My Five Seconds of Fame

James Lee Government, Politics, Society

My 5 seconds of fame…see this video clip (0:41 – 0:46)  for important coverage of the back of my head (that’s me with the reading glasses and snappy haircut highlighting my salt and pepper locks)! Oh, by the way, some prominent Democrat Presidential candidate is in the video, too…
 
Do also note the lengths to which said candidate goes to control her voice and make her seem softer and less shrill…
 
The candidate fails to note that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was bi-partisan legislation sponsored by none other than Teddy Kennedy (D-MA). She also fails to realize that President Bush is constitutionally barred from appropriating any funding for anything. That is the Legislative Branch’s responsibility. So if Sen. Clinton is unhappy with NCLB then she has no one to blame but herself and her colleagues who apparently crafted and voted for a flawed piece of legislation. And according to their rhetoric, they feel it is not sufficiently funded so they are at fault for that, too! 

I’ll spare you an entire rant about the fact that most of those critical of NCLB haven’t actually read the legislation and don’t realize that the implementation requirements are left to the states and not the federal government. NCLB simply says: states set their own standards; measure their progress; and then perform continuous improvement until the state-established standards are met.

Insanity or Intellectual Dishonesty? You Decide…

James Lee Politics, Society

I hate that I seem to have to keep picking on moronic Democrats but the Republicans aren’t giving me much to think about except how damned spineless they’ve become. I want to blog about that but Harry Reid’s continued idiocy is irritating me more.

Is Harry Reid simply intellectually dishonest or insane? Within several seconds of calling Dick Cheney the President’s attack dog (e.g. name-calling) he claims that he doesn’t want “to get into a name-calling match with the administration’s attack dog.” He also woefully exaggeratesthe frequency at which the “attack dog” holds a press conference from the Senate to critize the Democrats: “the president sends out his attack dogs often, also known as Dick Cheney…” So for those who are lexicon-challenged, often means twice since that’s precisely how many times Vice President Attack Dog has done so in the last six years.

I feel compelled to respond to Senator Reid as I would one of my children. Senator Reid: cut the intellectually dishonest grand-standing, rhetoric, and dime store lawyer tactics and put the country above your own political self-interests. Your actions and rhetoric are at best intellectually dishonest … unless you actually believe your drivel in which case at worst you are insane.

With All Due Respect to the People of Nevada…

James Lee Government, Politics

…I can only assume that all of you were simply spinning a roulette wheel in the voting booth and Harry Reid’s number somehow came up more than any other candidate when you all made Reid one of the two Senators representing the Silver State.

Harry Reid, far from demonstrating the character and attributes of a genuine leader, has simply gone too far with his simple-minded assessment of the situation in Iraq. My personal and visceral reaction to Senator Reid’s “this war is lost” assessment is one of outrage. However, in the hope of gaining further insight and understanding into what I consider to be a cowardly and defeatist mentality, I would like to pose several questions for Senator Reid the answers to which might help me to overcome my initial emotional reaction and attain some form of enlightenment on the matter.

First of all, I would like to know who exactly you think you are, Senator Reid, to portend to speak on behalf of the Secretaries of State and Defense? Second, how can you, Senator Reid, declare the war lost, ostensibly against a set of predefined objectives, yet at the same time whine that the President has no defined plan or strategy (and, by extension, no clearly defined objectives)? Third, if the situation in Iraq is now nothing more that a civil war against opposing factions based on centuries-old emnity for one another then, to use your reasoning, Senator Reid, you must also hold that the U.S. should NEVER, EVER consider getting involved in the likes of Darfur’s internal struggles, correct? Lastly, what is YOUR strategy, sir, for not only dealing with the situation in Iraq but also any potential fall-out if YOUR strategy does not result in exactly the outcomes you expect should things not go quite according to plan?

I must remind you, sir, that you were elected by the citizens of the State of Nevada in a statewide election whereas the President was elected by the citizens of this country in a nationwide election. You are not the Commander-in-Chief, a geopolitical or military strategy expert, or anything of the sort. Senator Reid, whining and complaining is not constructive criticism. Using emergency appropriations bills to broadcast to our enemies, whose goals are plain and clear, and to attempt to tie the hands of the Commander-in-Chief and our troops, is not statesmanship, leadership, or a plan for victory. It is shallowness and ignorance on display because of your lust for power. 

Gamble your own life and the lives of the people of Nevada who elected you with your reckless statements, Senator Reid, but please don’t gamble with my life and the lives of my children.  

I just don’t understand how people in Nevada, where the state motto is “All For Our Country,” elected someone like Harry Reid…

A Decision Towards a More Civilized Society

James Lee Government, Society

Today, in a momentous 5-4 decision that moves us all towards a more civilized society, the U.S. Supreme Court rightly upheld the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. The decision, the majority opinion for which was delivered by Justice Anthony Kennedy, does not restrict whether a woman may have an abortion. It merely eliminates one barbaric form of abortion from the palette of legal options available to kill pre-born human beings. Nevertheless, this decision is a move towards a more civilized society.

Regardless your position on whether abortion should be legal, it is unreasonable for a civilized society to permit, let alone support, what the Supreme Court concludes in its decision to be a gruesome, cruel and unusual, and wholly unnecessary partial birth abortion procedure. Read the description of the procedure contained within the decision for yourself and one has to seriously question the moral compass, intellectual capacity, and critical thinking skills of those who would do so. Also ask yourself whether such a procedure is illustrative of a truly civilized society. 

Given the plethora of education and information regarding human reproduction (formerly known as ‘sex education’) and the myriad of birth-control methods made readily available by organizations such as Planned Parenthood, shouldn’t the number of unwanted pregnancies in our “civilized society” be approaching zero anyway? I’ll propose some intellecutal calesthenics surrounding that topic at a later time.

Wake Up and Smell the Manure, America!

James Lee Politics, Society

ManureNot to get partisan, but if you can stretch your analytical skills and reasoning to conclude that the recent actions of U.S. Representative and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) are in the best interests of the country, then might I suggest you begin preparing for the total collapse of American society? If you can reconcile Nancy’s and Harry’s words (most open, non-partisan, democratic, blah, blah, blah) with their actions (Nancy’s “I wanna’ be Commander-in-Chief” trip to Syria , Harry’s giddy “we’re gonna pick up Senate seats because of the war” comments) then you can probably rationalize the increasing lack of personal accountability, declining standards of education, growing dependence on entitlement programs trending towards socialism, continued admiration for the corrupt and inept United Nations, and the legality of the unecessary and barbaric procedure known as partial-birth abortion (see also Social Thermodynamics ) as evidence of the “enlightenment” of America society. 

The mainstream media (MSM) are touting Nancy, Harry and the Democrat majority as having accomplished so much in their first 100 days. The MSM are trying to spin the recent appropriations bills as the Democrats somehow after years of mismanagement by the Bush Administration restoring “fiscal discipline” and pay-as-you-go – except the Democrats don’t have to pay as they go to receive the accolades of the MSM! The MSM would have you believe that Nancy and Harry are behaving like non-partisan honorable elder statespersons (a word that only exists in the political-correctness lexicon).

This is not a shrill for the Republicans – I’ll prognosticate about them shortly – but nausea setting in as I watch the likes of Nancy, Harry, et. Al. continue with reckless abandon unbridled political partisanship in Washington while the MSM makes them out to be just the opposite. 

Wake up and smell the manure, America!

// end rant

Cynicism Overshadows the Truth

James Lee Politics

As a political junkie I am already consumed by the primary election process however I have not yet determined which candidate to support for President in the ’08 election. I am struck by how cynicism continues to overshadow the truth in coverage of the various candidates’ campaigns.

Take Mike Huckabee for example. In a recent editorial David Sanders ruminates as to why the former Arkansas Governor’s campaign is stuck in the second tier of the numerous Republican hopefuls. Sanders feels that Huckabee is offending his so-called base. Huckabee has made statements in effect challenging Christian evangelicals to “walk the talk” and pointing out from personal observation several of Hillary Clinton’s personality traits that make her a formidable candidate.  As I read it, Huckabee is simply speaking clear, unvarnished, spin-free truth that, in my opinion, is exactly what we need more of rather than the molly-coddling and disingenuous bovine fecal matter that the cynical and lazy among us seem to prefer. 

I, for one, am hopeful that more such truth will be spoken by all the candidates and we will examine each candidate’s statements with critical rather than cynical thinking.

Are We Simply Practicing “Social Thermodynamics?”

James Lee Society

The older I get the more I subscribe to the notion that “everything truly important I ever needed to learn I learned in kindergarten.” It seems to me that the social graces of our society have devolved to the point that coarseness overshadows most human interaction. To make matters worse, these days so few seem to possess the critical thinking and interpersonal skills once honed while trying to build something with your kindergarten classmates using only wooden blocks that it seems our society will soon collapse under the weight of bias and ignorance. Consider the current cultural discourse about illegal immigration, racism, terrorism, government spending and taxation, and faith and religion (there is a difference) as examples.