Call me an Asshole one more time...

So, someone else at the White House doesn’t like Americans standing up against the Obama Administration. “Green Czar” Van Jones called the Republican politicians who are attempting to slow or stop the injection of Socialism into our country “assholes”.

From FoxNews: Van Jones, the Obama administration's "green jobs" adviser, told a group of listeners earlier in the year that the reason Republicans are stonewalling the president is because they're "assholes."
Jones' remarks were recorded in a video from February that was posted to YouTube.
He made the remark during an energy lecture in Berkeley, Calif., after a woman in the audience asked him why President Obama and congressional Democrats were having trouble moving legislation -- even though Republicans, with a smaller majority, didn't have as much trouble earlier in the Bush administration.
"Well, the answer to that is, they're assholes," Jones said, to uproarious laughter. "That's a technical, political science term."

Now I am not one to argue with a Yale education, but I doubt if this is a true political science term.

The questioner responded, "I was afraid that that was the answer."

A woman from Berkeley agreed with him? I can almost smell the Patchouli oil, B.O and weed residue from here. It amazes me that there are parts of America so far removed from what our country stands for that they might as well be on another planet.

But Jones said that, even though Obama is "not an asshole," others have to step up the fight.
"Now, I will say this. I can be an asshole, and some of us who are not Barack Hussein Obama are going to have to start getting a little bit uppity," he said.

Is “uppity” code for starting the Peoples Revolution? It must be, because Van Jones is a Communist. What? You didn’t see that on CNN? Well, here is an excerpt from the last bastion of truth in America.

From Wikipedia: Early activism
In 1992, while still a law student at Yale, Jones participated as a volunteer legal monitor for a protest of the Rodney King verdict in San Francisco. He and many other participants in the protest were arrested. The district attorney later dropped the charges against Jones. The arrested protesters, including Jones, won a small legal settlement. Jones later said that "the incident deepened my disaffection with the system and accelerated my political radicalization."[9] His outrage over the verdict radicalized him: Jones said he was "a rowdy nationalist"[10] before the King verdict was announced. By August of that year, he said, "I was a communist."[10] Former employer Eva Paterson counseled him to rethink his tactics and to work for change in wiser ways. "In time, he jettisoned his youthful notions and moved on to seek more effective and attainable solutions," Paterson says.[11] Jones's activism was also spurred on by witnessing racial inequality in New Haven: “I was seeing kids at Yale do drugs and talk about it openly, and have nothing happen to them or, if anything, get sent to rehab...And then I was seeing kids three blocks away, in the housing projects, doing the same drugs, in smaller amounts, go to prison.”[8]
When he graduated law school, Jones gave up plans to take a job in Washington, D.C., and moved to San Francisco instead.[10] He got involved with Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), a group explicitly committed to revolutionary Marxist politics[12] whose points of unity were revolutionary democracy, revolutionary feminism, revolutionary internationalism, the central role of the working class, urban Marxism, and Third World Communism.[13] While with STORM, Jones actively began protesting police brutality.[10]

Thank you American’s Higher Education system. Breeding ground of the Red Menace. McCarthy was wrong to target Hollywood, he should have hit the Ivy League instead.

Well, fellow Americans, is that what we are now reduced to? Because we dissent, because we don’t proscribe to Marxism, because we want moral government, fiscal responsibility and personal freedom, we are assholes?

I for one am proud to be an asshole. I join a long line of assholes including Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Payne, Sam Adams and John Hancock, who King George of England once referred to as “that bunch of Colonial assholes”.

Call me names if you wish, but just remember what that asshole Jefferson said: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

What an asshole.

Network Censorship? In America? Unthinkable.

A non-profit group "The League of American Voters" is alleging that corporate giants NBC and ABC are practicing censorship because they refuse to run an anti-healthcare reform ad on the national level. I beg to differ. Both ABC and NBC are privately owned companies (Disney owns ABC and General Electric owns NBC) and have the right to refuse any advertising, on any grounds, as they see fit. This is the wonderful power of privately owned communications companies. Dick Morris, talking head for the LAV gave the following whiny quote;

"It's the ultimate act of chutzpah because ABC is the network that turned itself over completely to Obama for a daylong propaganda fest about health care reform," he said. "For them to be pious and say they will not accept advertising on health care shuts their viewers out from any possible understanding of both sides of this issue."

So, I am confused. The League of American Voters is against health care reform, right? That was the gist of their "censored" ad. How exactly are they helping folks in America understand "both" sides of the issue? I find it a little naieve on the part of Dick Morris, and the LAV, to think that their message would be welcome on such liberal, left wing mouth pieces as ABC and NBC anyway. Sounds like the Right thinks whining is the best way to get their message out. Nice work guys, your great PR machine is part of the reason America is in this predicament anyway. America grows weary of partisan politics.

From FoxNews:
The refusal by ABC and NBC to run a national ad critical of President Obama's health care reform plan is raising questions from the group behind the spot -- particularly in light of ABC's health care special aired in prime time last June and hosted at the White House.
The 33-second ad by the League of American Voters, which features a neurosurgeon who warns that a government-run health care system will lead to the rationing of procedures and medicine, began airing two weeks ago on local affiliates of ABC, NBC, FOX and CBS. On a national level, however, ABC and NBC have refused to run the spot in its present form.
"It's a powerful ad," said Bob Adams, executive director of the League of American Voters, a national nonprofit group with 15,000 members who advocate individual liberty and government accountability. "It tells the truth and it really highlights one of the biggest vulnerabilities and problems with this proposed legislation, which is it rations health care and disproportionately will decimate the quality of health care for seniors."
Adams said the advertisement is running on local network affiliates in states like Louisiana, Arkansas, Maine and Pennsylvania. But although CBS has approved the ad for national distribution and talks are ongoing with FOX, NBC has questioned some of the ad's facts while ABC has labeled it "partisan."
"The ABC Television Network has a long-standing policy that we do not sell time for advertising that presents a partisan position on a controversial public issue," spokeswoman Susan Sewell said in a written statement. "Just to be clear, this is a policy for the entire network, not just ABC News."
NBC, meanwhile, said it has not turned down the ad and will reconsider it with some revisions.
"We have not rejected the ad," spokeswoman Liz Fischer told FOXNews.com. "We have communicated with the media agency about some factual claims that require additional substantiation. As always, we are happy to reconsider the ad once these issues are addressed."
Adams objects to ABC's assertion that his group's position is partisan.
"It's a position that we would argue a vast majority of Americans stand behind," he said. "Obviously, it's a message that ABC and the Obama administration haven't received yet."
Dick Morris, a FOX News political analyst and the League of American Voters' chief strategist, conceptualized the advertisement and said its purpose was to "refocus" the debate on health care reform.
"I feel the whole debate on health care reform needed to be refocused on the issue of Medicare," he told FOXNews.com. "Most of the debate had been on issues of socialized medicine and cost. I felt that the impact of the legislation in cutting the Medicare program and enforcing rationing needed to be addressed."
Morris, a onetime advisor to former President Bill Clinton, said he was particularly troubled by ABC's decision not to air the spot.
"It's the ultimate act of chutzpah because ABC is the network that turned itself over completely to Obama for a daylong propaganda fest about health care reform," he said. "For them to be pious and say they will not accept advertising on health care shuts their viewers out from any possible understanding of both sides of this issue."

More posts to follow...

Fear not fellow travelers, RipperBravo6 has not forsaken you. He has merely taken a small hiatus to work on other projects. Our country is changing, and not for the better, and RB6 wants to talk about it. Look forward to more posts in the upcoming weeks.

And remember the lesson the Sam Adams, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson taught us:

THERE IS NOTHING MORE AMERICAN THAN DISSENT!!!!!!!

You guys are going to let Joe Biden talk about Foreign Policy?

Perfect. Just freakin’ perfect. Once again, great news from our nation’s capitol, delivered by the “brains” of the Obama administration, VP Joe Biden.

For years, the US has meddled in the foreign affairs of other countries. Normally I abhor this “nation building” approach, as it normally means usurping the natural growth of a countries form of government. That, and it makes us look more like the ass-holish puppet masters that the world wants to believe we are.

However, there is one area that I can almost agreed with our meddling, and that is in the restraint we force upon the state of Israel. Don’t get me wrong, I totally support Israels right to defend herself. I get a little misty-eyed thinking about her brave soldiers, sailors and airmen fighting off despotic Arab invaders in 1948, 1967 and 1973. The Arab nations that have attacked Israel have gotten what they deserved.

But things have changed in the world. The spectre of International Terrorism has made the possibility of a strike anywhere in the world become a stark reality. I don’t want to see Iran become a nuclear power and I agree that Israel has the most to risk if it does. But in the world today, the only difference between the USA and Israel to an Arab OR a Muslim is that the US is over here, and the Israelis live next door. To strike at either is the dream of every two-bit psychopathic Islamo-Fascist.

Now, the current administration is saying “Go ahead, do what you want, we could care less”. We have too much to risk to allow Israel to attack Iran unprovoked. Iran would surely use their limited nuclear arsenal to first destroy Israel, then try and find a way to export that nuclear material to a group who would be willing and able to strike inside the US.

Normally I am a proponent of destroying tyrannical dictatorships that hate America, but I just think we should encourage the Israelis to consider all the options before a preemptive strike. This is the same isolationist spirit, which comes from facing a huge problem at home (the economy) that served to blind us during the Great Dperession. Our disengagement with both friends and enemies (Israel and North Korea for example) allows things to occur in the world that can come back to bite us in a most horrible way. Just my 2 cents worth.

From FoxNews-
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Joe Biden seemed to give Israel a green light for military action to eliminate Iran's nuclear threat, saying the U.S. "cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do."
Israel considers Iran its most dangerous adversary and is wary of hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who just won a disputed re-election. He repeatedly has called for Israel to be wiped off the map and contends the Holocaust is a "myth."
Israel and the U.S. accuse Iran of seeking to develop weapons under the cover of a nuclear power program. Iran denies that.
"Israel can determine for itself -- it's a sovereign nation -- what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else," Biden told ABC's "This Week" in an interview broadcast Sunday.
"Whether we agree or not. They're entitled to do that. Any sovereign nation is entitled to do that. But there is no pressure from any nation that's going to alter our behavior as to how to proceed," Biden said.
The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it prefers to see Iran's nuclear program stopped through diplomacy but has not ruled out a military strike.
"If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice," Biden said.
Asked about Biden's comments, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday the U.S. position on Iran and a military strike involves a "political decision."
"I have been, for some time, concerned about any strike on Iran. I worry about it being very destabilizing, not just in and of itself but unintended consequences of a strike like that," Mullen said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
"At the same time, I'm one that thinks Iran should not have nuclear weapons. I think that is very destabilizing," he said.
While most experts are in agreement that there's a good chance Iran could have a usable nuclear bomb sometime during his presidency, President Barack Obama told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday, "I'm not reconciled with that."
A nuclear-armed Iran, Obama said, probably would lead to an arms race in the volatile Mideast and that would be "a recipe for potential disaster." He said opposing a nuclear weapons capacity for Iran was more than just "a U.S. position" and that "the biggest concern is not simply that Iran can threaten us or our allies, like Israel or its neighbors."
Israel is also concerned about Iran's close support for two of its most committed enemies, Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
Obama said in May, after his first meeting with Netanyahu at the White House, that the Iranians had until year's end to get serious about international talks on curbing their nuclear ambitions. "We're not going to have talks forever," he said.
But Obama sees movement on Israeli-Palestinian peace as key to building a moderate Arab coalition against Iran, while Netanyahu says dealing with the Iranian threat must take precedence over peacemaking with the Palestinians.
Most experts believe that wiping out the Iranian nuclear program is beyond the ability of Israel's military. In 1982 the Israeli air force destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor in a lightning strike. But Iran's facilities are scattered around the country, some of them underground.
Biden was asked in the interview that if the Israelis decide they need to try to take out Iran's nuclear program, would the U.S. stand in the way militarily?
"We cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do," the vice president replied. "Israel has a right to determine what's in its interests, and we have a right and we will determine what's in our interests."

It is with a heavy heart that I bid farewell to one of Hollywoods true class acts, Ed McMahon, who passed away today at the age of 86. Ed was best known as Johnny Carson's sidekick on The Tonight Show, but not many folks know he was a decorated Marine pilot in WW2, and left showbiz temporarily to fly spotter planes in Korea. Ed, you will be missed.

Ed McMahon, the loyal "Tonight Show" sidekick who bolstered boss Johnny Carson with guffaws and later carved out his own niche as the host of "Star Search," has died at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 86.
According to his publicist Howard Bragman, the former "Tonight Show" announcer passed away at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in California this morning.
Earlier this year, McMahon was in and out of the hospital for pneumonia and other medical issues, according to sources close to him.
While Bragman did not give a cause of death, he said McMahon had "a multitude of health problems the last few months."
McMahon had bone cancer, among other illnesses, according to a person close to the entertainer. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
Best known for his famous catchphrase "Heeeeeere's Johnny," said every night when Johnny Carson took the stage, McMahon spent three decades as the legendary comedian's sidekick.
McMahon and Carson had worked together for nearly five years on the game show "Who Do You Trust?" when Carson took over NBC's late-night show from Jack Paar in October 1962. McMahon played second banana on "Tonight" until Carson retired in 1992.
"You can't imagine hooking up with a guy like Carson," McMahon said an interview with The Associated Press in 1993. "There's the old phrase, hook your wagon to a star. I hitched my wagon to a great star."
McMahon, who never failed to laugh at his Carson's quips, kept his supporting role in perspective.
"It's like a pitcher who has a favorite catcher," he said. "The pitcher gets a little help from the catcher, but the pitcher's got to throw the ball. Well, Johnny Carson had to throw the ball, but I could give him a little help."
The highlight for McMahon came just after the monologue, when he and Carson would chat before the guests took the stage.
"We would just have a free-for-all," he told the AP. "Now to sit there, with one of the brightest, most well-read men I've ever met, the funniest, and just to hold your own in that conversation. ... I loved that."
When Carson died in 2005, McMahon said he was "like a brother to me" and recalled bantering with him on the phone a few months earlier.
"We could have gone on (television) that night and done a 'Carnac' skit. We were that crisp and hot."
His medical and financial problems kept him in the headlines in his last years. It was reported in June 2008 that he was facing possible foreclosure on his Beverly Hills home.
By year's end, a deal was worked out allowing him to stay in his home, but legal action involving other alleged debts continued.
Among those who had stepped up with offers of help was Donald Trump.
"When I was at the Wharton School of Business I'd watch him every night," Trump told the Los Angeles Times in August. "How could this happen?"
McMahon even spoofed his own problems with a spot that aired during the 2009 Super Bowl promoting a cash-for-gold business. Pairing up with rap artist MC Hammer, he explained how easy it is to turn gold items into cash, jokingly saying "Goodbye, old friend" to a gold toilet and rolling out a convincing "H-e-e-e-e-e-ere's money!"
Born Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. on March 6, 1923, in Detroit, McMahon grew up in Lowell, Mass. He got his start on television playing a circus clown on the 1950-51 variety series "Big Top." But the World War II Marine veteran interrupted his career to serve as a fighter pilot in Korea.
He joined "Who Do You Trust? in 1958, its second year, the start of his long association with Carson. It was a partnership that outlasted their multiple marriages, which provided regular on-air fodder for jokes.
While Carson built his career around "Tonight" and withdrew from the limelight after his retirement, McMahon took a different path. He was host of several shows over the years, including "The Kraft Music Hall" (1968) and the amateur talent contest "Star Search."
He was a longtime co-host of the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon, a Labor Day weekend institution, and was co-host with Dick Clark of "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes."
McMahon and Clark also teamed up as pitchmen for American Family Publishers' sweepstakes, with their faces a familiar sight on contest entry forms and in TV commercials. McMahon was known for his ongoing commercials for Budweiser as well.
He had supporting roles in several movies, including "Fun with Dick and Jane" (1977) and "Just Write" (1997). He took on his first regular TV series job in the 1997 WB sitcom "The Tom Show" with Tom Arnold.
McMahon married his third wife, advertising executive Pam Hurn in 1992, and adopted her son. McMahon and his second wife, Victoria Valentine, had an adopted daughter, and McMahon and first wife Alyce Ferrill had four children.
One son, Michael Edward McMahon, who worked as a counselor for abused children, died of cancer in 1995 at 44.
Ed McMahon released his autobiography, "For Laughing Out Loud: My Life and Good Times," in 1998. In it, he recounts the birth of "Tonight."
"Let's just go down there and entertain the hell out of them," Carson told him before the first show. Wrote McMahon: "That was the only advice I ever got from him."
In 1993, he recalled his first meeting with Carson after they left "Tonight."
"The first thing he said was, 'I really miss you. You know, it was fun, wasn't it?"' McMahon recalled. "I said, 'It was great.' And it was. It was just great."
Besides his wife, McMahon is survived by children Claudia, Katherine, Linda, Jeffrey and Lex.
Bragman said no funeral arrangements have been made.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

June the Sixth

An original RipperBravo6 poem. Thanks WW2 vets, for your service and your shining example.

A boy I was,

from far off lands.

Who heard the call,

and came to fight.

A farmers son,

from Illinois.

Who came to do,

what he thought right.

For months we trained,

we learned our jobs.

Then boarded ships,

to cross the sea.

To land in England,

to stay a while.

Then on to Europe,

to set it free.

Be still my heart,

I whispered down.

To that beating thing,

inside my chest.

Waiting, worrying.

Just biding my time,

A scared little boy,

like all the rest.

When, o' when,

O' day of days.

Like hammer cocked,

we were forced to wait.

Til weather broke,

til stars aligned.

Til mighty fortune,

made our fate.

We trained and trained,

and prayed for war

And then it came,

on wing-ed feet.

That fateful morning,

June the Sixth.

We sauntered out,

the foe to meet.

We shouldered packs,

had one last smoke.

Shook a hand,

and checked our sights.

Then crossed The Channel,

on that morn.

To help our comrades,

who dropped by night.

A Big Red One,

upon my sleeve.

I braved the surf,

the sand, the shale.

The German guns,

which spit such fire.

Turning beach,

to living hell.

The things I saw,

men should not see.

The things I felt,

I cannot share.

By grace of God,

or sheer damn luck.

I left that beach,

my life was spared.

I turned my back,

on Omaha.

Joined the line,

and took my place.

Too many good friends,

left behind.

To sleep eternal,

in cold grounds embrace.

When Crossbows Are Outlawed...

Just found this on the "Interwebs" and I was wondering why we aren't hearing a huge anti-crossbow backlash? I mean, attempted murder is attempted murder whether it is done with a crossbow, a handgun or a piece of watermelon rind, correct? Why the vitriolic response whenever a gun is involved? Is it the mystery surrounding guns? Because there should not be any mystery. A gun is a simple machine that harnesses a chemical reaction to fire a projectile. Less than 50 years ago, guns were an accepted part of American culture. In fact, it would not be uncommon to see a skeet shooting club in a High School Yearbook back in the Fifties. What happened? I don't think there is a simple answer to this question.

Perhaps a shift from a rural to an urban existence has caused gun ownership and use to become a rare thing. Perhaps vilification in the Main Stream Media has given guns their stigma. Perhaps a Liberal Agenda in our government, bent on disarming the more Conservative portions of our society has legislated gun appreciation into oblivion (I admit I might be reaching with that last one, but there is some fire behind that smoke).

Whatever the cause, I lament the result. Lack of interaction between parent and child regarding firearms has led to a dangerous gap in many young peoples understanding of the impact of firearms and the care and responsibility they require. I also believe that by disarming the general populace, we have allowed our country to become weaker. We have sold off our Constitutional Right to defend ourselves and what we hold dear. A challenge to the Second Amendment made during the 1950's or early 60's would have been laughed out of court. From the very beginning, it was understood that the Second Amendment applied to individuals and that it was there to protect us from the very real tyranny that our Founding Fathers faced.

Consider that when making your decision about your stance on gun ownership in America.

From Fox News- Crossbow-Wielding Stalker Attacks Actress
Monday, June 08, 2009
MADRID — A stalker obsessed with a young Spanish actress shot at her with a crossbow before being wrestled to the ground and arrested outside a Madrid theater, police said Monday.
The official says the arrow from the crossbow aimed at Sara Casasnovas hit a male bystander, who was not seriously hurt in the attack Sunday evening.
The suspected attacker is a 39-year-old German, who became obsessed with Casasnovas after seeing her a year and a half ago on Spanish National Television's international channel.
The official told The Associated Press the man had been sending the 25-year-old actress love letters and attacked her outside a theater where she had just finished a performance of "Night of the Iguana," after she told him she wanted nothing to do with him.
The man was carrying a military-style backpack that contained a second crossbow, arrows with harpoon-style tips, a can of gasoline, handcuffs, rope, a canister of mace and a poster from a play in which Casasnovas had performed a few months ago, the official said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with department rules.