Anger, Ego & Healthcare Reform

I have waited to comment on the atrocity that is Healthcare Reform as I found myself so angry as to risk an unintelligible tirade, the literary version of firing a bullet at some idiot Congressman’s field office. I have found putting a little distance between myself, and Lord Falderal’s signing off on the largest publicly funded ego trip since Roosevelt and the New Deal, to be very therapeutic.

What has ensued in the last week since this abortion of legislation was vacuumed out of the womb of Congress is both deeply troubling as well as encouraging.  By encouraging I mean the outrage shown by the overwhelmingly large majority of voters against Healthcare Reform lends well to potentially “throwing the bums out” in the midterms this November.

The troubling part is two fold. First, the thing is law. Law, which will never be administrated correctly because the numbers just do not work. Basically, we have yet another useless and hopelessly flawed piece of legislation that will make welfare look like Microsoft in comparison.

The second more troubling issue is the insidious reversion to violence that has occurred in some factions of the Tea Party. This kind of behavior is not a good thing for Conservatives as a whole. This is the kind of crap that makes the less educated Liberals dive onto the “right wing nut job” bandwagon, screwing it up for those of us who stick to and abide by the more basic facets of the Conservative Republican platform.

Republicans now have a very tenuous line to walk heading up to the mid terms and need to flesh out any extremism in order to attract back into the fold, the Independents that were (hopefully) temporarily dazzled by Lord Falderal’s incredible pile of hyperbole and empty rhetoric. That particular brand of voter is not going to take well to the threats and violent actions of a few angry people who just can’t take it anymore.

That said. What the hell did Lord Falderal and his pack of zombies expect when they passed this piece of crap? Of course people were going to go crazy. No one wanted the flippin’ thing to begin with. The whole “mad as hell and we aren’t going to take it anymore” response is alive and well here in the good ol’ US of A. All the signs were there. Rallies, protests, the fact that only 17% of the whole country wanted Healthcare Reform in first place, should have given someone a clue. And, honestly I have to say if faced with some of these people (Congress) in person, I am not so sure I could keep from popping them in the nose!

Anger is a valid human emotion. The extremism we have seen in the last two weeks is inexcusable for sure. However, the origin of it is pretty easy to understand. For people who love this country and pay attention to what is going on, getting angry is their only resort to being heard. This legislation has cancelled our Representative Republic status and that in turn has pissed of a whole bunch of folk. The jackasses we elected into office are not doing their jobs and the common man has no real way to express himself or herself, except to vote or resort to more extreme tactics.

The recent activity with militias should come as no surprise. It is the oldest form of rebellion in our Nation’s history.  Forming militias is basically built into the DNA of the US. That doesn’t make arming ourselves against our own government a good solution to the country’s problems. The thing about human beings is we still resort to the primordial slime when our backs are up against the wall. We still have war; we still kill and maim each other like some kind of highly functioning Serengeti predator.

What needs to happen is for Conservatives to tone down the violent rebellion rhetoric and have an honest to goodness uprising by coming together and voting this Congress and eventually this President into oblivion. That is the right kind of rebellion. Let’s face it, as Conservatives we have the ammunition needed to do it we just have to stay focused.

Lord Falderal has indeed broached Socialism with the Healthcare Reform Bill.

One of my favorite sayings that I use all the time is “sometimes things just are what they are”. And, this is what it is. I am so fucking tired of listening to Liberals defending Falderal’s actions by saying that Fire, Police, Education and Infrastructure Services are Socialist by their very nature. That is just blatantly wrong.

Fire, Police, Education, Infrastructure creation and maintenance are NOT Socialist programs. There is no redistribution of wealth, they do not create goods, not everyone uses them in their lifetime and we have all agreed as a Republic to pay for them. Some would say that we shouldn’t be forced to pay for things we don’t use. That may be true but we made the decision as one to do it. Yeah, taxes suck, but for these types of services it just makes sense. Unlike Healthcare Reform, we were somewhat well represented when the decision to turn those services over to the Government were made. This is wickedly different than what the Healthcare Reform Bill shoves down our throats.

With Healthcare there IS a redistribution of wealth in that person A’s insurance premiums will be used to offset person B’s health insurance. We are forced under penalty of fine, to pay for everyone else’s healthcare situation. The key here is that EVERYONE is mandated to have health insurance. The means of production, exchange, and distribution of goods and services are all owned by the community with Healthcare Reform. That is Socialism.

And so here we are stuck with a useless law that will never gain any traction, beset on us by an equally useless President whose enormous ego prevented him from working on the issues the public cared about most just so he could experiment with a Socialist agenda and make some kind of show for those who stayed loyal to him. Now more than ever, this President’s power needs to be usurped not by violence, but by a carefully crafted and orchestrated rebellion at the voting booths.

Patrick Kennedy, Nuts? Or, Right on Target?

I don’t know Pat Kennedy, the Democratic Congressman from Rhode Island and as regular readers of this blog probably realize, I was no fan of his Dad.

I do know his brother Ted Jr., however and he is one of my favorite people. I only wish he would run for office someday. We would all be lucky to have him. For those who don’t know him personally all you have to do is watch the footage of the eulogy he gave at Ted Sr’s funeral and you will know him. He is as genuine as the speech he gave. Unfortunately, Ted, Jr. lacks the one thing requisite of all successful politicians; he’s never had an ethical bypass. Therefore, we may never see him chase public office.

Patrick unlike Ted Jr., has inherited a lot of the curse of the Kennedy clan; he likes his booze, (although a currently recovering alcoholic) he also likes his women, and Paddy boy is no stranger to pile of white powder and a rolled up C-note, possibly neatly perched on the mid section of a high class prostitute.

That said, regardless of my disdain for the Lion of the Senate, I have to give his kids the benefit of the doubt based on my experience with other members of the family. Even Patrick deserves a little break given what he grew up with. I know, I know, filthy rich and famous he has no excuse, but think of the psycho crap that went on around him.

If you have seen the footage of Pat’s tirade in Chambers last week, you like me, may think the lad is all kinds of crazy and perhaps there was a little Chivas left over at the Hyannis Compound and Pat may have had a few tosses on his way to DC that morning. Here is the vid in case you missed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_szCWi4Sr8

The main part of the video we are worried about here, is Kennedy’s admonition of the press in covering the war in Afghanistan, it happens right at the end of the video. Forget his crazy notions about how the war is being fought and blah, blah, blah. That is another blog post entirely.

Congressman Kennedy’s assertion that the coverage of the Afghanistan War is abysmal is right on target. He brings up the example of Massa and how there is 24/7 coverage of that fiasco, whilst barely anything of substance on the War. Kennedy asserts Congress like the masses that elected them, are only interested in salacious topics that really have no consequence at all except for political ammunition.

Does anyone really care about Massa, or any of these people engaging in what are acts of human foible? Well, we assume these people are human and subject to the same weirdness in compulsions as the rest of us. For some reason, we hold these people to a higher standard that on its face, just doesn’t exist. I mean we have seen the ultimate in scandal; blowjobs in the White House and semen stained Gap dresses and yet we got over it. These indiscretions are so unimportant in the overall scheme of things.

Meanwhile, we have young people dying across the world trying to ensure we can continue to live in the lifestyles we have become accustomed to, albeit in the last year at seriously diminished levels. Coverage of what is happening in Afghanistan has disappeared into the background.

Think about this for a second, when is the last time you really heard anything about Afghanistan? The State of the Union, maybe? Before that it was probably back in September when Lord Falderal stonewalled the world on how he intended to proceed with troop levels and pull out dates. Other than that, there is rarely a headline of any significance anywhere. Even Fox News who took to the airwaves and blasted Kennedy with claims they cover the War extensively are full of it. Fox may cover it more than the other media outlets, but just by a smidge. What they do cover one has to question the reasoning behind it.

The situation Lord Falderal has created in Afghanistan is rancid. His solution to send in more troops with the goal of pulling them out by July of 2011 is ludicrous at best. The truth is if we pull out without demolishing al Qaeda first, they will take over and become stronger in Afghanistan. Lord Falderal’s strategic thinking with the military is like his thinking with the economy; he doesn’t use the math the rest of us do. In Falderal’s world 1+1=3 somehow, and he will explain how it works. Unfortunately, too many people will believe him!

The reason we don’t hear about the War in Afghanistan in the press is that it is still not Falderal’s War, it’s still Bush’s War. Back when it really was Bush’s War we heard about it incessantly. Nary a day went by when not all of the national and international media had something to say about the way things were being handled.

For some reason the press has been reluctant to cede over the command of the War to Falderal, in the press anyway. It should be very obvious why this phenomenon is occurring. Unlike most of the voting public who are going through buyer’s remorse with Falderal, the media apparently doesn’t want to let go. They would prefer not to label Afghanistan as Falderal’s War. It just doesn’t fit into their ideology and they fear being the ones to call anything he does a failure. They are still holding onto Health Care for fuck’s sake!

So, as crazy as Patrick Kennedy may be, his passion is appreciated and he is ultimately right. This country needs to get back to the basics that matter: protection of our way of life, decent foreign relations, and a sound infrastructure. We have none of that and when the press decides not to cover the issues that relate to those things, as a Republic we tend to forget.

Biden in the Middle East? Where's That 3 Year Vacation When You Need it, Joe?

If you are a formerly popular President who has become somewhat unpopular and need to deal with one of the World’s largest issues, but risk looking even worse than you already do, what is the answer? Well, obviously to send the worst qualified and least ambitious of all politicians to deal with it in your stead.

Lord Falderal has dispatched Gaffemeister Biden to the Middle East to “try to boost Middle East Prospects”. What? Are you kidding me? Guess you should have kept your mouth shut Joe when you said the Vice President doesn’t do anything. You’re screwed now buddy!

Stupid is as stupid does and Falderal has outdone himself this time.

Can anyone honestly imagine Gaffemeister Biden matching wits with someone like Netanyahu who is supremely pissed at the US for ignoring the madman currently in charge of Iran. The fact Ahmadinejad has been screaming on high that 9/11 was a “big fabrication” should give some clue to just how dangerous this dude is and having Gaffemeister Biden involved with anything even remotely close to dealing with such a man is a fool’s errand indeed.

Iran has not been immune to the growing International sentiment that the US has been weakened by the election of Falderal. If anyone thinks that for one minute Iran isn’t developing all kinds of nasty weapons to wreak havoc in the Middle East, they’re crazy. Sanctions and diplomacy are not going to mean spit to development of Tehran’s nuclear program and guys like Netanyahu know it. And, trust me Iran’s nuclear program isn’t going to have anything to do with clean energy!

Israel is well aware of the dangers of Iran and with the United States pussyfooting around whether we would support or allow a strike by Israel, we are not gaining the allies we need to have. Israel was already worried about Falderal’s coddling of the Muslims a long time ago and sending Biden to do his work for him is not going to have a good effect.

Falderal’s policies here at home are bad enough, but his disasters on the International scene are about to become even worse.

I think this gives good insight to the character and substance of Falderal. His administration is sucking bilge water right now and he can’t afford any more heat brought down on him. So, he chooses one of the most poignant and charged International issues to muck up in order to try and save some face. It shows just how out of his league he truly is.

It has been said that Biden’s main job in this visit is to tell Israel not to bomb Iran and to instill in the Israeli people a feeling of confidence that Falderal will ensure their security, but that the US will continue it’s rally for peace. Really? How? How will sending an idiot instill confidence? And, how are the Israeli people supposed to feel secure when the US will not support Israel protecting itself.

The real message Falderal is sending Israel is that he sees Israel as a second-class citizen in the International theatre. He is in essence insulting Israel by sending Biden as his message carrier.

Israel already has a tenuous relationship with Falderal as evidenced by the aforementioned Muslim problem. You may remember that Falderal has made well-publicized visits to Egypt, Saudi Arabia (where he bowed to the King!), and in late March will visit Indonesia. I guess Israel only rates a Biden visit. Falderal also has called for a complete Jewish settlement freeze, which really hurt US-Israeli relations. He has backed off on it a bit, but the damage has been done.

I am not saying Israel should bomb Iran, it would greatly destabilize what is already an unstable situation, but we need to show Israel real support and act more as an partner than some kind of overbearing parent. The United States needs to slow its downward roll towards being a second rate power, but that will never happen if the President keeps lobbing insults at our allies.

The worst part is; Israel isn’t even asking for complete backing of military action yet. What they want now is hard sanctions against Iran. Falderal won’t even give them that. Falderal is worried about sanctions destabilizing the Iranian economy. So? Isn’t that the point? Hit them where it hurts and get them to turn their thinking around. It’s better than a military action.

Sending Gaffemeister Biden is an insult plain and clear, he will not be taken seriously by real leaders. This is a guy who once said in reference to his Vice Presidential qualifications; “I am the most experienced since anybody”. I don’t remember Vice President Anybody, but alrighty then… Biden also gave this quote to a New York Times reporter, “I know as much, or more than Cheney.” Say what you will about Cheney, but I am pretty sure he’s just a tad smarter than Biden!

I do have to admit I would love to be a fly on the wall for this little caper. I imagine the comedy to be endless if not really, really sad.

A member of Falderal’s cabinet once said they wished Falderal could send Biden on a three-year vacation; I bet Joe wishes he would too.


UPDATE: 


Well, Gaffemeister Biden's trip was as predicted a colossal joke. With Israeli headlines such as: "Embarassment", and a cavalcade of snubs and Biden'isms, we once again proved ourselves as a great nation in rapid decline. Nice work Lorad Falderal. How about sending Biden on that vacation now and sparing us further embarrassment.

The Obama Religion

Man, I am pissed off about our so-called President, and I know it shows. I’ve lost at least one Facebook friend that I know of because of it and there may be others. And, a good portion of my regular retinue of friends and family feel I am unduly obsessed with hating on Lord Falderal.

Yes, I am obsessed and I need to tell everyone why.

The last year has been a real struggle trying to figure out what it is about this guy that has gotten to my core. There have been politicians at all levels that I have recoiled from and cursed to the bowels of Hell many, many times in my life, but this feeling is epic. I can’t get it out of my mind. At first, I thought maybe I have finally snapped and having too much time on my hands to reflect on his continued syllabus of foibles am internalizing more than in the past.

Then I found a way to help me understand it.

Religion and faith.

I am not a religious guy by any stretch of the imagination. I am a Congregationalist, just for show. I got married once and had to join the Church I wanted the ceremony to take place in. It wasn’t hard as it was my hometown Church I had been involved with all my life, I just had never joined.

I do have a spiritual leader but only by happenstance. I didn’t seek him out he just came into my life. His life experience has been hard and time tested, which is why I call him my spiritual leader. I trust in him not really as a man of the cloth, but as a man in full. This person and I speak rarely; usually when someone in the family is being married or buried, but that doesn’t matter, the advice and knowledge I have gotten from him over the years is more than helpful. My point is that I get religion on its face. I completely understand why people are so ardent about it.

It wasn’t always that way though. Basically, I grew up thinking the Catholic Church was the real root of all evil and shunned learning about any of its tenants and teachings. My only exposure was the occasional wedding or funeral where I would count on someone to tell me when to kneel, sit, say the Lord’s Prayer, tip the Usher, or whatever.

Then I got the case of a lifetime.

I am the former owner of a Private Detective agency. In my career, I was fortunate to get some truly outrageous cases that I was nowhere near qualified to handle, but I took them, did my best and the results were usually good.

One day I was called upon by a New England Archdiocese (name & cases withheld for what should be obvious reasons) to help investigate a few wayward Priests. I was shocked they wanted my firm, and to this day have no idea who referred us.

Fortunately, there weren’t any child/priest situations (had there been I would have solved each one with my Glock, a dark alley, and no witnesses), they were cases involving Priests who couldn’t keep their quills out of the Congregation’s inkwell. In fact, not only were they sleeping with the wives of the faithful, they were bilking them for all they were worth as well as the Archdiocese itself.

At first I treated the client as I would any other. I approached the cases with the same set of rules as always. The job of a PI is to get the truth, not to tell the client what they want to hear or manufacture situations that never occurred. They were paying me a ton of money, way too obscene to impart here, and I was committed to doing the best I could and expected my staff to do the same. That thinking was a mistake.

I had the cream of the crop on my staff; former military guys, ex-cops, computer experts, extremely tough and smart people. They also all happened to be religious with the majority consisting of practicing Catholics.

Very quickly I learned just how important religion is. I had PI’s I thought could handle anything refuse to work on these cases because they could not deal with the idea of modern day Charlatan priests. They just didn’t want to know. I had one guy crack during surveillance, this gigantic, former Marine broke down after witnessing a Priest follow his paramour into her car port, remove his collar and partake in a little afternoon delight. This was after she bought him a new high def flat screen for his quarters at the rectory. He told me the abuse of power was too much to handle and his faith was being torn out from under him right before his eyes.

I thought he was nuts, until I looked into his eyes and saw the pain.

That is the pain I am feeling right now for our country, and even more so for my friends. I value my friends and family more than anything on this Earth. You can take my money, my possessions, anything but my friends and family. I have more respect for them than I do myself, and most of them are diametrically opposed to my political views. It is the memories created by these people that are the essence of my life.

And, they were duped. They were duped by a modern day Charlatan that doesn’t wear a collar, but flits about the world with a TelePrompTer and an arsenal of unobtainable hopes and dreams to sell. That sell job has shaken the faith of many of my friends who believed the crap Lord Falderal was slinging and is still slinging.

Like a bad Priest, he manipulated, took captive and raped the very intellect and goodness that allowed these people to believe his outrageous claims. The powerful and dangerous rhetoric was so well placed, and so well orchestrated it superseded any semblance of common sense to these folks. It created a religious zeal. I have never blamed the people who voted for Falderal; I get why they did it, I blame him and the people behind his assent.

I can honestly say most of my Obama supporting friends regret their choice. There are the few holding out for what would have to be a miracle to change this guy’s fortunes, but I believe it is out of stubbornness, or just unabashed hatred of Republicans and the former Bush administration.

My religion is the United States of America, where at one time anyone could be anything they wanted. Hope wasn’t just a buzzword; it was a way of life. Where the industry of regular people made up the majesty of the country. Our greatness was once predicated on our own individual efforts to make the country work. Now, it is a shambles because of the arrogance and lies of this person making a mockery of the Office of President.

This is why I am angry. It is not Falderal’s job to dictate, it is his job to serve us. It is not his job to push through legislation the country doesn’t want so he can preserve his legacy in the History books. It is not his job to traipse around the globe apologizing for our past actions; it is his job to represent his country with the pride and love of a true American. It is not Falderal’s job to be experimenting with Socialism and acting as a de facto dictator. It is his job to be bipartisan and play well with others in both parties and give the people what they want, not what he wants.

And, although this may seem petty, I believe it provides a good metaphor for how Falderal envisions himself. Falderal is a guest at the White House and like a guest at any home he should treat it with respect and a modicum of decorum. Seeing press shots of him with his feet up on the desk given to Rutherford Hayes by Queen Victoria makes my blood boil, likewise his habit of not wearing his jacket in the Oval. I know I seem like a tight ass here, but these are the kinds of things that cheapen the Office of President.

This is not about partisanship. I wish so badly that it was. I would have been more than happy to be arguing with my friends and family over age-old differences between R’s and D’s for the next four years rather than trying to make them see we are facing the demise of what was once a great country. We can no longer intellectualize politics and government like we used to. Now we are in real danger and have to do something about it.

If even the most liberal of liberals in the Continental Congress knew what this country was going through, they would be spinning in their graves.

My faith in this Government is completely shaken, but not my faith in the people of this nation.

Health Summit: Fail. Huge.

I hate meetings.

In business I resisted having meetings until they became absolutely necessary and even then, I employed a meeting Czar whose job was to keep everyone including myself on point, wasting as little time as possible.  To me, meetings were always a colossal waste of resources and allowed for much too much tomfoolery with myself being the biggest provocateur. Any time spent in our conference room was time spent away from accomplishing tasks. I always felt the most efficient dissemination of important information was by memo, e-mail, and phone.

I am an immediate kind of guy; problem arises, solve it right now, end of story, and end of problem. Of course that may seem over simplistic and obviously if your business does anything other than put lemonade into plastic cups at the entrance to your driveway, then meetings here and there are required. But, they should be limited to strategy meetings held sparingly. My opinion, of course.

In two years as a government official, I believe I must have wasted at least one or two lifetimes in meetings listening to blow hard wannabes, party hacks and people with basically no lives, mentally masturbating the most ridiculous notions and topics known to mankind. Does anyone really have to go to a public meeting and waste two to three hours of their time listening to a bunch of taxpayer paid lawyers and professional gadflies tell them how their 36” curb cut fits into the fiscal plan of the town, state and country, and how it will effect the wetlands 10 miles downstream from their 900 square foot house? And, then having the earth shattering curb cut the purpose of which was to accommodate your 100-year-old uncle Jebediah’s wheelchair, denied and sent through some board of appeals process the end of which will most likely coincide nicely with Uncle J’s death? Ridiculous.

Summit is a fancy word for meeting. A fancier way of saying; let’s waste some really big time and money. Lord Falderal’s summit meeting met that goal in spades.

This train wreck was billed weeks in advance as a “gesture” on Falderal’s part to bring together Republicans and Democrats to reach a more common ground on the failed Healthcare Reform bills. It was in direct response to Scott Brown’s victory and warning shot that shattered the bow of the Democratic supermajority. Falderal insisted there could be a bipartisan solution to the Healthcare Reform debacle if they just got into a room and hashed it all out. It also gave him the opportunity to save a little face in living up to earlier promises to televise open meetings for all to see. No more closed door meetings.

Nice idea. Big fail though, since as usual the extremely slow learning person posing as President was once again mired in his own world of egotism and arrogance to listen to what the Republicans were saying.

It was no secret Republicans were looking to Falderal to scrap all previous Healthcare Reform bills and start all over again, a prudent idea to say the least. Falderal’s response was to present a watered down version of the original Senate version. Huge mistake.

Falderal missed a gigantic opportunity to show some actual leadership and admit he the House, and Senate may have been wrong, and get to work on a plan that works for everyone. That would have gone very far in garnering Falderal some much needed credibility.

Instead Falderal used the opportunity to scold and whip Republicans for putting him in this position. If he really didn’t want to hear what Republicans had to say, why have a summit at all? He basically talked down, disparaged, and cajoled every Republican in the room, most of whom had their facts straight while Falderal did not.

Check this clip out: (yes, it is a Fox clip but it was the only place I could find it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ad-fqqjFhI

Chief News Analyst at NPR Daniel Shorr is a fav of mine. I don’t care what side he leans to, after 60 years of reporting and too many awards to mention, I have large respect for him. However, for once I find myself disagreeing with part of his assessment of the summit. He believes like most, the summit was just for show. But, Shorr also said he thought Falderal bought himself a few weeks of credibility by showing he could keep command of such a summit. I think the complete opposite. Falderal showed no leadership whatsoever. He acted like a spoiled brat and made absolutely no attempt to even hide the fact he had no intention of listening to the Republican’s side of the story in the first place.

Falderal has said he is glad to have the American people see exactly what his plan entails and exactly how the Republicans feel about it and that the summit made that possible. His strategy was clear, he wanted to appear the good guy looking to help everyone out while the R’s are the bad guy and would prefer everyone who is uninsured to perish and decrease the world’s population (I love Dickens references). However, I think this strategy will prove to have backfired in the upcoming elections.

Here is how Congressman Rogers of Michigan explains the crux of the Healthcare Reform debate. This is not from the summit but a lot of the same content came through at the summit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=G44NCvNDLfc

This summit did nothing to help the situation except give Falderal a platform on which to publicly state he will shove Healthcare Reform down all our throats through Reconciliation. It was a PR stunt intended to show he has strength over the Republicans and will exercise it by not allowing the R’s to filibuster. As I said, he is a VERY slow learner.

What Falderal did was ensure two things; his allies will get booted from office in November and there will be billions and billions wasted trying to facilitate his Healthcare Reform only to have it scrapped when the new Congress is seated next year. It’s not like the writing isn’t on the wall. Americans are ready to throw "the bums out" and they are going to. Polls from every respectable polling organization show a large percentage of Americans are ready to clean the House, Senate and White House.

I guess we can just add this to the growing list of epic fails for this President. Glad he is working so hard on the economy.

Introducing Connecticut Senate Candidate Richard Blumenthal

This is the first of a series of posts on Connecticut Attorney General turned Senate Candidate, Richard Blumenthal.

Ah, the case of Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D), or as I refer to him, “Dickie”. I have studied the dance of Dickie for years and years, wondering exactly where he would land after wearing out the AG’s lair. He is by far the smarmiest of political figures in the great State of Connecticut.

For those of you unaware of Dickie and his dastardly doings as Attorney General of Connecticut, let me scribe a little tome that is both entertaining and disgusting all at the same time. Dickie’s story is possibly one of the best political tales in modern American politics.

Dickie is an amazing politician, but not an amazing public servant. He has served (I use that term loosely) the State of Connecticut as its Attorney General since 1991, gaining such popularity as to be considered by most people in the political know, a gubernatorial candidate in the last four Governor’s races, although he never did commit to running in any of them. Popularity is not the only thing he has had all these years, he also has the chops needed to stay relevant. 

Dickie is the perfect example of consummate career politician. He’s a Harvard Law grad, big surprise I know, and has some pretty good legal tutelage under his belt including a stint as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun. He was voted into every office he ran for at a very young age, eventually rising up from State’s Attorney to State Representative to his present position. Now, the good Attorney General is gunning for the Senate seat being vacated by long term Senator and master thief, Chris Dodd.

His latest maneuver is a magnificent illustration of just how Dickie plays the political game so successfully. In an effort to look “independent” of the currently unpopular Falderal (Obama) Administration, Dickie has squawked about distancing himself from the President during his Senatorial campaign. This is interesting given he received a congratulatory phone call from Falderal and Gaffemeister Biden about five minutes after announcing his run, which he was quick to bandy about to every news agency willing to listen, very proud of his Presidential approval apparently, at least at the time.

This latest development is sure to piss off the Falderal Administration given their relief at Dodd’s retirement announcement.  Dodd was facing a very tough run indeed; given his past scandals were beginning to catch up to him. Falderal et al, cannot afford to lose any more seats in the Houses than already projected in the mid terms. Certainly they must see Dickie as a safer bet than Dodd, however being frozen out by the darling of the Connecticut Democratic Party doesn’t bode well for them, it could bode well for Dickie, though.

This “independent” strategy is something Dickie has always found useful in order to promote his own political agenda. See, Dickie gave up caring about such small things as constituents’ years ago. He knows how to use the power of popularity, and if you happen to be a politician within his particular orbit experiencing popularity challenges when Dickie is trying to achieve something, consider yourself persona non grata until you clean up your house; even if you happen to be the President of the United States!

There is always a little bit of a wink, wink with Dickie when it comes to members of his own party. He’ll look you in the eye while stabbing you in the back with wild abandon, yet even the ones being stabbed seem to forgive him. Dickie is on the ultimate of power trips and he masterfully navigates his way through by clinging to what has been a good run, lacking any semblance of scandal in his career. Well, none that has made the news anyway.

AG Dickie is the master of making minutiae seem big. He can blow up a headline like no one’s business, and it is oft said amongst Connecticut politicos that the most dangerous place to find yourself is between Dickie and a TV camera! Especially, if the topic at hand has hit a hot button somewhere.

(This example is obviously an exaggeration, but the meat of it is actually a fair illustration of Attorney General Blumenthal’s modus operandi.)

Example: A puppy has been hit by a GM car in Podunk, CT. Expect to see a dark Crown Vic with CT Plate #3 prowling around somewhere in the vicinity whilst Dickie holds the bleeding carcass in his arms vexing not only the driver of the car and the owner of the dog, but GM for designing a car with engineering flaws disallowing unencumbered views of wayward Chihuahuas underneath the bumper line. And, he will sue everyone involved. The cases will never make it to court because all Dickie wants is the headline. What happens after that, means nothing while the risk of losing a case in court and looking bad is not an option. Settling is what Dickie wants because he can do it by using fear.

Dickie is famous for using the might of the AG’s office to smack down his targets in favor of making himself look like the savior of the State’s taxpayers. And, it is a heavy sword he carries. No businessperson wants a beef with the State and their formidable resources.

The AG’s office has claimed hauling in many millions of dollars in settlements for the State of Connecticut during the reign of Dickie however questionable it is as to how that money made its way into the State’s coffers and how much taxpayer dough it took to realize those settlements. I can’t prove this because the available numbers are nebulous at best, but I would be willing to bet the taxpayers are getting a pretty good screwing when all is said and done.

There is one very telling example of Dickie’s work, which has garnered some serious media attention lately and proves that at the very least the AG may cost the State an $18 million jury award sometime in the future.

Here is the whole story: http://www.rep-am.com/news/local/464453.txt

The short story is; a small computer company who had contracts to deliver Dell computers to Connecticut State Agencies was accused of selling inferior units. Dickie stepped in and launched an investigation in which the owners were given the whole of four, that’s 4, days to comply with an court order to account for the specifications of thousands of computers sold over many years. That’s like tying your hands behind your back and being told to build an Ark in four days. When the company couldn’t comply, their owner was arrested and charged with larceny. Then Dickie sued the company for $1.75 million, three times what he figured the actual amount due to the State could have been… if proven.

The computer company, as aforementioned not a big business, fortunately had the wherewithal to countersue the State of Connecticut and were awarded $18.3 million by the jury, who stated many different reasons for why they reached that verdict including the conclusion that Dickie overstepped his bounds. The company surely won’t see the whole 18 mil, but they will get something, indeed the company should get something as they lost dearly over the years it took to dredge through this case. A smart State Attorney General would settle this thing and go fishing for some other innocent sucker. Not Dickie. Nope, Dickie has avowed vengeance and will spend many more hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of taxpayer money appealing the verdict. Because of course, Dickie cannot be made to look bad!

I like to use Dickie’s hair as a metaphor for his career. Yeah, it’s mean but hey, you want a friend in politics? Get a dog.

Dickie has some extreme follicular challenges. There is a base of hair on which to work with, but it ain’t much. I am certain however, that when let down, at least one portion of it must hit the floor at some point. Through some miracle of modern science he is able to coax the remaining veteran hairs into a magnificent piece of sculpture that gives the appearance of covering almost all of his Harvard educated dome. It has to take some real aplomb to achieve such majesty. From the front it is a facade of something almost normal in the hair lifecycle of the average man, if not a bit heavy on the axle grease. But, from behind, well, that is where the real beauty is. The rear view of Dickie’s head strongly resembles the stern of a classic Christ Craft day cruiser with the perfectly shellacked swooping lines coming back from the ears and colliding into a marvelous dovetail. The stuff is even Mahogany colored!

Yes, the more I think about it, the more ol’ Dickie’s career resembles that mop of amazing hair. Even though there is not much to work with, the appearance of a solid base never truly realized, is able to carry through and lift up to amazing heights of perceived achievement. Just watch out when the wind starts blowing.  

Is Lord Falderal (Obama) Muslim?

If there was ever any doubt the Falderal Administration is soft on terror, all one has to do is look at Lord Falderal’s latest move. The same day Gaffemeister Biden laid into Dick Cheney’s assessment of our security as weak, the AP announced the appointment of Rashad Hussain, a White House attorney, as special envoy to the OIC, or Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Before I get too far into this, let it be known, I believe in peace; however I realize the human race has been unable to take the necessary evolutionary steps out of the primordial slime needed to abolish war. Therefore, our Government leaders must act accordingly when there are actual, or perceived enemies gunning for us in order to assure the safety of US citizens.

To say that all Muslims are bad is of course absolutely ridiculous. I have Muslim friends and you have Muslim friends most likely. This is not about them. This is about extremists who loathe the United States with a hatred so bad as to never be mitigated by the cursory efforts of someone like special envoy Rashad Hussain, just another in Falderal’s cadre of inexperienced fools.

One thing to remember is none of this is actually about religion. This is about hate. I am not a religious guy. When queried about my religious status I always say I am a member of the Church of the Poisoned mind. That said, I begrudge absolutely no one his or her religious beliefs and that is as it should be in a free nation. You want to practice Islam in America? Go for it. Just don’t blow up any of my friends or family while you’re at it.

Many people believe that Islam is not a legitimate religion and serves only to cause chaos, and that killing is a major part of their philosophy. I don’t really believe that, but what I do know is many millions have been killed in the name of plenty of other religions including Christianity. When people are killed in the name of religion, it ups the ante, and our President needs to show a strong front against those affecting such motives.

Lord Falderal has time and again proven his inability to show the United States in a strong light to any country, and certainly this latest maneuver isn’t going to help matters. This isn’t like bowing to the Saudi King, or being pushed around by China on our debt, we owe them that money after all. No, this is far more serious.

We as a country legitimize the Islamic extremists by appointing Hussain. The United States sends the message that somehow we are partially to blame for the attacks against us. Tell me, does any US citizen feel we are to blame for attacks against our country? I hope not.

I believe a dialog with Islam would be good, if and only if, we were ever to start hearing condemnation of terrorist attacks from important Islamic leaders. Thus far we are yet to get that. What we do hear after a terrorist attack or attempted attack, are cursory condemnations by low level Islamic clerics and diplomats from the various countries sporting a heavy Muslim population. I question whether these are genuine in their sincerity, or not.

We need to hear serious Imam contrition before we start any real peace talks, or allocate any of our resources to Muslim countries.

Apparently, Falderal doesn’t feel that way. He would like to give them the keys to the storehouse. Here is a small list of what Falderal is proposing to “help” Muslims with:

A partnership with Muslims on education, economic development, global health, science, and technology.

Of course, Falderal has promised the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan & Iraq by August. (good luck with that)

Lord Falderal has also stated he will bring Israel & Palestine to the table to “jump start” peace talks. (can you say: narcissism)

And, get this; he wants to have a summit of Muslims from around the world to discuss entrepreneurship! (because our economy is working so well under him)

That is a pretty ambitious list, which should come as no surprise given his campaign promises yet to be kept.

All of this leads me to cogitate on another problem with this new appointment and all the effort and resources Falderal is putting towards fostering our feel good relationship with Islam. Has he taken a look around him? If ever there was a time for at least a modicum of ethnocentricity, this is it!

Partnerships in education, economic development, global health, technology and science for Muslims? A summit in entrepreneurship? How about some of that for Americans! How about taking some of that tax money and funneling it towards our own plight. How about this, how about be a freaking leader to your own people!

I realize the United States enjoys a certain satisfaction in thinking we are better than everyone else and forcing our capitalistic model on everyone, but we need to force that thinking on ourselves right now. This country is in serious trouble and coddling our enemies is not making things any easier. 

I do not necessarily share the opinion that Falderal is a Muslim himself, I do believe because of his background there is more sensitivity towards Islam. But, who can know what is really inside the head of a person? One thing is for certain, these kinds of moves coupled with the fact he doesn’t attend a regular Church, are certainly giving the people who believe Falderal to be a Muslim more ammunition and credibility.

What we need in this country right now is a guarantee of safety from our enemies, and an economic plan that works. Without those two things, health care reform and all the other various pipedreams of Congress aren’t going to mean jack shit.