The Candidates Debate

It sure was an interesting GOP debate the other evening in South Carolina.

After an initial coming together to express condolences over the tragic passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (perhaps the worst day for freedom loving Americans since Obamacare was passed), things got rather dicey quickly.

This was to be expected, as South Carolina has in recent cycles been where the gloves come off, and winners and loser are separated.

However, it was particularly ugly on Saturday night, with the majority of the altercations coming, not from those initially attacking front runner Donald Trump, but Trump attacking & his challengers.

Trump labeled Cruz nasty and "the single biggest liar, a real nasty guy who does not get along with any of his colleagues. In a news conference today, Trump essentially went scorched earth on Cruz.

"Ted Cruz is a totally unstable individual. He is the single biggest liar I’ve ever come across, in politics or otherwise, and I have seen some of the best of them. His statements are totally untrue and completely outrageous. It is hard to believe a person who proclaims to be a Christian could be so dishonest and lie so much".

Trump is feeling heat from Cruz, and unleashed a major attack, however, the Donald was sadly incorrect in his assertions.

I am not seeking a candidate who gets along with Congressional members who are complicit in the destruction of our nation.  Cruz called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a liar on the Senate floor, and Cruz was correct in doing so in my opinion.

Given what CNN reported publicly, Cruz is also correct in the dispute with Ben Carson Trump references. CNN is not a sound news organization,  which Cruz's team should have known, but with the information out, it was not only appropriate, but a responsible and smart course of action to inform voters.  If anyone is to blame, it is Ben Carson for not making his plans known to his supporters to prevent any misconceptions.

And for the record, Cruz is also correct in his ongoing spat with Marco Rubio on immigration.

Then Trump really got going.
 
First, Jeb Bush has a much more favorable assessment of his family than most do.  Most folks think the Bush family are good people, and I certainly do.

As a Floridian, it is my opinion Jeb Bush, whom I voted for, did a great job as governor of the Sunshine State.  I gleefully voted for Bush 41 in 1988 but found his performance weak, but supported him again in 1992 against Bill Clinton.  I enthusiastically supported Bush 43 in 2000 and in 2004, and while I still consider his presidency successful and know he was far superior to his Democrat challengers, the more time went on the more disappointed I became with his administration.  However, my disagreements with 43 are minimal and my admiration for him (particularly as a man of class and honor) is strong.  It would be difficult for anyone to no consider the Bush family as a great principled family who care deeply for the United States of America.

But Trump got loose, calling not only the war with Iraq a mistake, but called George W. Bush a liar, commenting that Bush and his team had lied about weapons of mass destruction while saying under 43 "we were not safe".

After being attacked on 9-11, George W. Bush did in fact keep us safe.  Many can question the steps he took to make that happen, but we were not attacked again on our soil during his administration, unlike the Obama administration.  Argue about the Patriot Act if you please, and I will join you, but to say that Bush did not succeed in keeping America safe while prosecuting a global war on terror war is false.

As far as concluding Bush lied about the weapons of mass destruction being in Iraq, I vehemently challenge that statement as false. There were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and they were moved to Syria and are there as we speak. As I noted in a post in December of 2012:

"No longer politically expedient to admonish George W. Bush for going to war with Iraq on false assumptions of the existence of these weapons, it should come as no surprise that stories shining light on the weapons transfer from Iraq to Syria are emerging in frequency. While many reports are discussing recently discovered pathways of weapon movement from Iraq to Syria, hidden behind the discussion is the transfer during the postponement of the invasion of Iraq that France President Jacque Chirac, a dishonest broker who worked against US interests, bought. The second to none editorial page of Investors Business Daily leads the way as usual in presenting and detailing the truth. IBD, in an editorial yesterday, continues to present the facts even if few Americans are willing to absorb it".

I have always personally liked Donald Trump and admired much of his business accomplishment and while he is not my first choice for the GOP nomination, unlike many, I had felt comfortable in supporting him should he win the nomination.

I am now questioning that assessment.

Donald Trump is not an idiot, so I am sure his attacks are based on some level of methodology. However, defeating opponents on merit and on the battlefield of ideas has often been superior to berating with opponents with name calling, lies and threats.

America is some kind of pissed at the establishment of both parties, and Trump has a very unique opportunity before him.  However, while I may be wrong, his scorched earth ramblings in recent days may not only burn up his opponents, it may engulf his candidacy as well.

Disagree with their policies as you wish, but I conclude neither Ted Cruz nor George W. Bush (and I note that Bush is no fan of Cruz) are liars.  Trump; however, is starting to look as though he may be.

Or maybe this is just South Carolina as usual.

Obama Now Embraces Constitution

The death of  Justice Antonin Scalia has kit the fuse on what will become a raging fire throughout the remainder of the 2016 election as the President ponders a replacement.

Seeing an huge opportunity for political gain, now Obama wants to follow the Constitution.

"I plan to fulfill my constitutional responsibilities to nominate a successor in due time. These are responsibilities that I take seriously, as should everyone. They’re bigger than any one party. They are about our democracy. They’re about the institution to which Justice Scalia dedicated his professional life, and making sure it continues to function as the beacon of justice that our Founders envisioned".

Although Obama, with his hand placed on the Quran, took an oath pledging "to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States", he has spent his presidency trying to discredit and diminish the cornerstone document of our founding.

From Obamacare to EPA legislation encompassing a wide landscape, Obama and his team have taken creative and expansive action to operate outside what they deem as constraints within the Constitution and in many instances against the will of the American people.

In fact, as was known prior to his first election, Obama considers the Constitution an imperfect document encrypted with racism, viewing it with utter disdain.



"It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, at least as it’s been interpreted, and the Warren Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can’t do to you. Says what the federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf" said Obama.

To think America was compelled to elect this anti-American individual president TWICE is mind boggling.

Obama is an opponent of our nation as founded, and, as he said he would, will take any and every opportunity presented him to right his incorrectly perceived wrongs and punitively punish is those who stand in opposition.

A Devastating Death

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, dead at 79

The new leaked out late Saturday afternoon.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away early Saturday morning while on a hunting trip in Texas apparently from natural causes.

Scalia was 79.

“This is a devastating loss for people who love this country. It’s a devastating loss for those of us who love the Constitution,” said radio talk show host and Constitutional scholar Mark Levin.

Devastating indeed.

Scalia, appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, was perhaps one of the greatest supreme court justices has seen in a century.

An individual with extreme intellect, Scalia's writings, often in dissent, were often laced with wit and sharply directed commentary at liberal ideologies which were a pleasure to dissect.

Unlike some of his colleagues, and what seems to be a position gaining support across the nation, Scalia appropriately advocating the interpreting the Constitution by its original intent and wording, not viewing the cornerstone document of our founding as something to be tinkered with by intellectual elites who think they know best.

“It’s an absolute disaster. Let me put it this way, Scalia is kind of the Churchill, the Thatcher, and the Reagan of the Supreme Court. He wasn’t even Chief Justice and yet his impact has been massive as an originalist,” Levin went on. “The point is, he moved the Court in ways that the Court would never have moved before, even though we have these disastrous opinions coming from the Court, the brilliance of his decisions … he was able to cobble together often four justices, sometimes five justices. He was energetic, he was intellectually bracing. He was by far the leader of that Court, and there are great Justices on that Court,” added Levin.

Judge Scalia will leave a huge void, one that could have negative ramifications on this nation for eternity. In fact, it occurred to me upon learning of Scalia's passing we may have just lost the country.

Scalia was a faithful defender of the Constitution.  To Scalia, the Constitution was not a living and breathing document; it was dead, dead, dead.

America will suffer without his protection on the court, and if republicans in the senate do not step up fiercely within the fire, our country as we have known her may have perished on this Saturday along with beloved Justice Scalia.

“God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools ... and he has not been disappointed,” Scalia said. “If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity,” he added. “Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.” --Justice Antonin Scalia

A Deadly Decision

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court ruled that habeas corpus protections apply to detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, and this decision in my mind describes a lack of understanding of the unusual characteristics of the global war on terror we are engaged in across the globe.

Although many folks are clamoring for the immediate closure of the facility at Guantanamo Bay, claiming abuse and mistreatment of prisoners, I have been and remain quite comfortable with it in full operation. Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Scalia, Justice Alito and Justice Thomas apparently are as well.

Justice Clarence Thomas with Dr. Tom Osborne at Nebraska spring game in April 2008

Evidence of mistreatment of prisoners, outside of a disgraceful incident in which guilty parties were swiftly disciplined, is scarce. The prisoners potentially being mistreated are not members of a national army (although Iran is working hard at it), they are made up of mostly Islamic terrorists that spend every hour of every day plotting our demise.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority said, "We hold these petitioners do have the habeas corpus privilege". If the goings on at my local courthouse are any barometer to what we can look forward to, this will be nothing short of a disaster, and perhaps a deadly one.

Particularly troubling is the negative effect on the global war on terror that may be an unintended consequence of the majority as it comes to evidence against the detainees becoming public and therefore putting our troops potentially at a potentially deadly disadvantage.

Dissenting Judge Antonin Scalia has it dead on as he wrote "The game of bait-and-switch that (today’s) opinion plays upon the Nation’s Commander in Chief will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed." Justice Scalia concluded by saying "The Nation will live to regret what the Court has done today. I dissent."

While the Democrats along with the terrorists rejoice, I think we could solve the issue by taking out terrorists on the battlefield while we are crushing them rather than rounding them up as prisoners. Mission Accomplished! Again.