayor, that wise Latino supreme court justice. The Arizona law has even broader support in Arizona and Jan Brewer has received an enormous bump in the polls since signing the bill into law. This all is an indication that the people most effected by the feds lack of seriousness on the southern border understand what needs to be done, while the limousine driven elites are removed far from the chaos while their well manicured lawns still receive that immigrant touch, at a bargain price.
And finally we have the recent car bombing attempt in Times square. This may be the most damaging of all the to the narrative this administration has been pushing. Janet Napolitano has been lecturing the public on domestic terrorism for a year now, while democrats in general have been demonizing Tea Party rallies as fomenting violent acts, while the pro illegal immigration protests were rife with vandalism and violence. Right wing talk radio is categorized as dangerous to our democracy. Obama himself has been out front attacking personalities by name. This administration's response to the three major terrorists attacks in this country over the past year have been telling. Foot Hood and the Christmas day pantie bomber were both initially described by Obama himself as acts by a single perpetrator without any terrorist connections. Both turned out to have extensive middle Eastern connections. Quite a contrast to when a senator or congressman receives a threatening call or email because of the health care vote and suddenly the entire Tea Party movement is branded by the democrats and the media as dangerous to our democracy. The Times square car bomber was thought by mayor Bloomberg to be someone angry at the health care bill. The media described the person on the surveillance tape as a white male. The rush to judgment by the left and sycophant media demonstrates their headstrong narrative that the opposition to this administration is the real threat to our country. By now we all know the bomber was a Pakistani national that recently returned from six months in Pakistan. How now will they get information from him since this administration has tied their own hands on interrogation techniques?
But, the American people understand that the policies of this administration in regards to terrorism are putting us at risk. While the administration considers opposition to their agenda as the real danger, and continue to give constitutional rights to terror suspects, the terrorists sense our weakness and continue unabated. The administration's attempt to play word games with terrorism and Muslim Extremism to not offend Muslim countries is in direct contrast to calling Arizona's immigration law as "Nazi like," and Tea party participants as "racist." Since Obama announced the closing of Gitmo, which liberals call a recruitment tool for Al Qaeda, terrorist attacks on the homeland have increased. Of the thirty failed terror attacks on this country since 9/11 2001, ten have occurred in the last year.
Muslim extremists see Obama's preoccupation with his political enemies as a perfect opportunity to hit a distracted leader more interested in dismantling his political opponents than terrorist cells. The American people increasingly see a leader willing to give civil and constitutional rights to illegals and terror suspects, while vilifying those that oppose his agenda and have the gall to speak out. For all George W. Bush's faults, he never underestimated terror and continued laser focused on the protection of the American people against violent Muslim extremism, while not responding to political attacks on himself. We should however give Obama some credit here. He has identified whom he considers a risk to the country. Those who create wealth and provide our energy needs..... Those that oppose illegal immigration and border chaos....and of course the most lethal enemy to our democracy that white haired grandma, whom Obama consider a member of the restless proletariat, holding her hand made sign at a Tea Party rally, that has no compunction to thank the sovereign for that morsel of bread {tax cut}, that really didn't exist.
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