Political Bullies Beware...The people have had enough!

Let’s see. What is there to talk about today? Oh…nothing much except that Ted Kennedy’s seat went to a Republican yesterday which means that some other equally cataclysmic event must have happened just prior to the closing of the polls in Massachusetts like Hell Freezing Over, The End to Death and Taxes, or The Second Coming of Christ because make no mistake about it ...

In the minds of most political observers there wasn't even a remote possibility that the Senate seat which has been most firmly entrenched in Democratic hands and under the iron fisted control of one of the most powerful political families in history could be captured by a little known Massachusetts State Senator named Scott Brown from Wrentham, MA….Huh? Pay attention Barney Frank!

Not since the infamous Midnight Ride of Paul Revere has a stressed out call-to-arms from Massachusetts had the potential to galvanize an entire nation for what could only be described as a revolt against President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barney Frank as well as the beginning of a political earth quake that has already sent a shock wave throughout the Democrat Party and is now threatening to derail Obama's Health Care plan. Signs of discontent with his radical-progressive agenda have been out there for months for any one who cared to pay attention starting with emotional town hall meetings, a growing Tea Party Movement, and major election upsets in Virginia and the Democrat stronghold of New Jersey. All along I've been wondering if it was possible that some people out there had the unmitigated gall to believe that this is still the government of the people, by the people, and for the people" as Abraham Lincoln so eloquently stated in his Gettysburg Address.

For yesterday it became clear to both casual observers and Congressmen representing constituencies not half as loyal to the Democrat party as Massachusetts, like Democrat Senator Jim Webb of Virginia that a major upheaval is threatening to disrupt the entire political landscape nationwide as the voters in the Bluest of the Blue States, stated very clearly that they have had enough with a trillion-dollar health care bill that is being forced down their throats despite the fact the bill includes unspeakable cuts in Medicare and military health-care programs such as Tricare. As Senator Webb stated: In many ways the campaign in Massachusetts became a referendum not only on health care reform, but also on the openness and integrity of our government.

For apparently, according to Webb, the people have not only rejected health care reform but they have had enough with an atmosphere of politics-as usual that stinks to high heaven with its closed door meetings and secret deals in Lousiana and Nebraska. And they have had enough with a Senate as Scot Brown implied in his victory speech that refuses to entertain the idea of across the board tax cuts for individuals and businesses that will create real jobs and stimulate the economy, not add to the deficit.

And they have had enough with a government that “grants rights and privileges to enemies during war time” and spends our tax dollars on lawyers to defend them instead of weapons to stop them. And they have had enough with political leaders who treated grand-parents and veterans and average citizens standing up for freedom and against intrusive and confiscatory government policies at tea parties and town meetings across the land as nothing more than a group of mindless thugs.

The people have had enough alright. And they demonstrated yesterday that they’re not going to be pushed around by Political Bullies anymore the way Martha Coakley’s body guard shoved reporter John McCormack around last week as she departed from a meeting with Democrat fat cat donors. Yesterday the voters took up his defense the way a big brother comes to the rescue of a younger sister who has been harassed by a school yard bully needing a lesson in manners.

And this symbolic bully is none other than the President of the United States and his Political Bullies in the U.S.Congress like our own Barney Frank who have rudely insisted on implementing government controlled health care, cap and trade, and an apparent dismantlement of the private sector and millions of jobs with it while the people who were most affected by these radical policies screamed for someone to come to their rescue.

And yesterday the Bullies got their butts kicked. And turned red-faced, cried, and ran home to "mummy" in total humiliation to seek cover and figure out how to stop the groundswell of public opinion that now has the potential to end in an unthinkable disaster for the Democrats and perhaps even some moderate Republicans (RINO's) this November. Man your battle stations folks. This promises to be an exciting, intense, and historic year. The entire country saw what happened in this die hard bastion of progressive/socialist/liberal politics yesterday and they get it. The question is does Obama, Reid, Pelosi, and Barney Frank get it. They better because a fired-up group of bully-bashing "older brothers" like Conservative Republican candidate for the Fourth Congressional District, Earl Sholley gets it and they're on their way to deliver these Political Bullies" a long overdue lesson in manners because "it's still the government of the people,by the people, and for the people" and the people have had enough.

Part II: It's Time for a Little Common Sense

What I like about Earl Sholley, the Conservative Republican who has decided to run against Barney Frank in the 2010 elections is his ability to find simple solutions to complex problems. Career politicians quite often have a hard time with simplicity because political considerations enter the arena of ideas and gum up the works big time, as has been the case in the matter of health care reform.

For example, when discussing the critical area of national security, Mr. Sholley states very clearly on his website (http://www.sholleyforcongress.us) that the goal is to keep Americans safe. But of course if someone like Vice President Joe Biden heard Sholley’s “Keep Americans Safe” proposal he would react the same way he did when he told Sarah Palan “Drill Baby Drill” was to simplistic a solution for bringing down oil prices even though she never said that was her only solution.

And that would be just further proof that we would be correct in suspecting that the Obama administration and the Congressional Leadership group which is running things now doesn’t seem to get this . If they did they wouldn’t have set out on a course to completely dismantle the terrorist interrogation apparatus that had such great success during the Bush years in averting future attacks.

But it has now become apparent that change indeed has taken place, as Obama promised all during the campaign without going into details, for as change concerns National security issues we are definitely not as safe as we once were. First we had the Fort Hood attack followed by the Christmas Day Bombing Attempt. And now it is being reported that 20 other young Muslim men are already prepared and trained to blow up more aircraft. This disturbing information was learned from UK intelligence officials and is based upon statements Omar Farouk Abdulmulab boasted during his initial “lawyer-less” interrogation sessions. But since they allowed him to “lawyer up”, we are no longer able to conduct a genuine threat analysis. I’m certain we’ll obtain more details about these fine young Muslim men after they start blowing themselves up in airplanes in the wild blue yonder above us and human body parts and debris starting falling out of the sky. Does it sound like somebody is finally starting to make wise decisions at the top? I think not and so do you.

My initial reaction to the tragic shooting at Ford Hood was quite different than the reactions of the mainstream liberal media which went way out of its way to portray the perpetrator of this horrible, horrible crime as suffering from Post Traumatic Stress syndrome. Immediately I found this quite odd because he had never been in combat before. (Duh…..You think?)And when it was announced that his name was Nadal Milak Hassan instead of John Adams Smith, I really wasn’t surprised that the media refused to mention the forbidden “T” word in any of their stories until it became clear that Hassan had undeniably radical views and had even exchanged 18 emails with radical Yemeni cleric Awlaki whose communications were being monitored under court ordered surveillance. (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/07/eveningnews/main6069298.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody)

I would imagine at this point that if Earl Sholley’s over all strategy of doing everything possible to keep Americans safe were in place, then the 18 emails would have been passed on to the Terrorism Task Force responsible for determining whether Hassan had posed a threat or not but they never saw all 18 emails. In fact the task force decided Hassan was not dangerous at all which led to the Pentagon not knowing that a US Army Officer was e-mailing a radical Islamic Cleric suspected of being a recruiter for Al Qaeda, something that would surely have set off red flags, or at least I hope it would have. But I’m not sure because it seems that the military services have become much more politically correct than they were when I served between 1971 and 1997. (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/08/cbsnews_investigates/main6073415.shtml?tag=cbsnewsLeadStoriesArea)

It’s also beginning to become apparent that because information had not been disseminated properly the dots were not being connected and the subsequent disaster was unavoidable. Yet because the investigation and analysis of these failures was so painfully slow and without the urgency one would have expected during the Bush years lessons were not learned quickly enough to ensure that similar intelligence failures would not lead to the type of near disaster that occurred this past Christmas.

I’m not a counterterrorism expert but I like to think that I am capable of making an abundance of common sense decisions if nothing else. I’ve done a lot of traveling and spent a lot of time at many of the world’s busiest airports. I’ve been interrogated at the airport in Tel Aviv, Israel and scrutinized in the most thourough manner imaginable. While standing in line I was questioned by two different screeners as to why I did or didn’t do a variety of things while vacationing in Israel around 1994 during a relative period of peace. They wanted to know why I had spent the entire week in Jerusalem and hadn’t traveled the country like most tourists do. Finally they became convinced that I was telling the truth when I got flustered and told them I was simply a Senior Chief Petty Officer in the United States Navy on leave who came to Israel for a little R&R rather than for an exhaustive investigation into all of Israel’s remarkable and historic sights. They believed me when they saw my growing frustration with their methods and decided to back off. Now that I reflect upon it I have to agree it was a logical line of questioning, even if I did not fit a certain profile they were obviously concerned about.

You see they were looking for someone who could be a possible terrorist by looking at him straight in the eye and making a “common sense” evaluation based on his demographic profile and behavior while standing in line answering direct questions. They weren’t just going through the motions using state-of-the-art weapons detection and screening devices while wondering when they’ll be able to take there next break and if they’ll finally be able to enjoy a decent cup of coffee in peace for a change.

We’ll probably never know if this was the case or not in Amsterdam when a rich man’s son from Nigeria traveling alone without a passport was allowed to enter an aircraft flying to the United States, even though his name appeared on a Terrorist Watch List. We also don’t know if his strange indifferent demeanor was similar to that shown during his subsequent courtroom appearance nor do we know if he displayed the same look of icy cold death in his eyes that should have got the attention of professional security personnel but obviously didn’t .

What we do know however is that he arrived in Addis Ababa, Ghana on December 9 after spending five months in Al Qaeda training camps in Yemen. We also know that when the suspect’s father reported his concerns about his son to the CIA, the reaction of our country’s Terrorist detection apparatus was one of apathy. Obviously they weren’t at the level of readiness they should have been if someone or some agency or some task force were diligently connecting the dots. That’s just common sense isn’t it? I bet Barney Frank thinks so. Well, maybe not. But I bet Earl Sholley does.
If it weren’t for the passengers who quickly subdued him after he attempted to ignite the explosives packed tightly in his crotch. we would still be paying tribute more than likely to all the victims of a terrible aviation disaster, rather than a failed attempt at a blatant terrorist attack.

In my opinion the times have changed considerably since the Bush days when at least we could fall asleep at night knowing that our government was doing everything in its power to protect us.

The whole system back then utilized common- sense decision making methods to the hilt even if they did over reach at times, which many distinguished legal scholars believe they did not. One can not argue with the fact however that Al-Qaeda was unable to launch a single attack on the United States during the Bush years largely because they made the common sense decision to recognize it as a war from the very beginning.

It wasn’t until very recently, however that President Obama’s Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, even mentioned the word terrorism which is simply outrageous and makes you wonder what President Obama was thinking when he appointed her to this extremely important position.

Keeping dangerous terrorists locked up at the Detention and Interrogation Center at Guantanomo Bay, Cuba not only struck me as a pragmatic solution to the problem but a stroke of true genius for many reasons. And holding them for military tribunals was another no brainier and an example of common sense decision making that should be considered for entry into the Common Sense Decisions Hall of Fame
But where is the evidence that common sense decisions are still being made in light of the decision to move suspected terrorists to the mainland of the United States and allow them to enjoy the same rights and protections that residents and citizens of this great country enjoy. Where is the common sense when you give evil cold blooded Gihadist killers a ready made venue for unleashing venomous attacks and propaganda on the US in front of the entire world? How is this decision going to help keep Americans safe?

It won’t but it does give an emphatic and disturbing answer to a question that has troubled me ever since it became clear that Liberal Democrats had a very good chance of regaining control of both the Congress and the White House. The question was Can Democrats Be Trusted with National Security? And the answer based upon a dizzying array of foolish decisions made during the first year of their return to the bastion of power in Washington D.C. was a resounding NO!

And the reasons were as follows: (1) A Liberal’s World View won’t allow for that to happen. (2)The old 1960’s anti-war, love and peace crowd won’t allow that to happen. (3)The idea that America is to blame for everything that is wrong in the world won’t allow that to happen. (4) The tendency of our new president to apologize to the part of the world that views such actions as weakness won’t allow that to happen. (5) and finally the tendency of the President to expect to be able to reason with people who have been taught to hate the ”infidels” in the non-muslim world with a passion won’t allow for that to happen.

So the only conclusion I can come to is that common sense decision making is not being made in the Oval office anymore or the Department of Homeland Security, or in any other agency charged with protecting us from further terrorist attacks.

You know I’m right. You know Earl Sholley is right. And you know every registered voter in the country will be right in November when they vote to bring common sense decision making back to the Massachusetts Fourth Congressional District and the entire country as well.

Part I: It's Time for a Little Common Sense

The first entry into the 2010 political blogosphere is the first of a two part series on the application of common sense to solving difficult political problems. For example Earl Sholley, candidate for the Massachusetts Fourth Congressional District wants to bring term limits to the US Congress and promises to run for only two terms himself. He’s on a mission to bring common sense back to government by preventing a ceaseless and unending grab for power by professional politicians like Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the special interest groups that control them.

The main point I want to make in both of these articles is that the country doesn’t need intelligent elites serving in the halls of the United States Congress because everyone knows that intelligence by itself is over-rated. The halls of our best schools and colleges are crowded with educated idiots who seem to be completely incapable of relying on just plain old common sense to do the right thing.

What we really need are more people that can make wise decisions and common sense should not be ruled out as the first step and wisest course of action in most situations. There is no question that Barney Frank is a very intelligent, articulate individual, but the big question during the up and coming political campaign is does he have the common sense needed to solve problems that aren’t going to create more serious entanglements in the future. The evidence is out there in abundance that he does not. Why do I say that you ask?

Well, let’s see. Does he have a history of making the kind of good moral judgments that the Book of Proverbs in the Bible implies are always the foundation for wise decision making and leads to “doing the right thing”? Would a wise man allow a prostitution ring for young boys to operate in his own house and then say he had no idea those kinds of activities were going on? Would a wise man encourage Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac to give loans to people that had no chance of ever paying them back? Would a wise man then deny it and blame Republicans when countless audio and video tapes as well as interviews in print media can prove he has expressed support for the mindless liberal policies that led to the financial and banking crisis going all the way back to the Carter administration and throughout the Clinton years.
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And would a wise man think that his constituents were so stupid that they would continuously send him back to Washington as long as he buys them off with pork barrel spending and new government programs which are really nothing more than bribes to get votes on Election Day. It has always been the case in this neck of the woods that the closer we come to election day the more we are inundated with a barrage of ribbon cutting ceremonies and the like initiating the use of some new taxpayer funded building, park, education initiative, harbor cleaning project, or something to keep specific segments of the population happy. Not that any of these things are bad in themselves but the motivation for providing them is always suspect in his case. If you don’t believe me just watch the flurry of federal spending that will take place in this area as we get closer and closer to the 2010 elections which polls at the moment indicate could be devastating for the Democrats. And no one has more to lose than Barney Frank if the Democrats lose control of the House and he looses his position of power and ability to implement one of the most extreme radical national socialist agendas the country has ever seen.

Finally would a wise man spend his entire career continually searching for ways to confiscate property in the form of fiscal taxation from those who work and redistribute it to those who don’t work as Barack Obama plainly told “Joe the Plummer” during the 2008 presidential campaign when he didn’t realize the microphones were on..

I like it when politicians speak of using common sense to solve problems. On the other hand I’ve heard too many left wing zealots imply that conservatives aren’t very bright. Joe Biden, for example told Sarah Palan that the solutions to our energy problems were more complicated than implementing a policy of “Drill Baby Drill”and they probably are when you take into account the problem of a Democrat politician being re-elected without the support of the environmental lobby.

And furthermore Sarah never said that “Drill Baby Drill” was the only solution to bringing oil prices down. So I say congratulations Sarah for showing a lot of fortitude and political courage by suggesting we use our God given abilities to use common sense in our thought processes while tackling challenging problems. Once again, it’s common sense we need more of these days, not intelligence.

So in conclusion the time is right for a good honest man to introduce real change into our corrupt political system, not phony change, by attempting to solve difficult problems using time-tested, practical, common sense solutions that work without creating additional burdens down the road for our children and grandchildren to bear. The time is right for a good honest man to serve his constituents without embarrassing them in front of the entire nation night after night during this new age of 24 hour cable and internet news. The citizens of the Massachusetts Fourth Congressional District deserve better than that.

And the time is right for a man of humble origins who understands what is needed to create his own business using his own God given talents and ingenuity, not the fruits of the labor of others.

But most of all the time is right for a man like Earl Sholley to demonstrate to everyone who cares about this country how effective an elected representative can be when he’s not interested in establishing his own personal power base but is willing to solve difficult problems using practical, common sense solutions. Visit his website at http://www.sholleyforcongress.us and see for yourself during the next eleven months what those solutions are and how they can save this country from the dark terrible abyss we are falling towards at incredible speed and reckless abandonment under the present administration and congressional leadership group that hasn’t displayed a bit of common sense since they took over.