By Mr. Curmudgeon

“There is no question that there’s a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the controversy surrounding the Ground Zero mosque. She then added ominously, “I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded.” Interesting that Madam Speaker isn’t all that interested in who is behind the funding of the mosque at Ground Zero.

Forget for the moment the issue of a triumphal 13-story Islamic monument built to shadow over Ground Zero, the Democratic majority is concerned with all the opposition to their rule in our democratic republic. Leaders such as Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro don’t have such concerns, making all their community organizing simpler and more streamlined.

The debate over the mosque is not a question of totalitarian Islamic ideology at odds with a pluralistic and free society. Its merely “a zoning issue in New York City.” And isn’t that a matter best left to an unelected zoning commission? Nancy didn’t like being confronted by questions concerning zoning. It’s beneath her.

Democrats have had to deal with a lot of uncomfortable questions: at health care town hall meetings and at anti-ObamaCare rallies outside the Capitol Building. Average Americans can’t possibly be that jealous of their liberties, can they? There must be some evil agency working against our betters. Hillary Clinton once called them the “vast right-wing conspiracy.” And every counter revolution has a leader and financiers, don’t they?

The millions of Americans turning out for Tea Party rallies across the country, says Nancy, are nothing but Astroturf – paid agitators like ACORN activists. When reporters ask Nancy uncomfortable questions concerning her Constitutional authority to micromanage our lives, she asks back, “Are you kidding, are you kidding?”

Nancy doesn’t know anybody in San Francisco who disagrees with her.

Opposition to Democratic rule must be the work of racists, right-wing domestic terrorists or wild-eyed crazies, right? And Nancy must save sane San Franciscans, er, Americans from the millions of mentally challenged opponents of America’s transformation into a bankrupt Castroite paradise.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

The Chicago jury in the trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was finally able to agree on something: that Blago lied to federal agents about his involvement in political fundraising. The other 23 counts in the indictment are less clear to them. After all, it’s not like they had thousands of hours of taped telephone conversations proving Blago used the power of his executive position to muscle political contributions. Oh, wait…they did.

One such conversation had Blago threatening to stall a state increase in Medicaid reimbursements to an Illinois children’s hospital unless a $50,000 contribution was put in the mail…immediately, if not sooner. That’s a tough call for this Chicago jury. Is it really a bribe if, well, you put the guy receiving it in the executive mansion? Think of all the good he can accomplish with that extorted money. And, they think, “it isn’t my money he’s extorting.”

Before you judge the jury, it’s worth reflecting on their dilemma. Swimming in the shark tank that is Chicago, they have learned from experience that the only way to make it in life is at another’s expense. It’s a kind of political Darwinism. Unlike Darwin’s theory that claims man evolved from the lower primates, in the Chicago version man evolved to spend trillions of tax dollars in a vain attempt to stimulate the American economy. Some of that stimulus money makes its way to labs where lower primates are fed cocaine. It doesn’t need to make sense because it’s not about results. It’s about spreading other’s wealth around.

After all, Al Capone used some of the profits from his criminal enterprise to establish soup kitchens in Depression-era Chicago. Hamas does likewise in the Gaza Strip, because hypocrisy is the compliment evil pays good.

Obama took Capone’s hypocrisy national. There was only one problem: There still exists a kernel of Judeo-Christian morality in the heartland where more evolved creatures are appalled by the kind of organized theft a Chicago jury finds acceptable and every day.

The Blago jury is deadlocked, with the judge likely to declare a mistrial for the remainder of the charges. That deadlock stems from moral confusion. In Chicago, theft is good as long as you get a cut. That’s how it works in political machines that call themselves cities.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

The hair-pullers at MSNBC, like resident loon Keith Olbermann, must be beside themselves. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is charging General Electric, NBC’s parent company, with providing Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein $3.6 million in kickbacks in order to get access to the lucrative and corrupt United Nations oil-for-food program, which Saddam used to bribe his way around the international community’s economic sanctions. Cheryl Scarboro, who heads the SEC’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit said GE “failed to maintain adequate internal controls to detect and prevent these illicit payments.”

That begs the question: “Were Keith Olbermann’s objections to America’s toppling Saddam more a product of protecting an overseas paymaster or just a product of his Saddam-level hatred of George W. Bush?” Inquiring minds want to know.

According to the SEC indictment, GE subsidiaries paid kickbacks to the Saddam regime to get oil-for-food gravy. German-based Marquitte paid $1.2 million to the Iraqi Health Ministry in goods and services. Norway-based Nycomed paid $750,000 to secure a $5 million contract. Italy-based Italba paid $795,000 to gain a $2.3 million profit for mamma GE; in all, GE allegedly profited by $204 million thanks to Saddam’s murderous regime.

Just as an aside, Alexander Yakovlev, a Russian working for the United Nations Procurement Department, pled guilty to fraud in the UN oil-for-food scandal. Yakovlev helped facilitate a business deal that put cash in the pocket of one Ahmed Idris Nasreddin, a US and UN designated terrorist financier for Al Qaeda. And that juicy little fact was uncovered by America’s number-one cable news source…Fox.

Back in February of 2007, big-salaried (an estimated $4 million a year) GE employee Keith Olbermann went apoplectic when then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice compared toppling Saddam to America’s victory over Hitler. “…Secretary Rice, overthrowing Saddam Hussein was akin to overthrowing Adolf Hitler?” screamed an incredulous Olbermann. “Are you kidding? Did you want to provoke the world’s laughter?”

Apparently, the only one laughing was Keith Olberman – all the way to the bank…to cash his check from a murderous Middle Eastern dictator the MSNBC host assured us was not all that bad.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

Liberal Democrats are so frightened by the Tea Party onslaught coming from their right, they forget to look left. Sen. Carl Levin had finished delivering an address before the Mecosta County Democratic Party in Detroit, Michigan, when two students approached him and read a long statement accusing the Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee of – I just love this – “war crimes.” That’s when the young female student, identified as Ahlam Mohsen who attends Michigan State University, hit Levin in the puss with a pie.

News accounts failed to mention what kind of pie.

The pie-throwing stunt is a sign that the ankle-biters on the left are angry Democratic Party leaders are continuing the policies of George W. Bush – from drone attacks to the extension of the Patriot Act. “They didn’t hurt me,” Levin assured the press, “but they hurt their cause even more than their own extreme words had already done.”

How things have changed. The old Bill Ayers left used to build bombs in basements and rob Brinks armored cars. Today’s more effeminate incarnation just fattens the bottom line at Marie Callender’s.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

President Obama has figured out a winning strategy for Democrats heading into November: attack Republicans for attacking Social Security. In fact, the headline for Paul Krugman’s New York Times column was “Attacking Social Security.” Funny how these hyper Keynesian socialists are on the same wavelength.

Paul Krugman insists GOP “attackers claim that they’re concerned about the program’s financial future. But their math doesn’t add up, and their hostility isn’t really about dollars and cents. Instead, it’s about ideology and posturing. And underneath it all is ignorance of or indifference to the realities of life for many Americans… So let’s beat back this unnecessary, unfair and – let’s not mince words – cruel attack on working Americans.”

In his weekly radio address, Obama claimed Republicans are “pushing to make privatizing Social Security a key part of their legislative agenda if they win a majority in Congress this fall,” calling such a move “an ill-conceived idea that would add trillions of dollars to our budget deficit while tying your benefits to the whims of Wall Street traders and the ups and downs of the stock market.”

This is the same big government that devised the Community Reinvestment Act, which started the ball rolling in the direction of sub-prime lending, which popped the housing bubble, which destroyed home values and caused Wall Street to crash, destroying your real retirement 401k and mutual fund investments.

Democrats are counting on the greatest asset in their arsenal: your ignorance. And that ignorance has served them well, from FDR to Obama. Here’s a few uncomfortable facts the donkeys in Washington and at the New York Times would rather you not know:

• 1. Which president and political party changed the protected “trust fund” status of Social Security, dumping all that cash into the General fund to pay for unsustainable Great Society programs? President Lyndon Johnson and his Democrat controlled Congress.
• 2. Which political party ended the tax deduction for Social Security withholding? The Democratic Party.
• Who extended Social Security payments to immigrants who never paid into the system? President Jimmy Carter and his Congressional Democratic majority.
• 3. Which political party began taxing Social Security annuities? The Democrats under Bill Clinton, with Vice President Al Gore casting the tie-breaking vote in the U.S. Senate.

According to Krugman, “Conservatives hate Social Security for ideological reasons: its success undermines their claim that government is always the problem, never the solution.” The “success” of Social Security, at least for Democrats, is that it serves as a slush fund to buy the votes of targeted constituencies at the expense of America’s vulnerable elderly. Now that’s what Democrats call compassion.

The Associated Press reports that, “…Democrats have been able to seize on the issue because of a proposal by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the House Budget Committee that would allow younger people to put Social Security money into personal accounts.”

Now that the Democrat’s policies have destroyed both Social Security and the American economy, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barney Frank ask that you continue allowing them to manage your retirement “today, tomorrow and forever,” as President Obama put it.

Personal accounts would only keep your lovely money in your hands and far from the reach of “compassionate” Democrats.

Younger Americans should remember the name Ernest Ackerman. Why? You see, Ernest was the first Social Security beneficiary. In 1937, Earnest received a whopping Social Security lump-sum payout ­in the amount of 17 cents.

At least Earnest got something. Young Obama voter should be so lucky.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

At Friday’s White House gala commemorating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, President Obama said, “Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality. And here in the United States, Ramadan is a reminder that Islam has always been part of America and that American Muslims have made extraordinary contributions to our country.” The president then weighed in on the latest intended contribution to our country by Islam. “Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan…” The president may not be a fan of property rights, but assured Muslims he’ll make an exception at Ground Zero.

Saturday, the president further clarified his statement, “I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding.” Interesting how a president whose totalitarian health care plan shows contempt for the Constitution’s limits on government power, uses it for convenient cover to support a monument to mass murder.

At the same time, Obama can’t bring himself to comment on the disgusting in-your-face statement the Ground Zero mosque shouts to America and the Islamic world. If Obama can’t apologize on our behalf, he has nothing to say.

And the president’s support for a gloating monument to shadow over 3,000 American innocent dead is not due to any pro-Muslim feeling on his part. He merely admires the ability of Islam’s religious totalitarian ideology to community organize on a global scale.

In other words, Obama suffers from Osama envy.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

The poster boy for the Democratic Party’s big-government culture of corruption, Dan Rostenkowski, is dead. His 36-year stint in the House of Representatives (thirteen of which he served as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee) came to an end when his mail fraud activities landed him in prison. He served 15-months.

Rostenkowski’s Los Angeles Times obituary was touching enough to bring a lump to the throat. “He was indicted in 1994 on 17 counts charging him with a range of offenses from mail and wire fraud to obstruction of justice. Rostenkowski was accused of hiring ghost employees, keeping office slush funds and showering gifts on political supporters and friends – time-honored methods of conducting political business in Chicago.”

While cooling his heals in Wisconsin’s Oxford federal penitentiary, Rostenkowski worked as a landscaper for a well deserved 12 cents an hour. Oxford penitentiary was a home-away-from-home for many a corrupt Chicago politician. According to the Chicago Tribune, “In Oxford, home to fewer than 600, people have grown accustomed to strangers arriving in limousines and fancy cars with Illinois license plates. They are usually weekend visitors to the prison and are allowed to see an inmate up to 35 hours per month.” Local townsfolk refer to the institution as “the university.”

Meanwhile in Washington, embattled Rep. Charlie Rangel (having also served as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee) appears to have filled Rostenkowski’s big corrupt shoes. He stands accused of violating 13 House ethics rules, which may eventually lead to a federal criminal charge of wire fraud – a felony.

“You’re not going to tell me to resign to make you feel comfortable,” thundered Rangel from the House floor. “If I can’t get my dignity back here, then fire your best shot and get rid of me through expulsion.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who prides herself on having drained the Congressional swamp, sheepishly said, “As I have repeatedly stated, the independent, bipartisan ethics committee is the proper arena for ethics matters to be discussed.”

Power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. Will the example set by our elected leaders ever teach this country’s sleepy electorate this lesson?

By Mr. Curmudgeon

Desperate times call for desperate measures. And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is desperate. He needs all the votes Nevadans can give him, and he’s not taking any chances. “I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican,” said Reid in a campaign address, “Okay…do I need to say more?” In the Amos and Andy-Speedy Gonzales world of Jim Crow Democrats like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, minorities are bought-and-paid-for commodities. And like antebellum Southern house servants, should know their place.

Reid’s views on minorities should come as no surprise. He was only able to bring himself to support candidate Barack Obama because he was “light-skinned…with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” It’s difficult for Reid to get beyond his fond memories of minstrel shows from a bygone age.

Why would minorities continue to honor Democratic racism and condescension with their votes?

Professional race hustler Rev. Al Sharpton gave an insightful answer to Politco.com. “Senator Reid’s record provides a stark contrast to actions of Republicans to block legislation that would benefit poor and minority communities.” In other words, for communities trapped in the web of federal dependency, biting the hand that feeds you is not a wise move.

Reid and Pelosi would like to expand the weapon of big-government. Financial reform, stimulus and bailouts are geared to increase big-government control over the broader American landscape; doing for it what it has done for the crumbling inner city. The question should be: “Why would any freedom-loving American – rich, poor, Black, Hispanic or White – vote for a political party that holds power by turning large segments of society into desperate, needy and beholding voters?”

By Mr. Curmudgeon

At a White House briefing, press secretary Gibbs was asked to comment regarding the barrage of shrill attacks on the administration by the jihadist left. But what drove Gibbs to hyperventilate was their claim that President Obama…I hope your sitting down…is nothing but a warmed over version of George W. Bush.

“These people ought to be drug tested,” said an exasperated Gibbs. “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality. They wouldn’t be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was president.”

Gibbs makes a good point. The left suffers from the utopian delusion that the presidency is imperial. But to be fair to the ankle-biters, Obama reinforced their delirium by naming his administration’s authoritarian minions “Czars.”

In a Democratic Republic, its leaders must persuade “We the People” if they are to govern effectively. Forcing a particular agenda down the throats of Americans only builds resentment. Have the loons seen the president’s approval ratings lately?

But grasping reality is not the strong suit of the lunatic left. A case in point: gays in the military.

“There is a frustration in the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community that the promises that were made have not been entirely fulfilled,” Fred Sainz, vice president at the Human Rights Campaign, told the Los Angeles Times.

At a recent Los Angeles fundraiser for Democratic incumbent Senator Barbra Boxer, Obama’s address was interrupted by gay protestors demanding an end to the military policy “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

The protestors won’t be happy until every military review resembles a San Francisco gay pride parade.

And we saw the success of President Clinton’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in America’s struggle in Afghanistan. Gay Pfc. Bradley Manning is accused of leaking 90,000 secret military documents to the Internet site WikiLeaks.org.

In a tender New York Times  puff piece, Ginger Thomas wrote of Manning’s heroic struggle. And it’s as riveting as accounts of George Washington at Valley Forge. “But it was around two years ago, when Pfc. Bradley Manning came here to visit a man he had fallen in love with, that he finally seemed to have found a place where he fit in, part of a social circle that included politically motivated computer hackers and his boyfriend, a self-described drag queen. So when his military career seemed headed nowhere good, Private Manning, 22, turned increasingly to those friends for moral support.” And you know the rest of the story.

It is said that allowing openly gay soldiers in the military is bad for unit cohesion. Pfc. Manning showed it can be downright hazardous to one’s life. Especially if you’re an Afghan informant. You know, the ones who risked their lives telling our military where the Taliban planted those improvised explosive devices. Afghan villagers will be a lot more reluctant to stick their necks out – for a beheading. So the next time you hear a news story about soldiers killed in IED attacks, their families might have an heroic and sexually confused Pfc. to thank for it.

“He would get upset, slam books on the desk if people wouldn’t listen to him or understand his point of view,” said Chera Moore, who attended elementary and junior high school with Manning.

It looks like President Obama is getting the Manning treatment. It’s like they say, “dance with the one that brought you.”