Weeks after announcing his bold move, Guillory has released a video explaining why he is now with the GOP. The powerful video is titled, “Why I Am a Republican.”

Welcome, welcome, welcome. I think blacks who open their eyes to see how racist and restrictive the Democrat party has been, how it has encouraged life in the slums and the death of the family are incredibly patriotic Americans. He will probably feel a backlash from his own community. That is sad. He will find joyous friends in the Republican Party.

One person with a lot of insight and study is Victor Davis Hanson. A student of history, Professor Hanson has lived long enough to balance what he has studied with his own personal common sense and observation. He has some definite, practical and good thoughts about what we should do in the latest dustup in Syria.

He writes in National Review:

Syria is turning out to be a sort of Spanish Civil War of our age, with Hezbollah and Iran playing the role of fascist Italy and Germany, and the Islamic nations and jihadists that of Stalin’s Russia, as the moderates disappear and the messy conflict becomes a proxy war for greater powers, with worse to come.

There were always problems for the Obama administration intervening in Syria besides the usual bad/worse choices in the Middle East between authoritarianism and Islamic extremism and the president’s own preference for sonorous sermons rather than rapid action.

For all of 2012, Barack Obama ran on the theme that he had removed the last troops from Iraq and soon would do the same in Afghanistan. So a third intervention in Syria was not to be a campaign talking point, especially after Benghazi…

U.S. influence in the Middle East and North Africa is at a new post-war low. That Iran supposedly plans to send 4,000 fighters to Syria suggests that it is not too afraid of anyone threatening its nuclear facilities or of the supposedly crushing oil boycott…

The president finally seems to want to do something. But that something is complicated by his past calls for Bashar Assad to leave, and his unserious red lines about the use of chemical weapons. It is said that Obama is finally prepared to act a bit, shamed by the two Clintons’ usual backstage politicking and his own worries of doing something to make his own scandals disappear under news bulletins of new national-security crises.

But Syria is hopelessly more complicated and messy than it was 18 months ago. The arrival of Susan Rice and Samantha Power into respective higher positions of power is said to be a sudden catalyst for action, but the former’s credibility is shot, and the latter’s Arab Spring portfolio is, too. The Kerry/Rice/Power team, led from behind by Obama on the back nine, cannot yet define how they would oversee a consensual government to replace Assad, given that under the protocols of American support for the Arab Spring even a pro-U.S. authoritarian would be unacceptable.

Most Americans do not favor intervention of any serious sort, and Obama is not up to drumming up public support. He announced a surge and then simultaneous withdrawals in Afghanistan; since then he rarely mentions the war or the brave Americans stuck there fighting it. A campaign theme was that the United States was all out of Iraq, without a small residual force to keep the Maliki government somewhat honest.

In short, Team Obama does not have its heart in doing much of anything in the Middle East — not in Egypt, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, or in the War on Terror in general. Given that the American people have no great love for most of those killing one another in Syria, we would be wise to stay out, and send food and medicine to alleviate the suffering of the innocent.

Obama’s foreign policy is a disaster. To add to the Middle East mess, add in Russia. That reset button was pushed, but pushed from good to terrible. The Brits dislike us and Europe has no respect for us. In parts of Africa Obama is somewhat of a hero, but he has done nothing to help them like GWB did. He has not stood on the side of democracy in South America either. In Asia he has allowed the Chinese to buy up great swaths of our economy even as they outperform us and take up more of a stand in the Pacific.

What’s left? Australia? Given his love for all things British (not!) that will probably go down the tubes, too.

Evidently. Whenever George W. Bush did anything, press tongues wagged. If he played golf, that was an in your face gesture to those serving in our military. If his daughters listed a glass when they were underage, Bush was proclaimed not fit to run the country if he couldn’t even control his family. If he went to humble Crawford, Texas, for some R&R it convinced some that he wasn’t up to the task of the presidency. If he made mistakes in speeches, he was a dullard. It went on and on.

With President Obama, the perks he takes as president are unquestioned. After he won the presidency, his elaborate family vacations got thumbs up. Michelle ran off to Spain and took about 300 people with her, booking them in extravagant hotel suites. She’s doing it again – what, is this her fifth vacation trip in six months? – with the girls, taking them to Ireland. Air Force One and Two will be used and she is staying in the Princess Grace Suite, a hotel room in a five star costing taxpayers $3,000 a night.

Then, the family will go to Africa on a trip that will cost us almost $100 million. The Washington Post reports, “”Hundreds of U.S. Secret Service agents will be dispatched to secure facilities in Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania. A Navy aircraft carrier or amphibious ship, with a fully staffed medical trauma center, will be stationed offshore in case of an emergency.

“Military cargo planes will airlift in 56 support vehicles, including 14 limousines and three trucks loaded with sheets of bulletproof glass to cover the windows of the hotels where the first family will stay. Fighter jets will fly in shifts, giving 24-hour coverage over the president’s airspace, so they can intervene quickly if an errant plane gets too close.”

Then they will return home just in time to ready for their family vacay to Martha’s Vineyard where they rent another house, at an exorbitant cost. Maybe Michelle will wait 20 minutes for him so they can just take one plane. In 2011, I believe, she flew off on Air Force Two rather than wait for Bam.

All this in the context of White House Tours being unavailable for tourists because there isn’t enough money in our budget for them.

Maybe the point of all this extravagance, aside from personal fun, is to dull the public. If we become used to seeing them living large, maybe we’ll get used to some of the other outrageous things they do, like spying on our every email, siccing the IRS on Tea Party people and taking away our private health care.

Or, we might not notice that Obama has no real foreign policy. Nor any economic policy.

Who can be shocked anymore? Whatever I could make up as a story about the Obamas could never match what they have done for real. It’s shocking, but we’re not shocked anymore.

If you can attend the meeting, that is great. There is no substitute for being there in person and letting them feel the pressure of voters.

Activist Yvonne Burton writes, “The meeting is at 125 N. Main (City Hall) at 3:30 PM (1st floor). You don’t need to say anything, just be ready to stand up for our ‘no smart meter’ crew who will be speaking. You can give a ‘thumbs up’ signal or wave in approval! Send an email that says whatever you like, but point out that we DO NOT WANT SMART METERS in Shelby County. You could write about expected rate increases, or the huge expense of replacing an already functioning analog meter system. It is NOT true that analog meters are no longer available. (In a free market, what is requested by the utility companies WILL be built! That’s common sense!) You could mention not wanting plastic smart meters with computer chips that are hackable. You could object to constant radio frequency signals that will be disruptive to pacemakers and other medical devices. You could point out that a percentage of these plastic meters overheat, melt and even sometimes cause fires. Memphis needs a referendum so that people can research smart meters and vote their choice AFTER exploring the pros and cons. Whatever you write (a little or a lot) PLEASE tell your City Council to VOTE NO to using funds for smart meters. The funds can be applied to other services, but WE WANT A REFERENDUM before MLGW commits to buying smart meters!! Here’s the list of City Council names. Copy and paste some or all names into your email. If you are not in the Memphis city limits, write anyway. Their decision WILL affect you!!! Tell them so!”

Here’s how to contact them:
Lee Harris <mailto:lee.Harris@memphistn.gov>,
Joe Brown <joe.Brown@memphistn.gov>,
Harold Collins <harold.Collins@memphistn.gov>,
Edmund Ford, Jr. <edmund.Fordjr@memphistn.gov>,
Bill Morrison <bill.Morrison@memphistn.gov>,
Shea Flinn <shea.Flinn@memphistn.gov>,
Jim Strickland <jim.Strickland@memphistn.gov>,
Myron Lowery <myron.Lowery@memphistn.gov>,
Janis Fullilove <janis.fullilove@memphistn.gov>,
Reid Hedgepeth <reid.Hedgepeth@memphistn.gov>,
Wanda Halbert <wanda.Halbert@memphistn.gov>,
Kemp Conrad <kemp.Conrad@memphistn.gov>,
Bill Boyd <bill.Boyd@memphistn.gov>

It happened during Hillary Clinton’s State Department gig. I guess once you turn a blind eye to your husband’s philandering, someone else’s doesn’t bother you. It’s only sex; what different at this point does it matter as the lady herself exclaimed.

This time it involves a black consul general in Italy, seduction and an abortion.

The New York Post reports:

In the latest black eye for the scandal-ridden State Department, a whistleblower claims she was run out of the foreign service after complaining about a consul general’s alleged office trysts with subordinates and hookers.

Kerry Howard says she was bullied, harassed and forced to resign after she exposed US Consul General Donald Moore’s alleged security-threatening shenanigans in the Naples, Italy, office.

As the post’s community-liaison officer, Howard was charged with keeping workplace peace and advising higher-ups on the state of morale, but when she revealed allegations about her boss, State Department officials swept it under the rug, according to an Equal Employment Opportunity complaint she filed with the department’s Office of Civil Rights.

“It’s cover-up after cover-up. It’s absolutely hideous,” she told The Post. “When our diplomats disrespect the Italians by hiring and firing them because they have seen too much — or use them for ‘sex-ercise’ — we have to question why we have diplomats abroad at taxpayer expense.”

Howard is just the latest whistleblower to allege that Hillary Rodham Clinton’s State Department allowed sexual misbehavior to continue unchecked.

The soap opera in Italy unfolded in the fall of 2010, when Moore became the Naples consul general after serving in the same capacity at the US Embassy in Port au Prince, Haiti.

Within days, he allegedly bedded a consulate employee, a single mom who fell in love with him.

Howard detailed the alleged affair in certified letters to members of Congress, including California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, in December, said Howard’s lawyer, Lawrence Kelly.

“More and more intimate details of their relationship became common knowledge,” Howard wrote, adding that the staffer became pregnant and wanted to keep the baby, but that Moore insisted she get an abortion.

“She informed anyone within earshot that she had had the abortion and had her tubes tied at his instruction,” Howard wrote. “Morale continued to sink as this soap opera played out in our workplace on a daily basis.”

Collins attempts to counter attack the letter Joe Saino wrote last week. Saino, a retired board member of MLGW and an electrical engineer, savaged MLGW’s townhall meeting for their deceptive answers to the public’s questions. Collins doesn’t succeed.

He writes, “First, a smart meter is still a meter; it simply communicates.” I find that an odd definition and not one in accord with Merriam Webster: “an instrument for measuring and sometimes recording the time or amount of something (a parking meter) (a gas meter).” It’s more like numbers in an account. Of themselves, they do nothing. Someone else or something else reads it. He makes up his own definition because he wants you to think all these things already communicate so why the uproar? It’s what is done with the numbers that matters.

Next he says “there are established manufacturing and operating standards” and dismisses this statement by throwing out a website for the reader to investigate. It doesn’t sound convincing, does it?

“Two,” he says – I see three here, but whatever – “security protocols, data encryption and redundant security measures, among other protections (such as?), will prevent someone from ‘hacking’ into a smart meter.” He might have been able to sell this a few months ago, but after all the PRISM, Sheryl Attkison’s computer hacked into her reports on Benghazi and the Edward Snowden deal, this is a no sale, Jerr.

“Three (or is it four?),” Collins writes, “MLGW is operated separately from the city of Memphis; our budgets are separate and the City Council has approved the smart meter expansion in our budget.” So the money that comes into the city of Memphis comes from other people somewhere else? If the Council members are not dealing with taxpayer money, then whose are they dealing with?

Next he attacks Saino’s idea of averaging a bill to save the need for meter readers. “Averaging everyone’s bill is not a choice because each customer is different,” he explains. Exactly. What could be more fair than one rate paid equally by all depending on their needs and usage? He dismisses the practice of estimating bills, although they do it quite willingly now.

Collins closes by painting a world you’ll miss if smart meters aren’t adopted. You won’t get reduced service restoration times (why?), reduced utility theft (although these meters are more valuable than the old ones), leak detection (meter readers already help with that and so does your bill if you check it), improved security and safety (how does that happen?), faster connection time, increased consumption information and data (like we don’t already know that you use less you pay less), improved air quality through lower vehicle emissions (this one is only believed by those who believe in unicorns).

If all these arguments were true, wouldn’t the public be clamoring for smart meters? Unfortunately for him, the public can tell when someone’s doing a con. Every con man promises that his plan will save you money and make you happy – once you fork over money. Don’t buy it.

Tennessee is the only state in the union that has an attorney general appointed by the state Supreme Court. What this means is this individual is not elected nor is he appointed by the people’s choice for governor as other states do. He is put in place by justices. That means no matter how conservative the state is, these liberal judges control our lives.

This issue surfaced in 2010 when attorneys general around the nation decided to protest the Affordable Care Act. About 26 of them – almost all the Southern states – moved to signed onto one lawsuit against the U.S. departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury and Labor. Top state lawyers filed the complaint immediately after the president’s signing ceremony.

But Tennessee was not one of them. That is because Robert E. Cooper, Jr., was sworn in as Attorney General for the State of Tennessee on November 1, 2006. He was appointed by the Supreme Court to serve an eight-year term. He is a Democrat from Chattanooga who served as Legal Counsel to Governor Phil Bredesen from 2003 to 2006. His dad served on the state supreme court from 1974-90. Even though the state’s residents may be against Obamacare by a big majority, this one man held up our ability to get out of it.

Now he has turned his partisan eye on Cordova. The residents had no say in their annexation and were, many believed, duped. That doesn’t matter to him. Democrats favor suburbs supporting failed city programs so no suit for you, if you will.

According to WMC:

In his analysis, he said that the Tennessee Constitution establishes the process for the creation and alteration of municipalities and their boundaries. He also said the General Assembly provides the exclusive methods by which municipalities may be created, merged, consolidated and dissolved and by which municipal boundaries may be altered.

Cooper confirmed under state law that any de-annexation referendum must be initiated by the legislative body of the incorporated city or town, like Memphis City Council, by passing an ordinance calling for a referendum on the issue.

The Shelby County Election Commission rejected the referendum request from Cordova residents in May for similar reasons.

It was said then by legal experts that a city, not citizens, must initiate a de-annexation effort.

Doesn’t sound very democratic, does it?

State Senator Brian Kelsey is a Republican in Nashville who has been calling for our state attorney general selection to be changed. He has made efforts in that direction, but a vote to change it failed by one uninformed vote. Kelsey has promised to try again.

At least Cooper’s term will be up in 2014.

Joe Saino, a former chairman of the MLGW board, says “the union and the public delivered facts that are indisputable.” He says the lack of federal standards for smart meters, the easy way they can be hacked, the expense it would cost our broke city and the fact that we are handing over our local autonomy to the Energy Dept. and EPA in Washington sway him.

A Bartlett resident writes to contradict the CA’s version of a townhall filled with union representatives. As for the “hostile” crowd, she mentioned that most of them were elderly and even disabled. Not the kind of people able to incite violence. Like Saino, she has doubts about the vulnerability of the meters to hackers. MLGW failed to give a cogent answer to that or to the fire issue. “There appears to be a rush to install this technology; when people rush, there is usually money to be made.”

Interestingly, the current issue of Family Circle also has an article on smart meters. This magazine is one that fascinates me because the vapidity of it continually astounds me. This article fits right in.

“Fight the Power (Bill)” it’s called. The magazine calls it “straight talk about technology from a plugged in mom.” She mentions how much she likes the smart meters. Author Christina Tynan-Wood says they save her money, except she doesn’t give any details, like, er, figures. Part of her savings come from buying the Nest Learning Thermostat – for $249 – and a Ecobee Smart Si – from $209. That always means more than $209.

Did she really need these to learn to turn down the heater/air conditioner or use fewer appliances? Doesn’t sound like she came out on the right end of that deal.

And that hacking issue. These two tools tell me that it is very easy to break into your neighbor’s meter.

I’m not convinced.

Thank God!

The cruelty of Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services Secretary (and not concerned with either), is unparalleled. She should have acted immediately to put the little girl on a list.She should have waived restrictions, contacted the family and told them she’d do everything in her power to help them. But she didn’t. Did she get some perverse pleasure out of denying her? Sebelius reminds me of the “culture of death” Pope John Paul II warned about. She is, you might ironically say, a living example of it.

Yes, there are ethical problems with transplants and waiting lists and rules to adhere to. But in the case of this child could anyone be so heartless as to let her die when help might be coming?

I wouldn’t be surprised that after all is said and done Obama steps in and takes credit for it. He may say that it was because of the Affordable Care Act that the girl was able to get her lung.

Nothing would surprise me when it comes to Obama.