Tuesday, March 31, 2009

A Democrat Governor With Tax Problems? Really? I Mean, Really?

Sebelius admits errors, pays $7,000 in back taxes
Mar 31 07:06 PM US/Eastern
By ERICA WERNER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius recently corrected three years of tax returns and paid more than $7,000 in back taxes after finding "unintentional errors"—the latest tax troubles for an Obama administration nominee. The Kansas governor explained the changes to senators in a letter dated Tuesday that the administration released. She said they involved charitable contributions, the sale of a home and business expenses.

Several Obama administration nominees have run into tax troubles, notably the president's first nominee for HHS secretary, former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle. He withdrew from consideration while apologizing for failing to pay $140,000 in taxes and interest.



How do these people get elected? They are incompetent administrators and the perfect example of the Peter Principle.

If This Doesn't Just Scary the "You Know What" Out of You, You're Crazy....

Detroit's Fate Sealed in West Wing

MARCH 31, 2009
By MONICA LANGLEY and NEAL E. BOUDETTE
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Politics
The most telling (terrifying) statement in the entire article:

On Sunday, the Obama administration lined up conference calls with key lawmakers. Mr. Obama made one call himself to some of the Michigan delegation, including U.S. Sen. Carl Levin and his brother, Rep. Sander Levin, and Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow. He told them that he planned to put some administration staff into the Detroit companies, according to one person familiar with the situation.

The only voice of reason:

Sen. Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, said he told Mr. Rattner on Monday that he was alarmed that the administration would dictate what kind of vehicles would be constructed. "Deciding what vehicles and plants will survive is setting industrial policy," the senator said.

"Color Me" a New Fan of Angie Harmon

Angie Harmon: I'm Not Racist Because I Disagree With Obama
Monday, March 30, 2009
By Hollie McKay
Angie Harmon is not afraid to come out and say she doesn’t like how President Obama is handling the job — but she’s sick of having to defend herself from being deemed a racist.

"Here's my problem with this, I'm just going to come out and say it. If I have anything to say against Obama it's not because I'm a racist, it's because I don't like what he's doing as President and anybody should be able to feel that way, but what I find now is that if you say anything against him you're called a racist...."


She is clearly on top of the issues and goes on to defend Sarah Palin. Angie is a Patriot!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

POWER. This is about POWER. King George here we come!

Since when does our POTUS get to decide who should or should not run companies? This is scary!!!!

GM CEO resigns at Obama's behest
By MIKE ALLEN & JOSH GERSTEIN, Politico
The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said.

On Monday, President Barack Obama is to unveil his plans for the auto industry, including a response to a request for additional funds by GM and Chrysler. The plan is based on recommendations from the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, headed by the Treasury Department.


CENTRAL PLANNING ANYONE?

If I had been Rick Wagoner, I'd tell the POTUS, thank you for your opinion, but the best thing for this company is for us to declare bankruptcy (with the government backing all factory warrantees) and break the union contracts, get rid of the legacy costs, sell off Hummer, dump Buick, break off Saturn, and focus on the core brands, Chevy (mid size autos), Cadillac (luxury), GMC (pick-ups & SUV's). Crank up streamlining (build to order, anyone?) and get this company focused.

Instead, our POTUS (& former community organizer) will print more money to bail out his largest political ally the UNIONS. For BHO it is all about the UNIONS!!!!

FOLLOW THE MONEY!!!!!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

I Guess the MSM is "Throwing in the Towel"....

.... and finally admitting they cannot compete in an open market system driven by cutomers opinions of the validity of the information they choose to provide. (i.e., they are left wing suck ups and everyone knows it, so no one is buying their papers anymore.) Maybe they ought to try reporting the news instead of trying to support their left wing adgendas...

Senator proposes nonprofit status for newspapers
By LARRY MARGASAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Struggling newspapers should be allowed to operate as nonprofits similar to public broadcasting stations, Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., proposed Tuesday.
Cardin introduced a bill that would allow newspapers to choose tax-exempt status. They would no longer be able to make political endorsements [yeah, right!], but could report on all issues including political campaigns.

What about CNBC? Are they next?



Note:
I received this comment on 3/26/09 in response to one of the stories posted on 3/25/09.
Give some credit where it is due... The markets like what the administration is doing. Of course You'll never publish this quote, because the administarator [sic]is a giant _____ who can't take an alternative point of view. Not that anyone reads this piece of ____ blog anyway.
I chose to post it like this for two reasons:
1) I wanted to delete the swear words (Why can't libs discuss anything? Instead, they get all emotional.)
2) I don't know which post this comment was aimed at...

Is Anyone Listening to Him....?

Volcker: China Chose to Buy Dollars
Real Time Economics
Economic insight and analysis from The Wall Street Journal.
March 24, 2009, 3:35 PM ET

Here is what I found to be the most telling information from this story....

He [Volker] also critiqued the Fed. “I get a little nervous when I see the Federal Reserve announcements that they want have the amount of inflation that’s conducive to recovery,” Volcker said. “I don’t know what ‘the amount of inflation that’s conducive to recovery’ would be appropriate. I’d much rather they say that they want to maintain stability in the currency, which is conducive to confidence and recovery.....”
The 81-year-old elder statesman commented on the current state of the U.S. economy: “We’re in a government-dependent financial system; I never thought I would live to see the day… We’ve got to fight to get away from that.”


He is officially on the White House’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board and is a key adviser to President Obama. But, I have to wonder, is anyone listening to him?

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

A Left-Wing Limousine Liberal (& Tax Cheat) Wants More Power...?

Should we not see if he can get his department staffed and maybe get his arms around a handful of failing banks before we give this guy even more power?

Geithner Seeks Power to Seize Imperiled Firms
Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner asked Congress Tuesday to give the White House unprecedented powers to seize large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, leaping beyond its present authority to seize only banks.
Geithner argued for such authority during the House Financial Services Committee's hearing on the handling of bonuses paid to executives at American International Group.
"As we have seen with AIG, distress at large, interconnected, non-depository financial institutions can pose systematic risks just as distress at banks can. The administration proposes legislation to give the U.S. government the same basic set of tools for addressing financial distress at non-banks as it has in the bank context," Geithner told the committee.

Doesn’t this reek of everything our founding fathers were trying to prevent?

"It will not be denied that power is of an encroaching nature and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it. After discriminating, therefore, in theory, the several classes of power, as they may in their nature be legislative, executive, or judiciary, the next and most difficult task is to provide some practical security for each, against the invasion of the others."

--James Madison, Federalist No. 48


Go read the Federalist Papers!

The founding father have got to spinning in their graves! Has anyone in D.C. read the constitution? This is NOT what government was established to do! I wish they would go back to their ivory towers in the ivy league academia where they would do no harm and let people who actually produce for a living straighten this mess out. Let some of these places fail, get the bloodletting over with and move on! Ugh!

So much for Obama "Most Transparent Administration"

Did we really think a Clinton was going to lead a "transparent" organization just because Obama said so...? Really?

Politico:
Reines storm: Clinton conflict brews
By BEN SMITH | 3/24/09 4:25 AM EDT
Hillary Clinton’s departure for the State Department was meant to end the era of Clinton drama, and to leave the turmoil of her campaign behind. But one former Clinton aide, now a senior adviser to Secretary Clinton, has brought at least some of that drama along with him. State Department reporters and observers have been buzzing about the brewing conflict since her second foreign trip, earlier this month, to Europe and the Middle East. On that trip, her longtime Senate press secretary Philippe Reines – one of the combatants in Hillaryland’s long civil wars – took over as the political staffer charged with handling the press. The trip was marked by tussles over information and access....


Drama.... Always with the Clinton drama.... Will they ever just go away?

Obama Even Has George Will Acting Like a Conservative (at least to the Jewish press)

The Toxic Assets We Elected
By George Will
Jewish World Review March 24, 2009
With the braying of 328 yahoos — members of the House of Representatives who voted for retroactive and punitive use of the tax code to confiscate the legal earnings of a small, unpopular group — still reverberating, the Obama administration yesterday invited private-sector investors to become business partners with the capricious and increasingly anti-constitutional government.....
....From Mexico, America is receiving needed instruction about fundamental rights and the rule of law. A leading Democrat trying to abolish the right of workers to secret ballots in unionization elections is California's Rep. George Miller who, with 15 other Democrats, in 2001 admonished Mexico: "The secret ballot is absolutely necessary in order to ensure that workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they might not otherwise choose." Last year, Mexico's highest court unanimously affirmed for Mexicans the right that Democrats want to strip from Americans....


Maybe even the RINO's are waking up in Washington.... What's next...?

Monday, March 23, 2009

When McClatchy turns on Obama, can the rest of the MSM be far behind?

Congress isn't feeling much heat from Obama's 'army'
By David Lightman and William Douglas | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's army of canvassers fanned out across the nation over the weekend to drum up support for his $3.55 trillion budget, but they had no noticeable impact on members of Congress, who on Monday said they were largely unaware of the effort.

"News to me," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, a House Budget Committee member, of the canvassing. Later, his staff said that his office had heard from about 100 voters.

The president's lieutenants tried to open a new front in the "Obama revolution," the grassroots mobilization that propelled the once little-known Illinois senator to the White House last year. David Plouffe, who ran Obama's campaign, now runs "Organizing for America" out of the Democratic National Committee. It uses the same Web-based tactics that won the presidency to mobilize public opinion behind Obama's initiatives in a bid to redefine "business as usual" in Washington.

Nahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

So the Dow Jones Index is up... So what?

Oil climbs above $54 on stock market rally
Mar 23 01:53 PM US/Eastern
By JOHN PORRETTO
AP Energy Writer
HOUSTON (AP) - Oil prices topped $54 a barrel Monday, getting a boost from stock investors who seemed hopeful a new plan to resolve the nation's banking crisis would spur economic growth. Better-than-expected housing news helped too. br>
Benchmark crude for May delivery rose $1.73 to settle at $53.80 a barrel in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, continuing its upward momentum. Prices climbed as high as $54.05 earlier in the session.

On Friday, oil ended the week above $50 a barrel for the first time this year, and prices have risen 33 percent this month alone.

In London, Brent prices rose 2.23 to $53.45 on the ICE Futures exchange.

"Generally, we've had moderately good economic news of late," said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research. "That's giving people some optimism that maybe demand will be picking up. If the (new banking) plan is effective, so much the better."

Is this what they wanted all along...?

Maybe the leftists want us to be using commie currency....?

China calls for new reserve currency
By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing
FT.com
China’s central bank on Monday proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with a new global system controlled by the International Monetary Fund. In an essay posted on the People’s Bank of China’s website, Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank’s governor, said the goal would be to create a reserve currency “that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run, thus removing the inherent deficiencies caused by using credit-based national currencies”.

Reminsent of Facist Brown Shirts...?

NY AG blackmails (brownmails?) wussie AIG execs into returning legally earned income...

N.Y. Attorney General: 15 AIG Execs Agree to Return Bonuses
The commitments amount to more than $30 million of the $165 million in bonuses awarded earlier this month by the troubled insurer.
NEW YORK -- New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Monday that 15 employees who received some of the largest bonuses from American International Group Inc. have agreed to return the money in full.....

....Cuomo said he still hopes that more AIG employees will return their bonuses. He expects his office will be able to recoup about $80 million of the money the insurer paid out -- roughly the amount of bonuses paid to American employees....

...AIG Chief Executive Edward Liddy told Congress last week that some of the employees were willing to give the money back. AIG has come under heavy criticism because the bonuses were given to employees after the company received $170 billion in government bailout money. Cuomo had sought the names of the employees who received bonuses from Liddy through a subpoena....

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Class Warfare (again)....

Do these people realize how dangerous this all sounds? This is all geared to gin up class warfare so a left wing controlled congress can employ strong handed tactics to jam socialism down our throats. And we sit here being spoon fed this pabulum with eyes glazed over.

Why?

All because 1/10 of 1% of the bailout money went to pay legally earned bonuses?

WAKE UP PEOPLE!

AP Obama:
Protesters visit AIG officials' lavish Conn. homes
Mar 22, 7:29 AM (ET)
By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) - A busload of activists representing working- and middle-class families paid visits Saturday to the lavish homes of American International Group executives to protest the tens of millions of dollars in bonuses awarded by the struggling insurance company after it received a massive federal bailout...
...She marveled at AIG executive James Haas' colonial house, which has stunning views of a golf course and the Long Island Sound. The Fairfield house is "another part of the world" from her life in nearby Bridgeport, which flirted with bankruptcy in the 1990s and still struggles with foreclosures and unemployment."
"Lord, I wonder what it's like to live in a house that size," she said....

Socialism, or Communism?

Administration seeks increase in oversight of executive pay
IHT, Stephen Labaton Published: March 21, 2009
WASHINGTON: The Obama administration will call for increased oversight of executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and possibly other companies as part of a sweeping plan to overhaul financial regulation, government officials said....

....The new rules will cover all financial institutions, including those not now covered by any pay rules because they are not receiving U.S. government bailout money. Officials say the rules could also be applied more broadly to publicly traded companies, which already report about some executive pay practices to the Securities and Exchange Commission....

Look for more companies to go private, thereby limiting the investment opportunities of the "middle class" and further creating a wealth gap. This is crazy talk and our founding fathers have got to be rolling in their graves! This is simply class warfare at it's worst!! God help us all if this kind of talk persists and it acted on!

How long will it be before government insists on seats on the boards of directors of publically traded companies?

Read Atlas Shrugged

WHERE IS JOHN GALT?

Friday, March 20, 2009

Ummm... No. However, he does make a few good points...

Terence Corcoran: Is this the end of America?
U.S. law-making is riddled with slapdash, incompetence and gamesmanship
By Terence Corcoran
"....Past success, however, is no guarantee of future recovery, especially now when there are daily disasters and new indicators of political breakdown. All developments are not disasters in themselves. The AIG bonus firestorm is a diversion from real issues , but it puts the ghastly political classes who make U.S. law on display for what they are: ageing self-serving demagogues who have spent decades warping the U.S. political system for their own ends. We see the system up close, law-making that is riddled with slapdash, incompetence and gamesmanship....

...Reform of health care, environmental policy, education, energy, banking, regulation — every nook and cranny of the U.S. economy has been put on alert for major change. Expansion of government spending, plunging the U.S. into unprecedented deficits, is without parallel. In economic policy, through regulation and control of energy output, financial services and monetary expansion, the U.S. government has embarked on a fundamental reshaping of America. It is designed, in short, to bring on the end of America...."


Them are some very strong words. Sadly, I can;t disagree with much of it...

Opps.. It Does Get Better..

Why are the British better at reporting this stuff than the U.S. Press? Could it be they have nothing to gain by the success of this president?

Top 10 gaffes by Barack Obama and Joe Biden
Toby Harnden, US Editor
Perhaps Barack Obama was just trying to make Joe Biden feel better by dropping his clanger on Jay Leno. Whatever the President was thinking, 60 days into their new administration it's time for a post-election Obama-Biden Top 10. (Click the title or here to watch the gaffes in action.)


And just when I though it couldn't get any better!

Let's be honest here, if this were the Bush Administration the main stream media would be talking about nothing else...

Ha!! This Is PRICELESS!!

Special Olympics Bowler Offers Obama Bowling Tips
Tim Maloney, a 38-year-old with Down Syndrome who has been bowling for 30 years, said the president needs to practice more if he wants to bring his recent score of 129 anywhere close to his average of 165.
President Obama joked Thursday that his bowling ability was suitable for the Special Olympics, a comment for which he later apologized.

But one Special Olympics bowler has a few tips for the president on how to improve his score.

Tim Maloney, a 38-year-old with Down Syndrome who has been bowling for 30 years, said the president needs to practice more if he wants to bring his recent score of 129 anywhere close to Maloney's average of 165.....


I really can't add anything here. The story speaks for itself...

Tell It Like It Is..!!!!

We The People Stimulus Package

Thomas Paine, Common Sense....

I Love This Guy!

What If This Guy Had Been Allowed To Stay At AIG...?

Hank Greenberg was run out of AIG through the strong handed black mailing tactics of (then NY AG) Elliott Spitzer (of NY Governor & prostitute fame and former college buddy of CNBC's Mad Money's Jim Cramer). All charges were apparently dropped after he was forced out and an "acceptable" (read: Democrat) CEO was installed in 2002.

After watching this video, you have to wonder how much different would it have been had he been allowed to stay at the helm of AIG...

Who Will Be The First Person Subpoenaed To Do This..?

How Did They Know...?

"A fondness for power is implanted, in most men, and it is natural to abuse it, when acquired." --Alexander Hamilton, The Farmer Refuted, 23 February 1775

House passes bill taxing fat AIG and other bonuses
House passes bill to tax employee bonuses at AIG, other companies with big bailouts Tom Raum, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Denouncing a "squandering of the people's money," lawmakers voted decisively Thursday to impose a 90 percent tax on millions of dollars in employee bonuses paid by troubled insurance giant AIG and other bailed-out companies.

In some cases the bonuses might be taxed 100 percent leaving the recipients with nothing.....


Komrade Pelosi and company have been touting this class warfare their entire political career. Now that they have complete power, they can put it into action.

Let me be perfectly clear:
1) The employees of AIG who received these bonuses EARNED these bonuses legally. They have done nothing wrong. It may have the appearance of impropriety, but these are legal binding contracts.

2) Congress (i.e., Chris Dodd) had the opportunity to limit bonuses when they wrote this legislation.

3) According to Chris "Friends of Angelo" Dodd and "Chuck You" Schumer , the Obama administration insisted the language allowing these bonuses be included in the bailout package.

4) On one hand "San Fran Nan" wants to ignore the immigrations laws, while in the other hand, pass excessively narrow and likely unconstitutional laws to confiscate legally earned money in the name of "fairness".

So I go back to, "How did they know...?"

More "piling on" the Class Warfare...

Citi spending millions on headquarters renovation
Citigroup goes through with headquarters renovation, says it will save money in long run

NEW YORK (AP) -- Citigroup is going through with more than $3 million worth of construction at its corporate headquarters in Manhattan. The bank says the renovation will save $20 million in the long run. Top executives currently working on two floors will be consolidated in "smaller, simpler offices on a single floor," Citigroup said....
...."They're still living in the pre-2008 era," Bhagat said. "They still don't get the message."
The bank, which has been planning the renovations for months, is paying $3.2 million for basic construction, including wall removal and fire safety systems, according to filings at the New York Department of Buildings. The total cost could end up being higher, though, after fees and other expenses -- other media reports estimated the cost of the renovations at $10 million....
There are so many things wrong with this article I don;t know where to begin.
1) Wouldn't you think this will stimulate the economy? Somewhere there are contractors who will be paid $10 million dollars on Citibank's "infrastructure" improvements. Isn't this what they want?
2) This is a consolidation effort. Wouldn't this mean a smaller "carbon footprint?" (Whatever the hell that is...)
3) Why should anyone be upset? The bailout bill (TARP 1) which congress approved gave the Treasury Department complete authority over the money they were to dispense.

If they did not want the money to go to renovations, airplanes (another economic stimulus as far as I am concerned) or bonuses (ditto on the economic stimuli), maybe CONGRESS should have spent a little more time crafting the legislation. Maybe, just maybe, had they spent, oh I don't know, 48 or maybe 72 hours crafting the bill, then actually reading it, they would have the right to be outraged.

As it stands, I'd say the White House (who specifically asked for the bonus' to be included) and the congress ought to keep their mouths shut and get on with the business of trying to fix the mess they created.

News Analysis...

I recently was forwarded in a mass e-mail the following article (I am printing in it's entirety - please don't tell AP or I may get sued for copyright infrigment):

Countess divorcing former CEO says $43M just isn't enough
A Swedish countess divorcing a former chief executive said she cannot live on $43 million.
By DAVE COLLINS
The Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. — A Swedish countess divorcing a former chief executive said she cannot live on $43 million.

Marie Douglas-David, 36, a former investment banker, said she has no income and needs her husband, George David, 67, to pay her more than $53,000 a week — more than most U.S. households make in a year — to cover her expenses.

David stepped down last year as chief executive at Hartford-based United Technologies but remains chairman of the board and has an estimated net worth of $329 million. He and his wife accuse each other of extramarital affairs. Their divorce trial started Wednesday.

"I'm just very sad that we are where we are," Douglas-David said. "I hope we resolve this soon so everybody can move on with their lives."

David briefly took the stand Wednesday. Asked if his marriage is irretrievably broken, he answered, "Yes."

David and Douglas-David married in 2002, but the marriage was in trouble by 2004, court papers show. Amid a series of reconciliations, the couple signed a postnuptial agreement in October 2005 that would give her $43 million when they divorce.

Douglas-David wants the agreement invalidated. She accused her husband of coercing her to sign it by preying upon her fears of being divorced and childless. She's asking to be awarded about $100 million in cash and stock, plus $130,000 a month in alimony.

David is asking a judge to uphold the agreement and order Douglas-David to vacate their Park Avenue apartment but keep their properties in Sweden. His attorneys asked for a separate hearing Wednesday on the document's validity, but the judge declined.

Douglas-David has filed court papers showing she has more than $53,800 in weekly expenses, including for maintaining a Park Avenue apartment and three residences in Sweden. Her weekly expenses also include $700 for limousine service, $4,500 for clothes, $1,000 for hair and skin treatments, $1,500 for restaurants and entertainment, and $8,000 for travel.

At that rate, Douglas-David would burn through $43 million in less than 16 years. The Census Bureau estimated that the median U.S. household income in 2007 was slightly more than $50,000.

Anne Dranginis, an attorney for David and a retired Connecticut appellate court judge, predicted Douglas-David will get much less money in the divorce if she doesn't accept the terms of the postnuptial.

In court papers, Douglas-David said she quit her job as an investment banker for Lazard Asset Management to travel and entertain with David, who still earns $1 million a year from United Technologies. While chief executive in 2007, David made nearly $27 million in salary and bonuses.

United Technologies is the parent company of Carrier, which makes air conditioners, and Otis Elevators. It also owns Sikorsky, which makes commercial and military helicopters, and Hamilton Sundstrand, an aerospace manufacturer that makes components for NASA's space program.

Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company


To which I blanket "Replied All":
A brief perusal of the article below [or above, in this case) and you walk away thinking, "How dare she?" But, if you read it a little closer, you realize the AP (along with the other main stream media) is just picking up on a greater theme espoused by the people we elected to lead us: Class Warfare.

Read closely:
"-more than most U.S. households make in a year-" - This repeated not once, but twice in the article.

" David, who still earns $1 million a year from United Technologies. While chief executive in 2007, David made nearly $27 million in salary and bonuses." - What does this matter?

Finally: "At that rate, Douglas-David would burn through $43 million in less than 16 years. The Census Bureau estimated that the median U.S. household income in 2007 was slightly more than $50,000." - Again, how does this apply to this story other than to stir up class warfare?<br>
A few more things:

If she gets this money, will congress pass a special law to retroactively tax her at a 90% tax rate?

How about subpoenaing her addresses and telephone numbers so they can be published?

If congress can put special stipulations into a bill ensuring massive payouts, then turn around and publically skewer their own hand picked CEO of the company who followed the law (both the existing contracts and special stipulation in the stimulus package), can't they subpoena this couple up to capitol hill and chastise them for their apparent greed?

Who will be next? You? Me? Will it ever be them?

The more stories of greed and excess plays right into the hands of stirring up the masses and creating an environment where congress and the executive branch can do nearly anything they see fit to stop "the unfairness of it all."

They are doing it.

Are you paying attention?

Talks Billy Graham: Technology, faith and human shortcomings

This is Billy Graham speaking to TED (check out TED here). TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) sponsors conferences where the best and the brightest come to share their ideas. It is a fascinating website and I encourage you to explore it.

So Billy Graham was one of the last speakers at the 1998 conference. Remember, this is a room full of Silicon Valley types, Berkley and MIT types, as well as, creative artists from all over the world. Remember, also, this was pre-9/11. He is timeless.

Billy Graham:

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Apparently Illegal Doesn't Mean Illegal Anymore...

Pelosi Tells Illegal Immigrants That Work Site Raids are Un-American
The speaker of the House told a group of both legal and illegal immigrants recently that enforcement of immigration laws in the United States is "un-American."
...The congressman is collecting petitions that ask President Obama to "stop the immigration raids and deportations that are tearing our marriages, families and children apart." He is expected to present those petitions when Hispanic members of Congress meet with the President Wednesday.


It gets better... Here's another story only liberal will like....

Guantanamo Detainees May Be Released in U.S.
...For "people who can be released there are a variety of options that we have and among them is the possibility is that we would release them into this country," Mr. Holder said. "That process is ongoing and we've not made any determinations or made any requests of anybody at this point."


Sure, why not? Who can blame them for wanting to come to the U.S. Really, after 6-7 years at Club Gitmo, why not release them in downtown New York. Better yet, I think my hometown, Chippewa Falls, WI would be a good place for them. They'd fit right in. All they'd have to do is start drinking beer and fishing. I think they might like it. Or how about, Arab, AL. I've been there too. Those good ol' boys would welcome and Arab in Arab. Oh, yeah.....

I Am Not Jewish, But....

I am not Jewish but...
By RUPERT MURDOCH
... IN THE WEST, we are used to thinking that Israel cannot survive without the help of Europe and the United States. Tonight I say to you: Maybe we should start wondering whether we in Europe and the United States can survive if we allow the terrorists to succeed in Israel.

In this new century, the "West" is no longer a matter of geography. The West is defined by societies committed to freedom and democracy. That at least is how the terrorists see it. And if we are serious about meeting this challenge, we would expand the only military alliance committed to the defense of the West to include those on the front lines of this war.... That means bringing countries such as Israel into NATO.


Maybe this is why Fox News gets it right so much of the time. Maybe Fox News understands what the real meaning to the U.S. will be if the terrorists get their hands on WMD. Maybe they know that the terrorists are the ones who shield themselves behind children in order to 'set-up' their own civilian population to be the targets of the retaliation. Maybe those folks at Fox News realize we, the U.S. along with Israel, are the good guys in this fight and they want us to win. Either way, I applaud the Rupert Murdoch for being a public ally of Israel.

Oh, you MUST check this out...

This blog is PRICELESS!

Whoever thought this up is going to have fun for the next 4 years!

Here it is: Obama's Telepromter's Blog

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The Wisdom of Thomas Sowell and Walter E. Williams...

Reagrding Obama's plans, Sowell writes, "Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it. ... It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it. ... The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all of those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics. ... The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses. It is about the egos of the elites."

Walter Williams is even more to the point: "Two-thirds of the federal budget consists of taking property from one American and giving it to another. Were a private person to do the same thing, we'd call it theft. When government does it, we euphemistically call it income redistribution, but that's exactly what thieves do -- redistribute income. Income redistribution not only betrays the founders' vision, it's a sin in the eyes of God. ... No human should be coerced by the state to bear the medical expense, or any other expense, for his fellow man. In other words, the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another is morally offensive. ... One of the wonderful things about free markets is that the path to greater wealth comes not from looting, plundering and enslaving one's fellow man, as it has throughout most of human history, but by serving and pleasing him."


Again, I thank Mark Alexander of the Patriot Post for pointing me to these quotes.

I cannot agree more with these two fine gentlemen of acedamia... Well said Gentlemen, Bravo....

We Are Quickly Approaching Another, "Time For Choosing"

A quick note before you read. Frankly, I'm amazed at the timelessness of this speech. Ronald Reagan was ahead of his time in many ways. Giving this speech 45 years ago is just one example. We must keep up "The Good Fight", if for no other reason than it is the moral thing to do. Also, emphasis in bold added by me.

A Time for Choosing
Given as a stump speech, at speaking engagements, and on a memorable night in 1964 in support of Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign. This version is from that broadcast.

1964
I am going to talk of controversial things. I make no apology for this.

It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, "We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self government."

This idea -- that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power -- is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream--the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits."

The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.

Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, "What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power." But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.

Yet any time you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we're denounced as being opposed to their humanitarian goals. It seems impossible to legitimately debate their solutions with the assumption that all of us share the desire to help the less fortunate. They tell us we're always "against," never "for" anything.

We are for a provision that destitution should not follow unemployment by reason of old age, and to that end we have accepted Social Security as a step toward meeting the problem. However, we are against those entrusted with this program when they practice deception regarding its fiscal shortcomings, when they charge that any criticism of the program means that we want to end payments....

We are for aiding our allies by sharing our material blessings with nations which share our fundamental beliefs, but we are against doling out money government to government, creating bureaucracy, if not socialism, all over the world.

We need true tax reform that will at least make a start toward restoring for our children the American Dream that wealth is denied to no one, that each individual has the right to fly as high as his strength and ability will take him.... But we cannot have such reform while our tax policy is engineered by people who view the tax as a means of achieving changes in our social structure....

Have we the courage and the will to face up to the immorality and discrimination of the progressive tax, and demand a return to traditional proportionate taxation? . . . Today in our country the tax collector's share is 37 cents of every dollar earned. Freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp.

Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? Realize that the doctor's fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can't socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. Recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon your own business. If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he'll eat you last.

If all of this seems like a great deal of trouble, think what's at stake. We are faced with the most evil enemy mankind has known in his long climb from the swamp to the stars. There can be no security anywhere in the free world if there is no fiscal and economic stability within the United States. Those who ask us to trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state are architects of a policy of accommodation.

They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right. Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits--not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.


Thank you to the Patriot Post for reminding me of this great speech. The Patriot Post maintains the Reagan2020 website were this and many other great words of wisdom from Ronald Reagan can be found.

I highly reccomend you subscribe to the Patriot Post. I promise, you will not regret it.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Here We Go... "One World Order" - The Prelude

Kremlin to Pitch New Currency
17 March 2009 ,br> By Ira Iosebashvili / The Moscow Times
....The International Monetary Fund should investigate the possible creation of a new reserve currency, widening the list of reserve currencies or using its already existing Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, as a "superreserve currency accepted by the whole of the international community," the Kremlin said in a statement issued on its web site. ....


Did anyone lese see this coming? Let me guess, move the U.N. to the middle east?

All I can say is, "Huh?"

The American Legion Strongly Opposed to President's Plan to Charge Wounded Heroes for Treatment
WASHINGTON, March 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The leader of the nation's largest veterans organization says he is "deeply disappointed and concerned" after a meeting with President Obama today to discuss a proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries. The Obama administration recently revealed a plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in such cases...

The Commander, clearly angered as he emerged from the session said, "This reimbursement plan would be inconsistent with the mandate ' to care for him who shall have borne the battle' given that the United States government sent members of the armed forces into harm's way, and not private insurance companies. I say again that The American Legion does not and will not support any plan that seeks to bill a veteran for treatment of a service connected disability at the very agency that was created to treat the unique need of America's veterans!"

What can I say? Only complete idiot would propose such a thing....

Yeah, this isn't gonna be a mess....

ACORN to Play Role in 2010 Census
The U.S. Census Bureau is working with several national organizations to help recruit 1.4 million workers to produce the country's 2010 census, including one with a history of voter fraud charges: ACORN.
The U.S. Census is supposed to be free of politics, but one group with a history of voter fraud, ACORN, is participating in next year's count, raising concerns about the politicization of the decennial survey.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now signed on as a national partner with the U.S. Census Bureau in February 2009 to assist with the recruitment of the 1.4 million temporary workers needed to go door-to-door to count every person in the United States -- currently believed to be more than 306 million people...

But ACORN's partnership with the 2010 Census is worrisome to lawmakers who say past allegations of fraud should raise concerns about the organization.

"It's a concern, especially when you look at all the different charges of voter fraud. And it's not just the lawmakers' concern. It should be the concern of every citizen in the country," Rep. Lynn A. Westmoreland, R-Ga., vice ranking member of the subcommittee for the U.S. Census, told FOXNews.com. "We want an enumeration. We don't want to have any false numbers."

I don't know about you, but I've had enough of community organizers. This stinks to high heaven and this (along with the 2nd stimulus package and the $410 billion omnibus bill) is designed to keep Democrats in power for the next 50 years. There is NO other reason to do this...

What Was Wrong With, "America's Dairyland"?

Wisconsin's new slogan faces some pushback
Gov. Jim Doyle said Monday the state will use "Live like you mean it" to promote Wisconsin as a tourism and business destination, replacing the slogan "Life's So Good." But motivational speakers, authors and even wine and spirit maker Bacardi have already used the phrase in marketing campaigns. Some critics who aren't thrilled the state is adopting their slogan may oppose its attempt to get federal trademark protections on it or even take legal action.


It's hilarious....
Why not change it to , "Just Do It."

Class In Action!

Bush: Obama 'Deserves My Silence,' Won't Criticize New Administration
Bush declined to critique the Obama administration Tuesday in his first speech since leaving office.
"I'm not going to spend my time criticizing him. There are plenty of critics in the arena," Bush said. "He deserves my silence."


Of course, the AP story also includes this faux paux:
Bush said he wants Obama to succeed and said it's important that he has that support. Talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has said he hoped Obama would fail.


Those of us in the know, know Rush has never said he flatly, "I want Obama to fail." What he has said (for the umpteenth time) is that Obama's policies mean the end to the U.S. as we know it, so yes, he wants the Obama to fail so the U.S. will not fail.

AIG Is A Money Launderer Of The U.S Government?

Wall Street Journal Opinion Page
The Real AIG Outrage
....Since September 16, AIG has sent $120 billion in cash, collateral and other payouts to banks, municipal governments and other derivative counterparties around the world. This includes at least $20 billion to European banks. The list also includes American charity cases like Goldman Sachs, which received at least $13 billion. This comes after months of claims by Goldman that all of its AIG bets were adequately hedged and that it needed no "bailout." Why take $13 billion then? This needless cover-up is one reason Americans are getting angrier as they wonder if Washington is lying to them about these bailouts...


I would like to know why the U.S. government forced banks to take the bailout money under the public guise of pumping up the mortgage side of the business (though all the convoluted derivatives), while telling the banks the money was to be held so they could buy weak banks when the time came.

I pretty much want to scream when I hear anyone (including Chuck Grassley) complain about the bonuses and how the bailout money is being spent. They where the ones who rushed through the bailout without putting the correct language in the bill to begin with! These Senators & Congressman are the S.O.B.'s who caused this mess to begin with! The gall!!!

The Wisdom of Ronald Reagan

"Extreme taxation, excessive controls, oppressive government competition with business, frustrated minorities and forgotten Americans are not the products of free enterprise. They are the residue of centralized bureaucracy, of government by a self-anointed elite."
--Ronald Reagan

Monday, March 16, 2009

My, What a Difference a President Makes....

From the MAJOR HYPOCRISY file....

Dramatic Advances Sweep Iraq, Boosting Support for Democracy
ABC News/BBC/NHK National Survey of Iraq
ANALYSIS by GARY LANGER
March 16, 2009
Dramatic advances in public attitudes are sweeping Iraq, with declining violence, rising economic well-being and improved services lifting optimism, fueling confidence in public institutions and bolstering support for democracy.

The gains in the latest ABC News/BBC/NHK poll represent a stunning reversal of the spiral of despair caused by Iraq's sectarian violence in 2006 and 2007. The sweeping rebound, extending initial improvements first seen a year ago, marks no less than the opportunity for a new future for Iraq and its people.


What a crock! Clearly "Hope & Change" have made all the difference to the Iraqis. Even they can't help but get swept up in all that Our Dear Leader, The Messiah, President B Hussein Obama is doing for them. Unlike The Evil One, GW Bush, who only did all the heavy lifting to free 55 million people from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein!

Here's the big question for which we all have the answer.... "Will ABC be called on their hypocrisy?"

All together now.... Noooooo!

Another BIG Tea Party Rally (Another sdition of "As The Worm Turns...")

Click here for a slide show of the Cincinnati Tea Party.

Thousands Rally Downtown Against Government Spending

CINCINNATI -- Thousands of Tri-State residents gathered Sunday on Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati to voice their opposition to government spending bills recently signed by President Barack Obama.

The group called itself the Cincinnati Tea Party, modeled after the Boston Tea Party of 1773.


The last time I saw this type of groundswell of opposition was the 2000 election. Go Tea Partiers, Go!!

Seriously, is the worm turning...?

UW-Milwaukee Study Could Realign Climate Change Theory
Scientists Claim Earth Is Undergoing Natural Climate Shift
MILWAUKEE -- The bitter cold and record snowfalls from two wicked winters are causing people to ask if the global climate is truly changing.
The climate is known to be variable and, in recent years, more scientific thought and research has been focused on the global temperature and how humanity might be influencing it.
However, a new study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee could turn the climate change world upside down.


Having lived in Milwaukee, I can tell that I am not particularly surprised they are one of the first to discover the hoax. I mean, how many global warming rallies have to be postponed or cancelled by blizzards before you start to question global warming...?

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Is the Worm Turning?

Even the most liberal of mainstream media pundits like David Broder are starting to question Obama's policies....

End of the Honeymoon
By David S. Broder
Sunday, March 15, 2009
...Obama still enjoys broad public support, but it is stronger for him personally than for his policies. Some of those policies are bafflingly complex, and all of them are untested....

Congress has taken note of the way Obama backed down from his anti-earmark stance, a clear signal that he is leery of any showdown with the lawmakers. Despite his popularity, Obama is not an intimidating figure, and so he can expect to be tested time and again
.


Could this be the beginning of the end of Obama's fast track policies being slammed down our throat?

Tell Me 40 Years of "Government As A Father" Hasn't Screwed Up The Kids...

Many Boston teens surveyed say Rihanna is at fault for assault
By Milton J. Valencia and Jenna Nierstedt
Here's a conversation starter: Nearly half of the 200 Boston teenagers interviewed for an informal poll said pop star Rihanna was responsible for the beating she allegedly took at the hands of her boyfriend, fellow music star Chris Brown, in February.
Of those questioned, ages 12 to 19, 71 percent said that arguing was a normal part of a relationship; 44 percent said fighting was a routine occurrence.


I guess when the government replaces the father and watch while your mother has an endless string of her "baby's fathers" come and go while they collect a government welfare check screws kids minds up.... CRAZY!!!!

Friday, March 13, 2009

Did I do that?

Power Grab? You Ain't Seen Nothin's Yet!

EFCA Authorizes Government Control of 4 Million Small Businesses
March 12, 2009
by James Sherk
The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA, H.R. 1409, S. 560) does more than take away secret ballot elections: It empowers the federal government to impose contracts on newly organized companies. The government would set wages, benefits, work assignments, promotion procedures, and any major changes to business operations. Because EFCA has no meaningful small businesses exemption, it would authorize federal control of up to 4 million small businesses employing 39 million Americans. Consequently, bureaucrats with no management experience would effectively control these small businesses.


Let's discuss fascism:

What is it?

Fascism is: a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion. - Paxton, Robert. The Anatomy of Fascism. Vintage Books

So are Obama's (and by extension, the Democrat Party's - i.e., Reid & Pelosi) policies fascist? I report. You decide.

Who Cares if You Misrepresent Facts, As Long As It Tells a Good Story...?

What's In a Number? That Depends on How You Define 'Homeless'
Friday, March 13, 2009
A well publicized report this week that an estimated 1.5 million American children experienced homelessness in 2005-06 did not use the federal definition of homelessness. Instead, it used a different definition that grossly inflated the actual number.

The difference? About 1,170,000 children.


Yeah, but the story is so much better when you inflate the numbers by 1,170,000! Come on, facts are for dumbies! Facts and data just cloud the picture and don't support the MSM storyline about how bad the Bush years were.... And what if the number of actual homeless children increase under BHO's watch? If you use the real number now, how with they be able to use the small numebr then?

Come people! You have to start thinking like liberal journalist! Do expect data to ruin a good story?

Obama Anti-Israel? Nooo.... What Would Make You think That?

TEAM OBAMA'S ANTI-ISRAEL TURN
...the Obama administration believes that Israel is as much or more of a problem as it is an ally, at least until Israel's disagreements with its neighbors are resolved. Instead of seeing Israel as a national-security asset, the administration likely sees a relationship complicating its broader policy of diplomatic "outreach."

I'll say it again. I wonder how many Obamaites are having "buyer’s remorse". Democrats have taken the Jewish and Black vote for granted for 50 years. Could this administration be the end of that unholy alliance? Let's hope they finally wake up and see the Democrat party for what it is: a "Two America's Party" that derives its power by nurturing class and racial warfare.

Could It Be? Could People Actually Be Starting To Look At The Facts About The Global Warming Hoax?

Increased Number Think Global Warming Is “Exaggerated”
Most believe global warming is happening, but urgency has stalled
...a record-high 41% now say it is exaggerated. This represents the highest level of public skepticism about mainstream reporting on global warming seen in more than a decade of Gallup polling on the subject.




Say it ain't so! I guess AlGore will have leave is Nashville mansion to start flying around the world in his private jet (whisked to and from the airport in fleets of Suburban’s) to drum up support for global warming to he can continue his "carbon trading scheme".

I can't wait until this movie comes out. I'll bet they don't get an academy award or Nobel Peace Prize, but I'll nice to see this gloabal warming hysteria exposed.

It's Nice to See Obama Embracing 'Change'....

Everyman Obama courts socialites
A workingman's White House cultivates Beltway 'tastemakers'
Stephanie Green
Friday, March 13, 2009
While publicly identifying with the nation's have-nots, the Obama administration has been cultivating the Beltway social elite behind the scenes.
Earlier this year, the Obama administration invited top editors of three of Washington's local luxury lifestyle magazines — Capitol File, DC magazine and Washington Life — to a meeting where they discussed, among other things, how President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama can embrace Washington's glittery social scene.


Maybe it all this socializing in "Washington's glittery social scene" that made him too tired to properly diginfiy our longest and closest ally earlier this month...

Barack Obama 'too tired' to give proper welcome to Gordon Brown
Barack Obama's offhand approach to Gordon Brown's Washington visit last week came about because the president was facing exhaustion over America's economic crisis and is unable to focus on foreign affairs, the Sunday Telegraph has been told.
By Tim Shipman in Washington
07 Mar 2009
Sources close to the White House say Mr Obama and his staff have been "overwhelmed" by the economic meltdown and have voiced concerns that the new president is not getting enough rest.
British officials, meanwhile, admit that the White House and US State Department staff were utterly bemused by complaints that the Prime Minister should have been granted full-blown press conference and a formal dinner, as has been customary. They concede that Obama aides seemed unfamiliar with the expectations that surround a major visit by a British prime minister
.


Maybe BHO should have consulted with "Washington's local luxury lifestyle magazines — Capitol File, DC magazine and Washington Life" regarding the proper etiquette for meeting with longtime, trusted ally's so as not to cause a riff with one of the strongest nations on this planet whose support we may very well need at any given moment.

No Hypocrisy here... I Wonder What the Headline Would Be if This Were a Republican?

Waters Helped Bank Whose Stock She Once Owned
California Democrat Has Championed Minority-Owned OneUnited on Capitol Hill and Criticized Its Government Regulators
MARCH 12, 2009
By SUSAN SCHMIDT
WASHINGTON -- When Rep. Barney Frank was looking to aid a Boston-based lender last fall, the Massachusetts Democrat urged Maxine Waters, a colleague on the House Financial Services Committee, to "stay out of it," he says.
The reason: Ms. Waters, a longtime congresswoman from California, had close ties to the minority-owned institution, OneUnited Bank.
Ms. Waters and her husband have both held financial stakes in the bank. Until recently, her husband was a director. At the same time, Ms. Waters has publicly boosted OneUnited's executives and criticized its government regulators during congressional hearings. Last fall, she helped secure the bank a meeting with Treasury officials.


Where is the rest of the mainstream media? If this were a Republican, Chris Matthews would be calling for her head on a platter (ok, at least a censure...)

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Why are Obama/Reid/Pelosi/MSM so Afraid of Rush Limbaugh?

I can't believe they are still talking about Rush Limbaugh. But, since they are, here we go....

The White House Misfires on Limbaugh
By KARL ROVE
Team Obama -- aided by Clintonistas Paul Begala, James Carville and Stanley Greenberg -- decided to attack Rush Limbaugh after poring over opinion research. White House senior adviser David Axelrod explicitly authorized the assault. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel assigned a White House official to coordinate the push. And Press Secretary Robert Gibbs gleefully punched the launch button at his podium, suckering the White House press corps into dropping what they were doing to get Mr. Limbaugh.


Chip Bok got it right...

The European Honeymoon is Over Already?

More proof that Our Dear Leader, President B. Hussein Obama is in way over his head. In less than two months, ODL, USP BHO has nearly completely Alienated many of oldest allies.

The Fragile Honeymoon
By Wayne MerryMarch 12th, 2009
The brevity of the honeymoon between the European chattering classes and the new U.S. administration is striking, even before President Obama has had a chance to work his charm on European soil.

First, European governments and elites were shocked and offended when Secretary of State Clinton made her first foreign trip to Japan, Korea, China and Indonesia rather than to Europe. Note this was the first time in half a century that a new U.S. foreign minister crossed the Pacific before crossing the Atlantic, and damn right too. Clinton’s trip signaled the true priorities of U.S. interests in the new century, especially in dealing with the global financial crisis which has provoked national and even provincial responses from most European governments.

Then, Europeans had to swallow the image of the first non-North American to visit the Oval Office of the new administration coming from Asia rather than Europe, with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown later delivering an embarrassing variant of the “special relationship.” Next, the most important meetings Secretary Clinton added to her agenda concerned the Middle East and Russia, with Europe clearly playing backup.

Liberals attack Bristol Palin....

Listen to the left describe this:
The STLToday.com -
Bristol Palin, the daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has broken up with Levi Johnston, the self-professed redneck who fathered a child with her.

NY Magazine -
Bristol Palin Dumps Sex on Skates!
The below is a segment from the hottest script being circulated around Hollywood. Sean Faris is already in talks to play Levi Johnston, and Leighton Meester is already gaining weight to play the role of the pregnant Bristol Palin....

US News & World Report
Sarah Palin Lacks the Maturity, Smarts of Her Single, Teen Mom Daughter Bristol


I think this cartoon from Mike Shelton sums it up:

The Latest Obama "Change"

Here is Obama discussing "Signing Statements":


But then there is this story about the $410 "Omnibus Bill" just this week.

So which is it Obama?

I thought "Dingy" Harry Reid said paying taxes (see below) is voluntary?

State seizes business
Owner preparing legal arguments after arrest for outstanding traffic warrants
An outspoken critic of government and advocate of personal liberty was arrested Wednesday and his Nacogdoches business seized by the state comptroller's officer for failing to collect and pay sales tax. Five Nacogdoches police officers and several enforcement officers from the comptroller's office arrived at IT Freelancers on North Street Wednesday morning, announcing their intention to halt business there until $33,000 of unpaid taxes are remitted to the state. A local locksmith arrived to change the locks on the building, and a comptroller's employee posted a sign on the door warning everyone — including the business owner — to keep off the property.


Again, I have to ask, "I thought the Democrat Leader of the Senate, "Dingy" Harry Reid said that paying taxes is voluntary? (See video below or here.) What up wit dat, Harry?

CAN I GET AN AMEN...!?!?!?

Back on Uncle Sam's Plantation
by Star Parker
A benevolent Uncle Sam welcomed mostly poor black Americans onto the government plantation. Those who accepted the invitation switched mindsets from "How do I take care of myself?" to "What do I have to do to stay on the plantation?" Instead of solving economic problems, government welfare socialism created monstrous moral and spiritual problems. The kind of problems that are inevitable when individuals turn responsibility for their lives over to others.


How do we convince all those followers of "The Church of Oprah" to see the world like Star?

Is Star Parker the next Ronald Reagan?

She certainly has Ronaldus Magnus' talking points down. You go girl!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Paying income tax in America is Voluntary. Really?

Does "Dingy" Harry Reid believe that taxation is voluntary? I guess only if you are a Democrat U.S. Senator or Democrat cabinet nominee...

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Ummm.. I'll stick with the old kind, please. Calling JFK, "Tip" O'Neal, Patrick Moynihan...!

Obama: 'I am a New Democrat'
By JONATHAN MARTIN & CAROL E. LEE | 3/10/09 7:04 PM EDT Updated: 3/10/09 8:50 PM EDT

President Barack Obama firmly resists ideological labels, but at the end of a private meeting with a group of moderate Democrats Tuesday afternoon he offered a statement of solidarity.
“I am a New Democrat,” he told the New Democrat Coalition, according to two sources at the White House session.


Please, bring back the oldies! At least that had some integrity (stress, some).

DO ASK WE SAY! Not as we do....

Yes, the dumo limousine liberals is D.C. are at it again. I swear, do they think we won't read about this stuff and realize their hypocrisy? Yes, I am calling them hypocrites!

...correspondence shows Pelosi has abused the system in place to accommodate congressional leaders and treated the Air Force as her "personal airline."


Read about Pelosi's hypocrisy here!

What's a measly $410 Billion?

Senate passes omnibus bill Obama to sign $410 billion catchall with 9,000 earmarks Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The first major spending bill of the new Obama administration came stuffed with some old-fashioned pork as a $410 billion omnibus bill covering a slew of federal agencies won final approval Tuesday in the Senate.


Sadly, RINO's were accountable for 40% of the 7,991 earmarks totaling $5.5 billion.

Where, oh where is our Ronald Reagan!!!

Why does it take the limousine liberals so long to come around?

Buffett Says Economy Has ‘Fallen Off a Cliff’
“It has fallen off a cliff,” said Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, in an interview that aired on CNBC’s Squawk Box early Monday. “Not only has the economy slowed down, people have changed their behavior like nothing I have ever seen.”

What was Buffet's first clue?

Let The Inquisition Start With Frank

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Friday, March 06, 2009 4:20 PM PT Oversight: Congressman Barney Frank says he wants some of those responsible for our current financial meltdown to be prosecuted. And we couldn't agree more. First up in the court dock: Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.


I say put Barney "My Boy Lollipop" Frank and Chris "Friend of Angelo" Dodd away and throw away the key!
Thanks to the Patriot Post

Monday, March 09, 2009

From the "Trickle Up" Theory of Economics...

Global Financial Assets Lost $50 Trillion Last Year, ADB Says
By Shamim Adam
March 9 (Bloomberg) -- The value of global financial assets including stocks, bonds and currencies probably fell by more than $50 trillion in 2008, equivalent to a year of world gross domestic product, according to an Asian Development Bank report.


I'm sure "lil' Timmy" Geithner will have it all straightened out in no time....

Not to worry, BHO has it under control....

From the Miami Herald:
Lax scrutiny allowed Medicare fraud to flourish in Miami-Dade
In January 2007, Medicare shut down the businesses of 18 medical equipment suppliers in Miami-Dade County after investigators told the federal agency that the companies were shams. But when Medicare heard their appeals, the operators were quickly reinstated -- only to be indicted later that year for submitting more than $10 million in phony claims to the very agency that had let them back in business, court records show.


From the NY Times:
The president’s main focus is on starting to reduce the soaring cost of health care. That, he argues, is a prerequisite to making universal coverage affordable and politically palatable.


So we can all rest easy. BHO has it under control. I'm sure Our Dear Leader will ask that there be no more fraud. Case settled.

Why not? They are, after all our Komrades!

President Barack Obama is poised to offer an olive branch to Cuba in an effort to repair the US's tattered reputation in Latin America.
The White House has moved to ease some travel and trade restrictions as a cautious first step towards better ties with Havana, raising hopes of an eventual lifting of the four-decade-old economic embargo. Several Bush-era controls are expected to be relaxed in the run-up to next month's Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago to gild the president's regional debut and signal a new era of "Yankee" cooperation.


What's the big deal? Fidel is just a community organizer....

"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter," as the left loves to remind us...

Saturday, March 07, 2009

The Heavy Hand of Harry (Reid, that is...)

You all know about the president's plan to create "renewable" energy via wind & solar. The problem they are facing is the solar panels and the windmills are a long way from metropolitan areas. Hence, the abolition of state rights and individual property rights.

The Federal government would be able override states and direct where the lines would go and who would pay for them.

In unveiling the proposal, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said an increased federal role in locating power lines was needed to encourage greater availability of electricity produced from wind, solar, geothermal and other renewable energy sources.


While states and the federal government would jointly develop "green" transmission plans for such areas, the proposal gives final say to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to take land under eminent domain and issue construction permits if a project is determined to be stalled or killed by state action.
Here we go...

Citizen's of Russia, Accept our Apologies

Dear Citizen's of Russia,

Please accept our apology for the mistake regarding the little "token of our appreciation" given to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov.

Hillary Clinton gave Sergei Lavrov a mock "reset" button, symbolising US hopes to mend frayed ties with Moscow.

But he said the word the Americans chose, "peregruzka", meant "overloaded" or "overcharged", rather than "reset".

Daily newspaper Kommersant declared on its front page: "Sergei Lavrov and Hillary Clinton push the wrong button."


Again, please accept our apology for all the reasons stated below (see last paragraph: "Open Letter to the E.U.")

Open Letter to the E.U.

Please forgive us, the citizen's of the U.S.A., for the recent ineptness of our current Secretary of State, H. Rodham Clinton. I know that as an international diplomat she is expected to have a certain level of knowledge and, for instance, know the form of government of the U.S.A. is not a democracy, but a Representative Republic. She it is also assumed to know that even if we (the U.S.A.) were are democracy, there are older democracies (albeit, socialist democracies) in the E.U.

"It is hard enough with two parties to come to any resolution, and I say this very respectfully, because I feel the same way about our own democracy, which has been around a lot longer than European democracy." The remark provoked much headshaking in the parliament of a bloc that likes to trace back its democratic tradition thousands of years to the days of classical Greece.


I know, as the highest ranking diplomatic representative of the U.S.A. she is expected to know the names and titles of other diplomats with which she is meeting.

One working lunch later with EU leaders, Clinton raised more eyebrows when she referred to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who stood beside her, as "High Representative Solano."

She also dubbed European Commission External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner as "Benito."


Again, we the citizens of the U.S.A., extend our apologies for sending our highest ranking diplomat, U.S. Secretary of State, H. Rodham Clinton, to meetings unprepared. Please understand, as a first lady, a private citizen and then U.S. Senator H. Rodham Clinton, she was not required be knowledgeable of the such little details (like the form and age of our government and the titles and names of foreign diplomats).

H. Rodham Clinton is still in the learning phase and I am sure she will learn and grow into her position.

Open Letter to Great Britain

Dear Citizens of Great Britain,

I am asking you to forgive us, the citizens of the U.S.A. for the recent actions of our current president, which could be construed as insulting.

I know your Prime Minister gave President Obama an amazingly thought out gift of an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet. I know the unique present delighted Mr Obama because oak from the Gannet's sister ship, HMS Resolute, was carved to make a desk that has sat in the Oval Office in the White House since 1880.

I know PM Brown also handed over a framed commission for HMS Resolute and a first edition of the seven-volume biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert. I know this may have seemed silly, as our President Obama had already returned a bust of Winston Churchill given to the U.S. under President G.W. Bush. While I'm at it, please forgive us for that little insult as well.

I know, Mr Brown and his wife also showered gifts on the Obama children giving Sasha and Malia an outfit each from Topshop and six children's books by British authors which are shortly to be published in America.

Please forgive the U.S. citizens for our president's insulting gift of 25 classic American movies, which may be purchased at Amazon.com or elsewhere on the internet. I know our president probably didn't realize that the digital format in G.B. is different than in the U.S. and that the insulting gift may not even be able to be viewed unless using the correct DVD players. Maybe your P.M. ought to visit Japan and hint he needs an "American" DVD player....?

Please understand our president did not come into office with much experience. Apparently, diplomatic etiquette is not covered in Saul Alinski's "Rules for Radicals", Obama's bible.

Again, "we the people of the U.S.A." sincerely ask for your forgiveness.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

UBS defies US demands on secret accounts

Good for them! I am so glad to see someone standing up for the rights of individuals!

Levin said he had the support of Obama and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for a new bill that would make it "difficult if not impossible" for Americans to open accounts in offshore financial centers.


When will the U.S. government understand the reason rich people want to put money offshore is because of the punitive taxation system here in the U.S.? If the U.S. instituted the Fair Tax (and repealed the 16th amendment) money would gush into the U.S. economy. Even without the Fair Tax companies want to do business here. What would happen if they suddenly had no corporate income tax? There would be an economic explosion the likes of which have never been seen!!!

Instead, the U.S. wants to implement policies that thwart the achievers and producers at every step!

Obama the New Chavez?

How long before the Obama administration goes down this path, following Hugo Chavez (who, after all, started as a simple community organizer)? I mean it. Really read the article and tell me where the difference in philosophy lies?

"If any industry wants to ride roughshod over the consumers, with a view to getting better dividends, we are going to act," said Carlos Osorio, the national superintendent of silos and storage. "For the government, access to food is a matter of national security."

This is the EXACT same mentality that has infected The Three Stooges leading this country down the path to socialism. How long before we see a bill to repeal the 22nd amendment limiting the president to 2 terms? Oops, my bad. They already have introduced the bill....

"Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov". Maybe some body ought to tell them...

From the White House website (see here):
Transparency -- President Obama has committed to making his administration the most open and transparent in history, and WhiteHouse.gov will play a major role in delivering on that promise. The President's executive orders and proclamations will be published for everyone to review, and that’s just the beginning of our efforts to provide a window for all Americans into the business of the government. You can also learn about some of the senior leadership in the new administration and about the President’s policy priorities.

And yet we read that the Federal Reserve will not release the names of the banks to which $1,900,000,000 (that's $1.9 TRILLION) of OUR money was loaned because it might "cast a stigma" on those banks. I think it should cast a stigma on those banks. I think the tax payer (and investor) ought to know where our money went and why the banks needed it. Read about it here.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

The Inconvenient Debt: The Hockey Stick Effect and What Thomas Jefferson Had to Say About It.



And now for some profundity from TJ (one of the founding fathers):

"But with respect to future debt; would it not be wise and just for that nation to declare in the constitution they are forming that neither the legislature, nor the nation itself can validly contract more debt, than they may pay within their own age, or within the term of 19 years." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, 6 September 1789
(Oh, how I wish they'd put that in the constitution!!!)

and

"The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Shelton Gilliam, 19 June 1808

And you thought this was a new problem...

"I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Thomas Cooper, 29 November 1802

and, (drum roll, please) finally...

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."
-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to William Stephens Smith, 13 November 1787)
Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (911)

They really did know what they where talking about....

"I think all the world would gain by setting commerce at perfect liberty."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, 7 July 1785

Monday, March 02, 2009

Here's What Wall Street Thinks of Obama's 'Recovery Plan':

6,763.29
-299.64 (-4.24%)
Mar 2 - Close

What does it all mean?

Headline: Consumer spending rises in Jan., unlikely to last.
"Consumer spending rises in January after 6 straight declines, but rebound seen as temporary."

That's right, good news about the economy must be stopped at all costs. Otherwise, the crisis is averted and there would be no need for socialism.

Of course, if you keep reading, "There was a big increase in the savings rate to 5 percent. It is good that people save but it is not good that everybody saves at the same time. That makes the current downturn more severe and long lasting." Isn't that good news? No, that too, must be bad news...

I can hear the MSM (mainstream media) now, eyes closed, fists clench, chanting, "No good news, no good news, no good news...."

Why isn't anyone asking, "How can consumer spending and personal savings increase at the same time?"

Oh the Irony!

I'm not sure what is more ironic. The fact that Pelosi couldn't make a 'global warming' rally due to a massive snowstorm, or the fact that the reason she couldn't is because her flight (on her private jet - no doubt) was delayed due to the massive snowstorm.

Will they ever see their crazy hypocrisy?

Sunday, March 01, 2009

"How Did This Happen?" And "A Plauseible Answer"

Here is a great article that dares to ask the questions no one seems to be asking, "How Did This Happen?"

In my line of work, Root Cause Analysis' are the first thing you do when you want to permanently fix a problem. This author has a point. No one seems to care how we got where we are. To which I would as, "How do they know what to fix, if they don't know how this happened?"

This author expands on the article above and proposes to answer the question, How Did This Happen? The one thing he points out that I never realized was, while all the talk has been about Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, no one seems to be talking about Ginnie Mae. What has Ginnie Mae done right? Maybe a better question would be, "What did Ginnie Mae not do that Fannie & Freddie did do?

"The socialists are coming!"

I'd say the socialists are already here, alive and well, sleeping in the White House and all over Washington D.C. & Maryland, along with most college campuses, San Fransico, etc...

This is a good article, providing a good historical perspective on why Americans have (up to now, anyway) been such individualists.