Framing the Dialogue

Posts Tagged ‘congress’

Camel’s Nose – Libya Style

I am starting to feel more and more like a conspiracy theorist these days. The timeline and events in the Middle East and Libya in particular have me wondering. We have so-called popular uprisings in Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Libya. None of them have been particularly peaceful yet the World Order chose Libya in which to intervene. Why Libya? They do have oil, but from a geopolitical standpoint they are less disruptive than Syria (though the fact that they hate Israel like most U.N. members may be a factor). Egypt under Mubarak had been a decent ally to the West and fairly peaceful so you would think that would be a better place to try and influence even though Mubarak didn’t use his military to attack the protestors.

No Such Thing As A Stupid Question?

How many times have you heard the phrase that “there is no such thing as a stupid question?” You have probably heard it a hundred times and we generally agree that if someone doesn’t know about a subject the question cannot be stupid. The following comment was posted on a website and while you may allow that the question is not stupid, the person asking is either stupid or lacks intellectual honesty by not doing a little homework before expressing his opinion in the form of questions.

If The Fat Lady Sings

The latest “man-caused” disaster looming according to the drive-by media is a massive federal government shutdown. According to most reports the Republicans are holding Obama’s feet to the fire to secure nominal budget cuts in order to pass the budget. I characterized the desired cuts as nominal because what is 60 billion dollars in a budget well over a trillion dollars. Here at FramingTheDialogue I like to frame the issues using the truth and in this case there are the following factors:

  1. It is the responsibility of Congress and the President to pass a budget before the fiscal year begins.

Running Man

It is often interesting to look at the ease with which non-incumbent candidates can point to the incumbent’s record and critique their performance and bloviate about what they would do in similar situations. It is hard to prevent such a successful strategy and we have learned with the current resident of the White House that a blank slate can be a powerful tool when combined with a thorough lack of inspection of a candidate’s qualifications by both the main stream media and many of the voters.

Separated At Birth – Geri/Reid

Geri:  Geri is a popular Pixar character thrust on the international scene after his appearance after the blockbuster Toy Story movie.  The elderly Geri plays a game of chess against himself becoming each of the players by moving to the other side of board.  He seems to change personalities depending on which side he sits.  At a point late in the game the “nice” Geri feigns a heart attack to distract the “bad” Geri and literally turns the board on his opponent.  Realizing that he is beaten the bad Geri hands over the prize – his false teeth.  Sadly there is only one Geri and he has been playing alone at the chess board.

Broke

Before I get into the meat of Glenn Beck’s latest book (although I think he has since released another) I would like to thank him for the quality of the books that he releases.  Forgetting the message for a moment, Beck’s books are printed in a quality unsurpassed by others. 

Are the Czars Out Tonight

Much has been written about Obama’s use of “Czars” by his administration.  These extra-Constitutional advisors had been used by other presidents, but never before had so many had so much power in our government.  That is the trouble that many of us have with the Obama czar explosion when he took office. He appointed around thirty highly paid advisors, gave them big budgets, gave them staff, and in some cases gave them lots of power…unchecked power.  None of Obama’s czars were confirmed by the Senate.  Their power was not balanced by any other branch of government.  They enjoy nearly cabinet level status in this White House.  Quite a few of them are controversial because of their views and/or statements.  Perhaps the most infamous was Green Jobs Czar Van Jones who had to “resign” because of some of his views.

Piecemeal Peace Deal

In case you haven’t noticed Afghanistan has sort of become a major hotbed of resistance to our military.  There has been heavy fighting and far too many deaths of our military personnel.  One thing that seems the most disappointing to me about Iraq and Afghanistan is how the local citizens do not seem fully committed to their freedom.  As Americans I am not sure that we can completely understand this because most of us were born free and continue to live free.

News Briefs – Volume XXI

News briefs are a collection of interesting news stories…

Brief 1:  Let’s call this one “Corn For Clunkers.”  Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency(:EPA”)  is looking out for you or so they claim, but they are not as in tune with what’s good for your car.  EPA has approved the sale of an ethanol/gasoline mix containing up to 15% of the corn-based ethanol.  The only problem is that this mix would be very harmful to engines manufactured before 2007 (that’s two out of three vehicles in our household).  Will someone explain what law gives the EPA the authority to approve/push consumer products?  A group of auto manufacturers and engine makers has filed suit against EPA