Under the Fedora: Is it Nixon Yet again??

Edward Snowden is the big news of the week.  I have some advice for all concerned, consider the basic facts in evidence that are not in dispute:
Edward Snowden violated federal law and his oath.
Edward Snowden leaked a highly classified security program
Edward Snowden fled to a Communist Country our single biggest rival/enemy
No matter what you think of the NSA Prism programs, Mr. Snowden's motivations or even the necessity of the exposure of this scandal, these facts are not in dispute and I suggest people be very careful before declaring him Horatius at the Bridge.
Meanwhile is other longstanding scandal news...
More and more calls have been coming for Eric Holder’s resignation, it’s been suggested that Obama is keeping his as a lightning rod but this is a foolish move.
The professional  media left (read the MSM)  is indifferent to the IRS, scandal and Benghazi as much as they were about Fast and Furious but the AP/Fox story hits them where they live.  As long as Holder is there the Obama scandals will get coverage, but once Holder is gone the media will portray this as the president taking action and move along.
I’m really surprised the White House hasn’t figured that out yet.
For a while the defenders of the administration have been running around in circles coming up with every possible explanation as to why each and every scandal is no big deal.  Via Mark Steyn at NRO we see Senator Mark Kirk has managed to get down to the nitty gritty.
Here’s another congressional-subcommittee transcript highlight of the week. Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois asks the attorney general if he’s spying on members of Congress and thereby giving the executive branch leverage over the legislative branch. Eric Holder answers:
“With all due respect, senator, I don’t think this is an appropriate setting for me to discuss that issue.”
Senator Kirk responded that “the correct answer would be, ‘No, we stayed within our lane and I’m assuring you we did not spy on members of Congress.’” For some reason, the attorney general felt unable to say that. So I think we all know what the answer to the original question really is.
That’s what it comes down to, if the administration could answer these questions in an honest and straightforward way they would.
That they can’t continues to speak volumes, the question becomes are American’s listening.

I’ve been amazed at the reliable playing of the Race card by defenders of the president as well, a card that many people believed would be the Obama administration would be the end of this kind of thing.  (I’m even more amazed that people actually believed this would be the case)
Politically it’s not foolish, this card continues to resonate with the black community who has been made to believe that the only reason the right opposes Obama is because of his skin color.
No matter where the evidence leads this community is not going to believe there is cause to blame this president.  I suspect if we had Obama on film wearing a White Hood and burning a cross the black community would stand behind him.

***************************
Speaking of the Race card we are seeing it being played AGAINST Gabriel Gomez by a Spanish language newspaper in Boston.  They suggest that Gomez is Latino in Name only.
Think about that, what about Gabriel Gomez is insufficiently Hispanic, his command of English, his success as a Navy pilot, as a Navy Seal, his success in business.
Perhaps if he was on EBT he would be acceptable?
If that article and that argument had been made by a conservative publication that media organ would have been accused of racism,...and they’d be right.

I’m also convinced that my friend Michael Graham is dead wrong concerning this election,  he is planning on staying home as are a lot of his listeners rather than vote for Gabriel Gomez.
Gabriel Gomez is not running against Michael Sullivan anymore, he’s not running against Ted Cruz or Sarah Palin, he’s running against Ed Markey.
If conservatives willing to stay home and allow Ed Markey to be elected then we deserve what we get, just like the millions of conservatives that stayed home are to blame for Barack Obama.
How’s that working out for ya?

Unemployment is up to 7.6%.  The left is blaming Sequester for this and the poor economy.
For four years George Bush was to blame for the Obama Economy and now Sequester is being blamed in year five.
Barack Obama is the ultimate affirmative action hire, he will never be held responsible for anything as long as he is in the white house.

The Boston Bruins have swept the Pittsburgh Penguins to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals where they will face the Chicago Black Hawks.
It’s important to remember that the Bruins were down 4-1 early  in the 3rd period of game seven vs Toronto  and  down two goals with 1:45 to play and tied it with two empty net goals..
When people say it’s not worth fighting in situations it’s something worth remembering.

The Santa Monica shooting is going to lead to another attempt to grab guns.
Yeah after the IRS scandal and the NSA and PRISM people are really going to be anxious to be disarmed by their government.

The upcoming gas tax increase in Massachusetts along with it being indexed to inflation gives yet another reason for the business minded to flee the state.  I’m surprised Rick Perry hasn’t sent a thank you card to Deval Patrick.  You can’t buy that kind of publicity.

I’m still upset at Matt Smith leaving as the Doctor after 3 seasons (and four years).  When it comes down to it I think he needed at least one more year, but in fairness this is about average for people who have held the role.
Actors seems to be afraid to take the role for being typecast and identified as the Doctor.  I think that’s foolish.  Being the Doctor means you bring a ready made audience with you to whatever future role you have.
If you are trying to make a living in the entertainment business that is a GOOD thing..
I’d like to see an actor willing to take the role for at least 5 years the next time around.  I think an older established actor would be more willing to do so.

A lot of conservatives are crowing over Fox’s RedEye at 3 AM outdrawing Morning Joe at 6-9 in key demographics .
The problem is Morning Joe isn’t competing with Fox, they’re not interesting in beating them.  They’re playing to be the show of choice along the coasts from DC to Boston and from SF to LA.
Anyone who pretends otherwise is deluding themselves.
Finally i’m still amazed at the number of posts Instapundit gets up in one day.  What’s more amazing is he’s pretty much done this every single day for a decade.
If or shall I say when this ends it will be interesting to see who replaces him, if anyone.  He has a lot of blogchildren but none have risen to his level.
What will we do when he's gone?
See you next week

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Bad Lap Doggies!

http://youtu.be/PbQmCMyZ5I8

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Under the Fedora: Entering NixonLand

Last Wednesday before a house committee Lois Lerner stated that she did nothing wrong, and then proceeded to invoke her 5^th amendment right against Self incrimination.

Ms. Lerner’s lawyer suggested she should have not been called as a witness today, saying that as she has already informed the committee she would not be testifying it would only serve to embarrass her.

I’m sorry I don’t think it’s possible to embarrass a person who is willing to publicly declare their innocence to the American People and then almost in the same breath invoke the 5^th.

The IRS scandal was already the most dangerous of the new Obama scandals to this administration, because it is so easy for even low information Obama voters to understand.   Unfortunately for the Democrats in 2014 someone pleading the 5^th when declaring they’ve done nothing wrong is something the average person can understand.

I was not in front of the TV when Ms. Lerner took the 5^th.  I had promised my wife a day in Maine to check out Fabric Stores for her quilting hobby.  I am in fact sitting on a folding chair in Sanford Maine at a local chain called Mardens typing this as she checks out the large fabric section before we hit our next quilting store.

I’m sorry I missed the sight as I was driving and I suspect thanks to the continuing coverage of the Disaster in Moore OK the media will have an excuse to bury this a bit if they so choose.  Luckily for me and every single other person in America who did not see it camera were rolling and as we get closer to the midterm elections GOP candidates nationwide will be kind enough to show that replay over and over again.

The People at Outside the Beltway made a point to stress that taking the 5^th is not Evidence of Wrongdoing. Before a court of law that is entirely correct,  taking the fifth is not evidence of wrongdoing and can not be used as such before a court prosecuting her for crimes as the lawyers for any of the Five Families in NY would have remind you.

In every other setting than a court of law an unwillingness to answer such questions is evidence of something to hide and in the court of public opinion,  political belief  and common sense this screams “coverup”.

Even people on the left are now calling for the resignation of Eric Holder can anyone explain why they think he is any different than he ever was?

The DCCC used Michelle Bachmann’s announcement that she was not seeking another term as a fundraising pitch.  While she was in office they used her presence in congress as a fundraising pitch.

When will people figure out that the parties have basically become charities that support hacks?

It’s why I’ve never given a penny to a political campaign.

Rep Steven Lynch seems generally outraged, by what is going on at the IRS and is demanding action.  That might explain why Massachusetts Democrats didn’t support him in the Primary for senate and instead choose a man who can’t remember a tax increase he opposed in 36 years.

As Michael Graham said, the perfect senator for Massachusetts

Stacy McCain has been writing a bit about the Kaitlyn Hunt case out of Flordia.  For those of you who don’t know she is the 18 year old girl who seduced a 14 year old and has become a cause celeb in the gay community and beyond.  Stacy has made the point

See? You deviant weirdos thought Jailbait Lesbian School Girls was just a popular DVD title, but now it’s a civil right.

And the only people who disagree are bigoted religious zealots — including the authorities in Indian River County, Florida:

What’s even more amazing?  This is getting sympathetic coverage on MSNBC and on the Today show.

Oddly enough if instead of having set with the underage girl, if she had filmed her in a state of undress she would be guilty of a federal crime and perhaps wouldn’t have 140,000 people signing petitions on her behalf and $25K plus donated.

And if you don’t’ think Kaitlyn Hunt is the 2^nd coming of Rosa Parks the Gay Rights mafia will get you no matter who you are:

A gay couple on the Treasure Coast is afraid to show their faces because they say they’ve been attacked personally for their opinions opposing Kaitlyn Hunt. They fear backlash from the “Free Kate” campaign that is 52,000 members strong on Facebook as of Tuesday night.

“I’ve already been vilified for my opinion on social media.”

But this isn’t a low profile gay couple, up until a few days ago, both men held high ranking positions in a Treasure Coast LGBT advocacy group.

This is where the country has gone in only five years.

BTW I think this whole thing is a trap for the LGBT movement that they would be well advised to avoid

Riots have shaken Sweden this week and nobody seems to want to say the word “Islam” in connection to them.

This is a huge mistake, because what happens when you don’t take care of this kind of thing with civil authority sooner or later people take the law into their own hands like in Myanmar:

More than 1,000 Muslims who fled Myanmar's latest bout of sectarian violence huddled Thursday in a Buddhist monastery guarded by army soldiers as calm returned to this northeastern city, though burnt out buildings leveled by Buddhist rioters still smoldered.

Buddhists?   You don’t hear the words Buddhists rioters often, what set them off?

The rioting began Tuesday after a Muslim man splashed gasoline on a Buddhist woman and set her on fire. Buddhist mobs responded by burning down several Muslim-owned shops, a mosque and an Islamic orphanage. Roving motorcyclists continued the violence on Wednesday, leaving one person dead and four injured.

I say thug is a thug is a thug no matter if they are Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or secular.  Perhaps if the authorities saw it that way it wouldn’t reach this point.

In my last column I mentioned the St. Louis browns, if you had to name a Basketball team with a compatible history of failure it would be the Los Angeles Clippers    From their first season in 1970 through the 2009-2010 season they had managed 6 playoff appearances  till 2011 they managed only six winning seasons an average of just better than one every six years.

For the 2011 season they hired Vinny Del Negro as their head coach and the team improved every year  going from 29 wins to 32 in his first year, from 32 to 40 in his second and their first playoff appearance since 2006 and then this year to 56 wins not only the most wins in the franchises entire history but their first ever division championship.

So naturally the Clippers fired him:

Following one of the best seasons in franchise history, the Clippers said Tuesday that Del Negro won't be offered a new contract when his current one expires at the end of June.

Del Negro is just the second coach to leave the team with a winning record, following Larry Brown in 1993.

"This was a difficult decision, but we feel this is the best decision for our franchise moving forward," said Gary Sacks, the Clippers' vice president of basketball operations.

Say what?  This is how you reward the guy who turned your team from a joke to a contender?  This doesn’t come to the level of the Yankees firing Yogi Berra after losing to the St. Louis Cardnials in seven games but it’s still s shock.

BTW after firing Berra the Yankees would not return to the playoffs for 11 years the longest playoff drought for the team at the time since their first World Series in 1921.

To continue the Orioles comparison at least Baltimore  waited till Hank Bauer team dropped to 6^th the next season and was sitting in 3^rd before firing him in July of 1968 less than two years after winning the Series.

Then again, Bauer was replaced by Earl Weaver who would lead the team to their glory years.  Maybe the Clippers can do the same.

At the top of the post I mentioned taking <a href="http://datechguyblog.com/2013/05/25/quilt-trip-in-sanford-maine-marsens-maine-sewing-machines-kathies-quilt-shop/">DaWife to quit shops</a>.  It's actually quite interesting as evidenced by this video recorded at <a href="http://www.kathiesquiltshoppe.com/">Kathie's Quit Shoppe</a> in Sanford Maine:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uxGMuf0Kpc&amp;w=440&amp;h=248]

Guys take note, little things like this are the best marriage insurance you can buy.

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Finally the 5^th of the 10 Doctor Who specials have aired on BBC America.  The remaining 5 will be the only original Doctor Who we will see until the 50^th anniversary special.

This was the first special that every companion of the doctor who appeared with the lead (Peter Davison)  took part.  The next three specials should be interesting there were only two companions for the 6^th& 7^th Doctors and only the Movie for the 8^th Doctor ever shown.  I’m hoping they will start to bring up the Big Finish Productions which are still being produced today.

We’ll see.

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3AM Hang Up Call

by Amy Lidster

When the 3am call came from Benghazi, Shrillary Clinton was too busy scrubbing and spinning and POTUS was catching his beauty sleep to do much more than punt a stand down order.  Conservatives have known this since it happened. Now safely ensconced into his second term and the dumbing down of America progressing nicely, the White House released 100 emails regarding Benghazi on the heels of the IRS scandal and the firing of that acting agency head.

100 documents released? Only 24,900 to go and nothing so far on a farfetched YouTube Video. What we do know is the White House bus rolled Shrillary for the second time and shows the State Department scrubbed the original emails from the CIA. What we don’t know is why. What we do know is when. September 11, 2012 to be precise, two months before a very tight election when the narrative was GM is alive and Al Qaeda is dead. Turns out, not so much.

In his Sept. 12th 2012 statement Obama claims to have called this an act of terror but if you blinked you missed it. After lauding the Libyans for carrying Chris Stevens body to the hospital where “he died”, decrying lack of religious tolerance ostensibly in reference to the YouTube video at the very end he makes a general statement to not tolerating acts of terror, but never directly said the Benghazi attack was a terrorist act.  His claims otherwise earned him four Pinocchio’s in Water-carrying Washington Post.

Daddy Dearest paused from passing out birth control to make dutiful fools of Susan Rice and Shrillary Clinton, chirping nonsense about YouTube after lying about Ambassador Stevens dying in a hospital, the pictures and logic prove otherwise.

President Obama has never acknowledged the full atrocities visited upon Ambassador Stevens, but he sure saw fit to smear Mitt Romney with the tragedy when the candidate spoke out against the act of terror when called upon to do so.

Acting as an extension of the White House press office, MSNBC blames outraged Republicans for not letting this die.  But I wonder, are there no decent Democrats here who are equally outraged? If no, why ever not? Obama is not dismissing last week’s hearings as a sideshow and this is outrageous. Sneering paternally at Republicans politicizing the deaths of 4 Americans at Benghazi, is incongruous compared to how much he has milked from the tragic deaths at Newtown at every possible turn.

A quick perusal of the home pages of the mainstream media on 5/15/2013 at 7:00pm PST shows it to be in complete disarray. Only Fox and ABC have both the IRS and Benghazi scandals as headlines on their home pages. MSNBC has a spin feature where not ONE republican was interviewed and shown in the hilariously named Hardball featuring Chris Matthews.  What is most incongruous is why no democrats are outraged that President Obama and then Secretary Clinton lied about the attack upon our embassy. Our ambassador was murdered, raped and his body defiled. The Four brave men were pinned down,denied aid before they succumbed. What Difference would it have made had the nearby CIA operatives been sent in? We will never know, but the fact they were ordered to stand down, we will never forget.

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Under the Fedora: Orioles, The IRS and the game's not over

Ok NOW I understand why so many business’ that seemed to sympathize with what my blog and Radio Show were hesitant to advertise in 2011 & 2012.

This week reminds me of the 1966 World Series between the Baltimore Orioles &the LA Dodgers.

The Dodgers had made the trip to the post season in those pre-playoff days regularly 1947 &featured one of the greatest 1-2 punches in Baseball history with Sandy Koufax & Don Drysdale. 

The Orioles on the other hand had never played in a world series.  Their one trip as the St. Louis Browns was at the height of World War 2 when the best players were absent.

Conventional wisdom was the Dodgers would take the Orioles apart and when journeyman  Moe Draboskey came in to relieve Dave McNallywith the bases loaded and nobody out in the 3^rd things looked grim.

Six innings later Draboskey& the O’s won Game 1 on their way to a sweep of the vaunted Dodgers but were about to start their period as one of the dominant teams of the American League.

Last week at this time President Obama was riding high, Kelly Ayotte was under constant attack for her vote on Manchin/Toomey,  Mark Sanford had just won election on sc-1 ensuring a flock of stories hurting the GOP and talk of the immigration bill was not IF one would pass, but what type of bill would finally make it through congress and how much it would hurt the GOP when it did.

Meanwhile the press was uninterested in Benghazi, the IRS scandal was considered the paranoid ravings of tea party fanatics, and the press knew that their love for Obama was returned.

A lot of things can happen in a week, and there is every chance the media will pivot to something else if they can find an excuse to do so.

One of the things people forget about the IRS scandal is the multiplier effect.  How many people didn’t join the tea party, or give , or talk to other people about the tea party because of  fear of audits?  This is the real scandal, the intimidation of those opposed to this administration.

I wonder if the press that is upset about the chilling effect of the AP being tapped understands this, or are they thinking:  Serves you right.

The outrage of the press and congress  on the targeting of the right is rather amusing to me.  For the last three years they have called the tea party every name in the book, implied they were violent astroturf (unlike occupy everwhere that was supposedly a wholly organic peaceful movement  that never did a violent thing in their lives).  Let’s not forget the moment the Bombs went off in Boston the media was speculating that it was the fault of right wing extremists.

If the press wants to blame someone over this they should look in the mirror.

BTW do you think for one minute the IRS scandal happens if the people involved thought for one moment the press would report on it before the election?

Speaking of the Boston Bomber also known as the young heartthrob of thousands of women.Jahar apparently left a note behind in the Boat where he was taken detailing his grievances against the United States for its crimes against islam and calling the innocents killed “collateral damage”

I’d be angrier about those girls in denial over Jahar, if the MSM wasn’t so much in denial about Islam.

Oh and speaking of another odd coincidence:

Massachusetts state police say they and the FBI are investigating a trespassing incident at the Quabbin Reservoir but have no evidence of terrorism.

The central Massachusetts reservoir supplies drinking water to Boston.

Why would Terrorism even be suspected?

Procopio said they are from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Singapore with addresses in Amherst, Cambridge, Sunderland and Northampton, and New York City.

And the explanation for being there at 12:30 AM?

The men told police they are recently graduated chemical engineers curious about the reservoir.

Oh I’m sure there is absolutely nothing going on that has anything to do with any religion that doesn’t have anything to do with terrorism, or even Cigarette Smuggling.

Bob Woodward was on Morning Joe this week.  We haven’t seen much of him lately since his last clash with the administration.  When asked about Benghazi Woodward went off the reservation again:

"You were talking earlier about kind of dismissing the Benghazi issue as one that's just political and the president recently said it's a sideshow," said Woodward. "But if you read through all these e-mails, you see that everyone in the government is saying, 'Oh, let's not tell the public that terrorists were involved, people connected to al Qaeda. Let's not tell the public that there were warnings.' I hate to show, this is one of the documents with the editing that one of the people in the state department said, 'Oh, let's not let these things out.' And I have to go back 40 years to Watergate when Nixon put out his edited transcripts to the conversations, and he personally went through them and said, 'Oh, let's not tell this, let's not show this.' I would not dismiss Benghazi. It's a very serious issue. As people keep saying, four people were killed. You look at the hydraulic pressure that was in the system to not tell the truth, and, you know, we use this term and the government uses this term, talking points. Talking points, as we know, are like legal briefs. They're an argument on one side. What we need to get rid of talking point and they need to put out statements or papers that are truth documents. Okay, this is all we know."

Woodward got a lot of grief over hitting this administration earlier this year.  I wonder how much payback was involved there.

Last week we had Dr. Paul Byrne on DaTechGuy on DaRadio talking about Brain Death & Organ donation.  If you only listen to one of my shows.Listen to this one.

A little more sports, How bad are the Houston Astros?  As of May 16^th just 41 games into the season they are 4 ½ games behind the LA Angels.

That doesn’t sound so bad, until you realize the Angels are 11 ½ games out of first.  Teams all over the American League are just dying for the Astros to come to town, they’re a winning streak just waiting to happen.

The same thing must be going on in the NL when Miami comes to town.

The Boston Bruins made an almost impossible comeback against the Toronto Maple Leafs to finish the first round of the NHL Stanly cup playoffs.  Down 4-1 in the 3^rd period they managed three goals to tie, two of them while playing with an empty net , then eventually win in overtime.

Paying with an empty net when you are down is usually an act of desperation.  It’s rare that it works to score once, it’s almost unheard of to have it work twice in one game.

That photo spread of Emma Watson made me feel VERY old.

Some Doctor Who news.  According to reports the season finale was accidently leaked to fans in America when Blu Ray sets of  7^th season  were shipped early accidently.

I tend to disbelieve it as during the week not a single spoiler managed to make it on the net.   In this internet age that’s practically unheard of.

Me If I was a hacker wanting to take control of computers I’d have had an infected torrent with the preview spliced into it as soon as the news came out.  I’d have control of half of England’s internet by now.

See you next week.

 




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