Gowdy renames his strategy 'The Witch Hunt'

From the art studios of Dan Youra at Utoons.com

Get a Daily Dose of Humor or Reality from Dan Youra at Utoons.com

Dan Youra is one of the outstanding conservative cartoonists in the trade today who follows in the footsteps of the great political cartoon masters, whose quotes inspire a new generation of followers.

"Outside of basic intelligence, there is nothing more important to a good political cartoonist than ill will." ~ Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist.

"Too many of today's artists regard editorial cartooning as a trade instead of a profession. They try not to be too offensive. The hell with that. We need more stirrer-uppers." ~ Bill Mauldin.

Youra was one of the first recipients of a Fulbright Scholarship and worked in Latin America. He served as an editor of Current Thought on Peace and War at the United Nations in New York.

"As long as there are politicians who continue to try and fool the voters, there is no chance of ever running out of material to work with because they create it themselves and about themselves," says Dan Youra.

Dan is the small business owner and operator of the Youra Studios located in the State of Washington.

Visit the Youra Studios at Utoons.com

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Don't be an April Earth Month fool

From the Warning Signs of Alan Caruba at Facts-not-Fantasy

Know the Warning Signs From Alan Caruba

The annual calendar is filled with days and months designated for the purpose of calling attention to some event, personality, or cause.

The U.S. celebrates the birthdays of Lincoln and Washington that fall close together. There’s Mother’s and Father’s Day, Labor Day and Veteran’s Day, Valentine’s, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Easter and Christmas.

But who decided that April was “Earth Month” or that April 22 is “Earth Day”?

Why are we expected to worship the planet that was here billions of years before we showed up and will likely be here long after we manage to destroy ourselves with cataclysmic wars. And it is worship that is at the heart of these two events. That alone should tell you how essentially pagan they are.

Facts-not-Fantasy

This Earth Month will celebrate its 45th anniversary, having begun in 1970 and, not surprisingly, its theme is “Our planet in peril.” Our planet is not in peril.

It’s been around for 4.5 billion years and short of a rogue asteroid or our getting sucked into a black hole, the planet will be around several billions of years more.

The galaxy in which we live is relatively predictable and stable, so the notion that the Earth is in peril borders on idiocy.

Well, idiocy, if you think that it is in peril from us, the human species. This is at the core of the environmental mindset. It appears that merely using the Earth as a place to live is reason enough to hold us responsible for everything that naturally occurs to it.

Environmentalists do not like the human race and will not hesitate to tell you there are too many of us. They do what they can to reduce the population through disease by, for example, banning DDT and any other chemicals that protect us from insect and rodent pests that are major vectors for the transmission of disease.

According to the 2015 Earth Month Network, Inc. announcement “There are literally hundreds of problems and issues plaguing our global environment, i.e., climate change, global warming and their effects; and the continuation of polluting our delicate ecosystem just to mention a few.”

Which is it? Climate change or global warming? There hasn’t been any dramatic global warming in the past 19 years during which the planet has been in a natural cooling cycle, along with the Sun which we depend upon to warm us. So anyone claiming the Earth is warming is blowing smoke up your skirt.

As for climate change, that has always been occurring. Short term it’s called the four seasons. Long term it takes the form of ice ages, major glaciations that have occurred every 140 million years, and other eras such as the Great Permian Extinction, the largest in Earth’s history that wiped out an estimated 95% of every kind of life-form on Earth. It was one of four mass extinctions over the course of the 3.5 billion years that life has existed on Earth. Remember the mammoths? They died a mere 11,500 years ago.

Last year, the Earth Month theme was “Returning to Nature.” Do you really want to return to nature? No electricity. No shelter other than a nice cave. No food except for the animals or fish you would have to catch for dinner. No vegetables or fruits except those you could find wherever you lived. That’s right, no supermarkets! And, if you want to go anywhere, you will have to walk.

Yes, nature sounds wonderful and, in its own way, is wonderful, but the human species has devoted a great deal of time to finding ways to survive it.

I was reminded that April was Earth Month when I received an email from the Saybrook Point Inn and Spa which said this Connecticut site was “excited to offer a special package to honor Earth Day.” It is “a Certified Green Hotel” and you will be treated to a “unique Ecotourism Getaway” that provides an “environmentally friendly stay without sacrificing comfort.” Why would you want to pay them for their special package if it didn’t include comfort and lots of it? Mostly what Saybrook Point wants is your money, just like any other perfectly ordinary inn and spa that isn’t “certified.”

One can be confident that we are going to be regaled with all manner of “environmental” messages and events throughout April, all of which have the same theme: the Earth is in danger from YOU!

Do yourself a favor. Ignore them. Get in your car and go where you want. Go to the supermarket and don’t worry about the plastic packaging or the plastic bags. Set the temperature in your home or apartment to a level of comfort that you like. It’s your life and you pay good money to benefit from all the conveniences of modern life.

Let’s appreciate the Earth, not worship it.

Environmentalism is one of the great scams of the modern era. Its emphasis on “renewable energy” has been a huge, expensive failure. Its claims of disappearing forests are bogus and its demands for the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will only harm all vegetation everywhere. The Earth needs CO2 in the same way you and all other living creatures need oxygen.

Let’s celebrate mankind’s mastery of the Earth in the form of agriculture, ranching, sophisticated shelters from the log cabin to the skyscraper, the channeling of rivers to produce energy and the technology that provides clean water for us. And, yes, manufacturing. You can’t even imagine what the world was like before the discovery of coal, oil, and natural gas.

The Earth is not in peril, only the truth and common sense are.

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Geopolitics of oil go round and round

A Marita K. Noon feature at Energy Makes America Great, Inc.

Oil - Making the World Go Round and Round

Many complicated factors contribute to the global price of a barrel of oil, but two of the leading components are supply and risk—and both have the potential to escalate in the days ahead.

The current region-wide sectarian war could easily bump oil prices up dramatically. And, the expected nuclear deal with Iran could drop them—dramatically.

Oil price predictions today play like a game of roulette, or a carnival barker of days gone by, round and round it goes, where she stops, nobody knows.

A few weeks ago, addressing the need to open up access to mid-Atlantic oil resources, I wrote:

“With the current oil abundance, it may seem like an odd time to be going after more. However, the legal wheels that could allow limited access to the vast, untapped oil resources move very slowly. Today’s market conditions will fluctuate between now and 2035 when the global demand for energy is expected to spike.

Not to mention the increasingly volatile situation in the Middle East, where new coalitions are already being formed: Iran and Iraq, Saudi Arabia and South Korea—just to name two. If one more beheading takes place or a bomb hits the right (or wrong) target, the region could erupt, and the entire energy dynamic would change. Considering the variables, American energy security is always something worth pursuing.”

Well, now the “entire energy dynamic” has changed.

First, the obvious: war in the Middle East.

Middle East unrest has historically sent oil prices soaring. With the recent regional conflicts involving ISIS, however, prices have continued to drop due to OPEC’s increased supplies, led by Saudi Arabia, in response to the new American energy abundance that changed the entire energy dynamic.

That dynamic has just changed again.

Referencing ISIS and the growing terrorism throughout the region, Jordan’s King Abdullah said in December, “this is our world war three.” At the time, pundits reacted with something akin to “well, maybe.”

But that was then. Now, Saudi Arabia, backed by King Abdullah—who has declared “Jordan is fully committed to the Arab military effort in Yemen”—and an Arab coalition including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, and Kuwait, plus Morocco and Pakistan, who’ve expressed interest in joining, with intelligence and logistics support from the U.S., is bombing Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have received training, weapons, and advisors from rival Iran.

As a result of the offensive, CNN Money reported:

“Oil prices bounced higher on Thursday as Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes in Yemen, raising concerns that a regional conflict could disrupt supplies.” It added, “Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil producer, and investors fear its involvement in the unrest could have a negative impact on production.”

In one story, the Financial Times (FT), pointed to Yemen’s limited oil production and stated:

“The attack is not expected to cause any major disruption to supplies.” And, in different coverage: “even as some observers raised concerns, others were more muted due to the size of Yemen’s oil output.”

Obviously, no one knows where “she’ll stop.” But the factor of “risk” which according to Richard Mallinson, geopolitical analyst at the London-based consultancy Energy Aspects, the markets had “since last year turned away from paying attention to,” is back. The FT quotes him as saying: “The reality is that geopolitical risk is as high as it has been in a long time.” Increased risk means higher prices.

It gets more complicated.

The Obama administration continues to negotiate with Iran with the intent of crafting a nuclear deal that will, ultimately, lift the sanctions against the oil-producing county—which would allow it to increase oil exports. Because of the sanctions, Iran’s oil exports have been cut in half—resulting in a “severely strained economy.” Iran has large amounts of oil already in storage and, according to the FT, “will fight for its market share.”

Iran wants the sanctions lifted immediately. If that happens, the FT reports there will be “an injection of hundreds of thousands of barrels a day into the oil market already struggling with a crude overhang”—which “could depress prices further.” Increased supply means lower prices.

Energy economist Tim Snyder explains it this way: “The Iranians will be free to put another 1 million barrels of crude oil production on the world market. The Iranian production will represent a doubling of the current oversupply vs. world demand and will put additional downward pressure on the world crude oil price.”

Frequently calling us “the great Satan,” Iran continues to hate the U.S. Falling oil prices could serve as a death knell to America’s oil abundance (not to mention countries, such as Venezuela, that depend on oil revenues). However the low prices would, overall, be good for western economies—but bad for Iran and its friend, Russia.

The way to better benefit the Iranian economy, once sanctions are lifted, is to raise oil prices—which Iran can do through the war in Yemen.

Perhaps Saudi Arabia jumped the gun in its attacks in Yemen. Perhaps, Iran thought it would have the deal with the P5 +1 group (U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China, and Germany) signed before the unrest pushed up the prices.

With Iran calling the shots in Yemen, it (not the friendly-to-the-west president) could control the Bab el-Mandeb strait and the million barrels of crude oil that pass through the strait each day, not to mention, the goods that transit the strait coming from the Far East. CNN Money notes: “Adding to the uncertainty is Yemen’s strategic location on a shipping route linking the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.”

Each day, upwards of 3.8 million barrels of oil and refined petroleum products flow through the Bab el-Mandeb strait to the Red Sea—making it one of the world’s key oil chokepoints. Blocking the strait could cause a major disruption in global crude oil prices.

But there is more.

Iran can impede the flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which is the world’s most important oil chokepoint with 17 million barrels of oil a day (representing more than 30 percent of the world’s seaborne-traded oil) flowing through it.

With the ability to disrupt both straits, Iran would have the ability, if the sanctions are lifted due to the Obama administrations’ eagerness for a deal, to potentially escalate the price of oil to $200 a barrel—which would, not only change the geopolitics, but world economies as well.

(Remember, Iran didn’t support OPEC’s November decision to keep production high and prices low.) Iran would be controlling a large part of the worldwide flow of oil and the high prices would boost, not only its economy, but Russia’s as well—while the limited access punishes Saudi Arabia and the high prices could badly damage Western economies. And, neither Iran nor Russia has to increase production to benefit—but if they do, their economic return becomes even greater.

Will Iran sign the deal and have its sanctions removed, allowing it to inject millions of barrels of oil into an already glutted global market? Whether or not it signs the deal, Iran can still penalize the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, and as a result the rest of the world—making Yemen a spot on the map we should all care about.

Round and round she goes, where she stops nobody knows. “Considering the variables, American energy security is always something worth pursuing.”

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The author of Energy Freedom, Marita Noon serves as the executive director for Energy Makes America Great Inc. and the companion educational organization, the Citizens’ Alliance for Responsible Energy (CARE). She hosts a weekly radio program: America’s Voice for Energy—which expands on the content of her weekly column.

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Should ISIS receive a Nobel Prize?

A quote from the New York Times leaves a question

The U.N. human rights chief told the Security Council on Friday that in a “most terrible irony,” the Islamic State group may be more accepting of the ethnic diversity of its members than some states are about ethnic differences among their own citizens.

Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the first human rights chief from the Muslim and Arab worlds, spoke as French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius chaired a special meeting on the abuses in the Middle East on ethnic and religious grounds.

Both said the Security Council should refer the situations in Iraq and Syria to the International Criminal Court, and Zeid said the council should take unanimous action to end both conflicts.

Appearing at The NYT and other media.

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Dems do what they accuse Republicans of

From the Jeannie DeAngelis column at the American Thinker

Click Here to Visit Jeannie DeAngelis Online

Psychological projection is the tendency to project one’s own negative qualities onto someone else.

That is exactly the element at work within a political party that has forged a reputation for accusing its political adversaries of what they’re guilty of doing themselves.

Last year, Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) took a lot of heat from the left when he made the comment that free school lunches offer children a “full stomach and an empty soul.”
Ryan’s point was that a meal provided by a loving mom is more gratifying and dignified than being spoon-fed from cradle to grave by a cold, bureaucratic Nanny State.

The indignant left trumpeted Ryan’s message as follows: Republicans want to starve poor children to death!

Now, just a year later, a school lunch program overseen by Mrs. Okra, I mean Obama, implements exactly what liberals accused Ryan of endorsing.

From the looks of things, the left was jockeying to orchestrate bureaucratic food deprivation, because based on what’s showing up on lunch trays lately, it appears that Democrats didn’t want to be outdone by Republicans in the starvation department. Currently, under the guise of healthy eating, the School Nutrition Association, together with Mama Obama, metes out food portions so meager and paltry that Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids are fast becoming ravenous and emaciated.

Besides, if that young upstart Paul Ryan had managed to convince Americans that hearty bagged lunches were the way to go, how, pray tell, could Calorie Control Central continue to serve a 6’5” high school football players a cup of fruit, a cup of vegetables, two ounces of grain, two ounces of meat, and a cup of milk and pass it off as lunch?

Back in 2012, when speaking with Al Sharpton of MSNBC’s Politics Nation, left-wing congressman Barney Frank (D- MA) accused Ryan of wanting kids to starve. Frank told Sharpton:

These are right-wingers who have this philosophy, going back to Ayn Rand that says we should not come together to do things for the common good. That individualism is the answer, and that everybody should be on his or her own. So feeding poor children, cleaning up the atmosphere, putting out fires in older cities: those are things for which they would deny funding.

Based on the “accuse others of what I’m guilty of” premise, Barney’s statement certainly explains why the proponents of “cleaning up the atmosphere” have the largest carbon footprints, and why those who are so concerned about “putting out fires in older cities” are the ones starting unquenchable fires everywhere from the Middle East to Ferguson, Missouri. Moreover, it also clarifies why the left considers it part of the “common good,” by way of the school lunch program, to deliberately deprive growing children of adequate nutrition.

After all, when government does such a bang-up job of breaking what doesn’t need fixing and worsening what needed only minor repairs, Barney Frank is right – far be it from me to believe the baloney that “individualism [in the form of a PB&J sandwich] is the answer, and that everybody should be on his or her own.”

It was during the heated FY2012 budget debate that Paul Ryan’s economic “path to prosperity” dared to suggest repealing Obamacare and (heaven forbid) privatizing Medicare.

The left was apoplectic, and even came out with an ad that featured a Ryan lookalike pushing an elderly “grandmother” off a cliff. Erica Payne of the Agenda Project, the progressive group sponsoring the ad, said America’s elderly would be put in a “bad spot” if Ryan’s “immoral” budget deficit plan passed.

In response, Fox News host Neil Cavuto accused Ms. Payne of “fear-mongering,” saying, “You are saying that an attempt to rein in the growth of an entitlement program that … [is] going to be running out of money five years earlier than we thought is akin to pushing Grandma over a cliff?”

Yes, Neil, that is exactly what Erica was saying. Because just as with the deplorable school lunch program, liberals were accusing the right of making the immoral choices liberals themselves had plans to enact. The difference is that their idea involves literally seizing control over life and death. In fact, the brother of Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, admitted it.

As one of the architects of Obamacare, the good doctor does not recommend euthanasia per se, but he does believe that medical care should be denied after the age of – ready for this? – 75, which would make way for what oncologist James Salwitz calls the “75 Plan.”

Much as Michelle Obama feels qualified to determine what Americans should and shouldn’t eat, apparently Zeke has decided he’s qualified to dictate when Americans should or shouldn’t die. Emanuel argues, “Society and families – and you – will be better off if nature takes its course swiftly and promptly.”

Dr. Emanuel said that at age 65, he intends to stop diagnostic tests, and at 75, unless he’s going for palliative care, he will no longer visit the doctor. That kind of talk coming from an Obamacare architect/advisor forebodes a future where Medicare funding is stopped at a predetermined age. In other words, health care is about to be school-lunch-sized.

There you have it. Liberals accuse Paul Ryan of starving children and wanting to throw Granny off a cliff.

Then, the first chance they get, via a government-funded school lunch program, Ryan’s accusers withhold food from the very children they claim need to be fed. And, for so-called cost efficiency, they would save old ladies from Paul Ryan just so they can dump both Granny and her wheelchair over the Obamacare cliff.

Jeannie also hosts a blog at www.jeannie-ology.com.

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Tax dollars and solar energy

From the art studios of A.F. (Tony) Branco at Comically Incorrect.com

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Tip of the climate spending iceberg

From the files of Paul Driessen at CFACT.org

How your tax and consumer dollars finance Climate Crisis, Inc. and hobble America

Read the Driessen Files at CFACT.org

Lockheed Martin, a recent Washington Post article notes, is getting into renewable energy, nuclear fusion, “sustainability” and even fish farming projects, to augment its reduced defense profits.

The company plans to forge new ties with Defense Department and other Obama initiatives, based on a shared belief in manmade climate change as a critical security and planetary threat.

It is charging ahead where other defense contractors have failed, confident that its expertise, lobbying skills and “socially responsible” commitment to preventing climate chaos will land it plentiful contracts and subsidies.

As with its polar counterparts, 90% of the titanic climate funding iceberg is invisible to most citizens, businessmen and politicians. The Lockheed action is the mere tip of the icy mountaintop.

The multi-billion-dollar agenda reflects the Obama Administration’s commitment to using climate change to radically transform America. It reflects a determination to make the climate crisis industry so enormous that no one will be able to tear it down, even as computer models and disaster claims become less and less credible – and even if Republicans control Congress and the White House after 2016

Lockheed is merely the latest in a long list of regulators, researchers, universities, businesses, manufacturers, pressure groups, journalists and politicians with such strong monetary, reputational and authority interests in alarmism that they will defend its tenets and largesse tooth and nail.

Above all, it reflects a conviction that alarmists have a right to control our energy use, lives, livelihoods and living standards, with no transparency and no accountability for mistakes they make or damage they inflict on disfavored industries and families.

And they are pursuing this agenda despite global warming again being dead last in the latest Gallup poll of 15 issues of greatest concern to Americans: only 25% say they worry about it “a great deal,” despite steady hysteria; 24% are “not at all” worried about the climate. By comparison, 46% percent worry a great deal about the size and power of the federal government.

But Climate Crisis, Inc. is using our tax and consumer dollars to advance six simultaneous strategies.

1) Climate research. The US government spends $2.5 billion per year on research that focuses on carbon dioxide, ignores powerful natural forces that have always driven climate change, and generates numerous reports and press releases warning of record high temperatures, melting icecaps, rising seas, stronger storms, more droughts and other “unprecedented” crises. The claims are erroneous and deceitful.

They are consistently contradicted by actual climate and weather records, and so alarmists increasingly emphasize computer models that reinvent and substitute for reality. Penn State modeler Michael Mann has collected millions for headline-grabbing work like his latest assertion that the Gulf Stream is slowing – contrary to 20 years of actual measurements that show no change.

Former NASA astronomer James Hansen received a questionable $250,000 Heinz Award from Secretary of State John Kerry’s wife, for his climate crisis and anti-coal advocacy. Al Gore and 350.org also rake in millions. Alarmist scientists and institutions seek billions more, while virtually no government money goes to research into natural forces.

2) Renewable energy research and implementation grants, loans, subsidies and mandates drive projects to replace hydrocarbons that are still abundant and still 82% of all US energy consumed.

Many recipients went bankrupt despite huge taxpayer grants and loan guarantees. Wind turbine installations butcher millions of birds and bats annually, but are exempt from Endangered Species Act fines and penalties.

Tesla Motors received $256 million to produce electric cars for wealthy elites who receive $2,500 to $7,500 in tax credits, plus free charging and express lane access. From 2007 to 2013, corn ethanol interests spent $158 million lobbying for more “green” mandates and subsidies – and $6 million in campaign contributions – for a fuel that reduces mileage, damages engines, requires enormous amounts of land, water and fertilizer, and from stalk to tailpipe emits more carbon dioxide than gasoline.

General Electric spends tens of millions lobbying for more taxpayer renewable energy dollars; so do many other companies. The payoffs add up to tens of billions of dollars, from taxpayers and consumers.

3) Regulatory fiats increasingly substitute for laws and carbon taxes that Congress refuses to enact, due to concerns about economic and employment impacts, and because China, India and other countries’ CO2 emissions dwarf America’s.

EPA’s war on coal has already claimed thousands of jobs, raised electricity costs for millions of businesses and families, and adversely affected living standards, health and welfare for millions of families. The White House and EPA are also targeting oil and gas drilling and fracking.

Now the Obama Administration is unleashing a host of new mandates and standards, based on arbitrary “social cost of carbon” calculations that assume fossil fuel use imposes numerous climate and other costs, but brings minimal or no economic or societal benefits.

The rules will require onerous new energy efficiency and CO2 emission reduction standards that will send consumer costs skyrocketing, while channeling billions of dollars to retailers, installers, banks and mostly overseas manufacturers.

As analyst Roger Bezdek explains, water heaters that now cost $675-1,500 will soon cost $1,200-2,450 – with newfangled exhaust fans, vent pipes and condensate removal systems. Pickup trucks with more fuel efficiency and less power will nearly double in price.

Microwaves, cell phones, vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, toasters, coffee pots, lawn mowers, photocopiers, televisions and almost everything else will cost far more. Poor and middle class families will get clobbered, to prevent perhaps 5% of the USA’s 15% of all human CO2 emissions toward 0.04% of atmospheric CO2, and maybe 0.00001 degrees of warming.

4) A new UN climate treaty would limit fossil fuel use by developed countries, place no binding limits or timetables on developing nations, and redistribute hundreds of billions of dollars to poor countries that claim they have been harmed by emissions and warming due to rich country hydrocarbon use.

Even IPCC officials now openly brag that climate policy has “almost nothing” to do with protecting the environment – and everything to do with intentionally transforming the global economy and redistributing its wealth.

5) Vicious personal attacks continue on scientists, businessmen, politicians and others who disagree publicly with the catechism of climate cataclysm.

Alarmist pressure groups and Democrat members of Congress are out to destroy the studies, funding, reputations and careers of all who dare challenge climate disaster tautologies. At President Obama’s behest, even disaster aid agencies are piling on.

New FEMA rules require that any state seeking disaster preparedness funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency must first assess how climate change threatens their communities. This will mean relying on discredited, worthless alarmist models that routinely spew out predictions unrelated to reality.

It likely means no federal funds will go to states that include or focus on natural causes, historical records or models that have better track records than those employed by the IPCC, EPA and President.

6) Thought control. In addition to vilifying climate chaos skeptics, alarmists are determined to control all thinking on the subject. They are terrified that people will find realist analyses and explanations far more persuasive.

They refuse to debate skeptics, respond to NIPCC and other studies examining natural climate change and carbon dioxide benefits to wildlife and agriculture, or even admit there is no consensus.

They want the news media to ignore us but cannot put the internet genie back in the bottle. The White House is trying, though. It even sent picketers to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s home, to demand that he knuckle under and apply 1930s’ telephone laws to the internet, as a first step in content control

States must refuse to play the climate crisis game. Through lawsuits, hearings, investigations and other actions, governors, legislators, AGs and other officials can delay EPA diktats, educate citizens about solar and other natural forces, and explain the huge costs and trifling benefits of these draconian regulations.

Congress should hold hearings, demand an accounting of agency expenditures, require solid evidence for every climate claim and regulation, and cross-examine Administration officials on details. It should slash EPA and other agency budgets, so they cannot keep giving billions to pressure groups, propagandists and attack dogs. Honesty, transparency, accountability and a much shorter leash are long overdue.

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Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power - Black death, and coauthor of Cracking Big Green: Saving the world from the Save-the-Earth money machine.

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Diet - Gain Weight: Diet - Gain Weight

From the Warning Signs of Alan Caruba at Facts-not-Fantasy

Facts-not-Fantasy Website

My Mother taught gourmet cooking, haute cuisine, for three decades in the local adult schools, first just to women and later with courses just for men as they too wanted to learn how to make succulent dishes, delicious sauces, and to bake as well.

She also wrote a cookbook, “Cooking with Wine and High Spirits”, as well as one filled with dishes that the colonial Americans enjoyed.

Meanwhile, at home, my Father and I dined daily like royalty and neither of us got fat. Why? Because eating well means listening to your body when it is hungry and not eating when it’s not. What we are never told amidst the hourly deluge of print and broadcast advertising and reports is that we are each quite individual in terms of inherited genetic traits and that our bodies have different needs as we age,

Instead we are told over and over again that we must be “thin” and that our bodies are not what the culture says is “beautiful.” Try watching television for an hour without getting this message. It starts early and, currently, the First Lady is dictating what school children should or should not eat.

It’s none of her business, but it is most certainly big business when you calculate the billions earned by physicians giving nutrition advice, pharmaceutical companies, diet companies offering pre-prepared dinners, others saying their foods are healthier, and all the others that have climbed on the multi-billion dollar gravy train.

An excellent book by Harriet Brown, “Body of Truth”, ($25.99, Da Capo Press) should be must-reading for everyone who has spent their life obsessing about every bite of food they eat. Based on extensive research, over twenty pages of notes citing her sources, she says what virtually any physician, nutritionist, or diet-peddler already knows.

“Unfortunately, the evidence suggests that dieting makes people neither thinner, nor healthier. Quite the opposite, actually nearly everyone who diets winds up heavier in the long run, and many people’s health suffers rather than improves, especially over time.”

“Each of us thinks our obsession with weight and body image is ours alone,” says Brown. “We blame ourselves for not being thin enough, sexy enough, shaped just the right way. We believe we’re supposed to fit the standards of the day” and it starts very early in life; by as early as three to five years old.

“This is not a personal issue,” says Brown. “This is not about your weakness or my laziness or her lack of self-discipline. This obsession is bigger than all of us. It’s become epidemic, endemic, and pandemic.”

“Weight-loss treatments are cash cows,” says Brown, “in part because they don’t work; there’s always a built-in base of repeat customers.”

In page after page Brown cites facts that too often do not make it into the pages of the newspapers and magazines we read, or on the radio and television we listen to and watch. For example, “The average American is in fact heavier (by about twenty pounds) and taller (by about an inch) than we were in 1960.

And dire predictions notwithstanding, the rates of overweight and obesity leveled off around 2000. We’re not actually getting heavier and heavier; our collective weight has pretty much plateaued.”

Moreover, all those psychotropic medications we’re being prescribed to treat anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, personality disorders, psychoses, and other mental health conditions “are known to cause weight gain, especially when taken over a period of time.”

We are constantly told that being overweight or even obese takes years off one’s life, but Brown’s research found that neither condition increased a person’s risk of dying prematurely and being mildly obese increases it only slightly. As you might already suspect, it is the lack of physical activity that poses a great health risk.

Brown cites studies that found that being physically unfit was as much or more of a risk factor for heart disease and death as diabetes, obesity, and other weight-based risk factors. Researchers argue that “it’s better to be fit and fat than unfit and thin.

If any of this hits home with you, if you find yourself criticizing a child for their size and weight, looking in the mirror and being displeased with your own, obsessing over everything you eat or serve, then Brown’s words should be embraced when she says “We’d do better for ourselves and our children if, instead of pushing diets and surgeries and medications, we look at real-world strategies for eating more fruits and vegetables, getting enough sleep, dancing, playing sports, and other joyful physical activities.”

“Normal eating is going to the table hungry and eating until you are satisfied. It is being able to choose food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it—not just stop eating because you think you should.”

“Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat something because you are happy, sad, or bored, or just because it feels good.”

Listen to what your body is telling you. The message has been passed down from generation to generation of your ancestors through your genetic code. Eat what you want. Stop dieting. Stay active and fit.

There’s countless, endless messages about your weight and how your body looks. When you decide to feel good about yourself, you will be free to ignore them.

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Curb your economic pessimism

From the file of Lawrence (Larry) Kudlow at Kudlow and Company

Visit the Larry Kudlow Website

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We can do a lot better, but America is still a very resilient place.

The economy has been in a tepid, soft, slow recovery for the past five-and-a-half years. It’s the weakest rebound in generations.

The Commerce Department’s revision of fourth-quarter GDP shows that nothing much has changed.

Over the past year, real economic growth registered 2.4 percent, slightly higher than the recovery average. It ain’t much.

Meanwhile, winter economic reports for retail sales, manufacturing, and capital investment point to a weaker first quarter, perhaps around 1 percent. And Wall Street is talking about a possible profits recession, with expectations of a 2 or 3 percent drop in corporate earnings for the first half of 2015. So the market bears are out in full force.

Now, let’s acknowledge that coming off a deep recession, the rebound should have been 4 or 5 percent, not 2 percent. By some calculations, GDP is 10 percent -- or nearly $2 trillion -- below its long-term trend, and jobs may be lagging by 8 to 10 million.

Government entitlement transfers pay people not to work. Family breakdown has created a poverty trap for the lowest economic groups. Upward mobility is lagging. And the government has attacked the high-end movers and shakers with tax hikes and over regulation.

And unfortunately, a damaging business psychology prevails. It says that success must be punished, and that redistribution is the way to solve inadequate growth, inequality, and unhappiness.

But . . . all this said . . . it’s possible to be too pessimistic.

Let’s start with profits, the mother’s milk of stocks and lifeblood of the economy. The recent GDP report shows a slight profits decline in 2014, the first in years. But this is misleading.

More important, the core measure of earnings, domestic nonfinancial profits, increased 1.4 percent in the fourth quarter and 7.8 percent for 2014. On an annual basis these profits increased $262 billion and were widespread across industries.

The big problem is not the U.S., but the rest of the world, which is mostly in recession and saw profits drop $36 billion in the fourth quarter. At roughly 18 percent, profits from the rest of the world account for the smallest share of corporate earnings since 2006.

By the way, GDP profits from the National Income Accounts are far larger, and therefore more telling, than S&P 500 profits. Initial quarterly estimates from GDP cover about 9,000 companies. Over time, annual revisions will cover roughly 4 million companies. And GDP profits are benchmarked to IRS tax filings, with no accounting shenanigans.

Another economic positive is the rise of the consumer. Rex Nutting of MarketWatch reminds us that consumers got a big windfall from plunging energy prices. So far they’ve saved it, but that may change. Real incomes adjusted for taxes and inflation jumped at a 7.7 percent annual rate over the past three months. This could set the stage for a big boost in consumer spending.

The terrible winter has taken its toll in Q1. But family spending may jump come spring and summer. Along with this, the basic core of the private economy (consumption plus investment), which rose over 4 percent in the fourth quarter and 3.3 percent for 2014, will continue to advance.

Did somebody say King Dollar? It’s holding down consumer prices and business costs (including energy). Even with a lousy world economy, U.S. exports increased 4.5 percent annually in the fourth quarter while imports jumped 10.4 percent. So U.S. businesses are very competitive regarding export sales, and the rise in American imports from overseas will bolster the international economy.

One last encouraging point: C&I business loans have increased over 15 percent annually in the last three months and about 12.5 percent in the past year. That’s a good sign, especially for Main Street business activity, which has been lagging for years.

The Fed will probably raise its target rate later rather than sooner, smaller rather than larger. I’m betting on October and December for some quarter-point rate hikes. That’s consistent with a high dollar and low commodity prices. I doubt long-term rates will change much at all.

So moderate growth, rising core profits, and a still accommodative Fed set the stage for a better stock market as the year goes on. I’m still in the “buy the dip” camp.

We’re not going to get the kind of growth that America is capable of producing until we get tax and regulatory relief and a better attitude about free-market capitalism. But I wouldn’t get too pessimistic.

There’s no recession or inflation in sight, and America is a very resilient place.

Don’t bet against it.

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Kroger slams anti-gun thug groups

Shop Kroger's Now: Here is how their CFO responded according to Breitbart

Who Would You Rather See Walking Through Your Local Grocery Store?

During a March 25 appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Kroger CFO Michael Schlotman said the retail food chain will not comply with the demands of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, especially as those demands touch on changing store policy to disarm open-carry customers in states where openly carrying a gun in Kroger is legal.

Scholtman responded to gun carry laws with the following public statement:

"That was a group called Moms Demand Action. They were opposed to the fact that our policy is to adhere to the local gun laws. If the local gun laws are to allow open carry, we’ll certainly allow customers to do that based on what the local laws are. 

We don’t believe it’s up to us to legislate what the local gun control laws should be. It’s up to the local legislators to decide to do that. So we follow local laws [and] we ask our customers to be respectful to the other people they are shopping with.

And we really haven’t had any issues inside of our stores as a result of that."

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Did the President go AWOL?

From the art studios of A.F. (Tony) Branco at Comically Incorrect.com

From the art studios of A.F. (Tony) Branco

• Editorial cartoonist
• Net Right Daily
• Legal Insurrection
• Liberty Alliance
• ConservativeDailyNews.com

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But What Does the Supreme Leader Say?

From the Warning Signs of Alan Caruba at Facts-not-Fantasy

Iran's Supreme Leader Sayyed Ali-Khamenei

What Americans have a hard time understanding is that, for all the Iranian negotiators, the outcome of the nuclear arms deal that the United States is leading all comes down to just one man, Sayyed Ali-Khamenei, otherwise known as the Supreme Leader of Iran.

In the 21st century, it is hard to comprehend that a nation could be ruled by a man whose powers supersede that nation’s president, its civil government, its judiciary and its military.

Iran has had only one other Supreme Leader since its founding in 1979, Ruhollah Khomeini who held the position until his death in 1989. The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran overthrew the Shah in order to secure greater freedom, but the Iranians ended up more servile than before.

This is who Obama and P5+1 team (France, Great Britain, Russia, China, plus Germany) is negotiating with as they move toward the March 31 deadline for the talks. Khamenei has already said that the only thing he wants is the immediately lifting of the economic sanctions that are credited with bringing the Iranians to the negotiation table.

The negotiations have to be seen in the context of Iran’s daily cries of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” They have to be seen in the context of a history of Iranian aggression against America and Israel that has included the bombing of our Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, attacks on U.S. embassies and countless other examples of their bad intentions, not the least of which has been its sponsorship of two anti-Israel groups, Hezbollah in Lebanon and, to a lessor extent, Hamas in Gaza.

Any nuclear deal that permits Iran to continue to enrich enough uranium to make its own nuclear weapons is a very bad deal. Netanyahu came to the U.S. at the invitation of Congress to make that point as the leader of the nation the Supreme Leader intends to destroy. We would be next.

All this is just slightly insane when one considers that President Obama has been obsessed with reaching an agreement with Iran before and since he took office in 2009. He has done everything possible to demonstrate his desire to remove the obstacles to conferring approval on Iran. In the process, he has made us look and be weak.

It is hopeful news, therefore, as reported in The Hill that “Congress is growing hostile to the emerging nuclear deal with Iran, leaving President Obama with little political cover as he approaches a critical deadline in the talks. Should a deal be reached, it would transform U.S. and Iranian relations and potentially give Obama the most important foreign policy achievement of his second term.”

His most significant foreign policy failure, however, has been his betrayal of Israel, the only ally in the Mideast that the U.S. truly has had. Declassifying information about Israel’s nuclear arms was pure treachery. That said, it was no secret and no doubt has protected Israel against apocalyptic destruction.

Consider the Middle Eastern foreign policy failures Obama has had to date. The Saudis and other Gulf States have abandoned hope that Obama would resist the Iranian proxies taking over Yemen. They are pursuing their own military operation there.

Egypt which replaced the Muslim Brotherhood with a U.S.-friendly president has not seen any renewal of the former friendly relations that existed. Iraq is in turmoil thanks to Obama’s removal of U.S. troops in 2011 and even has Iranian military units fighting ISIS. Syria has been in a civil war that has killed thousands. It’s a long list but it comes down to Obama’s ending of the U.S. role in the Mideast.

Just as the Iranians are controlled by their Supreme Leader, we have a President who sees himself and his role in a similar way. He has demonstrated his dissatisfaction with the Constitution and the limits it puts on the Executive branch.

He has ignored Congress and has been experiencing reversals of policy by the judicial branch. In the case of the Iran negotiations Congress has been kept in the dark along with the rest of the American people.

Know Alan Caruba's Warning Signs from Facts-not-Fantasy

The Secretary of State, John Kerry, has declared that any outcome of the negotiations would legally non-binding. If so, why are they being pursued? Such negotiations at the treaty level have always required the consent of the Senate, but the Obama regime is seeking to by-pass that mandatory factor.

On the other side of the table, it has been reported that the main stumbling block to agreement has been Iran’s failure to cooperate with a United Nations probe into whether it tried to build atomic weapons in the past. If United Nations inspectors, in the future as in the past, are unable to verify that Iran is not continuing its nuclear weapons program, there is no way an agreement of any kind could be achieved.

On March 26, the Washington Examiner reported “The Obama administration is giving in to Iranian demands about the scope of its nuclear program as negotiators work to finalize a framework agreement in the coming days, according to sources familiar with the administration’s position in the negotiations.”

You can be very sure that the Supreme Leader is watching this closely. If he can continue to get the kind of negotiations—an accord—that will result in Iran becoming a sanctions-free, nuclear-armed nation, he will permit the deal to proceed.

The Iranians, as always, will cheat on any deal to achieve this goal. Sadly, everyone at the table knows that, but Russia and China have strong economic reasons to pretend otherwise.

If the Supreme Leader gets what he wants the prospect for war in the Middle East would increase immeasurably. The threat level to the U.S. and Israel would be off the charts.

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Hypocritical attack on Netanyahu by Obama

From the files of Jeff Jacoby at The Boston Globe

Obama's contempt for Netanyahu is an old story, but before he lambastes other leaders
for their "divisive rhetoric," perhaps the president should glance in the mirror.

It took Bibi Netanyahu nearly a week to apologize properly for his inflammatory comment on Israel's election day warning that Arab voters were "heading to the polls in droves." Speaking at his Jerusalem residence to a group of Israeli Arab community leaders, the newly reelected prime minister expressed his regret: "I know the things I said a few days ago wounded Israel's Arab citizens. That was not in any way my intention, and I am sorry."

But even after four and a half years, there has been no apology from Barack Obama for his inflammatory remarks just before the 2010 election, when he exhorted Latinos to generate an "upsurge in voting" in order to "punish our enemies and . . . reward our friends."

Nor has the president ever expressed regret for his running mate's racially-tinged warning to a largely black audience in 2012 that the GOP was "going to put y'all back in chains" if Mitt Romney won the White House. In fact, the Obama campaign insisted no apology would be forthcoming.

Under normal circumstances, there would be no reason to link these episodes. But the White House pointedly reproached Netanyahu for his distasteful words. "This administration is deeply concerned by divisive rhetoric that seeks to marginalize Arab-Israeli citizens,"

Obama spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters the day after the election. The president himself declared in an interview that Netanyahu's "rhetoric was contrary to what is the best of Israel's traditions," and warned that it "starts to erode the meaning of democracy in the country."

Fair enough — except for Obama's egregious failure to meet his own standard. The candidate who captivated America with his promise to transcend partisan and racial rancor turned out to be the most consistently polarizing president in modern history.

He hasn't scrupled to inject barbed racial comments into the nation's political discourse, but if he has ever candidly apologized for doing so, it must have been on deep background. Obama's contempt for Netanyahu is nothing new, but before he lambastes other political leaders for their "divisive rhetoric," the president really ought to take a good look in the mirror.

Then there is the ginned-up outrage from the White House over Netanyahu's election-day assurance that Palestinian statehood would not happen on his watch. Netanyahu subsequently stressed that he continues to favor a two-state solution in principle, but that under current circumstances — with Islamist fanatics rampaging through the Middle East, Mahmoud Abbas refusing to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state, and Gaza a Hamas-ruled terrorist base — a Palestinian state isn't feasible.

Whichever Netanyahu position you take to be genuine, or even if you believe that his attitude toward the "peace process" is wholly driven by politics, it is astonishing to watch Team Obama going ballistic over Bibi's purported flip-flop.

"We cannot simply pretend that those comments were never made," intoned White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, in a speech to the left-wing Jewish lobby group J Street. Obama claims he took Netanyahu "at his word" when he momentarily ruled out a Palestinian state. The prime minister quickly backtracked, but the president's fury hasn't cooled.

When Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei declaims "Death to America!," as he did in a speech last week, an unruffled White House brushes it off as "intended for a domestic political audience." Doesn't it cast doubt on Tehran's trustworthiness? Not to worry, Obama's press secretary assured CNN. Iranian negotiators have "demonstrate[d] a willingness to have constructive conversations."

But there is no "domestic political audience" allowance for Netanyahu. If he says one thing today and something different tomorrow, the American president's wrath knows no bounds.

Perhaps Netanyahu should be flattered that Obama holds him to such a high standard of constancy. The president has certainly never demanded it of himself. On a whole slew of issues, Obama has adamantly taken one position, then cast it aside when it was politically advantageous to do so.

He stoutly told AIPAC that Jerusalem must remain the undivided capital of Israel. Then he took it back.

He endlessly promised voters that if they liked their existing health plan, they could keep it. Then he took it back.

He repeatedly explained that he didn't have the authority to unilaterally change or ignore immigration law. Then he took it back.

He coldly warned Syrian dictator Bashar Assad that any use of chemical weapons would cross a "red line" calling for a military response. Then he took it back.

He firmly asserted that he was not in favor of same-sex marriage. Then he took it back.

Time after time, the president has come down clearly on one side of a controversial policy debate, only to walk away from it and end up on the other side. "We cannot simply pretend that those comments were never made," says the White House witheringly about Netanyahu. Hypocrisy, thy name is Obama.

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Belligerence - The tool of an honest man

From the file of Ken LaRive at the Lafayette Examiner

Read the Ken LaRive Files at the Lafayette Examiner

It isn't easy being an honest man in a world designed by thieves. It isn't easy to live by rule of law in a system where breaking it is lucrative.

Honor is hard to uphold, love perverted, and a moral compass is rendered inconsequential in a world where nearly everything depends, and is configured by, a black bottom line.

What do you feel, as an honest person, when you stand in line after checkout at Sam's to get your groceries rechecked? A nice lady counts your items and puts a yellow line on your receipt to indicate it was done, rendering the receipt null and void to be used twice. A thief shrugs it off, accepts it as normal, but to an honest person it sticks in their craw. And as the years progress, and never once did you ever get caught stealing, or a single mistake found, you become more and more belligerent. It is all you have, all you are allowed to have, in a system who questions your intentions to be evil.

A story...

Several weeks ago, the day my new grand daughter was born, I was on my way to visit her in hospital. I found myself on a one-way street full of flashing lights, cement trucks, and street workers. With only a few hours sleep, I backed up into a brick mail box trying to get out of the way of a large truck playing chicken... a person who had to go first. No damage to the mail box, but I had a deep scratch on several rear passenger side panels, and my light assembly popped off.

The insurance company recommended that I use a specific body shop, and that I would get 35 dollars a day on a car rental, conveniently located next to the shop. My insurance broker communicated with them, organized it, and they seemed to all be working for a common cause, something I have never seen. Over the coming days I got a call from all three, with the future pivot-point being the part's delivery in a few days.

When that day arrived I brought it to the body shop where an adjuster assessed the damage. He told me that the insurance company might not allow what looked to be a previous ding on the left, a hit and run bump in a parking lot, on a small panel above the the bumper.

“I'll do what I can.” He said with a winning smile...

The insurance company allowed me 35 dollars a day for car rental, but they did not have one on the lot. She told me the only one left was 41.28 a day, and that I'd only have to pay 6 dollars or so, along with eight percent taxes. They told me I could come back the next day and pick up a 35 dollar car, but since it was almost five in the afternoon, I would have to pay for two days at 41 and change, because I should have called them first. Oops! I trusted what the insurance company told me... Should have been more assertive.

The car was a mini-van, you know the kind you see soccer moms zipping along in? But I liked it, especially the shift on the dash... I didn't have the time the next day, so called them to say I'd keep it for the duration. I had a lot going on working with a carpenter building a gate in my yard.... They had told me there was only a quarter tank of gas in the tank, so I quickly filled it up. I've rented cars a number of times in my life, and always it had a full tank... and you always fill up before returning it, or you will be paying a lot for that service. And so, this way, they got about forty dollars of gas...

The next day I got a call from the shop estimator saying the insurance company did not approve the work on the left side, and that they could give me a break in that repair.. 150 dollars would do it. “A lot cheaper to do it all at once, as it will all be painted at the same time...” he said. But again that little voice of experience whispered to me what was not being said. That each incident had to have a separate thousand dollar deductible fee, for one, but the real kicker is that it is considered normal that insurance companies pay more then an individual does out of pocket. A windshield is a case in point, but this scenario was different, the body shop was protecting the interests of the insurance company... Some shops give a good discount, about 10 percent, if you pay cash. They can hide that, I speculate, from taxes... So how does all of this convolution sit with a man of honor? He is drawn into it, and is complicit to save a few bucks, most often. He knows it is wrong, but it seems to be just business as usual... and everyone is doing it. Most all will fall to these tactics, and become a part of one scam after another...

Ten days later I got a call telling me my car was going to be ready in 40 minutes, if I wanted to come in soon it would be fine, to get the paper work done. I handed in my car to the the rental first, not even mentioning I almost had a full tank, paying with my company gold American Express card, and hurried to the body shop, walking over a convenient little foot bridge.

I looked over the work they had done and saw that my Ron Paul sticker was gone, so they had painted my bumper too... but wait, there was nothing wrong with my bumper... still, the work looked good. Inside, I signed several release forms, and they asked how I wished to pay the deductible, and the other work as well, and I pulled out my American Express card.

“Sorry sir, we do not accept American Express,” she said with a smile.

“Well, this is what I use for my company. Guess you are going to have to bill me.” I said.

“No sir, we don't do that. Do you have another kind of credit card, or a company check perhaps?” she said, a bit more serious.

“No, I use American Express. But if you bill me, I'll get a check to you soon, asap. I have no other way of payment.”

“Well, we normally don't allow a person to leave without payment first.” she said. Looking more and more uncomfortable. And then something welled up inside of me, the last tool to an honest man being treated like a thief, belligerence. I use this word now, because in the middle of an introduction later it was used to describe my attitude... It was a true description. Yes, I was being belligerent.

“Well, I guess I'll have to talk to your manager. I've handed in my rental car, so I have no means to go to my company to get a check, and you are about to close.” I said forcefully.

Everyone got very uncomfortable, some even red in the face. “Of course, I'll get the manager, but this is highly irregular. Hardly anyone takes American Express any more... and the manager, seeing a cog in the wheel of his smooth-running operation came out of his glass office, an office that commanded a 300 degree visibility.

I put my hand out to him, and it was soft and fleshy... a salesman's hands I thought. And he became a bit flustered as the floor manager attempted to explain this highly unusual “demand” as she put it, and how I had become “belligerent.” I then interrupted her...

“Sorry, it is a simple matter.” I said. “You do not use American Express because I win with a 2 percent cash back, that you have to pay up front in fees to them. As it is my only way I can pay now, you will have to trust me that I will pay you by check as soon as possible. Can you bill me for your services?”

“Well, first off, your receipt is your bill, It is company policy that you pay before you can be given your keys.”

I fell silent, and just stood there, and that set everyone, now five, even more on edge. From the corner of my eye I saw the adjuster move slowly and inconspicuously into his office. “Sorry Mr. La Rive.” He mumbled.

But the Manager was not finished with his justifications...

“I have a stack of bills on my desk that are unpaid... people who have not paid, and so we ask for payment first. It is company policy.” He said. “Well, guess I could call my wife to pick me up, since you do not trust me. I am a businessman in this community, and my reputation is impeccable. I pay all of my bills, and I'm considered trustworthy. Let me ask you a question sir, how would you feel if I told you I thought you were lying about that stack of papers on your desk, that it was all just a ploy to get your money fast, to put it in the bank, so that it could be used as collateral. If you were an honest man, would you be belligerent, as your floor manager described me?”

He looked at me for a moment up and down. Like I was a life-form he had never seen before... Not too many Libertarians in his neck of the woods, I suppose.

“Can I have a copy of your driver's license, Mr. La Rive?” he said, as he handed me my key.

Footnote: The work on my car was well done, and I called the manager to tell him at the same time my wife was giving his comptroller another credit card number they would accept. The floor manager also talked with me, saying she finally understood my take on the situation, and said she liked my Ron Paul sticker, and was at one of his speeches at a church in Alexander several years ago.

I told her I was there with a press pass, and had actually asked him a question about the Gold in Fort Knox. We talked for twenty minutes and she told me about an amazing kid's movie she had seen recently about how the media manipulates our minds.

She got on-line as we talked, and saw my writings, and said she would dig into them, and so, because of my belligerence, something positive was created.

I also found a fifty dollar error in my rental-car receipt. Just saying. They credited it to my American Express card. I'm also looking for another Ron Paul bumper sticker...

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Reid and weep Democrats

From the files of Jeff Crouere at Ringside Politics in New Orleans, Louisiana

Harry Reid, Nevada Senator Retiring

After five terms in the United States Senate and two terms in the House of Representatives, staunchly partisan Democrat Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) will finally relinquish his hold on the public trough.

He will retire at the end of this term, which means he has 22 months left in office to aggravate Republicans. Nonetheless, the announcement is still a big blow for Democrats, who will be losing their Senate leader.

Among Senate members, Reid was Obama’s strongest supporter. He was constantly looking for ways to fast track the most radical pieces of the President’s agenda. Not surprisingly, the President praised Reid as “one of my best partners and best friends.”

Obama shares Reid’s distaste for working with Republicans and trying to find ways to compromise. Since his party’s defeat in the mid-term elections, the President has moved aggressively to the left and refused to collaborate with Republicans on a variety of issues. Sadly, Reid has encouraged the President’s obstinacy every step of the way.

Since the massive Democratic Party losses in the mid-term elections, Reid was demoted to Minority Leader. It must have been quite a change for Reid, who was accustomed to getting his way as Majority Leader.

Reid ended the filibuster for judicial nominations and prevented multiple House bills from being debated on the Senate floor. He ran the Senate as his personal fiefdom and did little to share power with Republicans.

While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been willing to “reach across the aisle” and share some power with Reid, it is not the same as having total control. In recent months, Reid has seen the most radical pieces of the Obama agenda being thwarted by Republicans, so it must have been frustrating for this dyed in the wool liberal.

The Senate Minority Leader is also still suffering from the effects of a severe exercise injury. He said the “down time” involved in his recovery gave him an opportunity to contemplate his future. According to Reid, “I have had time to ponder and to think. We’ve got to be more concerned about the country, the Senate, the state of Nevada than us and as a result of that I’m not going to run for re-election.”

While Reid presented this as a selfless decision based on what is best for the country, in reality, he must have come to the conclusion that he would not win re-election. Looking ahead to 2016, it is an uncertain political landscape.

Reid was facing a serious challenge to win re-election in Nevada, a state that Republicans were already targeting in the upcoming election. Reid is the only statewide elected Democrat left in Nevada, so he likely figured it would be better to retire than to lose.

At 75 years of age and a tough campaign looming, Reid made the safe call to end his 34 year congressional career. It was the best decision for a country that is moving away from the hard core liberal policies of Harry Reid and Barack Obama.

The announcement also highlights the need for congressional term limits as 34 years in Congress is far too long. Reid is the poster boy for term limits, typical of the politicians in Washington D.C. who overstay their welcome.

A two term limit of 12 years should be enough for any politician to make an impact on Capitol Hill. After that amount of time, it is essential for politicians to leave office so newcomers can bring new energy and ideas to the position.

So, congratulations to Harry Reid for this decision, it is just too bad that it is 22 years too late. Just imagine how much damage he did in all of that time in power.

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 Jeff Crouere is a native of New Orleans, LA and he is the host of a Louisiana based program, “Ringside Politics,” which airs at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 10:00 p.m. Sunday on WLAE-TV 32, a PBS station, and 7 till 11 a.m. weekdays on WGSO 990 AM in New Orleans and the Northshore.

For more information, visit Jeff's web site at www.ringsidepolitics.com or email him at jeff@ringsidepolitics.com.

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