Obama made $5m in 2009 and tells us we've made enough?
By: J.P. Freire
Associate Commentary Editor
04/29/10 3:26 PM EDT
Obama says you’ve made enough money. Easy for him to say when his income last year looked like this: $5,500,000
In a stump speech in Quincy, Illinois, President Obama suggested that “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.”
Obama made almost $5.5 million last year, most of which came from book royalties according to his tax return.
This comes on top of the other millions of dollars Obama received in previous years. The fact that Obama has been in the public spotlight as a politician has undoubtedly had an impact on the royalties of his two books as well. Go ahead and compare Obama’s 2009 income with other presidents here.
And let’s not forget that while Obama stepped up his charitable giving this year, he was noted to have given very little to charity:
What is surprising, given the recent controversy over Obama’s membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ, is how little the Obamas apparently gave to charity — well short of the biblical 10% tithe for all seven years. In two of the years, the Obamas gave far less than 1% of their income to charity; in three of the years, they gave around 1% of their income to charity. Only in the last two years have they given substantially more as their income skyrocketed — 4.7% in 2005 and 6.1% in 2006. (Of course, it is possible that the Obamas may have made gifts to other worthy causes that were not deductible for federal income tax purposes.)
So when the president lectures about who’s earned enough, let’s keep in mind what he himself did in practice.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/look-whos-talking-obamas-making-enough-money-too-92439904.html#ixzz0mZDfIial
Friday, April 30, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Rules for Radicals
For those of you who’ve never read Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, but yet you’ve heard the media (Fox) speak about BO, SEIU, the Demorats, and the progressives using Alinsky’s tactics. Well let me help you out. Here are some excerpts from his book Rules for Radicals, read through them, and I guarantee that you’ve seen the left using these exact tactics. We can win this battle using Sun Tzu’s Tactics from The Art of War.
“It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle”—-Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu; Sūn Zǐ; (c. 6th century BC) was a Chinese General, military strategist, and author of The Art of War, an immensely influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy; also known as Sun Wu; Sūn Wǔ), and Chang Qing ; Cháng Qīng).
[This is Jim: I have put a couple of comments in brackets. I made some parts bold and/or italicized as they seemed particularly pronounced.]
Rules for Radicals
by Saul D Alinsky (book excerpt)
A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals
Tactics mean doing what you can with what you have. Tactics are those conscious deliberate acts by which human beings live with each other and deal with the world around them. In the world of give and take, tactics is the art of how to take and how to give. Here our concern is with the tactic of taking; how the Have-Nots can take power away from the Haves.
For an elementary illustration of tactics, take parts of your face as the point of reference; your eyes, your ears, and your nose. First the eyes; if you have organized a vast, mass-based people’s organization, you can parade it visibly before the enemy and openly show your power. Second the ears; if your organization is small in numbers, then…conceal the members in the dark but raise a din and clamor that will make the listener believe that your organization numbers many more than it does. Third, the nose; if your organization is too tiny even for noise, stink up the place.
[-1] Always remember the first rule of power tactics: Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have. [Hence, arrogant condescension.]
[-2] The second rule is: Never go outside the experience of your people. When an action is outside the experience of the people, the result is confusion, fear, and retreat.
[-3] The third rule is: Wherever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.
[-4] The fourth rule is: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.
[-5] The fourth rule carries within it the fifth rule: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.
[-6] The sixth rule is: A good tactic is one that your people enjoy. If your people are not having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.
[-7] The seventh rule is: A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag. man can sustain militant interest in any issue for only a limited time, after which it becomes a ritualistic commitment…
[-8] The eighth rule: Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions, and utilize all events of the period for your purpose.
[-9] The ninth rule: The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
[10] The tenth rule: The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.
[11] The eleventh rule is: If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside; this is based on the principle that every positive has its negative…
[12] The twelfth rule: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. you cannot risk being trapped by the enemy in his sudden agreement with your demand and saying “You’re right–we don’t know what to do about this issue. Now you tell us.”
[13] The thirteenth rule: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.
In conflict tactics there are certain rules that the organizer should always regard as universalities. One is that the opposition must be singled out as the target and “frozen.” By this I mean that in a complex, interrelated, urban society, it becomes increasingly difficult to single out who is to blame for any particular evil. There is a constant, and somewhat legitimate, passing of the buck….
It should be borne in mind that the target is always trying to shift responsibility to get out of being the target…. [And the Dems are masters at this!]
One of the criteria in picking your target is the target’s vulnerability–where do you have the power to start? Furthermore, the target can always say, “Why do you center on me when there are others to blame as well?” When you “freeze the target,” you disregard these arguments and, for the moment, all others to blame.
Then, as you zero in and freeze your target and carry out your attack, all of the “others” come out of the woodwork very soon. They become visible by their support of the target.
The other important point in the choosing of a target is that it must be a PERSONIFICATION, not something general and abstract such as a community’s segregated practices or a major corporation or City Hall. It is not possible to develop the necessary hostility against, say, City Hall, which after all is a concrete, physical, inanimate structure, or against a corporation, which has no soul or identity, or a public school administration, which again is an inanimate system.
“It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle”—-Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu; Sūn Zǐ; (c. 6th century BC) was a Chinese General, military strategist, and author of The Art of War, an immensely influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy; also known as Sun Wu; Sūn Wǔ), and Chang Qing ; Cháng Qīng).
[This is Jim: I have put a couple of comments in brackets. I made some parts bold and/or italicized as they seemed particularly pronounced.]
Rules for Radicals
by Saul D Alinsky (book excerpt)
A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals
Tactics mean doing what you can with what you have. Tactics are those conscious deliberate acts by which human beings live with each other and deal with the world around them. In the world of give and take, tactics is the art of how to take and how to give. Here our concern is with the tactic of taking; how the Have-Nots can take power away from the Haves.
For an elementary illustration of tactics, take parts of your face as the point of reference; your eyes, your ears, and your nose. First the eyes; if you have organized a vast, mass-based people’s organization, you can parade it visibly before the enemy and openly show your power. Second the ears; if your organization is small in numbers, then…conceal the members in the dark but raise a din and clamor that will make the listener believe that your organization numbers many more than it does. Third, the nose; if your organization is too tiny even for noise, stink up the place.
[-1] Always remember the first rule of power tactics: Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have. [Hence, arrogant condescension.]
[-2] The second rule is: Never go outside the experience of your people. When an action is outside the experience of the people, the result is confusion, fear, and retreat.
[-3] The third rule is: Wherever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.
[-4] The fourth rule is: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.
[-5] The fourth rule carries within it the fifth rule: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.
[-6] The sixth rule is: A good tactic is one that your people enjoy. If your people are not having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.
[-7] The seventh rule is: A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag. man can sustain militant interest in any issue for only a limited time, after which it becomes a ritualistic commitment…
[-8] The eighth rule: Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions, and utilize all events of the period for your purpose.
[-9] The ninth rule: The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
[10] The tenth rule: The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.
[11] The eleventh rule is: If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside; this is based on the principle that every positive has its negative…
[12] The twelfth rule: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. you cannot risk being trapped by the enemy in his sudden agreement with your demand and saying “You’re right–we don’t know what to do about this issue. Now you tell us.”
[13] The thirteenth rule: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.
In conflict tactics there are certain rules that the organizer should always regard as universalities. One is that the opposition must be singled out as the target and “frozen.” By this I mean that in a complex, interrelated, urban society, it becomes increasingly difficult to single out who is to blame for any particular evil. There is a constant, and somewhat legitimate, passing of the buck….
It should be borne in mind that the target is always trying to shift responsibility to get out of being the target…. [And the Dems are masters at this!]
One of the criteria in picking your target is the target’s vulnerability–where do you have the power to start? Furthermore, the target can always say, “Why do you center on me when there are others to blame as well?” When you “freeze the target,” you disregard these arguments and, for the moment, all others to blame.
Then, as you zero in and freeze your target and carry out your attack, all of the “others” come out of the woodwork very soon. They become visible by their support of the target.
The other important point in the choosing of a target is that it must be a PERSONIFICATION, not something general and abstract such as a community’s segregated practices or a major corporation or City Hall. It is not possible to develop the necessary hostility against, say, City Hall, which after all is a concrete, physical, inanimate structure, or against a corporation, which has no soul or identity, or a public school administration, which again is an inanimate system.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Thank God for President Obama
You think I'm kidding? Check out the bright side:
He destroyed the Clinton Political Machine - Driving a stake thru the Heart of Hillary's Presidential aspirations--something no Republican was ever able to do. Remember when a Hillary Presidency scared the daylights out of you!
He killed off the Kennedy Dynasty - No more Kennedys trolling Washington looking for booze and women wanting rides home. American women and freedom are safer tonight!
He is destroying the Democratic Party before our eyes!
Dennis Moore had never lost a race - quit
Evan Bayh had never lost a race - quit
Byron Dorgan - had never lost a race - quit
Harry Reid - bid for re-election doesn't look good
These are just a handful of the Democrats whose political careers Obama has destroyed! In December of 2008 the Democrats were on the rise. In the last two election cycles they had picked up 14 senate seats and 52 house seats. The press was touting the death of the Conservative Movement and the Republican Party. In one year Obama put a stop to all of this and will probably give the house, if not the senate back to the Republicans.
He has completely exposed liberals and progressives for what they are. Every generation seems to need to relearn the lesson on why they should never actually put liberals in charge.
He is bringing home the lesson very well!
Liberals tax, borrow and spend - check
Liberals won't bring themselves to protect America - check
Liberals want to take over the economy - check
Liberals think they know what is best for everyone - check
Liberals aren't happy till they are running YOUR life - check
He has brought more Americans back to conservatism than anyone since Reagan. In one year he rejuvenated the Conservative Movement and brought out to the streets millions of Freedom Loving Americans.
In all honesty one year ago I was more afraid than I had ever been in my life. Not of the economy, but of the direction our country was going. I thought Americans had forgotten what this country was all about. My neighbors, friends, strangers proved to me that my lack of confidence of the greatness and wisdom of the American people was flat out wrong. When the American People wake up, no smooth talking teleprompter reader can fool them!
So, Lets Recap 2009:
1. The American people inaugurate a president with a total of 142 days experience as a US Senator from the most politically corrupt state (city) in America whose governors have been ousted from office. The President's first official act is to order the close of Gitmo and make sure terrorist's civil rights are not violated. (Honest mistake?)
2. The U.S. Congress rushes to confirm a black Attorney General, Eric Holder, whose law firm we later find out represents seventeen Gitmo Terrorists. (An honest mistake?)
3. The CIA Boss appointee, Leon Panetta, has absolutely no experience.
4. We got the second most corrupt American woman (Pelosi is #1) as Secretary of State; bought and paid for. (You can put lipstick on a pig, but it still stinks.)
5. We got a Tax Cheat for Treasury Secretary who did not properly file his own taxes for 12 years. (He misspoke.)
6. A Commerce Secretary nominee who withdrew due to corruption charges. (Another honest mistake?)
7. A Tax cheat nominee for Chief Performance Officer who withdrew under charges. (Hmmm... )
8. A Labor Secretary nominee who withdrew under charges of unethical conduct. (Ok, maybe this person was just plain stupid.)
9. A Secretary HHS nominee (Daschle) who withdrew under charges of cheating on his taxes. (I'm running out of excuses for these idiots.)
10. Multiple appointments of former lobbyists after an absolute campaign statement that no lobbyists would be appointed. (Dear God, I am getting a headache.)
All this occurred just during the first three weeks. . . But who's counting?
America is being run by the modern-day Three Stooges; Barry, Nancy and Harry and they are still trying to define stimulus..."it's spending."
The congress passes the $800,000,000,000 (that's $800 billion) pork-loaded spending bill where the government gives you a smidgen of your tax dollars ($13 per week), making you feel so good about yourself [stimulated], that you want to run out to Wal-Mart and buy a new Chinese-made HDTV!
Here's the good news though - Obama took Air Force One to Denver to sign the stimulus package, wasting as much as 10,000 gallons of fuel OR 24 JOBS FOR ONE YEAR.
Obama went to the International Olympic Committee to have them choose Chicago for a host city, he failed.
Obama went to Copenhagen to lecture them on global warming, he failed
Obama went to New Jersey to promote the Democratic candidate for governor, he failed,
Obama went to Virginia to promote the Democratic candidate for governor, he failed.
Obama went to Massachusetts to promote the Democratic candidate for senator, he failed.
And finally, he is the 1st president to remain on vacation after a terrorist attack.
Anyone that supports this insanity can keep the change....
He destroyed the Clinton Political Machine - Driving a stake thru the Heart of Hillary's Presidential aspirations--something no Republican was ever able to do. Remember when a Hillary Presidency scared the daylights out of you!
He killed off the Kennedy Dynasty - No more Kennedys trolling Washington looking for booze and women wanting rides home. American women and freedom are safer tonight!
He is destroying the Democratic Party before our eyes!
Dennis Moore had never lost a race - quit
Evan Bayh had never lost a race - quit
Byron Dorgan - had never lost a race - quit
Harry Reid - bid for re-election doesn't look good
These are just a handful of the Democrats whose political careers Obama has destroyed! In December of 2008 the Democrats were on the rise. In the last two election cycles they had picked up 14 senate seats and 52 house seats. The press was touting the death of the Conservative Movement and the Republican Party. In one year Obama put a stop to all of this and will probably give the house, if not the senate back to the Republicans.
He has completely exposed liberals and progressives for what they are. Every generation seems to need to relearn the lesson on why they should never actually put liberals in charge.
He is bringing home the lesson very well!
Liberals tax, borrow and spend - check
Liberals won't bring themselves to protect America - check
Liberals want to take over the economy - check
Liberals think they know what is best for everyone - check
Liberals aren't happy till they are running YOUR life - check
He has brought more Americans back to conservatism than anyone since Reagan. In one year he rejuvenated the Conservative Movement and brought out to the streets millions of Freedom Loving Americans.
In all honesty one year ago I was more afraid than I had ever been in my life. Not of the economy, but of the direction our country was going. I thought Americans had forgotten what this country was all about. My neighbors, friends, strangers proved to me that my lack of confidence of the greatness and wisdom of the American people was flat out wrong. When the American People wake up, no smooth talking teleprompter reader can fool them!
So, Lets Recap 2009:
1. The American people inaugurate a president with a total of 142 days experience as a US Senator from the most politically corrupt state (city) in America whose governors have been ousted from office. The President's first official act is to order the close of Gitmo and make sure terrorist's civil rights are not violated. (Honest mistake?)
2. The U.S. Congress rushes to confirm a black Attorney General, Eric Holder, whose law firm we later find out represents seventeen Gitmo Terrorists. (An honest mistake?)
3. The CIA Boss appointee, Leon Panetta, has absolutely no experience.
4. We got the second most corrupt American woman (Pelosi is #1) as Secretary of State; bought and paid for. (You can put lipstick on a pig, but it still stinks.)
5. We got a Tax Cheat for Treasury Secretary who did not properly file his own taxes for 12 years. (He misspoke.)
6. A Commerce Secretary nominee who withdrew due to corruption charges. (Another honest mistake?)
7. A Tax cheat nominee for Chief Performance Officer who withdrew under charges. (Hmmm... )
8. A Labor Secretary nominee who withdrew under charges of unethical conduct. (Ok, maybe this person was just plain stupid.)
9. A Secretary HHS nominee (Daschle) who withdrew under charges of cheating on his taxes. (I'm running out of excuses for these idiots.)
10. Multiple appointments of former lobbyists after an absolute campaign statement that no lobbyists would be appointed. (Dear God, I am getting a headache.)
All this occurred just during the first three weeks. . . But who's counting?
America is being run by the modern-day Three Stooges; Barry, Nancy and Harry and they are still trying to define stimulus..."it's spending."
The congress passes the $800,000,000,000 (that's $800 billion) pork-loaded spending bill where the government gives you a smidgen of your tax dollars ($13 per week), making you feel so good about yourself [stimulated], that you want to run out to Wal-Mart and buy a new Chinese-made HDTV!
Here's the good news though - Obama took Air Force One to Denver to sign the stimulus package, wasting as much as 10,000 gallons of fuel OR 24 JOBS FOR ONE YEAR.
Obama went to the International Olympic Committee to have them choose Chicago for a host city, he failed.
Obama went to Copenhagen to lecture them on global warming, he failed
Obama went to New Jersey to promote the Democratic candidate for governor, he failed,
Obama went to Virginia to promote the Democratic candidate for governor, he failed.
Obama went to Massachusetts to promote the Democratic candidate for senator, he failed.
And finally, he is the 1st president to remain on vacation after a terrorist attack.
Anyone that supports this insanity can keep the change....
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Alrighty Then....
Here it is, folks, the response we've all waited for from Dian(n)e. Notice how she doesn't get to her commercial for quite a while, and once again notice how far apart the paragraphs are:
Dear Mr. Locke:
Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns about federal expenditures. I appreciate the time you took to write about this important issue, and I apologize for the delay in my response.
I believe that new government programs should be considered with their impact on the federal deficit in mind. I share your serious concern about our nation's increasing debt and the financial burden it will place on future generations. Our national debt is now over $12 trillion, which translates to roughly $40,000 owed by every American citizen.
Last year, a number of significant factors contributed to our federal budget deficit reaching a record $1.4 trillion. Legislation was enacted to stabilize financial markets, assist homeowners, and create jobs in an effort to stem the economic downturn. Due in part to the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program and $787 billion economic stimulus bill, the economy is beginning to show signs of recovery. However, additional measures may be necessary to create jobs and assist the unemployed, especially while the unemployment rate in California is over 12 percent.
As the economy begins to recover, Members of Congress must work together to improve our budgetary outlook by enacting more fiscally responsible policies. I am pleased that President Obama has signed an executive order to establish a bipartisan commission, the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, to recommend policies for reducing deficits and ensuring the long-term solvency of entitlement programs. Congress must act to reduce budget deficits, while strengthening entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security going forward. Please know that I understand how strongly many Californians feel about the growth of federal expenditures, and I assure you that I am working in the Senate to reduce the federal deficit.
Again, thank you for writing. If you have any further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841. Best regards.
Sincerely yours,
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator
Further information about my position on issues of concern to California and the Nation are available at my website http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/. You can also receive electronic e-mail updates by subscribing to my e-mail list at http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ENewsletterSignup.Signup.
Dear Mr. Locke:
Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns about federal expenditures. I appreciate the time you took to write about this important issue, and I apologize for the delay in my response.
I believe that new government programs should be considered with their impact on the federal deficit in mind. I share your serious concern about our nation's increasing debt and the financial burden it will place on future generations. Our national debt is now over $12 trillion, which translates to roughly $40,000 owed by every American citizen.
Last year, a number of significant factors contributed to our federal budget deficit reaching a record $1.4 trillion. Legislation was enacted to stabilize financial markets, assist homeowners, and create jobs in an effort to stem the economic downturn. Due in part to the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program and $787 billion economic stimulus bill, the economy is beginning to show signs of recovery. However, additional measures may be necessary to create jobs and assist the unemployed, especially while the unemployment rate in California is over 12 percent.
As the economy begins to recover, Members of Congress must work together to improve our budgetary outlook by enacting more fiscally responsible policies. I am pleased that President Obama has signed an executive order to establish a bipartisan commission, the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, to recommend policies for reducing deficits and ensuring the long-term solvency of entitlement programs. Congress must act to reduce budget deficits, while strengthening entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security going forward. Please know that I understand how strongly many Californians feel about the growth of federal expenditures, and I assure you that I am working in the Senate to reduce the federal deficit.
Again, thank you for writing. If you have any further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841. Best regards.
Sincerely yours,
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator
Further information about my position on issues of concern to California and the Nation are available at my website http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/. You can also receive electronic e-mail updates by subscribing to my e-mail list at http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ENewsletterSignup.Signup.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
The Day Before
Well, it's the day before a big vote on health care reform. Or is it health insurance reform? Or is it health care delivery system reform? Or is it health welfare entitlement time for millions of helpless souls, many with big screens, Mini-Coopers, Harleys, out-of-wedlock children, unaffordable children, the owner of my neighbor's house who hasn't made a mortgage payment in a year but drives a late model BMW, or most of the people on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood on a Friday night?
One of my relatives had two children out of wedlock by the time she was 20. She works hard and always has -- but says she can't afford health insurance. But she had two children out of wedlock before age 20. (HER age was 20, not the kids.) Of course she can't afford insurance if the kids want to be fed and housed. But she's a victim. (Did you recognize a little sarcasm there? Actually, I'M the victim -- and if you pay taxes YOU'RE the victim.)
Health care is available for every citizen and non-citizen. Those without insurance or mega cash might have to wait several hours before treatment, but they'll get it.
Our Emergency Rooms have turned into clinics. I encourage all to visit ERs at any time of the day or night and check out the waiting room. I will personally guarantee there will be more chronic illness (sometimes in an acute phase, but chronic nonetheless), than there will be actual emergent cases. Especially, I would urge you to check out a children's hospital ER. Report back to me, will ya?!?
Well, this morning I decided it was time to write Brad Sherman, my Congressional Representative and urge him to vote NO on this outlandish legislation which is not affordable to us, our children, our employers, and will allow thousands of small businesses to fail.
Here is a copy of my note to Brad, and please stay tuned for a response from Brad which will come in, oh.. about a month or so. (They must have extremely slow computers over there!)
__________________________________________
Congressman,
Please vote NO on the health reform bill before Congress. It's obvious the public does not want what is proposed -- blatantly obvious. Even CBS and the NYT aren't disagreeing.
First try insurance competition. What sense does it make that we can buy other insurance but not health insurance across state lines? To protect the COMPANIES? That's ludicrous. Competition would help in establishing standardization of prices and fees; go a long way towards keeping more accurate and condensed records; and eliminate the 'pre-existing' debacle but in a 'fair' manor. (I know how you like the word "fair.")
Second, tort reform. Even though most of you guys are lawyers THAT industry is the one that's out of control. Make the losers of lawsuits pay all legal expenses and watch frivolous lawsuits disappear overnight. OVERNIGHT.
Please send me a direct response with rebuttals as to why those 2 ideas in your opinion won't work and avoid sending me the letter (actually commercial) which is the response for every letter sent no matter what the issue.
Thanks, Brad.
Jim Locke
One of my relatives had two children out of wedlock by the time she was 20. She works hard and always has -- but says she can't afford health insurance. But she had two children out of wedlock before age 20. (HER age was 20, not the kids.) Of course she can't afford insurance if the kids want to be fed and housed. But she's a victim. (Did you recognize a little sarcasm there? Actually, I'M the victim -- and if you pay taxes YOU'RE the victim.)
Health care is available for every citizen and non-citizen. Those without insurance or mega cash might have to wait several hours before treatment, but they'll get it.
Our Emergency Rooms have turned into clinics. I encourage all to visit ERs at any time of the day or night and check out the waiting room. I will personally guarantee there will be more chronic illness (sometimes in an acute phase, but chronic nonetheless), than there will be actual emergent cases. Especially, I would urge you to check out a children's hospital ER. Report back to me, will ya?!?
Well, this morning I decided it was time to write Brad Sherman, my Congressional Representative and urge him to vote NO on this outlandish legislation which is not affordable to us, our children, our employers, and will allow thousands of small businesses to fail.
Here is a copy of my note to Brad, and please stay tuned for a response from Brad which will come in, oh.. about a month or so. (They must have extremely slow computers over there!)
__________________________________________
Congressman,
Please vote NO on the health reform bill before Congress. It's obvious the public does not want what is proposed -- blatantly obvious. Even CBS and the NYT aren't disagreeing.
First try insurance competition. What sense does it make that we can buy other insurance but not health insurance across state lines? To protect the COMPANIES? That's ludicrous. Competition would help in establishing standardization of prices and fees; go a long way towards keeping more accurate and condensed records; and eliminate the 'pre-existing' debacle but in a 'fair' manor. (I know how you like the word "fair.")
Second, tort reform. Even though most of you guys are lawyers THAT industry is the one that's out of control. Make the losers of lawsuits pay all legal expenses and watch frivolous lawsuits disappear overnight. OVERNIGHT.
Please send me a direct response with rebuttals as to why those 2 ideas in your opinion won't work and avoid sending me the letter (actually commercial) which is the response for every letter sent no matter what the issue.
Thanks, Brad.
Jim Locke
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Another Stimulating and Personalized Response from Another Silly Politician
Yes, folks, here it is. A PERSONALIZED email to me from Ms. Boxer herself. Oops, I mean Madam Boxer... no, wait... Mrs. Boxer... uhhhhh... let's see... mmmmmm... oh, I forget what she wishes to be called, something she worked for... something she earned. (Well, we know it's not R E S P E C T -- with apologies to Aretha -- so it's between Mrs, and Ms... Ms=not a Mrs, and not a Miss... so I guess it means "near-miss?" Yeah, that's it! She's a Near-Miss.
Anyway, here is her personalized response to my note to her on February 21. Just curious, Bar, but why does it take 3 weeks to get an electronic response to an electronic message that you'll never see?
And call me Andy Looney, but why do these politicians put 5 or 6 line breaks between paragraphs? Is wasting things just in their nature???
Brace yourselves, folks.. you're about to enter the Twilight Zone......
=============================
From:
"senator@boxer.senate.gov"
Add sender to Contacts
To:
jimlocke@sbcglobal.net
Dear Mr. Locke:
Thank you for taking the time to send information to my office. One of the most important aspects of my job is keeping informed about the views of my constituents, and I welcome your comments so that I may continue to represent California to the best of my ability. Should I have the opportunity to consider legislation on this issue, I will keep your views in mind.
For additional information about my activities in the U.S. Senate, please visit my website, http://boxer.senate.gov. From this site, you can access statements and press releases that I have issued about current events and pending legislation, request copies of legislation and government reports, and receive detailed information about the many services that I am privileged to provide for my constituents. You may also wish to visit http://thomas.loc.gov to track current and past legislation.
Again, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. I appreciate hearing from you.
Barbara Boxer
United States Senator
Please do not respond to this message. If you would like to comment on legislation, please visit my website and use the correspondence form at https://boxer.senate.gov/contact/email/policy.cfm
===================================
You'll see the last thing she tells me is to not respond to this message. Please note that even though SHE followed those instructions they did NOT originate with me -- she said it first!
I will do everything I can to see this bitch voted out... (did I say that?!??!)
Anyway, here is her personalized response to my note to her on February 21. Just curious, Bar, but why does it take 3 weeks to get an electronic response to an electronic message that you'll never see?
And call me Andy Looney, but why do these politicians put 5 or 6 line breaks between paragraphs? Is wasting things just in their nature???
Brace yourselves, folks.. you're about to enter the Twilight Zone......
=============================
From:
"senator@boxer.senate.gov"
Add sender to Contacts
To:
jimlocke@sbcglobal.net
Dear Mr. Locke:
Thank you for taking the time to send information to my office. One of the most important aspects of my job is keeping informed about the views of my constituents, and I welcome your comments so that I may continue to represent California to the best of my ability. Should I have the opportunity to consider legislation on this issue, I will keep your views in mind.
For additional information about my activities in the U.S. Senate, please visit my website, http://boxer.senate.gov. From this site, you can access statements and press releases that I have issued about current events and pending legislation, request copies of legislation and government reports, and receive detailed information about the many services that I am privileged to provide for my constituents. You may also wish to visit http://thomas.loc.gov to track current and past legislation.
Again, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. I appreciate hearing from you.
Barbara Boxer
United States Senator
Please do not respond to this message. If you would like to comment on legislation, please visit my website and use the correspondence form at https://boxer.senate.gov/contact/email/policy.cfm
===================================
You'll see the last thing she tells me is to not respond to this message. Please note that even though SHE followed those instructions they did NOT originate with me -- she said it first!
I will do everything I can to see this bitch voted out... (did I say that?!??!)
Thursday, March 4, 2010
New, Concise, Informative, and PERSONALIZED Response From BRAD SHERMAN, My Congressman!
A few weeks ago... yes.. WEEKS... I wrote my Congressional Representative specifically asking why we don't try TORT reform, opening trade between health insurers so they may sell across state lines, and a couple of other suggestions to address CAUSES of the so-called health "care" or "insurance" or "reform" crisis -- (even they don't know what to call it) -- rather than deal with CONSEQUENCES. I don't know, it just seems smart to me to deal with the stuff that made the problems rather than the results of those problems, knowudimsayin.
I am so pleased today. I received my personalized response from my Congressional Representative, The Hon. Brad Sherman. After reading this I feel much better that he is in Washington to represent me AND you in these trying times. Here is what he sent me in an email today:
________________________________________________
Dear Mr. Locke:
Thank you very much for contacting me with your views about health care and tort reform. I appreciate your taking the time to share your concerns with me.
Hearing from you is very important to me because it provides me with insight into your thoughts and concerns on the major issues facing Congress today. I look forward to your continued input and will keep your concerns in mind as legislation on these issues is considered on the House floor or in any of my committees.
Only part of my job is voting in Washington. Another important part of my job is helping resolve problems that constituents are experiencing with federal agencies. If you are interested in any of these services, please contact my district office at (818) 501-9200 or visit my website at http://BradSherman.house.gov.
You can also follow me on Twitter by visiting Twitter.com/BradSherman, or become my fan on Facebook. My official government Facebook page is registered as "Congressman Brad Sherman."
Again, thank you very much for contacting me and sharing your views. I hope to hear from you further in the future.
Sincerely,
Brad Sherman
Member of Congress
Please note that Brad Sherman respects your privacy. If you sign up for Congressman Sherman's email updates or participate in a questionnaire, your email information will never be sold, traded or rented to any outside company. If you wish to contact me further, I welcome your correspondence. However, please do not reply to this message. Instead, please visit my website, http://bradsherman.house.gov/sherman/contact, and e-mail me through the webform provided. Thank you very much for contacting me.
_________________________________________________
Notice something, folks, please... he typed SINCERELY, Brad Sherman blah, blah, blah. He actually meant it!
I wonder if I contributed to his mandatory $4-5,000 per day/every day he's in office/ including week-ends and holidays fund raising minimum we might get some personalized embellishment. Maybe he could even mention my name in the middle of the email!
I am so pleased today. I received my personalized response from my Congressional Representative, The Hon. Brad Sherman. After reading this I feel much better that he is in Washington to represent me AND you in these trying times. Here is what he sent me in an email today:
________________________________________________
Dear Mr. Locke:
Thank you very much for contacting me with your views about health care and tort reform. I appreciate your taking the time to share your concerns with me.
Hearing from you is very important to me because it provides me with insight into your thoughts and concerns on the major issues facing Congress today. I look forward to your continued input and will keep your concerns in mind as legislation on these issues is considered on the House floor or in any of my committees.
Only part of my job is voting in Washington. Another important part of my job is helping resolve problems that constituents are experiencing with federal agencies. If you are interested in any of these services, please contact my district office at (818) 501-9200 or visit my website at http://BradSherman.house.gov.
You can also follow me on Twitter by visiting Twitter.com/BradSherman, or become my fan on Facebook. My official government Facebook page is registered as "Congressman Brad Sherman."
Again, thank you very much for contacting me and sharing your views. I hope to hear from you further in the future.
Sincerely,
Brad Sherman
Member of Congress
Please note that Brad Sherman respects your privacy. If you sign up for Congressman Sherman's email updates or participate in a questionnaire, your email information will never be sold, traded or rented to any outside company. If you wish to contact me further, I welcome your correspondence. However, please do not reply to this message. Instead, please visit my website, http://bradsherman.house.gov/sherman/contact, and e-mail me through the webform provided. Thank you very much for contacting me.
_________________________________________________
Notice something, folks, please... he typed SINCERELY, Brad Sherman blah, blah, blah. He actually meant it!
I wonder if I contributed to his mandatory $4-5,000 per day/every day he's in office/ including week-ends and holidays fund raising minimum we might get some personalized embellishment. Maybe he could even mention my name in the middle of the email!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
You Wanna Fix Health Care?!? Here's How:
1) Exclude ILLEGAL ALIENS from RECEIVING BENEFITS. (This provision alone will save BILLIONS.)
2) Tort reform.
3) Allow insurance to be sold across state lines.
These three things alone will fix it. These are NOT BEING DISCUSSED, so that tells you that
THE CURRENT BILL IS NOT ABOUT HEALTH CARE REFORM AT ALL; it's about GOVERNMENT CONTROL!!
2) Tort reform.
3) Allow insurance to be sold across state lines.
These three things alone will fix it. These are NOT BEING DISCUSSED, so that tells you that
THE CURRENT BILL IS NOT ABOUT HEALTH CARE REFORM AT ALL; it's about GOVERNMENT CONTROL!!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Another Experiment
Here is a copy of an email I've sent to Barbara, Dian(n)e, and Brad today. It will be amusing and interesting to see the drivel I get back from them:
Dear Barbara, Dian(n)e, or Brad,
As you read the article below taken from the Washington Post -- please try to remember it, and then sacrifice 10% of what these people did. Quit spending money we don't have. Cut back. Eliminate programs, we can feed our own. I will feed my neighbors if they need food. Please sacrifice your political career for the sake of our country.
Fridays in the Pentagon
By Robert Bateman
It is 110 yards from the "E" ring to the "A" ring of the Pentagon. This section of the Pentagon is newly renovated; the floors shine, the hallway is broad, and the lighting is bright. At this instant the entire length of the corridor is packed with officers, a few sergeants and some civilians, all crammed tightly three and four deep against the walls. There are thousands here.
This hallway, more than any other, is the `Army' hallway. The G3 offices line one side, G2 the other, G8 is around the corner. All Army. Moderate conversations flow in a low buzz. Friends who may not have seen each other for a few weeks, or a few years, spot each other, cross the way and renew.
Everyone shifts to ensure an open path remains down the center. The air conditioning system was not designed for this press of bodies in this area.
The temperature is rising already. Nobody cares. "10:36 hours: The clapping starts at the E-Ring. That is the outermost of the five rings of the Pentagon and it is closest to the entrance to the building. This clapping is low, sustained, hearty. It is applause with a deep emotion behind it as it moves forward in a wave down the length of the hallway.
A steady rolling wave of sound it is, moving at the pace of the soldier in the wheelchair who marks the forward edge with his presence. He is the first. He is missing the greater part of one leg, and some of his wounds are still suppurating. By his age I expect that he is a private, or perhaps a private first class.
Captains, majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels meet his gaze and nod as they applaud, soldier to soldier. Three years ago when I described one of these events, those lining the hallways were somewhat different. The applause a little wilder, perhaps in private guilt for not having shared in the burden... yet.
Now almost everyone lining the hallway is, like the man in the wheelchair, also a combat veteran. This steadies the applause, but I think deepens the sentiment. We have all been there now. The soldier's chair is pushed by, I believe, a full colonel.
Behind him, and stretching the length from Rings E to A, come more of his peers, each private, corporal, or sergeant assisted as need be by a field grade officer.
11:00 hours: Twenty-four minutes of steady applause. My hands hurt, and I laugh to myself at how stupid that sounds in my own head. My hands hurt. Please! Shut up and clap. For twenty-four minutes, soldier after soldier has come down this hallway - 20, 25, 30. Fifty-three legs come with them, and perhaps only 52 hands or arms, but down this hall came 30 solid hearts.
They pass down this corridor of officers and applause, and then meet for a private lunch, at which they are the guests of honor, hosted by the generals. Some are wheeled along. Some insist upon getting out of their chairs, to march as best they can with their chin held up, down this hallway, through this most unique audience. Some are catching handshakes and smiling like a politician at a Fourth of July parade. More than a couple of them seem amazed and are smiling shyly.
There are families with them as well: the 18-year-old war-bride pushing her 19-year-old husband's wheelchair and not quite understanding why her husband is so affected by this, the boy she grew up with, now a man, who had never shed a tear is crying; the older immigrant Latino parents who have, perhaps more than their wounded mid-20s son, an appreciation for the emotion given on their son's behalf. No man in that hallway, walking or clapping, is ashamed by the silent tears on more than a few cheeks. An Airborne Ranger wipes his eyes only to better see. A couple of the officers in this crowd have themselves been a part of this parade in the past.
Dear Barbara, Dian(n)e, or Brad,
As you read the article below taken from the Washington Post -- please try to remember it, and then sacrifice 10% of what these people did. Quit spending money we don't have. Cut back. Eliminate programs, we can feed our own. I will feed my neighbors if they need food. Please sacrifice your political career for the sake of our country.
Fridays in the Pentagon
By Robert Bateman
It is 110 yards from the "E" ring to the "A" ring of the Pentagon. This section of the Pentagon is newly renovated; the floors shine, the hallway is broad, and the lighting is bright. At this instant the entire length of the corridor is packed with officers, a few sergeants and some civilians, all crammed tightly three and four deep against the walls. There are thousands here.
This hallway, more than any other, is the `Army' hallway. The G3 offices line one side, G2 the other, G8 is around the corner. All Army. Moderate conversations flow in a low buzz. Friends who may not have seen each other for a few weeks, or a few years, spot each other, cross the way and renew.
Everyone shifts to ensure an open path remains down the center. The air conditioning system was not designed for this press of bodies in this area.
The temperature is rising already. Nobody cares. "10:36 hours: The clapping starts at the E-Ring. That is the outermost of the five rings of the Pentagon and it is closest to the entrance to the building. This clapping is low, sustained, hearty. It is applause with a deep emotion behind it as it moves forward in a wave down the length of the hallway.
A steady rolling wave of sound it is, moving at the pace of the soldier in the wheelchair who marks the forward edge with his presence. He is the first. He is missing the greater part of one leg, and some of his wounds are still suppurating. By his age I expect that he is a private, or perhaps a private first class.
Captains, majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels meet his gaze and nod as they applaud, soldier to soldier. Three years ago when I described one of these events, those lining the hallways were somewhat different. The applause a little wilder, perhaps in private guilt for not having shared in the burden... yet.
Now almost everyone lining the hallway is, like the man in the wheelchair, also a combat veteran. This steadies the applause, but I think deepens the sentiment. We have all been there now. The soldier's chair is pushed by, I believe, a full colonel.
Behind him, and stretching the length from Rings E to A, come more of his peers, each private, corporal, or sergeant assisted as need be by a field grade officer.
11:00 hours: Twenty-four minutes of steady applause. My hands hurt, and I laugh to myself at how stupid that sounds in my own head. My hands hurt. Please! Shut up and clap. For twenty-four minutes, soldier after soldier has come down this hallway - 20, 25, 30. Fifty-three legs come with them, and perhaps only 52 hands or arms, but down this hall came 30 solid hearts.
They pass down this corridor of officers and applause, and then meet for a private lunch, at which they are the guests of honor, hosted by the generals. Some are wheeled along. Some insist upon getting out of their chairs, to march as best they can with their chin held up, down this hallway, through this most unique audience. Some are catching handshakes and smiling like a politician at a Fourth of July parade. More than a couple of them seem amazed and are smiling shyly.
There are families with them as well: the 18-year-old war-bride pushing her 19-year-old husband's wheelchair and not quite understanding why her husband is so affected by this, the boy she grew up with, now a man, who had never shed a tear is crying; the older immigrant Latino parents who have, perhaps more than their wounded mid-20s son, an appreciation for the emotion given on their son's behalf. No man in that hallway, walking or clapping, is ashamed by the silent tears on more than a few cheeks. An Airborne Ranger wipes his eyes only to better see. A couple of the officers in this crowd have themselves been a part of this parade in the past.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
The Unwinnable War On Drugs.... Time to Surrender
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8231634812734884936#
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Did They Invite the Doc to "Guest Star"???
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. -- Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams will undergo heart surgery later this week in the United States.
Deputy premier Kathy Dunderdale confirmed the treatment at a news conference Tuesday, but would not reveal the location of the operation or how it would be paid for.
"He has gone to a renowned expert in the procedure that he needs to have done," said Ms. Dunderdale, who will become acting premier while Mr. Williams is away for three to 12 weeks.
"In consultation with his own doctors, he's decided to go that route."
Mr. Williams' decision to leave Canada for the surgery has raised eyebrows over his apparent shunning of Canada's health-care system.
"It was never an option offered to him to have this procedure done in this province," said Ms. Dunderdale, refusing to answer whether the procedure could be done elsewhere in Canada.
Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2510700#ixzz0eS1W4g3x
The National Post is now on Facebook. Join our fan community today.
Deputy premier Kathy Dunderdale confirmed the treatment at a news conference Tuesday, but would not reveal the location of the operation or how it would be paid for.
"He has gone to a renowned expert in the procedure that he needs to have done," said Ms. Dunderdale, who will become acting premier while Mr. Williams is away for three to 12 weeks.
"In consultation with his own doctors, he's decided to go that route."
Mr. Williams' decision to leave Canada for the surgery has raised eyebrows over his apparent shunning of Canada's health-care system.
"It was never an option offered to him to have this procedure done in this province," said Ms. Dunderdale, refusing to answer whether the procedure could be done elsewhere in Canada.
Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2510700#ixzz0eS1W4g3x
The National Post is now on Facebook. Join our fan community today.
Ain't It Grand the Wind Stopped Blowin', Ma?!
So said the farmer in the basement just after the tornado had passed. Meanwhile, they exit the cellar and damage is horizon to horizon, but "ain't it grand the wind stopped blowin?!"
Once again another putrid politician came out with their true thoughts only to issue a retraction. Obama said we don't buy a boat or go to Vegas on a spending spree when we're hurting in a recession. Nope, leave that to the Democrats! Let THEM spend YOUR money (AND MINE.) Nancy Pelosi and over a hundred lawmakers went to Denmark on our dime. Wouldn't it have been far more efficient and cost effective to teleconference via the internet? So, give and take exchange would have a few milliseconds lag time? Oh, well.
So, the President Who Bows says do as I say not as I do, yet again. Why can't any of those guys make a statement and stick with it?!? I for one would have a lot more respect for them if they took a stand and held on to it. But we can't hurt anyone's feelings now, can we?
Once again another putrid politician came out with their true thoughts only to issue a retraction. Obama said we don't buy a boat or go to Vegas on a spending spree when we're hurting in a recession. Nope, leave that to the Democrats! Let THEM spend YOUR money (AND MINE.) Nancy Pelosi and over a hundred lawmakers went to Denmark on our dime. Wouldn't it have been far more efficient and cost effective to teleconference via the internet? So, give and take exchange would have a few milliseconds lag time? Oh, well.
So, the President Who Bows says do as I say not as I do, yet again. Why can't any of those guys make a statement and stick with it?!? I for one would have a lot more respect for them if they took a stand and held on to it. But we can't hurt anyone's feelings now, can we?
IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOR,
OR SHOT.
IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY.
IF YOU CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU GET SHOT.
IF YOU CROSS THE SAUDI ARABIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE JAILED.
IF YOU CROSS THE CHINESE BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU MAY NEVER BE HEARD FROM AGAIN.
IF YOU CROSS THE VENEZUELAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE BRANDED A SPY AND
YOUR FATE WILL BE SEALED.
IF YOU CROSS THE CUBAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE THROWN INTO POLITICAL
PRISON TO ROT.
IF YOU
CROSS THE U.S. BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET
1 - A JOB,
2 - A DRIVERS LICENSE,
3 - SOCIAL SECURITY CARD,
4 - WELFARE,
5 - FOOD STAMPS,
6 - CREDIT CARDS
7 - SUBSIDIZED RENT OR A LOAN TO BUY A HOUSE,
8 - FREE EDUCATION,
9 - FREE HEALTH CARE,
10 - A LOBBYIST IN WASHINGTON
11 - BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS PRINTED IN YOUR LANGUAGE
12 - AND THE RIGHT TO CARRY YOUR COUNTRY'S FLAG WHILE YOU PROTEST THAT YOU
DON'T GET ENOUGH RESPECT
OR SHOT.
IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY.
IF YOU CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU GET SHOT.
IF YOU CROSS THE SAUDI ARABIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE JAILED.
IF YOU CROSS THE CHINESE BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU MAY NEVER BE HEARD FROM AGAIN.
IF YOU CROSS THE VENEZUELAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE BRANDED A SPY AND
YOUR FATE WILL BE SEALED.
IF YOU CROSS THE CUBAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE THROWN INTO POLITICAL
PRISON TO ROT.
IF YOU
CROSS THE U.S. BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET
1 - A JOB,
2 - A DRIVERS LICENSE,
3 - SOCIAL SECURITY CARD,
4 - WELFARE,
5 - FOOD STAMPS,
6 - CREDIT CARDS
7 - SUBSIDIZED RENT OR A LOAN TO BUY A HOUSE,
8 - FREE EDUCATION,
9 - FREE HEALTH CARE,
10 - A LOBBYIST IN WASHINGTON
11 - BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS PRINTED IN YOUR LANGUAGE
12 - AND THE RIGHT TO CARRY YOUR COUNTRY'S FLAG WHILE YOU PROTEST THAT YOU
DON'T GET ENOUGH RESPECT
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Figures on government spending and debt. The government's fiscal year runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
Total public debt subject to limit Jan. 22.... $ 12,245,872,000,000.00
Statutory debt limit ....$ 12,394,000,000,000.00
Total public debt outstanding Jan. 22 ....$ 12,302,465,000,000.00
Operating balance Jan. 22 ....$ 142,454,000,000.00
Interest fiscal year 2009 ....$ 383,365,000,000.00
Interest fiscal year 2008 ....$ 451,154,000,000.00
Deficit fiscal year 2009 ....$ 1,417,121,000,000.00
Deficit fiscal year 2008 ....$ 454,798,000,000.00
Receipts fiscal year 2009 ....$ 2,104,613,000,000.00
Receipts fiscal year 2008 ....$ 2,523,642,000,000.00
Outlays fiscal year 2009 ....$ 3,521,734,000,000.00
Outlays fiscal year 2008 ....$ 2,978,440,000,000.00
Gold assets in September ....$ 11,041,000,000.00
Bad economy? Obama's or Bush's
Debt increase under Bush in 8 years = $3 trillion
Debt increase under Obama in 1 year = $3.3 trillion
Obama Says 'We Lost Touch'... Didn't Speak 'Directly to American People'...
BUT
Obama's First Year: By The Numbers:
INTERVIEWS: 158
SPEECHES, COMMENTS & REMARKS: 411
GOLF: 29 rounds of golf
• George W. Bush played golf 7 times his first year.
Total public debt subject to limit Jan. 22.... $ 12,245,872,000,000.00
Statutory debt limit ....$ 12,394,000,000,000.00
Total public debt outstanding Jan. 22 ....$ 12,302,465,000,000.00
Operating balance Jan. 22 ....$ 142,454,000,000.00
Interest fiscal year 2009 ....$ 383,365,000,000.00
Interest fiscal year 2008 ....$ 451,154,000,000.00
Deficit fiscal year 2009 ....$ 1,417,121,000,000.00
Deficit fiscal year 2008 ....$ 454,798,000,000.00
Receipts fiscal year 2009 ....$ 2,104,613,000,000.00
Receipts fiscal year 2008 ....$ 2,523,642,000,000.00
Outlays fiscal year 2009 ....$ 3,521,734,000,000.00
Outlays fiscal year 2008 ....$ 2,978,440,000,000.00
Gold assets in September ....$ 11,041,000,000.00
Bad economy? Obama's or Bush's
Debt increase under Bush in 8 years = $3 trillion
Debt increase under Obama in 1 year = $3.3 trillion
Obama Says 'We Lost Touch'... Didn't Speak 'Directly to American People'...
BUT
Obama's First Year: By The Numbers:
INTERVIEWS: 158
SPEECHES, COMMENTS & REMARKS: 411
GOLF: 29 rounds of golf
• George W. Bush played golf 7 times his first year.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
I GOT IT!! I GOT IT!!!
I GOT IT!! I got my PERSONALIZED response from Senator Boxer today via email!! I'm thrilled that she personally took the time to write me and tell me how much she appreciates hearing from folks like me! She actually took the time to read what I wrote and then tell me she'll keep MY VIEWS IN MIND when she reviews this and other legislation! (Never mind that more than half of her letter to me was a commercial for her, that's pretty much irrelevant.)
Get ready to wipe tears from your eyes, here's what she had to say:
Dear Mr. Locke:
Thank you for taking the time to write and share your views with me. Your comments will help me continue to represent you and other Californians to the best of my ability. Be assured that I will keep your views in mind as the Senate considers legislation on this or similar issues.
If you would like additional information about my work in the U.S. Senate, I invite you to visit my website, http://boxer.senate.gov. From this site, you can access my statements and press releases about current events and pending legislation, request copies of legislation and government reports, and receive detailed information about the many services that I am privileged to provide for my constituents. You may also wish to visit http://thomas.loc.gov to track current and past federal legislation.
Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. I appreciate hearing from you.
Barbara Boxer
United States Senator
******************
Now, is that special or what?!? By the way, see my earlier post to read what I wrote to this representative.
Get ready to wipe tears from your eyes, here's what she had to say:
Dear Mr. Locke:
Thank you for taking the time to write and share your views with me. Your comments will help me continue to represent you and other Californians to the best of my ability. Be assured that I will keep your views in mind as the Senate considers legislation on this or similar issues.
If you would like additional information about my work in the U.S. Senate, I invite you to visit my website, http://boxer.senate.gov. From this site, you can access my statements and press releases about current events and pending legislation, request copies of legislation and government reports, and receive detailed information about the many services that I am privileged to provide for my constituents. You may also wish to visit http://thomas.loc.gov to track current and past federal legislation.
Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. I appreciate hearing from you.
Barbara Boxer
United States Senator
******************
Now, is that special or what?!? By the way, see my earlier post to read what I wrote to this representative.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
545
545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason.. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red ..
If the Army &Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.
Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason.. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red ..
If the Army &Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.
Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
Friday, January 15, 2010
Poor Thing
Over the last few months we've had a complete shift in philosophy where I work. I'm not sure if my job is stable, and in this economy we all need to plan, think, execute when necessary and like the Boy Scouts -- Be Prepared.
Congress is playing around with health care benefits, health care insurance, basically health care in general and we don't know how that's going to play out. It is with those two situations I decided to stop procrastinating about some conditions I've developed through the years and get a complete detailing. Oh, it's going to cost me up to $3000 out of pocket but insurance is picking up 80%. That is a blessing and an outstanding benefit of my job.
I had bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosed years ago, and over the last year have had both knees diagnosed with torn menisci. (Then there's the turbinate reduction that didn't work last year so I've got to have that again.) Most of the rehab for these things is to keep moving, otherwise I'm prone to blowing off therapy... "non-compliant" is the term. I'm doing a lot of running around and relaxing while I'm off from work but I'm getting these things done!
Well, yesterday I got a call from the dentist's office that said it's a new year, I can start out with a cleaning! Okey dokey, I got lots of free time so here I go.
I get there and the receptionist is a girl I've become acquainted with since finding their office when I moved to the neighborhood 8 years ago. We've helped each other with projects outside of the office and have a decent relationship apart from the dental chair.
"How're you doing?" she asked me in that heavily Iranian-influenced accent.
"Good, recuperating from a little surgery"
"Oh? What did you have done?"
"Carpal tunnel."
"I have that, too! Does your hand still get numb?"
"Nope" and I held up my hand to show the endoscopic incision of 3/8". She was surprised it was that little and went on to say, "I can't get mine fixed; I can't afford insurance, and there's the deductible."
I told her I thought she definitely could afford insurance. But, if she got insurance, she couldn't drive the BMW that I parked beside. She probably wouldn't have been wearing the new outfit she had on, or she probably wouldn't be living in a condo in Calabasas.
And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is a pretty good example of what we're dealing with regarding health care insurance. Personally, I don't want to pay her insurance -- but I do like her outfit.
Congress is playing around with health care benefits, health care insurance, basically health care in general and we don't know how that's going to play out. It is with those two situations I decided to stop procrastinating about some conditions I've developed through the years and get a complete detailing. Oh, it's going to cost me up to $3000 out of pocket but insurance is picking up 80%. That is a blessing and an outstanding benefit of my job.
I had bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosed years ago, and over the last year have had both knees diagnosed with torn menisci. (Then there's the turbinate reduction that didn't work last year so I've got to have that again.) Most of the rehab for these things is to keep moving, otherwise I'm prone to blowing off therapy... "non-compliant" is the term. I'm doing a lot of running around and relaxing while I'm off from work but I'm getting these things done!
Well, yesterday I got a call from the dentist's office that said it's a new year, I can start out with a cleaning! Okey dokey, I got lots of free time so here I go.
I get there and the receptionist is a girl I've become acquainted with since finding their office when I moved to the neighborhood 8 years ago. We've helped each other with projects outside of the office and have a decent relationship apart from the dental chair.
"How're you doing?" she asked me in that heavily Iranian-influenced accent.
"Good, recuperating from a little surgery"
"Oh? What did you have done?"
"Carpal tunnel."
"I have that, too! Does your hand still get numb?"
"Nope" and I held up my hand to show the endoscopic incision of 3/8". She was surprised it was that little and went on to say, "I can't get mine fixed; I can't afford insurance, and there's the deductible."
I told her I thought she definitely could afford insurance. But, if she got insurance, she couldn't drive the BMW that I parked beside. She probably wouldn't have been wearing the new outfit she had on, or she probably wouldn't be living in a condo in Calabasas.
And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is a pretty good example of what we're dealing with regarding health care insurance. Personally, I don't want to pay her insurance -- but I do like her outfit.
Monday, January 11, 2010
The Mini Ice Age Starts Here
From the UK's Daily Mail (online)
By David Rose
The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists.
Their predictions – based on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans – challenge some of the global warming orthodoxy’s most deeply cherished beliefs, such as the claim that the North Pole will be free of ice in summer by 2013.
According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, Arctic summer sea ice has increased by 409,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, since 2007 – and even the most committed global warming activists do not dispute this.
The scientists’ predictions also undermine the standard climate computer models, which assert that the warming of the Earth since 1900 has been driven solely by man-made greenhouse gas emissions and will continue as long as carbon dioxide levels rise.
They say that their research shows that much of the warming was caused by oceanic cycles when they were in a ‘warm mode’ as opposed to the present ‘cold mode’.
This challenge to the widespread view that the planet is on the brink of an irreversible catastrophe is all the greater because the scientists could never be described as global warming ‘deniers’ or sceptics.
However, both main British political parties continue to insist that the world is facing imminent disaster without drastic cuts in CO2.
Last week, as Britain froze, Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband maintained in a parliamentary answer that the science of global warming was ‘settled’.
Among the most prominent of the scientists is Professor Mojib Latif, a leading member of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has been pushing the issue of man-made global warming on to the international political agenda since it was formed 22 years ago.
Prof Latif, who leads a research team at the renowned Leibniz Institute at Germany’s Kiel University, has developed new methods for measuring ocean temperatures 3,000ft beneath the surface, where the cooling and warming cycles start.
He and his colleagues predicted the new cooling trend in a paper published in 2008 and warned of it again at an IPCC conference in Geneva last September.
Last night he told The Mail on Sunday: ‘A significant share of the warming we saw from 1980 to 2000 and at earlier periods in the 20th Century was due to these cycles – perhaps as much as 50 per cent.
'They have now gone into reverse, so winters like this one will become much more likely. Summers will also probably be cooler, and all this may well last two decades or longer.
‘The extreme retreats that we have seen in glaciers and sea ice will come to a halt. For the time being, global warming has paused, and there may well be some cooling.’
As Europe, Asia and North America froze last week, conventional wisdom insisted that this was merely a ‘blip’ of no long-term significance.
Though record lows were experienced as far south as Cuba, where the daily maximum on beaches normally used for winter bathing was just 4.5C, the BBC assured viewers that the big chill was merely short-term ‘weather’ that had nothing to do with ‘climate’, which was still warming.
The work of Prof Latif and the other scientists refutes that view.
On the one hand, it is true that the current freeze is the product of the ‘Arctic oscillation’ – a weather pattern that sees the development of huge ‘blocking’ areas of high pressure in northern latitudes, driving polar winds far to the south.
Meteorologists say that this is at its strongest for at least 60 years.
As a result, the jetstream – the high-altitude wind that circles the globe from west to east and normally pushes a series of wet but mild Atlantic lows across Britain – is currently running not over the English Channel but the Strait of Gibraltar.
A composite photograph released last year to highlight the issue of melting ice and global warming
A composite photograph released last year to highlight the issue of melting ice and global warming
However, according to Prof Latif and his colleagues, this in turn relates to much longer-term shifts – what are known as the Pacific and Atlantic ‘multi-decadal oscillations’ (MDOs).
For Europe, the crucial factor here is the temperature of the water in the middle of the North Atlantic, now several degrees below its average when the world was still warming.
But the effects are not confined to the Northern Hemisphere. Prof Anastasios Tsonis, head of the University of Wisconsin Atmospheric Sciences Group, has recently shown that these MDOs move together in a synchronised way across the globe, abruptly flipping the world’s climate from a ‘warm mode’ to a ‘cold mode’ and back again in 20 to 30-year cycles.
'They amount to massive rearrangements in the dominant patterns of the weather,’ he said yesterday, ‘and their shifts explain all the major changes in world temperatures during the 20th and 21st Centuries.
'We have such a change now and can therefore expect 20 or 30 years of cooler temperatures.’
Prof Tsonis said that the period from 1915 to 1940 saw a strong warm mode, reflected in rising temperatures.
But from 1940 until the late Seventies, the last MDO cold-mode era, the world cooled, despite the fact that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere continued to rise.
Many of the consequences of the recent warm mode were also observed 90 years ago.
For example, in 1922, the Washington Post reported that Greenland’s glaciers were fast disappearing, while Arctic seals were ‘finding the water too hot’.
It interviewed a Captain Martin Ingebrigsten, who had been sailing the eastern Arctic for 54 years: ‘He says that he first noted warmer conditions in 1918, and since that time it has gotten steadily warmer.
'Where formerly great masses of ice were found, there are now moraines, accumulations of earth and stones. At many points where glaciers formerly extended into the sea they have entirely disappeared.’
As a result, the shoals of fish that used to live in these waters had vanished, while the sea ice beyond the north coast of Spitsbergen in the Arctic Ocean had melted.
Warm Gulf Stream water was still detectable within a few hundred miles of the Pole.
In contrast, Prof Tsonis said, last week 56 per cent of the surface of the United States was covered by snow.
‘That hasn’t happened for several decades,’ he pointed out. ‘It just isn’t true to say this is a blip. We can expect colder winters for quite a while.’
He recalled that towards the end of the last cold mode, the world’s media were preoccupied by fears of freezing.
For example, in 1974, a Time magazine cover story predicted ‘Another Ice Age’, saying: ‘Man may be somewhat responsible – as a result of farming and fuel burning [which is] blocking more and more sunlight from reaching and heating the Earth.’
Prof Tsonis said: ‘Perhaps we will see talk of an ice age again by the early 2030s, just as the MDOs shift once more and temperatures begin to rise.’
Like Prof Latif, Prof Tsonis is not a climate change ‘denier’. There is, he said, a measure of additional ‘background’ warming due to human activity and greenhouse gases that runs across the MDO cycles.
'This isn't just a blip. We can expect colder winters for quite a while'
But he added: ‘I do not believe in catastrophe theories. Man-made warming is balanced by the natural cycles, and I do not trust the computer models which state that if CO2 reaches a particular level then temperatures and sea levels will rise by a given amount.
'These models cannot be trusted to predict the weather for a week, yet they are running them to give readings for 100 years.’
Prof Tsonis said that when he published his work in the highly respected journal Geophysical Research Letters, he was deluged with ‘hate emails’.
He added: ‘People were accusing me of wanting to destroy the climate, yet all I’m interested in is the truth.’
He said he also received hate mail from climate change sceptics, accusing him of not going far enough to attack the theory of man-made warming.
The work of Profs Latif, Tsonis and their teams raises a crucial question: If some of the late 20th Century warming was caused not by carbon dioxide but by MDOs, then how much?
Tsonis did not give a figure; Latif suggested it could be anything between ten and 50 per cent.
Other critics of the warming orthodoxy say the role played by MDOs is even greater.
William Gray, emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Colorado State University, said that while he believed there had been some background rise caused by greenhouse gases, the computer models used by advocates of man-made warming had hugely exaggerated their effect.
Dr David Viner stands by his claim that snow will become an 'increasingly rare event'
Dr David Viner stands by his claim that snow will become an 'increasingly rare event'
According to Prof Gray, these distort the way the atmosphere works. ‘Most of the rise in temperature from the Seventies to the Nineties was natural,’ he said. ‘Very little was down to CO2 – in my view, as little as five to ten per cent.’
But last week, die-hard warming advocates were refusing to admit that MDOs were having any impact.
In March 2000, Dr David Viner, then a member of the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit, the body now being investigated over the notorious ‘Warmergate’ leaked emails, said that within a few years snowfall would become ‘a very rare and exciting event’ in Britain, and that ‘children just aren’t going to know what snow is’.
Now the head of a British Council programme with an annual £10 million budget that raises awareness of global warming among young people abroad, Dr Viner last week said he still stood by that prediction: ‘We’ve had three weeks of relatively cold weather, and that doesn’t change anything.
'This winter is just a little cooler than average, and I still think that snow will become an increasingly rare event.’
The longer the cold spell lasts, the harder it may be to persuade the public of that assertion.
*************************************
Here's the best comment, too; full of practical advice and suggestions to combat this impending non-disaster.
So, If cooling is now a crises that will kill us all, we need to build a lot of those evil, dirty coal fired power plants, everyone must drive an evil SUV, it is OK for cows to fart and we must buy the old-fashioned light bulbs without mercury in them. If all this caused global warming then surly it will fix global cooling...but the liberals will say...we must fight global cooling with more laws, regulations and (of course) more taxes.
- Ringmaster76120, Fort Worth, Texas, 11/1/2010 07:59
By David Rose
The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists.
Their predictions – based on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans – challenge some of the global warming orthodoxy’s most deeply cherished beliefs, such as the claim that the North Pole will be free of ice in summer by 2013.
According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, Arctic summer sea ice has increased by 409,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, since 2007 – and even the most committed global warming activists do not dispute this.
The scientists’ predictions also undermine the standard climate computer models, which assert that the warming of the Earth since 1900 has been driven solely by man-made greenhouse gas emissions and will continue as long as carbon dioxide levels rise.
They say that their research shows that much of the warming was caused by oceanic cycles when they were in a ‘warm mode’ as opposed to the present ‘cold mode’.
This challenge to the widespread view that the planet is on the brink of an irreversible catastrophe is all the greater because the scientists could never be described as global warming ‘deniers’ or sceptics.
However, both main British political parties continue to insist that the world is facing imminent disaster without drastic cuts in CO2.
Last week, as Britain froze, Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband maintained in a parliamentary answer that the science of global warming was ‘settled’.
Among the most prominent of the scientists is Professor Mojib Latif, a leading member of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has been pushing the issue of man-made global warming on to the international political agenda since it was formed 22 years ago.
Prof Latif, who leads a research team at the renowned Leibniz Institute at Germany’s Kiel University, has developed new methods for measuring ocean temperatures 3,000ft beneath the surface, where the cooling and warming cycles start.
He and his colleagues predicted the new cooling trend in a paper published in 2008 and warned of it again at an IPCC conference in Geneva last September.
Last night he told The Mail on Sunday: ‘A significant share of the warming we saw from 1980 to 2000 and at earlier periods in the 20th Century was due to these cycles – perhaps as much as 50 per cent.
'They have now gone into reverse, so winters like this one will become much more likely. Summers will also probably be cooler, and all this may well last two decades or longer.
‘The extreme retreats that we have seen in glaciers and sea ice will come to a halt. For the time being, global warming has paused, and there may well be some cooling.’
As Europe, Asia and North America froze last week, conventional wisdom insisted that this was merely a ‘blip’ of no long-term significance.
Though record lows were experienced as far south as Cuba, where the daily maximum on beaches normally used for winter bathing was just 4.5C, the BBC assured viewers that the big chill was merely short-term ‘weather’ that had nothing to do with ‘climate’, which was still warming.
The work of Prof Latif and the other scientists refutes that view.
On the one hand, it is true that the current freeze is the product of the ‘Arctic oscillation’ – a weather pattern that sees the development of huge ‘blocking’ areas of high pressure in northern latitudes, driving polar winds far to the south.
Meteorologists say that this is at its strongest for at least 60 years.
As a result, the jetstream – the high-altitude wind that circles the globe from west to east and normally pushes a series of wet but mild Atlantic lows across Britain – is currently running not over the English Channel but the Strait of Gibraltar.
A composite photograph released last year to highlight the issue of melting ice and global warming
A composite photograph released last year to highlight the issue of melting ice and global warming
However, according to Prof Latif and his colleagues, this in turn relates to much longer-term shifts – what are known as the Pacific and Atlantic ‘multi-decadal oscillations’ (MDOs).
For Europe, the crucial factor here is the temperature of the water in the middle of the North Atlantic, now several degrees below its average when the world was still warming.
But the effects are not confined to the Northern Hemisphere. Prof Anastasios Tsonis, head of the University of Wisconsin Atmospheric Sciences Group, has recently shown that these MDOs move together in a synchronised way across the globe, abruptly flipping the world’s climate from a ‘warm mode’ to a ‘cold mode’ and back again in 20 to 30-year cycles.
'They amount to massive rearrangements in the dominant patterns of the weather,’ he said yesterday, ‘and their shifts explain all the major changes in world temperatures during the 20th and 21st Centuries.
'We have such a change now and can therefore expect 20 or 30 years of cooler temperatures.’
Prof Tsonis said that the period from 1915 to 1940 saw a strong warm mode, reflected in rising temperatures.
But from 1940 until the late Seventies, the last MDO cold-mode era, the world cooled, despite the fact that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere continued to rise.
Many of the consequences of the recent warm mode were also observed 90 years ago.
For example, in 1922, the Washington Post reported that Greenland’s glaciers were fast disappearing, while Arctic seals were ‘finding the water too hot’.
It interviewed a Captain Martin Ingebrigsten, who had been sailing the eastern Arctic for 54 years: ‘He says that he first noted warmer conditions in 1918, and since that time it has gotten steadily warmer.
'Where formerly great masses of ice were found, there are now moraines, accumulations of earth and stones. At many points where glaciers formerly extended into the sea they have entirely disappeared.’
As a result, the shoals of fish that used to live in these waters had vanished, while the sea ice beyond the north coast of Spitsbergen in the Arctic Ocean had melted.
Warm Gulf Stream water was still detectable within a few hundred miles of the Pole.
In contrast, Prof Tsonis said, last week 56 per cent of the surface of the United States was covered by snow.
‘That hasn’t happened for several decades,’ he pointed out. ‘It just isn’t true to say this is a blip. We can expect colder winters for quite a while.’
He recalled that towards the end of the last cold mode, the world’s media were preoccupied by fears of freezing.
For example, in 1974, a Time magazine cover story predicted ‘Another Ice Age’, saying: ‘Man may be somewhat responsible – as a result of farming and fuel burning [which is] blocking more and more sunlight from reaching and heating the Earth.’
Prof Tsonis said: ‘Perhaps we will see talk of an ice age again by the early 2030s, just as the MDOs shift once more and temperatures begin to rise.’
Like Prof Latif, Prof Tsonis is not a climate change ‘denier’. There is, he said, a measure of additional ‘background’ warming due to human activity and greenhouse gases that runs across the MDO cycles.
'This isn't just a blip. We can expect colder winters for quite a while'
But he added: ‘I do not believe in catastrophe theories. Man-made warming is balanced by the natural cycles, and I do not trust the computer models which state that if CO2 reaches a particular level then temperatures and sea levels will rise by a given amount.
'These models cannot be trusted to predict the weather for a week, yet they are running them to give readings for 100 years.’
Prof Tsonis said that when he published his work in the highly respected journal Geophysical Research Letters, he was deluged with ‘hate emails’.
He added: ‘People were accusing me of wanting to destroy the climate, yet all I’m interested in is the truth.’
He said he also received hate mail from climate change sceptics, accusing him of not going far enough to attack the theory of man-made warming.
The work of Profs Latif, Tsonis and their teams raises a crucial question: If some of the late 20th Century warming was caused not by carbon dioxide but by MDOs, then how much?
Tsonis did not give a figure; Latif suggested it could be anything between ten and 50 per cent.
Other critics of the warming orthodoxy say the role played by MDOs is even greater.
William Gray, emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Colorado State University, said that while he believed there had been some background rise caused by greenhouse gases, the computer models used by advocates of man-made warming had hugely exaggerated their effect.
Dr David Viner stands by his claim that snow will become an 'increasingly rare event'
Dr David Viner stands by his claim that snow will become an 'increasingly rare event'
According to Prof Gray, these distort the way the atmosphere works. ‘Most of the rise in temperature from the Seventies to the Nineties was natural,’ he said. ‘Very little was down to CO2 – in my view, as little as five to ten per cent.’
But last week, die-hard warming advocates were refusing to admit that MDOs were having any impact.
In March 2000, Dr David Viner, then a member of the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit, the body now being investigated over the notorious ‘Warmergate’ leaked emails, said that within a few years snowfall would become ‘a very rare and exciting event’ in Britain, and that ‘children just aren’t going to know what snow is’.
Now the head of a British Council programme with an annual £10 million budget that raises awareness of global warming among young people abroad, Dr Viner last week said he still stood by that prediction: ‘We’ve had three weeks of relatively cold weather, and that doesn’t change anything.
'This winter is just a little cooler than average, and I still think that snow will become an increasingly rare event.’
The longer the cold spell lasts, the harder it may be to persuade the public of that assertion.
*************************************
Here's the best comment, too; full of practical advice and suggestions to combat this impending non-disaster.
So, If cooling is now a crises that will kill us all, we need to build a lot of those evil, dirty coal fired power plants, everyone must drive an evil SUV, it is OK for cows to fart and we must buy the old-fashioned light bulbs without mercury in them. If all this caused global warming then surly it will fix global cooling...but the liberals will say...we must fight global cooling with more laws, regulations and (of course) more taxes.
- Ringmaster76120, Fort Worth, Texas, 11/1/2010 07:59
Dear Senator Ma'am:
I just read remarks by Dianne Feinstein on how she recounts Harry's remarks and apologies of late. You know, the one where he talks about BO's choice of no "negro dialect." (Could that guy be more loony?)
Anyway, here is the text of my latest email to her; and I anxiously await her response:
Hi, Di, my apologies... but I just can't bring myself to displaying total respect for you. I think you are completely out of touch with us regular folk, and are totally beholding to special interests.
I guess you don't expect to hear about political stuff because you've got no category for that. (Nor do you have one for illegal immingration, but that's another letter.)
I just wanted to say Good for you for accepting Harry's apology and are willing to move on! It's great that you didn't politicize it, and nice to know that you're quick to forgive and forget.
Thanks,
Jim Locke
Anyway, here is the text of my latest email to her; and I anxiously await her response:
Hi, Di, my apologies... but I just can't bring myself to displaying total respect for you. I think you are completely out of touch with us regular folk, and are totally beholding to special interests.
I guess you don't expect to hear about political stuff because you've got no category for that. (Nor do you have one for illegal immingration, but that's another letter.)
I just wanted to say Good for you for accepting Harry's apology and are willing to move on! It's great that you didn't politicize it, and nice to know that you're quick to forgive and forget.
Thanks,
Jim Locke
Thursday, January 7, 2010
New Ads From John McCain!!!?! WOW!!!
Here is an email I got from John McCain himself, and he even signed it! In it, he "reveals" that President Obama is leading "an extreme, left wing crusade to bankrupt America!!"
***** My Very Own Personal Email From John "I'm Not Angry" McCain *****
My Friend,
I have seen my fair share of battles throughout my years of service to our country. In the Senate, I have waged war against wrong, whether it is today's massive federal spending, government-run health care or violent extremism that threatens our great nation.
President Obama is leading an extreme, left wing crusade to bankrupt America -- leaving the bill with our children and grandchildren. I stand in his way every day in an effort to serve as a voice for the millions of Americans who disagree with the direction he is taking our country. If I get a bruise or two knocking some sense into heads in Washington, so be it. I'll keep fighting for jobs, economic growth and reduced spending as long as I'm in serving in the U.S. Senate.
We're anticipating a competitive reelection race and have launched our first radio ads in Arizona highlighting my efforts to represent our shared values. You can preview the two ads by following this link.
After listening to the ads, I ask that you consider making a generous contribution of $25, $50, $100, $250 or more to help our campaign expand our ad buy. We want all Arizonans to hear these messages and every dollar you generously give today will enable our campaign to continue playing these ads and others like them.
Today, we are engaged in a battle to save jobs, secure our nation's borders and cut the Democrats' out of control spending. The polls show we are in a strong position to win, but in my life I have taken nothing for granted, and that's why we are running an aggressive reelection campaign. I remain committed to winning this campaign, but my greatest strength is my base of supporters and I will only succeed if I have you on board.
Please follow this link to make your immediate donation of any amount up to the $4800 legal limit to my reelection campaign. Your support is a tremendous boost to my ability to continue serving as a voice of reason in Washington. I pledge that I will continue fighting each day to bring economic growth, fiscal sanity and a strong defense to our nation.
My sincere thanks,
John McCain
P.S. Our campaign has just released our first radio ads of my reelection campaign and I want you to be among the first to hear them. Please follow this link to listen to the ads and make a generous contribution of any amount to enable our campaign to expand our ad buy. We want as many people as possible to hear this important message. Thank you.
*****End of Personal Message to Me*****
Thank GOD, John figured that out! Otherwise, we'd have to listen to the same tired bullshit we've heard our entire lives! The same tired bullshit that has NO ROOTS IN TRUTH.
What he's really saying is the same old shit that didn't work before. Before you waste you time looking for and listening to the new "radio ads," don't bother. The ol' pit bull is gnashing his gums, and has the attack sense of an ant defending the driveway from your car. Nothing new here, folks, just the same politician bullshit to keep HIS ass in a cushy job and continue to pretend he knows how to fix this pile of crap called the Federal Government. Why not hammer home the Fannie Mae bonuses, John, and compare them to the AIG bonuses which were not as much? Why not show the Barney Frank and Maxine Waters quotes stating there's no impending disaster in our economy? Hammer home the fact that Barry Obama received a ton of money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for his election? How about raising the talking points of Bill O'Reilly and others who actually talk about real events and not tired cliches? C'mon, John! REALLY, HONESTLY, and TRULY give your political life for the TRUE conservative agenda. Over and over, confront every Democrat; go on all news sources and DEMAND answers.
Regarding health care "reform" or is it health "insurance" reform, or health "cost" reform: open up the borders to allow insurance companies to compete across state lines; true TORT reform; those are two things that will decrease health care costs within a few months.
Spend that 'stimulus money' to deport illegals. I'd happily have my children go in debt to save us from the misery the illegals cause. Besides, we would save money.
END ENTITLEMENTS
ELIMINATE THE POST OFFICE AND PRIVATIZE MAIL SERVICE, DO THE SAME FOR THE TRANSPORTATION SAFETY ADMINISTRATION AND REALLY PROMOTE SMALLER GOVERNMENT
VOUCHERS FOR SUB-PAR SCHOOLS THAT CONTINUE TO GRADUATE STUPID CHILDREN
LESS SPENDING? HOW ABOUT ELIMINATING FULLY HALF OF THE FEDERAL PAYROLL?
HOW ABOUT MAKING LOBBYING ILLEGAL, AND ANY CORPORATE CONTRIBUTIONS TO CANDIDATES, YOU KNOW -- REAL ELECTION REFORM!!
TERM LIMITS FOR CONGRESS
ELIMINATE LIFETIME CUSHY BENEFITS FOR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES/POLITICIANS
GIVE US THE POWER OF NATIONAL REFERENDUMS!!
John, you're nothing more than the same crap and not even repackaged. Which leads me in the spirit of John McCain to wrap up today's rant:
My Friends,
Congress has an approval rating of 25% today, and more significantly a DISAPPROVAL rate of 69%. Yet over and over for nearly a century we re-elect over 90% of the same clowns every fucking election. Why is that?!? Simple... because we all say "well, it's not MY guy that's the problem, it's YOUR guy... it's the guy in West Virginia... it's the guy from Illinois... it's the guy from Louisiana, etc." My Friends, this is going to shock and awe you but I must say it: "IT'S ALL OF THEM!!"
Let's get rid of all of them, whaddya say?!?
***** My Very Own Personal Email From John "I'm Not Angry" McCain *****
My Friend,
I have seen my fair share of battles throughout my years of service to our country. In the Senate, I have waged war against wrong, whether it is today's massive federal spending, government-run health care or violent extremism that threatens our great nation.
President Obama is leading an extreme, left wing crusade to bankrupt America -- leaving the bill with our children and grandchildren. I stand in his way every day in an effort to serve as a voice for the millions of Americans who disagree with the direction he is taking our country. If I get a bruise or two knocking some sense into heads in Washington, so be it. I'll keep fighting for jobs, economic growth and reduced spending as long as I'm in serving in the U.S. Senate.
We're anticipating a competitive reelection race and have launched our first radio ads in Arizona highlighting my efforts to represent our shared values. You can preview the two ads by following this link.
After listening to the ads, I ask that you consider making a generous contribution of $25, $50, $100, $250 or more to help our campaign expand our ad buy. We want all Arizonans to hear these messages and every dollar you generously give today will enable our campaign to continue playing these ads and others like them.
Today, we are engaged in a battle to save jobs, secure our nation's borders and cut the Democrats' out of control spending. The polls show we are in a strong position to win, but in my life I have taken nothing for granted, and that's why we are running an aggressive reelection campaign. I remain committed to winning this campaign, but my greatest strength is my base of supporters and I will only succeed if I have you on board.
Please follow this link to make your immediate donation of any amount up to the $4800 legal limit to my reelection campaign. Your support is a tremendous boost to my ability to continue serving as a voice of reason in Washington. I pledge that I will continue fighting each day to bring economic growth, fiscal sanity and a strong defense to our nation.
My sincere thanks,
John McCain
P.S. Our campaign has just released our first radio ads of my reelection campaign and I want you to be among the first to hear them. Please follow this link to listen to the ads and make a generous contribution of any amount to enable our campaign to expand our ad buy. We want as many people as possible to hear this important message. Thank you.
*****End of Personal Message to Me*****
Thank GOD, John figured that out! Otherwise, we'd have to listen to the same tired bullshit we've heard our entire lives! The same tired bullshit that has NO ROOTS IN TRUTH.
What he's really saying is the same old shit that didn't work before. Before you waste you time looking for and listening to the new "radio ads," don't bother. The ol' pit bull is gnashing his gums, and has the attack sense of an ant defending the driveway from your car. Nothing new here, folks, just the same politician bullshit to keep HIS ass in a cushy job and continue to pretend he knows how to fix this pile of crap called the Federal Government. Why not hammer home the Fannie Mae bonuses, John, and compare them to the AIG bonuses which were not as much? Why not show the Barney Frank and Maxine Waters quotes stating there's no impending disaster in our economy? Hammer home the fact that Barry Obama received a ton of money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for his election? How about raising the talking points of Bill O'Reilly and others who actually talk about real events and not tired cliches? C'mon, John! REALLY, HONESTLY, and TRULY give your political life for the TRUE conservative agenda. Over and over, confront every Democrat; go on all news sources and DEMAND answers.
Regarding health care "reform" or is it health "insurance" reform, or health "cost" reform: open up the borders to allow insurance companies to compete across state lines; true TORT reform; those are two things that will decrease health care costs within a few months.
Spend that 'stimulus money' to deport illegals. I'd happily have my children go in debt to save us from the misery the illegals cause. Besides, we would save money.
END ENTITLEMENTS
ELIMINATE THE POST OFFICE AND PRIVATIZE MAIL SERVICE, DO THE SAME FOR THE TRANSPORTATION SAFETY ADMINISTRATION AND REALLY PROMOTE SMALLER GOVERNMENT
VOUCHERS FOR SUB-PAR SCHOOLS THAT CONTINUE TO GRADUATE STUPID CHILDREN
LESS SPENDING? HOW ABOUT ELIMINATING FULLY HALF OF THE FEDERAL PAYROLL?
HOW ABOUT MAKING LOBBYING ILLEGAL, AND ANY CORPORATE CONTRIBUTIONS TO CANDIDATES, YOU KNOW -- REAL ELECTION REFORM!!
TERM LIMITS FOR CONGRESS
ELIMINATE LIFETIME CUSHY BENEFITS FOR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES/POLITICIANS
GIVE US THE POWER OF NATIONAL REFERENDUMS!!
John, you're nothing more than the same crap and not even repackaged. Which leads me in the spirit of John McCain to wrap up today's rant:
My Friends,
Congress has an approval rating of 25% today, and more significantly a DISAPPROVAL rate of 69%. Yet over and over for nearly a century we re-elect over 90% of the same clowns every fucking election. Why is that?!? Simple... because we all say "well, it's not MY guy that's the problem, it's YOUR guy... it's the guy in West Virginia... it's the guy from Illinois... it's the guy from Louisiana, etc." My Friends, this is going to shock and awe you but I must say it: "IT'S ALL OF THEM!!"
Let's get rid of all of them, whaddya say?!?
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Another Lettler To Brad
Gosh, here I am sending another letter to Brad Sherman when I haven't even given one months' time for a response to the last. Oh well, here it is:
Thank God you Democrats have dispensed with the bullshit talk of working in a 'bipartisan' manner! And you think the country needs to fear Republicans?? Honestly, Brad, this marks the end of our democracy. Your party is working BEHIND CLOSED DOORS IN SECRECY to take over another 20% of our nation's private enterprises, the entire Health Care System. That's millions of jobs, literally billions of dollars today and trillions tomorrow. Honestly, I hope that someone in your office reads this and thinks about it with an open mind. Do we really want the government to take over health care? The same people that run medicare, the post office, the welfare system, and hundreds of other entitlement programs are going to be in charge of our physical well-being. Doesn't that frighten anyone else? What you SHOULD do first is open up in health insurance agency to free market trade -- allow them to cross state lines in the spirit of true competition. THEN you should IMPLEMENT TORT REFORM. Make it so the losers of lawsuits have to pay ALL legal expenses, thus cutting down millions of hours of wasted court time. That would also quickly lead to lower malpractice insurance for physicians, thus lowering health care costs. THEN approach the non-insured by beefing up the VA system which is federal and already in place to take care of them. The health insurance industry was also going along much better when it was NON-PROFIT, too; that's another avenue to attempt before drastically changing our country's future. Or tell me SPECIFICALLY why Congress didn't try those ideas first?
Thank God you Democrats have dispensed with the bullshit talk of working in a 'bipartisan' manner! And you think the country needs to fear Republicans?? Honestly, Brad, this marks the end of our democracy. Your party is working BEHIND CLOSED DOORS IN SECRECY to take over another 20% of our nation's private enterprises, the entire Health Care System. That's millions of jobs, literally billions of dollars today and trillions tomorrow. Honestly, I hope that someone in your office reads this and thinks about it with an open mind. Do we really want the government to take over health care? The same people that run medicare, the post office, the welfare system, and hundreds of other entitlement programs are going to be in charge of our physical well-being. Doesn't that frighten anyone else? What you SHOULD do first is open up in health insurance agency to free market trade -- allow them to cross state lines in the spirit of true competition. THEN you should IMPLEMENT TORT REFORM. Make it so the losers of lawsuits have to pay ALL legal expenses, thus cutting down millions of hours of wasted court time. That would also quickly lead to lower malpractice insurance for physicians, thus lowering health care costs. THEN approach the non-insured by beefing up the VA system which is federal and already in place to take care of them. The health insurance industry was also going along much better when it was NON-PROFIT, too; that's another avenue to attempt before drastically changing our country's future. Or tell me SPECIFICALLY why Congress didn't try those ideas first?
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