HALF FULL REPORT 02/17/12

The two most intriguing words of the week:  "I’m game."  It’s was Sarah Palin’s answer to Eric Bolling on Fox’s Follow The Money show on Wednesday (2/15). 

She agreed with Bolling that we could end up with a brokered GOP convention, and that while she respected "all four" remaining candidates in the race (Romney, Santorum, Gingrich & Paul), "all bets are off" if it comes to that.  "If it does," asked Bolling, "then, Governor, would you be interested?"

Sarah’s answer:  "I would be willing to help any way that I can."  And: "If that means running for office at some point in the future, I’m game."  Here’s the whole interview:

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Listening to Sarah reminded me of a number of comments on the Forum regarding her voice, suggesting she follow Margaret Thatcher who took voice coaching to eliminate the shrillness.  That in turn made me think of my wife.

All of us, without exception, are individuals with idiosyncrasies.  Early on in our marriage, I found myself getting annoyed at some of hers.  This built up inside me until an alarm bell went off in my head, together with this loud voice informing me that I had a choice:  that I could look at what I considered her quirks as either infuriating or endearing. 

I decided the smart move for me would be to choose endearing. 

Yes, Thatcher improved her voice.  She did so, however, when she was still a little-known back-bencher, so few people noticed.  Sarah is one of the most famous women on the planet now.  She feels such a change would be too noticeable today.  I can continue to gently suggest slight modifications in modulation, plus her utilizing Edd Forke’s expertise in microphone/sound system technology.

Nonetheless, I’d like to suggest that we consider choosing to hear Sarah’s voice as distinctively endearing.  I can tell you after being close to 30 years with the same woman, such a choice beats getting aggravated hands down.

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What is truly aggravating is the ridiculous quartet of choices we seem reduced to regarding a Pub opponent of Zero’s.  No wonder everyone wants a brokered convention.  As Jenny Beth Martin and Mark Meckler, founders of Tea Party Patriots, told Neil Cavuto on Fox News on Wednesday (2/15), "Nobody is satisfied with the (four) candidates out there. They’re all losers."

They could have done a mea culpa at this point, for after going ga-ga over Herman Cain, they pouted in a corner when he cratered.  If Tea Party Patriots had gone all-up/all-in for Rick Perry, we wouldn’t be in this loser-mess now.

But we are.  So, what would it take for an "all bets are off" convention?  The short answer is that at least three of the current four have to remain viable throughout the entire primary process, each winning here-losing there.  This can happen as all four are appealing to different bases.

Romney is a Mr. Fix It, the competent non-ideological CEO moderates want.  Santorum is a Big Government social-only conservative (he voted for the NEA, massive entitlements, and countless earmarks) wanted by those for whom "family values" are far more important than jobs, taxes, stifling regulations, deficit spending and the economy. 

Gingrich is Mr. Big Idea, the champion of those who want the Washington Establishment’s cage not just rattled but dismantled, no matter what would be erected in its place.  Paul appeals to those who don’t want much of anything erected after Federalie dismantlement, plus Blame America First libertarian isolationists – the latter being a total turn-off for the vast majority of conservatives.
 
You can see how these very disparate appeals can tear the primary process into pieces.  Even so, the GOP primaries end (except for Utah) on June 5^th, while the GOP Convention doesn’t convene until August 27^th – giving delegates 80 days to broker a deal and settle on one candidate before the first ballot.

There are a number of stories this week, such as CBS News’, on how Paul supporters are trying to game the delegate selection process.  If their goal is to give Paul a stronger say in the party platform wording – e.g., a firm commitment to completely eliminate the Education and Energy Departments, or a return to the gold standard – no problem.

But if their goal is an actual putsch on the convention floor to gain him the nomination, you’ll see actual floor fights with actual fists.  It could be really ugly.  That’s quite unlikely, though, given those 80 days.  If a nominee doesn’t gain a majority of delegates out of the primaries, someone else will do so before the convention. 

The nominee will not then be one of the current four – as none of them could seal the deal.  Excitement will focus on others – much of it on Palin and Perry.  The Establishment will push Jeb Bush.  Other RINOs will exude about Chris Christie.  A lot of focus will be on Mitch Daniels.  So all of this primary campaign drama we’ve been suffering through for months past, and must suffer for months more, may amount to nothing.  Those 80 days of Summer may turn out to be when all the action is.

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Zero issued his Budget of Insanity this week, containing $2 trillion in new taxes and fees and yet another $1 trillion+ deficit.  Then he topped that by ordering the Pentagon to try and wipe out our nuclear missiles, bringing them down to as low as 300 deployed warheads – no more than China’s and far fewer than Russia’s.

If any sane person needed more evidence of Zero’s hate for his country and his determination to ruin it, here it is.  If I were in Congress, I would accuse him on the House Floor of treason and demand his impeachment.

Prompted by Zero’s intention to nuke our own nukes, TTPers on the Forum are concerned about the growing threat of Russia – specifically pointing to the reported launching of Russia’s newest nuclear ballistic missile submarine, the Yury Dolgoruky.  The article they asked me about warns of the grave dangers of Zero’s unilateral disarmament in face of the rapidly expanding Chicom and Russkie militaries.

These dangers are real, albeit that the greatest of them is Zero himself.  Once he is replaced by an actual American president who allows the Pentagon to get its game back on, the Chicom-Russkie threat, while still real, will recede.  Let’s look at that Russian sub as an example.

Construction of the Yury Dolgoruky started in 1998, commissioning was scheduled for 2008, delays and problems were constant, rescheduled for last fall, and now slated for this coming June.  Yet once operational, it will only replace the capacity of the Ekaterinburg sub, which was destroyed in a fire on December 29 that almost resulted in a "nuclear Armageddon."

Further, the Russians have to replace much of their solid-fueled nuclear warhead arsenal with liquid-fueled, as the plastics in the solid fuel is so old it’s deteriorating (literally aging, getting too old).  For the next several years, the replacement rate will be lower than the aging rate, so they are steadily losing their nuclear arsenal.

Add to this that Russia has only one facility that can build the new Buleva sub-launched missiles for their sub fleet, the Votkinsky Plant in Udmurtia (the Middle Volga region) – which also is the only place in Russia that can produce both the long-range Yars and tactical Iskander land-based missiles.  This will bottleneck Russia’s missile producing capacity for years.

The bottom line again, is that the threat is Zero, not the Chicoms and Russians.  That’s the threat we have to get rid of.  To quote Marvelous Mae of the Forum:  Defeat Obama 2012!

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Speaking of Chicoms.  Once again, their colonial tyranny is making news with revived rebellion in Tibet.  Tibetans are rebelling through self-immolation.  Tibetans call occupying Chinese soldiers tibu, monkeys; Chinese Communist Party officials  pakba, pigs; and the swarms of Chinese immigrants sent to colonize Tibet chusin, crocodiles devouring Tibet’s culture.  This was discussed in Monkeys in Tibet (March 2008).  It’s worth re-reading now.

The next Chief Chicom, Xi Jinping, was hosted by Zero in the Oval Office on Tuesday (2/14).  He was treated with deference by all of Washington, and he tried to hide his arrogance.  Yet the truth is, time is on our side with the Chicoms as it is with the Russians – as Susan Yoshihara explains in As China Goes Geriatric, We Have The Advantage.

While China is aging rapidly and has far too few girls for young men to marry, Americans "alone among citizens of the developed world continue to have enough children to replace themselves," which means that "the U.S. workforce and military-aged pool will grow while China’s shrinks. The United States will soon surpass China in the number of workers per dependent old person."

Once more, the threat to our future is not China, as it is not Russia, it’s Zero.

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Let’s see if we can find some good news amidst the total inability of Capitol Hill Pubs to curtail Zero’s spending (like passing the Payroll Tax bill yesterday, 2/16). 

Here’s a ten strike.  Zero’s Budget Director, Jeffrey Zients, was nailed in Congressional testimony Wednesday (9/15) by Scott Garret (R-NJ).  The entire defense by White House attorneys of Obamacare’s lynchpin, the individual mandate, in their briefs to the Supreme Court where its constitutionality is being judged, is that it is not a fee but a tax – and the government does indeed have taxing power.

Yet when Garrett pinned Zients down on whether or not the monetary penalties imposed on those who refused to enroll in Obamacare was a tax, he replied, "No, it is not a tax."  Ka-ching.  Good work, Scott!  You just imploded the case for Obamacare in the Supreme Court:

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More good news.  This surely is the most inspiring headline not just this week but for many moons: Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, and Jewish Leaders Swear Disobedience to HHS Contraception Mandate

We’re starting to get serious disobedience traction here.  I have long been of the conviction that what will really save America is not anything top-down, like electing politicians who promise smaller government then always vote for more. 

It has to be bottom-up, a groundswell of civil disobedience, a real jail-risking refusal to obey fascist unconstitutional laws modeled on Martin Luther King’s civil rights movement against the Jim Crow laws of the segregationist South.

I have been waiting for a catalyst to spark such a Civil Disobedience Against Fascism movement, and maybe this is it.  My fingers are crossed.

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Zero’s Cabinet is riddled with schmucks – and one of the most revolting is Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus.  He’s a Democrat hack from Mississippi whose total military experience was as a lowly Navy Junior Grade Lieutenant (LTJG) for all of two years, 1970-72.  How revolting is he?  He is attempting to name a US Navy warship after one of the most revolting Congressmen of modern times, John Murtha.

Navy SEAL (and TTPer!) Capt. Larry Bailey is leading the effort to block this insult.  You can help Larry by logging in to his website nomurthaship.com, and joining in.  Thanks, Larry.

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Time for me to sign off for a while, folks.  Next week I’m off to Africa with a group of TTPer adventurers on our Gorillas & Pygmies Expedition.  Afterwards, for the rest of March, I’ll be exploring a number of African countries and reporting to you what I see.

While I’m gone, the HFR will be in the capable hands of Jack Kelly.

One last note.  Be sure and take advantage of our Early Bird Rate for RXII – the Plan B Rendezvous at the Seascape Beach Resort in Santa Cruz, California, June 1^st to 3^rd.  We’re going to have so many experts on various ways to preserve your wallet and liberty, plus so many fellow TTPers who will share how they have already made extensive Plan B’s in US and offshore. 

You literally cannot afford to not be with us.  So click on the link or call Miko at 703-992-4529 to have an extraordinary fun and valuable time with your TTP family.  See you on the beach in Santa Cruz….