History will mark this battle

This is it, people.

The real thing. The end of Constitutional America as it has been known for the last 237 years. If the Affordable Care Act is allowed to stand, with all the exemptions, waivers, and delays unilaterally issued by President Obama in direct contravention of the Act itself, America is finished as a representative republic and Obama is our dictator.

The precedent involved is as stunning as it is obvious, and cuts directly to the heart of the American Republic, not just the authority and standing of the Legislative Branch, and is far more important than this loud squabbling about the government shutdown itself, with all its pathos, bathos, and brouhaha.

Think about it. If  Obama can go into the Affordable Care Act and unilaterally change its most fundamental provisions, with absolutely no congressional authorization of any kind, what law is safe? What law can’t he change. Doesn’t it mean, ultimately and absolutely, that the “law” is exactly what he says it is? No more, no less?

It’s no use saying that the Affordable Care Act needed tweaking. It is not the President’s job to unilaterally change the law as it is written. It is not a right given to him by the Constitution. It is not a power he is granted. He, too, must work through the Legislative Branch to enact or amend laws – despite his horrendous perchance for resorting to Executive Orders when he knows he has no chance with Congress.

This is only the latest time that Obama has left his boot-prints on the face of the House and Senate. There have been a number of others, each as frightening in their own way, but this is the Big Enchilada.

This is horror story scary here, people.

Once used successfully, this sort of precedent becomes a habit forming. If this law is allowed to stand it effectively emasculates Congress. They become basically a pre-revolution Russian Duma.

Let me say it even more clearly. If this is allowed to stand, the Executive Branch is no longer an co-equal branch of government, it is supreme – and the Legislative and Judicial Branches are only relevant as far as they are willing to support Obama, who will have proven he can ignore their whims at will.

Much has been written about the government shutdown from the standpoints of closed parks, angry wheel chaired vets, pontificating congress-critters, and about the evil nasty Conservatives by the happily supporting yappy dogs of Obama’s sycophant press. Wake up, people! All that is a lurid sideshow. Irrelevant compared to the most essential issue of all – whether Congress is going to knuckle into to a dictatorial decree by the President  – in direct contravention to their written will as the representatives of their electors.

Lots of Democrats are quite happy with that state of affairs, but giving credit where credit is due, the Republicans in the House are fighting back with what is really the only big stick they have left. The power of the purse. It’s theirs, by God, and they are slowly starting to realize that this is the use-it-or-lose it time. Just as the GOP as a whole is starting to realize the same thing.

Oh, and as are, finally, Conservative pundits like Charles Krauthammer. But this is far short of what we need.

This battle, and it is a battle, must be driven clearly into the public’s view. They must be made to understand just what is at stake here. We, as private citizens, must realize that this has profound implications for us as well. If the President can bypass the Legislative Branch at will, we have lost two thirds of our ability to influence the governance of the nation, and have become completely subject to the whims of the President, who will be the de-facto final arbitrator of what laws are worthy of enforcement, and how. You may remember he has already established precedents in this area unilaterally deciding not to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), among others.

That’s bad. Get that dialed in right now. As much as we despise Congress at times, even the House members and Senators we vote for, influencing those people is the only way we have to make our voice felt.

But, “what about the Courts?”, you might wonder. Well? What about them?

Let’s take a look.

Roberts has been pilloried from all sides by the Obamacare ruling fiasco. And, justly so, but maybe it’s time we took a hard glare at that decision – and maybe ask some questions that should have been asked back then. Like, for instance, why did he use such an absurd argument in the first place. What is Obamacare? Is it a fee? Is it a tax? How does the Commerce Clause apply? Is calling a snake a goat a proper exercise of judicial power? Wasn’t this a red flag for anyone else. A clue that possibly something else was being said as well?

This may be rumormongering, but since it’s all over the Internet, I am not spilling any beans by posting it here. There have been persistent rumors that Roberts was being pressured regarding legal issues related to his adopted children. And it is not inconceivable, in my view, that he was given the opportunity to be a good “patriotic” supporter of the President or having his family life splashed all over the entire nation – for as long and as loudly the President’s above-mentioned happy, yappy, press minions let that happen.

I do not know if that rumor is true, but given Obama’s well-documented historical perchance for prying open sealed records to damage opponents, it seems likely that even if this were not the exact issue used for a club, that a club was used.

Regardless of the club factor, look back to the ruling itself. To say it was bad, goes beyond understatement. It is, as has been pointed out in many reports, a weird and inconsistent twisting of the way the laws are supposed to work. And that, in itself, is the message I see.

Roberts could have, and probably was expected to, simply find a way to agree with the President’s arguments, as they were given. And if he had been a good obedient little flunky, that’s what he would have done. But he wasn’t, and he didn’t. Instead, he wrote the opinion in such as way as to indicate, to the best of his ability, to the people who could read the “signs”, that he was under duress.

Here’s another point, it can be hypothesized that he wrote it that way to incorporate the seeds of its destruction. If my theory is correct, his weird reworking effectively added a poison pill to the unworkable elements of the act itself, which he thought would combine to create sufficient internal contradictions to prevent it from being enforced.

But the bottom line is, Roberts, and the rest of the Supreme Court, effectively chucked the ball back to the Congress, saying, “You wrote this mess, you clean it up.”

Alas, by passing the buck back to the Congress, they most specifically did not do their job. And that, my friends, was tantamount to surrendering to the President in this case. They successfully avoided his wrath, but at what cost?

Let’s face it, people. Obama has had his way with them, robes and all. They have been used. The Supremes now understand that they will have to be content to rule on those things that Obama has no interest in. When Obama asks for something, their job is to deliver. Hey, don’t worry, though! They’ll do what they can to slow him down.

This is cold comfort for the rest of us. We must accept the reality that we have effectively lost that avenue of input to the governing process when it comes to thwarting Obama’s will. The protections of the Supreme Court, designed by the Founding Fathers as a co-equal branch of government, have been rendered irrelevant by Obama, and he no longer feels he needs to fear them.

So what do we have now that the Supremes have passed the buck and the is Senate in Obama’s back pocket?

We have, my friends, the cold hard reality that this fight in Congress, right now, is the most important historical battle since the Civil War. It’s a battle we must win. If we don’t, you can be sure of one thing. If a historian two thousand years hence looks back at the current age, he, she, or it will see this Obamacare fight as the first, clear sign that the end of the American Republic had become inevitable.

I am not even joking a little bit. The stakes are that high.

Gross Incompetence — A tale of two stealth birds

By True R. Spence (Tokyo Tengu)

One of President Barrack Obama’s few – very few – clear victories was the termination of Osama Bin Laden during a special warfare operation led by US Navy SEALs on May 1 this year. That one incident was said to have been a defining moment in his Presidency — proof of his warrior credentials.

The media was in full rapture mode. Pundits gushed ecstatic and waxed profoundly on the macho virtues of our cuddly young generalissimo. They chortled with glee and busily assured each other that Obama was now guaranteed reelection at a minimum. Yet, as satisfying as that mission was, it did come at a significant cost. Specifically, a very expensive, top-secret military helicopter broke down and had to be destroyed in place.

Not much is known about that bird, so I will refrain from speculating. In Wikipedia, it is described as, “A previously-unseen modified Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk…” The article further notes, “The aircraft seemed to include features like special high-tech materials, harsh angles and flat surfaces, previously found only on sophisticated stealth jets.”

It’s hard to quibble about that one. The destruction of the bird was accomplished according to whatever “go-to-hell” plan had been created beforehand. Some portions survived – and no doubt are still being closely examined – but the worst was avoided. Most importantly, the mission itself was a success.

Fast forward to this December 4, and the mind-boggling loss of a fully functional, top-secret,  RQ-170 Sentinel  stealth drone to Iran, and you begin to wonder if you have indeed entered the Twilight Zone.

Why? Well, for one thing, this aircraft, even more than the abovementioned helicopter, is one of our nation’s technical crown jewels. Quoting Wikipedia again, “The UAV is equipped with an electro-optical/infrared sensor and possibly an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar mounted in its belly fairing.” The article quotes speculation,  “The two undercarriage fairings over the UAV’s wings may house datalinks and that the belly fairing could be designed for modular payloads, allowing the UAV to be used for strike missions and/or electronic warfare.”

The New York Times has reported that “the RQ-170 is “almost certainly” equipped with communications intercept equipment as well as highly sensitive sensors capable of detecting very small amounts of radioactive isotopes and chemicals which may indicate the existence of nuclear weapons facilities.”

Now, this is bad – very bad.

We undoubtedly lost a degree of stealth technology in the wreckage of the abovementioned helicopter, but since I doubt there are that many applications for helicopter stealth, the damage was minimal. And, as I mentioned above, they had time to implement their “destruct bill”. That would include yanking or putting explosive charges all the most sensitive avionics, before they flew out.

In contrast, the drone was the entire, fully functional reality of our latest stealth and reconnaissance technology. How many billions of dollars were expended, how many man-hours were spent in research, how many instances of sheer genius went into that little Christmas present Obama dropped into the laps of a nation that is arguably among our most obdurate foes?

OK, and no, I do not quite buy the conspiracy theory that Obama arranged to have the drone given to the Mullahs. But there is one point that is absolutely clear. That drone could have only flown into the unfriendly skies of Iran at the direct orders of National Command Authority – the President.

No intelligence director, general or admiral would dare authorize that mission on his or her own. Why would any of them want to stick their neck out that far? Furthermore, I don’t see the Obama White House as the type that would allow anything like that level of local control anyhow. Micromanagers have to micromanage and Obama’s crews are all micromanagers.

Get that dialed in clearly. This is not something the Obama apologists can be allowed to pin on the spooks or the boys and girls in uniform. The mission had to be ordered, or at the very least approved, by Obama himself.

He bought it. He owns it.

Now, on to the incident itself; I won’t discuss the cause, choose your own theory. It is here that Obama has demonstrated his total disregard for his Constitutional duties and proved that he is manifestly unsuited for his position as Commander-in-Chief.

Why? For one thing, I am positive – utterly and completely positive – that the person in charge of that operation had a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) spelling out exactly what should be done if a Sentinel wanders off the reservation. All competent organizations have “go-to-hell” plans because when the brown organic matter impacts the rotary air impeller, confusion is deadly. The US Military is addicted to such plans and has checklists for every possibility – most especially the potentially worst ones – because Murphy is never off watch.

All that means is once contact was lost; whatever organization sent in this wee birdie (either the CIA or the USAF) was obviously going to try their best to get it back. So recovery is given first priority. I am being vague about ownership here because I do not believe that whoever “owned” that drone could have operated it over Iran without some support from the US military, making it a joint operation at some level. Nor can I believe the bird was navigating on a single GPS feed. There had to be multiple signals coming off that bird. That means the handlers knew exactly where it had landed.

The clock starts here. What happens next?

The first thing they do is look in the back of the binder for the contingency plan that covers this situation. There might be several. Another thing you can be sure of is, before they sent that drone into Iran, they carefully noted the assets available to help recover or destroy it if that became necessary. That would be a normal and obvious part of the mission planning SOP. So, messages go out alerting those assets, flight crews are called in, fighter and helicopter crews get briefed in, munitions are broken out of magazines and loaded, etc.

Simultaneously, messages land on the President’s desk. “We have these plans ready to go and these plans on standby…”  Amazingly, the senders get back either an immediate refusal, or what is much more likely… nothing.

Thus, we are forced to choose from one of two conclusions. Either our Commander-in-Chief blew off a recovery from the start, or he choked. Neither response is acceptable.

The window was rapidly closing. If the Iranians did indeed manage to hack the Sentinel, and that is already as alarming as losing the aircraft itself, just think of how eager they were to get their hands on an intact drone. Thus, Iran’s military and Revolutionary Guard assets are on the move. If the Iranians can get sufficient firepower in place in time, they can effectively deny any successful attempt to recover the bird. This would mean destroying it in place was the only way to safeguard the drone and everything it represents as a strategic national technological advantage.

The clock kept ticking, options started fading – soon it was too late for any plan to succeed. The Iranians were on the aircraft like ants on a dead beetle. Every flyable jet they had available was in the air, all their missile crews were scanning the skies. The window had closed.

Bye bye, Sentinel. The “Beast of Kandahar” is now in enemy hands.

Isn’t that just peachy? At this very moment, China and Russia are probably locked in a bidding war for bits and pieces of that bird. Crumbs the Mullah’s are going to be crafty enough to use to their greatest advantage. But you can be sure that both nations will eventually buy sufficient access. They will learn the secrets.

That is the crime that Obama is guilty of. Let’s be brutally clear here. Recovering the drone in place or destroying it before it became impossible to do so were Obama’s only legal, moral, ethical and logical choices; one or the other. There was no third choice.

The responsibility to use properly and safeguard absolutely the strategic assets of the United States is a vital and fundamental part of every President’s job description — and stealth technology, every bit as much as ICBMs and nuclear warheads — is a strategic national treasure.

If Obama was unwilling to sign off on a mission to recover or destroy the drone if necessary, he should have never sent it in.

Even, no decision was a decision. If, by exercising what amounted to a “pocket veto,” Obama chose not to do anything until it was too late for either mission to succeed, he still bares full and absolute responsibility. I won’t argue motive here. Choose your own. Whatever the reason, that decision or indecision was the moral equivalent of cowardice in the face of the enemy – or it was treason.

Think about it. Would a soldier who intentionally delivered, allowed to be delivered, who failed to even attempt to recover, one-tenth of one-percent of the secrets Obama has just handed to the Iranians see it swept under the rug? Let’s ask US Army Private Bradley Manning. And, please note what that fruitcake delivered to Wikileaks amounted to a lot of stale political gossip and not much else.

Obama delivered the finest and freshest fruits of several technological trees that took decades of blood, sweat, tears and billions of dollars to produce.

Former Vice President Richard Cheney did not give Obama one-tenth the Hell he deserved over this issue. Nor, obviously, has the media or anyone else.

So where does that leave us now? Until or unless people start treating this issue with the seriousness it deserves, it’s not going to go anywhere – and it needs to. In a future conflict, American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are likely to die in much greater numbers due to what was arguably the most contemptible, long-term-destructive-of-American-interests, acts of indifference, incompetence – or both – ever perpetrated by an American President.

Why did it happen? Was he criminally negligent, or was it because Obama simply gets a naughty thrill when sticking his fingers into the eyes of a group of people – patriots – he secretly despises?

In either case, it is unquestionably clear that Obama has demonstrated a level of incompetence and willful disregard – you can even argue hostility – to and for the responsibilities of his office that is far beyond any that can be allowed in an American President.

This needs much more discussion.

Asia’s new carriers pick up steam

 By

Greg Waldron, Asian Skies 

Two big news items today, one about China’s new aircraft carrier, the other about India’s.

China, more or less, confirmed its carrier program. Although the former USSR carrier Varyag is clearly visible inDalian – apparently a great view is available from the bedroom section of Ikea – the country has never officially acknowledged the ship, though it has been crawling with workers for years. What’s more, the ship has a new phased array radar and bristles with other antennas.

The Chinese language Hong Kong Commercial Daily quotes a senior Chinese officer, assistant chief of the general staff Qi Jianguo, confirming (finally) the program’s existence. He added that the ship is not ready – as China’s internet community already knows.

Qi noted that the carrier is not for offensive purposes, but serves a defensive role given the pressures China faces on its various ocean frontiers in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and South China Sea. Apparently the other countries that share these seas need not feel pressured by China’s rhetoric (‘we own the South China Sea’) and major military build up. It is widely reported, incidentally, that the new carrier will bear the name Shi Lang, a Chinese admiral who conquered Taiwan in the 17th century.

Meanwhile India Today reports that the INS Vikramaditya will sail to India early next year. This is consistent with recent comments to Flightglobal by the Indian Navy, which has just received five new RSK-MiG 29 K/KUBs, that the new ship will be in service in 18 months. It has been a long, long road. The carrier programme has been plagued by spats over costs and delayed work.

Both countries have long term plans beyond the Vikramaditya and Shi Lang. India plans two indigenous carriers equipped with catapults – the Vikramaditya will launch aircraft via ski jump. The catapults on the new two ships, which are expected to be in service by 2020, will enable heavier takeoff weights, as well as the deployment of airborne early warning & control (AEW&C) aircraft. The Indian navy has approached  Northrop Grumman for more information about the E-2D Hawkeye.

China’s plans are less clear. The Shi Lang is widely expected to be used mainly as a training carrier. China is a newcomer to naval aviation and faces a long learning curve in deploying this capability. How many carriers she plans and their configuration is anybody’s guess.

-snip-  Read more at http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/asian-skies/2011/06/asias_new_carriers_pick_up_ste.html

Tengu says:

Interesting reads on both above-mentioned carriers can be found on Jeffhead’s Worldwide Aircraft Carriers site http://www.jeffhead.com/worldwideaircraftcarriers/

Qi’s reassurances to one side, there can be little doubt that when the Shi Lang finally takes to the high seas, she will be a game changer in South East Asia.  Yes, carrier flight operations are difficult and it will take some time for China’s PLAN to master the ins and outs, but there is no doubt in my formerly military mind that they will master those lessons and that the ship will be give China’s war planners a level of power projection capability that it has never had before.

This capability, given China’s historical willingness to use it’s military power in defense of what it perceives as its national interests, is undoubtedly raising serious concerns in Asian capitals from Tokyo to New Delhi.

Personally, I think the Shi Lang and her follow-on sisters are going to be damn effective. Much more effective at what they are being designed for than most naval planners are willing to believe now. Much more effective and combat capable than the Russian Navy’s Admiral Kutnezsov  — and I think the Shi Lang herself, once she steams out of port for the first time, is going to be operational much faster than people believe possible.

Will the PLAN make some mistakes learning the lessons? Sure! They have probably made more than a few already — which is probably at least part of the reason it’s taking them so long to get this lady out to sea.

But they will get that lady out to sea, and they will master carrier flight operations (again, probably a lot faster than anyone here is willing to bet), and they will build more.

As far as her size and lack of steam catapults are concerned, I just shake my head and sigh. People look at her and look at our big brawny Nimitz and Ford class carriers and smirk. That, in my opinion is foolish.

She was never designed to go air-wing to air-wing against American supercarriers so any comparisons along that line are irrelevant. Chinese anti-carrier doctrine revolves around cruise missiles (both sub and surface launched) and their new anti-carrier IRBMs.

It is my belief that the Shi Lang is the perfect size for her envisioned mission, which will be power projection in the Southeast Asian, Indian Ocean and African areas, in support of Chinese geopolitical objectives involving developing nations, and as a highly visible symbol of China’s might and reach during port visits to friendly and non-aligned nations.

To give just one example, how does anyone think Indonesia or Malaysiais going to react, if during of their periodic orgies of ethnic-Chinese bashing, the Shi Lang carrying 30 to 50 SU-33s along with her battlegroup screen were to show up offshore?

Then there is the PLAN itself and the casual contempt in which too many people seem to hold them. If you have any doubts about how serious they are, take a good look at THE RISING SEA DRAGON page,

an http://www.jeffhead.com/redseadragon/

and realize thatChinais building a modern blue water force that is very capable, professional and has the specific mission of driving theUSout of the Western Pacific andIndianOceans.

I am also sure that China is going to go through its own teething pains (which will probably involve a moderate to high amount of blood, guts and feathers) but China (being China) will simply shrug that off as the price of doing business.

What everyone seems to be ignoring is that the Chinese do not need to invent anything. All they are doing is adapting and improving what others, including us, have already done. They are quite good at that.

And, because they do not kowtow to public opinion like we do, they will get through the messy stages a lot faster.

People might want to pay attention to the problems the PLAN had to deal with to master  submarine operations — which are every bit as complex, demanding and dangerous as carrier operations — and at which they have also become quite proficient.

Proficient enough to sneak a boat well into missile range of the USS Kitty Hawk undetected — and then flip a bird at the USN by surfacing within easy cruise missile range.

It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee. The officers and men of the PLAN are serious professional people who are working with world class hardware. If the USN and our allies do not get that dialed in now, we are going to get our balls kicked up next to our ears if it ever seriously drops in the pot.

 

China says will not threaten anyone with modern military

By Kevin Lim

SINGAPORE | Sun Jun 5, 2011 12:21pm IST

(Reuters) – China’s defence minister sought to reassure Asia Pacific neighbours on Sunday that his country’s growing economic and military power was not a threat, as long-running maritime disputes in the region flare up again.

General Liang Guanglie told the annual Shangri-La security conference in Singapore that the modernisation of the People’s Liberation Army was in line with the country’s economic growth and to meet its security requirements.

“We do not intend to threaten any country with the modernisation of our military force. I know many people tend to believe that with the wealth of China’s economy, China will be a military threat,” he said, speaking dressed in full military uniform.

“I would like to say that it is not our option. We didn’t seek to, we are not seeking to and we will not seek hegemony and we will not threaten any country.”

China will beef up its military budget by 12.7 percent this year, the government announced in March, a return to double-digit spending increases that stirred unease in the region as well as in the United States which has long had a strong presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Exert:  Read more at http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/06/05/idINIndia-57505220110605

Tengu says:

Riiiiight!  Pull the other one.  It is a grim fact known to defense planners everywhere that you can never, ever, base your doctrine/actions/reactions on a potential enemy’s intentions (real or perceived), the only things that matters are capabilities.  And when considering China’s current race towards superpower status, that nation’s growing capabilities are enough to give any Asian defense planner serious ulcers.

Japan’s “Cool Biz” campaign goes ‘Super’ this summer

Working holiday: Officials in aloha shirts work at the Environment Ministry on Wednesday, the first day of the government’s Super Cool Biz energy-saving campaign. The government is now urging office workers to wear light clothing starting in June, one month earlier than last year. KYODO

Reposted from The Japan Times

Kyodo

Thursday, June 2, 2011

The government launched a “Super Cool Biz” campaign Wednesday at the Environment Ministry, a more casual version of the annual Cool Biz campaign, encouraging staff to dress more casually and help reduce the use of air conditioning amid anticipated electricity shortages.

Under the new campaign, ministry workers can wear polo shirts, T-shirts, jeans and sneakers in the workplace starting in June, rather than the original no tie, no jacket Cool Biz dress code.

The new campaign comes as the government is calling on the private and public sectors to cut electricity consumption amid concerns about power shortages due to the nuclear emergency at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

But it is still uncertain whether the more casual summer attire will take root among businessmen, who traditionally dress in gray suits.

The prefectural government of disaster-hit Iwate, for example, has decided not to go as far as allowing jeans in the office to avoid making visitors feel “uncomfortable.”

Cool Biz was originally proposed in 2005 by then Environment Minister Yuriko Koike as a way of helping fight global warming.

The government started the campaign on May 1 this year, one month earlier than usual, to keep the temperature in offices at 28 degrees. However, by dressing more casually and introducing the Super Cool Biz campaign, it hopes to attain the target while combating the summer heat with higher air conditioner settings.

The Environment Ministry does not allow athletic wear, shorts, or flip flops under the new dress code.

The ministry does not have a specific dress code for women.

Tengu Says:

I can’t wait to see what the ladies will wear on “Casual Friday”!

Sarah? She’s running, and she’s going to WIN!

There’s a joke that’s been around for ages about a political candidate the media hates.  It has a lot of variations, but the punchline is usually the same.  In this case, it would go something like, if Sarah were to walk across the waters of the Sea of Galilee, the media would triumphantly  proclaim “SARAH CAN’T SWIM!!!”

Look for clues, people! Sarah doesn’t have negative poll numbers because she’s doing things wrong.  She has negative numbers because the MSM is doing everything in their power to drive them down.  Similarly, Obama’s media numbers are not high because he’s doing things right, they’re high because the MSM is doing everything they can to inflate them and to provide cover for him by ignoring or downplaying his mistakes.

Exempli gratia, Obama’s recent goof signing the wrong year in the guest book at Westminster Abbey:

http://www.wfmz.com/politics/28019007/detail.html

Now, if Sarah had made a goof like that, it would be MSM fodder for weeks.  They would be calling it a defining moment, and it would stick to her much like Dan Quayle’s “potatoe” gaffe.   But since it was Obama’s dumb mistake, there were a few nervous chuckles, a couple of minor stories, and then everyone was told to forget it and “move on…”

All this, I have seen before.

The very first political campaign I followed closely was the 1976 campaign, specifically the battle between Ronald Reagan and Jerry Ford for the Republican nomination.  I was strongly impressed with Reagan back then, even though he was dismissed universally as “a B-rated actor“, a Nazi, a senile old dork, a dunce, a dunderhead, blah, blah, blah — and these were comments coming from Republicans.

In contrast, Ford was portrayed as a sober, senior, reasonable and hardworking leader.  Someone who when Congress inside and out (due to his numerous years of perpetual reelection in one of the safest districts in the nation) — plus he had the advantage  of incumbency.  Well, what happened?  Ford received the nomination and was waxed in the general, giving us four years of Jimmy Carter.

Dog days, my friends.  Dog days indeed…

Fast forward to 1999, where Carter was making a hash of things every bit as badly as Obama is doing now, and look at the contenders for the Republican nomination.  One, Mr. Preppy himself, George H.W. Bush and that old amiable, cuddly, lovable broken down B-actor, Ronald Wilson Reagan.

I was there.  I watched a Bush speech and felt immediate unease.  He was saying some good things, but ultimately, he just didn’t seem to be connecting to anyone.  He was, just so… colorless — perfect teeth, perfect suits, perfect prissy mannerism… but not much else.

Then I heard Reagan speak and it was a total different world.  He connected.  He talked to me. There was no question about who I was going to support.  Even though everyone who could find themselves a TV camera to pontificate in knew that he didn’t have a prayer in Hell of winning the nomination, and if he did, he was going to hand Carter reelection on a silver platter.

Go back and look at the news of the era if you have to.  Take an afternoon on a Saturday, visit the newspaper archives and read the stories.  Don’t just depend on the online resources; they don’t give the big picture.  The fact of the matter was, Bush felt entitled to the Republican nomination and campaigned that way.  His attacks on Reagan ranged from petulant to scurrilous, and always with the condescending subtext, “only an idiot would vote for Reagan”.

Now, the media then are playing exactly the same game they are playing now.  They wanted Bush to get the nomination because they were sure he would be easier for Carter to beat – so they talked him up big time.  Everything from his (admittedly heroic) service in World War II, to his tenure as the head of the CIA was painted in pretty colors, all while they were sharpening their knives to stick in his back after he was safely nominated.

Reagan?  He scared the holy living piss out of the media.  They tried to ignore him, but the crowds kept getting bigger.  They tried laughing at him, but the crowds kept getting bigger.  They tried lying about him, but the crowds kept growing.  Towards the end of the primary season a very visibly frustrated Bush lashed out with a genuine blood libel against Reagan – sneering at Reaganomics as “Jonestown Economics”, as if the affects of a Reagan win would be the equivalent of forcing Americans to drink poisoned Kool-Aid.

None of it worked.  Let me say that again.  None. Of. It. Worked.

Reagan handily defeated Bush for the nomination, and showed true magnanimity by choosing Bush as his running mate.

At this point, the MSM went into full screeching frantic overdrive.  Everything except the kitchen sink, was thrown at Reagan.  All of the lies, all of the slurs, all of the fear-mongering you could possible imagine.  He’s a warmonger! He’s stupid! He’s senile!  Every single tiny gaffe, or anything that could be twisted into a gaffe, was splashed over every printed surface that could be found.

And the polls?  In the months running up to November 2000, Carter was shown beating Reagan by every single respectable measure.  His candidacy was a joke, HE was a joke, it was Bedtime for Ronzo and time to put this aging cranky half-dead nobody back out to pasture.  Day in and day out – every single day.

And again – I Was There!  I was in the Navy at the time, and couldn’t legally be an active member of his campaign so I hung around the local campaign headquarters whenever I could and did little odd jobs.  Stuffing envelopes sucks and it’s one of those jobs that nobody wants to do, but I was glad to help, even if I was the only guy at the table and if most of the ladies that were helping were in their sixties.  It was still fun.

And you know something else?  I wasn’t the only guy helping like that.  Almost every evening, there would be people wandering in looking for more yard signs and/or bumper stickers and flyers, sometimes just to drop off a check and wander around in the campaign headquarters and feel the excitement.  It was magical.

But I have to tell you, I was nervous as heck as the election approached.  The grannies at the envelope table kept teasing me for being a sourpuss and telling me to ignore the polls.  It was going to be a blowout.  There was no way Reagan could lose.  But the press kept up the negative coverage, giving ground only reluctantly, downplaying his campaign stops, trying every trick they could to make the crowds seem smaller.

Election day?  The grudging story, the one they held onto as long and as frantically as possible, was that it was “too close to call”. Which meant two things; the media was not believing the numbers they were reading, and they absolutely hated reading them.  As the results started coming in, showing state after state after state coming solidly down on the Republican side, the media talking heads became increasingly despondent and incoherent.

God, it was beautiful.

Now, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see where I am going with this.  Sarah, because of who she is, what she is, and the way she connects so naturally with average Americans, is in true and undeniable reality – the second coming of Ronald Wilson Reagan.  That’s the way the media elites see her, that’s the way the RINOs see her, and that’s the way the average American voter sees her, or will come to see her.

Continuing that thought, Mitt Romney is the standard issue, pump-him-up-knock-him-down generic RINO that the media absolutely LOVES to foist onto the Republican Party – smugly confident that if the Republicans do nominate him; they (the media) have plenty of poisoned knives to kill him with in the general election. And they’re going to love doing it – if they get the chance, that is.

So, what’s my bottom line?  I’ll tell you right now what my prediction is.  I believe strongly that Sarah Palin is going to run.  I believe that she is going to win the nomination despite everything that has been and will be thrown at her.  I believe she might even take another page out of Reagan’s book and ask Mitt to be her running mate.

Then, on a fine day in November 2012, the American people are going to elect the first woman President of the United States.

I’d bet money on it.  In fact, I already have.

Peter Fonda calls Obama ‘traitor’ at Cannes — Maybe the world IS ending…

Peter Fonda calls Obama ‘traitor’ at Cannes

AFP/File – US actor Peter Fonda (R) poses on the red carpet at the 64th Cannes Film Festival on May 17. Fonda launched …

– Wed May 18, 11:45 am ET

CANNES, France (AFP) – Peter Fonda launched a four-letter attack on US President Barack Obama at the Cannes film festival on Wednesday, calling him a traitor over the handling of the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill.

The star of the 1969 road movie “Easy Rider” was in Cannes for the premiere of “The Big Fix” by Rebecca and Josh Tickell, the only feature documentary in the official selection at the Cannes film festival this year.

Fonda — a keen environmentalist and co-producer of the film which centres on the explosion of the BP oil rig Deepwater Horizon, the ensuing spill and its consequences — accused Washington of trying to gag reporting on the issue.

“I sent an email to President Obama saying, ‘You are a f(expletive) traitor,’ using those words… ‘You’re a traitor, you allowed foreign boots on our soil telling our military — in this case the coastguard — what they can and could not do, and telling us, the citizens of the United States, what we could or could not do’.”

Exert:  Read more at http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110518/ennew_afp/entertainmentfilmfestivalcannesusobamafonda_20110518154556

Yikes!!!  —  I am in agreement with Peter Fonda on something!  If that’s not a sign that the end is near, it should be.

Tengu

U.S. Navy Recruits Gamers to Help in Piracy Strategy

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Published: 18 May 2011,  07:15

WASHINGTON- The U.S. Navy is turning to the wisdom of the crowd to forge military strategy, inviting the public to join an online game in which Somali pirates have hijacked commercial ships.

The Office of Naval Research plans this month to launch theU.S. military’s first online war game to draw on the ideas of thousands of people instead of the traditional strategy session held inside the Pentagon’s offices.

The approach “is designed to produce ideas and potential solutions to our toughest problems and challenges,” Lawrence Schuette, director of innovation at Office of Naval Research, told AFP.

“Piracy off the Horn of Africa has been an enduring problem that has many stakeholders. We selected this topic for the pilot scenario,” Schuette said.

The scheduled starting date for the project had to be delayed by a month as about 9,000 people have signed up, instead of the 1,000 that planners expected, officials said.

The Navy hopes the project will take advantage of a wide range of expertise not only from military officers but also academics, politicians and technology specialists, he said.

Exert:  Read more at http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=6541908&c=SEA&s=TOP

Tengu says: OK all you geeks! Stop drooling!

Nobody is going to get to take out a skiff filled with pirates using a 50 cal. machine gun remotely controlled from their X-box – not yet anyhow, but this article offers food for thought on a number of levels.

First and foremost, it is a long overdue attempt to tap into the imaginations and creativity of the vast numbers of gamers out there, most of whom have very little in the way of credentials, academic or otherwise, but who eat, drink, sleep and live gaming, and who can be sure to have come up with ideas that would never occur to a conventional naval war planner.

It goes almost without saying that the vast majority of those ideas will be unworkable, impractical, illegal, immoral or all of the above – but some of them won’t be, and when those are found, cleaned up and put to practical use, interesting things are bound to happen.

Then there is the point of cyberspace as a war-fighting medium, which apparently is not getting anywhere near the level of serious consideration in the United States as it is in China, North Korea and apparently quite a few other countries.

Just how seriously is theUnited Statestaking the threat of cyber-war? Does anyone know?

We can hope that they are taking it extremely seriously, and we are just not hearing about the successes, but I fear that is simple wishful thinking. The apparent ease at which US Department of Defense computers have been penetrated, and the massive amounts of data that have been and are being swiped, leads me to believe that we are definitely on or ahead of the power curve — and that needs to change.

Part of the reason we are not, in my massively humble opinion, is that we are not, nor have we ever (to the best of my knowledge) made proper use of our vast numbers of stay-at-home, pimple-faced, chicken-necked, coke-bottle-glasses GEEKS – many of whom would break into a sweat lifting anything heavier than a glass of Pepsi, but who are absolute Titans at hacking, slashing, cyber-burning, etc.

OK, not totally. A Strategy Page story from Jan. 20, 2011 states, in part, “The American government has provided $30 million dollars for hackers seeking to create software that will enable people to evade Internet surveillance and censorship.”

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htiw/articles/20110120.aspx

Now, that’s a step in the right direction, but it is a long way from the kind of attack dog mode we need to combat the aggressive cyber-warriors of our potential enemies and thereby do unto them, before they do unto us.

What we need is a new uniformed service branch (and won’t the geeks have fun designing their uniforms) that will focus on, plan for and be prepared to wage full-fledged cyber-based warfare. Once it’s in place, we should track down the most nasty, malignant, tricky hackers we can find, and sign them up! In other words, pay them to piss out of the tent instead of in it.

Oh sure… there will be a lot of problems at first, and riding herd on a bunch of cyber warriors is bound to be harder than herding cats. But it’s something that needs to be done!

Tokyo Tengu 

Muslims file suit over antiterror investigation (Japan)

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A group of 14 Muslims has filed suit against the central and Tokyo metropolitan governments, demanding 154 million yen in compensation for violations of privacy and religious freedom after police antiterrorism documents containing their personal information were leaked onto the Internet.

The lawsuit filed at the Tokyo District Court accused the Metropolitan Police Department and the National Police Agency of systematically gathering their personal information, including on religious activities and relationships, merely because they are Muslims.

The lawsuit also alleged that after the information was leaked last October, the MPD failed to take sufficient action to prevent its spread.

In late November, a Tokyo-based publisher released a book carrying the leaked documents.

After the leak, “The plaintiffs were presumed to be international terrorism suspects. They were forced to leave their jobs and live apart from their families,” the petition filed Monday at the court claimed.

The MPD has said it is highly likely the leaked documents included internal information from its Public Security Bureau, and has been investigating the leak on suspicion of obstruction of police operations since December.

At a Monday press conference in Tokyo, one plaintiff said: “It’s been six months since the leak, but there’s been no [official police] apology. I haven’t been able to see my family and my life is full of anxiety.”

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110517004955.htm

This will fly… just like a lead toolbox.  

Every now and then, in the years since Sept. 11, 2001, Muslims in Japan or their sympathizers have tried to play the victim card that has been used so successfully in the United States and Europe, only to find out that the Japanese people (as a whole) are totally indifferent to their bruised feelings and tender sensibilities, and that their “rights” as foreign residents are nowhere near as comprehensive as they are in Western countries.

I expect this will get tied up in the lower courts for several months, causing the plaintiffs enormous legal fees, but essentially going nowhere, while at the same time it will be ignored by 90% of  the Japanese news media and public. They might eventually get a token settlement (three to five years from now) which will then be appealed, but even that is unlikely.

Do the Japanese police keep a close eye on Muslims here?  You better believe they do — with the full approval of  virtually the entire nation, I might add.  In fact, I am wondering whether the “leak” that resulted in this suit was intentional — aimed at letting the Muslims in Japan know just how closely they are watched.

That, I believe, would be a typically indirect Japanese way of putting pressure on the community as a whole, and thus encourage them to shun dangerous activists.

Tengu Times

OK Gentlemen! Here’s your chance!!!

Japan: Great disaster prompts more women to seek marriage(needs a sturdy hubby
Asahi Shimbun  | 05/15/11 | Chikako Numata and Misako Yamauchi. 

 Great East Japan Earthquake prompts more women to seek marriage

A growing number of (Japanese) singles, particularly women in urban areas, are scrambling to find marriage partners after the country’s worst natural disaster in postwar years has forced them to think about their lifestyles and the future.

“I am more worried about my future and now realize how important it is to have a family,” a 30-year-old female company employee in Tokyo said. “I want to form a bond with others.”

The woman said her experiences after the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake spurred her to rethink her lifestyle. It took her six hours to walk to her apartment on the night of the quake after the trains and subways stopped, and she had trouble falling asleep amid the subsequent aftershocks.

So, the woman signed up for a matchmaking service during the Golden Week holidays earlier this month.

(Excerpt) Read more at asahi.com …

Tengu says:

The  Great East Japan Earthquake was the most significant event to occur in this nation since the end of World War II, and the social ramifications are going to be felt for many decades to come.

Perhaps it took a disaster of this magnitude to shake the 30-some generation out of its comfortable apathetic existence.  

One thing is absolutely certain — there is going to be a baby boom in Japan beginning around the middle of next January.