Here we go again....Another Elitist and "sensible gun restrictions"

I saw this link to the Daily Beast and some gentleman named Shawn VanDiver is proposing some what he calls "sensible gun restrictions" to avert the next tragedy.  My comments will be in black. Here is what he is proposing:

The fact is that thousands of deaths all across our country can be prevented with solid intelligence sharing and common sense regulation. Between 83% and 91% of the country supports background checks for all gun purchases and yet, somehow, this simple provision is consistently written out of proposed legislation. It is time that we make this a permanent policy priority rather than a set of talking points to be rolled out alongside the names of our next shooting victims.    We have a background check run everytime we purchase a firearm at a retail settings.  Now private sales are just that...private sales.  The average gun owner will not sell a firearm to a person that LEGALLY cannot own one.    Now he also has to mention "Victims"  gotta roll out the emotionalism when making a statement.  

I am proud gun owner. I’m also a single father. I do not want to ban guns but I do want to protect my son from the dangers they pose.

I love my guns, and I’m no hypocrite. But I love my son more. I love taking him to school, a movie, or simply around the block without fearing for his life. It is dangerous and shortsighted to require so little of our fellow gun owners, because—as 11-year-old Hunter’s case tragically shows—they hold the very lives of those around them in their hands.

Again rolling out the emotionalism...gotta try to dance on the blood of the innocents again.  But liberals run on emotionalism....logic is beyond them.  

So what can we do? The best proposals are all about common sense and moderation—too often four-letter words in politics. Background checks and mental health evaluations for all gun owners, on a five-year verification cycle, would be a great first step.  I already covered background checks now they throw in the "Mental Health Evaluation" every 5 years like owning a firearm is some mental illness and the person that believes in owning a firearm is somehow a mental defective.   Also having a Obamacare mandated Dr giving me a mental health exam somehow screams * you are screwed*

Requiring licenses and negligent discharge insurance would be part of common sense reform. Much like vehicles—which are also key pieces of personal property that can take lives when they are operated irresponsibly, firearms should require a license to own and operate. A tiered licensing system could apply to different types of weapons. Insurance could cover any damages caused by negligent discharge, and skyrocketing rates might prove discouraging for repeat offenders.  Now he is rolling out the "lets treat guns like cars and license and have insurance on them. with a tiered system for pistols and if you own a EBR(Evil Black Rifle) you will pay lots more money to what ever insurance company the government mandated....kinda like Obamacare.  And remember cars are regulated by the feds under the "Commerce clause"   I vaguely recall something about the 2nd amendment  A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

     Our   rights to bear arms is not to be infringed...especially from the government.  What the government givith...the government taketh away.    Our rights to self defense is both a natural right and a right that was codified under English law before the constitution was written.    So basically   "no"   

Prudent limits need to be imposed. We should consider putting a cap on the number of firearms purchased for personal use. Allowances could be made for licensed gun dealers, but home protection and hunting require don’t require individuals to keep an arsenal. At the very least, misdemeanors such as DUIs, drug charges, and white-collar crimes should be added to the list of crimes that preclude offenders from owning firearms.

By whose definition is an "arsenal?"   Your friendly neighborhood anti-gun senator?   again the term is subjective by whose definition...It is not any body business what kind of guns I own, I have multiple firearms for multiple roles.  There isn't a one size firearm for all uses....firearms are not crescent wrenches.   Also adding to the number of crimes that would preclude ownership of firearms is death by 1000 cuts, it is to whittle down the number of gun owners to almost zero.  

Opponents will no doubt ask how we intend to pay for all of these new requirements. A tax on ammunition and weapons manufacturers and end-users seems like a relevant place to start. With $617 billion spent to fund our national defense, we can certainly grab a billion or two to fund these lifesaving reforms.   What is with liberals and taxes....lawful gun owners already pay a multitude of taxes.  Also mentioning the national defense budget....why not go after the entitlement programs....Oh wait...the democrats need those to buy votes to keep themselves in power.  

For some gun-rights advocates, no amount of smart budgeting will change their mind because for them any attempt to restrict firearm ownership amounts to an assault on liberty. But most sensible people, even those who own guns and value the 2nd Amendment, understand that the exercise of rights requires some trade-offs. After all, a majority of NRA members support background checks too.    We lawful gun-owners have compromised enough, it seems for common sens gun restrictions...we have to give up something every time there is a call for common sense gun control, we lawful gun owners have to give something up....it is for the sake of "Compromise"   As I look through my well worn oxford dictionary the word compromise is basically each person gives something up to work out a deal.  Well what does the anti gunner give up.....Not a damm thing....we are the only ones that compromise every time.  The comment of "majority of NRA members support background checks" is a red herring.  He is trying to cloak his gun restriction agenda under the guise of compromise.

Tragic assaults on public safety by dangerous people are only part of the problem in the United States. A good guy with a gun can turn into a bad guy due to one slip up or a simple misunderstanding and an itchy trigger finger. It’s time we prioritize the debate on gun control and see some real change.

  Again the demagoguery "itchy trigger finger..?"  The average gun owner knows well the ramifications of having to use their firearms....the Zimmerman trial was an example of this.  Zimmerman defended himself against Trayvon Martin and he was pilloried by the media.  and certain members of society.  

This is the biggest fear of the average gun owner....But we know that we are ultimately responsible for ourselves...not the government.

Reasons to own a firearm.

1.  It is your INALIENABLE RIGHT to provide for self-defense and defense of others.
2.  In a violent attack, a firearm is the single best tool for protecting hearth and home.
3.  Criminals AVOID armed people and those they think are armed. 

4.  Obama just released 36,000 violent illegal aliens from prison.
5.  Bad people are not scared away by harsh language but 230 grains of jacketed hollow point through the gourd works pretty good.
6.  Criminals are criminals because they break the law and taking from you and yours means nothing to them.
7.  YOU are responsible for YOUR self-defense and safety.
8.  Criminals, like the ones Obama and ICE and Eric withholder just released are AMORAL. They have no problem raping, robbing, assaulting, or murdering you to get what they want.
9.  Sometimes governments have gotten too big for their britches and need to be "pruned."

FACT:  About 6,850 times a DAY Americans LEGALLY use firearms to protect themselves. (FBI)
FACT:  In every state were concealed carry laws have been passed, the murder rate and crime rate has lowered and in gun-free zones like Chicago, the murder and crime rate has skyrocketed.
FACT:  The right of the people to keep and bear arms SHALL NOT be infringed.
FACT:  Roughly 200,000 women in the US use firearms to defend themselves against sexual assaults. Imagine if Paula Jones had had a firearm handy...
FACT:  Gun ownership has exploded in the USA (Obama-NRA Gun Salesman since 2009) yet firearms homicides are down 40% (FBI).
FACT:  In the UK, a strict NO GUN nation, violent crime is 4 times higher than in the USA.
FACT:  In the NO GUN UK, 125% more women are raped than in the USA.
FACT:  In the NO GUN UK, 133% more violent assaults are committed.
FACT:  In the NO GUN UK, they have the second highest overall crime rate in the EU!
FACT:  In the GUN BAN city of Chicago, in 2012, they were designated the "deadliest global city." Imagine, Chicago more dangerous than Kirachi,

Shawn VanDiver is a 12-year Navy veteran and adjunct faculty at three universities teaching military studies, national security policy, homeland security, and international security and trade. He manages corporate security and enterprise risk at a major tech company. He is a member of theTruman National Security Project’s Defense Council. Views expressed are his own.

Now I like to do a bit of background research on events and people...it is responsible journalism  But I am a blogger and I try to be accurate as possible.   I do research on people, especially people that are running on his bonifieds as a "responsible gun owner.... and a navy firearms instructor and veteran"   Well it is apparently that this Shawn is a member of Obama's "Organizing for America"  Here is the Link

The Vagabond supports Barack Obama(Meeting)

Meeting of Barack Obama supporters at the Vagabond kitchen, located in the South Park neighborhood of San Diego. There will be a 5% discount on all food and drink, as well as a 10% donation to Barack Obama's campaign. Ask for Shawn at the door. Please RSVP so we know how many to prepare for.

Time:

Host: Shawn VanDiver

Contact Phone: 619-756-9518

Location: The Vagabond (San Diego, CA) 2310 30th st San Diego, CA 92104

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  We have this elitist tool spouting off crap and they are hoping that people will accept his credentials and buy off on his bullcrap.  This guy is a hack for the Obama administration and he is trying to play himself off as the "average American."    What a load.  This guy reminds me of that Army colonel that pushed his version of "gun control" and he really had pissed Me Off  Now we have this guy trying the same time.   I will use the same response that I used to the colonel.

upgrading my operating system on my desktop

I am upgrading my operating system, I went with "Zorin" a linux based operating system that uses a windows style graphic user interface.  Have hit some teething issues.  Will post more later..on that subject.

Muslim infiltration of the White House...?

Real Life has kept me busy, I will be glad when School is over, then things will start to slow down...or not.   Summer promises to be as crazy as the rest of the year.  Old NFO always comments that "Willie Nelson is playing his song" when he is posting light.....I gotta find a song to describe me...and I don't think "Frog on a hot rock" is a single yet.....but that being said...I havn't checked the country or the rap charts.......
I had gotten this information from my Dad who saw it in a link.  I had wondered how come radical islam(like there is any other kind?) has had a resurgence the past few years.   I keep on wondering how much information and intelligence and means of collections are passed down through these people then gets disseminated to the people blowing themselves and innocent people up.
    There is a picture that I had used when I first started blogging to describe how the West and islam fights.

   We protect women and children, they hide behind them.    I wonder how much damage this will continue to cause the United States after Obama retires to private life.
Look who's new in the white
house!   Arif  Alikhan
  - Assistant Secretary for Policy Development  for the U.S. Department of Homeland
   Security  
Mohammed Elibiary
- Homeland Security Adviser
   
Rashad  Hussain
  - Special Envoy to the  Organization of the Islamic
   Conference(OIC)  
 Salam al-Marayati
- Obama Adviser and founder of the Muslim Public
   Affairs Council  and is its current executive
   director 
 Imam Mohamed Magid
- Obama's Sharia Czar from  the Islamic Society of North
   America 
 Eboo Patel
- Advisory Council on Faith-Based  Neighborhood
   Partnerships   This is flat-out
   scary!!!  
  
Also I ran across this story called the "Black House" a book purported to be written by a former secret service agent.  I will give a link to the story and a comment I made at the end at their website.

Secret service agent says that Obama is a Gay Muslim 

I checked around and looked for this book. There is no mention of this book except for a 1974 book by Paul Theroux. When I first started reading this article it did sound plausible. But the B.S. meter started moving at the “Diana Ross” comment. I am a conservative blogger and I always research before I publish..something the mainstream media has forgotten to do, I remembered a formula that Geobbels(The nazi propaganda minister) had said. “Mix one part lie with 2 parts truths mix well and serve.” I believe that this article is a ruse, it is designed to make the conservative side of the aisle look ignorant and bigoted, this article plays on the beliefs that we already have about our current disaster in chief. Which describes the crap that the daily Kos, mother jones and other leftist websites try to foist on us to discredit us. 

Monday Music "Born in the U.S.A."

I decided to go with Bruce Springstein and his "Born in the U.S.A." song.  I remembered hearing this song all over the airways while I was a senior in high school.  Also despite his politics, I do like his music.  On this video toward the end, I would see the black guy using a welding jig in an automobile assembly line.  I would get that same mental image while I had to do spot welds at Atlanta Assembly Plant when the regular robots would go down..which wasn't very often, the robots were made by yamaha and were actually quite reliable.   Go figure, a yamaha robot being used to build an American car especially like a Taurus. 

"Born in the U.S.A." is a 1984 song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen. Taken from the album of the same name, it is one of his best-known singles. Rolling Stone ranked the song 275th on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2001, the RIAA's Songs of the Century placed the song 59th (out of 365). Lyrically, the song deals with the negative effects of the Vietnam War on Americans, but is often misunderstood to be a patriotic or nationalistic anthem.

The song was initially written in 1981 as the title song for a film that Paul Schrader was considering making and Springsteen was considering starring in (which ultimately became Light of Day starring Michael J. Fox). "Born in the U.S.A." turned out so well that Springsteen used it for his multi-platinum album, and because of this, Springsteen thanks Schrader in the liner notes. Casual home demos were made later that year, following the completion of The River Tour.
A more formal solo acoustic guitar demo was then made on January 3, 1982 at Springsteen's home in Colts Neck, New Jersey as part of the long session that would constitute most of the Nebraska album released later that year. Acoustic versions of several other songs that eventually appeared on the Born in the U.S.A. album were also included on this demo, including "Working on the Highway" and "Downbound Train". However, Springsteen manager/producer Jon Landau and others felt that the song did not have the right melody or music to match the lyrics, and also did not fit in well with the rest of the nascent Nebraska material. Thus, it was shelved. (This version would surface in the late 1990s on the Tracks and 18 Tracks outtake collections.)
In March 1982, Springsteen revived the song with a different melody line and musical structure. A full E Street Band version was recorded, with much of the arrangement made up on the spot, including Roy Bittan's clarion opening synthesizer riff and what producer Chuck Plotkin nicknamed Max Weinberg's "exploding drums" .The famous snare drum sound on this record was obtained by engineer Toby Scott running the top snare microphone through a broken reverb plate which could only sustain four seconds of gated reverb This is the version that would appear on the Born in the U.S.A. album, a full two years later.
In a 1986 speaking engagement at the University of Georgia, Max Weinberg (drummer for the E Street Band) stated that Born In The USA was his all time favorite song that they band had recorded. Later that evening in a question and answer session, Weinberg explained that it was his favorite because the song was actually never written in terms of the various instrumental parts. After a grueling studio session while members of the band were in the booth at the sound board, one member of the band at a time returned to the recording area joining in to make up their own new parts to the song that had been intended as an acoustic guitar only song. Even Bruce came out and started singing vocals. It sounded so good that they did it again and recorded it. Without reviewing the recording, Bruce said, let's do that one more time. So they recorded the second take (or the third time the unwritten version had ever been played). That second studio take was the CD release on the Born in the USA CD (personal communication when asking question to Max Weinberg after lecture in Georgia Hall, Tate Student Center, University of Georgia 1986).

The song was in part a tribute to Springsteen's friends who had experienced the Vietnam War, some of whom did not come back; it also protests the hardships Vietnam veterans faced upon their return from the war.
The song's narrative traces the protagonist's working-class origins, induction into the armed forces, and disaffected return to the States. An anguished lyrical interlude is even more jolting, describing the fate of the protagonist's (literal or figurative) brother (in some recordings or live shows, the word brother is replaced with buddy):

I had a brother at Khe Sanh
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now

The Battle of Khe Sanh involved the North Vietnamese Army, not the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (the Viet Cong) heard in the song lyrics. Eventually the Americans prevailed and broke the siege, only to withdraw from the outpost a couple of months later. Khe Sanh thus became one of the media symbols of the futility of the whole war effort in the States.
Two scholars writing in the journal American Quarterly explored the song as a lament for the embattled working-class identity. Structurally, they noted that "the anthemic chorus contrasted with the verses' desperate narrative," a tension which informs an understanding of the song's overall meaning: the nationalist chorus continuously overwhelms the desperation and sacrifice relayed in the verses. They point out that the imagery of the Vietnam War could be read as metaphor for "the social and economic siege of American blue-collar communities" at large, and that lyrics discussing economic devastation are likely symbolic for the effect of blind nationalism upon the working class. The song as a whole, they felt, laments the destabilization of the economics and politics protecting the "industrial working class" in the 1970s and early 1980s, leaving only "a deafening but hollow national pride."

Political reactions

In late August 1984, the Born in the U.S.A. album was selling very well, its songs were frequently aired on radio stations, and the associated tour was drawing considerable press. Springsteen shows at the Capital Centre outside of Washington, D.C. thus attracted even more media attention, in particular from CBS Evening News correspondent Bernard Goldberg, who saw Springsteen as a modern-day Horatio Alger story. Even more notably, the widely read conservative columnist George Will, after attending a show, published on September 13, 1984 a piece titled "A Yankee Doodle Springsteen" in which he praised Springsteen as an exemplar of classic American values. He wrote: "I have not got a clue about Springsteen's politics, if any, but flags get waved at his concerts while he sings songs about hard times. He is no whiner, and the recitation of closed factories and other problems always seems punctuated by a grand, cheerful affirmation: 'Born in the U.S.A.!'" The 1984 presidential campaign was in full stride at the time, and Will had connections to President Ronald Reagan's re-election organization. Will thought that Springsteen might endorse Reagan (not knowing that Springsteen was very much a liberal and thus did not support Reagan at all), and got the notion pushed up to high-level Reagan advisor Michael Deaver's office. Those staffers made inquiries to Springsteen's management which were politely rebuffed.
Nevertheless, on September 19, 1984, at a campaign stop in Hammonton, New Jersey, Reagan added the following to his speech:

America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts; it rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams come true is what this job of mine is all about.

The campaign press immediately expressed skepticism that Reagan knew anything about Springsteen, and asked what his favorite Springsteen song was; "Born to Run" was the response from staffers. Johnny Carson then joked on The Tonight Show, "If you believe that, I've got a couple of tickets to the Mondale-Ferraro inaugural ball I'd like to sell you."
During a September 21 concert in Pittsburgh, Springsteen responded negatively by introducing his song "Johnny 99", a song about an unemployed auto worker who turns to murder, "The President was mentioning my name the other day, and I kinda got to wondering what his favorite album musta been. I don't think it was the Nebraska album. I don't think he's been listening to this one."
A few days after that, presidential challenger Walter Mondale said, "Bruce Springsteen may have been born to run but he wasn't born yesterday," and then claimed to have been endorsed by Springsteen. Springsteen manager Jon Landau denied any such endorsement, and the Mondale campaign issued a correction.
With "Born in the U.S.A." Springsteen was wildly misunderstood, at least for a short period. With these sound bites from Reagan and other conservatives praising the song and Springsteen, himself, it seemed as though they'd missed the point entirely. Springsteen was lamenting the loss of a true sense of national pride. The working class no longer had a say in the foreign policy or decisions made by the government as a whole. The reverberating chorus of "Born in the U.S.A." was a cry of longing, of sorrow. It was a hollow cry of patriotism that once was, but now ceased to exist.
In Springsteen’s own words, the song "Born in the U.S.A." is about "a working-class man" [in the midst of a] "spiritual crisis, in which man is left lost...It's like he has nothing left to tie him into society anymore. He's isolated from the government. Isolated from his family...to the point where nothing makes sense." Springsteen promotes the fact that the endless search for truth is the true American way.
Journalist Brian Doherty has written: "The song’s lyrics are about a shell-shocked vet with 'no place to run, nowhere to go.' But who’s to say Reagan wasn’t right to insist the song was an upper? When I hear those notes and that drumbeat, and the Boss’ best arena-stentorian, shout-groan vocals come over the speakers, I feel like I’m hearing the national anthem."

General reaction

"Born in the U.S.A." peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts in late 1984. It was the third of a record-tying seven Top 10 hit singles to be released from the Born in the U.S.A. album. In addition it made the top 10 of Billboard's Rock Tracks chart, indicating solid play on album-oriented rock stations. The song was also a hit in the UK, reaching #5 on the UK Singles Chart.
Beyond the 1984 presidential campaign, "Born in the U.S.A." was widely mis-interpreted as purely nationalistic by those who heard the anthemic chorus but not the bitter verses.One example was when Springsteen played the song live in East Berlin in 1988 and the German audience widely followed the chorus line to express their bonds with the western world and their weariness with their own way of life in the communist system of the GDR.
Springsteen refused Chrysler Corporation CEO Lee Iacocca's request to use "Born in the U.S.A." in commercials for Chrysler cars, turning down an offer that would have been worth several million dollars.

The music video for "Born in the U.S.A." was directed by noted filmmaker John Sayles. It consisted of video concert footage of Springsteen and the E Street Band performing the song, poorly synchronized with audio from the studio recording. Released in mid-December 1984, there supposedly had not been enough time to mix the audio from the concert.
This footage was intermixed with compelling mid-1980s scenes of working-class America, emphasizing images that had some connection with the song, including Vietnam veterans, Amerasian children, assembly lines, oil refineries, cemeteries, and the like, finishing with a recreation of the album's cover, with grizzled Springsteen posing in front of an American flag.

Some unclassified facts about Air Force One

I ran across this article while chasing another story so I decided to post it.  Some unclassified information about AF1.   You know the plane that flies Obama to all his fundraisers and out of country trips.

More than just a mode of transport for the U.S. president and his staff, Air Force One -- which first took flight in 1959 -- is an entity unto itself. In this list, we'll uncover some of the most interesting and surprising facts about the aircraft, including everything from its supreme technological advancements to its reputation in Hollywood.

No Escape Pod

The escape-pod myth grew after the 1981 film "escape from New York" and the 1997 film Air Force One, in which Harrison Ford's character, President James Marshall, had the option of using an escape pod to evade Russian hijackers. Unfortunately, unless the president's name is Harrison Ford, he won't have this luxury in real life.

The Aircraft Boasts Extensive Electronics

Air Force One is the Best Buy of airplanes. The bountiful collection of onboard electronics, which includes 19 televisions and 85 telephones, consists of 238 miles of wiring, twice the amount found in a typical 747 aircraft. The aircraft's electronics are also equipped to withstand the electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear blast.

Every Flight Is Classified as a Military Operation

Every Air Force One flight is classified as a military operation, which necessitates the following procedure: The Marine One Helicopter transports the president from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland; the Air Force specially inspects the runway and aircraft, then transports the president's motorcade to his super plane. If only military operations were cheaper.

Two Air Force Ones

As if one wasn't enough, the U.S. government decided to add a second Boeing 747-200B jet to the Air Force One fleet in 1990. In 2017, the fleet will welcome a third member, only to be used in those instances where the president grows bored with his other two toys.

The President and His Companions Enjoy 4,000 Square Feet on Three Levels

Word on the street is that Air Force One is larger than Rhode Island. OK, that's an exaggeration, but the aircraft does boast 4,000 feet of floor space extending over three levels. This provides more than enough room for onboard living quarters, expansive food-preparation spaces, and a fully equipped medical suite with an on-site doctor.

Air Force One Can Comfortably Carry 70 Passengers and 26 Crew Members

Riding on Air Force One is akin to riding in first class -- except 50 times better. The aircraft comfortably fits 70 passengers and 26 crew members of military background. Compare that with a 450-passenger 747 aircraft, and one can easily see that riding on Air Force One is quite a treat.

Faster, Higher, and Stronger Than Any Jumbo Jet

In a single fueling, Air Force One can reach a top speed of 650 miles per hour, fly at 45,000 feet, and reach a maximum distance of 7,800 miles. Basically, it's a spaceship..

  Because of its symbol it is a powerful tool for a sitting President and I think Obama has flown more on it than any other President.

The Bengazi hearings...some food for thoughts....

I have started to finally see the Bengazi scandal finally start to move.  Why it wasn't investigated earlier, the mainstream media is to blame, they had to cover for "The One".  This helped his reelection chances that they were able to bury the facts and push the Obama agenda that it was some video that got the Muslims pissed off and not al-queda.

 The mainstream media has shamelessly carried his water for 6 years and maybe there will be some integrity with the media.....But I doubt it.

   This is from the American Thinker

Though they may publicly deny that there is any scandal in the Obama administration’s response to the Benghazi attack on September 11, 2012, there must be doubts emerging, if only because we now know with certainty that a critical email was withheld in violation of a subpoena from the Issa Committee. Though most Democrats loathe Darrel Issa (and the entire Republican Party, for that matter), the expression “cover-up” is now in play, and the senior Congressional leadership of the party is old enough to remember the Watergate hearings, and the articles of impeachment that emerged from that process, authored in part by a young committee staffer named Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Article 1 cited as part of the justification for impeachment:

withholding relevant and material evidence or information from lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States;

In Watergate, keep in mind, the underlying crime was a “third-rate burglary,” while in Benghazi, it is a terror attack, the murder of an ambassador and three guards, the desecration of their flag-draped caskets with a lie from the sitting Secretary of State as to the perpetrators, and the continuing failure of the federal government to bring to justice their killers because the Pentagon’s hands have been tied by the failure of the administration to name the perpetrators as members of Al Qaeda. These matters are far more consequential than a misbegotten intelligence-gathering operation.

The mainstream media has been acting as a cofferdam around the story, limiting its impact to the Fox News and conservative blogosphere ghetto. But with a Select Committee about to be created, professional prosecutorial staff to be hired and deployed, depositions of officials, including Mrs. Clinton, to be taken for however many hours or days are required, and more emails and other documents known to exist and eventually to be released, more news will be created.

At this point, the competitive instincts of the journalism pack may be released, at least among some who have not completely signed on to the proposition that The First Black President must be protected at all costs. Last week saw an Alphabet Network White House Correspondent, Jonathan Karl of ABC News, pursue Jay Carney with a zeal that would do Fox News, The Washington Times, or The American Thinker proud. Always lurking in the back of the minds of many professional journalists is the fear of getting scooped on The Big One, even if they wish the story didn’t exist.

Sharyl Attkisson may have left CBS News, which has its own dilemma to deal with on the Benghazi story, but she is far from silenced, with a book in process and a keen sense of righteous concern.

That media cofferdam may be springing more leaks, which in turn means that this story could build in an accelerating crescendo toward an election that is half a year away. Quietly, in many cases subconsciously, Congressional Democrats have got to be wondering if the SS Obama is a sinking ship, and if so, whether they want to be on it.

The immediate question is: do they follow the suggestion of California Democrat Adam Schiff and boycott the Select Committee, hoping that they can thus tar it as a completely partisan operation. There is considerable danger for such a hardline approach. First of all, the committee will go on with them or without them, so whatever evidence is produced through its investigation will be aired. With even Speaker Boehner, an accommodationist of the first order, on board, Democrats can be certain that Republicans are not about to abandon ship.

The greater risk is that boycotting the hearings, Democrats could be seen as implicating themselves in the cover-up. As much as they publicly affirm their love and support for President Obama, many Congressional Democrats are highly cognizant of two facts:

1. His signature legislation has put many of them at risk in the 2014 election. Without ObamaCare, incumbents like Mary Landrieu could have sailed to re-election. But now their base is disheartened and the opposition energized
2. President Obama is no longer trusted by the electorate to tell the truth. As the laureate of the Politifact Lie of Year award, skepticism over his forthcoming defenses for whatever the Select Committee will be legitimate. “Trust me” is an inadequate argument.

For the moment, these doubts, suspicions, and worries will remain silent, operating privately and often subconsciously. The first sign we will get will be the reaction to Schiff’s boycott call.

But it is time for self-preservation instincts to come to the fore. Almost nobody who doesn’t call Delaware home wants to see a President Biden, and impeachment of The First Black President remains virtually unthinkable. But cautious distancing may be in order for Democrats.

Meanwhile, Senator Elizabeth Warren will be watching Hillary Clinton, so deeply implicated in the Benghazi lead-up and aftermath, to see if she follows the advice of her friend Tina Brown, an opinion leader of sorts among the fashionable progressives, and decides that politics may not be worth the trouble. Benghazi could be the end of more than one political career.

I suppose it could be just a coincidence that as Benghazigate explodes, bigtime Hillary Clinton supporter Tina Brown publishes a Daily Beast article imploring her not to run for president.

The political world and her most fervent fans may be exercised about a presidential bid. But she should forget it. If she wins, it's too much stress for too little return.

I know as much as anyone, how much her most fervent supporters want Hillary Clinton to run for president. On the opening night of the Women in the World Summit the mere mention of the possibility had the audience on their feet. The fan base is there, and constituencies beyond it. (snip)

The first black president was a hotter plot line than the first woman president. Bad luck for Hillary. Obama stole her exceptionalism, leaving the press only with the hair, the alleged cackling laugh, and the over-familiar back-story, which meant dogging Bill around, hoping he'd lose it once in a while. (He obliged.)  

    That phrase “alleged cackling laugh” is a hoot. Is it a warning shot? An attempt to seem fair and balanced? A tease from a friend?

If Hillary doesn’t run, she is going to need a cover story, explaining why it isn’t because of Benghazigate. She’s already got a grandchild bun in the oven. Now comes Tina B with another reason.

It is not the destination.....it is the journey....that is a destination of its own.

I ran across this and figured I would post it.  There are fellow bloggers like OLDNFO, Murphy, Juvat and many others that spend a lot of time in airplanes.....Me I just Fix them.   The pics are from my folder of blog fodder.

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE DESTINATION... ITS ABOUT THE JOURNEY...

"Hey, people who travel with their bed pillow. You look insane". --Jim Gaffigan 

"The cool thing about being famous is travelling. I have always wanted to travel across seas, like to Canada and stuff". --Britney Spears

"There's nothing American tourists like more than the things they can get at home". --Stephen Colbert

"It's hard man 'cause the security in the airport, customs, immigration, they really need to learn the difference between a terrorist and an Indian. Terrorists hate Americans. Indians hate each other. A terrorist will blow up an airport. Indians like to work at the airport. That would be counter-productive". --Russell Peters

"People say there's delays on flights. Delays, really? New York to California in five hours, that used to take 30 years, a bunch of people used to die on the way there, have a baby, you would end up with a whole different group of people by the time you got there. Now you watch a movie and go to the toilet and you're home". --Louis C.K. 

"What does it mean to pre-board? Do you get on before you get on?" --George Carlin 

"Never get behind old people. Their bodies are littered with hidden metal and they never seem to appreciate how little time they have left. Bingo, Asians. They pack light, travel efficiently, and they have a thing for slip-on shoes. Gotta love 'em". -- George Clooney, from the movie Up in the Air

"My fear of flying starts as soon as I buckle myself in and then the guy up front mumbles a few unintelligible words then before I know it I'm thrust into the back of my seat by acceleration that seems way too fast and the rest of the trip is an endless nightmare of turbulence, of near misses. And then the cabbie drops me off at the airport". --Dennis Miller

"Some black people want to get in touch with their African roots. But then you got some black people that just don't give a damn. You tell them, 'Hey, I just got back from the motherland.' "They're like, 'Where'd you go - Detroit?'" --Wanda Sykes 

"Airplane travel is nature's way of making you look like your passport photo". --Al Gore

"You want to know what its like to be on a plane for 22 hours? Sit in a chair, squeeze your head as hard as you can, don't stop, then take a paper bag and put it over your mouth and nose and breath your own air over and over and over". --Lewis Black

"When you hand someone a camera, why do they act like you just asked them to dissemble a bomb? They take it and they're like 'What do I do... I don't really... ha-huh...' Yeah, it's the button on the top right where it always is since the beginning of time!" --Dane Cook 

"You can't walk down here at all. It can't be a short cut because you get stopped every few seconds". [moves aside to let an elderly woman pass] "See? I bet she left the house when she was 10!" --Karl Pilkington

"People come back from flights and tell you a story like it's a horror story. They act like their flight was like a cattle car in the 1940s in Germany. That's how bad they make it sound. They're like, 'It was the worst day of my life. We didn't board for 20 minutes and they made us sit there on the runway for 40 minutes'. Oh really? What happened next? Did you fly in the air, incredibly, like a bird? Did you partake in the miracle of human flight you non-contributing zero?'" --Louis C.K. 

"Now, they say that New Zealand is beautiful and I do not know... because after 22 hours on a plane any landmass would be beautiful". --Lewis Black 

"Airline food is the tiniest food I've ever seen in my entire life. Any kind of meat that you get - chicken, steak, anything- has grill marks on each side, like somehow we'll actually believe there's an open-flame grill in the front of the plane". --Ellen DeGeneres

"The shuttle is the worst $20 you'll ever save. It adds 90 minutes to whatever a Town Car or cab would have been. You have the unenviable choice between being dropped off last or being dropped off first and having a bunch of losers who can't afford cab fare and have no friends or loved ones with cars knowing exactly where you live". --Adam Carolla, from "In Fifty Years we'll All Be Chicks"

"The worst thing about being a tourist is having other tourists recognise you as a tourist. --Russell Baker

"I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.
--Mark Twain

"Two great talkers will not travel far together". --Spanish Proverb

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance". --Alton Brown

"Thanks to the interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything". --Charles Kuralt

"When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money". --Susan Heller

"The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it". --Rudyard Kipling

"Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversations". --Elizabeth Drew

"People don't take trips... trips take people". --John Steinbeck

"Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else". --Lawrence Block

"Kilometres are shorter than miles. Save gas, take your next trip in kilometres". --George Carlin

"Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs". --Susan Sontag

"Adventure, yeah. I guess that's what you call it when everybody comes back alive". --Mercedes Lackey

"There's only four ways to get unravelled; One is to sleep and the other is travel". --Jim Morrison

"A good holiday is one that is spent among people whose notions of time are vaguer than yours". --J.B. Priestley

"Airline travel is hours of boredom interrupted by moments of stark terror". --Al Boliska

"Travel is only glamorous in retrospect". --Paul Theroux

"People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home". --Dagobert D. Runes

"You define a good flight by negatives: you didn't get hijacked, you didn't crash, you didn't throw up, you weren't late, you weren't nauseated by the food. So you are grateful". --Paul Theroux 

"Travel' is the name of a modern disease which became rampant in the mid-fifties and is still spreading. The disease - its scientific name is travelitis furiosus - is carried by a germ called prosperity". --George Mikes

"When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable". --Clifton Fadiman

"Travelling is like flirting with life. It's like saying, 'I would stay and love you, but I have to go; this is my station". --Lisa St. Aubin de Teran

"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey". --Fitzhugh Mullan

"A tourist is a fellow who drives thousands of miles so he can be photographed standing in front of his car". --Emile Ganest

"There is nothing safer than flying - it's crashing that is dangerous". --Theo Cowan

"Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go". --Truman Capote

"It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression, 'As pretty as an airport". --Douglas Adams

"If you've seen one redwood tree, you've seen them all". --Ronald Reagan

"Don't worry about the world ending today, it's already tomorrow in Australia". --Charles M. Schulz