Left Wing Strategy Exposed in John Kerry’s Letter

John LaRosa  "On a more serious note, I found the text of Kerry’s letter to be quite revealing. It is a blueprint for the 2010 liberal game plan! The first paragraph sets the tone:

 track-em-down.com  from 2004

“I have been a senator for 25 years and I’ve never seen anything like this. As President Obama works to dig us out of a deep hole and build our country back up, the Republicans in Washington at the highest levels have adopted an entirely different goal: Force his failure. It disgusts me every time I see it.”

"Analysis: Demonize dissent. Imply Republican racism and personal animosity toward Obama. Remind people about the famous “inherited mess”. Label Republicans as “obstructionist” and “The Party of No”. Feign indignation." 

news.shm.com

Continuing further, Mr. La Rosa makes another point:

"Later in Kerry’s comical yet disturbing letter, he revealed the tired and increasingly ineffective strategy of isolating and demonizing Tea Party patriots.

“We must defend our majority against a Tea Partier crowd that wants to make the ideology of the far right fringe the basic operating procedure of the federal government.

"Analysis: Use the word “crowd” to imply “dangerous mob”. Label the Tea Party as “extremists” with the word “fringe”. Link a grassroots, bottom-up movement to a top-down GOP strategy."
(Emphases in the original)    Via Conservative Bloggers on Facebook

As the world ends, let's look back on 2012

Jib Jab, who else?  Since the world is about to end or fall off some cliff, this could be my final post, but it is a good one. The Tunnel Dweller

Commentary on the failure of Plan B

TD honestly has nothing but ignorance to pass on to you, so instead of doing that, here is the research I have been doing on the Plan B affair. Take it for what it is worth to you.

American Thinker; Boehner and Cantor Must Go "...Speaker Boehner's plan to raise taxes didn't woo GOP House caucus members or tea parties and grassroots conservatives across the republic. Boehner and his team were effectively trying to legislate against their party's conservative base and the outcome was thankfully predictable.

Human Events; House Speaker John Boehner on Friday morning blamed a Republican Party defection over his “Plan B” tax proposal on a misconception that the measure was a tax increase that could be used against the members.  "Boehner (R-Ohio) also told reporters he did not believe the late-night defection put his speakership at risk."  Plan B collapses; "The collapse was announced shortly after an emergency GOP conference was called at 7:45 p.m. to count votes and twist arms, just moments before the legislation was to be debated on the House floor."   Also this.

ABC's Jonathan Karl asks, "Now what?"   "Tea party groups including Heritage Action, Freedom Works and the Club for Growth –ruined Boehner’s Plan B." This and the next via Lucianne

American Spectator; Reagan’s House Heroes Stop Plan B  "What is the take away here? This was a botched GOP House Leadership issue. It is exactly what happens when the governing principle is deal making and not principle."  The article quotes Mark Levin:

I just don’t think he’s up to the monumental task of saving the country from Obama’s designs. It’s time for the Republicans to seriously reassess what they’re doing.

Legal Insurrection; Plan B fails — Now the House needs to consider Plan C

  "The basic premise is that no agreement can be reached with Obama this calendar year because any deal Obama will offer when he thinks we are under the pressure of a year end “cliff” will be horrible. And sure enough, what little movement the White House has made has been horrible."

WSJ; Plan B's Demise  "Some leadership aides now fear the terms of the deal with Mr. Obama will only get worse for Republicans after Christmas, or if we go over the cliff in a week and a half. The question almost no Republican could answer after Mr. Boehner's embarrassing setback is: What is Plan C?"

Pedophiles and the Regulation of Hugging

CATO  via Heritage  "Concerns about protecting children may deprive them of important physical contact."

http://imagesbycat.com/

My wife and I worked with children in AWANA for 25 years in a rough area of town with many, um, dysfunctional families represented among our kids. Many were badly in need of an adult's tender, loving touch and responded hungrily to love. We were circumspect in our giving of affection and diligent about screening our workers, but felt the warning not to hug your kids left all with an emptiness that cried out to be filled.

What is not appreciated is how pedophiles have indirectly harmed tens of millions of children, especially disadvantaged children, whom the pedophiles have never touched. This harm comes in the form of institutional policies on how supervising adults can interact—or, rather, not interact—with children. In the main, incidences of pedophilia, both proven and unproven, have led to institutional regulations that restrict adult caregivers, teachers, ministers, and coaches—among other adults who have regular contact with children—from hugging (or even touching)

children under their care and instruction. For fear of being wrongly accused of child molestation, many adults have increased the distance they stay from children.

The article gives us this advice on overcautious guidelines:

The problem with restrictive hugging policies is that hugs can be good for children’s souls, minds, and behaviors, which can have subsequent beneficial economic consequences.

I cautioned my leaders about the dangers of hugging, but one man told me, "These kids need to be hugged and I love hugging them!" I knew this man for decades and saw his gift with children,  how they loved him and his gift for making them feel loved. My misguided advice-regardless of it being well-intentioned- would have denied those children something they were badly in need of.
The Tunnel Dweller

Profound words: "The hypocrisy of having Obama and Holder lecture the rest of us on "gun control" is appalling and unacceptable."

Hope n' Change  "For 2012, "Sandy" was our least favorite name owing to its association with so much sadness, destruction, and shameless politicization. Per the cartoon above, MSNBC newsidiot Chris Matthews actually expressed delight that Hurricane Sandy occured because it helped the president politically.

"But the worst has got to be Barack Obama's current invoking of the murdered children of Sandy Hook not just to promote gun control- but as the reason that members of the GOP should "take off their partisan war paint" and raise taxes, increase spending, and give Obama unlimited borrowing powers.

"It says a lot (in fact, frighteningly too much) about this president that he would enthusiastically use the blood of innocents for his selfish political power grab. The children of Sandy Hook did not die to promote Socialism. "...

Guns, Mental Illness and Newtown

http://terrellaftermath.com/

WSJ; Guns, Mental Illness and Newtown  ...."The 1980s were much worse than today in terms of overall violent crime, including gun homicide, but they were much better than today in terms of mass random shootings. The difference wasn't that the 1980s had tougher controls on so-called "assault weapons." No assault weapons law existed in the U.S. until California passed a ban in 1989."
The writer describes the difference between gangsters and the lone, crazed mass shooter, stating: "They are predominantly weaklings and cowards who crumble easily as soon as an armed person shows up.

"The problem is that by the time the police arrive, lots of people are already dead. So when armed citizens are on the scene, many lives are saved. The media rarely mention the mass murders that were thwarted by armed citizens at the Shoney's Restaurant in Anniston, Ala. (1991), the high school in Pearl, Miss. (1997), the middle-school dance in Edinboro, Penn. (1998), and the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo. (2007), among others.
"At the Clackamas Mall in Oregon last week, an active shooter murdered two people and then saw that a shopper, who had a handgun carry permit, had drawn a gun and was aiming at him. The murderer's next shot was to kill himself."  (Emphases added, both here and below)
But the writer nails the entire issue here in a way that- I fear- any Obama-led commission will not:

Real gun-free zones are a wonderful idea, but they are only real if they are created by metal detectors backed up by armed guards. Pretend gun-free zones, where law-abiding adults (who pass a fingerprint-based background check and a safety training class) are still disarmed, are magnets for evildoers who know they will be able to murder at will with little threat of being fired upon.

People who are serious about preventing the next Newtown should embrace much greater funding for mental health, strong laws for civil commitment of the violently mentally ill—and stop kidding themselves that pretend gun-free zones will stop killers.

Name a commission whose recommendations this president has followed.