Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Why is this guy still office...? Dodd ought to be in jail...

Sen. Dodd, D-Conn., slashed aviation security funding for pet constituency
By: Mark Hemingway
Commentary Staff Writer
Washington Examiner
12/28/09 12:24 PM EST

Now that our attention is focused on airline security measures thanks to the failed airline attack on Christmas Day, it's worth mentioning that one Senator took money away from aviation security to line the pockets of a constituency that supported his presidential campaign in a big way.

Back in July, Senator Chris Dodd, D-Conn., proposed an amendment reducing aviation security appropriations by $4.5 million in favor of firefighter grants -- a notoriously inneffective program. In fact, the money was specifically "for screening operations and the amount for explosives detection systems." The amendment was also sponsored by Sen. Lieberman, D-Conn., and Sen. Carper, D-Del., but Dodd deserves to be singled out here because the firefighters union is a pet constituency of his. In 2007 he campaigned all through Iowa with the firefighters union. It was one of the few distinguishable features of Dodd's ill-fated presidential bid.

The text of the amendment is here.

Monday, December 28, 2009

The War Against the Wannabe Rich

I could not say it any better....

The War Against the Wannabe Rich

Why the war against the productive classes who want to be rich?

Maybe it is because they are not as numerous as the proverbial middle class. Perhaps they do not earn our empathy that is properly accorded to the poor. They surely lack the status and insider connections that accrue to the very rich.

Yet continue to punish and demonize them, and the country will grind to a halt - as we are seeing now.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

What is wrong with Washington D.C.?

Too Many Democrats in Washington
By Peter Ferrara on 12.23.09 @ 6:08AM
The American Spectator

Great (rather long) Article. I like how it ends....

For over 25 years, John Goodman at the National Center for Policy Analysis has articulately advocated these and other reforms liberating patients to exercise maximum freedom and control over their own health care, doctors and hospitals to innovate to provide better and lower cost care, and employers to provide better deals to their workers at lower costs. Jim Frogue at Newt Gingrich's Center for Health Transformation, Merrill Matthews at the Council for Affordable Health Care, and Greg Scandlen at the Heartland Institute have similarly provided innovative, pathbreaking leadership on health policy that would truly help working people and the poor on health care.

But instead the American people suffer with too many Democrats in power who don't understand any of this, and won't listen to any new ideas from anybody. Harry Reid clearly has no idea what he is talking about on the issue. Nancy Pelosi as usual is lost in her own dream world. Florida Congressman Alan Grayson and Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse cannot even talk sensibly on the subject. Only the American people can fix this, and they can start by demanding resignations from those who have not been honest with them. This includes those who now plan to vote against the bill after voting for it, claiming they were against it all along.
I wish more of the media would cover the realistic options to this plan. I believe if more people knew there were REAL options available they would be storming D.C.! It is now likely too late....

A Christmas Address for the ages....


Merry Christmas!

Another idiotic opinion by another idiotic Thomas Friedman

The Copenhagen That Matters
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: December 22, 2009
NYT

Comparing Denmark to the U.S. is so stupid I don't know where to begin.
Let's see:
Population: Denmark 5.5 million USA: 330 million

Area: Denmark 16,640 sq mi USA: 3,794,101 sq mi

That is just the beginning... I don't know how people give this man any credence at all. Somehow this guy is considered an intellectual elite. What a joke. Thomas Friedman is a moron and this article just proves it.

No more "Public Option"....Whoopee!!!

Harry Reid Turns Insurance Into a Public Utility
The health bill creates a massive cash crunch and then bankruptcies for many insurers.
DECEMBER 22, 2009
THE WALLSTREET JOURNAL
By RICHARD A. EPSTEIN

As Harry Reid's 2,000 page health-care bill is being rammed through the Senate, most of the public debate has been focused on its expanded coverage, its now defunct public option, and its high taxes. Lost in the shuffle has been its intensely coercive requirements on health insurance issuers, especially in the individual and small group markets. Taken together, these restrictions are likely to drive them out of business and run afoul of the constitutional guarantee that all regulated industries have to a reasonable, risk-adjusted, rate of return on their invested capital.

The perils of the Reid bill are made evident in a recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report that focused on the bill's rebate program, which holds that once an insurance company spends more than 10% of its revenues on administrative expenses, its customers are entitled to an indefinite statutory rebate determined by state regulatory authorities subject to oversight by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Defining these administrative costs is a royal headache, but everyone agrees that they are heaviest in the small group and individual markets, where they typically range between 25% and 30%, without the new regulatory hassles.

The CBO concluded that this one restriction turned the Reid bill into "an essentially governmental program." In other words, the targeted health insurers would become de facto public utilities whose profits are gutted when the huge compliance costs under the Reid bill are piled on top of the hefty costs inherent in running a labor intensive health-care insurance business. [emphasis mine]


Great, they took out the "public option", but destroyed the private insurers....

The government?

Is this really their plan?

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Another confidence builder....

Pentagon delays new "bunker buster" bomb

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A "bunker buster" bomb with more than 10 times the explosive power of its predecessor will be put into service by the United States next December, six months later than previously scheduled, the U.S. Defense Department told Reuters on Friday.


Especially when set against the backdrop of this news...

Iran testing new generations of centrifuges

TEHRAN (FNA) - Iran is testing new generations of home-made centrifuges for enriching uranium, a senior Iranian nuclear official announced.

""At present we have included the new generations of centrifuges in our (uranium) enrichment activities and these new generations (centrifuges) are passing necessary tests rapidly,"" Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said in an exclusive interview with FNA.

Salehi explained that Iran's nuclear scientists are currently testing two advanced models of home-made centrifuges named IR3 and IR4, and added, ""Hopefully we can use the new generations of centrifuges by the end of the next (Iranian) year (early 2011) and after removing all flaws and problems.""

Add to all that news this wonderful confidence builder:

Obama's Iran Policy Falls Short
Gordon G. Chang, 12.18.09, 12:01 AM EST
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton isn't impressed. She's not alone.

Diplomats say the darnedest things. Take our secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. This week, she blurted out the following about America's Iran policy: "I don't think anyone can doubt that our outreach has produced very little in terms of any kind of a positive response from the Iranians."

Whether she was criticizing the ayatollahs or the Obama’s is hard to tell--Mrs. Clinton reportedly dislikes both groups intensely--but it is undeniable that she has put her finger on something. The United States, unfortunately, has had little influence over the Iranian leadership this year. Obama's campaign pledge to meet the world's top despots, including the ones dwelling in Tehran, has not in fact generated good will in Iran's abhorrent theocracy.

And the finale....

....unless Obama changes course, Iran will get the bomb. And once the ferociously aggressive and deeply insecure clerics put their hands on an atomic weapon, it is virtually certain the world will never be the same. Almost all the assumptions we make about geopolitics today could--and probably will--become obsolete.

Here's a real confidence builder...

Not enough money to buy U.S. securities...

Harder to buy US Treasuries
Created: 2009-12-18 0:13:35
Author:Zhou Xin and Jason Subler

It is getting harder for governments to buy United States Treasuries because the US's shrinking current-account gap is reducing supply of dollars overseas, a Chinese central bank official said yesterday.

The comments by Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, referred to the overall situation globally, not specifically to China, the biggest foreign holder of US government bonds.

Chinese officials generally are very careful about commenting on the dollar and Treasuries, given that so much of its US$2.3 trillion reserves are tied to their value, and markets always watch any such comments closely for signs of any shift in how it manages its assets.

China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange reaffirmed this month that the dollar stands secure as the anchor of the currency reserves it manages, even as the country seeks to diversify its investments.

In a discussion on the global role of the dollar, Zhu told an academic audience that it was inevitable that the dollar would continue to fall in value because Washington continued to issue more Treasuries to finance its deficit spending.

He then addressed where demand for that debt would come from.

"The United States cannot force foreign governments to increase their holdings of Treasuries," Zhu said, according to an audio recording of his remarks. "Double the holdings? It is definitely impossible."

"The US current account deficit is falling as residents' savings increase, so its trade turnover is falling, which means the US is supplying fewer dollars to the rest of the world," he added. "The world does not have so much money to buy more US Treasuries."

China continues to see its foreign exchange reserves grow, albeit at a slower pace than in past years, due to a large trade surplus and inflows of foreign investment. They stood at US$2.3 trillion at the end of September.

A real confidence builder. Can anyone say inflation?

It's official: This POTUS is a loser....



Olympics:
Obama loses gamble -- Chicago out of Olympics contention

Climate Change:
Low targets, goals dropped: Copenhagen ends in failure

His Base:
President Obama Loses His Base: He Just Ran Out of Slack

Even his cool:
An Angry President Obama loses his cool as Copenhagen freezes

Loser.

SOLD: Ben Nelson screws the U.S.

SOLD: Sen Ben Nelson's bribe.
By Publius
BigGovernment.com

This is a great take on the most recent corruption of the most corrupt congress EVER! These people have no shame. 49 states will now be subsidizing Nebraska's expanded Medicaid. All so the most corrupt congress can ram a bill no one wants down our throat. Sick and sad.

"Progressives" Pro Israel? Really?

This is a good analysis....

Media Matters: Progressives Take A Courageous Stand Against Israel

...of this article:

Progressives Speak Out On Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
December 18, 2009 5:07 pm ET by MJ Rosenberg
Media Matters Action



Let me add that all you need to know about the Palestinian - Israeli conflict:

If you took away all the Palestinian's weapons, Israel would live peaceably alongside their neighbors.

If, however, you took away the Israelis’ weapons, the Palestinians would overrun Israel and slaughter the Jews.

Therefore, it is Israel who has the moral high ground. Of course, as an evangelical Christian, I have a vested interest in Israel as a nation.

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after 'Danish text' leak

"It is being done in secret. Clearly the intention is to get [Barack] Obama and the leaders of other rich countries to muscle it through when they arrive next week. It effectively is the end of the UN process," said one diplomat, who asked to remain nameless.


Why should thus suprise anyone? It is how the democrats are running this country!

Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after 'Danish text' leak
Developing countries react furiously to leaked draft agreement that would hand more power to rich nations, sideline the UN's negotiating role and abandon the Kyoto protocol

The so-called Danish text, a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as "the circle of commitment" – but understood to include the UK, US and Denmark – has only been shown to a handful of countries since it was finalised this week.


Chicago politics comes to Copenhagen...

The new Saul Alinsky "Rules for Radicals"...?

Listen to Your Mother: Stand Up Straight! How Progressives Can Win (Seven Locks Press, 2007).

Here is a great expose' regarding the left's new manual for taking control of the issues.

The author is Robert Creamer, who used to be the leader of Citizen Action/Illinois. He also founded its predecessor, Illinois Public Action and is the husband of Jan Schakowsky (D-IL). Creamer resigned from Citizen Action/Illinois after the FBI began investigating him for bank fraud and tax evasion at Illinois Public Action. He was convicted in 2006 and sentenced to five months in federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, plus eleven months of house arrest. This is when he wrote the new progressive manual Listen to Your Mother: Stand Up Straight! How Progressives Can Win (Seven Locks Press, 2007).

Excerpts:

He also lays out a “Progressive Agenda for Structural Change,” which includes a ten-point plan for foisting universal health care on the American people in 2009:

•“We must create a national consensus that health care is a right, not a commodity; and that government must guarantee that right.”
•“We must create a national consensus that the health care system is in crisis.”
•“Our messaging program over the next two years should focus heavily on reducing the credibility of the health insurance industry and focusing on the failure of private health insurance.”
•“We need to systematically forge relationships with large sectors of the business/employer community.”
•“We need to convince political leaders that they owe their elections, at least in part, to the groundswell of support of [sic] universal health care, and that they face political peril if they fail to deliver on universal health care in 2009.”
•“We need not agree in advance on the components of a plan, but we must foster a process that can ultimately yield consensus.”
•“Over the next two years, we must design and organize a massive national field program.”
•“We must focus especially on the mobilization of the labor movement and the faith community.”
•“We must systematically leverage the connections and resources of a massive array of institutions and organizations of all types.”
•“To be successful, we must put in place commitments for hundreds of millions of dollars to be used to finance paid communications and mobilization once the battle is joined.”

Creamer adds: “To win we must not just generate understanding, but emotion—fear, revulsion, anger, disgust.”

Is there a regulation revolution brewing...?



Is there a regulation revolution brewing...?

Let's hope so....

Friday, December 04, 2009

Job summit, job schmummit.... What a farce!

Eric Cantor, House Minority Whip released a "Common Sense Proposal for Job Creation" yesterday, while our President met with "industry leaders", academia and union officials "talked about the jobless recover".

Sadly, you can tell by who wasn't on the list what the goal of the "Job Summit" really was.

Not on the list: US Chamber of Commerce, National Federation of Independent Business, and National Manufacturing Association.

On the list: Andy Stern - President of the Service Employees International Union, United Steel Workers union president, Teacher's union president, Anna Burger - SEIU, and (of course) big Obama donors...

Now BHO is out in full campaign mode trying to distract and obfuscate the entire subject. This is a man that is out of control an in way over his head. I only hope we, the people can keep this country together long enough to get him out of power!

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Max Baucus slipped up and disclosed the REAL cost of Healthcare....

So here is a graph no democrat wants you to see, but somehow it made it into the ether:



SEN. MAX BAUCUS (D-MT): “Just for a second -- health care reform, whether you use a ten-year number or when you start in 2010 or start in 2014, wherever you start at, so it is still either $1 trillion or it's $2.5 Trillion, depending on where you start…” (Sen. Baucus, Floor Remarks, 12/2/09)

The Daily Show Scoops NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, HLN, MSNBC, and Telemuno news shows...

Friday, November 27, 2009

Copenhagen Consequences....

What Americans Need to Know About the Copenhagen Global Warming Conference
by Ben Lieberman
November 17, 2009
The Heritage Foundation

What Are the Economic Concerns?

The goal of the Kyoto Protocol, the building block for Copenhagen, is similar to the purpose of the Waxman-Markey global warming bill, which narrowly passed the U.S. House of Representatives in June, and of the Kerry-Boxer bill being considered in the U.S. Senate. All three would set limits on emissions from fossil fuels -- the coal, oil, and natural gas that provide America with 85 percent of its energy. Such limits would act as a large energy tax, driving up the energy costs of individuals and consumers, forcing them to use less energy. More stringent emissions targets would require even larger increases in fossil energy prices to further discourage their use.

A Heritage Foundation analysis of Waxman-Markey found that this energy tax would have serious implications throughout the economy. For a household of four, energy costs (electric, natural gas, gasoline expenses) would rise by $436 in 2012 and by $1,241 by 2035, averaging $829 over that period.[11] Higher energy costs would increase the cost of many other products and services. Overall, Waxman-Markey would reduce gross domestic product by $393 billion annually and by a total of $9.4 trillion by 2035.[12] An initial analysis of the Senate bill finds comparable costs.[13]

Would the Environmental Benefits Be Worth It?

No. First, there are growing doubts about whether global warming really is the crisis it was claimed to be heading into the 1997 Kyoto negotiations.[16] For example, global temperatures have leveled off since then.[17] However, putting the scientific doubts aside for a moment, the Kyoto approach seems unlikely to slow global warming effectively. One scientific study estimated that, even if the treaty reached its targeted emissions reductions, it would reduce the earth's future temperature by about 0.07 degree Celsius by 2050 -- an amount too small to make any difference and impossible to verify because natural variability is far greater.[18] Obviously, more stringent targets at Copenhagen would reduce the temperature more, but not by much, especially if developing nations were still exempt from emissions reductions.

Is U.S. Sovereignty at Risk?

Yes. Kyoto has no international enforcement mechanism with any real teeth. To actually reduce emissions, any successor treaty coming out of Copenhagen would need an effective enforcement mechanism. Domestic U.S. enforcement of the treaty, if ratified, would be problematic enough, but any binding international enforcement provisions would create additional serious problems.

Compliance with such a treaty would require massive changes to the U.S. economy, and U.N. bodies would decide many of the details of those changes. For example, one way to comply with Kyoto or subsequent treaties is to purchase so-called offsets to carbon dioxide emissions. Offsets allow regulated entities to pay others to undertake projects that presumably reduce emissions globally, such as paying landowners to plant trees or bankrolling the installation of solar panels in poor countries. In many cases, companies find offsets cheaper than actually reducing their own emissions. However, these projects have been subject to fraud. For example, some offset projects have not actually reduced emissions, while others involved industrial facilities with unnecessarily high initial emissions for the purpose of profiting by lowering them later.[19] Currently, the Clean Development Mechanism under the U.N. decides which offset projects are acceptable. Thus, unelected international bureaucracies would control this critical aspect of a climate treaty, which would have significant implications for the U.S. economy.

Great article. I hope you read the entire article.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Great, let's piss off our greatest ally...

Bob Ainsworth criticises Barack Obama over Afghanistan
Bob Ainsworth, the defence secretary, has blamed Barack Obama and the United States for the decline in British public support for the war in Afghanistan.
James Kirkup, Thomas Harding and Toby Harnden
Published: 9:00PM GMT 24 Nov 2009
Telegraph.co.uk

Mr Ainsworth took the unprecedented step of publicly criticising the US President and his delays in sending more troops to bolster the mission against the Taliban.

A “period of hiatus” in Washington - and a lack of clear direction - had made it harder for ministers to persuade the British public to go on backing the Afghan mission in the face of a rising death toll, he said.

Mr Ainsworth took the unprecedented step of publicly criticising the US President and his delays in sending more troops to bolster the mission against the Taliban.

A “period of hiatus” in Washington - and a lack of clear direction - had made it harder for ministers to persuade the British public to go on backing the Afghan mission in the face of a rising death toll, he said.

The Defence Secretary’s blunt remarks about the US threaten to strain further a transatlantic relationship already under pressure over the British release of the Lockerbie bomber and Mr Obama’s decision to snub Mr Brown at the United Nations in September.

Nothing like throwing away a 100 year old ally in the first 10 months of your first term. Way to go BHO! I do think we are better friends with Syria now, however....

Monday, November 23, 2009

Racism, Obama and the Left....


Obama the Racist?

By Kevin Jackson
November 23, 2009
American Thinker

Excellent article on American Thinker regarding Obama, racism and why so many liberals are racists without even knowing it. I love this author. Check out his blog" The Black Sphere Blog

Excerpts:

One would think that with BET and The WB, and the all-black radio stations that you can find in any major city, that there is no longer a need for Black Nationalists like Van Jones, or even a Black Nationalist movement in general. However, no sooner was Van Jones appointed than we were treated to the racist stylings of Mark Lloyd, his most famous quip being, "...white people need to relinquish their power to others." Others being "non-whites."

Obama's first racist act as president was to remove the voucher program that Bush had established in D.C., a program that Democrats vote against overwhelmingly. This program was producing proven positive results, but it was eliminated -- and black children in D.C. were relegated to socialized schools in crime and drug-infested neighborhoods. Simply put, why give black children the choice to opt out of the indoctrination?

There are many other examples of these train-wreck policies of Liberals, and particularly with this administration -- an administration that had poor blacks believing that Obama was Santa Claus. As with most policies implemented by Liberals, the real trickle-down impact ends up costing blacks more, making them that much more dependent on the government...the endgame orchestrated by then-Senator and racist Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson, when he commented in 1957:

These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they've got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we've got to do something about this, we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. For if we don't move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there'll be no way of stopping them, we'll lose the filibuster and there'll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It'll be Reconstruction all over again.


On blacks' ancestral continent, there is not one country that provides a beacon of hope. Africa is where one would think Obama could prove that his policies would work for blacks. Yet in Africa today, there are wars and rumors of wars. The outcome depends only on the "cide" you are on...infanticide, homicide, fratricide, or genocide. Dictators are pillaging the countries they should be serving, and the African people have nothing to show for it but abject poverty and oppression.

Great job Kevin, great job! I strongly encourage you all to go read the entire article, go read his blog and watch for him on TV, where he has been a commentator lately. I wish he could talk to every child in school white, black, Hispanic and tell them the truth.

NOW they are worrying about too much debt...?

Weighing Jobs and Deficit
White House Is Unenthusiastic on Legislation That Would Raise Government Debt
By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON
NOVEMBER 23, 2009
The Wall Street Journal

The White House is lukewarm about proposals by congressional Democrats to introduce broad legislation to create jobs, instead favoring targeted measures that would be less likely to inflate the deficit, administration officials said.

There is as yet no agreement within the White House or in Congress on how to try to curb the U.S. jobless rate.

Are they that STUPID? (That's a rhetorical question.)

Do they not know that lowering taxes, increasing business tax deductions by allowing businesses to depreciate capital expenditures, by decreasing government mandates (re: healthcare) on businesses and by promoting individual self reliance (instead of continuously extending unemployment benefits)? Why do they not know this stuff?

How did they get to where they are without knowing this kind of elementary economics?

Why do we keep electing these boneheads?

Are we out of oil or not...?

Oil's Expanding Frontiers
By George Will
November 22, 2009
RealClearPolitics.com

...America has exhausted its hydrocarbon supplies. Repeatedly.

In 1914, the Bureau of Mines said U.S. oil reserves would be exhausted by 1924. In 1939, the Interior Department said the world had 13 years worth of petroleum reserves. Then a global war was fought and the postwar boom was fueled, and in 1951 Interior reported that the world had ... 13 years of reserves. In 1970, the world's proven oil reserves were an estimated 612 billion barrels. By 2006, more than 767 billion barrels had been pumped and proven reserves were 1.2 trillion barrels. In 1977, Scold in Chief Jimmy Carter predicted that mankind "could use up all the proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of the next decade." Since then the world has consumed (BEG ITAL)three times(END ITAL) more oil than was then in the world's proven reserves.

Rattie says U.S. known reserves of natural gas, which are sure to become larger, exceed 100 years of supply at the current rate of consumption. BP recently announced a "giant" oil discovery beneath the Gulf of Mexico. Yergin, writing in Foreign Policy, says "careful examination of the world's resource base ... indicates that the resource endowment of the planet is sufficient to keep up with demand for decades to come."

Huh. So we have 100 years of natural gas and a couple decades (that we know of) of petroleum and a few hundred years of coal. So why are we pouring so much government money into "alternative" or "green" energy? Why not make what already have burn cleaner?

Friday, November 20, 2009

Here are the results of long time Democrat "nanny-state" mentality

California Was Among States With Record Unemployment
By Courtney Schlisserman
Bloomberg Press

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- California, Delaware, South Carolina and Florida registered record rates of unemployment in October as weakness in the labor market stretches from coast to coast and limits the economic recovery.
Joblessness rose in 29 U.S. states last month compared with 22 in September, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Michigan had the highest jobless rate at 15.1 percent, followed by Nevada at 13 percent and Rhode Island at 12.9 percent.
The national rate last month reached a 26-year high of 10.2 percent, weighing on consumer spending that accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Nov. 17 that joblessness “likely will decline only slowly,” a reason policy makers will keep interest rates near zero to ensure growth is sustained.
“We’ve had a surprisingly [it's ALWAYS unexpected or a surprise] sharp jump in the jobless rate,” said Richard DeKaser, president of Woodley Park Research in Washington. “Businesses have truly been doing an extraordinary job of wringing out productivity from the labor force.”

Is it just a coincident that the states with the highest unemployment are also the ones that have been run by Democrats for generations....

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

This is scary stuff.... Yeah, the real reason healthcare is so important to this administration.

Unholy Union
Why is the SEIU boss the White House’s most frequent visitor?
STEPHEN SPRUIELL

The "Highlights: (or low-lights, as the case may be):
The Friday before Halloween, in response to requests from the public, the White House released records of the visitors it had received between January and July. ....the man who appeared most frequently is less well-known. His name is Andrew Stern, and during the first six months of Obama’s tenure, he visited the White House 21 times — about three times per month. Most of these visits included an intimate meeting with the president or other senior officials. Among outsiders, Stern enjoys unrivaled access to the White House. And the more you know about him, the spookier that sounds.

Stern is president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a federation of health-care, public-sector, and custodial workers that claims approximately 2 million members....

In 2005, Stern engineered a break with the AFL-CIO over frustrations with Sweeney’s leadership. Six other unions, including the Teamsters, followed Stern. The breakaways formed their own federation called Change to Win and adopted SEIU’s one-two punch: intimidate businesses and, if that doesn’t work, exploit their soft spot for corporate welfare.

On the intimidation front, SEIU has worked with the radical Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The group once served as a valuable ally, but its reputation now lies in tatters....

The SEIU-ACORN link is deep and longstanding. At least one SEIU local, Chicago’s Local 880, was organized by ACORN and run by it for 20 years. An SEIU official recently testified that the local had severed its ACORN ties, but Chris Berg, a former special assistant at the Office of Labor Management Standards, says, “I’m very skeptical.” Keith Kelleher, who spent many years running ACORN in Chicago, is still the local’s head organizer. “They’ve been wed together for so long, I don’t think they can divorce,” says Berg.

Stern’s real breakthrough came when he realized that labor could offer a carrot as well as a stick Around 50 percent of SEIU’s members work in the health-care industry as nurses, hospital attendants, and lab techs. The facilities that employ such workers benefit from a number of government programs. SEIU’s pitch was simple: Let us organize your workforce, and we’ll use our lobbying power to push for increased government spending on health care.

It worked. Fred Siegel and Dan DiSalvo recently observed in The Weekly Standard that, “under the brilliant leadership of Dennis Rivera, [SEIU Local] 1199 built a top-notch political operation, and with the hospitals, which were barred from political activity, formed a partnership to maximize the flow of government revenue.” The alliance has been so successful, they wrote, that New York now spends as much on Medicaid as California and Texas combined. Rivera now serves as the SEIU’s point man on national health-care-reform legislation, with over 400 union staff members working full time at his disposal. Sen. Chuck Schumer called him “one of the few key players” shaping the final bill.

In pursuit of his vision, Stern has turned the SEIU into a massive grassroots army that can mobilize in behalf of candidates and legislation. The scope of its activities in 2008 was epic. Stern bragged that “we spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama — $60.7 million, to be exact — and we’re proud of it.”

Undaunted, SEIU has set aside $85 million to spend over the next two years on political advocacy. The union started the year with three major objectives: a union-friendly stimulus, a union-friendly health-care bill, and a bill that would make it easier to organize workers into unions. It has brought its influence to bear on all three of these debates, with varying degrees of success.

The most illustrative example of SEIU’s clout during this process came when the Obama administration threatened to withhold stimulus funds from the state of California if it went ahead with a planned reduction in payments to home health-care workers. The administration set up a conference call with state officials to discuss whether the cuts violated the terms of the stimulus, and state officials were surprised to learn that the administration had invited SEIU representatives to join the call. “This was really atypical and outside any norm I am familiar with,” California secretary of health and human services Kim Belshe told the Los Angeles Times. The administration backed down from the threat, but only after the story had leaked and caused significant blowback.

The creation of a government-run insurance plan is an especially important priority for the SEIU. “The nexus between government and private industry would give SEIU a toehold to organize more workers,” explains J. Justin Wilson, managing director of the Center for Union Facts. Once the public option is in place, SEIU can pressure the bureaucracy to implement union-friendly policies. For example, the public option “might only reimburse hospitals that are unionized or have a neutrality position toward unions,” Wilson says.

So far, SEIU has been successful at getting most of its priorities included in the health-care bill. Democrats have renewed their commitment to the public option, which once looked dead on arrival.

Card-check legislation: As important as the Democrats’ health-care plan is to SEIU, the union’s top priority remains the Employee Free Choice Act, otherwise known as the card-check bill. Under SEIU’s preferred version of the bill, employers would have to recognize a union once a majority of its employees had signed petition cards. This process would allow union organizers to identify holdouts and pressure them into signing up. The bill would also require business owners to allow union organizers to hold meetings with employees on the business’s property, while forbidding the owners to hold mandatory meetings to discuss unionization.

Finally, the bill includes a binding-arbitration provision that would allow the NLRB to impose a union contract on a business if negotiations with its union broke down. SEIU loves this provision, because Obama just named one of its lawyers, Craig Becker, to the NLRB. Businesses negotiating with the SEIU would have two choices: accept SEIU’s demands voluntarily or have the SEIU-friendly NLRB accept them for you.

These three goals have one thing in common: All are meant to raise the percentage of workers who belong to a union. State by state, unions are ensuring that the only employers eligible for stimulus money are those with union workforces. On health care, the Democrats’ bill is designed to shift a mind-boggling amount of money into the health-care sector while increasing the government’s administrative control over it — and anyone who believes the Democrats’ rhetoric about cutting costs is encouraged to look at what Dennis Rivera accomplished in New York. Meanwhile, card-check legislation would throw open the doors of private businesses to union organizers and tie their hands when they try to resist.

Why do I suddenly believe all the stuff Glenn Beck has been saying.....?

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Not to worry though... I'm sure they'll get healthcare right....

Edmunds:Cash For Clunkers Cost Taxpayers $24K Per Vehicle Sold
OCTOBER 28, 2009
WSJ

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

The government's "Cash for Clunkers" program may have only added 125,000 vehicle sales, according to Edmunds.com, which said the rest of the units sold would have happened regardless of the program.

In total, the car-shopping Web site said about 690,000 vehicles were sold during the program. Edmunds.com said that based on the actual sales gained from the program, the Cash for Clunkers program cost taxpayers $24,000 per vehicle sold.

"Our research indicates that without the Cash for Clunkers program, many customers would not have traded in an old vehicle when making a new purchase," said Edmunds.com senior analyst David Tompkins. "That may give some credence to the environmental claims, but unfortunately the economic claims have been rendered quite weak."

Edmunds.com Chief Executive Jeremy Anwyl noted that while sales are up in October from September, growth would have been even better without the program. He said that suggests the auto industry's recovery is gaining momentum.

Sales surged in late July and most of August as the program was in effect, giving certain new-car buyers up to $4,500 in rebates if they traded in a gas-guzzler. But U.S. auto sales slid in September absent clunker-related deals. Other countries still have so-called scrappage programs in effect.

-By John Kell, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2480; john.kell@dowjones.com

I'm sure they are just honest mistakes. At least these government bureaucrats don't anyone’s lives on the line with these decisions... Yet...

Not to worry though... I'm sure they'll get healthcare right....

Analysis finds stimulus confusion
By Brad Heath and Matt Kelley
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The federal government sent Bob Bray $26,174 in stimulus aid to fix a fence and replace the roofs on public apartments in Blooming Grove, Texas, a town of fewer than 900 people outside Dallas. He hired five roofers and an inspector to do the job.

But the number of jobs he reported to the government looked very different — 450 jobs.

Oh, no," said Bray, who runs the local public housing authority part-time with his wife, Linda, when asked about the discrepancy. He said that he told the government that he had created six jobs but that a federal official told him that wasn't right. So he reported the number of hours the roofers worked instead. The Department of Housing and Urban Development caught the mistake, but he couldn't fix it before the jobs figures were published. "The money was great, but the reports are really confusing," he said. "I've been fighting with it for over a month and a half."

The police department in Plymouth, Conn., claimed in its report that a $15,355 grant used to buy new computers had created or saved 108 jobs. The department had 22 law enforcement officers last year, according to the FBI. Mayor Vincent Festa said that the town has resorted to "counting paper clips" to save money but that it had no plans to lay off any of its police officers, even without the stimulus. He said he could not explain the report, and the town's police chief did not return telephone calls Monday.

•The Southwest Georgia Community Action Council, which employs about 500 people in its Head Start preschool program, reported creating or saving 935 jobs with about $1.3 million in funding. Beverly Wise, the group's fiscal officer, said she followed the advice of federal officials to come up with the number. "I thought it was high," Wise said of the number she reported, adding that the process was confusing. The group is using its stimulus money to give a 1.84% pay raise to its employees and pay for other needs such as playground equipment and training for the teachers who serve 2,300 low-income children.

•Teach for America, which helps place recent graduates in teaching jobs in urban and rural districts, reported that a $2 million grant created or saved 1,425 jobs. Spokeswoman Kerci Marcello Stroud said officials used that money to pay part of the salaries of 125 employees; a separate $6 million allowed it to expand the training program to include 1,300 more graduates.

I'm sure they are just honest mistakes. At least these government bureaucrats don't anyone’s lives on the line with these decisions... Yet...

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Ironically, this is what I've been saying for months...

We're Governed by Callous Children
By PEGGY NOONAN
OCTOBER 31, 2009
Wall Street Journal

I am not a particularly big fan of Peggy Noonan. I believe she is part of the NE country club elite Republicans. But, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in while.

The most sophisticated Americans, experienced in how the country works on the ground, can't figure a way out. Have you heard, "If only we follow Obama and the Democrats, it will all get better"? Or, "If only we follow the Republicans, they'll make it all work again"? I bet you haven't, or not much.

We are governed at all levels by America's luckiest children, sons and daughters of the abundance, and they call themselves optimists but they're not optimists—they're unimaginative. They don't have faith, they've just never been foreclosed on. They are stupid and they are callous, and they don't mind it when people become disheartened. They don't even notice.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Finally, people are beginning to question the constitutionality of this "Healthcare Reform"

Constitutionality of health overhaul questioned
Legal scholars divided over Congress' authority
By Donald Lambro

Congress has never before required citizens to purchase any good or service, but that is what both House and Senate health bills would mandate.

While this debate has been overshadowed by other issues involving the plan's nearly $1 trillion cost and its government-run option, the constitutional argument strikes at a pivotal part of the health care plan's finances.

In 1994, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office noted that a "mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of federal action."

"The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States," the CBO said. The statement was part of an analysis of then-President Clinton's ill-fated health care reform plan, which also required that all Americans purchase health insurance plans.

...Randy Barnett, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, asks, "Where in the [Constitution] is the power to mandate that individuals buy health insurance?" His answer: Nowhere.

"The business of providing health insurance is now an entirely intrastate activity" beyond the regulatory sway of the federal government, he said.

Washington lawyers David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey argued in an Aug. 22 column in The Washington Post that Congress has no constitutional power to tell people what they must buy.

I would hope that more people would begin to question the constitutionality of all this healthcare reform business.

Tranparent what?

Transparent nonsense
Obama hinders public's right to know
By Quin Hillyer
The Washington Times

The candidate whose most identifiable promise was to provide open and transparent government instead is leading an administration rife with secrecy, stonewalling and prevarication.

The administration repeatedly has stiff-armed Congress, the media, outside organizations and even a prestigious independent government commission. It has raised "none of your business" from an adolescent rejoinder to a public policy - to keep the public in the dark.

Before examining examples of this alarming trend, let's remember what newly inaugurated President Obama said in a big press conference on Jan. 21, his first full day in office. His words and tone could not have been more clear:

"The way to hold government accountable is to make it transparent so that the American people can know exactly what decisions are being made [and] how they're being made. ... Starting today, every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information, but those who seek to make it known. ... The mere fact that you have the legal power to keep something secret does not mean you should always use it."

Fine sentiments. But this is the same president who promised to abide by campaign spending limits - until the time came actually to do it. Likewise, these pledges were quickly tossed into the sewer of power politics.

Consider the president's unfathomable decision to support the radical leftist, anti-American, would-be dictator Manuel Zelaya when all the lawful authorities in Honduras removed him from office for subverting the clear text of the Honduran constitution. Even the American Law Library of Congress concluded that the Honduran Legislature and courts acted lawfully, yet the Obama administration actually has imposed sanctions on the Honduran people, who long have been our allies.

Since July 8, 16 senators have been asking the State Department to explain the legal rationale for its stance. They received no substantive response. When Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican, and three House members traveled to Honduras, U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens urged them to read a memo by State Department counsel Harold Koh explaining the administration's analysis. On Oct. 6, the senator's staff specifically requested that memo from the department. No response.

Twice this month, I requested the memo. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley refused, saying the memo officially is "classified" because of "the nature of the information used in the analysis" and that it also is subject to "attorney-client privilege." Finally, he said it is privileged because it is a "pre-decisional" and "internal deliberative document."

It goes on to give more examples, but do we really need more? Come on, this administration and congress make the secretive Dick Cheney look like he was shouting from the mountain top!

In 568 words, what's wrong with 1,990 pages

Note: I borrowed the headline from:
Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
Washington Examiner


Here is the full text of Boehner's radio address:

I’m House Republican Leader John Boehner. At the beginning of this year, I told President Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi that Republicans would be ready to work with them whenever possible to address the nation’s biggest challenges. I also said that where there are differences, it was our obligation as a party to explain to the American people how we would do things better. And on the "stimulus," the budget, the energy bill, and health care, we have done exactly that.

As a matter of fact, only Republicans have offered solutions to lower health care costs and make it easier to obtain quality, affordable coverage without imposing a massive burden on the American people.

We first released our health care plan in June, and over the last six months, we have introduced at least eight bills that, taken together, would implement this blueprint. You can go right now to healthcare.gop.gov and get all the details, but for now, I just want to share with you four ideas Republicans have proposed:

Number one: let families and businesses buy health insurance across state lines;

Number two: allow individuals, small businesses, and trade associations to pool together and acquire health insurance at lower prices, the same way large corporations and labor unions do today;

Number three: give states the tools to create their own innovative reforms that lower health care costs; and

Number four: end junk lawsuits that contribute to higher health care costs by increasing the number of tests and procedures that physicians sometimes order not because they think it's good medicine, but because they are afraid of being sued.

These are four smart, fiscally-responsible reforms that we can implement today to lower costs and expand access at a price our nation can afford. Again, you can learn more about these and all the health care initiatives Republicans have supported by visiting healthcare.gop.gov.

The best way to get a sense of what Speaker Pelosi’s takeover of health care looks like is to actually look at it. Just shy of 2,000 pages, it runs more than 620 pages longer than the government-run plan Hillary Clinton proposed in 1993.

This 1,990 pages of bureaucracy will centralize health care decision making in Washington, DC. It’ll require thousands of new federal employees. It’ll put unelected boards, bureaus, and commissions in charge of who gets access to what drug and what potentially life-saving treatment.

And it won’t come cheap. Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill will raise the cost of Americans’ health insurance premiums; it will kill jobs with tax hikes and new mandates; and it will cut seniors’ Medicare benefits.

We now have a choice: we can come together to implement smart, fiscally responsible reforms to improve Americans’ health care or we can recklessly pursue this government takeover that creates far more problems than it solves.

It’s clear where the American people stand on this issue. They‘re frustrated and fed up. The ‘stimulus’ bill isn’t working. Unemployment is rising. The debt to be paid by our kids and grandkids is exploding. And now, Speaker Pelosi’s 1,990-page government takeover of health care.

Enough is enough. Breaking the bank and taking away the freedoms Americans cherish is not the answer to the challenges we face.

This coming week, Republicans will continue to stand on principle, defend freedom, and fight for our better solutions to make health care more affordable and accessible for American families.

Thanks for listening.

Huh. Who knew that the Republicans had proposed anything? Where's the coverage of the Republican bills? Have they made it out of committee? If not, who is blocking them? Where are the journalists covering this story?

Friday, October 30, 2009

AP-Obama: End-of-life counseling in health bill

It's alive! End-of-life counseling in health bill
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
Oct 29 03:03 PM US/Eastern
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - It's alive.
The Medicare end-of-life planning provision that 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said was tantamount to 'death panels' for seniors is staying in the latest Democratic health care bill unveiled Thursday.

The provision allows Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling to help beneficiaries deal with the complex and painful decisions families face when a loved one is approaching death.

The next thing you know AP will be claiming the healthcare bill will "impose an array of new taxes, fees and government mandates on major players in the health industry, including insurers, doctors and drugs and medical devices makers" that will eventually put private insurers, medical device manufacturer's and drug maker's out of business (at least in the U.S.).

Oh, wait...


Health care businesses at risk in House overhaul
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS
Oct 30 03:27 AM US/Eastern
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The health care overhaul bill produced by House Democrats would impose an array of new taxes, fees and government mandates on major players in the health industry, including insurers, doctors and drugs and medical devices makers.

Among the industries targeted in the bill are medical device makers—one of the few that failed to cut an early behind-the-scenes deal with Obama and Democrats to help pay for an overhaul. The House added $20 billion in taxes on sales of medical devices like artificial hips and heart stents to the legislation Democratic leaders unveiled Thursday.

The measure is less kind to drug makers, an industry that did strike a deal with Obama and key senators to hold down its costs. Pharmaceutical companies agreed to cough up $80 billion in the health overhaul. While precise figures were not immediately available, it appeared the House legislation would target the industry for much more. And it would give the government power to negotiate drug prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries.

Health insurers, who would gain tens of millions of new customers under the health plan, nonetheless would be ensnared by some potentially costly new measures, including eliminating their long-standing antitrust exemption.

They voiced particular concern about Democrats' inclusion of the government-run insurance plan. Karen Ignani, the chief of the insurers' main trade group, America's Health Insurance Plans, said the so-called public option would "bankrupt hospitals, dismantle employer coverage, exacerbate cost-shifting from Medicare and Medicaid, and ultimately increase the federal deficit." She said the result would be that many people, including seniors, would lose coverage or face higher costs.

Seriously, what's next? Is global warming is a hoax? Obama actually didn't do anything to justify a Nobel Peace Prize? Democrats really are the party of big socialized government? How did these slip through the editors at AP-Obama?

Where are these people represented in the media?

A couple articles from one of America's Greatest Thinkers:

Dismantling America
By Thomas Sowell
October 27, 2009
RealClearPolitics.com

Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the President, could arbitrarily cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50 percent or 90 percent?

Did you think that another "czar" would be talking about restricting talk radio? That there would be plans afloat to subsidize newspapers-- that is, to create a situation where some newspapers' survival would depend on the government liking what they publish?

Did you imagine that anyone would even be talking about having a panel of so-called "experts" deciding who could and could not get life-saving medical treatments?

Scary as that is from a medical standpoint, it is also chilling from the standpoint of freedom. If you have a mother who needs a heart operation or a child with some dire medical condition, how free would you feel to speak out against an administration that has the power to make life and death decisions about your loved ones?

Does any of this sound like America?

He goes on to make some amazing points. I strongly encourage you to read the entire article. Actually, I strongly encourage you to read everything ever written by this man. Thomas Sowell is what MLK, Jr. was talking about in the "I have a dream" speech. God Bless him!

And:

Dismantling America: Part II
By Thomas Sowell
October 30, 2009
RealClearPolitics.com

Many years ago, at a certain academic institution, there was an experimental program that the faculty had to vote on as to whether or not it should be made permanent.

I rose at the faculty meeting to say that I knew practically nothing about whether the program was good or bad, and that the information that had been supplied to us was too vague for us to have any basis for voting, one way or the other. My suggestion was that we get more concrete information before having a vote.

The director of that program rose immediately and responded indignantly and sarcastically to what I had just said-- and the faculty gave him a standing ovation.

After the faculty meeting was over, I told a colleague that I was stunned and baffled by the faculty's fierce response to my simply saying that we needed more information before voting.

"Tom, you don't understand," he said. "Those people need to believe in that man. They have invested so much hope and trust in him that they cannot let you stir up any doubts."

and later:
...it seems as if so many people have invested so much hope and trust in Barack Obama that it is intolerable that anyone should come along and stir up any doubts that could threaten their house of cards.

Amen

Is this is an incrimination of the American public or the American press?

I recieved this as an email (one of those fwd:fwd:fwd's). I found it to be unusually cutting in its distinction of the double standard we are witnessing in the United States of America today.

I am not sure whether this is an incrimination of the American public or the American press.

If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how he inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?

If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the non-existent "Austrian language," would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?

If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current in their income taxes, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?

If George W. Bush had mis-spelled the word "advice" would you have hammered him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potatoe as proof of what a dunce he is?

If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on Earth Day, would you have concluded he's ahypocrite?

If George W. Bush's administration had okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually get what happened on 9-11?

If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans , would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

If George W. Bush had created the position of 32 Czars who report directly to him, bypassing the House and Senate on much of what is happening in America, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

If George W Bush had proposed to double the national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?

So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can't think of anything? Don't worry. He's done all this in 5 months -- so you'll have three years and seven months to come up with an answer.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Hmmm .. Obama's home town newspaper turning against him...?

Excuses wearing thin for Obama, media pals
October 20, 2009
BY STEVE HUNTLEY
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

Have you heard the news? President Obama inherited an economic mess from the Bush administration.

You say that's hardly news? But it's been the message sounded over and over by the White House. Top Obama adviser David Axelrod said on one of the Sunday news shows, "He walked in the door, we had the worst economy since the Great Depression." In San Francisco, Obama talked of being "busy with our mop." White House heavy hitter Rahm Emanuel used the worst-economy-since-the-Depression line on a public TV news show.

You'd think it's October 2008, the final month in the Obama presidential candidacy, rather than October 2009, nine months into the Obama presidency. Yet the Obama White House is in full campaign mode -- maybe because it needs to mask the shortcomings of the Obama presidency.

Take, for example, all the talk of inheriting the worst economy since the 1930s crisis. That came in response to the news that the federal deficit hit $1.4 trillion.

Yet just a few months ago, the Obama camp was singing a little different tune. It was under criticism for the $787 billion stimulus package it bulldozed through Congress on grounds that massive spending was needed to keep the unemployment rate from breaching 8 percent. When joblessness hit 9.5 percent in June, Vice President Joe Biden said, "We misread how bad the economy was."

They inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression, or the economy turned out to be worse than they thought. Which is it? It can't be both -- unless your brain is completely addled by the Obama charisma.

Ouch! It is pretty tough on Obama and Mr. Huntley even takes a whack at CNN & MSNBC. How far left do you have to be when the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES implies you are in the tank for BHO?

No wonder Obama can't decide if or when to send troups to Afganistan...

CAPITAL CULTURE: Obamas big on White House gigs
By NANCY BENAC (AP) – 17 hours ago

Just some of the musical highlights of the Obama's first 10 months in office:

But the Obamas are demonstrating a commitment to use the White House to promote the arts in a huge way. And they're not just tapping safe, living legends: Fresh faces like bachata band Aventura and Mexican pop sensation Thalia (who lured Obama on to the dance floor briefly) shared a stage with gray eminence Jose Feliciano at last week's Fiesta Latina.

The Obamas' musical push started on Day One, when the Wynton Marsalis Quintet played for a private inaugural celebration party of 100 at the White House.

A month later, the White House brought in Earth, Wind and Fire to entertain visiting governors. And days later, the Obamas hosted an East Room tribute to Stevie Wonder that featured Tony Bennett, Martina McBride and Wonder himself. The president called it "the most accomplished Stevie Wonder cover band in history."

Since then, the lineup has zigzagged all over the musical spectrum.

The first installment of the Obamas' ongoing White House music series was a June day devoted to jazz that included daytime workshops for 150 young musicians and an evening concert headlined by Paquito D'Rivera.

That was when Michelle Obama let it be known she wants her daughters, Malia and Sasha, to be "aware of all kinds of music — other than hip-hop."

In July, self-proclaimed "city boy" Barack Obama presided over an evening of country music that brought together Alison Krauss and Union Station, Brad Paisley and veteran Charley Pride.

Next up: classical music in November. And beyond that, the White House is exploring events to feature opera, dance and perhaps film.

It's nice to know BHO can fit in a few concerts between his rounds of golf. Too bad he has only made 25 minutes in the last 80 days to talk face to face with his commander on the ground in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal. I guess this is why it is taking so long to make the decision as to whether to send more troops to Afghanistan or not.

Typical limousine liberals.... Playing the fiddle (or in this case, watching the fiddle player) as Rome (or in this case, Afghanistan) burns....

Very dire warnings on BHO ceding U.S. Sovereignty

Bo nails it....

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Great! I can't wait to find where the other $699,997,700,000 goes...

$2.3 million in federal stimulus money is going to pay for Tampa Bay area beauty school tuition
St Petersburg Times
Times Staff Writer

More than $2.3 million in federal economic stimulus grants have gone to eight Tampa Bay area cosmetology and massage schools to pay tuition for the hairdressers, masseuses and nail technicians of tomorrow.

That's swell news for those who see the beauty trades as a way to gain a firmer footing in the job market. But is there truly demand for more beauty school graduates at bay area salons?

Not really, said Monica Ponce, owner of Muse The Salon in Tampa.

"Instead of encouraging more people to go to beauty schools," Ponce said, "they should probably help the stylists who are unemployed."

Some area salons are hiring in this economy, but even industry lobbyists say beauty school is rarely a ticket to a thriving career.

Only 1 to 2 percent of beauty school graduates will be working in the field five years from graduation, said Bonnie Poole, treasurer of the Florida Cosmetology Association.

Nice... At least our tax money is not being wasted.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

We need more "Joes"...

Ariz. sheriff launches immigration sweep
By JACQUES BILLEAUD (AP)

SURPRISE, Ariz. — An Arizona sheriff known for cracking down on people who are in the country illegally launched a crime and immigration sweep in northwestern metro Phoenix on Friday, a half day after officials in Washington limited his powers to make federal immigration arrests.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose sweeps have led to allegations of racial profiling, said the rebuff from Washington won't stop him. He said he can still arrest immigrants under a state smuggling law and a federal law that gives all local police agencies more limited power to detain suspected illegal immigrants.

"It doesn't bother me, because we are going to do the same thing," said Arpaio, whose deputies had arrested 16 people by Friday evening on unspecified charges. "I am the elected sheriff. I don't take orders from the federal government."

Why do we not have more Joes in the U.S.? Why is it so hard for people to do what is right and not what is Politically Correct? We just need more Joes...!!!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Washington Times: Proving once again that even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while...

I wonder what kind of press this story would be getting if we had a Republican controlled congress and a GWB in the WH....?

U.S. troop funds diverted to pet projects
Study finds $2.6 billion taken from guns and ammunition
By Shaun Waterman
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Senators diverted $2.6 billion in funds in a defense spending bill to pet projects largely at the expense of accounts that pay for fuel, ammunition and training for U.S. troops, including those fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an analysis.

Among the 778 such projects, known as earmarks, packed into the bill: $25 million for a new World War II museum at the University of New Orleans and $20 million to launch an educational institute named after the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat.

While earmarks are hardly new in Washington, "in 30 years on Capitol Hill, I never saw Congress mangle the defense budget as badly as this year," said Winslow Wheeler, a former Senate staffer who worked on defense funding and oversight for both Republicans and Democrats. He is now a senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information, an independent research organization.

The administration's budget requested $156 billion for the regular O&M account and $81 billion for O&M for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill passed by the Senate cut $2.4 billion from the regular account and $655 million from the war O&M fund.

Senate appropriators insisted that the O&M accounts, despite the cuts, do not shortchange the troops.

"The operation and maintenance title is fully funded," Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye, Hawaii Democrat, said during the debate on the bill....

$20 million for Humvee maintenance at an Army National Guard installation in Maine, sponsored by Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe, Maine Republicans. The senators said cuts in the maintenance program proposed by the administration would result in the "layoff of 175 employees in a region already suffering" from the recession.

$20M to Snowe & Collins in Maine...hmmmm... I wonder why.....?

Is all it D.C. lost when AOL is no longer covering your butt?

I feel like I just saw Walter Cronkite declare "The war is unwinnable" and LBJ say, "If we lost Cronkite, we've lost the American people. We're finished"

When you loose the libs at AOL, I think it means the worm is beginning to turn... I mean, what could be next? The New York Times....?

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Sick & Pathetic....

This is what happens when liberal democrats control a city & state for many, many decades. This is what the democrats want us all to become. The people interviewed are "model citizens" according the democrat party. They are the people sucking on the teat that is the American taxpayer..... Sad, sad, sad.... There are a lot of founding fathers, Revolutionary War Veterans, Civil War Veterans and dead Civil Rights Leaders like MLK who are rolling in their graves.

WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!!



More sick pathetic selfish sociopaths here (note these selfish b*****ds are saying the city needs to be held accountable). THE CITY? What about looking in the mirror?

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

"I'm Mad 2" is almost here.... Watch the draft of the intro video...

Here is a rough draft of a great video by Bob Goshen, motivational speaker.

He is starting a new movement called "I'm Mad 2". This is the video that will be on their new website (www.immad2.com) when it gets up and going. Bob is straight shooter recommended by Zig Ziglar.

And as you will see, he is very persuasive. Let's pray the right people are watching....
Watch the video here...

The sheer Hypocrisy and Hubris of the Democrat Party still Amazes the Senses...

In the first corner we have the president from his own White House Website:
SUBJECT: Transparency and Open Government

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Government should be transparent. [Yadda, Yadda, Yadda...]

Government should be participatory. [Yadda, Yadda, Yadda...]

Government should be collaborative. [Yadda, Yadda, Yadda...]

I direct the Chief Technology Officer, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Administrator of General Services, to coordinate the development by appropriate executive departments and agencies, within 120 days, of recommendations for an Open Government Directive, to be issued by the Director of OMB, that instructs executive departments and agencies to take specific actions implementing the principles set forth in this memorandum. The independent agencies should comply with the Open Government Directive.

Apparently, San Fran Nan and Dingy Harry did not get the memo....

Congressional leaders fight against posting bills online
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
Washington Examiner
October 6, 2009

Excerpts:

Reps. Brian Baird, D-Wash., and Greg Walden, R-Ore., are circulating a petition among House lawmakers that would force a vote on the 72-hour rule.

Nearly every Republican has signed on, but the Democratic leadership is unwilling to cede control over when bills are brought to the floor for votes and are discouraging their rank and file from signing the petition. Senate Democrats voted down a similar measure last week for the health care bill.

"The leaders use it as a tool to get votes or to keep amendments off a bill," said one top Senate Democratic aide.

But Baird warned of public backlash.

"Democrats know politically it's difficult to defend not doing this," he said. "The public gets this. They say we entrust you with the profound responsibility of making decisions that affect our lives, and we expect you to exercise due diligence in carrying out that responsibility."

Have they no shame....?

That is a rhetorical question:

1) They are politicians

2) They are Democrats.

So, the answer is, of course they have no shame when it means more consolidation of power in Washington D.C. The more power they can consolidate in D.C. the more people will depend on them to dole out gifts like "free" healthcare, "free" tax credits toward new cars, "free" {insert desire here}. That is what Democrats have been doing for 70+ years. Ever since the implementing the "Raw Deal" by FDR. They want the people sucking off the teat that the government sow. That is how Dems get elected.

And in the process they have destroyed the black family making this the fourth generation of blacks to grow up in families where the father was replaced with a government welfare check. Where kids learn to beg and ask for handouts rather than going out and working for a living.

Government run healthcare is game, set, match. It is the end of us even pretending to have freedom & liberty. This will make you beg the government for the basic freedom such as your right to life, your right to liberty and your right to pursue happiness. It will all be controlled by the government machine....

This is why they cannot have the American people, the citizens of this once great nation, reading the bills they write and maybe even imposing their own opinions on the GREAT AND MIGHTY, THE ALL POWERFUL AND OMINPOTENT, THE CONGRESS THAT IS SUPPOSED TO REPRESENT US! How dare them! How dare them!

I call on each of you to call your representatives, hell, call ALL the representatives and remind them they are they to do our bidding, not the other way around! Here is a list. Call now & call often.

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Michael Moore, "Hippo"crite extraordinaire...

Michael Moore...

His name alone makes be bristle with disdain. It's not so much that I hate him, it’s just that, well I kinda hate him.

He is an absolutely untalented hack, made famous by the smarmy fringe media (Note to new readers: Fox News Channel is main stream. The rest are fringe lackeys...) propping him up through undeserved attention. Yuck!

Here is a guy who charges from $25,000-50,000 per speaking engagement, makes millions on movies (not his latest, but on some of them) and by any ordinary measurement he is exploiting capitalism in his attempts to destroy capitalism. If he actually lived in a country like the ones he looks up to (Cuba, Venezuela, etc...), he would be making propaganda films or be in jail. (Likely he would be in jail, as he is not a good enough filmmaker to actually get away with making films in any other country).

So here we are:

His latest movie is box office failure (big surprise - though, I'm sure it will become required viewing in schools)

Now for the cherry on top:

The Fat B****** does not even have enough intellectual integrity to use union labor when making his films...

HA!

Thursday, October 01, 2009

"Safe School Czar", as in "Safe Sex Lunatic"

I have to admit, being someone who has a fair amount of experience with sexually broken men of all sorts (all back grounds, all colors, all shapes & sizes), I find this particularly offensive. It frightens me that a man like this could be thought in high enough regard to be advising our president. It saddens me that we have finally come to this point. If we are not now Sodom & Gomorrah, we can certainly see it from here…<br>
Obama's 'Safe Schools' Czar Admits He Poorly Handled Underage Sex Case
Kevin Jennings was teaching high school in 1988 when a gay student confessed an involvement with an older man. Rather than reporting it, he told the boy, "I hope you knew to use a condom."
By Maxim Lott
FOXNews.com
Wednesday, September 30, 2009

[Note emphasis mine]
President Obama's "safe schools czar" Kevin Jennings said Wednesday he "should have handled [the] situation differently" when he didn't report an underage student told him that he was having sex with an older man.

Jennings, the founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, was teaching high school in Concord, Mass., in 1988 when a sophomore boy confessed an involvement with a man in Boston. He told the boy, "I hope you knew to use a condom."

In a statement, Jennings said: "Twenty one years later I can see how I should have handled this situation differently. I should have asked for more information and consulted legal or medical authorities." [Really? Legal or medical authorities? Really? He still doesn't know which one he sould call? Really? And this monster is advising the president?]

Jennings insisted that he believes his office could help keep other new teachers from making the same mistake.

His defense comes amid additional discoveries about his past statements on his interaction with the gay high school student, referred to as "Brewster" in his 1994 book "One Teacher in 10," and a speech he gave in 2000.

In his 2007 autobiography, "Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son: A Memoir," Jennings discusses nearly the same story but calls the student "Robertson."

On page 162, Jennings writes: "Robertson soon told me the tale, about someone he'd met in Boston, how he thought he loved him, how heartbroken he was when his calls never got returned..."

On page 169, he continues: "As the fall wore on, Robertson continued to drop by my office to chat, often updating me on his latest 'adventures.' Sometimes these startled me, and I began to underline the importance of safe sex to him. One day he snapped back, 'Why should I use a condom? My life isn't worth saving anyway.'"

[How many times did he have to discuss his stupid irrational self-centered decision before someone finally said, "Hey, dude, you screwed the pooch on that call"? Is there no one in his life to aadvise him, at the very least, "Hey, man, shut up about that story. You blew it, man. You should be embarassed, not proud of that decision."?] Jennings was appointed to the position largely because of his longtime record of working to end bullying and discrimination in schools, but critics say he's not qualified for the job.

Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council says Jennings' past remarks about the incident call into question the sincerity of his new statement.

"It's not as though, 'oh, this was a youthful mistake I made as a brand-new teacher, but now that I'm an adult I realize that I handled it wrong.' Because he has told this story as recently as last year, in another book, and has not expressed any regret until now. So that indicates to me that this is more out of political necessity than it is about genuine remorse," Sprigg told FOX News.

Department of Education spokesman Justin Hamilton declined to comment on Jennings' statements about the incident, since it took place in 1988. [Apparently, as long as you were wrong 20-30 years ago, it doesn't count.]

But, Obama's Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, dived into the fray, saying he is "honored" to work with Jennings, whom he defended as "uniquely qualified for his job" -- a sign the White House is digging in against the mounting criticism. [THIS is the battle they are choosing? THIS is the gay man they are deciding to take a stand on? Really?]

Jennings also released a statement on his past writings on drug use.

"I have written about the factors that have led me to use drugs as a teen. This experience qualifies me to help students and teachers who are confronting these issues today."

On page 103, discussing his high school years in Hawaii in the early 1980s, Jennings wrote: "I got stoned more often and went out to the beach at Bellows, overlooking Honolulu Harbor and the lights of the city, to drink with my buddies on Friday and Saturday nights, spending hours watching the planes take off and land at the airport, which is actually quite fascinating when you are drunk and stoned."

Sprigg said he would like to see a more specific statement from Jennings.

"We still haven't heard a clear and explicit statement from him that no one of any age should use illegal drugs, including marijuana. That would seem to be a prerequisite for the position he is in," he said.

He also said that the whole situation reflected poorly on the vetting procedures of the Obama administration.

"I suspect that the vetting procedure for Jennings was fairly superficial... This controversy about the possible statutory rape was raised in 2004 when he received an award from the NEA. So it's not like it's been a secret. So I think it shows yet another failure of the Obama administration's vetting process." [Well, if he's good enough for the NEA, then by God he is good enough for this administration!]

Saturday, September 26, 2009

I guess being green pays IF you're the ex-VPOTUS

Gore-Backed Car Firm Gets Large U.S. Loan
SEPTEMBER 25, 2009
By JOSH MITCHELL and STEPHEN POWER
WSJ Online

WASHINGTON -- A tiny car company backed by former Vice President Al Gore has just gotten a $529 million U.S. government loan to help build a hybrid sports car in Finland that will sell for about $89,000.

DOE officials spent months working with Fisker on its application, touring its Irvine, Calif., and Pontiac, Mich., facilities and test-driving prototypes.

I'll bet they did....

Matt Rogers, who oversees the department's loan programs as a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, said Fisker was awarded the loan after a "detailed technical review" that concluded the company could eventually deliver a highly fuel-efficient hybrid car to a mass audience. Fisker said most of its DOE loan will be used to finance U.S. production of a $40,000 family sedan that has yet to be designed.


Detailed... I'm sure....

Friday, September 18, 2009

I Promise I wrote the comments in my previous post BEFORE I read this amazing column by Charles Krauthammer. I Promise!

Does He Lie?
By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, September 18, 2009
The Washington Post

I remember Rush Limbaugh once saying that if he had to trade his brain for any other brain, he would trade for Charles Krauthammer's. Having said that, I want you to note how the afore mentioned Mr. Krauthammer finishes his column:

Obama doesn't lie. He implies, he misdirects, he misleads -- so fluidly and incessantly that he risks transmuting eloquence into mere slickness.

Slickness wasn't fatal to "Slick Willie" Clinton because he possessed a winning, nearly irresistible charm. Obama's persona is more cool, distant, imperial. The charming scoundrel can get away with endless deception; the righteous redeemer cannot.

Isn't it funny that both Krauthammer & I default to eluding to Clinton. I guess it's true, great minds do think alike.

By commutative property of association I think Rush may be willing to trade for my brain as well…