It’s Friday, December 28th, 2012….and after a couple days of relaxation, basking in the hearts and hearths of family and friends, here’s The Gouge!

First up, courtesy of The New Media Journal, new evidence indicating any hope for change was groundless:

State Dept. Resignations Over Benghazi Prove Fake

The four officials supposedly out of jobs because of their blunders in the run-up to the deadly Benghazi terror attack remain on the State Department payroll — and will all be back to work soon, The Post has learned. The highest-ranking official caught up in the scandal, Assistant Secretary of State Eric Boswell, has not “resigned” from government service, as officials said last week. He is just switching desks. And the other three are simply on administrative leave and are expected back.

The four were made out to be sacrificial lambs in the wake of a scathing report issued last week that found that the US compound in Benghazi, Libya, was left vulnerable to attack because of “grossly inadequate” security. State Department leaders “didn’t come clean about Benghazi and now they’re not coming clean about these staff changes,” a source close to the situation said, adding, the “public would be outraged over this.”

US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the Sept. 11 attack, originally blamed on a spontaneous demonstration against a US-made anti-Islam video that got out of hand. That version was dismissed by an Accountability Review Board headed by retired Ambassador Thomas Pickering.

In response to questions from The Post, the State Department would only reissue the carefully crafted statement put out last week.

As The National Patriot writes:

“We have a Secretary of State who “suffers a concussion” but never goes to a hospital, never has a CT scan and is well enough to work from home but far, FAR too “concussed” to appear at a congressional hearing and now, 4 who we were told, were FINISHED at the Department of State who, in fact, are FAR FROM finished there.

If that’s not enough…We have the soon to be nominated John Kerry to fill the Secretary of State position.“

Nothing to see here, folks….move along.

And since we’re on the subject of roster moves, here’s the latest on two of Team Tick-Tock’s more exterpative executives who will soon be hitting the bricks….though not nearly soon enough:

GOP Senators: We’re Not Going to Confirm Kerry Until Clinton Testifies on Benghazi

The Jackson Damage

The economic harm the EPA chief wrought.

What’s everyone else having for dessert?!?

More than four years after the 2008 panic, the U.S. economy still hasn’t rebounded to its normal potential growth trend. So the legacy of one of the main culprits—Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency, who announced Thursday she is resigning—must include the millions of Americans who can’t find a job or haven’t seen their incomes rise.

The EPA chief is among President Obama’s most abusive and reckless regulators—his repressed green id. Over her four years, Ms. Jackson inflicted an unprecedented surge of new rules on private business, including the most expensive ever in the history of government by several orders of magnitude. A “major” regulation used to be defined as imposing costs of $100 million or more. The EPA now routinely issues multibillion-dollar rules with little more than a press release.

Ms. Jackson most notably cranked up clean-air regulation that will force a third or even as much as half of the U.S. coal-fired electric fleet out of existence. She also rewrote laws to declare carbon emissions a “dangerous pollutant” even though the laws were written in the 1970s. Along with other rules, including auto efficiency standards, she started a re-engineering of the U.S. energy system, without so much as a Congressional vote.

Does this come with a bench seat in the front?!?

Ms. Jackson used her discretion to make these rules as aggressive and punitive as possible, even if they couldn’t(and to date, haven’t!)survive legal scrutiny. To the extent this surge contributed to business uncertainty and stole dollars otherwise available for private investment, Ms. Jackson’s agenda explains why the economic recovery and job creation are weaker than they ought to be by historical standards. Take the champagne off ice.

Nothing like this was expected out of Ms. Jackson, a New Jersey political functionary under then-Governor Jon Corzine. She turned out to be a master power-politics operator. Her most consequential victory was steamrolling Cass Sunstein at the White House regulatory review office.

Mr. Sunstein was a promoter of sensible regulation only when the benefits justified the costs, and he often opposed Ms. Jackson’s methods internally. (She makes Cass Sunstein seem reasonable; now THAT’S saying something!) When he succeeded in persuading the President to yank a purely discretionary EPA rule on ozone in 2011, Ms. Jackson went around town threatening to resign and make trouble for Mr. Obama among his environmental base.

Her authority was never challenged seriously again. The EPA now routinely rigs its estimates to exaggerate benefits—which all of a sudden include such shapeless concepts as racial justice and economic redistribution—and underestimate costs, when it admits costs exist at all.

Astonishingly enough, the green lobby regards Ms. Jackson’s term as something of a disappointment, because she didn’t do enough on the supposedly humanity-defining problem of global warming and compromised too often. We’d hate to see who they think should continue the revolution she started.

We’d wish them both well….

….but we’d be lying!

Next up, Thomas Sowell’s latest installment of….

Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene

When I was growing up, an older member of the family used to say, “What you don’t know would make a big book.” Now that I am an older member of the family, I would say to anyone, “What you don’t know would fill more books than the Encyclopedia Britannica.” At least half of our society’s troubles come from know-it-alls, in a world where nobody knows even 10 percent of all.

Some people seem to think that, if life is not fair, then the answer is to turn more of the nation’s resources over to politicians — who will, of course, then spend these resources in ways that increase the politicians’ chances of getting reelected.

The annual outbursts of intolerance toward any display of traditional Christmas scenes, or even daring to call a Christmas tree by its name, show that today’s liberals are by no means liberal. Behind the mist of their lofty words, the totalitarian mindset shows through.

If you don’t want to have a gun in your home or in your school, that’s your choice. But don’t be such a damn fool as to advertise to the whole world that you are in “a gun-free environment” where you are a helpless target for any homicidal fiend who is armed. Is it worth a human life to be a politically correct moral exhibitionist?

The more I study the history of intellectuals, the more they seem like a wrecking crew, dismantling civilization bit by bit — replacing what works with what sounds good.

Some people are wondering what takes so long for the negotiations about the “fiscal cliff.” Maybe both sides are waiting for supplies. Democrats may be waiting for more cans to kick down the road. Republicans may be waiting for more white flags to hold up in surrender.

If I were rich, I would have a plaque made up, and sent to every judge in America, bearing a statement made by Adam Smith more than two and a half centuries ago: “Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.”

If someone wrote a novel about a man who was raised from childhood to resent the successful and despise the basic values of America — and who then went on to become President of the United States — that novel would be considered too unbelievable, even for a work of fiction. Yet that is what has happened in real life.

Let alone re-elect him!

Many people say, “War should be a last resort.” Of course it should be a last resort. So should heart surgery, divorce and many other things. But that does not mean that we should just continue to hope against hope indefinitely that things will work out, somehow, until catastrophe suddenly overtakes us.

Everybody is talking about how we are going to pay for the huge national debt, but nobody seems to be talking about the runaway spending which created that record-breaking debt. In other words, the big spenders get political benefits from handing out goodies, while those who resist giving them more money to spend will be blamed for sending the country off the “fiscal cliff.”

When Barack Obama refused to agree to a requested meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — the leader of a country publicly and repeatedly threatened with annihilation by Iran’s leaders, as the Iranians move toward creating nuclear bombs — I thought of a line from the old movie classic “Citizen Kane”: “Charlie wasn’t cruel. He just did cruel things.”

There must be something liberating about ignorance. Back when most members of Congress had served in the military, there was a reluctance of politicians to try to tell military leaders how to run the military services. But, now that few members of Congress have ever served in the military, they are ready to impose all sorts of fashionable notions on the military.

After watching a documentary about the tragic story of Jonestown, I was struck by the utterly unthinking way that so many people put themselves completely at the mercy of a glib and warped man, who led them to degradation and destruction. And I could not help thinking of the parallel with the way we put a glib and warped man in the White House.

There are people calling for the banning of assault weapons who could not define an “assault weapon” if their life depended on it. Yet the ignorant expect others to take them seriously.

Moving on, it’s our “What Good For The Goose” segment, courtesy of the goose, in this case Gannet’s Journal News….

Outrage Over New York Newspaper Publishing Gun Owners’ Addresses

In a shocking display of intimidation tactics, a New York newspaper took the time to gather every publicly-available address of every gun owner in the lower Hudson valley region and publish them publicly on its website. The Journal News published gun owners’ home addresses in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties.

Understandably, people were outraged:

The map sparked more than 500 comments from readers within a day of its appearance on the website, many of them voicing outrage at the paper’s decision to make the information public.“This is CRAZY!! why in the world would you post every licensed gun owner information?? What do you hope to accomplish by doing this. This is the type of thing you do for sex offenders not law abiding gun owners. What next? should i hang a flag outside my house that says I own a gun? I am canceling my subscription with your paper today!!!” said commenter Curtis Maenza.

“How about a map of the editorial staff and publishers of Gannett and Journal News with names and addresses of their families…,” wrote commenter George Thompson.

The newspaper claimed it was merely providing a public service, because its readers “are understandably interested to know about guns in their neighborhoods.”

….and one Robert Cox, a rather enterprising blogger in the role of the gander:

Blogger Creates Interactive Map of Employees of Paper Which Published Names and Addresses of Pistol Permit Holders

Map: Where are the Journal News employees in your neighborhood?.

In response to Gannett’s Jounal News headquartered in White Plains, New York publishing an interactive map containing the names and addresses of all pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland Counties, blogger Robert Cox at NewRochelleTalk.com has produced an interactive map at a post entitled “Where are the Journal News employees in your neighborhood?”

It contains names, addresses, and various forms of Internet presence.

Then there’s today’s entry in the “Do As I Say, NOT As I Do!” segment, brought to us today by Breitbart.com and hypocritical Limousine Liberals throughout metropolitan Washington, D.C.:

School Obama’s Daughters Attend Has 11 Armed Guards

Some interesting news has broken in the wake of the latest push for gun control by President Obama and Senate Democrats: Obama sends his kids to a school where armed guards are used as a matter of fact. The school, Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC, has 11 security officers and is seeking to hire a new police officer as we speak. 

If you dismiss this by saying, “Of course they have armed guards — they get Secret Service protection,” then you’ve missed the larger point.

The larger point is that this is standard operating procedure for the school, period. And this is the reason people like NBC’s David Gregory send their kids to Sidwell, they know their kids will be protected from the carnage that befell kids at a school where armed guards weren’t used (and weren’t even allowed).

Shame on President Obama for seeking more gun control and for trying to prevent the parents of other school children from doing what he has clearly done for his own. His children sit under the protection guns afford, while the children of regular Americans are sacrificed.

Which of course assumes Obama or David Gregory….

….know any shame.

On the Lighter Side….

Finally, we’ll wrap up the week with yet Another Sign the Apocalypse is Upon Us:

Judge Bans New Year’s Eve Possum Drop

New York City may drop a giant Waterford crystal ball on New Year’s Eve, but the folks around Brasstown, NC prefer their method – dropping a live possum. “It ain’t the new year until the possum drops” has been the saying around town for the past 19 years – but not anymore.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals complained that the annual tradition was illegal and cruel. So they filed a lawsuit against the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. A judge ruled in their favor – declaring the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission had not right to issue a permit for the event. Judge Fred Morrison noted, “Citizens are prohibited from capturing and using wild animals for pets or amusement,” The Asheville Citizen-times reported.

Clay Logan, the owner of Clays Corner Store – and the organizer of the annual drop, told Fox News he’s disappointed by the ruling. “It’s just a lot of good, clean, family fun,” he said. “It seems like everybody always wants to jump on the clean family fun part. If we were all a bunch of drunks down here nobody would probably say nothing about it.” (Hell, they’d probably be eligible for government funding!)

Logan said they still plan to hold a New Year’s Eve celebration – and they are working on an alternative plan. “It’ll either be a stuffed animal or road kill,” he told Fox News. “We’re not gonna break no laws.”

Logan said he just doesn’t understand all the fuss about using a life possum. For years, they put the critter in a decorated cage and lowered him down at the stroke of midnight. Afterwards, they released the possum into the woods.

But PETA argued it was cruel. “That’s a matter of opinion,” Logan said. “He’s (the possum) treated good.” And Logan said he thought he was doing a good deed by actually prolonging the possum’s life. “Their destiny in life is to be run over,” he said. “So if you don’t get run over in 2012, I’ve extended his life to 2013.”

He said the New Year’s Eve celebration at his store is the one of the highlights of the year for Brasstown – population 240. Last year as many as 3,000 attended the festivities. “That ain’t bad for neighbors, is it?” he asked.

Possum: the other white meat!

Magoo