Saturday, June 9, 2012

Good News! DOJ to investigate security leaks. Updated

Eric Holder has identified two U.S. attorneys to investigate where the recent surge in classified leaks came from. Ronald Machen,US attorney for DC, and Rod Rosenstein, US attorney for Maryland, will lead up the two separate investigations being run by the FBI.

Now let me save everyone some time and money. Start the investigation at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. That's where they came from. John McCain who rarely gets anything right seems to get it. Or at least he did when he was talking to Anderson Cooper

Video here.

So let's see, the same DOJ that won't prosecute the new black panther party for voter intimidation, because as Holder put it, those are "His people". The same DOJ that refuses to come clean on Fast and Furious, the same DOJ that is suing the state of FL for trying to get dead people off the voter rolls. These are the people that are going to "..doggedly follow the facts and the evidence in pursuit of justice wherever it leads."

Lets see checking the actual handbook for democrat reactions to scandals.. and yep.. odds of this investigation just slowly dying away due to unwillingness to follow it to where it should go. We at The Handbook have it somewhere north of 75%. Chances some low level scapegoat who didn't have access to the information but gets blamed anyway, well some where near 80%.

But that's just my opinion. Realistic odds of anyone ever being charged much less convicted? Somewhere south of 0.

Update: Sorry remember Handbook central is in England currently, and as such I usually get things late, or never at all, that being said I just read this post on Hot Air about how the White House is rejecting calls for an independent investigator or a Congressional investigation. Yep, definitely transparency in action right there.

Oh and we offend Obama by insinuating that the White House is the source of the leaks. Cause he would never do something like that to make himself look better.  

Friday, June 8, 2012

Why do we have PEU's?

So with everything that just went down in WI and Scott Walker laying the beat down the way he did, I started to wonder why exactly are federal employees allowed to unionize? I understand the concept that some people believe that unions protect the worker, personally I think that's absolute crap, but some people out there still believe that Social Security will be there for them when they get old.

So I pulled EO 10988 signed by JFK on 17 Jan 1962 which basically gave public employees the ability to unionize. Why he signed this I personally don't know. Maybe he thought it was a good plan, maybe as one writer in the LA Times put it here that Scott Walker should look to Ronald Reagan for advice on how to not anger unions.

I believe we are looking at two separate times. Not just two different years but two completely different landscapes. I may be wrong but I don't believe that unions had acquired the foothold into politics that they have now with the democratic party or maybe it's just nostalgia on my part thinking that things were just simpler at that time.

In that article the writer claims that JFK signed that EO so to blunt the upcoming vote in Congress on a bill that would allow federal employees to unionize and give them more rights than what he felt they should have. Here is my question though, what was so bad about a federal job at the time that required employees to unionize in the first place? Or was it as I believe that Democrats saw a chance to create a brand new revenue stream that would always be in their corner since they allowed it to happen?

As that article even admits this was the dam breaking that allowed states, cities, and municipalities to begin to offer the ability of their employees to unionize. So thanks JFK for creating a parasite on the budget of every level of government throughout the country.

My real question though is this. If government is so good, and government and government alone knows how workers should be treated and what is fair, why did the unions need to exist in the first place?

In 2010 alone fewer than 1 million of the nations 3.5 million federal employees were unionized. Total with all federal, state, and local employees who were unionized fell to 36% in 2010. That was a drop of around 1% from 2009.

Per the Washington Post

About 984,000 of the federal government's 3.5 million full and part-time workers are union members, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. Union membership dropped 1.2 percent among federal workers from the previous year. 

Scott Walker dropped that number even further in 2012. The real question I want posed to Mitt Romney will you revoke EO 10988? If not, why not?

Personally we at The Handbook believe that the public unions can never be brought to a level where they will look at budgets with a realistic outlook in their demands and expectations until they are removed completely from the picture.

If 401(k) and IRA's are good enough for everyone else they are perfectly fine for your government employees. Why should any company, government included, continue to pay you after you are no longer a productive member of that entity?

In the interest of disclosure I am technically a federal employee as I am a member of the US Armed Forces. Just so there is no question I would be willing to sit down and look at the retirement packages offered to members of the military and look at other options with anyone who wants to. 

Thursday, June 7, 2012

2/3 of people don't want Obamacare

The surprising part about this for me is that it is from the NYT/CBS poll. According to them 41% want the entire bill struck down, and 27% want just the mandate removed.

Since NYT/CBS came up with 68% who want at least some this law removed and only 24% that want to keep it in tact completely. Let's see computing NYT margin of bias in personal beliefs (calculator out) and I would assume that number of people who want to get rid of it in some fashion is closer to 75%. 8% of people polled wouldn't answer. I'm assuming that's the group that didn't understand what was going on or still believed that FDR was President and didn't know who this Obama whipper snapper was.




















 Now that being said. I don't personally know how much SCOTUS actually gives a damn what you and me think.

So after I saw the post on Hot Air, I was curious just how much the NYT was promoting this little bit of  news on their website.

Front page? Ha not there. Political section about half way down and not exactly in the boldest of prints. I understand this is different than the actual paper itself where the front page headline is the biggest headline. But this is like being buried on page 27 right behind the coupons. Not that I expect anything less from them. Now had this poll went the other way. Front page and probably had the entire homepage dedicated to it.

Although according to the NYT WI is in the toss up category come Nov and Obama is only 11 Electoral votes ahead. 217-206.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Pension reform in.......... California???

Yep you read that right. San Diego and San Jose both voted to curb public employee pension plans. With San Diego voting 66% in favor and San Jose voting at 70% there is no mistaking that the people have caught a fever and only reducing union costs can cure it.

The unions o\f course used the same arguments that it is unfair to the people that have paid into the plan and now get less in retirement. In a way I can see that argument then common sense pops into my head and i realize that if they hadn't b een so greedy in the f\irst place they wouldn't have the current problems with the bill that passed.

Now that the unions were dealt two more losses on top of\ the massive beat downs they took last night in WI, any chance they stop being the problem and start working with the real adults to become part of\ the solution?

Yeah I didn't think so either.

Quick question though any chance CA becomes the next state to take on union thugs?  Yeah me either.

Read what Hot Air has to say ab out it.

Scott Walker lays the smack down!!

This post is taking a small bit of time to write, unfortunately my 2 year old decided to knock my beer on my laptop. So I'm writing this with a combination of my actual keyboard and the catastrophe that is the on screen keyboard. I say this so if there are more typos than normal you'll know why.

Now on to the good stuff.

Last night was suppose to be the night that Libs put all those pesky conservatives in there place. So imagine my surprise to wake up today to find out that Walker not only won. He kicked wimpy liberal ass all over the state. His statement after the results showed just how much Walker completely understands what voters are after. 

“They [the voters] said loudly, not just in Wisconsin, but across the country, ‘If you do the right thing, if you make the tough choices, voters will stand with you.’”

Of course Obama believes a message was sent to Walker and those union hating conservatives. I'm not completely sure what that message is but I for one hope that its the same message that they use in November.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Syria wants to be lonely

Was watching the news and heard this on Fox News.

After some western countries removed Syrian ambassadors last week in response to the Houla massacre, Syria has decided to respond by kicking returning the favor.

Some countries have informed our diplomatic missions and our embassies' staff that they are unwelcome," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdessi said in a statement.
He said Damascus has decided to take a "reciprocal measure" against ambassadors from the U.S., Britain, Turkey, Switzerland, France, Italy and Spain. A number of French, German, Canadian, Bulgarian and Belgian diplomats also are affected, Makdessi said.

From what I can tell all the Ambassadors were gone already anyway. So now it's more of a formality that we aren't allowed to come back. 

The White House has said that there is no chance of a military option without complete support of the UN. Also the Chinese and the Russians are coming up with a plan. I'm sure that everything in that plan will be to promote democracy and basic human rights and freedoms.

Its that time in WI today. Updated: DOJ to monitor

Well it's here. The recall that is but isn't the referendum on Barack Obama and the Union thuggery that has encompassed his campaign. At the end of today hopefully we have good news to share. But as Erick Erickson posted up this morning you just never know.

Dems have made a living of stealing elections. With the knowledge that Mickey Mouse and Hitler were allowed to sign the recall petition to get this whole thing going with no one questioning it, well should we really be surprised if we find out there is a little hankey going on in WI today?

Barret says that he is confident he will win. Scott Walker says the same thing. Hot Air has a post up that Walker has a 95% chance of winning today. Frankly words like that scare us here at The Handbook.

Our hopes and dreams crushed too many times by elections we thought we had, or politicians that told us they were with us and stabbed us in the back as soon as they could.

Updates once results start coming in.

Update: Well this can be nothing but good news. The DOJ has decided to descend upon  WI and ensure that the election is fair and nothing is out of the ordinary. Which probably means that the Black Panthers will be outside of the polling places with batons.
Not that the DOJ is biased or anything like that.

Monday, June 4, 2012

No more Federal funding of Nominating Conventions

From The Hill.

At least that's what is going to happen if Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Mark Udall (D-CO) get passage of the bill they are sponsoring.

"Voluntarily returning convention funds would be a great act of leadership and statesmanship for both parties. Nevertheless, it’s time for Congress to act and end the practice of subsidizing annual convention parties with taxpayer dollars," Coburn said in a statement on Monday.

If it passes the 36.6 million that would go to the conventions every 4 years will instead be returned to the treasury to pay down the debt. Before we all get excited lets realize just how little this will take away from our 15 trillion dollar debt. 

So this is what Congress does to make you think they care or have changed. 36 million over 4 years. Just like that (get out calculator) and we are looking at 9 million a year. That works out to just right around .000006% of our debt being paid each year with this. Well there we go. Finally the Tea Party can lay down and relax. The adults in the room have finally fixed the problem.

Excuse me but its complete crap. Don't get me wrong I'm glad we no longer have to pay for the conventions but lets be honest 1) 9 million isn't gonna make any kind of dent in the debt. 2) Why were we ever funding these things to begin with? 


Wisconsin Recall Tommorrow

If any of you are in Wisconsin or just interested in knowing, tomorrow is the recall election for Scott Walker. Never mind that this farce of an election has wasted untold millions of dollars at a time when most states and counties can't afford their budgets as it is.

Most of the polls currently show Walker with a lead and what appears to be a victory tomorrow. However nothing is certain until the end of the vote counting.

I find it interesting that Obama has decided not to be involved with this particular recall. Especially once it started showing that all of the reforms instituted by Walker actually started to make improvements. That probably pissed the unions off even more. Once all of the National parts of the Democratic party realized it was probably going to be a losing effort they pretty much  started lowering expectations. Once DWS came out and claimed that the recall was not a referendum on Obama that pretty much told everyone what was expected to happen tomorrow.

Always remember every election has consequences some just have more than others.

Zimmerman back in jail.

That's right the man who killed Trayvon Martin, the 17 yr old supposed angel, had been free on a$150,000 bond. That means that he had to come up with 15 grand to get himself out. Not a small sum of money. However it apparently wasn't enough to satisfy the judge.

Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. has required that Zimmerman turn himself back in because the judge says that Zimmerman had access to over $100,000.  The part that really bothered the judge from what I can tell is that the wife and Zimmerman said they were broke under oath.

Now there is some money that has come in in the forms of donations for his legal defense fund. I don't know if this is that money or if this money the judge is talking about is money they previously had. Either way I don't see enough reason to make the guy come back to jail over it. He's already paid a legally set bond and obviously isn't trying to flee. Hide yes, flee no.

So I have to admit, my first thought was that this judge was a liberal hippie that bought into the Al Sharpton crap and did it to appease that group of people. After looking at a quick rundown of his record that I found here from the leftest view. From that article it seems that most of his reversals were for allowing the prosecution a bit too much leeway in the eyes of appeals courts. Of course like I said that is from the leftist view.

He is from Chicago though, went to school at UCF, and law school at UF.

Overall I don't know if he's a good judge or not. I just wonder why he wants to change the bail now. 

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Welcome Back to the Handbook

So I went away for a little while. To the three of you that read this, well thanks for sticking around. I came back and had just one thought. This country has lost its collective frickin mind.

I see Mittens basically has the nomination wrapped up. Great! Of all the people running this is the guy we choose? Wow we are dumb. Let's just hope he doesn't screw it up.

Of course he couldn't have an easier opponent to defeat. Well at least it's an easy opponent with people who have actually been paying attention. The rest of em well, lets just hope most of them stay home in Nov.

 I also see that Bambi is missing the civility of the '08 election. Moe Lane at Redstate pretty much summed that one up nicely so just read his and tell me you don't agree.

Lets see Patterico has been SWATTED by a convicted bomber. Eric Erickson,  Aaron Walker and others have had the same done to them. Luckily for Eric he had notified his local police that something like this might happen. Aaron has been fired from his job and forced to move. Nope nothing wrong with that. Exactly what you would think would happen to someone who was exercising their first amendment right in the USSR. Wait, what was that? You said we're in the USA? Oh well then I'm sure the ACLU is rushing to his defense right? Oh still no? Hmm...
Not surprisingly Fox News is the only one that I can find picking up the story.

In other news the DOJ still doesn't like you.

We still have no jobs in this country. I'm sure that statement surprises all of you. But no really it's true. Our ability to create jobs sucks. At least that's what the Jobs Report keeps saying.

One last thing. Obama isn't even above 50% against Romney in CA. Obama is going to win CA, no one doubts that. But he Romney can keep it close and make him spend money there who know what can happen in states that can be flipped like FL, VA, OH, and maybe PA.

Once again sorry I was gone for so long. My goal is to at least put something up a little more frequent that every 3 months.