![Nepolitano: The System Worked]()
by Art Smith
Not in my wildest dreams would I believe that a US official could be so stupid as to say something like this in the face of unrelenting facts.
And intriguing enough is that it happened on CNN, whose reporting tends to be as supportive of the Obama administration as possible.
Of course, this is coming from the leader of the same department that earlier this year targeted "right-wing extremists" as high-risk for recruiting new members and conducting terrorist activities.
About the only spin one could put on this is that "...the system worked, but it's broke". That perspective behind a statement like this is part of the problem. Saying that everything worked like it's supposed to but it's not supposed to work that way just leaves one wondering how much thought is going into the design of the process that is supposed to be protecting our country.
Clearly the system is broke. To think that someone who has been identified as a terrorist risk like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab could be allowed onto a passenger jet without careful screening is just insane... and there are 500,000 people on the list he was placed on a month ago! As I shared in my piece at the Des Moines Register yesterday, the entire focus [...]
![Nepolitano: The System Worked]()
by
As discussed and promised on The Conservative Reader Report on December 22, here is the full Senate Minority Leader’s speech (Mitch McConnell of Kentucky) just prior to the Monday’s Cloture vote. If you don’t have 13 minutes, you can see a 3 minute...
![Nepolitano: The System Worked]()
by Art Smith
We are going to try and keep it simple on this one.
The bill stinks.
Put aside the fact that it expands Medicare.
Put aside the fact that it establishes coverage mandates (you will be forced to buy health insurance somehow).
Put aside the fact that it is a colossal power grab for an industry that has been well managed by the states for a long time.
Put aside the fact that it will increase taxes.
Put aside the fact that it will dramatically increase the cost of insurance for everyone (and they sold this to us originally as being needed to stop the soaring cost of insurance!).
Put aside the fact that it will wreak havoc on the tax code, balloon the size of the IRS and increase the size of corporate tax management teams (which will increase consumer costs in all industries).
Put aside the fact that this bill is overloaded with earmarks... in a bill that was intended to bring equality in health care.
Put aside all of those issues and focus on the one true deception that will be broadcast throughout the weekend and coming weeks: that the Congressional Budget Office has determined that the bill will have a reducing impact the deficit.
The lie here is that although the Federal deficit will [...]
![Nepolitano: The System Worked]()
by Art Smith
On The Conservative Reader Report today we will have Kim Lehman, President of Iowa Right To Life and Iowa's Republican Committee Woman to the RNC, on our show along with Shane Vander Hart, conservative uber-blogger from Caffeinated Thoughts and guest blogger on The Des Moines Register's political web page. Our focus today will be all about the Health Care Reform Massacre about to be perpetrated by the United States Senate. The show starts at 3:00 Central on Des Moines Local Live Internet Radio.
![Nepolitano: The System Worked]()
by Art Smith
Today is the anniversary of the day that Rosa Parks made waves in Montgomery Alabama in 1955 by refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. What Rosa did that day sparked a movement resulting from pressure that had been building for almost 100 years.
African Americans, who had been freed from slavery by Abraham Lincoln, were forced to endure a century of contempt, disdain and abuse from white Americans. Our society, although founded by men who rejected the concept of social classes, was maintaining a dual class existence and legally forcing people of color to live a servile existence.
This was wrong.
By the power and grace of God, this finally changed in America as a result of the boycotts, rallies, legal wranglings, and efforts of the Federal Courts and finally Congress. Although one may believe strongly in the sovereignty of the states, clearly the rights of United States citizens was being abridged by the actions and/or inaction of many of those states, and the Federal government needed to act.
When I contemplate these events, it always amazes me that human beings can be so incredibly dysfunctional. It certainly makes greater sense to me to see an individual here or there who is so stupid that they actually think they are superior to others. But to think that large swathes of our society would actually continue to look down on others because of a history that is over two generations old, and especially in a time following the horrors of Nazi Germany, that they could continue to look upon other humans as just wild cattle that had been let loose and whose status as free men and women had to be tolerated. How could our country reach this point?
I think the answer to [...]
