Edward Cline's Blog, page 36

The Liberal/Left's Ventriloquist Dummy

Former President Bill Clinton revealed his totalitarian bent during an interview with ABC's Jake Tapper on April 17, when he linked Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing of a federal building in 1995 with current "anti-government" rhetoric, rallies and demonstrations by Tea Partiers. It is almost surreal, listening to this vile, hypocritical, amoral person pontificating on the necessity for civil debate. His language was banal, but in its banality, lurked evil.

One can't decide if Cli...

Asserting States' Rights: A Turf War

Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Agreed to have a battle;
For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
Had spoiled his nice new rattle.
Just then flew down a monstrous crow,
As black as a tar-barrel;
Which frightened both the heroes so,
They quite forgot their quarrel.

And passed ObamaCare against the wishes of most Americans, in defiance of the Constitution, in a wholesale negation of individual rights. That is representative democracy in action. Hardly the leitmotif of a rights-protecting re...

A Malice That Dares Not Show Its Face

I ended my July 5th, 2009 commentary, "Parsing Obama," with reference to a remark made by Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post, that, to understand President Barack Obama, one must pay attention to what he does, not to what he says.

On March 23 we paid attention to what he both said and did: he conscripted the medical and insurance fields into government service, and claimed he looked up into the sky and saw no asteroids hurtling toward the earth as punishment for enacting such a law. ...

Florida Democrat to Complain About Anti-Obama Sign

As if to underscore the Democrats' complete indifference to the political and economic consequences of ObamaCare, now or four years from now, and the "offensive" they are launching against anyone who resists or criticizes Obama or anything to do with him, Alan Grayson, a Florida Democratic representative, is filing a "complaint" against a Florida doctor, Dr. Jack Cassell, a urologist, who affixed a notice on his office door that read:

"If you voted for Obama, seek urologic care elsewhere...

A Call to Arms Addendum

In the midst of composing and posting "A Call to Arms," I left one remark of mine unclarified regarding the president's veto powers. It was clear in my head, but not in my words. What I meant to say was that the president can veto even repeal legislation, but his veto can be overridden if two-thirds of the House and Senate so vote. In Obama's instance, he would work to ensure that no such bill to repeal (for example, ObamaCare) ever got out of committee in either chamber and made its way to ...

A Call to Arms

There are three armed and activated surface-to-air, heat-seeking political missiles ready to launch, and one in reserve, armed but not yet activated. The target? ObamaCare, better known to its authors as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (HR 3590), passed by the House on March 21, and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23. After it is "reconciled" with the Senate version, it will be just more of the same.

ObamaCare not only is a usurpation of the Constitut...

Murder, She Wrote

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever." — O'Brien to Winston Smith, Nineteen Eighty-Four*

Politically, mass civil disobedience is appropriate only as a prelude to civil war—as the declaration of a total break with a country's political institutions. — Ayn Rand**

George Orwell's quotation is best underscored with a photo of gloating, laughing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, hefting an over-sized gavel, one allegedly used to hammer semi-socialis...

Of Tom Hanks, the "Slaughter House," Polar Bears, and Bronx Cheers

The avalanche of news and pending developments has compelled me to take a "shotgun" approach to the issues.

The Sands of Iwo Jima, according to Tom Hanks

Actor/Producer Tom Hanks made some unconventional, controversial remarks about the Pacific campaign during World War II. He more or less claimed that the conflict between American and Japanese forces was motivated by racism, not by ideas. Let me rephrase that: It was more a matter of American racism than it was stopping Imperial Japan's versi...

Gore's Wishes are Your Commands

Former Vice-President Al Gore, star of the pseudo-documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," which won an Oscar for best documentary feature and garnered him a Nobel Peace Prize shared with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, continues beating his hockey sticks on the heads of an American public anxious about its future under multi-headed Hydra called Congress. He is determined to revive his Climategate-damaged credibility and salvage all the money he has invested in alternative energy c...

Our Paragons of Legislation

Bow, bow, ye lower middle classes!
Bow, bow, ye tradesmen, bow, ye masses,
Blow the trumpets, bang the brasses,
Tantantara! Tzing, boom!

We are the peers of the highest station,
Paragons of legislation,
Pillars of the British nation.
Tantantara, tantara, tantara!
Tzing, boom, tzing, boom!

Entrance and March of the Peers
Gilbert and Sullivan, Iolanthe, 1882

That, more or less, is the heady, arrogant, snarky attitude of most Congressmen, senators and representative...