Constitutional republics are, like, hard

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One in a series where we call out the ignorant, feckless and malevolent enemies of the Republic.




Ray LaHood is not fit to serve as this nation's Transportation Secretary as per Ray LaHood himself as will be ably demonstrated in the following paragraphs:

Echoing the laments of pundits like Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood argued Saturday that China outpaces the United States in building major transportation infrastructure like high-speed rail because of its authoritarian system and because the Chinese don't have the Republican Party holding up progress.

"The Chinese are more successful [in building infrastructure] because in their country, only three people make the decision. In our country, 3,000 people do, 3 million," LaHood said in a short interview with The Cable on the sidelines of the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival on June 30. "In a country where only three people make the decision, they can decide where to put their rail line, get the money, and do it. We don't do it that way in America."

That is what apparently passes for an "idea" at this Aspen Ideas Festival which, coincidentally enough, is host to a film festival prone to the same sort of revolutionary ideas.

And, as if LaHood remembers that people might actually re-print his words, he gets back on the democracy reservation.

LaHood said that despite this, democracy is still preferable. "We have the best system of government anywhere on the planet. It is the best. Because the people have their say," he said.

Before promptly wandering back off, again.

During his conference session at the festival, LaHood blamed Republicans in Congress, especially the Tea Party freshman class elected in 2010, for the relative lack of progress in moving forward with high-speed rail even though the administration has obligated more than $11 billion to the effort.

"Two years ago, between 50 to 60 Republicans were elected to the House of Representatives to come to Washington to do nothing, and that's what they've done and they've stopped any progress. Those people don't have any vision about what the government can do. That's been a real inhibitor in our ability to think outside the box and think big," he said.

"We used to be No. 1. We're not No. 1 anymore. We're No. 23," he continued. "Previous generations have always left something to the next generation. We owe it to the next generation to leave them something. We shortchange the next generation if we don't leave them high-speed rail. That's our obligation."

Oh, we're leaving future generations something alright and it starts with $16 trillion in debt and 4 soon-to-be-insolvent entitlement programs. Buck up, Ray, baby - you all are leaving future generations one a hell of a legacy.

We'd like to take this moment to recognize the Democrat-controlled do-nothing Senate that hasn't produced a budget in over 3 years and its do-nothing majority leader, Harry Reid, who refuses to take up the 15-20 jobs-related bills that have been sent over from the House in the past year and a half.

And likening his vision for what a government can do to one that enforces a one-child policy via forced abortions and sterilizations cements LaHood's hack status within the administration and proves, with LaHood being appointed Transpo Secretary by G.W. Bush, that sad-sack statist thinking cuts across party lines.

Back to the article:

LaHood boldly predicted in his remarks at the conference that 80 percent of Americans will be connected with passenger rail within the next 25 years. He said that this will be accomplished through a series of commitments by the federal government, state governments, and the private sector.

"That's how they did in Europe, that's how they did it in Asia, and that's how we will do it in America," he said. "There's no turning back on this. We're not going to turn back. And you know why? Because that's what the people want. That's why... there's no stopping high speed rail."

Where? Where are these people that want high speed choo-choos, Ra?y Probably the same people that want nothing to do with a privately-funded infrastructure project like the Keystone XL pipeline.

LaHood heavily criticized the governors of Wyoming and Florida, who have rejected federal attempts to move forward with high-speed rail in their states, and he fought off a heckler from California who said that high-speed rail was not a wise investment of taxpayer money.

High speed rail in Wyoming... let that image sink in for a moment.


More from this clown:

"Doing nothing is not acceptable. Don't be coming here and telling me it's not acceptable if you don't have an alternative. It's coming to California," LaHood exclaimed. "All the studies show, if you build it they will come."

Another lesson in constitutional republics: in a political vacuum, doing nothing is neither acceptable nor unacceptable. Given the context and in this current environment, however, we happen to think that doing nothing is infinitely more acceptable than the alternative but Roy doesn't like that so he's going to whine about the checks and balances, separation of powers and our system of electoral politics that were built into the constitution.

Memo to Ray LaHood, you petulant, whiny-ass, little brat: go out and campaign for your side, make sure the President gets re-elected and take back the House so you can get as close to the one-party bliss of China that is legally allowed in this country and then you can build your g-dm'd high speed choo-choo system out in the wilds of Wyoming with money we don't have and for a people that don't want it.

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Radio KBwD is on the air

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First Friday of the month, so who's up for a covers competition?


Ladies and Gentlemen, from Spencer, Wisconsin, it's Dave Dudley performing "Six Days on the Road".




And let's check out Steve Earle's version from way back in 1987.

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Tales from Bailout Nation (cont.)

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... or how green energy loans are like steak sauce.




The ranks of Department of Energy green loan failures continue to mount.

A geothermal energy company with a $98.5 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration for an alternative energy project in Nevada — which received hearty endorsements from Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — faces financial problems, and the company’s auditors have questioned whether it can stay in business.

Much like Solyndra LLC, a California solar-panel manufacturer with a $535 million federal loan guarantee that went bankrupt, Nevada Geothermal Power (NGP) has incurred $98 million in net losses over the past several years, has substantial debts and does not generate enough cash from its current operations after debt-service costs, an internal audit said.

“The company’s ability to continue as a going concern is dependent on its available cash and its ability to continue to raise funds to support corporate operations and the development of other properties,” NGP auditors said in a financial statement for the period ending March 31.

“Consequently, material uncertainties exist which cast significant doubt upon the company’s ability to continue as a going concern,” the statement said.

(italics, ours)


So, we are being told that NGP's ability to continue as a going concern is dependent upon factors other than actually turning a profit. Good to know.

Mr. Reid, a Nevada Democrat who led passage of the $814 billion stimulus bill and worked to include the loan guarantee program to help finance clean-energy projects, predicted in 2010 that NGP would “put Nevadans to work” and declared that Nevada was the “Saudi Arabia of geothermal energy.”

Comparing your state to a country that hands out checks to its citizens because of all that oil they're sitting on begs the question of why NGP would need tax-payer assistance in the first place.



Cue the evil Republicans:

But Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on regulatory affairs, stimulus oversight and government spending, is concerned about NGP’s finances and the timing of the loan guarantee.

“The company was in danger of defaulting on its financial obligation, and the [Department of Energy‘s] assistance served as a de facto bailout,” Mr. Jordan said. “After receiving a taxpayer-backed $98.5 million loan guarantee, the company is still struggling.”

He said the loan guarantee “essentially served to prop up an already-faltering firm.”

We thought the following was of particular interest:

Mr. Jordan said the Energy Department handed out more than 20 loan guarantees to companies with an average credit rating of BB-, or “junk status,” meaning they were vulnerable to default if economic or business conditions changed. NPG was rated BB+, which is considered speculative or junk and a step below investment grade.

Mr. Jordan and Mr. Issa have questioned why taxpayer money was “put at such risk.”

That pretty much sums up why this DOE green loan program is such a disaster. Where you wouldn't waste a wooden nickel of your own scratch on junk-rated investments, the DOE, because it has no real skin in the game - it's not like it's coming out of their hide, is more than willing to pour billions of tax-payer dollars down the drain.


The next time you hear the President drone on about "investing" in the future with respect to clean/green energy, recall the rule our chow hall table captain laid down during our first year at Seminary regarding his ban on steak sauce: "Good steak don't need it and bad steak don't deserve it."


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Obamatax...

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...by the numbers:


15% : Capital gains tax in 2012

23.8% : Capital gains tax in 2013 and beyond



15% : tax on dividends in 2012

43.4% : tax on dividends in 2013 and beyond



$86 billion: Medicare payroll tax to go into effect Jan. 2013.



$65 billion : Individual Mandate Excise Tax and Employer Mandate Tax to take effect in January of 2014. (You will be pleased to know that illegal immigrants are exempted this tax. Hell between this, in-state tuitions, driver licenses, non-deportation decrees, etc. who would want to be a U.S. citizen? That whole living in the shadows thing is a pretty sweet deal.)



$60.1 billion : Tax on Health Insurers to take effect Jan. 2014.



$32 billion : Excise Tax on Comprehensive (Cadillac Health Insurance Plans to take effect Jan. 2018. (That relatively far off date of 2018 was a pay-off to the unions).





$22.2 billion : Tax on Innovator Drug Companies which took effect in 2010. (A tax on innovation... only a rotted-out, ideologically-driven statist-riddled mind could come up with a concept that patently absurd)



Read more of the insanity at the link.



We keep saying around here that Obamatax isn't really about improving the quality of healthcare in this country. Now, why would that be?

With the Supreme Court giving President Obama's new health care law a green light, federal and state officials are turning to implementation of the law -- a lengthy and massive undertaking still in its early stages, but already costing money and expanding the government.

The Health and Human Services Department "was given a billion dollars implementation money," Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg of Montana said. "That money is gone already on additional bureaucrats and IT programs, computerization for the implementation."

"Oh boy," Stan Dorn of the Urban Institute said. "HHS has a huge amount of work to do and the states do, too. There will be new health insurance marketplaces in every state in the country, places you can go online, compare health plans."

The IRS, Health and Human Services and many other agencies will now write thousands of pages of regulations -- an effort well under way:

"There's already 13,000 pages of regulations, and they're not even done yet," Rehberg said.

And this:

A new analysis by the Joint Economic Committee and the House Ways & Means Committee minority staff estimates up to 16,500 new IRS personnel will be needed to collect, examine and audit new tax information mandated on families and small businesses in the ‘reconciliation’ bill being taken up by the U.S. House of Representatives this weekend. ...

Scores of new federal mandates and fifteen different tax increases totaling $400 billion are imposed under the Democratic House bill. In addition to more complicated tax returns, families and small businesses will be forced to reveal further tax information to the IRS, provide proof of ‘government approved’ health care and submit detailed sales information to comply with new excise taxes

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Having the IRS at the tip of the health care reform spear just doesn't pass the sniff test.


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San Diego: America's fastest city?

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How does that country and western song go?: I'm not as good as I once was but I'm good once as I ever was...

Well, organizers of San Diego's Big Bay Boom 4th of July fireworks show may know how that feels.

When most of the country was going ooh and aah over Fourth of July fireworks displays, San Diego spectators were treated to a spectacle that lit up the night sky -- for all of 15 seconds.

Thousands had gathered at beaches and parks to catch a glimpse of the annual "Big Bay Boom" show on Wednesday night. Some camped out for hours to see the fireworks that ignite around the San Diego Bay on Independence Day.

An unknown glitch caused the fireworks to explode all at once, botching the show and bewildering spectators.

Others fled into the night as four big balls lit up before their scheduled time, adding to the confusion.

Here's the highli... er, the show:


. For those that spent the next 2-3 hours sitting in traffic trying to get out of the Pacific Beach/Mission Beach/Mission Bay area after this show, it had to be a huge disappointment. Maybe the city put these guys in charge. (NSFW warning)
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Independence Day 2012

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In case we have forgotten:

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of AMERICA.

WHEN, in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another; and to assume, among the Powers Of The Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the Causes which impel them to the Separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their CREATOR with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Read full text, here.




We hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable 4th of July with family and friends. We'll see you all tomorrow.

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Just a reminder, gang...

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... that bailout of General Motors working out as well as predicted.

General Motors (GM) shares fell to a fresh 2012 closing low of 19.57 on Monday. The stock hit 19 in mid-December, the lowest since the auto giant came public at $33 in November 2010 following its June 2009 bankruptcy.

Normally you might say, tough luck investors. But this is Government Motors. The Treasury still owns 26.5% of GM, or 500 million shares. Taxpayers are still out $26.4 billion in direct aid. Shares would have to hit $53 for the government to break even.

Those shares were worth about $9.8 billion as of Monday. That would leave taxpayers with a loss of $16.6 billion.

We know how the unions got bumped ahead of secured creditors in the bankruptcy proceedings and how General Motors was paying off its TARP loan, not with its own profits but rather another line of TARP credit but we were heretofore unaware of the following bit of bookkeeping shenanigans:

But that's not the full tally. Obama let GM keep $45 billion in past losses to offset future profits. Those are usually wiped out or slashed, along with debts, in bankruptcy. But the administration essentially gifted $45 billion in write-offs (book value $18 billion) to GM. So when GM earned a $7.6 billion profit in 2011 (more on that below), it paid no taxes.


Include that $18 billion gift, and taxpayers' true loss climbs to nearly $35 billion.

In a world where we are supposed to worry about how Mitt Romney spends his own money and not worry about how Barack Obama is spending our money, just chalk up General Motors as another Obama public equity fail.

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Messaging difficulties

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That the Democrats can't quite get through a conversation without saying the word "tax" is completely understandable as raising them is pretty much what they are running on in 2012; a message endorsed by the Supreme Court last Thursday. Think were joking? Check out House minority leader Nancy Pelosi on Meet the Press on Sunday




0:23 :

"ta-penalty"

Pelosi's assertion that the ta-... penalty is on the free-riders glomming off the rest of us that are paying into the healthcare system is laughable on its face, as Democrats have courted and have counted on the votes of the free-rider class for decades now.

And let's see if we got this straight: They want to soak the rich and the investor class by jacking up the marginal income tax rate and the capital gains rate, they want to saddle the middle class with the taxes built into Obamatax that will fund the monstrosity and they want to stick it to young people and those who may not need nor can afford to purchase health care (Or as @Iowahawkblog tweeted: don't bite the hand that food stamps you). And it's the right that's obsessed with taxes?



Remember, gang:

Some more thoughts on what went down this past Thursday

Leading up to last Thursday's Supreme CourtObamacare Obamatax decision, we read and shared via this blog and Twitter all manner of wailing and nashing of teeth from the left* regarding the perceived politicization of the Supreme Court** ahead of what conventional wisdom held was going to be a striking down of the mandate, if not the entirety of Affordable Care Act.

Alas, the entitlement gods intervened and apparently spoke to Chief Justice John Roberts in order to convince him to side with the liberal wing of the Court to not just uphold the mandate but to reason it with a judicial flourish: Obamacare Obamatax stands not via the commerce clause rather Congress' ability to levy taxes on the citizenry.

Shortly after the decision was rendered, there was buzz that Roberts switched his vote at the last minute from striking down the mandate and the law to supporting it. But why?

Go to the link here at the Volokh conspiracy which has the transcript from Sunday morning's Face the Nation and prepare to have your mind blown.



From the transcript:

Over the next six weeks, as Roberts began to craft the decision striking down the mandate, the external pressure began to grow. Roberts almost certainly was aware of it.

Some of the conservatives, such as Justice Clarence Thomas, deliberately avoid news articles on the Court when issues are pending (and avoid some publications altogether, such as The New York Times). They’ve explained that they don’t want to be influenced by outside opinion or feel pressure from outlets that are perceived as liberal.

But Roberts pays attention to media coverage. As Chief Justice, he is keenly aware of his leadership role on the Court, and he also is sensitive to how the Court is perceived by the public.

There were countless news articles in May warning of damage to the Court – and to Roberts’ reputation – if the Court were to strike down the mandate. Leading politicians, including the President himself, had expressed confidence the mandate would be upheld.

Some even suggested that if Roberts struck down the mandate, it would prove he had been deceitful during his confirmation hearings, when he explained a philosophy of judicial restraint.

It was around this time that it also became clear to the conservative justices that Roberts was, as one put it, “wobbly,” the sources said.

It is not known why Roberts changed his view on the mandate and decided to uphold the law. At least one conservative justice tried to get him to explain it, but was unsatisfied with the response, according to a source with knowledge of the conversation.

Unreal. Go read the entire thing for some Inside Baseball stuff regarding the tug-of-war between the justices over the decision. We may never know just what motivated Roberts to switch his vote but a simple connect-the-dots lends itself to a Occams' razor conclusion.

We can offer no penetrating insight to Roberts' logic, however, if he were to uphold the mandate and the law in its entirety based upon principle and on the grounds that Congress could enact this law because it had the constitutional power to tax the people, then fine. We may disagree, and we do, but we would rest easy in thinking that Roberts reached this conclusion absent outside influence.

But it appears he didn't. How could he reach the conclusion that the law could not stand on merits of the commerce clause yet stand whole on the issue of taxation without submitting to outside pressure? It's too clever. That reasoning represents a judicial dodge of historic proportion.

That Roberts reached this conclusion to supposedly preserve the integrity of the Court is preposterous. In wishing to shield the Court from charges of politicization, he succumbed to the very politicization of external influences in rendering a decision that was too cute by a half.

That it even appears that Roberts caved to outside pressure probably bothers us more than Roberts' actual ruling on Obamatax. We thought that was the whole idea behind life-time appointments - that Justices would be insulated from the politics surrounding that which they are passing judgement.

We know no political system is perfect and our system of checks and balances and separation of powers via our constitutional republic isn't perfect because its stewardship is in the hands of flawed people, be they elected or appointed but the system gets a whole lot less perfect when those stewards do not practice nor adhere to the intentions of our constitutional republic.




* No true good-government liberal could support this law. It is corporatism, writ large. We're coming around to the opinion that there are no more liberals, only leftists.


** For all that bitching the left has done, can anyone name the last "liberal" judge that has drifted rightward?

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Video clip of the day

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Reason.tv presents their Nanny of the Month award... except it's from June as we did not get around to it until now. We think everyone will survive.

Saying that we are going to use the force of government to control your speech is way more (bleeping) offensive than any particular word.

Say it, brother.



Would it be safe to assume that Middleborough must have their s#%t in order to think that this was their next big civic challenge? Nannies being nannies, same goes for Asbury Park and Tulsa.

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Fast and Furious update

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Remember the good ol' days when dissent was patriotic? And remember when the whistleblower made Time's person of the year back in 2012? Boy, those were the days but ancient history now, so try to preserve as best you can those gauzy memories as coming forward to expose the truth of a highly successful and deadly gun-running scheme isn't what could be considered a career-enhancing act.


From the Daily Caller:

House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa and Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley are asking the Department of Justice’s internal investigator to hold accountable anyone who retaliated against or threatened to retaliate against Operation Fast and Furious whistleblowers.

In a Friday letter to the DOJ’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz, Grassley and Issa said they’re now concerned retaliation is much more likely following Thursday’s votes to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal and civil contempt of Congress.

“We just learned that ATF senior management placed two of the main whistleblowers who have testified before Congress about Fast and Furious under the supervision of someone who vowed to retaliate against them,” they wrote before describing how senior political figures have made dangerous threats before.

And who is this person in question?

Thomasson also allegedly said that: “All these whistleblowers have axes to grind. ATF needs to f—k these guys.”

According to Grassley and Issa, when Thomasson was asked about whistleblowers’ allegations that guns were allowed to walk, Thomasson said he “didn’t know and didn’t care.”

Grassley and Issa have given Horowitz until July 6 to answer whether Thomasson was “admonished” for those threats against whistleblowers, how he got his job in the first place and how the DOJ and ATF are going to make sure he doesn’t retaliate against whistleblowers moving forward.

For those of you in Placentia, California, to "f-k", in this context, can be roughly equated to "ruining one's career".

Issa and Grassley have given Horowitz until July 6 to answere whether or not Thomasson was admonished for the threats and, who the guy is and how in the hell did he get his job.


Issa and Grassley also released new documents that showed ATF's Washington headquarters issuing talking points regarding Fast and Furious two weeks before Grassley ever confronted the Justice Department or ATF.

Grassley didn’t confront the Justice Department or ATF with those questions until Jan. 27, 2011, but ATF headquarters had prepped internal talking points as early as Jan. 12, 2011.

In that Jan. 12, 2011, memo, ATF officials laid out expected questions about gunwalking in Fast and Furious and Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder with Fast and Furious weapons – and canned answers ATF officials were supposed to give to press or anyone else asking about it.

-“The death of Agent Terry in tragic and is a sad and dark day for all of law enforcement. We’ve lost one of our own. This is another example of the dangers faced by law enforcement every day across this country when pursuing these violent criminals.”

-“Agent Terry’s death is the exact reason why we must continue going after those who are determined to destroy the lives of so many innocent individuals in our communities by plying their illicit trade. For those who would say it is Mexico’s problem, I say Agent Terry’s death and all of those who have perished because of this violence prove that this challenge belongs to everyone.”

-“The investigation into the murder of Agent Terry is active and ongoing. ATF has pledged its support and resources to bring to justice the perpetrators who are guilty of that crime. I won’t say anything here today to jeopardize that investigation or the subsequent prosecution of those responsible for this terrible crime.”

- blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

(italics, ours)


Time will tell and hopefully we can get to the bottom of who exactly authorized Fast and Furious and what exactly was Holder's role in it and his subsequent actions after it was shut down but the falsely-generated memos, the re-assignments, the stonewalling, the heavily-redacted memos and now these whistle-blower threat allegations all suggest an organization with something to hide.

Yeah, there was a time when transparency was pretty damn patriotic, as well.