Manns Medium

Many of those who follow politics for a living has been caught by surprise of the most prominent defender of the CIA, Diane Feinstein has now taken to the floor of the Senate to openly blast this same agency.  Many cannot seem to understand how it happened even though it is being said to have something to do with the Senate Committee investigating torture being bullied by the CIA.  They may be right but I have a different take. I say that this is more about the weary Democrats being so very tired of those who block this president at every turn and cannot seem to let go of the Benghazi and IRS bone.  These Democrats see this as a way Republicans are using to gain control of empty seats and are looking for a way to counter that.  What better than tying them to torture and George W. Bush.  Since President Obama made the decision not to pursue criminal charges against those who may have had something to do with this, Democrats felt that Republicans should have ...

The debate today is the balance between keeping America safe from terrorists to honoring the privacy of all Americans.   With the NSA now being exposed to have mined billions of data which can be considered extremely private by some are now being looked at as being only personal by many.   The questions now are how to and what would you call a real balance between the two. For those who might think this is criminal and should be stopped immediately, the first question must be what do you have to hide?   Are you cheating on your wife or partner and wish not to be discovered?   Are you afraid that if you say anything negative about your government, you would soon be followed by the Men in Black or hear black helicopters? Or are you just an average person who feels that the government should be prohibited from mining your data without your permission?   What would you say if I told you that all the government receives are a group of phones numbers and no con...

I am seriously not surprised that the GOP is all up in arms about this IRS scandal targeting conservative groups but what has surprised me is the uproar that liberals are waging against President Obama for this very same reason.  In their haste to appear law-abiding and courageous, they have forgotten or have chosen to forget about the many times this same agency as well as the CIA and FBI used to target liberal groups during the Bush Administration.  With all of the support staffs that cable news employ, you would think that a few of them would be allowed to research this topic more thoroughly before jumping in front of a camera. I so enjoyed seeing President Obama saying that he was going to wait until more truths is revealed before taking action because if he listened to both the GOP and liberal “talking heads” he would surely shoot first and ask questions later.  This is the same actions that got us into a war that we did not need to wage and now have to pay for...

Strange how the American soul works,  don't  you think?  Strong advocates of people’s rights stand on their  soapbox  and cry to the high heavens when they perceive that a wrong has been committed and should be made right.  These “do-gooders” come in all shapes and sizes, colors and political brands but what makes this story tower above the rest is now it affects the “hands-off” news agency itself.  The news media is in a tizzy about the Associated Press (AP) record seizure. It tells about these records being seized from many, if not all, of the AP’s offices in an effort to find the source of a leak about an al Qaeda bomb plot in Yemen.  Of course we hear nothing more about this leak or why it could be imperative that the source is located, all we hear about is how “unprecedented it is and how intrusive AP claims.  One then has to wonder why and the answer may be as  plain  as the nose on our faces. The AP is where many, if ...

Ever since George W. Bush had his grand opening and dedication of his new Library in Texas, the Neo-Cons have been out in full force trying to find another war where they can trick America into engaging a foreign enemy and a war that no one of them will ever physically participate in.  Reminds me of a bully or manipulator, like Satan, who gets others to fight their battles for them, risking not one hair on their balding scalps.  It’s like not allowing any kind of conflict to go without a war attached to it.  Then you have the Peaceniks who also are using the revision of the Iraq War found on full spectacle in the George W. Bush Library allowing them to make their point that we all should be making “love not war”.  That if we just stick our heads in the sand and pretend that we are all alone here in this universe; the universe would leave us alone.  In the words of Jesus Christ, both are fools and hypocrites.  So where do you stand?  Are you s...

I keep hearing this phrase being echoed in the media Obama’s Charm Offensive and just the name offends me.   I have studied on this for quite some time and looked at it from several different angles only to come back to the same conclusion.   It is offensive to me.   The media say that he has to do this because it may mend some fences and make governing easier.   They say it is needed to get his agenda across and leave a lasting legacy for all to remember and one for the history books.   I can see their point but it stills riles me to think that the title is nothing more than a nice way of saying that in order to get things done in Washington, this particular president needs to kiss congress’ rings.   I take offense to this because, for me, in order to mend some fences, you should be the reason those fences are broken.   I cannot see how that could be the case when the opposition met before he was even inaugurated and decided to do all ...

Many Republicans are always talking about Ronald Regan but what seems to be lost on many who are supposed to do this politic thing for a reason is Republicans did not elect Reagan.   What you say?   How dumb must I be to say something like that?   Of course Republicans elected Reagan.   Consider the evidence. Check the numbers, when Democrats and Independents decide to really get involved in an election, the numbers are nowhere near to being close in regards to the number of Republicans voters as opposed to the number of Democratic voters.   More people lean toward Democrat or Independent thinking than the Republican way.   The Republican Party is not shrinking, its people are maintaining their party affiliations but voting the other way because right now the embarrassment is too great to brag about. Therefore I surmise the following; Ronald Reagan won because many Democrats and Independents stayed home or voted for him because there were not real...

Ever since this president was sworn in, there have been those who will stop at nothing but to oppose anything and everything that he says and does.   It is not so unexpected but it still is bewildering.   The newest media frenzy is over the anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden and decenters are given a microphone and all the time they need on every channel to roar.   The sad part of it is, many of them may have more at stake than this media mass are interested in finding out. John McCain says that the Obama Re-election Team was wrong for politicizing the death of bin Laden but many refuse to remind people that John McCain ran on having the knowledge and expertise to find and “get” bin Laden.   So was that politicizing it then or does McCain get a mulligan?   Ed Gillespie repeated close to this take but I do not remember him stepping to the microphone and declaring it off-limits when George W. Bush and Dick Cheney was going around bragging about ke...

While I had never really thought much about whom the Republicans fielded as their nominee for president in 2012, I am a political junkie and was attempting to listen about those that may throw their hat into the ring.   Political operatives and pundits know much more about these possible candidates than I ever will but after hearing the pros and cons of those believed to be in the running, I was aspired to speak about just one of them. Watching Hardball with Chris Matthews, he was speaking about Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels with Susan Page and Mark Halperin.   I heard them mention that those that supported George Bush, high level GOP personnel and maybe even Bush himself was anxious to get behind him.   Tom LoBianco of the Associated Press wrote an article titled Ind. governor's wife mum about White House plans in which it was reported that “instead he demurred, much as he has over the last few months, in his 14-minute introduction of his wife. And she said nothing...

I had not thought much about this until I watched breaking news about the meeting between President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Majority Leader John Boehner.   I heard the president mention the name of a fellow American who had been interviewed by the mainstream media which he said that if he could address all of the parties involved it would be to tell them to grow up and get to an agreement because a shutdown would hinder his ability to provide for his family.   This gentleman was waiting on his tax return to help him shave off disparity and a shutdown may delay his receipt of that return longer.   It occurred to me that with so much of the talk centering on a government shutdown, we neglected to see the stories of those who would really be affected. It also made me aware that John Boehner is third in line for the presidency if something were to happen to those ahead of him. I began to question just how effective he would be in that position cons...

All of have heard lawmakers claim that judges on the bench should never be activist and when President Obama attempted to nominated now Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, that was the buzz word from those opposed.   Where are these lawmakers now and why are we not hearing them screaming at the top of their lungs.   Where are the legal watchdog groups or those who say that they care about the legal system?   I know where the media is, they are tied up with lottery winners, low unemployment numbers, Japan’s nuclear crisis, the CIA in Libya, the argument over spring versus Easter, the budget battle and the Tea Party Rally.   It’s especially sad when the news of this happening here in the United States in New Orleans, LA was brought to us by a newspaper in the UK.   If you have not already guessed about which I speak, I’m talking about the article written by David Usborne of the United Kingdom’s The Independent titled Years in jail for murder he didn't commit: 18. Compe...

In the past, this country has operated as if our way was the only way and because of actions like that our relationship with the rest of the world has suffered.   America spent a lot of time on the world stage as the big bully and when the public voted for change, we wanted change in the way we treated others.   We voted for this president because he seemed not to saber-rattle or shoot first and question later.   We voted for this guy because he seemed to think first and look at short term and long term results before choosing a course of action.   That was what we voted for and that is what we got.   Now it appears that some of us would rather go into something half blind instead of fully informed.   I say this because of the question posed by Romesh Ratnesar in his article titled Libya Intervention a Watershed for Obama's Foreign Policy when he asked “ Does Barack Obama know what he's doing?”   He justifies his question with the following evidence....