It's not about *us* vs. *them*. That's how Republicans see the world.

We're Democrats because, for us, it's about *right* vs. *wrong*.

The message counts, not the messenger.

So, Clapper lied. Let's get REAL, national security GRIEFERS!

Our President's Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, lied to Congress last week when he claimed that no data is being harvested on "on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans".

The usual crowd of pusillanimous Liberals is telling tell us that's a BAD thing. Some have even gone so far as to blather on about Clapper getting fired, or going to jail, or whatever.

Fire Clapper? Ridiculous! Absurd!

While these are difficult problems made for men with big brains to ponder, let me explain this all to you in a simple way that most can understand:

First off, it's perfectly LEGAL for Clapper to lie, lie, lie. He can lie with impunity, because on January 2nd of this year, a certain President of the United States signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013, which includes a provision that permits our government to use propaganda against Americans, and what is propaganda, but lying? (For our own good, of course!)

Second, Clapper could have told a whopper, but he didn't. By his own, humble admission, he told the "least untruthful" lie that he could. This, my friends, is a model civil servant looking out for our best interests.

And finally, our brave bureaucrats need to know that we have their backs when they're "lying for the Lord". What kind of chilling message would it send to fire Clapper for making America great? That would be true terrorism! The people protecting us would live in daily fear of being fired just for making @#$% up! This is not the America that we know, love, and cherish!

Instead, President Obama should repeat the perfect example he set in the outrageous! outrageous! IRS catastrophe: he needs to fire someone who had absolutely nothing to do with the "Spy on Everyone" program. And he needs to do it now! Americans need to know that he holds his employees accountable!

Clapper is a good man, and he deserves our support. Just make sure that you say that on a phone call or in an email in the next 24 hours, OK?

Safely and Securely Yours,


Third-Way Manny

What the heck was going through their brains?

Elizabeth Warren: "I’m very troubled... We need to have a public debate about this."

Our government seems to be completely out of control.

Darrell Issa, 29-year-old contractors that can wiretap anyone, and bipartisan war on the 99%.

Maybe I'm just having an off day, but it all seems pretty fucked at this moment.

Some of my friends make millions, yachts and private jets. Others have been unemployed for many months. Others on the edge.

What about having a government that works for us, too? Is that really like wanting a pet pony?

Obama's "Spy on Everyone" policy was already public? My *ass*, it was.

Our President called it a leak today:

Pearl-clutching Obama=Bush Professional Leftists

Many DUers are upset over Obama's latest episode of "Spy on Everyone". And a many DUers are upset at we who are upset at Obama.

That happens.

But can we cut out the trivialization of one-another? In the past few minutes, I've seen stuff accusing the Lefter-leaning among us (e.g., me) of being the "professional Left", of "pearl clutching", and of saying "Obama=Bush".

This is bullshit.

If you don't agree with someone, argue on the merits. If you can, that is.

Obama's war on civil rights: a silver lining

As many know, after pulling for Obama during his first presidential campaign, I became sorely disappointed by him, and fast. One of the things that sprained my brain was his sudden love of secrecy for the government, but hatred of privacy for citizens.

So now we are faced with the revelation that Obama authorized the NSA to grab millions of Verizon phone records each day for a trolling expedition against Terra! Terra! Terra! And the FISA court allowed it, because of the "Patriot" Act.

Of course, this program (and the Patriot Act itself) is repugnant to anyone with any basic understanding of how justice works in our country. I note that even the owners of DU, who are not known to be screaming Leftists, have a front-page "pic of the moment" pointing out just how disturbing this is.

However, I must point out one thing that is actually good, a pleasant change for the Obama Administration: they actually did ask a FISA court for permission.

This administration's disdain for the Judicial branch of government is epic. They argue that they have the right to imprison citizens forever, or even kill them, whenever they want, without permission from a judge of any sort. And they've exercised those rights.

It was interesting that in Obama's hand-wringing speech about civil liberties a few weeks ago, there was no mention of the role of the Judiciary, as far as I can recall. Apparently, civil rights are for the President to decide, not that quaint piece of paper we call the Constitution, nor for the laws that flow from it.

So let us give Obama credit where credit is due: for the first time in a while, he seems to have voluntarily asked a court to decide on something. Hopefully he enjoyed his experience, and will visit a judge again in the future when thinking about what's right and legal - perhaps even before he snuffs out the next US citizen on his secret kill list.

The IRS sucks? Then we need more sucking!

The IRS spent $50 million on conferences from 2010-2012. Officeholders from both political parties say this is outrageous!, outrageous!, presumably because government employees are somehow different than employees in every other industry in the world, and shouldn't have conferences. Or something. And stuff.

The IRS's total budget was about $35 billion during that period. So the $50 million spent on conferences is about one-tenth of one percent of their budget.

And during those three years, the IRS collected about $7.5 trillion in taxes. That's right, the IRS's cost for collecting taxes is less than one-half of one percent of what's collected.

One-half of one percent.

Can you imagine if a private-sector business business was that efficient? PayPal charges about six times that much to collect money. And they're cheap compared to their competition.

I am reminded of what Lincoln said when told that Gen. Grant was a drunk: "Tell me what brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals."

I'm tired of the assholes in Washington beating up on government workers. On whole, they do an excellent job.

Another OUTRAGEOUS IRS OUTRAGE!

Seems like the IRS spent a thousand bucks to video some of their taxpayer-teat-suckling thugs doing a dance at some event. It's all over the TeeVee!

OUTRAGEOUS!

OUTRAGEOUS!

OUTRAGEOUS!

Every American taxpayer, especially the rich ones who are more important, deserves:

1. Apologies
2. Somebody at the IRS getting fired who had nothing to do with it
3. Holder to start a criminal investigation
4. More apologies
5. BENGHAZI!

Please join me in being outraged by this outrageous behavior. Americans need to know that their IRS thugs won't be dancing when they audit the Job Creators.

Sensibly yours,

Third-Way Manny