Mark Levin on Politics

Walter Williams on Politics

George Bernard Shaw on Perseverence

Phony Scandals? Obama Whistling Past the Graveyard

During a recent speech before a selected crowd at Knox College in  Galesburg, Illinois, President Barack Obama asserted that Washington is awash in what he termed "phony scandals".



This line was later repeated by his minions and by the re-elected Chief Executive himself.

Many question what Mr. Obama means by phony scandals, as his Administration has been plagued by a variety of unsettling issues of late.

These scandals look very real and are not trifling. It seems that Mr. Obama is whistling past the graveyard, hoping that low information voters will swallow more pabulum of "Hope and Change" along with finger pointing to validate the Obama Administration.

h/t: Michael Ramirez

Cary Grant on Politics

The Roots of Detroit's Problems

While those are two of the biggest roots of Mo-Town Owe-town, it fails to depict corruption and race which are grown into the plant like weeds and are inseparable. 

h/t: William Warren

The Good Wives?

Anthony Weiner's second sexting scandal in the midst of the Democrat primary for the Mayoralty in New York City raises the interesting issue of "The Good Wife" syndrome. 

[L] Weiner's continued sexting exposed 2013 [R] Weiner resigns after sexting scandal 2011

While Weiner's wife Huma did not physically stand by her man when the ex-Rep. Weiner (D-NY 9th) resigned in 2011, the quite pregnant spouse did accompany him afterwards to the Hamptons where he presumably received all six days of sex therapy treatment.

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer (D-NY), a.k.a. Client No. 9, resigned in disgrace as Governor of the Empire State in 2008 for his habit of contracting with the Empire VIP Club for high end prostitutes, even when visiting the Mayflower Hotel in the District of Calamity (sic).  His wife Silda stuck by his side but looked extremely uncomfortable when Spitzer withdrew for "a private matter."

 John Edwards withdraw from 2008 Presidential Race 

Former one term North Carolina Senator  and 2004 Democrat Vice President nominee John Edwards (D-NC) withdrew from his 2008 Presidential run because he could not get traction.  Of course this might have been due to the fact that Edwards cheated on his wife who was dying with cancer and had a bastard with his campaign videographer Rielle Hunter.  Edwards had the temerity of asking his wife Elizabeth and family to stand beside him as he withdrew from the race, even though the Establishment Liberal Press (a.k.a. the Lamestream Media) had not broken the "affair"  (although the National Enquirer had in Oct. 2007).  But Edwards tried to make it right as he waited until after his wife died of breast cancer before he invited Hunter to try living together .  And Edward's delayed trial of covering up extramarital expenses with campaign funds ended with one  acquittal and three mistrials that Eric Holder's Department of Justice will not do further prosecutions. 

Some dedicated Democrats might explain away Carlos Danger, Client Number Nine and even the "Breck Girl's" affair with Rielle as being just personal indiscretions.  The same can not be said about McCreepy.  Ex New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey announced his resignation in 2004 as he came out as a "Gay American" with his wife Dina by his side. This public embracing of his alternative affinity and betraying his betrothed for a homosexual love interest. McGreevey's resignation was prompted on by Golon Cipel's intent to file sexual harrassment charges.  McGreevey had appointed Israeli Cipel to be the Homeland Security Liaison to New Jersey's Government.  That's not right headed thinking to appoint a foreign national to a security coordination post in a State which watched the terror attack on the World Trade Center in 2001.  Moreover, McGreevey had cruised restrooms on the New Jersey turnpike to sate his "love which dare not speak its name" with strange men.

Bill Clinton was able to twice invoke the "stand by your man" visual motif to mitigate his marital misdeeds.  As a candidate for the Presidency in 1992, Governor Bill Clinton was charged by Gennifer Flowers of having a twelve year relationship with him. and she had the audiotape. To respond to the charge, Bill and Hillary Clinton appeared together on 60 Minutes to show that they had worked through difficult periods in their rocky relationship.   It is also when Hillary Clinton infamously assumed a southern drawl to insist that she was no Tammy Wynette Stand By Your Man. 

In 1998, when it came out that the re-elected President Bill Clinton was having an improper affair with a White House intern Monica Lewinsky, then First Lady Hillary Clinton was not photographed standing by her man as he deflected the titillating charges.  But Hillary was quick to blame the troubles on the "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy".   Hillary was paid off for being a good soldier with strong funding for her New York Senate run.   

There have been some prominent Republicans who have been caught in compromising positions.  Ex Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) was accused of soliciting sex in mens' bathroom in the Minneapolis airport. Craig denied the charges with his wife by his side and quietly served out the last 1 1/2 years of his term, refusing to run for re-election.   

Senator David Vitter (R-LA) was exposed as a client of the DC Madam in 2007.  Craig denied the charges with his wife by his side and quietly served out the last 1 1/2 years of his term, refusing to run for re-election.  Vitter had his wife by his side and asked for forgiveness, which seemed to quell calls for resignation, until Democrat partisans wanted to mitigate Weiner's 2011 scandal by claiming that both sides do it. Of course, that charge would have been more analogous to Spitzer's sins.

Republicans have not been lenient when their caucus members sexual indiscretions deviate from the bounds of mere sleeziness.  Within hours of ex-Rep. Chris Lee (R-NY 42nd) having a Craigslist sex post exposed, he was drummed out of office, and the GOP lost that reliable seat.  

Moreover, in 2006, the GOP did little to exculpate ex-Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL 16th) after it came out that he was sending questionable emails to Congressional pages.  In Chris Lee and Mark Foley's case, they did not have "good wives" standing by their side to mitigate the blows from the fall from power. 

A nexus which connects the Weiner, Clinton and Edwards "good wife" impulse is that women who were politically engaged chose to stand by their philandering men so that they could advance their political ambitions.  Clearly, Mrs. Clinton benefited from the Clinton machine which vaulted her to US Senator and these financial veins could be mined again in Presidential runs (2012 as well as prospectively 2016).   Elizabeth Edwards looked the other way when her husband impregnated Rielle Hunter  and to the end relished the residual power connections to Democrat party politics by sticking with her disloyal spouse, even as she was dying of cancer.  Huma Abedin has twice stuck by her horn dog Weiner husband.  Huma claims that she loves him, but does she love repeatedly being made a fool? Considering her Muslim Brotherhood connections (by family as well as advising former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) she might not mind being "Huma-miliated" if that leads again to the corridors of power.

For four seasons, CBS television has broadcast "The Good Wife", a dramatic series starring Julianna Margolies, whose husband was a Cook County, Illinois States Attorney that was jailed for a very prominent sex and corruption scandal.  This necessitates "The Good Wife" to return to her old profession of being a litigator. Michelle King, one of the executive producers of the series, admit that the germ of the Good Wife storyline was inspired by recent scandal headlines.

We came up with the idea about a year and half ago. There had been this waterfall of these kinds of scandals, from Bill and Hillary [Clinton], to Dick Morris, to Eliot Spitzer, to name just a few. I think they’re all over our culture. And there was always this image of the husband up there apologizing and the wife standing next to him. I think the show began when we asked, "What are they thinking?" And Robert and I started talking about it from there. ... You know, what’s interesting about a lot of these political scandals is that the women are lawyers, too. Hillary [Clinton] is a lawyer. Elizabeth Edwards is a lawyer. I think that got us thinking along those lines. That is, we knew she had to go back to work, and we had so many female lawyers to draw on.

But as this political review shows, truth is stranger than fiction with these political "Good Wives". Yet the 2012 campaign was marked by a meme about the Republican War on Women.  Go figure, but the lapdog liberal Establishment Media tries to cover up the peccadillos of those pols with whom they agree and pounds the drums against their ideological opponents.   Yet Adedin, Edwards and Rodham-Clinton have set the standard for feminists that all can be overlooked, even repeated romps of naughtiness, if it gets you where you want to go.  Quite an example to emulate, isn't it?

Woody Allen on Success

Oliver Wendell Holmes on Experience

Bono Sings the Praises of Capitalism

While U-2 seem to be singing about the supply and demand of love, Bono has also sung the praises of the free market.

Potter Stewart on Ethics

Weiner-Holder: That's The Ticket?

Weiner-Holder 2016: Why not?  

Ex Rep. Anthony Weiner's 2011 sexting shirtless photo

Democrats do not seem to have problems keeping sleezebags in office.  Even after his "selfie" sexting with a minor scandal cause former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY 9th) to give up his seat in Congress, Weiner has still made a comeback as a leading New York City mayoral candidate.  And with the revelation of one of Weiner's sexting pseudonyms "Carlos Danger", he's made forays into pandering to Hispanics.

Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder has managed to hold on despite state sponsored gun running with Mexicans, not enforcing the law with DOMA, pursuing the Fort Hood Terrorism case as "workplace violence" or completing the Philadelphia Black Panther voter intimidation case. Of course A.G. Holder's legacy includes extensively spying on the press, just in case the lap dog lamestream media doesn't play ball. 

It would make for a fast and furious campaign. In addition, it would show how Democrats would try to hold onto power no matter who's fronting the ticket.

Deliverance from the Hillbilly

After all, during the 1992 Presidential campaign, they did advertise that it was two for the price of one?

If Hillary does persist in Potomac fever, it will be interesting if the horny hound dog behaviors return return to the White House, or if the prospective First Husband  will follow the Tweeting trailblazing of "selfish" Carlos Danger (a.k.a. Democrat NYC Mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner).

h/t: Daily Caller

Bertrand Russell on Character

Motown Owe-town Fugue

In musical terms, a fugue is a polyphonic composition in which themes are successively stated in counterpoint.  So some might give a bad rap to the concept video which is labeled a fugue.  But in psychiatric terms, a fugue is a pathological amnesia condition during which one is conscious of actions but later has no recollection of them when returning to a normal state.

Considering the counterpoints of corruption, along with moral and financial bankruptcy over the past 50 years, this could qualify as either a melodic or mental fugue. The sad part of it is that Detroit seems conscious of its pathologies yet it still expects civic affairs to go on in a normal state.

As the spot for the District of Calamity (sic) is already filled at Fantasyland on the Potomac, the Detroit State of Mind might better be applied as the State of Confusion.

Bloody Hell: MSNBC Fashion Protest

When the Texas State Legislature was in special session to pass legislation which prohibited discretionary abortions after 20 weeks and mandated improved surgical standards for such womens' health procedures, an anchor at MSNBC chose a striking physical prop to protest the proceedings.

It was prudent to prepare for strange civic expressions considering mob mentality and trashy  theatrics which abortion activists have employed during the course of this Texas abortion debate.  Spectators' demonstrations drown out lawmaker debate at the end of the first special session to obstruct passage. Abortion activitist chanted Hail Satan over pro-life prayers.  During the second special session, State Troopers reportedly took urine and feces away from  pro-choice protesters.

In this environment, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst (R-TX) did not want feminine hygiene products to be used as projectiles during the legislative session.  So tampons and condoms were prohibited from being  brought into the gallery, along with paint and other biological excretions.

But a week after the messy instance of legislation, MSNBC hostess Melissa Harris-Perry engaged in the Theater of the Absurd by wearing tampon earrings.  As she donned the custom made fashion protest accessories, Harris Perry ejaculated:

I just have to show these. My producer Lorena made for me last week some tampon earrings because of course you’re remember that the Texas state legislature said that you couldn’t bring tampons in when they were going these women to in fact stand up for their own reproductive rights. You weren’t allowed initially to bring tampons. So, just in case that ever happens again ladies, you can just bring them on your earrings.

As a news junkie, I do not object to a commentator having a pronounced opinion. On a cable channel like MSNBC which boasts the marketing mantra "Lean Forward" and is colloquially called "Mess-DNC", it is expected that views are going to be slanted to the left. But Ms. Harris-Perry is also supposed to be a Professor of Political Science from Tulane University, with earlier stints at Princeton and the University of Chicago (in African American Studies).   With this that sort of pedagogic pedigree, Melissa Harris Perry stoops to conquer by wearing tampon earrings a week after the issue has passed.

Tiger Beat Terrorist Parody

Is MSNBC so desperate for ratings that it needs to use cheap publicity stunts like Rolling Stone by putting the surviving Boston Bomber as on the cover like the equivalent of being Tigerbeat Terrorist to win the spotlight?  Or does Harris-Perry's lack of decency embody the libertine left's total lack of tact?  Or does it show that NBC's cable news channel has no standards--after all, they give Al Sharpton a daily news show each evening.  Resist we much (sic).





h/t: Michelle Malkin

Alex Fowler on Politics

Thomas Paine on Virtue

A Partial S.O.S. From Legislative Leviathans

Three years ago, President Barack Obama signed into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act ( Pub. L-11-203).  When it was passed, it was a long  2,319  page piece of legislation.  Although financial legislation can be tricky, Sarbanes-Oxley (2002) was only 66 pages and Gramm-Leach–Bliley (1999) was 145 pages.    This contemporary financial legislation was legislatively loquacious compared to the Federal Reserve Act (1913) that took 31 pages or Glass-Steagall (1933) that was 33 pages.  

But much like Obamacare (the misnamed Affordable Care Act), the bloated Dodd Frank bill delegated bureaucratic the authority to write implementing regulations. Currently, Dodd-Frank is comprised of 13,789 pages of rule-making from ten different regulatory agencies. 
  

To put this into terms which most people can wrap their minds around, Dodd-Frank is now the equivalent of 28 copies of War and Peace.  And Mel Brooks quipped that no-one makes it through War and Peace.   What can be done to avoid such governing monstrosities again?      


 ***  

1. Either abolish or reorganize the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection to have an Executive Board rather than a Consumer “Czar” and be financially responsible to the legislative branch rather than being an “independent” branch of government. 
2. While it might seem kind of quaint, but  to follow the Constitution.  
3. Congress need to stop rushing legislation.   When he first ran for President in the 2008 cycle, Mr. Obama promised that: “As president, Obama will not sign any nonemergency bill without giving the American public to review and comment on the White House Web site for five days.”  So much for that promise.  Speaker John Boehner repeatedly promised that all bills would be put on line for 72 hours before being voted upon.  This pledge has been repeatedly broken.  These Federal politicians need to live up to their political pledges or be held accountable at the ballot box rather than accepted as the standard practice of the Cocktail Party in the District of Calamity (sic).
4. Congress should pass legislation that is no longer than 50 pages long.  This is longer than some Tea Party type legislators advocate, but it is readable by the Member and can accommodate for the complexities of contemporary government.
5.  Congress must Enact legislation to  take control over expensive Executive Branch regulations.  It is understandable that members of Congress are not going to have expertise in complex areas of governmance, like the financial industry and the environement.  But they must not cede authority to smug technocratic bureaucrats who are given wide deference by the judiciary and are not beholden to the ballot box.

***

Compliance costs with the legislative leviathan is strangling growth in the American economy and is chipping away at household budgets.   The REINS legislation could be enhanced by adding a 5 year sunset provisions to any costly regulation which could be reapproved by Congress.  This would rein in an overzealous Executive Branch in issuing regulations as well as tempering the bureaucratic beast.

SEE MORE at DCBarroco.com 

Greg Gutfeld on Tolerance

Obama's Spirit of Detroit

Using a similar rhetorical formulation as when the President first spoke about Trayvon Martin--If Barack Obama had a city, it would look like Detroit.




To echo 2012 campaign slogans with the clarity of reality-- Government Motors is alive and Detroit is dead because of unions and progressive government.

h/t:  Steven Crowder

Chris Rock's Civics Simile

Glenn Beck on Justice

Henry David Thoreau on Success

George Carlin on Baseball

Senator Paul Tsongas on Politics

George Washington on Faith

Alice in Wonderland on Character

Will Rogers on Temperament

Bruce Lee on Character

Thomas Jefferson on Liberty

Illuminating the Washington Monument Under Earthquake Repair

Newly illuminated Washington Monument scaffodling, Ellipse, Washington DC 

In August, 2011, the District of Calamity was rocked with a magnitude 5.8 earthquake.  This unusual East Coast temblor caused damage to several iconic landmarks between the beltways, including  several pinnacles of the Washington National Cathedral and the Washington Monument.

Surveying earthquake damage 2011

The large obelisk on the Ellipse known as the Washington Monument suffered significant damage to the exterior and interior masonry, the lighting protection system and the elevator. Some of the stones had cracks all the way through. Mortar is missing between some pieces which was shaken loose by the bad vibrations at the top.  In one case, a massive stone shifted a thumbs length out of line.  The worst of the damage was 470 feet up the 555 foot structure.

After the damage survey was conducted in 2011, it took 20 months to implement the 18 month restoration plan and erect the scaffolding.  The some of the scaffolding had been around the Washington Monument for so long that when out of town visitors generically asked about the construction on the Mall, it was easy to mistake their inquiry to be about the 17th Street canal.  Congress allotted half of the $15 million Washington Monument restoration costs and businessman and philanthropist David Rubenstein stepped in and  bankrolled the additional $7.5 million.

To make the necessary scaffolding more aesthetic, the Washington Monument scaffolding was recently illuminated.  The National Parks Service contemplating doing this on Independence Day, but did not want to take away from the Fourth of July fireworks experience.




h/t: Huffington Post