Simple Man Politics

Hmmmm lets see, how should I start today. First let me say that I am sorry for not doing a blog post on Friday, but I have to pay the bills before I can spread the truth here. Another reason is that Joy who has written for me here before had somewhat of a personal crisis to deal with and required my support.

You see Joy grew up with the Mayhle’s. Stephen Mayhle is one of the Pittsburgh police officers who were brutally gunned down last Friday in the Stanton Heights section of the city, while responding to a domestic disturbance call in the early hours of the morning.

However now it is time for some more Simple Man Politics. Today we are going to talk a little about Obama’s trip to the G20 summit and NATO meetings. To say the least I found his trip to be highly anti-climactic to say the least. It appears that our super star President was not as well received as he would have liked.

First off with regard to his attendance of the G20 summit I found him to be remarkably apologetic about the United States being responsible for the current global economic crisis that has affected the world markets. However he was right that we own some of the responsibility, but he was wrong about who exactly was responsible.

Obama claimed that he inherited this bad economy from his predecessor George W, Bush’s administration and that is true. What he fails to tell anyone is that while it occurred during the Bush administration it is in fact a legacy he inherited from his own party who controlled both houses of congress.

The two men most responsible for the economic meltdown are Senator Chris Dodd and Representative Barney Frank. These two men were responsible for overseeing our financial institutions including Freddy Mac and Fanny Mae. When they were told by several different people that these two companies were in trouble they loudly denounced those who warned them and said that Freddy and Fanny were fine.

Of course Obama also laid the growing deficit at George Bush’s feet as well while conveniently forgetting the fact that with his second bailout, stimulus bill, and budget he plans on growing our national debt to over 4.7 Trillion Dollars this year with a Trillion Dollars added every year for the next ten years. He is accomplishing this with the aid of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid the senate and house leaders.

My favorite part of Obama’s trip had to be his stop in Turkey though. I will admit that this nation is an important ally to the US in the WAR ON TERROR. We use their bases for resupply operations as well as a way into and out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

What I don’t understand is his statement to the Turkish people that we are not at war with Islam. I would think that it is obvious that we are not at war with Islam. However we are at war with Islamo-Fascism. Islamo-Fascism is the ideology that is spouted out from groups like Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad.

I was also not surprised at the reception that Obama has received in some of the countries that he visited. While most of the European socialist governments love him it is quite clear that a lot of the people do not. Of course the governments there love him, because he wants the same sort of government that hasn’t worked for them in the last century. The ordinary people seemed to know that he was a B.S. artist almost instinctively.

I have one more thing to say before I go today, and that is on the subject of Nuclear disarmament. Obama clearly believes in total nuclear disarmament, but does he really think that he can get these rogue countries that are pursuing this technology to put it down once they get these weapons. I doubt that Iran or North Korea would be willing to do so.

The world’s deterrence to a nuclear war is the fact that we possess nukes, and the deterrence in the Middle East is the fact that Israel possesses nukes. Unfortunately that is why nations like Iran are pursuing nuclear weapons programs so that they can attack Israel.

The truth of the matter is that whether we like it or not Obama is our President for the next four years. It is unfortunate for us however that he is against his own country and all for being popular in the world before being safe. This is true both economically and strategically. I only hope that our enemies are not any emboldened to attack us now than they were before his overseas trip.

Have an awesome day my friends and I will be back again real soon, although it may not be before Wednesday, but you never know, CIAO4NOW!!!!!

I was driving along Friday listening to one of my favorite conservative talk radio shows when the host brought up something that made me sit up and take notice to what he was saying. He brought up the fact that Barack Obama is the first American President ever allowed to carry a personal communications device. I am not talking about a cell phone either I am talking about his personal Blackberry device.

The reason I found this so disturbing is that all Presidential communications including his personal communications are considered matters of public record under the FOI (Freedom of Information) Act, except for matters of National Security, and the host corroborated my thoughts. Of course not even those of National Security are completely confidential as those with the required Security clearances have access to them.

Another interesting tidbit of information that I learned was the fact that all Blackberry communications are untraceable, WOW can you imagine that untraceable. Does that mean that not even our friends at the NSA with their state of the art listening technology and intelligence gathering apparatus can bug a Blackberry? What can President Obama possibly need with a device like that and who is he secretly communicating with?

Now I know what you are all thinking, this sounds like I’m about to become a conspiracy theorist. Well normally I am not one of those kinds of people, but it seems to me that Obama is being accorded a privilege that no other US President has ever enjoyed. President George W, Bush has even acknowledged that he ceased sending emails to his daughter’s from his computer at the White House because they were not private, so why should Obama not have to be scrutinized under the same microscope?

Does Obama regularly communicate with people that the citizens of the United States might not find appropriate? Maybe Obama consults with the homegrown terrorist Bill Ayers on matters of education policy, or with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright on matters of domestic policy. Who knows maybe Obama even consults with terrorists like Rashid Khalidi or Khalid al Mansour on matters of defense and security policy. Maybe he even has Tony Rezco on speed dial up at the penitentiary so he can get economic and financial advice. These are just the sort of people we need looking out for our best interests.

Now I don’t pretend to know what Obama is doing with his Blackberry device and chances are it is not something as devious as the scenario I just mentioned, but since I just professed to not having the necessary knowledge to tell you what he is doing with the device, then who does?

I will say this though and that is that President Obama should not be shown any special consideration that hasn’t been shown any past President. It will cloud his promise of transparency and we can’t have him breaking a campaign promise now can we? Of course who am I an American and tax paying citizen to demand that my President be open and forthcoming about his day to day affairs in the White House I help to pay for?

That is all I have for now, but you need to think about what I just said and decide what you think and believe. Have a great day, CIAO4NOW!!!!!

This week Barack Obama finally showed a little bit of transparency in government. I think that transparency in our government is a good thing, because it can produce trust between our President, lawmakers, and citizens. I firmly believe that we should exactly what our government unless it involves matters of national security, which could be compromised by making the information public. However I don’t think that in this case Obama did this for the good of the country.

Here is what our President did that was so transparent. He released a series of documents that had previously kept secret by the Bush administration that involved the war on terror. I think it may have been good to release these documents, but not for the reasons that I think Obama did so. I think Obama released these documents to divert attention from himself and his political agenda.

Some of these documents dealt with the detainee situation in Gitmo, and the interrogations there. They also contained information on extraordinary rendition, which means that our intelligence apparatus sent certain terrorist detainees to other countries in order to use more aggressive interrogation techniques. The documents also contained information on the wiretap policy of the Bush administration regarding terrorist conversations involving people inside the US. There was also data showing that the CIA had destroyed 92 videos of interrogations that they performed.

Personally I have no problems with the Bush Administrations policy regarding the war on terror. I don’t care anything about the Gitmo detainees other than they get what they deserve for going to war against us. By the same token I don’t care how we came by the information, because the bad guys would do even worse to us to get what they want. As far as wiretaps go if it gets the Islamofascists that we are fighting then it works for me I have nothing to hide in my phone conversations. I also think that the CIA should have aired those video tapes to show the American people what it takes to keep our nation safe.

Fortunately for us there was almost no new info in the documents that Obama released and most of it was common knowledge amongst the American population. The 92 videos information was new, but I don’t care that they destroyed them, because I don’t are to what light entertainment at dinner time. Like I said this was just Obama’s attempt to deflect attention from him so he can fly under the radar a little bit. This action was not transparency for transparencies sake, but transparency for Obama’s sake, so that he can try to hide the damaging policies he is instituting.

That is all for now and I am sorry you are getting this so late this evening, but like every other American I got to pay the bills first. I will be back again soon have a great evening, CIAO4NOW!!!!!

Well my friends the subject of Presidential pardons has recently come up. The reason for this sudden interest in the Presidential pardon is due to the fact the President George W, Bush has used this absolute power to pardon fourteen people and to commute prison sentences for two others so far.

The fear by the Democrats is that President Bush will use this power to pardon someone like Scooter Libby, or someone else they might consider controversial. I do believe that he should pardon the two Border Patrol agents Compean and Ramos. Those were the two who were convicted for shooting a drug smuggler in his butt as he was attempting to escape back into Mexico from the US.

Their other big fear is that he may even issue pardons to people who have not been charged with anything yet, such as cabinet members or even VP Dick Cheney. Believe me they have wanted to get Dick Cheney for years. If President Bush were to do these types of pardons they could not be overturned and the Democrats would lose their shot at some Republican red meat.

The constitution was written to make sure that Presidential pardons were absolute and could not be overturned. Let us not forget that previous Presidents have used the Presidential pardon controversially since we became a country. Let’s take a look at some of these great leaders who have used the pardon to their advantage.

Some of the Clinton pardons were notorious. Perhaps the one most everyone remembers is the pardon of Marc Rich the billionaire fugitive. It was rumored that he received his pardon due to some aggressive lobbying by his surrogates, and the fact that his estranged wife was a major Clinton contributor. Bill Clinton actually granted three hundred and ninety five pardons. However a total of one hundred and forty were issued on the last day of his Presidency including the Rich pardon. Similar charges regarding other final day pardons prompted calls for congressional hearings and action by federal prosecutors.

A couple of other Presidents who have had controversial pardons are Jimmy Carter and George H W Bush. Jimmy Carter pardoned all those who had evaded service during the Vietnam War. George H W Bush pardoned six Reagan administration officials including Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger who were involved in the Iran-Contra affair. Below is a brief description of the pardon power.

The Pardon Power:
Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution gives the president "Power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment." A reprieve reduces the severity of a punishment without removing the guilt of the person reprieved. A pardon removes both punishment and guilt.

As judicially interpreted, the president's power to grant reprieves and pardons is absolute. Individual reprieves and pardons cannot be blocked by Congress or the courts. The Framers of the Constitution envisioned the pardon power has having a narrow purpose in times of war and rebellion. The president might offer pardons to rebellious factions as an inducement for a laying down of arms and national reconciliation. Alexander Hamilton argued in the Federalist Papers (No. 74) that "in seasons of insurrection or rebellion, there are often critical moments, when a well-timed offer of pardon to the insurgents or rebels may restore the tranquility of the common wealth; and which, if suffered to pass unimproved, it may never be possible afterward to recall."

So you can see that it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about who a President pardons, because once he does a pardon that’s that. I personally hope that President Bush does do blanket pardons for himself and his cabinet including Dick Cheney. They should not have to look over their shoulders for the rest of their lives for defending our country and fighting two wars. We are luck that President Bush didn’t institute the War Powers Act, or suspend Posse Commitatus. Then there might not have even been an election in 2004 or 2008.

That is all I have for today, but I will have a special one for Thanksgiving Day. I t won’t be very political but it will be true. Have a wonderful Wednesday CIAO4NOW!!!!!