Murkowski, the Blame Game, and GOP Irrelevance

It’s hard to believe we are now two years removed from the historic 2010 election in which our senior senator, Lisa Murkowski, won a disputed write-in victory with one of the most vicious and underhanded campaigns of the modern era. I’m quite sure it would have made David Axelrod blush, that is, if he wasn’t involved.

That Murkowski triumphed in such a brazenly dishonest and cynical way is still shocking to my sensibilities, though I must confess that I always have been guilty of putting too much faith in my fellow man.

If that wasn’t bad enough, what came next should outrage every liberty-loving American and self-respecting Republican. Murkowski returned to Washington defiant and un-chastened, only to side with the defeated and discredited Barack Obama on every major piece of his lame duck agenda: ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ allowed gays to serve openly in the military for the first time in American history (over the objections of an overwhelming majority of service men and women in the field); The Dream Act would have allowed millions of illegal aliens to be granted amnesty, providing ‘anchors’ for millions more; The START Treaty unilaterally disarmed American weapons in the face of a growing nuclear threat the world over; and the tax compromise that struck down a permanent extension of the Bush era tax cuts. Fiscal cliff, anyone?

Murkowski was the only Republican to vote for all four pieces of legislation. But she didn’t stop there. She continued her ‘war on the Republican party’ by obstructing efforts to cut federal spending. Planned Parenthood funding was apparently an indispensable government expenditure, and was NPR, etc. Paul Ryan’s budget was too extreme. Tea Partiers were out-of-touch absolutists. The Republican Party was engaged in a ‘war on women.’ Radical activist judges could not be opposed. And the debt ceiling negotiations had to be given over to the appropriators. Just let the President pretty much spend as much as he wants. Yep, that’s our senior senator.

In siding with Barack Obama, Murkowski offered bipartisan legitimacy to a president who was essentially down for the count. Had he plowed forward to pass his agenda without some Republican support, it would have only dug him in deeper. But Lisa Murkowski is for nothing, if not for a hand out. So she offered her hand to Obama and helped him back onto his feet.

For almost two weeks now, conservatives have sat by and listened as luminaries from the Republican establishment have bloviated about how tea party insophisticates, social conservative morons, and Ron Paul libertarians are to blame for the epic failure of their golden boy, one Willard ‘Mitt’ Romney.

The Anchorage airwaves have been filled with talk of ‘adult conversations’ that must take place with the above mentioned villains, replete with sneers and bony fingers pointing in every direction, except in the mirror. Fact is, Anchorage talk radio is populated almost exclusively with Murkowski supporters. And for the record, not one has offered to sit down and have that ‘adult conversation’ since election night.

Just last week, a Murkowski groupie pontificated in the Anchorage Daily News about those embarrassing social conservatives and their outdated obscurantism. She even suggested that they (we) should be kicked to the curb for a new, and presumably more enlightened, center-left alliance. The all-new ‘Murkowski Republican Party'(good luck with that).

Just when I thought we were starting to move past the blame game, imagine my astonishment last night to stumble unto yet another missive in the mainstream press about the ‘civil war’ raging inside the Republican Party. I expect that coming from the likes of Rove, Jesmer, Schmidt, and their ilk.

But this time it wasn’t the supercilious Karl Rove, or the ubiquitous hung-over punditry inside the beltway still tipsy from months of hitting on the Romney Kool-Aid. It was none other than the nameless, faceless eunuchs inside the United States Senate who wished to be identified only as ‘Republican Senators.’ Sounds officious, doesn’t it? (If you’re going to wage war on us, at least come out of the shadows and show your face.)

Their agenda: ‘Read my lips; no more Todd Akins!’

The hubris of such a statement hardly even needs commentary. Yet it betrays their utter lack of even a nodding acquaintance with reality. The folks they so despise are, none other than the very ones who offered them the trust of elective office, only to be kicked to the curb when folly had run its full course.

Click HERE for the powerful conclusion.

Huh? Teamsters Called For Secret-Ballot At Hostess While Pushing To Eliminate Secret-Ballots

For the last several years, union bosses have been fighting to effectively eliminate workers’ right to vote through secret-ballot elections on whether or not to become unionized. Yet, with 6700 members’ jobs about to be wiped out, when push came to shove last week—knowing how unions can manipulate other methods of voting—the Teamsters called for the bakers’ union to hold a secret-ballot vote to let members determine whether or not to continue the strike that would close Hostess.

After buying a Democrat-controlled Congress in 2006, the union-bought House of Representatives passed the delusionally-dubbed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) on March 1, 2007.

EFCA, which gives unions the ability to do away with secret-ballot elections by replacing the secret ballot with so-called ”card-check,” is union bosses’ end game for slowing their 60-year old slide into oblivion.

Over the last seven years, union bosses have spent billions on buying politicians to enact the union-friendly legislation and make workers’ secret-ballots irrelevant.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Greatest Show on Earth

No, this video is not political. But it’s incredibly entertaining if you like to see motorcycles racing at over 200 miles per hour across a scenic island between Ireland and Great Britain.

Here’s what Wikipedia says about the race:

The International Isle of Man TT (Tourist Trophy) Race is a motorcycle racing event held on the Isle of Man and was for many years the most prestigious motorcycle race in the world…

The race is run in a time-trial format on public roads closed for racing by the provisions of an Act of Tynwald (the parliament of the Isle of Man). The first race was held on Tuesday 28 May 1907 and was called the International Auto-Cycle Tourist Trophy. The event was organised by the Auto-Cycle Club over 10 laps of the St John’s Short Course of 15 miles 1,470 yards for road-legal touring motorcycles with exhaust silencers, saddles, pedals and mud-guards…

In the early 21st century, the premier TT racing bikes complete the Snaefell course at an average speed exceeding 120 mph…

The TT races are extremely dangerous because of the high speeds on very narrow, twisting streets, roads and lanes flanked by stone walls and even buildings.[citation needed] Between 1907 and 2009 (at the end of 2009 TT races period) there have been 239 rider deaths during official practices or races on the Snaefell Mountain Course (this number includes the riders killed during Manx Grand Prix and the Clubman TT races).

Murkowski, the Blame Game, and GOP Irrelevance-Page 2

[Go back to page 1] Apparently, it has never occurred to these unnamed ‘Senators’ that holding ordinary people in contempt is no road to electoral victory, much less to a government of, by, and for the people.

Their blame game for back-to-back electoral defeats is as puerile and preposterous as Barack Obama heading into his fifth year in office blaming President Bush for all the problems that he created himself.

I’m sure we don’t know the half.

These are, no doubt the same senators who voted to allow a write-in candidate, running against her party’s nominee, to keep her seniority on the Senate Energy Committee, granting her access to K Street’s millions simply because ‘she’s our friend.’

They are, no doubt, the same senators who oversaw the NRSC’s efforts to undercut Joe Miller’s electoral chances by presumably raising money in his name, only to deploy it against him.

They are the same senators who offered moral and material support to the candidate rejected by the party faithful, one even sending his son up to work on payroll for the write-in campaign (any wonder that he was booed at the Alaska Republican Convention?).

Did these ‘Senators’ also grant their blessing to the systematic destruction of conservatives in the presidential primary, while accepting their former colleague Barack Obama to be just another ‘nice guy’ who was simply misguided? I’m sure they were probably the ‘brain trust’ that found telling the truth about President Obama’s scandal-ridden administration beneath them. As though truth telling is somehow un-statesman-like.


These are undoubtedly the senators who didn’t have the temerity for a budget fight in the month leading up to the election because they are afraid of their own shadow. Really? No budget fight? Not even with a president whose party was derelict in their duty to pass a budget when they controlled both chambers of the Congress, and the White House? No fight with the president who hadn’t proposed a serious budget in three years? No fight with the president who put forward budgets in back-to-back years that couldn’t garner a single vote in the United States Senate? Not even from his own party?

Those kinds of timid souls need to retire to the sidelines. They obviously are not up to the task. The last thing we need is their ilk in our State trying to dictate the terms of our Republican primary in 2014. We don’t need their help. Not now. Not ever.

The NRSC and the RNC need to tend to their own business, get their own house in order, and stop meddling in the affairs of the people. They are here to serve us, not he other way round. We will tend to our own business, and nominate whoever we dear well please.

So to all you wise guys hiding in the shadows of the United States Senate, and to all you geniuses in Alaska who have all the answers, I offer you this. If you want to know why we lost the election, look in the mirror. If you voted for Murkowski in 2010, look in the mirror. There you will see the road to the wilderness. If you follow it, you may never come back.

[Go back to page 1]

Matt Johnson is a freelance writer, consultant and political activist from Chugiak, AK.

Arizona Gun Store Tells Obama Voters to ‘Turn Around and Leave’

photo credit: mike saechang An Arizona gun store has a simple message for Barack Obama voters: you’re not welcome here.

The Southwest Shooting Authority in Pinetop, Ariz. posted a sign on its door and took out a newspaper ad declaring that if you voted for the president last week, you’re not allowed in.

“If you voted for Obama, please turn around and leave! You have proven that you are not responsible enough to own a firearm!” the sign states.

Owner Cope Reynolds conceded that he can’t really tell who voted for Obama unless they “own up to it” — but if they do, they’re out.

“If they don’t say anything, we’ll never know,” Reynolds said in an email to the Phoenix New Times. “However, if they own up to it, we will not serve them.”

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Lawmakers Blast Obama Over Release of Iraqi Terrorist

photo credit: isafmediaRepublicans on the Hill are blasting President Obama for failing to stop the Iraqi government from releasing a Hezbollah commander suspected in the killing of five Americans.

The State Department confirmed Friday that Iraqi officials released Ali Mussa Daqduq, despite repeated pleas from the Obama administration to keep him in custody. Even Vice President Joe Biden made a personal entreaty as recently as Tuesday, a White House official told POLITICO.

Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham said the release shows America’s influence is waning because of Obama’s “failed foreign policy.”

“The United States now has so little influence that it could not prevail upon the Iraqi government to extradite Daqduq to the U.S. to stand trial for his crimes,” they said in a joint statement.

Over in the House, the chairs of the Armed Services, Intelligence, Judiciary, and Foreign Affairs committees blamed Obama for turning over Daqduq to Iraqi authorities in the first place and for failing to secure a long-term cooperation agreement with Iraq that also may have averted his release.

Read more from this story HERE.

Another Bernie Madoff-Related Suicide

The 23-year-old son of Bernie Madoff’s longtime accountant who helped him conceal his notorious Ponzi scheme has committed suicide at medical school in Columbus, Ohio.

Jeremy Friehling was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Thursday at his apartment. Friehling, of New City, N.Y., is the son of David Friehling, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to nine federal charges of helping conceal Madoff’s $65 billion fraud.

Columbus police found Jeremy Friehling’s body when they visited his apartment after friends had become concerned about him. Jeremy Friehling apparently posted erratic comments on Facebook throughout Thursday, prompting concerned friends to request local police to conduct a welfare check.

David Friehling and his wife Robin have been married for nearly 30 years and have two other children.

Jeremy Friehling graduated from Duke University in 2011 and was attending medical school at Ohio State University in Columbus. He was the valedictorian of the 2007 graduating class at Clarkstown North High School, reports Lohud.com.

In 2010, Bernie Madoff’s son Mark, committed suicide in a Manhattan apartment on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest.

Read more from this story HERE.

Petraeus Confirms Early Knowledge That Benghazi Was Al Qaeda Attack; CIA Memo Changed by White House? (+video)

photo credit: fort braggFormer CIA Director David Petraeus stoked the controversy over the Obama administration’s handling of the Libya terror attack, testifying Friday that references to “Al Qaeda involvement” were stripped from his agency’s original talking points — while other intelligence officials were unable to say who changed the memo, according to a top lawmaker who was briefed.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told Fox News that intelligence officials who testified in a closed-door hearing a day earlier, including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Acting CIA Director Mike Morell, said they did not know who changed the talking points. He said they went out to multiple departments, including the State Department, National Security Council, Justice Department and White House.

“To me the question right now is who changed those talking points and why. … I’d say it was somebody in the administration had to have taken it out,” King told Fox News. “That, to me, has to be pursued.”

Petraeus left Capitol Hill around noon, after testifying in private hearings before the House and Senate intelligence committees. In his wake, Republicans and Democrats battled over whether his testimony should raise more suspicions about the administration’s handling of the attack.

King and other Republicans indicated they still have plenty of questions about the aftermath of the strike.

Read more from this story HERE.

White House Petition Frenzy: New Petition to Strip Citizenship of Secession Signers Gains Steam (+video)

On President Barack Hussein Obama’s WhiteHouse.gov petition website, a new petition has been posted that seeks to strip the citizenship of all citizens who have signed secession petitions. Created on November 12, the petition now has 7,917 signatures.

To meet the White House’s 25,000 signature threshold for consideration, the petition requires – at the time of this posting, an additional 17,083 by December 12, 2012. At the current rate of over 4,000 signatures per day, it seems pretty apparent that this petition will reach its signature goal.

The creator of this most recent petition is “Douglas H.” from Escondido, California.

This new petition – as well as the secession petitions that have been filed since last week’s election – stand little chance of going anywhere despite the Obama administration’s attempt to create false expectations by citing to successful petitions relating to the women’s right to vote, slavery, and civil rights under the link, “History of Petitions.” The White House conveniently leaves out that such “petitions” required constitutional amendments and/or congressional action as well.

Other disappointing features of the WhiteHouse.gov petition site include the “We the People” wording on the headers of each page as well as the shaded “TAX CUTS” phrase immediately above “We the People.” The Obama administration likely got some real humor out of the inclusion of both phrases, given its antipathy to both Tea Party “We the People” ideals as well as tax cuts.

Here’s what the White House itself says about its petition process:

Justice Scalia Shoots Down Idea of Leaving the Union: ‘There Is No Right to Secede’

photo credit: us mission genevaLast night, TheBlaze reported that residents of 27 states had filed petitions with the White House to be allowed to secede from the union. As of today, that number has swelled to 47.

But could it actually happen? Do states even have a right to secede anymore? The answer, according to arguably the most respected conservative Justice of the United States Supreme Court, is an unequivocal “no.

Over at New York Personal Injury Attorney Blog, author Eric Turkewitz recounts an interesting story of how his brother, a screenwriter, managed to apparently coax an answer out of Scalia on precisely this topic.

Read more from this story HERE.