Quick Hits - April 1, 2012

Yesterday's QH featured a link highlighting the vapid whinging of the MSNBC 'Morning Joe' host, Joe Scarborough, castigating the 'far right' for their actions to politicize the Trayvon Martin tragedy as he demonstrates that he has already tried and convicted George Zimmerman in the case...

‘This has nothing to do with gun rights. This has nothing to do with the Second Amendment,’ he said on Morning Joe today.


‘This has nothing to do with Stand Your Ground Laws…This has everything to do with a guy that’s trying to play security cop who was unhinged, who chased down and shot a 17-year-old kid, armed with Skittles and iced tea.’

Issue was raised with the nature of the attack - particularly given the way that the case is actually being politicized by those who Scarborough doesn't want to name...including his own network [more on this later].  Basically, we have an asinine argument being offered by a complete ass.

Why you say?  Let's listen to Vice President Joe Biden in a prerecorded interview broadcast on CBS News 'Face the Nation' earlier today...

It's important that people be put in a position where their Second Amendment rights are protected, but that they also don't, as a consequence of the laws, unintendedly put themselves in harm's way … The idea that there's this overwhelming additional security in the ownership and carrying concealed and deadly weapons... I think it's the premise, not the constitutional right, but the premise that it makes people safer is one that I'm not so sure of.

Could it be Morning Joe thinks the Veep is a card carrying member of the 'far right'?

The 'far right' must be getting bigger as well - since a number of House Democrats, mainly members of the far left Congressional Black Caucus, are moving to not only pass gun control legislation, but also legislation to ban 'Stand Your Ground' laws and, surprise, race based legislation.  For example, the arrogant Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas)....

..., is crafting a proposal requiring members of neighborhood watch groups to be registered before taking to the streets under a watchman's badge.


And [Rep. Frederica] Wilson, who represents the district where Martin lived, is working on legislation to create a national commission "to study race-based injustices, health disparities and economic disparities affecting African American men and boys," in the words of the congresswoman.

If only we could outlaw race baiters...

Well, Mr. Scarborough - again I ask, who is specifically trying to politicize the Trayvon Martin case? Besides you, the progressives, and race baiters?

If I may answer - with a variation of 'all of the above' - the media network -NBC.

NBC, the parent company of NBC News and MSNBC, is now conducting an internal investigation into who edited the recording of the George Zimmerman 911 call to make it appear that George Zimmerman is a racist. Nothing like embracing journalistic ethics and integrity in order to responsibly report facts - and not promote a race baiting political agenda to instigate violence against George Zimmerman. This irresponsible action is reflective of how bankrupt this organization has become. Consider this - the National Enquirer, which broke the story about former Democrat Presidential (and VP) candidate John Edwards, has more credibility that NBC.

The other part about the vapidity of the argument being made to ban 'Stand Your Ground' laws being pressed by the 'far left' is that these laws are not the exclusive result of actions by the 'far right' or GOP (which some think are one in the same).  For example in Florida, Senate democrats voted unanimously to adopt the state's 'Stand Your Ground' law.  Of the 15 states that have a 'Stand Your Ground' type of law since 2005, 8 were signed into law by Democrats...

Democratic governors who signed “stand your ground” bills, or otherwise permitted them to become law, include Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana, Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, Brian Schweitzer of Montana, John Lynch of New Hampshire, Brad Henry of Oklahoma, Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Janet Napolitano of Arizona – now the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security.


The bills in Louisiana and West Virginia passed with Democratic control of both houses in the states’ legislatures, in 2006 and 2008, respectively.


“Stand your ground” laws typically provide for a defense against homicide charges for a person who acts in self-defense when he believes his life is in danger — even if he chooses not to retreat before using deadly force.

Veep Joe Biden didn't only save his commentary in his 'Face the Nation' interview regarding the politicization of the Trayvon Martin tragedy.  He also took time out to slam the Republicans for blocking government programs promoting renewable energy...

“They’re emasculating all the efforts to deal with renewable energy,” Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday in a prerecorded interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”


“They have no policy,” he said of Republicans, including the GOP presidential hopefuls who increasingly are making more U.S. oil and gas drilling a major campaign theme.


The Obama administration has come under increasing fire for its perceived animosity toward fossil fuels, evidenced most recently by the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal last week to effectively outlaw the construction of any new coal-fired power plants. The EPA also is eyeing new regulations to limit domestic natural-gas production.

There is a fundamental disconnect between the progressives and progressive vision and that of not only traditional American values - but common sense.  We see this with Vice President Biden's argument about energy that defies logic - but also within the statements and actions of President Barack Obama regarding not only basic economics, but regarding the traits that made the United States an exceptional nation.

We won’t win the race for new jobs and new businesses and middle-class security if we cling to this same old, worn-out, tired `you’re on your own’ economics that the other side is peddling. It was tried in the decades before the Great Depression. It didn’t work then. It was tried in the last decade. It didn’t work. You know, the idea you would keep on doing the same thing over and over again, even though it’s been proven not to work. That’s a sign of madness.”

Madness?  Personal responsibility and personal accountability is 'madness'.  Limited government is 'madness'? 

In the same campaign speech, President Obama has worked hard to revise history - saying that government spending 'made this country great'...

They've got one message and that is, we're going to make sure that we cut people's taxes even more – so that by every objective measure our deficit is worse and we will slash government investments that have made this country great, not because it's going to balance the budget, but because it's driven by our ideological vision about how government should be. That's their agenda, pure and simple.

Who makes the deficit worse?  Cutting taxes?  Or the progressive agenda?  Let's revisit the 'unpatriotic' President George W. Bush who raised the national deficit by $4.8 trillion over 8 years in office - and the experience of President Barack Obama who raised the national deficit by $4.9 trillion in 38 months and not only owns four consecutive years of deficits larger than $1 trillion, but is on pace to increase the deficit by over $6.2 trillion in his four year term.

Which government investments and spending 'have made this country great'?  What made this country great was limited government, personal responsibility and accountability, and capitalism which took this country from 13 poor states in 1789 to be 25% of the global economy today - and a nation that remains the beacon for the majority of the world because of the freedom, liberty, and opportunity it provides.

Barack Obama's friend, political supporter, and unrepentant terrorist, Bill Ayers has a similar view and contempt towards America, it's values, and capitalism...

William Ayers, in a pep talk to an Occupy Wall Street gaggle, said he wakes up every morning thinking about how he's going to end capitalism -- though he acknowledged he goes to bed "every night disappointed."


The co-founder of the radical, Vietnam-era Weather Underground was videotaped chatting up what was identified as an Occupy Union Square group this past week in New York City.


In the tape, he told the crowd that he doesn't consider himself an optimist or a pessimist.


Rather, he said: "I get up every morning thinking, today I'm gonna make a difference. Today I'm gonna end capitalism. Today I'm gonna make a revolution. I go to bed every night disappointed, but I'm back again tomorrow. That's the only way you can do it."

"Today I'm gonna end capitalism..."

"Today I'm gonna make a revolution..."

This is also the same person who called for the establishment of reeducation camps to 'cure people of capitalism' and proposed the extermination of 25 million Americans whom he estimated could not be 'cured' of capitalism.

This is a friend of the President.  These are the people he, in his own admission in one of his books, sought out when in college - and beyond. 

This is the 'fundamental change' that the President talks about.

And this is why November 2012 is one of the most crucial Presidential elections in the history of the United States.

On This Day in History

1700 - April Fool's Day popularized

1865 - The Confederates lose the Battle of Five Folks - forcing Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia to abandon his defensive positions at Petersburg, Va because his supplies lines were in danger of being cut.  He starts the retreat that will end at Appomattox Court House in a week.

1918 - The Royal Air Force (RAF) is founded.  Created by the combination of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.

1945 - 50,000 troops of the US 10th Army invade Okinawa - 350 miles south of Kyushu, the main southern island of Japan.

1948 - Soviet troops begin to start stopping US and British military trains travelling through the Soviet occupation zone in Germany - demanding to search the trains.  First major move in escalating differences which lead to the start of the Berlin blockade in June.

2001 - A US Navy EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft is forced to make an emergency landing on the Chinese island of Hainan after being struck by a PLA jet fighter launched to intercept the recon plan.  The PLA jet crashed, killing the pilot.  The 24 US military personnel on the EP-3 were captured / held by the People's Republic of China.