Former Illinois governor Blagojevich was convicted Monday on 17 of 20 counts related to shady dealings to sell the vacant Senate seat created when President Obama was elected.

Leaving a trail of mucous behind him as he left the courtoom, Blagojovich claimed to be stunned, which pretty much demonstrates how utterly stupid you have to be to look for out and out bribes to fill a Senate seat.

I know that all politicians are suspect where honesty is considered, but shameless corruption is despicable.  Hopefully it’s also rare.  Bad policies we can withstand; incompetent leaders we can tolerate.  But rot from the inside is the quickest way for our Republic to fall.

John McCain, war hero and my former senator, is drawing attention to what he decries as “isolationism”.  His concerns seem to be that a thread of isolationism in the current field of Republican candidates could lead the United States to return to the foreign policy mistakes of the 1920’s and 1930’s.

While he has a point, and I agree that the United States cannot retreat behind the Atlantic and Pacific again, I do believe that we need to re-evaluate all of our overseas commitments.  If the support we give to someone outside our borders doesn’t pay off in either stability or cash, then we need to drop it and let regional powers take care of themselves.  Since the end of the Cold War, our ‘engagement’ with the rest of the world, especially the 3rd world, has gained us nothing but debt and coffins.

• Did the loss of Rangers in Mogadishu do anything to promote stability in the Horn of Africa?
• Did the billions of dollars we poured into the Balkans gain us anything at all?
• Has Saudi Arabia become more democratic after we poured blood and treasure into their sand in the 1990’s?
• Have the wars in Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arablia gained us any good will for promoting democracy in the Arab and/or Muslim world?
• Has decimating Al Qaeda and working to rebuild Afghanistan paid off after 10 years?
• Has Mexico become more democratic, stable, and prosperous since we started shipping our manufacturing jobs to Nogales and Tijuana?

After admitting that he sent inappropriate messages to multiple women, Representative Anthony Weiner of New York has announced that he will be entering a treatment facility:

Congressman Weiner departed this morning to seek professional treatment to focus on becoming a better husband and healthier person….

So, following the new way to get out of something, Congressman Weiner will be entering rehab for a few weeks of ‘counseling’ so he can wait for the next scandal du jure to come out.

In order to save both time and money, I offer the following advice to help this gentleman become ‘a better husband and healthier person’:

1. Do not show your schwanz to any woman you are not in a romantic relationship with already, or who is not your health care provider. 
2. If you are caught showing your schwanz to a woman that isn’t your significant other or health care provider, don’t lie or attack those who question the appropriateness of your behavior.
3. When you really poke the pooch, don’t act like you’ve got some mental health issue and hide in a treatment facility until the heat is off.  Man up, take your lumps, apologize profusely, and just stop showing women your schwanz.
4. Don’t put any picture on-line that you wouldn’t want your grandmother and kindergarten teacher to see and know it was you.

If the good congressman will just follow these three easy steps, his life will improve.  Of course, I think it’s good advice for any man.

I’m writing in reference to the person you gave the Nobel Peace Prize to in 2009, President Barack Obama.  At the time, you all rationalized your decision based on the potential Mr. Obama had to make the world a better, more peaceful place.

Since that time, President Obama has:

• Started an air campaign that interferes with an internal struggle between two armed factions in a sovereign country.
• Continued fighting two other wars, with flare-ups in several other countries.
• Violated the sovereignty of a U.N. member on multiple occasions to assassinate leadership of irregular forces.
• Sided with one side in a dispute that has previously caused a shooting war when it would have been acceptable to express neutrality on the issue.
• Supported deputies who actively assisted in the smuggling of weapons across an international border, weapons that have been used in the murder of soldiers, law enforcement, and innocent civilians.
• Used his governmental bodies to terrorize his own citizens in their homes over trivial administrative matters.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I agree with two of the above actions.  The others?  Well, not so much.  But that’s beside the point.

The Nobel Peace Prize used to mean that you did something to keep or create the peace.  Teddy Roosevelt got it for facilitating peace between Russia and Japan. Lech Walesa, Martin Luther King Jr., and Ghandi got it for working peacefully for social change in their countries.  Mother Teresa got it for her works to alleviate the suffering of the lowest of the low.  There are many other examples of people who have worked to bring peace to our world.

But President Obama is not one of them.  He has committed acts that either make the international situation worse or at best continue policies that keep the balance of terror in place.

Having brought this to your attention, I expect that you will reconsider your poor choice in 2009.  While I cannot suggest an alternative, I’m sure that somewhere in our world there is a person who deserves this recognition more than President Obama.

Tusen takk,

Daddy J. Bear
Pater Ursus

Congressman David Weiner, Democrat of New Yawk, has had one of the following things happen:

1. He took a picture of his junk and sent it via Twitter to a woman he’s not married to.
2. One of his staff took a picture of someone’s junk and sent it to said woman using the Congressman’s Twitter account.
3. Someone hacked into the Congressman’s Twitter account, and all they did was send a picture of unidentified junk to one woman.

Considering my generally low opinion of poiticians in general, I’m leaning towards #1, with consideration of #2.  #3 isn’t even in the running.  If someone actually broke into the Twitter and other accounts of a Congressman, then they would have done a heck of a lot more than send around underwear pictures.  Not to mention that the FBI would be all over this like ants at a picnic.  But that’s just my opinion.

My guess is Mr. Weiner got caught with his hands in the cookie jar, and now he’s in extreme damage control.  Apparently that includes stonewalling, pointing to earlier incomplete and inaccurate statements from his office, claiming that these allegations are a distraction, and calling a reporter a “jackass”.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I’ve called reporters much worse in the past, including Christianne Amanpour, the diva of CNN’s “Can’t you see that somewhere in the world someone is suffering and why isn’t the U.S. military doing something about it?”.  But when the reporter is trying to definitively find out whether or not a member of Congress sent unrequested lewd pictures to a woman he’s not married to, I’d say the jackass has a point.

Congressman Weiner needs to man up, and either admit he poked the pooch or offer up the offending staffer for public shaming.  Attacking the press for wanting to know the truth was slimy when Clinton and Nixon did it, and it’s still slimy.  This time there won’t be any blue dress, but I’m guessing there’s enough forensic evidence in the logs between wherever the picture was sent and where Twitter accepted it that if someone really wanted to know who, when, and from where this happened, they could.  So the Congressman can either let the truth see the light of day, or deal with the consequences when a political opponent or journalist puts all the pieces together.

Whoever gets the Republican nomination, they ought to use the following as a campaign slogan:

Are you doing better than you were 4 years ago?

That’s it.  The Republicans could run that old chestnut over and over on TV and radio for a few months and then stroll to the polls.

Guys,

It’s that time again.  Politicians are making the fateful decision of whether or not to submit to the horrors of a primary fight for our parties nomination for president.  So far the field only contains one guy who catches my attention, and he probably won’t get the nomination because he hasn’t spent his life being a political hack.  Even though Obama’s approval ratings are abysmal, I have no doubt that you all will choose someone who will not only step on his schwanz, but will bayonet it to the table during the campaign.

And don’t give me the old line of “The party rank and file pick the nominee through the primary process”.  Let’s just be honest and admit that anyone who bucks the party leadership in any way will be eviscerated by the time the first primary rolls around.  Which means that anyone with a single libertarian viewpoint on anything has a snowballs chance in hell.

I’m tired of voting for whoever you guys support because it’s his turn.  This time around I want to vote for someone, not against someone else.  I don’t want a politician to be our nominee; I want a leader, a statesman.  So, how about you pull your collective thumbs out and give us some better choices?  Maybe if you actually encourage someone who truly believes in limited government, both in scope and power, thinks that any deficit spending is bad, and who wants to end government intrusion into citizens’ lives we might have a chance to unseat the incumbent.  Or do you guys enjoy being the loyal opposition?

Well, the first political ad of the season just showed on the morning news.  Apparently we’re off to an early start.  Whoopee.

In 2008, we were handed a crap sandwich and told it was marzipan and happiness.  Nothing changed for the better.  In 2010, we threw it back in the politicians’ faces and screamed “We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take this anymore!”.  Again, nothing really changed.  We’re still on the same trajectory toward insolvency and irrelevancy that we were on in 2006.  If anything, we’re accelerating down that particular track.

We need to change tactics.  As big a pain in the tuckus as we were to Democrats and establishment Republicans in 2010, we need to be even more painful to them.  We need to expose and shame ‘conservatives’ who vote against our interests so that they can gain favor with the President and his cabal of too-cool-for-school ‘progressives’.  We need to make the slumbering masses wake up and smell the house burning.

If necessary, we need to be ridiculous.  Snark must run in the streets.  Ridicule of politicians from all parties should be the order of the day.  I’m not talking about principled disagreements with their stands on issues.  I’m talking about lampooning them in the same manner Hollywood has been doing since Dan Akroyd tried to imitate Nixon on Saturday Night Live.  And then we need to vote every single national and state politician who was elected prior to 2010 out of office.

I’ve got my wookie suit and chicken suit in the closet.  Something tells me both will be getting a workout between now and November 2012.

The following is the text of a letter that I am sending to my Congressman and Senators.

To: Senator Mitch McConnell, Senator Rand Paul, Congressman John Yarmuth
From:  DaddyBear

Subject:  Federal Debt Ceiling and Tax Increases

Gentlemen,

Last week I watched President Obama talk about how Americans in my tax bracket and higher are not paying their fair share, even though these people pay the vast majority of the income taxes that our government collects.  At the same time, I see that 47% of Americans pay no taxes at all.

I and my family are not rich.  We have worked hard all our life, starting at minimum wage jobs.  We have been prudent about our home purchase, and minimized the amount we have borrowed to finance our education.  We both work, and have done our utmost to stay off of unemployment and other forms of assistance during hard times.  Because we have spent our adult lives working up from low wage jobs to jobs that compensate us fairly for our education, work ethic, and skills, we pay higher taxes. We accept that some taxation is necessary to pay for the government services we use such as roads and schools, but we are already doing our fair share.  To have the President go before the American people and say that we are shirking our responsibility when almost half of Americans bear no fiscal responsibility to the nation is insulting.

This weekend, I saw Treasury Secretary Geithner talk about how the United States needs to raise its debt ceiling so that even more debt can be accumulated.  I see him speculate that the government would have to start defaulting on the credit that has already been extended to it if it is not allowed to go deeper into the hole.  At the same time, my family is cutting our expenses as much as possible in order to prepare for higher prices on food, fuel, and other things that we need due to the high cost of petroleum and other essentials.

And yesterday, I learned that Standard and Poor have warned the government that if it does not get its fiscal house in order, the United States government will lose its AAA bond rating.  In that event, the full faith and credit of the United States will be impaired, and the risk of high inflation will become a reality. 

Raising the tax rates to confiscatory levels for Americans who make more than $100,000.00, even if rates approached 100%, would not provide enough revenue to close the current fiscal gap.  We have been on a bender of borrowing and spending since the 1980’s, and our rate of debt increase has increased radically in the last decade. Only by going through the federal budget and reducing spending across the board, even on such politically charged areas as entitlement programs and the military, will we be able to soften the blow that our nation is about to feel. 

Gentlemen, as a constituent and fellow American, I urge you to work together to cut our federal spending and prevent the economic meltdown that many are beginning to see on the horizon.

Thank you,

Daddy J. Bear