MORT’s Meanderings

An open letter to Congressional Republicans

That would be ALL Republicans in the Senate and the House. This means YOU.

The Republican Party is supposed to be the ‘Party of Principles’. Anybody remember that? Or, didn’t you know about that?

For your education and edification, let me deign to alert you to a few facts, pesky things though they are:

1. Democrats lie; it’s in their DNA. It’s what they do.
2. Obama lies; it’s in every fiber of his scrawny, un-American, Muslim body.
3. Democrats hate Republicans and they love to point the finger of blame.
4. Obama hates Republicans, Americans, Israelis, all Jews and all the other people that the Muslim Brotherhood and the cult of Islam hate and are sworn to destroy.
5. If you go-along-to-get-along like the (R) establishment leadership, you are a coward, a creep and not worthy of election to public office, even as dog-catcher.
6. If you are really concerned about being called a Republican obstructionist, racist or any of the other choice monikers that Democrats call Republicans, without hesitation but, with no valid reason – then sorry Pal – it’s too late to grow a pair.
7. Obama, in case it has escaped your notice, has never ever accepted blame for anything he’s done that has failed – which is almost everything; including all his failed policies; obscene spending; his bullying tactics; his outright lies to the American people; his disgusting abuse of the perks of the Office of the President and his never-ending power grabs conducted under cover of darkness, enabled by his corrupt appointees. Oh, almost forgot: He killed Osama bin Laden (not).
8. Also, in case it has escaped your notice, Obama never fails to point the finger of blame toward any & all whom he finds to be the closest, most convenient targets, never at himself. That’s – never at himself. Never at himself. Nev-ah!
9. The Democrats seem to have discovered the precise location of the very raw nerve in (R)s who heaven forfend, simply cannot tolerate being called these derogatory names – even though they know very well the categorizations are wrong, false and undeserved. Good grief fellas and gals but, aren’t we the sensitive ones?
10. Questions? Did it ever occur to you – that means ANY of you, to tell Harry Reid to his ugly face that he is a vicious little shit? Did any of you ever consider when addressing Nancy Pelosi, to borrow the words Allen West used when addressing Debbie Whatevuh Schultz – “vile & despicable”? Have any one of you ever stood tall in the well of the Senate or the House and given back some of the vitriol continually spewed forth from the podium by those loud-mouthed Dems who are such hypocrites? Do you wear your Goody-two-shoes politically-correct behavior as a badge of honor? I view such pandering attitudes as a terribly embarrassing sign of bright-yellow COWARDICE. Don’t for a NY moment think that you are being viewed as noble because you ‘refuse to stoop to a strongly-worded rebuttal’ when responding to the Dem’s attacks. Because, you ain’t.

Be faux-noble on your own time, Senator. Be faux-noble on your own time, Congressman. When you are working for me, the one who helped elect you – here’s what I expect: courageous, principled representation; forthright statements at all times; leadership (from the front, if that’s not too much to ask); and above all – HONESTY !

If I’ve offended anyone, I’ve done my job.

MORT KUFF

It Baffles My Mind!

There are certain things in this life of mine (and maybe yours) that I think are unfathomable and that baffles my mundane mind. Here are some examples that come to mind.

*How can you call someone in a foreign country and be connected to the number you called in a matter of seconds with no wires attached to the damn phone?

*How can that vehicle that you drive around in, be powered by a flammable fluid to propel it forward and backward without it catching on fire?

*How can a tiny camera be inserted in your body to observe the functions of some of your organs without hardly any pain at all?

*How can the leaders of our country continue to expand government spending and increasing the size of government, when we are now a debtor nation and cannot afford to continue the expense of these programs, and, if we continue, will someday put us on the same path of Greece and Spain, two economic basket cases?

*How could we have watched the Olympic games in living color in London this past summer as it was happening in all its splendor, intrigue, and excitement, just by flipping a remote control controlling our T.V.?

*How can people be so heartless and cruel to another human being by inflicting pain and suffering on that person just because they don’t agree with another’s politics, or religion?

*How do people who tatoo most every part of their body and put holes in their body for decorative purposes, rationalize the fact that someday, down the road, they will regret this “mutilation” of their bodies?

*How can an airplane with 200 passengers on board and thousands of pounds of luggage in its hold, take off and land with a 99.5% success rate year after year?

*How can we fathom how our “human wastes” are disposed of and handled without ever having the thought in our minds of how they could do it so efficiently and sanitarily?

*How could we send a rocket to outer space multiple times with humans as passengers, and have them return safely almost always to a specific location designated beforehand?

*How can certain high-profile entertainers and athletes, who make millions of dollars, piss away most of it so that they become future economic basket cases and eventually a burden to our society?

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann

Prager University: Do High Taxes Raise More Money?

The Laffer Curve Made Simple

If you raise taxes does it automatically follow that you'll raise more revenue? Is there a point at which tax rates become counterproductive? UCLA Economics professor, Tim Groseclose, answers these questions and poses some fascinating new ones.

Do We Really Celebrate Success Today?

Americans used to celebrate success, regardless of a persons race, ethnic background or status in life. Our friends and parents taught us to admire independence and self-reliance which in turn gave us liberty to do or not to do certain things in our life. We thought it better for people to thrive on their own rather than to look to the government for a handout instead of a hand up. It seems that most all of those positive thoughts have been changed and/or have gone by the wayside since Obama came on the scene.

All we seem to hear from the Obama Administration and the Democrats is that you need to take advantage of what the government has to offer you, whether you need it or not. In order to get votes, they have encouraged “poor” people to apply for food stamps in ever increasing numbers. In fact, when he took office in 2009, there were 32 million people on food stamps, but now the figure is 47 million (even middle-class people are now eligible for food stamps) and the cost is around $70 billion per year. In addition, the Obama Administration has given “free” cell phones to the poor people at a cost of many millions of dollars, just because they are poor, he has also included a provision in Obamacare that “children” up to the age of 26 can be included on their parents health insurance policies, and on and on goes the offering of “freebies”.

The modus operandi of Obama has been to get as many people as possible relying on government largesse and handouts and of relying on the government, as they then will be motivated to keep the “freebies” coming to them by voting for the Democrats.

During his first term in office, he has increased federal employment which has now become a built-in voting bloc, as these people want to keep their jobs, whereas the big, bad, fiscally conscious Republicans want to cut the size of government which will then mean fewer jobs. That’s one reason why the State of Virginia has become a “swing state”, as the northeastern counties are considered to be bedroom communities for the vast army of government workers who work in D.C and surrounding area.

We can’t continue on this road to financial ruin by making more and more people dependent on the government for handouts. The old saying of, “Give a man a fish, you have fed him for today, Teach a man how to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime”. This “nanny state” mentality is getting worse and worse. The incentive to sit on your butt and collect government money is becoming more and more common. They think they are entitled to the largesse of the gainfully employed and those who run their own businesses and who pay taxes. It seems like the “takers” are multiplying and the “makers” are dwindling. Before you know it, we’ll become another financial basket-case like many of the countries in Europe with their socialist-styled economic systems. As former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher once said, “The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples money”.

Which brings me to think of the saying, “I can remember when being a success in life was a cause for celebration, not a grievance”. Success should not be a dirty word.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann

MORT’s meanderings

My 15-minutes of Fume.

© 2012 MORT KUFF
(And, don’t anyone dare to quote this without attribution – I swear, I’ll sue!)

I’ve been axxed by many members of my reading audience (at least, two), the real story behind my permanent state of ‘upset-ed-ness’. Well, I’ll tellya, it’s like this –

There is an unwritten agreement between my wife and me regarding the aftermath of whichever of us expires first. We’ve agreed that whomever goes first, the other has promised to get a pet (most probably a bird of some sort) to kinda, sorta replace the expired spouse. It follows that there’ll be a need for something with which to line the bottom of the cage. Hence, we’ve agreed to continue our subscription to the Palm Beach County edition of the South Florida SunSentinel. That is of course, providing that newsrag is still publishing at the time of the demise of the first 50% of this happy union.

And so every morning the one who arises first, trudges out to retrieve the plastic- encased copy of the aforementioned newsrag. And, during my first cup of cawfee (acquired NYC accent), I peruse the paper, finally arriving at the Opinion Page (akshully, two opposing pages at the end of the main section.

These are the two pages of every edition of the SunSentinel that put the ‘Duh’ in, ‘Floriduh’. The content of these pages is guaranteed to kick-start my heart and is usually good for roughly, a 20-point uptick in my blood pressure. As I begin to read the Letters-to-the-Editor (always on the Left page – mm-mm-mm.), view the political cartoon and check out the columnists or selected contributors on the opposite page, my internal clock begins the count-down of my daily, “15-minutes of Fume”.

The ‘Letters’ alone, could do the job. One presumes that Opinions Editor, Rosemary Goudreau exercises final control over which letters appear on this page. Surely, there must be some intelligent letters scattered about the Editing Room floor. Surely, these daily selections of what are for the most part unintelligent letters, cannot be a fair representation of the bulk of letters received. Controversy, opposing viewpoints – is this the best the S/Sntl can do? Yeah, yeah, we know – you can only select from whatever comes in. Yeah, yeah.

Then, there are the political cartoons. It is always good to view what other Tribune- approved artists are producing. One (at least this one) gets reeeally, reeeally tired of Chan Lowe’s trite & tiresome scrawling & scratching. Usually, the term ‘hack’ is reserved for political writers. However, it is my view that political cartoons are in fact, opinions, except they are in visual format. And so, the term ‘hack’ is perfectly appropriate when applied to Mr. Chan Lowe-Blowe. By any standard, this guy’s skills are sub-standard.

Oh, and speaking of hacks, we’d be remiss not to mention the very forgettable, glittering star of the SunSentinel’s bevy of biased bully-boys, Anthony Man. If only the Obama administration possessed his transparency. Man’s antipathy toward Allen West was blatantly evident from the very first word he wrote about this American hero. What is it that Chan Lowe and Anthony Man smoke when they huddle in the Men’s Room at the SunniSentinel? If ever there were two pea-brains in a pod, it’s this pair. Well, whadya want for $50 bucks a week? That’s $25 for rolly-polly Man and $25 for Lowe-Blowe.

On the Right Side of the 2-page Opinion section, we enjoy the occasional appearance of Cal Thomas, Jonah Goldberg and one or two others who have their heads screwed- on properly. They are the token ‘Conservatives’ and are most welcome when they are permitted to join the Silly-Sentinel’s Sounding Board.

Regarding the rest of ‘Team Left’ – the all-wrong-all-the-time Gary Stein; the relentlessly off-the-wall humorist Stephen el Goldstein; and the hopelessly fact-deprived, pretend- Professor Robert Watson – they can all take a hike and wouldn’t be missed by me. And with regard to the lesser lights who alternately populate that Right Page of Leftist loons, ‘Who cares?’.

And so Kiddies, now you know the rest of the story of my ’15-minutes of Fume’.

Aren’tcha glad you stayed with me?

Conservative commentary by MORT KUFF

You Get What You Vote For, Not For What You Really Want!

Many of us proclaim that we are against this or that, but in actuality we vote against what we really want and don’t even know it. Let me explain what I mean.

Most of us wanted to get rid of Obamacare, but we voted to keep it.

Most of us said our debt is too high, but we voted for more debt.

Most of us wanted to be energy independent by drilling for more oil, gas, and coal, but we voted not to drill for more oil, coal, and gas.

Most of us wanted to cut government spending, but we voted to continue spending more.

Most of us want more transparency from our elected officials, but we voted for less transparency.

Most of us say that we should support our ally Israel, but we voted to undermine our ally and their Prime Minister on numerous occasions.

Most of us say we want more bi-partisanship between the President and Congress, but we voted for less bipartisanship between the President and Congress.

Most of us want to keep special interests from influencing our politicians, but we voted for them to exert more influence.

Most of us want the government to adopt a budget and to try to abide by it, but we voted to continue to not have a budget.

As you can gather by now, by voting to re-elect President Obama you voted for the things that you are generally against and you didn‘t realize it.

Wasn’t it humorist, pundit H.L. Mencken, who said, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public“? Well, you saw the validity of that jest in this past election.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann

What in Hell Went Wrong?

I do congratulate President Obama on his re-election, and since graciousness is the better part of valor, I do hope that President Obama has learned that being the victor in the battle for the presidency, that he doesn’t carry forth with the phrase he used after he was first elected in 2008 by stating that “we won, you lost”, and that he and the Republicans can reach some sort of bi-partisan consensus for the good of our country. To the other phrase, “to the victor goes the spoils”, that can be used by him as he is the winner, but if he really wants to heal a divided nation, that’s where graciousness comes in and meaningful leadership follows.

My analysis of how Romney grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory, might go something like this.

Romney had to go through a bruising primary contest whereby some of the arguments used against him by his fellow Republicans were picked up and used by Obama in defining Romney, rightfully or wrongly. The characterization of Romney as being a heartless, evil, venture capitalist businessman, who couldn’t relate to the “average Joe” seemed to have taken hold and for which Romney was unable to shake for the rest of the campaign.

Since Obama’s lackluster record or performance as president was not mentioned by Obama (which was the right thing to do on his part), he went after Romney personally in all the battleground states, where millions of dollars were spent in attack ads on Romney. Unfortunately for Romney, it seemed to have worked.

After the first debate, it seemed that the tide had turned and Romney was shown to be not the “monster” he was portrayed to be, besides being very knowledgeable about the issues. He had Obama on the ropes, but, looking back, he mistakenly tried to carry that positive advantage throughout the rest of the campaign by not confronting Obama on his vulnerabilities, like Fast and Furious, Benghazi, and his adversarial relationship with Israel. Since he didn’t remind the voters of these negatives about Obama’s performance, or lack thereof, he couldn’t rely on a probing unbiased media to do that job, as they were “in the tank” for Obama, just like they were in 2008. Once he left Obama off the hook, we had a natural disaster, named hurricane Sandy, which hit the East Coast and caused a tremendous amount of damage. This tragedy was ripe for the President to use the office of the presidency to act like a president should look, by showing concern and compassion. Unfortunately for Romney, his campaign went off the radar, and with his most valuable surrogate, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, praising Obama profusely and embracing him for his assistance in getting aid for his state, that gave Obama’s image an enormous boost as being a competent president. I don’t blame Christie for thanking Obama for getting aid to his devastated state, but his over-the-top effusive praise was not what Romney needed.

Of course, we can all be “Monday morning quarterbacks” and point out what coulda, shoulda, or woulda been done differently, but that’s how the cookie crumbles. The Obama campaign of appealing to all minorities and mobilizing them to get out and vote, the rallying of the 18 to 30 year olds, and his somewhat dubious “war on women” to attract women in general and single women in particular, by using fear in claiming that Romney wanted to do away with a woman’s “reproductive rights”, turned the tide for Obama against Romney. Also, the two Republican senatorial candidates who made some unfortunate references about women, didn’t help Romney one bit. It doesn’t matter whether it was true or not, it worked and it gave Obama four more years in the White House.

Although I don’t like the outcome of the election, I must accept the result and hope that Obama now realizes that you can get much more accomplished with “honey” rather than “vinegar“. For the sake of our great country and my family, I hope he is successful during his second term.

Amen!

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann

The Slinky President

No party has a monopoly on compassion for the needy. The neo liberal Democrats think it is exclusive with them and the duty of government to provide for the poor, going beyond our present tax system, introducing forced socialistic wealth distribution; whereas Republicans and conservatives view it as a combined effort between the government and private sector, consisting of religious groups, charitable foundations and private individuals to offer financial and humanitarian relief.

It was unfortunate how the Joe Biden type gaff made by Gov. Mitt Romney in referencing the 47% non tax payers gave the slimy spinners a chance to spew their garbage on the less knowledgeable who are the rabble within a group who want to grab whatever they can get, without putting effort to earn any of it. Another side of that 47 is a portion of poor who create conditions due to faults of their own and in essence, they should be classified with the rabble. Retirees and miscellaneous others who no longer have large enough income, requires the figure to be adjusted. The truly impoverished suffer by the greed of the dishonest.

The Governor recognized any effort to dissuade these groups out of any un- deserved entitlements by replacing them with policies to help them stand up on their own two feet and regain human dignity, just to get their vote would be futile, because President Obama has them in the bag with his nanny state agenda and the promise of more to come. By no means did this mean they would be ignored if he was to become president. It means the whole welfare and revenue system will have to be reviewed and evaluated as part of revamping the economy, if there is still time to save the nation from complete disaster and avoid another "Greek Tragedy."

Our President's creative economics hasn't created jobs, bring down the deficit or reduce the debt by raising taxes and spending more. His plan is a 'slinky' caught going down the up escalator and going nowhere fast.

After nearly four years of this "affirmative action" president who was given the office over more qualified contenders, the plight of the truly impoverished has not changed and their ranks are in danger of increasing if the uninformed, complacent, one issue young single female voter gives this charlatan another four more years to complete the dismantling of the greatest democracy and hope for the world the world has ever known.

If anything, the debates showed who the adults were in the game of politics, and the presidential demeanor of the candidates. Objectivity should make it easy to ascertain which one.

Conservative commentary from George Giftos