By Mr. Curmudgeon

Like so many on the soft-headed left, James Jay Lee just wanted to save the planet. So, he stormed into the Discovery Channel television headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, took three hostages at gunpoint and demanded that the cable network produce environmental documentaries showing that, “Saving the Planet means saving what’s left of the non-human Wildlife by decreasing the Human population.” A Montgomery County SWAT sharpshooter helped to bring Lee’s dream alive by shooting him dead, reducing the world’s human population by one. It’s a start.

The hostage situation in Silver Spring is something of a morality play. The mouth-breathers of the environmental movement would love nothing better than to take us all hostage. They may not have the ability to save the planet (not that it’s under any real threat), but they are trying like the dickens to take it hostage. First came the Kyoto Treaty. Now the Copenhagen Treaty, with Obama’s impending Cap-and-Trade legislation to help fund a UN administered global wealth redistribution scheme.

In the end, it’s an exercise in futility at best and self-destructive at worst. That is why this November’s elections are so important. With two years left in our one-term president’s tenure in office, voters need to send genuine opposition representatives to Washington to curb the wild-eyed enthusiasm of Obama and his environmental policies before they dash all hope for America’s economic recovery.

To put it in perspective, think of James Jay Lee as the personification of Cap-and-Trade, and the Tea Party as the Montgomery County SWAT team.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

And another R-I-N-O bites the dust. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who during the ObamaCare debate said she did not have a problem with a government run health care scheme, was denied the Republican nomination to serve another six years as Alaska’s Senator. Instead, Tea Party and Sarah Palin-supported challenger Joe Miller will face down the Democratic challenger this November.

When Murkowski realized defeat was in the cards, she let it be known she would like to run as the Libertarian candidate, which was news to the Libertarians. The five-member executive committee of the Libertarian Party hastily convened an emergency meeting to decide the issue. Emerging from the powwow, Alaska’s Libertarian Party Chairman Scott Kohlhass said, “Let’s put this to rest; it’s not happening.”

How brain dead does one have to be to believe Libertarians would allow a big-government Republican to highjack a political party that takes its small government principles seriously? What did she take them for, Republicans?

Murkowski’s desperation is understandable. She first landed the Senate seat when appointed to it by her father, Gov. Frank Murkowski, in 2002. She just hated giving back the gift daddy so graciously awarded his precious little princess. It was Murkowski’s sense of entitlement that drove her to seek another political party to front her ambitions. There’s always Alaska’s Green Party.

Here in Florida, milquetoast Gov. Charlie Crist is equally clueless. When it became clear Florida voters would reject Crist’s Obama-friendly bid for the Republican Senate nomination, he bolted his party to run as an independent. The latest Rasmussen poll reports the Tea Party-supported Republican Marco Rubio leads Crist by 10 points (40 to 30 percent). Of Crist’s “supporters,” Rasmussen finds only 45% are certain to cast their vote for him. Wow, now that’s what I call “leadership we can believe in.”

This begs the question: “Will these Republican milquetoasts ever go away?” It appears not. So, it remains for us – the long-suffering Republican voter – to relentlessly sucker-punch these gutless hangers-on at the polls.

Go Tea Party!

By Mr. Curmudgeon

Today, the Huffington Post printed an apology on behalf of one of its bloggers, Beau Friedlander – former editor-in-chief of the now defunct left wing Air America Radio. In a posting, Friedlander wrote, “It is time to pop the tea bagger’s favorite balloon (so what if it will be replaced by another?), and with that in mind I hereby offer to negotiate a $100,000 payday to the person who will come forward with a sex tape or phone records or anything else that succeeds in removing Glenn Beck from the public eye forever. I am not offering the cash myself, but I will broker the deal and/or raise the money for what you bring to the table. (And it better be good.)” Friedlander ended the post by encouraging readers to contribute money to a “slush fund” to entice would-be Beck blackmailers.

The Huffington Post pulled the post and replaced it with an editor’s note, “This piece was published directly to the Huffington Post by the author. It didn’t meet our editorial standards and has been removed from the site.”

Friedlander posted an apology to Glenn Beck, no doubt at the insistence of his employer. “It was supposed to simply make the point that the right does not hesitate to play rough with the left, and the right is far better financed,” whined Friedlander. Really? The Obama campaign raised a half billion dollars in 2008. Maybe Friedlander needs to ask the community organizer to throw a little cash into his slush fund. Or ask Obama supporter and billionaire Warren Buffett for financial assistance. Who knows, there may even be a provision in the “financial reform” package passed by the Democratic Congress earmarking funds for enterprises like Friedlander’s in the name of “stimulus.” I mean, if they can pay researchers to feed cocaine to monkeys, they can certainly pay for this.

Beck and the Tea Party are getting under the left’s skin. The radical bomb builders of the 60s finally have one of their own in the White House and as Speaker of the House. What they couldn’t achieve with explosives, violent demonstrations and sit-ins, they accomplished at the ballot box, thanks mostly to a majority of sleep-walking Americans. The comatose have since wiped the sleep from their eyes.

In early August, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a report titled “Analysis of the First Year of the Obama Administration: Public Relations and Propaganda Initiatives.”

According to the report, “In several cases, federal employees have used agency resources to disseminate propaganda touting certain aspects of the President’s agenda…In every case, the White House and the agency whose resources it is co-opting attempt to create the impression that grassroots support for a particular policy exists when in fact it has been fabricated using taxpayer dollars.”

The reason Beck so terrifies the lunatics is that his rally proves the left has millions of real grass-roots opponents. Obama’s friends, on the other hand, are taxpayer funded fabrications, what Nancy Pelosi calls “Astroturf.”

On his Monday evening Fox News program, Beck discussed the 500,000 strong “Restoring Honor” rally he organized last weekend in the nation’s capitol. Beck recounted how he and the niece of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, pro-life advocate Alveda King, prayed before delivering their remarks to the gathering. Beck said King became concerned when she noticed he was wearing a bulletproof vest. Beck told his Fox audience he wore it at the insistence of his wife. Smart woman.

The massive Beck rally got Beau Friedlander a little scared and hot under the collar. And he impetuously tipped his hand. But it shows that the left is growing increasingly desperate as it sees Obama’s power slipping.

You see, the left has never had the numbers. But the one thing it does have – mafia like – is organization. The right, thanks to the Tea Party, is showing just how few the left have on their side. The Rev. Al Sharpton’s pathetically puny counter Beck rally was proof of that.

It will be interesting to see what desperate rear-guard actions the left attempts in the months leading up to the elections. And the attempt to blackmail or discredit Glenn Beck is just the beginning. In many ways, what the left does this election cycle is just a warm up for much worse to come when Obama faces disaster in 2012. You can count on things getting ugly, even violent – you know what they say about wounded animals.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

They tried calling them Astroturf. They tried calling them racists. But the Tea Party continues to grow as does the country’s admiration for them. The left, and their mouthpiece the New York Times, is elbow deep in their bag of tricks to find just the right slur that will stick to the growing small-government cross-party coalition, and think they have it. We all must hate the Tea Party because – are you ready – they are rich. No, really.

“Tea Partiers are relatively affluent, and nobody is angrier these days than the very, very rich,” says the desperate and wild-eyed Paul Krugman.

And there’s even a conspiracy theory to go along with the charge. “Three heavy hitters rule [the Tea Party]. You’ve heard of one of them, Rupert Murdoch. The other two, the brothers David and Charles Koch, are even richer, with a combined wealth exceeded only by that of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett among Americans,” says New York Times theater critic turned political commentator Frank Rich.

“And where, in all of this, are the responsible Republicans, leaders who will stand up and say that some partisans are going too far?” asks Krugman. They are losing their Congressional seats in Republican Party state conventions and in the primaries to Tea Party-friendly candidates. The rest, like the milquetoast John McCain, will remain mum until after the elections. By then, it will be too late for even the media-loved Arizona maverick to be of much help to his “friends across the aisle.”

If, as the Times suggests, we wealthy Tea Partiers (I for one am still waiting for my check from Rupert Murdoch) pose such a threat to our new and improved hope-and-change nation, why not form a counter Tea Party?

The aforementioned multi-zillionaire Warren Buffett backed Hillary Clinton before switching to Obama. If all it takes is a little cash to start a game-changing mass movement, why not lean on the “Oracle of Omaha” for some scratch?

Soulless materialists on the left can’t believe people are moved more by principle than money. In the Chicago mindset of community organizer Obama and his personality cult, everyone is on the take. It’s just the way business is done. And that has turned out to be their Achilles heel.

They cannot fathom why any American would not wish to have his life (and death if Obama’s health care monstrosity is allowed to survive) micromanaged by Washington Czars and bureaucrats. And that Americans should fear that Obama’s phenomenal debt threatens generations yet unborn, is beyond their comprehension.

That the citizenry should be up in arms just because Obama’s Justice Department is suing Arizona for attempting to prevent Mexico’s millions from becoming the nation’s largest welfare dependent is beyond them.

And they are still scratching their heads at the full-throated opposition to a 13-story Muslim monument to mass-murder two blocks from Ground Zero.

In their minds, the $800 billion in “stimulus” was a payoff for us to look the other way. And it’s the left’s obsession with money (mostly yours) that goes to the heart of the problem.

The crowd at the Glenn Beck “Restore Honor” rally totaled over 500,000 because the cause they gathered for involved God and Honor, two intangibles. You can’t put a price on invisible realities.

The counter gathering held by the race hustler and shakedown artist, the Rev. Al Sharpton, only mustered a few hundred. His “Reclaim the Dream” rally was more about reclaiming the momentum for Obama’s graft-laden dream than Martin Luther King’s. After all, King said men should not be “judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Rev. Al is unfamiliar with the concept of character because there’s no money in it.

Over 200 years ago, American’s declared their independence based on intangible truths; the Unalienable Right to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

They pledged their fortunes to win our freedom; an intangible truth they felt was worth the price to secure their greatest possession, and what the impoverished materialistic left so desperately lacks – “sacred Honor.”

By Mr. Curmudgeon

While we were distracted by President Obama’s domestic transformative changes for America, a little known international project was underway in the nation. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent functionaries around the country to compile information for a report meeting the guidelines of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process of the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

According to the State Department report, “This document gives a partial snapshot of the current human rights situation in the United States, including some of the areas where problems persist in our society.”

This, of course, begs the question: who were the UPR consultants that met with Hillary’s State Department minions? Here’s a partial list:

* Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, host organization…the ACLU
* National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, Urban Justice Center
* American Indian Law Center, Navajo Nation
* NAACP
* American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
* Housing Action Illinois, John Marshal Law School
* Human Rights Watch
* Open Society Institute

In other words, the US is being accused of human rights abuses by every domestic crackpot organization demanding more redistribution of your income or a kinder, gentler approach in dealing with international Islamic jihad. And that’s not all.

According to the State Department report, “A recent Arizona law, S.B. 1070, has generated significant attention and debate at home and around the world. The issue is being addressed in a court action that argues that the federal government has the authority to set and enforce immigration law. That action is ongoing; parts of the law are currently enjoined.”

And so, the Obama administration has presented a report, the first the US has ever submitted to the UN’s Human Rights Commission, admitting to an international human rights violation – the State of Arizona’s attempt to secure its southern border with Mexico.

And who sits on the United Nations Human Rights Commission? Cuba, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Pakistan, Angola and China are but a few. And Obama hopes they are gracious enough to accept his apology on our behalf and his promise to force all fifty US states to live up to the high expectations of Cuba and other UN dictatorial member states.

Now that Obama has recognized the UN as the guarantor of human rights, something no past US president was ever so deranged to do, what will happen should “We the People” violate Cuba or China’s interpretation of human rights?

There are always sanctions and embargos – even military action in extreme cases.

When I was a kid, there was a local restaurant whose owner placed a large billboard facing a busy boulevard. The sign read “Get the US out of the UN.”

When will Republicans get it through their thick skulls that another winning plank for their party is our nation’s withdrawal from the world body?

The left will accuse the GOP of turning the US into a rogue state. The opposite is true. America would assert its independence for a second time in world history by refusing to be subject to an organization comprised of corrupt and evil rogue states.

I have always believed that there is only one act for which the US owes the world a sincere apology – the establishment of the United Nations.

But that’s one apology Obama will never make.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn made a startling announcement: the U.S. Defense Department recently suffered a major cyber attack. “…Code spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems, establishing what amounted to a digital beachhead from which data could be transferred to servers under foreign control,” Lynn told the New York Times. He refused to say which country’s intelligence agency was behind the attack but gave something of a hint.

According to the Times, “Counterfeit hardware had already been detected in systems that had been procured by the Defense Department, Lynn said – a danger since computer chips can be written with remotely operated ‘kill switches’ and hidden backdoors.”

Buried within the counterfeit hardware are “logic bombs” to cause malfunctions or remotely triggered “kill switches” that simply bring computer systems to a dead halt.

So, let’s see if we can figure out what nation is behind this attack on America. Apple, which has its headquarters in Mountain View, California, has many of the components to its popular consumer electronics – like their iPods and computers – manufactured at a facility near Shenzhen, China. Dell Computer offers next-day factory-direct delivery for its line of computers – direct from Xiamen, China. Toshiba of Japan outsources the making of their fine computers to a factory in Guanghou City, China. Are you starting to get the big picture?

The bipartisan policy of “free trade,” which resulted in the export of America’s industrial base to China has not only killed jobs here at home but poses a military threat as well. Could this be what Richard Nixon had in mind when he opened the way to closer diplomatic ties with the communist giant? Oddly, many Republicans still see Richard Nixon as something of a foreign policy genius. Tell that to the Pentagon’s information technology wonks.

President Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said one should “never let a crisis go to waste.” Unfortunately, his boss used our current economic crisis to expand government power, worsening the crisis.

Here’s a novel idea. What if we use our current crisis to re-establish a strong national tariff, which will re-establish our industrial base, which will create jobs and manufacture our own products that will enhance rather than threaten our national security?

The term “free trade” is turning into something of an oxymoron, when the nation that has been the primary beneficiary of the policy is at odds with the nation that calls itself the leader of the free.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

In Tuesday’s primary, hapless Arizona rank-and-file Republican voters elected the pea-brained brontosaur John McCain to lead the GOP charge in November. Pathetic. What were they thinking?

McCain spent much of the primary campaign telling Arizonans he wasn’t that “maverick” so loved and admired by the New York Times. As Michael Stickings wrote at the HuffingtonPost, “I mean, the guy must be losing his mind, or must have lost a good chunk of it already. Either that, or he’s so stupid or arrogant as to think that no one actually remembers all the maverick talk during the ‘08 campaign.” John McCain certainly knows his constituents.

“I’m convinced that Republicans will win in November and we will regain the majorities in both the Senate and the House,” McCain said in his victory speech. “And when we do, we will stop the out of control spending and tax increases and repeal and replace ObamaCare.”

McCain uses the phrase “repeal” to give hope to a majority of Americans angry over Obama’s totalitarian health care monstrosity. But it’s the “replace” portion of McCain’s statement that should send a shiver up the spine of every freedom-loving American. McCainCare can only mean ObamaCare-Lite.

If Republicans win a majority of seats in the United States Senate, it will be the task of conservatives and Tea Party members to marginalize the brontosaur.

The McCain victory signals a more ominous trend within the GOP. It’s a sign that moderate Democrats, having bolted their party over the decades because of its hard-left lurch, are diluting what little conservative testosterone remains in the Grand Old Party.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

Just when you think things couldn’t get anymore absurd in Obama’s “summer of recovery,” it does. Suspected “Grim Sleeper” serial killer Lonnie Franklin Jr., currently standing trial for the murder of 10 Los Angeles women, is the beneficiary of a generous L.A. city pension. As a retired garbage collector (9 years), Franklin “will be paid…until he dies,” reports the LA Weekly, providing “an unsettling new chapter about the ways taxpayer money is spent on municipal retirees.” And as the bloated salaries of Bell, California, city officials attest (retired City Manager Bob Rizzo made $800,000 a year), Golden State taxpayers are the indentured servants of the state’s powerful public employee unions.

Back when Franklin first retired on a disability pension in 1991 (he claimed to have injured his right rotator cuff), he received less than $900 a month. Today, thanks to a formula tied to inflation, his monthly government take is $1,658.54. It’s estimated that Franklin has collected about $300,000 so far. “According to the Office of the City Attorney, Franklin cannot be cut off, even if convicted and sent to death row. He or his family will be paid until he dies,” says the LA Weekly.

As sinister as this is, it gets a lot worse. During his time with L.A.’s Sanitation Department, Franklin filed several IODs (Injured on Duty) claims with the city for the months he allegedly committed his murders. Injuries received while lifting and disposing of his victims may have earned Franklin a city-approved “Injured on Duty” sick leave, which translated into a $2,200 monthly salary to stay home – at least during daylight hours.

Is it beginning to dawn on you yet? Government protects its own. It appears the real Grim Sleepers are California taxpayers who allow corrupt government – state, county and city – to hold sway over their lives. And – as may be proved in one case – end them.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

Those familiar with history may have thought the Frankish warrior and king, Charles (The Hammer) Martel, saved Christendom and Western Civilization from the invading Muslim hoards at the battle of Tours in AD 732. For centuries, Martel’s victory served as a source of pride considered worthy of passing along to children. That may change. Muslim sensibilities are priority number one in today’s dying Europe.

According to the London Daily Mail, “Schools [in England] are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Government backed study has revealed. It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose belief include Holocaust denial.”

That being the case, how long before the anti-Semitic “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” which claims Jews use the blood of children during the Passover Feast, is a required part of school curriculum for Great Britain’s children? After all, the poisonous slander is pervasive throughout the Islamic world – the focus of documentaries and multi-part television programs.

The government report went on to say that some schools avoid teaching the Crusades because “the topic would have challenged what was taught in some local mosques.”

England, which for a time stood alone against Hitler, cowers in the face of Islamic denials of reality to appease 6th Century totalitarian throwbacks.

The great Winston Churchill once said, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” In today’s Britain, a dangerous cowardice masquerades as cultural sensitivity.

Churchill also said, “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities… because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”

And the greatest quality of courage is survival.