This Is How I See It

2010-04-30T00:40:00.000-07:00

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

Rules for Radicals

2010-04-23T14:47:00.000-07:00

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.

Thank God for President Obama

2010-04-19T12:20:00.000-07:00

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....

Alrighty Then....

2010-03-25T00:00:00.001-07:00

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.

The Day Before

2010-03-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

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

Another Stimulating and Personalized Response from Another Silly Politician

2010-03-10T11:57:00.000-08:00

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?!??!)

New, Concise, Informative, and PERSONALIZED Response From BRAD SHERMAN, My Congressman!

2010-03-04T11:43:00.000-08:00

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!

You Wanna Fix Health Care?!? Here's How:

2010-02-25T22:41:00.000-08:00

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!!

Another Experiment

2010-02-21T11:25:00.000-08:00

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.

The Unwinnable War On Drugs.... Time to Surrender

2010-02-06T00:17:00.000-08:00

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8231634812734884936#

Did They Invite the Doc to "Guest Star"???

2010-02-02T22:17:00.000-08:00

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
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Ain't It Grand the Wind Stopped Blowin', Ma?!

2010-02-02T21:50:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-02-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-26T00:29:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-01-25T11:36:00.000-08:00

He's getting ready to offer the kids a pony.

I GOT IT!! I GOT IT!!!

2010-01-20T15:57:00.000-08:00

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.

545

2010-01-19T12:53:00.003-08:00

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!

Poor Thing

2010-01-15T13:06:00.000-08:00

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.

The Mini Ice Age Starts Here

2010-01-11T01:41:00.000-08:00

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

Dear Senator Ma'am:

2010-01-11T01:29:00.000-08:00

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

New Ads From John McCain!!!?! WOW!!!

2010-01-07T12:22:00.000-08:00

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?!?

Another Lettler To Brad

2010-01-05T11:57:00.000-08:00

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?

Dave Barry's Year in Review

2009-12-29T10:55:00.000-08:00

To: My Endearing Fans (all 4 of you)
As you know, this is the site where I write my ideas, thoughts, communiques, critiques, rantings, ravings, and other crap I deem worthy. This one is destined to be a classic, though I encourage you to read one or two months at a time and come back for a couple of more.

Dave Barry's year in review: 2009

By Dave Barry

It was a year of Hope -- at first in the sense of ``I feel hopeful!'' and later in the sense of ``I hope this year ends soon!''

It was also a year of Change, especially in Washington, where the tired old hacks of yesteryear finally yielded the reins of power to a group of fresh, young, idealistic, new-idea outsiders such as Nancy Pelosi. As a result Washington, rejecting ``business as usual,'' finally stopped trying to solve every problem by throwing billions of taxpayer dollars at it and instead started trying to solve every problem by throwing trillions of taxpayer dollars at it.

To be sure, it was a year that saw plenty of bad news. But in almost every instance, there was offsetting good news:

BAD NEWS: The economy remained critically weak, with rising unemployment, a severely depressed real-estate market, the near-collapse of the domestic automobile industry and the steep decline of the dollar.

GOOD NEWS: Windows 7 sucked less than Vista.

BAD NEWS: The downward spiral of the newspaper industry continued, resulting in the firings of thousands of experienced reporters and an apparently permanent deterioration in the quality of American journalism.

GOOD NEWS: A lot more people were tweeting.
(Geum's note: Actually, wasn't it the apparently permanent deterioration in the quality of American journalism that resulted in the firings of thousands of experienced reporters?)

BAD NEWS: Ominous problems loomed abroad as -- among other difficulties -- the Afghanistan war went sour, and Iran threatened to plunge the Middle East and beyond into nuclear war.

GOOD NEWS: They finally got Roman Polanski.

In short, it was a year that we will be happy to put behind us. But before we do, let's swallow our anti-nausea medication and take one last look back, starting with. . . .

JANUARY

. . . during which history is made in Washington, D.C., where a crowd estimated by the Congressional Estimating Office at 217 billion people gathers to watch Barack Obama be inaugurated as the first American president ever to come after George W. Bush. There is a minor glitch in the ceremony when Chief Justice John Roberts, attempting to administer the oath of office, becomes confused and instead reads the side-effect warnings for his decongestant pills, causing the new president to swear that he will consult his physician if he experiences a sudden loss of sensation in his feet. President Obama then delivers an upbeat inaugural address, ushering in a new era of cooperation, civility and bipartisanship in a galaxy far, far away. Here on Earth everything stays much the same.

The No. 1 item on the agenda is fixing the economy, so the new administration immediately sets about the daunting task of trying to nominate somebody -- anybody -- to a high-level government post who actually remembered to pay his or her taxes. Among those who forgot this pesky chore is Obama's nominee for Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, who sheepishly admits that he failed to pay $35,000 in federal self-employment taxes. He says that the error was a result of his using TurboTax, which he also blames for his involvement in an eight-state spree of bank robberies. He is confirmed after the Obama administration explains that it inherited the U.S. Tax Code from the Bush administration.

Elsewhere in politics, a team of specially trained wildlife agents equipped with nets and tranquilizer darts manages, after a six-hour struggle, to remove Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich from office. He is transported to an undisclosed swamp, where he is released into the wild and quickly bonds with the native ferret population.

On a more upbeat note, the nation finds a new hero in US Airways Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, who, in an astonishing feat of aviation, manages to land a US Airways flight safely in the Hudson River after it loses power shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia. Incredibly, all 155 people on board survive, although they are immediately taken hostage by Somali pirates.

In entertainment news, an unemployed California mother of six uses in-vitro fertilization to give birth to eight more children, an achievement that immediately catapults her to a celebrity status equivalent to that of a minor Kardashian sister. But even this joyous event is not enough to cheer up a nation worried about the worsening economy, which becomes so badin . . .

FEBRUARY

. . . that Congress passes, without reading it, and without actually finishing writing it, a stimulus package totaling $787 billion. The money is immediately turned over to American taxpayers so they can use it to stimulate the economy.

No! What a crazy idea THAT would be! The money is to be doled out over the next decade or so by members of Congress on projects deemed vital by members of Congress, such as constructing buildings that will be named after members of Congress. This will stimulate the economy by creating millions of jobs, according to estimates provided by the Congressional Estimating Office's Magical Estimating 8-Ball.

Despite this heroic effort, the economy continues to stumble. General Motors, which has sold only one car in the past year -- a Buick LaCrosse mistakenly purchased by an 87-year-old man who thought he was buying a power scooter -- announces a new four-part business plan, consisting of (1) dealership closings; (2) factory shutdowns;(3) worker layoffs; and (4) traveling backward through time to 1955.

The stock market hits its lowest level since 1997; this is hailed as a great investment opportunity by all the financial wizards who failed to let us know last year that the market was going to tank. California goes bankrupt and is forced to raise $800 million by pawning Angelina Jolie.

The Obama administration's confirmation woes continue as Tom Daschle is forced to withdraw as nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services following the disclosure that he, too, failed to pay all of his federal taxes. He blames this oversight on the fact that his tax returns were prepared by Treasury Secretary Geithner.

The Academy Awards are a triumph for Slumdog Millionaire, which wins eight Oscars, only to have them stolen by Somali pirates.

In sports, the Pittsburgh Steelers win the Super Bowl, defeating some team in a game that we have all completely forgotten. Michael Phelps is suspended from competitive swimming following publication of a photograph clearly showing that he has gills. Baseball star Alex Rodriguez admits that from 2001 through 2003 he used steroids, which he claims he got from Treasury Secretary Geithner.

And speaking of shocking disclosures, in . . .

MARCH

. . . an angry nation learns that the giant insurance company AIG, which received $170 billion in taxpayer bailouts and posted a $61 billion loss, is paying executive bonuses totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. This news shocks and outrages President Obama and members of Congress, who happen to be the very people who passed the legislation that authorized both the bailouts and the bonuses, but of course they did that during a crisis and thus had no time to find out what the hell they were voting for.

To correct this situation, some congresspersons propose a 90 percent tax on the bonuses, followed by beheadings, followed by the passage of tough new financial legislation that nobody in Congress will read or understand.

In other economic news, the CEO of GM resigns under pressure from the White House, which notes that it inherited the automobile crisis from the Bush administration. GM is now essentially a subsidiary of the federal government, which promises to use its legendary business and marketing savvy to get the crippled auto giant back on its feet, starting with an exciting new lineup of cars such as the Chevrolet Consensus, a ``green'' car featuring a compressed-soybean chassis, the world's first engine powered entirely by dew, and a 14,500-page owner's manual, accompanied by nearly 6,000 pages of amendments.

Businessman Bernard Madoff pleads guilty to bilking investors out of $65 billion in a Ponzi scheme, forcing the Obama administration to withdraw his nomination for secretary of commerce.

The annual observance of Earth Hour is observed with one hour of symbolic energy conservation as hundreds of millions of non-essential lights and appliances are turned off. And that's just in Al Gore's house.

In sports and entertainment news, former NFL great Lawrence Taylor, appearing on Dancing With the Stars, accidentally rips off his partner's arms during the cha-cha competition. The judges award Taylor 453 points out of a possible 30, citing his ``energy'' and ``proximity.''

Abroad, North Korea, in what many observers view as a deliberate act of provocation, calls Domino's and, posing as the United States, orders 23 million pizzas delivered to Japan.

International problems continue to dominate in . . .

APRIL

. . . as leaders of the world's powers, looking for a way out of the worsening world economic crisis, gather in London for the G-20 summit, which ends abruptly in a violent argument over the bill for the welcoming dinner. A short while later, in what many economists see as a troubling development, the International Monetary Fund moves into a refrigerator carton.

In other international bad news, North Korea launches a test missile that experts say is capable of hitting Hawaii, based on the fact that it actually hits Hawaii. The United States swiftly pledges to issue a strongly worded condemnation containing ``even stronger words than last time.''

On the domestic front, the struggling Chrysler Corp. declares bankruptcy, but its CEO confidently predicts that the company will come back ``bigger, better and stronger than ever'' thanks to its 2010 product line, spearheaded by the all-new Dodge Despair.

The big health story in April is the rapid spread of swine flu, a dangerous new virus strain developed by the makers of Purell. Public anxiety over the flu increases when Vice President Joe Biden, demonstrating his gift for emitting statements, declares on the Today show that he would not recommend traveling by commercial airplane or subway. A short while later, White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs assures reporters that he is ``not aware of any `Vice President Joe Biden.' ''

In another embarrassment for the White House, New York is temporarily thrown into a panic when Air Force One flies low over Manhattan for a publicity photo shoot. Responding to widespread criticism, Gibbs notes that President Obama inherited Air Force One from the Bush administration.

On a more positive note, an American ship captain is dramatically rescued from Somali pirates by a team of Navy SEAL sharpshooters, who are immediately hired by Dancing With the Stars to assist with the judging of Lawrence Taylor.

Speaking of drama, in . . .

MAY

. . . the finale of American Idol produces a shocking outcome that sends shock waves of shock reverberating around the planet when the winner turns out to be -- incredibly -- that guy singer, whatshisname, despite the fact that the overwhelming favorite was that OTHER guy singer. Congress vows to hold hearings after reports surface that, of the nearly 100 million votes, 73 million were phoned in by ACORN.

But the big political drama takes place in Washington, where David Souter announces that he is retiring from the Supreme Court because he is tired of getting noogies from Chief Justice Roberts. To replace Souter, President Obama nominates Sonia Sotomayor, setting off the traditional Washington performance of Konfirmation Kabuki, in which the Democrats portray the nominee as basically a cross between Abraham Lincoln and the Virgin Mary, and the Republicans portray her more as Ursula the Sea Witch with a law degree. Sotomayor will eventually be confirmed, but only after undergoing the traditional Senate Judiciary Committee hazing ritual, during which she must talk for four straight days without expressing an opinion.

In crippled U.S. auto giant news, General Motors announces a new business plan under which it will fire everybody but Howie Long, who will continue to make what GM calls ``some of the most popular commercials on the market.'' Meanwhile Chrysler, looking to the future, invests $114 million in an Amway distributorship.

On the international-tension front, a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss possible sanctions against North Korea is forced to adjourn hastily when the council chamber is penetrated by a missile.

In sports, Helio Castroneves wins the Indianapolis 500, although his victory is somewhat tainted by the fact that all 32 of the other cars were hijacked by Somali pirates. Major League Baseball suspends Dodger slugger Manny Ramirez for 50 games after his urine sample explodes.

But all of these stories suddenly seem unimportant in . . .

JUNE

. . . when pop superstar Michael Jackson dies, setting off an orgy of frowny-face TV-newsperson fake somberness the likes of which has not been seen since the Princess Diana Grief-a-Palooza. At one point experts estimate that the major networks are using the word the word ``icon'' a combined total of 850 times per hour. Larry King devotes several weeks to in-depth coverage of this story, during which he conducts what is believed to be the first-ever in-casket interview; this triumph is marred only slightly by the fact that the venerable TV personality apparently believes he is talking to Bette Midler.

On the economic front, California is caught on videotape attempting to shoplift 17,000 taxpayers from Nevada. General Motors files for bankruptcy and announces a new sales strategy under which it will go around at night leaving cars in people's driveways, then sprinting away.

In political news, the Minnesota Supreme Court, clearly exhausted by months of legal wrangling, declares Al Franken the winner of American Idol. Meanwhile the governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, goes missing for six days; his spokesperson tells the press that the governor is ``hiking the Appalachian trail,'' which turns out to be a slang term meaning ``engaging in acts of an explicitly non-gubernatorial nature with a woman in Argentina.'' The state legislature ultimately considers impeaching Sanford, but changes its mind upon discovering that the lieutenant governor, who got into office through some slick legal maneuvering when nobody was paying attention, is Eliot Spitzer.

Political news continues to dominate in . . .

JULY

. . . when Sarah Palin unexpectedly announces that she will not complete her term as elected governor of Alaska, explaining, in a prepared statement, that she has a hair appointment. Asked by reporters if she plans to seek the Republican presidential nomination, she replies, ``You leave my personal life out of this.'' Elsewhere in state politics, the FBI arrests pretty much every elected official in New Jersey on suspicion of being New Jersey elected officials.

On Independence Day the nation takes a welcome break from its worries to celebrate in traditional fashion with barbecues, parades and -- as night falls -- spectacular aerial North Korean missile detonations.

In government news, top Washington thinkers, looking for a way to goose the economy along, come up with the ``Cash for Clunkers'' program, under which the federal government provides a financial inducement for people to take functional cars, which are mostly American-made, to car dealers, who deliberately destroy these cars and sell the people new replacement cars, which are mostly foreign-made. This program, which was budgeted for $1 billion, ends up costing $3 billion and is halted after a month. The administration declares that it has been a huge success, which everybody understands to mean that it will never, ever be repeated. With this mission accomplished, the top Washington thinkers are free to train all of their brainpower on the nation's health-care system.

President Obama becomes embroiled in controversy when, commenting on the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. by Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley, he states that the police ``acted stupidly.'' This comment angers many in the law-enforcement community, as the president discovers the next day when his motorcade is cited for more than 3,000 moving violations. To resolve the situation, the president invites both Gates and Crowley to the White House for a ``beer summit,'' which is described later by White House spokesperson Gibbs as ``very amicable'' except for some ``minor tasering.''

Speaking of conflict, in . . .

AUGUST

. . . President Obama, in the first serious test of his presidency, announces that he will send U.S. troops to rescue Democratic members of Congress pinned down in town hall meetings by constituents firing hostile questions concerning the administration's health-care plan, which turns out not to be wildly popular outside of the immediate Capitol Hill area. The president dismisses concerns that his health-care agenda is in trouble, observing that ``there's something about August going into September where everybody in Washington gets all wee-weed up.'' White House spokesperson Gibbs explains that the ``vast majority'' of the wee-wee was inherited from the Bush administration.

In foreign affairs, former president Bill Clinton goes to North Korea to secure the release of two detained American journalists who purely by coincidence happen to be women. Fidel Castro, after nearly a year out of the public eye, appears on the popular Cuban television show Bailando con Cadáveres (``Dancing With Corpses'').

California, in a move apparently intended to evade creditors, has its name legally changed to ``South Oregon.''

In an alarming technological development, hackers shut down Twitter, leaving a desperate and suddenly vulnerable America with no way to find out what the Kardashian sisters are having for lunch. The Federal Emergency Management Agency urges the nation to ``remain calm'' and ``use Facebook if you can.'' Twitter service is eventually restored, but most of the estimated 875 million thoughts that went untweeted during the outage will never be recovered, making it the nation's worst social-networking disaster ever.

Speaking of disruptions,in . . .

SEPTEMBER

. . . President Obama, speaking on health care before a joint session of Congress, is rudely interrupted by Kanye West, who grabs the microphone and declares that Beyoncé has a better health-care plan. No, wait, sorry: The president is rudely interrupted by Republican congressperson Joe Wilson, who shouts ``You lie!'' Wilson later apologizes for his breach of congressional etiquette, saying, ``I should have just mooned him.''

With public support for the administration's health-care plan continuing to slip, the president orders U.S. troops into Fox News, then goes on a media blitz, appearing, in a three-day span, on Meet the Press, Face the Nation, Meet the Nation, Face the Press, Press Your Face Against the Nation, Letterman, Leno, Judge Judy, Iron Chef and Dog the Bounty Hunter. The president also delivers a back-to-school speech to the nation's students, telling them to work hard and get a good education. Fortunately, thanks to the vigilance of the talk-radio community, many parents realize that this is some kind of secret socialist code message and are able to prevent their children from being exposed to it.

In international news, Iran shocks the world by revealing the existence of a previously secret uranium enrichment facility. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insists that the uranium will be used only for ``parties.'' United Nations nuclear inspectors note, however, that ``Mahmoud Ahmadinejad'' can be rearranged to spell ``Had Jammed a Humanoid'' and ``Hounded a Jihad Mamma.''

On the international-finance front, leaders of the world's economic powers gather for the G-20 summit meeting in Pittsburgh, where, in a rare display of unity, they vote unanimously to fire whoever is responsible for selecting their meeting sites.

Speaking of questionable site selection, in . . .

OCTOBER

. . . the International Olympic Committee meets in Copenhagen to choose whether Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo or Madrid will host the 2016 summer games. Chicago is considered a strong candidate, but despite personal appeals for the city from President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Mayor Richard Daley, Oprah Winfrey and the late Al Capone, the committee -- in an unexpected decision -- votes to hold the games in Pyongyang, North Korea. The head of the IOC insists that the decision was ``made freely and without coercion,'' adding, ``for the love of God please abort the launch.''

On a happier note for the White House, President Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize, narrowly edging out Beyoncé.

In the Middle East, hopes for peace soar when Iran announces that it will allow U.N. inspectors to visit its nuclear-enrichment facility. Hopes plunge soon after when the inspectors report that they were taken to what appears to be a hastily abandoned kebab stand with a hand-painted sign that says ``NUCLEAR ENRICHMENT,'' as well as what the inspectors describe as ``numerous health-code violations.''

In Afghanistan, U.N. investigators raise questions about the recent national election, noting that a third of the votes cast for President Hamid Karzai came from Palm Beach County.

On the celebrity front, a remorseful David Letterman confesses to his stunned audience that he has been hiking the Appalachian Trail with female staff members.

But the big story in October, the story that grips the nation the way a dog grips a rancid squirrel, is the mesmerizing drama of a silver balloon racing through the blue skies above central Colorado, desperately pursued by police, aviation and rescue personnel who have been led to believe that the balloon contains O.J. Simpson.

No, that would have been great, but the authorities in fact have been led to believe that the balloon contains 6-year-old Falcon Heene, the son of exactly the kind of parents you would expect to name a child ``Falcon.'' It quickly becomes clear that the boy is not in the balloon, and the whole thing is a hoax perpetrated by attention-seeking reality-show-wannabe idiots. In other words, nothing really happened, so naturally the media go into a weeklong Category 5 frenzy so intensive that Larry King is forced to temporarily interrupt his ongoing postmortem coverage of the Michael Jackson funeral.

Speaking of attention-seeking reality-show-wannabe idiots,in . . .

NOVEMBER

. . . a Washington couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, penetrate heavy security and enter the White House, a feat that Joe Biden has yet to manage. As details of the incident emerge, an embarrassed Secret Service is forced to admit that not only did the couple crash a state dinner, but they also met and shook hands with the president, and they ``may have served briefly in the cabinet.''

In other White House news, the president, in a much-debated post-Thanksgiving decision, announces that he is sending U.S. troops into the electronics departments of 1,400 Best Buy stores to prevent Black Friday shoppers from killing each other over flat-screen TVs. Hours later the president withdraws the troops, calling the situation ``hopeless.'' Press Secretary Gibbs notes that the president inherited Black Friday from the Bush administration.

Attorney General Eric Holder announces that, to maintain the principle of due legal process, alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be tried in federal court in New York City, but as a precaution, ``he will be executed first.''

In sports, the New York Yankees, after an eight-year drought, purchase the World Series. But the month's big sports story involves Tiger Woods, who, plagued by tabloid reports that he has been hiking the Appalachian trail with a nightclub hostess, is injured in a bizarre late-night incident near his Florida home when his SUV is attacked by golf-club-wielding Somali pirates.

In science news:

• The Large Hadron Collider is restarted after a 14-month delay caused by squirrels stealing the particles.

• Elated NASA scientists announce that they have discovered ice on the moon, although their excitement fades when they calculate that getting it back to Earth will cost $185 million per cube.

• Researchers from MIT and Harvard announce that they have sequenced the genome of a horse. They are arrested when police discover that ``sequencing the genome'' is the scientific slang equivalent of ``hiking the Appalachian trail.''

In a troubling economic development, the U.S. dollar, for the first time in history, falls below the lentil.

Speaking of troubling, in . . .

DECEMBER

. . . President Obama, after weeks of pondering what to do about the pesky war situation he inherited, announces a decision -- widely viewed as a compromise -- in which he will send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, but will name their mission ``Operation Gentle Butterfly.''

On the economic front, the nation's unemployment rate remains stubbornly high as it becomes clear that the $787 billion stimulus package has created a total of only eight jobs, all in the field of highway-construction flagperson. Looking for solutions, the president hosts a White House ``jobs summit'' attended by political, business and labor leaders, as well as 23 Portuguese tourists who got lost while trying to visit the Washington Monument and somehow penetrated White House security. Meanwhile, in what is believed to be the largest Craigslist transaction ever, California sells San Diego to Mexico.

On the environmental front, Copenhagen hosts a massive international conference aimed at halting manmade global warming, attended by thousands of delegates who flew to Denmark on magical carbon-free unicorns.

In the Middle East, U.N. nuclear inspectors become suspicious when Iran attempts to ship to Israel, via UPS, a large crate labeled ``HARMLESS ITEMS -- DELIVER BEFORE TIMER REACHES 00:00.''

There are other troubling year-end developments:

• In a setback for U.S. interests in Central America, voters in Honduras elect, as their new president, Rod Blagojevich.

• The International Space Station is taken over by Somali pirates.

• In sports, roughly 40 percent of the U.S. bimbo population announces that it has at one time or another hiked the Appalachian Trail with Tiger Woods.

Also, as the year draws to a close, the Centers for Disease Control releases an urgent bulletin warning of a new, fast-spreading epidemic consisting of severe, and in some cases life-threatening, arm infections caused by ``people constantly sneezing into their elbow pits.''

But despite all the gloomy news, the holiday season brings at least temporary relief to a troubled nation -- especially the children, millions of whom go to sleep on Christmas Eve with visions of Santa in his reindeer-powered sleigh flying high overhead, spreading joy around the world.

With a North Korean missile flying right behind.

Try not to think about it. And happy New Year.

The Cloward-Piven Strategy

2009-12-12T05:44:00.000-08:00

From discoverthenetworks.org

First proposed in 1966 and named after Columbia University sociologists Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, the "Cloward-Piven Strategy" seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.

Inspired by the August 1965 riots in the black district of Watts in Los Angeles (which erupted after police had used batons to subdue a black man suspected of drunk driving), Cloward and Piven published an article titled "The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty" in the May 2, 1966 issue of The Nation. Following its publication, The Nation sold an unprecedented 30,000 reprints. Activists were abuzz over the so-called "crisis strategy" or "Cloward-Piven Strategy," as it came to be called. Many were eager to put it into effect.

In their 1966 article, Cloward and Piven charged that the ruling classes used welfare to weaken the poor; that by providing a social safety net, the rich doused the fires of rebellion. Poor people can advance only when "the rest of society is afraid of them," Cloward told The New York Times on September 27, 1970. Rather than placating the poor with government hand-outs, wrote Cloward and Piven, activists should work to sabotage and destroy the welfare system; the collapse of the welfare state would ignite a political and financial crisis that would rock the nation; poor people would rise in revolt; only then would "the rest of society" accept their demands.

The key to sparking this rebellion would be to expose the inadequacy of the welfare state. Cloward-Piven's early promoters cited radical organizer Saul Alinsky as their inspiration. "Make the enemy live up to their (sic) own book of rules," Alinsky wrote in his 1972 book Rules for Radicals. When pressed to honor every word of every law and statute, every Judaeo-Christian moral tenet, and every implicit promise of the liberal social contract, human agencies inevitably fall short. The system's failure to "live up" to its rule book can then be used to discredit it altogether, and to replace the capitalist "rule book" with a socialist one.

The authors noted that the number of Americans subsisting on welfare -- about 8 million, at the time -- probably represented less than half the number who were technically eligible for full benefits. They proposed a "massive drive to recruit the poor onto the welfare rolls." Cloward and Piven calculated that persuading even a fraction of potential welfare recipients to demand their entitlements would bankrupt the system. The result, they predicted, would be "a profound financial and political crisis" that would unleash "powerful forces … for major economic reform at the national level."

Their article called for "cadres of aggressive organizers" to use "demonstrations to create a climate of militancy." Intimidated by threats of black violence, politicians would appeal to the federal government for help. Carefully orchestrated media campaigns, carried out by friendly, leftwing journalists, would float the idea of "a federal program of income redistribution," in the form of a guaranteed living income for all -- working and non-working people alike. Local officials would clutch at this idea like drowning men to a lifeline. They would apply pressure on Washington to implement it. With every major city erupting into chaos, Washington would have to act.

This was an example of what are commonly called Trojan Horse movements -- mass movements whose outward purpose seems to be providing material help to the downtrodden, but whose real objective is to draft poor people into service as revolutionary foot soldiers; to mobilize poor people en masse to overwhelm government agencies with a flood of demands beyond the capacity of those agencies to meet. The flood of demands was calculated to break the budget, jam the bureaucratic gears into gridlock, and bring the system crashing down. Fear, turmoil, violence and economic collapse would accompany such a breakdown -- providing perfect conditions for fostering radical change. That was the theory.

Cloward and Piven recruited a militant black organizer named George Wiley to lead their new movement. In the summer of 1967, Wiley founded the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO). His tactics closely followed the recommendations set out in Cloward and Piven's article. His followers invaded welfare offices across the United States -- often violently -- bullying social workers and loudly demanding every penny to which the law "entitled" them. By 1969, NWRO claimed a dues-paying membership of 22,500 families, with 523 chapters across the nation.

Regarding Wiley's tactics, The New York Times commented on September 27, 1970, "There have been sit-ins in legislative chambers, including a United States Senate committee hearing, mass demonstrations of several thousand welfare recipients, school boycotts, picket lines, mounted police, tear gas, arrests - and, on occasion, rock-throwing, smashed glass doors, overturned desks, scattered papers and ripped-out phones."These methods proved effective. "The flooding succeeded beyond Wiley's wildest dreams," writes Sol Stern in the City Journal. "From 1965 to 1974, the number of single-parent households on welfare soared from 4.3 million to 10.8 million, despite mostly flush economic times. By the early 1970s, one person was on the welfare rolls in New York City for every two working in the city's private economy."As a direct result of its massive welfare spending, New York City was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1975. The entire state of New York nearly went down with it. The Cloward-Piven strategy had proved its effectiveness.

The Cloward-Piven strategy depended on surprise. Once society recovered from the initial shock, the backlash began. New York's welfare crisis horrified America, giving rise to a reform movement which culminated in "the end of welfare as we know it" -- the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which imposed time limits on federal welfare, along with strict eligibility and work requirements. Both Cloward and Piven attended the White House signing of the bill as guests of President Clinton.

Most Americans to this day have never heard of Cloward and Piven. But New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani attempted to expose them in the late 1990s. As his drive for welfare reform gained momentum, Giuliani accused the militant scholars by name, citing their 1966 manifesto as evidence that they had engaged in deliberate economic sabotage. "This wasn't an accident," Giuliani charged in a 1997 speech. "It wasn't an atmospheric thing, it wasn't supernatural. This is the result of policies and programs designed to have the maximum number of people get on welfare."

Cloward and Piven never again revealed their intentions as candidly as they had in their 1966 article. Even so, their activism in subsequent years continued to rely on the tactic of overloading the system. When the public caught on to their welfare scheme, Cloward and Piven simply moved on, applying pressure to other sectors of the bureaucracy, wherever they detected weakness.

In 1982, partisans of the Cloward-Piven strategy founded a new "voting rights movement," which purported to take up the unfinished work of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Like ACORN, the organization that spear-headed this campaign, the new "voting rights" movement was led by veterans of George Wiley's welfare rights crusade. Its flagship organizations were Project Vote and Human SERVE, both founded in 1982. Project Vote is an ACORN front group, launched by former NWRO organizer and ACORN co-founder Zach Polett. Human SERVE was founded by Richard A. Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, along with a former NWRO organizer named Hulbert James.

All three of these organizations -- ACORN, Project Vote and Human SERVE -- set to work lobbying energetically for the so-called Motor-Voter law, which Bill Clinton ultimately signed in 1993. The Motor-Voter bill is largely responsible for swamping the voter rolls with "dead wood" -- invalid registrations signed in the name of deceased, ineligible or non-existent people -- thus opening the door to the unprecedented levels of voter fraud and "voter disenfranchisement" claims that followed in subsequent elections.

The new "voting rights" coalition combines mass voter registration drives -- typically featuring high levels of fraud -- with systematic intimidation of election officials in the form of frivolous lawsuits, unfounded charges of "racism" and "disenfranchisement," and "direct action" (street protests, violent or otherwise). Just as they swamped America's welfare offices in the 1960s, Cloward-Piven devotees now seek to overwhelm the nation's understaffed and poorly policed electoral system. Their tactics set the stage for the Florida recount crisis of 2000, and have introduced a level of fear, tension and foreboding to U.S. elections heretofore encountered mainly in Third World countries.

Both the Living Wage and Voting Rights movements depend heavily on financial support from George Soros's Open Society Institute and his "Shadow Party," through whose support the Cloward-Piven strategy continues to provide a blueprint for some of the Left's most ambitious campaigns.

From August 31, 2009 American Thinker

2009-12-09T11:58:00.000-08:00

Dr. Hunt is a social and cultural anthropologist. He has had nearly
30 years experience in planning, conducting, and managing research in
the field of youth studies, and drug and alcohol research.

____________________________________________________

An article by Geoffrey P. Hunt

Anatomy of a Failing Presidency

Barack Obama is on track to have the most spectacularly failed presidency since Woodrow Wilson. In the modern era, we've seen several failed presidencies--led by Jimmy Carter and LBJ. Failed presidents have one strong common trait-- they are repudiated, in the vernacular, spat out. Of course, LBJ wisely took the exit ramp early, avoiding a shove into oncoming traffic by his own party. Richard Nixon indeed resigned in disgrace, yet his reputation as a statesman has been partially restored by his triumphant overture to China 20.

But, Barack Obama is failing. Failing big. Failing fast. And failing everywhere: foreign policy, domestic initiatives, and most importantly, in forging connections with the American people. The incomparable Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal put her finger on it:

He is failing because he has no understanding of the American people, and may indeed loathe them.

Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard says he is failing because he has lost control of his message, and is overexposed. Clarice Feldman of American Thinker produced a dispositive commentary showing that Obama is failing because fundamentally he is neither smart nor articulate; his intellectual dishonesty is conspicuous by its audacity and lack of shame.

But, there is something more seriously wrong: How could a new president riding in on a wave of unprecedented promise and goodwill have forfeited his tenure and become a lame duck in six months? His poll ratings are in free fall. In generic balloting, the Republicans have now seized a five point advantage. This truly is unbelievable. What's going on?

No narrative. Obama doesn't have a narrative. No, not a narrative about himself. He has a self-narrative, much of it fabricated, cleverly disguised or written by someone else. But this self-narrative is isolated and doesn't connect with us. He doesn't have an American narrative that draws upon the rest of us. All successful presidents have a narrative about the American character that intersects with their own where they display a command of history and reveal an authenticity at the core of their personality that resonates in a positive endearing way with the majority of Americans. We admire those presidents whose narratives not only touch our own, but who seem stronger, wiser, and smarter than we are. Presidents we admire are aspirational peers, even those whose politics don't align exactly with our own: Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Ike, and Reagan.

But not this president. It's not so much that he's a phony, knows nothing about economics, and is historically illiterate and woefully small minded for the size of the task--all contributory of course. It's that he's not one of us. And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated corrugated paper. Moreover, he doesn't command our respect and is unable to appeal to our own common sense. His notions of right and wrong are repugnant and how things work just don't add up. They are not existential. His descriptions of the world we live in don't make sense and don't correspond with our experience.

In the meantime, while we've been struggling to take a measurement of this man, he's dissed just about every one of us--financiers, energy producers, banks, insurance executives, police officers, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, post office workers, and anybody else who has a non-green job. Expect Obama to lament at his last press conference in 2012: "For those of you I offended, I apologize. For those of you who were not offended, you just didn't give me enough time; if only I'd had a second term, I could have offended you too."

Mercifully, the Founders at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 devised a useful remedy for such a desperate state--staggered terms for both houses of the legislature and the executive. An equally abominable Congress can get voted out next year. With a new Congress, there's always hope of legislative gridlock until we vote for president again two short years after that.

Yes, small presidents do fail, Barack Obama among them. The coyotes howl but the wagon train keeps rolling along.

My Latest Letter to Brad

2009-12-05T15:59:00.000-08:00

What about the Climate(gate) leaked documents? Shouldn't those be investigated? As you know there has been a decrease in temperature over the last decade. Please quit the politicalization of issues like this and do what's best and should be done FIRST for us citizens. Looking into the possible scam presented to us via the global warming backers would be huge. Isn't it funny, strange, (and a public disservice) that ABC, NBC, and CBS have not run any stories about the emails? I guess the debate is NOT over, and Al had a hit with his fictional account of the future! Climategate, Brad, check out the facts. Let the police check out any possible breach of law, but Congress should check out the facts of the emails, and perhaps thank the whistleblower for saving us taxpayers trillions of wasted dollars!

Sincerely,
Jim Locke

STAY TUNED FOR BRAD'S RESPONSE! IT'S SURE TO BE A DOOZY!

The Great Pretenders

2009-12-04T22:26:00.000-08:00

The President of the Media Research Center, Brent Bozell, said a couple of days ago, “The networks’ silence on ClimateGate is deafening. Scandal, cover-ups and conspiracy are the bread and butter of the media. Yet they have selectively and deliberately decided not to report this bombshell – or any of the incriminating details surrounding the scandal – because it goes against their left-wing agenda.

“To pretend this story simply doesn’t exist is damning to journalism. The so-called ‘news’ media are protecting scientists because it exposes their underbelly. That’s not journalism. That’s a cover-up. And we will continue to call them out for ignoring these allegations and the mounting, inconvenient evidence against them.”

Now come on, folks, this is merely more proof of the left wing, ideological, Democrat-leaning, liberal agenda of the mainstream media. This is a non-story to them?!? Also, the White House, United Nations, and Congress are refusing to investigate the misrepresented, misstated, and eliminated data that does not support the Global Warming theory and in fact describes the decrease in temperature over the past decade!

There are two principles in play here: one of them is being mistaken -- "mis" followed by "taken." Apparently the Liberals have been taken, duped, and led to err on the part of silly science purporting a theory that the world's temperature is rising and they want to spent a boatload of our money to 'fix' it.

The other principle is being wrong. The wrong here is deliberately choosing a side and steering all stories to that side. The mainstream media are mistaken about the science and are wrong for not presenting both sides. If journalists would stick to journalism we would have honesty in the press. Up until Fox news came to be there was an unwritten rule that the press had a liberal slant. Spiro T. Agnew had a hate-hate relationship with the press and shared on it whenever he got a chance. Ahhh, those were the days!!

But Fox, now that is a name that reaps contempt from every liberal from every persuasion of the left. Isn't it funny, though, how Fox is only viewed by 2 to 4 million people? ABC and NBC each have about 7 million viewers of their news programs, and CBS has about 5 million, according to the "TV by the numbers" website. And the Democrats want to implement the "Fairness Doctrine"???!?!? Is that hilarious or what?!?

The Great Pretenders, ABC, CBS, and NBC.... fair and balanced.

Mad, I Tell You, Mad

2009-11-30T07:24:00.000-08:00

There is now no question about it, the world has gone mad. Yes, mad I tell you, mad.

Now, I don't know if part of that madness is what follows or not but it seems when an issue arises anymore sides are immediately chosen. That starts the personal attacks and changes of arguments on the part of the Democrats; the defensive posturing and kowtowing from the Republicans. Oh, you can forget about the goal of whatever is going on because to get lost in the means is much more fun -- and expensive. The means requires investigations, committees, panels, discussion, debate, and finally legislation that has no resemblance to a cure for the ills. What the legislation does do is regulate the means to the point where the road seems to narrow. Actually, the road is the same size it's always been, the politicians just close any other route available that might reach the goal sooner, cheaper, and better.

One of the most blatant examples of the picking of sides is regarding the War on Terror. We are at war, folks. There are people that want to kill us because we ARE us. They want to, they have, and they will slice through our necks and joyously celebrate our deaths. After all their interpretation of God is the only one that matters.... just like Jesus is the only one that matters to Christians... but I digress...

The Republicans have chosen the side of defense (surprise-surprise ) and the Democrats have chosen the side of tolerance (surprise-surprise ). Dems think that if we just talk with the muslim/jihadists we will understand where they're coming from and vice versa. They think the enemy will understand and accept us if we show them how much we're willing to give aid to them. They think the 20-something Arabs will take a liking to us if they could only look into our hearts.

In the 1950s and 60s the United States' civil rights issue exploded. Should we have listened to the people that attacked blacks when they tried to live their lives in society? Would they have changed their opinions if we "understood where they're coming from?"

And now there is the 'global warming' supporters who are embarrassed by the revelation of suppressed evidence that gw isn't happening. They are not calling for an investigation of the United Nations' committee chairman but he is calling for an investigation into the hacking of their computers! Guess which side the mainstream media will take a liking to?! Soon we'll know the possible sentences and fines for hacking but we will not know how scientific facts were swept under the rug and ignored to prop up junk science.

I think we ought to listen to the hacker.

Jerry.... Jerry..... HEY, JERRY!! LISTEN UP!!

2009-11-27T23:39:00.000-08:00

Jerry.... Jerry... JERRY!!... Put down the bong, step away from public service. What do you mean we have an expectation of privacy of our trash when you won't protect our privacy by keeping illegals out of the state?!? Oh, I'm sorry... I'm talking a little over your pay grade. I know you're the Attorney General and it's up to you to enforce the laws but there are just some laws that don't need enforced -- and YOU get to be the guy to decide which!! Certainly I want you to keep my trash sacred.

Well, we just glossed right over the fact that they're under investigation so what are they doing throwing any-fucking-thing away anyway?!?! He mentions that 52% of Republicans think ACORN stole the election for Obama. And what, pray tell, does that have to do with ACORN destroying documents??

You know, Jer, you might want to consider giving up the hallucinogens, too...

This Is Your President or This Could Be Your President

2009-11-23T23:42:00.000-08:00

There was a story in the Spiegel Online International about President Obama's trip to Asia and the rewards he reaped for us. This is an independent German media news outlet, beholding to no one political faction or stated ideology.

The lead on the US Foreign Policy page reads, Obama's Nice Guy Act Gets Him Nowhere on the World Stage.Other stories are: on the Opinion page, 'Obama Has Failed the World on Climate Change; in The World from Berlin section: 'Obama's Soft Approach on China Won't Succeed'; Reluctant Partners: Global Crisis Makes US More Dependent on China than Ever.

Let's just suppose that those articles were published by say, the New York Times, or on MSNBC, or even in the Wall Street Journal. Would American politicians have the temerity to take a stand, to be..... a .... rogue? Gosh, who is in that role now? (Nice segue, huh?)

Sarah Palin calls herself a rogue. Rogue is defined as a vagrant, tramp, a worthless person, (now we're getting to the good stuff) a mischievous person, or a scamp. It's also a horse inclined to shirk or misbehave and I think that's just what folks have in mind when they call her a rogue. She doesn't answer questions put to her like a politician -- she actually gives an answer. She doesn't hide and to other politicians that's frightening.

The left is afraid of her and it's hilarious! Even though Obama's rhetoric was about change, he did not even posture for a second once he took office. It has been nothing but literally a sham to see the corruption in his administration. Stupid, preposterous ideas such as: spending our way to prosperity and printing money to do that; an idea like paying for health care in part by eliminating fraud in Medicare. [Hey, Barry! What's to stop you from battling that fraud today?!?]

Can you imagine the spin and positions the left would have to come up with if Sarah Palin and Ron Paul got together? Talk about rogues.....

Hey! Those Senators Are Smarter Than We Are!!

2009-11-19T16:54:00.000-08:00

Here's a portion of the health care bill now before the Senate:
SEC. 2006. SPECIAL ADJUSTMENT TO FMAP DETERMINATION FOR CERTAIN STATES RECOVERING FROM A MAJOR DISASTER.

Section 1905 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396d), as amended by sections 2001(a)(3) and 2001(b)(2), is amended— (1) in subsection (b), in the first sentence, by striking ‘‘subsection (y)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsections (y) and (aa)’’; and (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:

‘‘(aa)(1) Notwithstanding subsection (b), beginning January 1, 2011, the Federal medical assistance percentage for a fiscal year for a disaster-recovery FMAP adjustment State shall be equal to the following:
‘(A) In the case of the first fiscal year (or part of a fiscal year) for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), increased by 50 percent of the number of percentage points by which the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year after the application of only subsection (a) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5 (if applicable to the preceding fiscal year) and without regard to this subsection, subsection (y), and subsections (b) and (c) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5.

‘‘(B) In the case of the second or any succeeding fiscal year for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the preceding fiscal year under this subsection for the State, increased by 25 percent of the number of percentage points by which the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year under this subsection.

‘‘(2) In this subsection, the term ‘disaster-recovery FMAP adjustment State’ means a State that is one of the 50 States or the District of Columbia, for which, at any time during the preceding 7 fiscal years, the President has declared a major disaster under section 401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act and determined as a result of such disaster that every county or parish in the State warrant individual and public assistance or public assistance from the Federal Government under such Act and for which— ‘‘(A) in the case of the first fiscal year (or part of a fiscal year) for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year after the application of only subsection (a) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5 (if applicable to the preceding fiscal year) and without regard to this subsection, subsection (y), and subsections (b) and (c) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5, by at least 3 percentage points; and ‘‘(B) in the case of the second or any succeeding fiscal year for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year under this subsection by at least 3 percentage points.

‘‘(3) The Federal medical assistance percentage determined for a disaster-recovery FMAP adjustment State under paragraph (1) shall apply for purposes of this title (other than with respect to disproportionate share hospital payments described in section 1923 and payments under this title that are based on the enhanced FMAP described in 2105(b)) and shall not apply with respect to payments under title IV (other than under part E of title IV) or payments under title XXI.’’.

ALL OF THE ABOVE IS LEGALESE, SENATESE, CONGRESSESE, POLITICIANESE FOR....

LOUISIANA.

That's it... all of that language to say Louisiana.... and it's going to cost us $100,000,000.00. Oh, yeah, this is just so a Senator from Louisiana will vote for this stinking piece of crap legislation.

Also, there is the rumbling to make the Senate clerks read the entire bill aloud, perhaps as many as three times before it's finally brought to a vote. Hell, no Senator is going to sit and READ the entire bill let alone listen to it. In fact NONE OF THEM EVEN WROTE THE THING. It was written by the Apollo Alliance. They are an environmental group founded to promote a 'green society.' The list of founders reads like a playbook for the left, too:

The founding board members of the Apollo Alliance are:

* Senator Maria Cantwell, US Congress (D-WA).
* Leo Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers.
* Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr., US Congress (D-IL).
* Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club.

National Steering Committee

* Ruben Aronin, Global Green USA
* Andrew Beebe, Energy Innovations
* Robert L. Borosage, Institute for America's Future
* Dan Carol, CTSG, Young Apollo
* Maggie Fox, Sierra Club
* Bracken Hendricks, Apollo Alliance
* Van Jones, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
* Mindy Lubber, Ceres
* Mark Ritchie, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
* Joel Rogers, Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS)
* Marco Trbovich, United Steelworkers of America (USWA)

There's not a Republican nor a Libertarian in this group lending no credence to a bi-partisan effort. Now there's a bit more Hope and Change for ya!

News Article Published Today

2009-11-10T11:36:00.000-08:00

Fort Hood Suspect Warned of Muslim Threat Within Military

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

AP -- Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan is suspected of a deadly rampage at the Fort Hood base in Texas.

Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan is suspected of a deadly rampage at the Fort Hood base in Texas.

The Army psychiatrist suspected of killing 13 people at Fort Hood reportedly warned senior Army physicians in 2007 that the military should allow Muslim soldiers to be released as conscientious objectors instead of fighting in wars to avoid "adverse events."

According to The Washington Post, Major Nidal Malik Hasan was supposed to make a presentation on a medical topic during his senior year as a psychiatric resident at Walter Reed Medical Center.

Instead, Hasan lectured his supervisors and two dozen mental health staff members on Islam, homicide bombings and threats the military could encounter from Muslims conflicted about fighting against other Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A source who attended the presentation told the paper, "It was really strange. The senior doctors looked really upset."

The Powerpoint, entitled, "The Koranic World View As It Relates to Muslims in the U.S. Military," consisted of 50 slides, according to a copy obtained by the Post.

"It's getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims," Hasan said in the presentation.

Under a slide titled "Comments," he wrote: "If Muslim groups can convince Muslims that they are fighting for God against injustices of the 'infidels'; ie: enemies of Islam, then Muslims can become a potent adversary ie: suicide bombing, etc." [sic]

The last bullet point on that page reads simply: "We love death more then [sic] you love life!"

On the final slide, labeled "Recommendation," Hasan wrote: "Department of Defense should allow Muslims [sic] Soldiers the option of being released as 'Conscientious objectors' to increase troop morale and decrease adverse events."

An Army spokesman told the Post Monday night he was unaware of the presentation, and a Walter Reed spokesman declined comment.

A classmate of Hasan, meanwhile, told FoxNews.com that the warning signs were all there — the justification of homicide bombings; spewing anti-American hatred; efforts to reach out to Al Qaeda — but that the military treated Hasan with kid gloves, even after giving him a poor performance review.

And though he was on the radar screen of at least one U.S. intelligence agency, no action was taken that might have prevented the Army psychiatrist from allegedly gunning down 13 people and wounding 29 others in the Fort Hood massacre last week.

"There were definitely clear indications that Hasan's loyalties were not with America," Lt. Col. Val Finnell, Hasan's classmate at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. He and Hasan were students in the school's public health master's degree program from 2007-2008.

"The issue here is that there's a political correctness climate in the military. They don't want to say anything because it would be considered questioning somebody's religious belief, or they're afraid of an equal opportunity lawsuit.

"I want to be clear that this wasn't about anyone questioning his religious views. It is different when you are a civilian than when you are a military officer," said Finnell, who is a physician at the Los Angeles Air Force Base.

"When you are in the military and you start making comments that are seditious, when you say you believe something other than your oath of office — someone needed to say why is this guy saying this stuff.

"He was a lightning rod. He made his views known and he was very vocal, he had extremely radical jihadist views," Finnell said. "When you're a military officer you take an oath to defend against all enemies foreign and domestic.

"They should've confronted him — our professors, officers — but they were too concerned about being politically correct."

Finnell said the warning signs were clear to many, not just classmates. Faculty members, including many high-ranking military officers, witnessed firsthand his anti-Americanism, he said.

Finnell recalled Hasan telling his classmates and professors, "I'm a Muslim first and I hold the Shariah, the Islamic Law, before the United States Constitution."

He recalled one time when his classmates were giving presentations in an environmental health class on topics like soil and water contamination and the effects of mold. When it was Hasan's turn, he said, he got up in front of the class and began to speak about his chosen topic, "Is the War on Terror a war on Islam?"

Finnell says he raised his hand. "I asked the professor, "What does this topic have to do with environmental health?"

"When he was challenged on his views, Hasan became visibly upset. He became sweaty, he was emotional."

But despite questioning from the other students, Finnell said, the professor allowed Hasan to continue. He said Hasan's anti-American vitriol continued for two years as he worked toward his degree in public health.

There were even more warning signs that might have alerted the Army in recent months:

— In the days and weeks before the shooting, Hasan voiced his objections to Muslims fighting the war on terror to members of his mosque, the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen. Congregants at the mosque said he voiced his objections to Muslims serving in the U.S. military and to his impending deployment to Afghanistan.

— Over the summer, Hasan's comments led Osman Danquah, co-founder of the mosque, to recommend that it deny Hasan's request to become a lay Muslim leader at Fort Hood, the Associated Press reported.

— In the months before Thursday's shooting Hasan tried reaching out to people associated with Al Qaeda — and did so under the watchful eye of at least one U.S. intelligence agency. An intelligence official told FOXNews.com that "Hasan was on our radar for months."

On Sunday Sen. Joe Lieberman announced his intention to lead a congressional investigation into the Fort Hood murders, saying there were "strong warning signs" that Hasan was an "Islamic extremist."

"The U.S. Army has to have zero tolerance. He should have been gone," said Lieberman, who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

In interviews Sunday, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey stressed that it was too early in the investigation to know whether these warnings signs could have spared the lives of the 13 killed, dismissing earlier reports about such signs as "speculation" based on anecdotes. "I don't want to say that we missed it," he said.

Finnell said that once Hasan was identified as the suspect in Thursday's massacre, he reached out to the Army to tell them about his experiences with Hasan.

This time, he said, "They listened."

Fox News' Jana Winter contributed to this report.

Another Article Not on MSNBC

2009-11-10T11:32:00.000-08:00

The New York Times article from November 5, 2009

2009-11-05T11:40:00.000-08:00

Check out this story from the New York Times today. Isn't it cute the way he revealed a personal anecdote from America's First Family who's just like you and me? Following the story are a couple of comments I made on the page awaiting "approval." I sure hope they pass muster with the Times.

______________________________________________

The Caucus - The Politics and Government blog of The New York Times
November 4, 2009, 4:31 pm
Obama Uses Malia’s Test Scores as a Teaching Example
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg

MADISON, Wisconsin – President Obama marked the first anniversary of his election on Wednesday by calling on states to toughen their education standards – and wound up calling on parents to toughen theirs, too, as he confessed that his 11-year-old daughter, Malia, recently got a 73 on her science test.
...... toward the end of his speech, Mr. Obama diverted from his prepared text to talk about his daughter’s experience in school – a rarity for a president who has tried his best to keep his children’s lives a private matter.
“Malia and Sasha are just wonderful kids ,and Michelle is a wonderful mother,’’ Mr. Obama said. “But even in our own household, with all the privileges and opportunities we have there are times when the kids slack off. There are times when they would rather be watching TV or playing a computer game than hitting the books.’’
Then, to a chorus of oooohs from the crowd, he said that Malia, a sixth-grader at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, had come home with a 73 on her science test not long ago. He recounted how, a few years ago, she had come home with a grade in the 80s, believing that she had ‘’done pretty well.’’ He and his wife corrected her, telling her that their goal was “90 percent and up.’’
“So here’s the interesting thing: she started internalizing that,’’ the president said, adding that when she came home with a 73 on the science test ‘’she was depressed.’’ He asked her what happened, and she said the study guide didn’t match up with the test. So she vowed to study harder.
“So she came home yesterday, she got a 95,’’ Mr. Obama said. “But here’ the point: She said, ‘You know , I just like having knowledge.’’
The moral of the story, in the president’s view: “Don’t just expect teachers to set a high bar. You’ve got to set a high bar.”

_________________________________________________
Now on with the comments:

Wait a second...... so let me get this straight: a while back this girl got good grades on her own without any "special" attention, just being raised by loving parents. Then, on her own, she floundered a bit. Her loving parents encouraged her to work harder and earn a better outcome. I notice they did NOT have someone else come in for the assist; they did NOT give her money, another book, a desk, food stamps, general relief, WIC, or any other entitlements -- they just taught her to work a little harder and put her nose to the grindstone. And then the outcome was a better grade and sense of accomplishment, true pride, and willingness to keep doing better?? Is that what this story says?!?!?!
In that case what the kid SHOULD do, because it’s her moral obligation, is give 28% of her score to spread amongst her neighbor’s kid who’s out skateboarding at the mall, the fat kid lying on the couch eating Ho-Ho's while dad's with his buddies drinking beer on the porch, the girls at the mall watching the boy skateboard, and the poor minority kids playing basketball at the park. Then she needs to give 8.125% to the government so she’ll have a retirement income to supplement her own savings, and the school needs to chip in the same amount. She also needs to devote about 7.5% to the District of Columbia even though she doesn’t go to school there but, again, it’s that moral obligation thing. That should bring her in line with the mainstream — but we encourage her to keep doing better so she can “give back” more to the society that handed her all that good fortune.

But that ain't gonna happen. She's gonna keep it all because she earned it; she worked hard for it and it instilled self esteem and a desire to continue to do better.

Daddy is actually raising a capitalist.

An Article from April 2008 by Thomas Sowell

2009-11-02T15:28:00.000-08:00

This is an old article but is certainly appropriate today. After you read it, check out the author.

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Many years ago, a great hitter named Paul Waner was nearing the end of his long career. He entered a ballgame with 2,999 hits — one hit away from the landmark total of 3,000, which so many hitters want to reach, but which relatively few actually do reach.

Waner hit a ball that the fielder did not handle cleanly but the official scorer called it a hit, making it Waner's 3,000th. Paul Waner then sent word to the official scorer that he did not want that questionable hit to be the one that put him over the top.

The official scorer reversed himself and called it an error. Later Paul Waner got a clean hit for number 3,000.

What reminded me of this is the great fervor that many seem to feel over the prospect of the first black President of the United States.

No doubt it is only a matter of time before there is a black president, just as it was only a matter of time before Paul Waner got his 3,000th hit. The issue is whether we want to reach that landmark so badly that we are willing to overlook how questionably that landmark is reached.

Paul Waner had too much pride to accept a scratch hit. Choosing a President of the United States is a lot more momentous than a baseball record. We the voters need to have far more concern about who we put in that office that holds the destiny of a nation and of generations yet unborn.

There is no reason why someone as arrogant, foolishly clever and ultimately dangerous as Barack Obama should become president — especially not at a time when the threat of international terrorists with nuclear weapons looms over 300 million Americans.

Many people seem to regard elections as occasions for venting emotions, like cheering for your favorite team or choosing a Homecoming Queen.

The three leading candidates for their party's nomination are being discussed in terms of their demographics — race, sex and age — as if that is what the job is about.

One of the painful aspects of studying great catastrophes of the past is discovering how many times people were preoccupied with trivialities when they were teetering on the edge of doom. The demographics of the presidency are far less important than the momentous weight of responsibility that office carries.

Just the power to nominate federal judges to trial courts and appellate courts across the country, including the Supreme Court, can have an enormous impact for decades to come. There is no point feeling outraged by things done by federal judges, if you vote on the basis of emotion for those who appoint them.

Barack Obama has already indicated that he wants judges who make social policy instead of just applying the law. He has already tried to stop young violent criminals from being tried as adults.

Although Senator Obama has presented himself as the candidate of new things — using the mantra of "change" endlessly — the cold fact is that virtually everything has says about domestic policy is straight out of the 1960s and virtually everything he says about foreign policy is straight out of the 1930s.

Protecting criminals, attacking business, increasing government spending, promoting a sense of envy and grievance, raising taxes on people who are productive and subsidizing those who are not — all this is a re-run of the 1960s.

We paid a terrible price for such 1960s notions in the years that followed, in the form of soaring crime rates, double-digit inflation and double-digit unemployment. During the 1960s, ghettoes across the countries were ravaged by riots from which many have not fully recovered to this day.

The violence and destruction were concentrated not where there was the greatest poverty or injustice but where there were the most liberal politicians, promoting grievances and hamstringing the police.

Internationally, the approach that Senator Obama proposes — including the media magic of meetings between heads of state — was tried during the 1930s. That approach, in the name of peace, is what led to the most catastrophic war in human history.

Everything seems new to those too young to remember the old and too ignorant of history to have heard about it.

What's The Big Deal, Barack?!?

2009-10-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

The Media Elite and an Independent Blog
In 1981, S. Robert Lichter, then with George Washington University, and Stanley Rothman of Smith College, released a groundbreaking survey of 240 journalists at the most influential national media outlets — including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS — on their political attitudes and voting patterns. Results of this study of the “media elite” were included in the October/November 1981 issue of Public Opinion, published by the American Enterprise Institute, in the article “Media and Business Elites.” The data demonstrated that journalists and broadcasters hold liberal positions on a wide range of social and political issues. This study, which was more elaborately presented in Lichter and Rothman’s subsequent book, The Media Elite, became the most widely quoted media study of the 1980s and remains a landmark today.
KEY FINDINGS:
• Nearly half of the journalists surveyed agreed that “the very structure of our society causes people to feel alienated,” while the authors found “five out of six believe our legal system mainly favors the wealthy.”
• 30 percent disagreed that “private enterprise is fair to workers;” 28 percent agreed that “all political systems are repressive.”
• 54 percent did not regard adultery as wrong, compared to only 15 percent who regarded it as wrong.
• “Ninety percent agree that a woman has the right to decide for herself whether to have an abortion; 79 percent agree strongly with this pro-choice position.”
• Majorities of journalists agreed with the statements: “U.S. exploits Third World, causes poverty” (56%) and “U.S. use of resources immoral” (57%). Three-fourths disagreed that the “West had helped Third World.”

And in their own words....

“Personally, I have a great affection for CBS News....But I stopped watching it some time ago. The unremitting liberal orientation finally became too much for me. I still check in, but less and less frequently. I increasingly drift to NBC News and Fox and MSNBC.”
— Former CBS News President Van Gordon Sauter in an op-ed published January 13, 2005 in the Los Angeles Times.

Joe Scarborough: “Is there a liberal bias in the media or is the bias towards getting the story first and getting the highest ratings, therefore, making the most money?”
Former ABC 20/20 anchor Hugh Downs: “Well, I think the latter, by far. And, of course, when the word ‘liberal’ came to be a pejorative word, you began to wonder, you have to say that the press doesn’t want to be thought of as merely liberal. But people tend to be more liberated in their thought when they are closer to events and know a little more about what the background of what’s happening. So, I suppose, in that respect, there is a liberal, if you want to call it a bias. The press is a little more in touch with what’s happening.”
— MSNBC’s Scarborough Country, January 10, 2005.

“Does anybody really think there wouldn’t have been more scrutiny if this [CBS’s bogus 60 Minutes National Guard story] had been about John Kerry?”
— Former 60 Minutes Executive Producer Don Hewitt at a January 10, 2005 meeting at CBS News, as quoted later that day by Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball.

“I know a lot of you believe that most people in the news business are liberal. Let me tell you, I know a lot of them, and they were almost evenly divided this time. Half of them liked Senator Kerry; the other half hated President Bush.”
— CBS’s Andy Rooney on the November 7, 2004 60 Minutes.

Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham: “The work of the evening, obviously, is to connect George W. Bush to the great war leaders of the modern era. You’re going to hear about Churchill projecting power against public opinion....”
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews: “But Iraq was a popular cause when he first started it. It wasn’t like Churchill speaking against the Nazis.”
Meacham: “That’s not the way the Republican Party sees it. They think that all of us and the New York Times are against them.”
Matthews: “Well, they’re right about the New York Times, and they may be right about all of us.”
— Exchange shortly after 8:30pm EDT during MSNBC’s live convention coverage, August 30, 2004. “Of course it is....These are the social issues: gay rights, gun control, abortion and environmental regulation, among others. And if you think The Times plays it down the middle on any of them, you’ve been reading the paper with your eyes closed.”
— New York Times Public Editor Daniel Okrent in a July 25, 2004 column which appeared under a headline asking, “Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper?”

“Where I work at ABC, people say ‘conservative’ the way people say ‘child molester.’”
— ABC 20/20 co-anchor John Stossel to CNSNews.com reporter Robert Bluey, in a story posted January 28, 2004.

“I think they [most reporters] are on the humane side, and that would appear to many to be on the liberal side. A lot of newspaper people — and to a lesser degree today, the TV people — come up through the ranks, through the police-reporting side, and they see the problems of their fellow man, beginning with their low salaries — which newspaper people used to have anyway — and right on through their domestic quarrels, their living conditions. The meaner side of life is made visible to most young reporters. I think it affects their sentimental feeling toward their fellow man and that is interpreted by some less-sensitive people as being liberal.”
— Former CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite to Time magazine’s Richard Zoglin in an interview published in the magazine’s November 3, 2003 edition.

“I thought he [former CBS News correspondent Bernard Goldberg] made some very good points. There is just no question that I, among others, have a liberal bias. I mean, I’m consistently liberal in my opinions. And I think some of the, I think Dan [Rather] is transparently liberal. Now, he may not like to hear me say that. I always agree with him, too, but I think he should be more careful.”
— CBS’s 60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney on Goldberg’s book, Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News, on CNN’s Larry King Live, June 5, 2002.

“There is a liberal bias. It’s demonstrable. You look at some statistics. About 85 percent of the reporters who cover the White House vote Democratic, they have for a long time. There is a, particularly at the networks, at the lower levels, among the editors and the so-called infrastructure, there is a liberal bias. There is a liberal bias at Newsweek, the magazine I work for — most of the people who work at Newsweek live on the upper West Side in New York and they have a liberal bias....[ABC White House reporter] Brit Hume’s bosses are liberal and they’re always quietly denouncing him as being a right-wing nut.”
— Newsweek Washington Bureau Chief Evan Thomas on Inside Washington, May 12, 1996.

“Everybody knows that there’s a liberal, that there’s a heavy liberal persuasion among correspondents.....Anybody who has to live with the people, who covers police stations, covers county courts, brought up that way, has to have a degree of humanity that people who do not have that exposure don’t have, and some people interpret that to be liberal. It’s not a liberal, it’s humanitarian and that’s a vastly different thing.”
— Former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite at the March 21, 1996 Radio & TV Correspondents Dinner.

“I won’t make any pretense that the ‘American Agenda’ [segments on World News Tonight] is totally neutral. We do take a position. And I think the public wants us now to take a position. If you give both sides and ‘Well, on the one hand this and on the other that’ — I think people kind of really want you to help direct their thinking on some issues.”
— ABC News reporter Carole Simpson on CNBC’s Equal Time, August 9, 1994.

“We’re unpopular because the press tends to be liberal, and I don’t think we can run away from that. And I think we’re unpopular with a lot of conservatives and Republicans this time because the White House press corps by and large detested George Bush, probably for good and sufficient reason, they certainly can cite chapter and verse. But their real contempt for him showed through in their reporting in a way that I think got up the nose of the American people.”
— Time writer William A. Henry III on the PBS November 4, 1992 election-night special The Finish Line.

“I think we are aware, as everybody who works in the media is, that the old stereotype of the liberal bent happens to be true, and we’re making a concerted effort to really look for more from the other, without being ponderous or lecturing or trying to convert people to another way of thinking.”
— ABC World News Tonight Executive Producer Emily Rooney, September 27, 1993 Electronic Media.

“I’m not sure it’s useful to include every single point of view simply in order to cover every base because you can come up with a program that’s virtually impossible for the audience to sort out.”
— PBS Senior Producer Linda Harrar commenting on PBS’s ten-part series, Race to Save The Planet, to MRC and reported in the December 1990 MediaWatch.

“As the science editor at Time I would freely admit that on this issue we have crossed the boundary from news reporting to advocacy.”
— Time Science Editor Charles Alexander at a September 16, 1989 global warming conference at the Smithsonian Institution as quoted by David Brooks in an October 5, 1989 Wall Street Journal column.

“Clearly the networks have made that decision now, where you’d have to call it [global warming stories] advocacy.”
— NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Andrea Mitchell at a September 16, 1989 global warming conference at the Smithsonian Institution as quoted by David Brooks in an October 5, 1989 Wall Street Journal column.

So, yes, FOX through the years.... why it's necessary, mandatory, and uhhh... why it's fair and balanced, Barack.

Aunt Bea wouldn't like that....

2009-10-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

That's what Barney would say to Sheriff Andy Taylor when some incredible event befell Mayberry and its citizens. Well, I'm not too sure she'd like BO right now, either after the stunt he just pulled.

The latest communique to Sheriff Joe from President Barack Hussein Obama tells him to back off the illegals, effectively restoring the right to privacy. Oh, wait a minute... the illegals are trespassing criminals who don't have rights -- sorry for the confusion. Seriously, though, if anyone had any doubts that the government wants open borders and resident status for illegals this should seal the argument. If anyone had any doubts that the left wants the United States to fail this is a huge blow to true Patriots. If anyone had any doubts that the Democrats and Republicans might have given just a little shit about the country and US citizens let this be the final nail in their coffin.

Let me put that in all caps (and yes I know it's rude to yell): THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES DOES NOT SUPPORT THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. Voters are a necessary evil to our politicians.

We hear a lot of talk about the Constitutionality of certain laws and their interpretation. John Kerry stated he thought the courts should interpret the Constitution to match the laws, where conservatives believe the courts should interpret the laws to match the Constitution. This is an extremely volatile area of contention -- ain't it grand?! Personally, I think the Founders had their shit together pretty darned good if you know what I mean, but please indulge me while I bloviate (as Bill would say).

The Preamble to the Constitution reads: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

So, it's the PEOPLE who established a place where right is right and good is good. They wanted fairness to prevail, equal opportunity for all, a peaceful law-abiding population, sharing of good fortune, and asked only that the government protect them and keep them protected. That's it, that's all they wanted; and it's all they put into effect. As the Godfather said, "Look what a mess they made of my boy!"

Article I Section 8 lists the powers of Congress, like making sure we have a navy and an army; also to establish mail delivery, determine arenas of justice, keep fairness in trade amongst the states, war declaration, and fund raising. It goes on to give Congress the option to pass any law it deems necessary to assure the aforementioned.

Article 2 establishes the Executive branch. Section 2 is where the real haps show up: It's where POTUS gets the job of Mr. Big, the Head Honcho, Pick of the Pack, Cream of the Crop -- the Commander-in-Chief of the armed services and the National Guard of all the states. POTUS also gets to pick many of the judges, name a Cabinet, swing deals with other countries, and even pardon some of the judges -- er, criminals, that is. (Well, except for the army stuff, POTUS has to kiss the Senate's collective asses to approve all of those choices.) Article 2 Section 3 lists what the President is supposed to do. It's where the State of the Union address is assigned, suggest things for Congress to do, be the Host-in-Chief, and (here comes a biggie) make sure the laws are carried out, followed, enforced.

Article IV Section 6 has some housekeeping stuff but also requires all officers of the United States to swear an oath of allegiance to the United States.

Those are some of the highlights from that yellowed, faded document under yellow glass and hermetically sealed in a glass box and stored in a nuclear safe environ when not on display. I don't know about anyone else but I see a few discrepencies in what it says versus how things actually are.

There's GOT to be a lawyer somewhere who will take on the case to sue the government officials for failure to perform some of their duties. Maybe Sheriff Joe can do something about it, but the closer he would come to a solution the faster POTUS would try to stop him.

Do You Bleeddis?

2009-10-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

Obama is telling the truth when he says he doesn't want to cover illegals with health insurance. He really means it. In fact, on September 18, 2009 here is what he said while addressing the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute:

“Even though I do not believe we can extend coverage to those who are here illegally, I also don’t simply believe we can simply ignore the fact that our immigration system is broken,” Mr. Obama said Wednesday evening in a speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. “That’s why I strongly support making sure folks who are here legally have access to affordable, quality health insurance under this plan, just like everybody else. If anything, this debate underscores the necessity of passing comprehensive immigration reform and resolving the issue of 12 million undocumented people living and working in this country once and for all.”

-So you see!?! He's not lying about that at all! Hope and change is alive and well in Obama's New Washington!

Here's one example of something skwooey...

2009-09-30T17:02:00.000-07:00

The internet is something, ain't it?! If you can't find it there it doesn't exist... yet. I was listening to some political stuff and the subject of the Constitution came up. Specifically, they talked about the discrepencies of some as they beg for the document to be "living," i.e. changed. From the 2nd Kerry Bush debate and on the subject of Supreme Court justice appointees here is an answer from Kerry: "... These are constitutional rights and I want to make sure we have judges who interpret the Constitution of the United States according to the law."

When I heard that while watching the debate I was absolutely stunned. I thought it was supposed to be the other way around, interpret the law according to the Constitution.

Charlie Gibson, the adult who kept his childhood name (much like Jimmy Carter) was the moderator. He totally went on to the next question not even so much as a blink in the direction of explaining. Perhaps he mis-spoke. Perhaps he didn't -- and therein lies one of the fundamental differences in our system today than when the United States was first founded.

Just one example: the 2nd amendment gives the right to bear arms. Arguments have been made: that was when they had to hunt for food and protect themselves from injuns, that didn't include assault weapons and automatic weapons. (But they had to look out for injuns, didn't they?!?)

If you apply that logic to the first amendment, freedom of religion did not include islam, Science of Mind, Scientology, etc. and therefore they can't exist either. Freedom of speech would not include what we say over television, radio, dvds, cds, bullhorns (though that one could be argued.....) Without a doubt the Constitution must be extended and revised, but the principles must not be changed.

The Constitution, in my book, is not a "living" document -- it gave life to millions. Over the 40 years Congress was ruled by the Democrats, the left seeped into every nook and cranny in our lives, eliminating personal responsibility and creating generations of victims. It's like Will Rogers said one time: If 'pro' is the opposite of 'con' then what's the opposite of progress?

Help bring back the United States of America. Vote all incumbents out. You think your guy isn't the problem? Ohhhhh... it's MY guy that's the problem. Well, here's a newsflash:

It IS my guy! It IS your guy!

It's ALL of them!!!!!!

In Summation...

2009-09-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

I do not hate anyone. I hate the movement that has continually attempted to subvert our Constitution. Our founding fathers were nothing short of brilliant to have created the most inspired form of government the world has ever known and we are tired of the extreme factions (right and left) of this country advocating policies that move us away from freedom and liberty toward bigger and bigger government. If you or they want to live in a country that takes care of you every time you stub your toe, there are plenty of countries around the globe that you are welcome to move to, but stop trying to change OUR country.
Study the Constitution, The Federalist Papers and any of a number of works that explain the true nature and responsibilities of our system of government and you will begin to understand that the POLICIES many are advocating are unconstitutional. They have no place in our country at the national level. Many of these things can be debated at the state or community level where they belong, but the Federal Government has no business in our business. Freedom and Liberty work every time they are tried. All we want is to be left alone and keep the Federal Government out of our schools, our businesses, our bedrooms, and our lives. The Federal Government is responsible for national security and foreign policy. Stop trying to tell me how to live my life.

Read My Letter To Brad Below, He Didn't

2009-09-23T22:44:00.001-07:00

Here's what I wrote to Brad:

Dear Brad: Why not try these ideas FIRST before meddling with the healthcare coverage of over 250,000,000 people for the benefit of those 30,000,000 and 17,000,000 illegals? 1) Open up competition for health insurance companies to cross state boundaries. It's rather stupid and anti-American to keep them from competing with one another. 2) Tort reform: make it law that the loser of a lawsuit has to pay all expenses! That will eliminate half of those frivolous bullshit cases. 3) Go back to non-profit health insurance companies -- take away the incentive to deny claims. What do you say about these ideas?? Sincerely, Jim Locke PS: Please do NOT send me the letter that you care about what I think. If you cared, you'd answer the questions.

[Obviously, he didn't read it because here is his response. Aren't you impressed with the cut and paste letterhead?? Did he actually graduate high school and just stay in it mentally or does he do this for his mom?]

Dear Mr. Locke:

Thank you for contacting me with your views on immigration. I appreciate that you took the time to share your ideas on this matter.

Even before the tragic events of September 11, immigration was an issue that received a lot of necessary attention in Congress. As Congress continues to discuss these issues, I will be sure to keep your views in mind and share these thoughts with my colleagues. In working to pass legislation that will improve the lives of all Americans, I value your input and thoughts.

While part of my job as your representative is voting on these issues in Washington, DC, another important part of my job is helping resolve problems that constituents are experiencing with federal agencies and answering questions about the government. My staff and I have helped thousands of Valley residents in their dealings with Veterans Affairs, Social Security, Medicare, and other agencies. If you are interested in these services, please visit my website at BradSherman.house.gov or call my district office at 818/501-9200.

Again, thank you for sharing your views with me. I hope you will continue to contact me in the future on this or other issues of importance to you.

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.

Talking Heads

2009-09-21T11:08:00.000-07:00

According to the New York Post President Obama has taken command of the media granting three times the number of interviews than his two predecessors combined. On the New York Times front page alone, according to the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, 405 stories on the Obama administration have appeared through mid-August of this year totaling 119,678 column inches.

Nothing has garnered as much media coverage, gushing, wooing, swooning, and at times pathetic display than pandering to the most heralded and anticipated Presidency in the history of the United States. We will see if the bigger they are the harder they fall. One thing is certain, though, Jimmy Earl Carter (actually it's James but he decided not to grow up) is happy because he will die knowing that he won't be regarded as the worst President in history!

If you've got a little time check out the transcript of George Stephenopolous' interview with the President on Sunday the 20th. Obama was afforded every opportunity to ramble on and on and on, controlling the interview including asking some of the questions. I'm sure George would've kissed him good night given the oppportunity.

BO has given 66 television interviews since taking office. In the same time Bush had given 16, Clinton 6. This guy is clinging to his winning philosophy of sound bites make a President. That was in the days before our 24 hour newsday, however. Since we now have 24 hour a day coverage, analysis, time-to-fill, blathering, bloviating, bantering, and generally dismissing of all of it... we are saturated. We are also educating those who would not be educated if they so choose.

But there is yet another plus from this. There is a new major in college journalism curriculae -- Talking Head.

We know what his points were...

2009-09-21T00:20:00.000-07:00

but we got nowhere when it comes to facts. His healthcare "reform" is still vague. Did George press him for details or just sat in awe of the messiah?

Here's a line from the show:
When asked about ACORN getting 'unfunded' Obama said he "didn't even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money." Apparently, even HE doesn't read the bills he signs. This was a mere Eight Billion dollars ($8,000,000,000) that Obama signed into law to spend and he didn't even know it. He further went on to say that he hasn't really given it much thought. Don't I feel better knowing that he's using my money wisely. Eight billion dollars isn't enough to think about.

George sat in awe of his messiah and didn't pursue the matter further. What more evidence does someone need to realize FOX is not being "rude," they're trying to add depth to issues. You know, so what happened for nearly 40 years doesn't continue. (That would be domination of the Congress AND the press by the left.)

Anyone know who threw hardballs at Obama on his media blitzkrieg? Anyone?.... Someone?

Belated Toast for Ted

2009-09-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

Recently, I was accused of not being 'compassionate' when it came to words about the recently departed Ted Kennedy. Somewhere along the line he admitted he might have a problem, but I couldn't tell you when. By the way, I'm as compassionate as they come. Knowing what the problem is -- that's the easy part. The other side... the difficult task --is actually doing something about it. His frat-boy shennanigans kept on the rest of his life, drunk driving, parties at the 'compound', public intoxication, obvious gluttony -- the "good life." On one of his nights of partying and married at the time he caused the death of a young woman. And yet he did not spend one night in jail, not one day in community service, not one second in rehab. He lived above the law his entire life (and knew he was in the wrong in many instances if he had ANY conscience at all.) I've got compassion, but nothing for him other than pity.

See ya, Ted.

Maxine

2009-09-18T10:31:00.000-07:00

Oh, not the GOOD Maxine... I mean Maxine Waters from the 35th Congressional district in California. She is a piece of work. The other day she called the Taxed Enough Already people "teabaggers." If you don't know what that means, google it. That prompted me to write her a letter........... of course, since I don't reside in her district she can't respond but here is what I wrote:

Congresswoman Waters:

Tea "baggers"????

Wow, is that ever telling about the real you. In my heart of hearts I know you didn't mean to use that word, and also in my heart of hearts I know you will never admit that.

You'll continue to hide from the truth, both about the use of the word and also that none of you people in Congress actually give a crap about us citizens. But you'll get re-elected; over 90% of you will get re-elected even though you enjoy a 20% approval rating. And you know why that is: because the voters all think, "it's not MY guy, it's YOUR guy."

You people have ruined America; the country my Uncle died for on the beach at Normandy. All the people that have fought and died for this country to see you people give it away.... what a waste of humanity.

Jim Locke

2009-09-16T11:23:00.000-07:00

Here are just a smidgeon of stories I linked to today. There are major and outright flagrant flauntings of "don't listen to what I say, watch what I do" from President Obama and his administration. His far, far left policies are making their way to and through Congress blindly. Evidence? How about the 3/4 trillion dollar stimulus bill? It contained thousands of pork projects 'saved up' by the Democrats over years of Republican control. Where are all the jobs this bill would create by summer for the rebuilding of our infrastructure? The idiots in Congress did not put in any controls over the money, nor accountability. They didn't even read the fucking bill before voting on it.

Since Obama has taken office, in less than 8 months... he has doubled the deficit and promised to quintuple it before he's done; he has proposed revamping the entire health care system which is adequate now for 80-85% of the population for the 15-20%; he has taken ownership of General Motors, the Chrysler Corporation, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and several banks; he PROMISED transparency but we get Van Jones and how many people in his cabinet had to cough up back taxes? We've got a pair in Obama and Biden who have given less than 1% of their money in charitable contributions (prior to running for current offices) -- fully devoted to their obvious philosophy that the government can take care of everyone. And I haven't even mentioned the visits to the Middle East where he got snubbed, the gaffs of not knowing the culture of which he visits, and Biden's ridiculous-ness.. (I made that word up!)

We've got all of that before the first snowfall... and the best argument the Democrats (especially the ever-irrelevant Carter)... the best they can come up with is the Race Card.

ROFLMFAO

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FROM THE CBS NEWS WEBSITE:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/16/obama-wh-collects-web-users-data/

The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent.

A previously unreleased analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Treasury says the total in new taxes would be between $100 billion to $200 billion a year. At the upper end of the administration's estimate, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year.

A second memorandum, which was prepared for Obama's transition team after the November election, says this about climate change policies: "Economic costs will likely be on the order of 1 percent of GDP, making them equal in scale to all existing environmental regulation."

The documents (PDF) were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute and released on Tuesday.

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FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES WEBSITE 9/16/09
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/16/obama-wh-collects-web-users-data/

The White House is collecting and storing comments and videos placed on its social-networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube without notifying or asking the consent of the site users, a failure that appears to run counter to President Obama's promise of a transparent government and his pledge to protect privacy on the Internet.

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FROM BLOOMBERG.COM
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601074&sid=agUnJfnW_IBU

Concerns of Black House Members Helped Spur Rebuke of Wilson

By James Rowley and Brian Faler

Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- A plea by California Representative Laura Richardson that House Democrats respond after Republican Joe Wilson shouted “you lie” at President Barack Obama last week helped spur her party’s leaders to action.

The “careful but passionate” words delivered at a House Democratic caucus the morning after Wilson’s outburst by a black lawmaker who rarely speaks at such meetings carried such an impact that “you couldn’t ignore that message and that input,” Representative John Larson, the Democratic caucus chairman recalled yesterday.

Larson, of Connecticut, made his comment after the House voted 240-179 to admonish Wilson for his interruption of Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress. The vote was largely along party lines, with 12 Democrats opposing the resolution while seven Republicans supported it. Five Democrats voted “present.”

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FROM CNN.COM
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/15/carter.obama/index.html?section=cnn_latest

(CNN) -- Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that racial politics played a role in South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst during President Obama's speech to Congress last week and in some of the opposition the president has faced since taking office.
Former President Carter tells "NBC Nightly News" that racism has surfaced in opposition to President Obama.

Former President Carter tells "NBC Nightly News" that racism has surfaced in opposition to President Obama.

"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African-American," Carter told "NBC Nightly News." "I live in the South, and I've seen the South come a long way, and I've seen the rest of the country that shares the South's attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African-Americans."

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FROM THE ABC NEWS WEBSITE
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/09/dem-senator-warns-of-big-big-tax-on-middle-class-in-baucus-bill.html

Dem Senator Warns of 'Big, Big Tax' on Middle Class in Baucus Bill

It's not every day that you hear a Democratic senator charge that a fellow Democrat is proposing to raise taxes on the middle class, but that is what happened on Tuesday when Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., ripped into the health-care bill developed by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mt., the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

The Baucus proposal would impose, starting in 2013, a 35 percent excise tax on insurance companies for "high-cost plans" -- defined as those above $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for family plans.

Health economists believe a tax on high-priced benefits could help slow the growth of health costs by making consumers more sensitive to prices.

The tax contemplated by Baucus is also a big revenue raiser. It is expected to raise $200 billion, money that Baucus is hoping to use to pay for subsidies for the uninsured.

Given how much money this kind of tax can raise, Rockefeller says he understands why it is "tempting."

The West Virginia Democrat worries, however, that a lot of middle class workers, like the coal miners in his state, will end up facing "a big, big tax" under the Baucus bill because they currently enjoy generous employer-provided health care benefits which they receive tax free.

Referring to Baucus, Rockefeller said, "He should understand that (his proposal) means that virtually every single coal miner is going to have a big, big tax put on them because the tax will be put on the company and the company will immediately pass it down and lower benefits because they are self insured, most of them, because they are larger. They will pass it down, lower benefits, and probably this will mean higher premiums for coal miners who are getting very good health care benefits for a very good reason. That is, like steelworkers and others, they are doing about the most dangerous job that can be done in America."

"So that’s not really a smart idea," Rockefeller continued. "In fact, it’s a very dangerous idea, and I’m not even sure the coal miners in West Virginia are aware that this is what is waiting if this bill passes."

Rockefeller made his comments on a conference call with reporters which was sponsored by the liberal Campaign for America's Future.

Rockefeller, who sits on the Finance Committee, said that he cannot support the Baucus bill unless it receives major improvements during the amendment process.

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Here's What the American Press Reported

2009-09-13T22:08:00.001-07:00

Lashing Out at the Capitol
Tens of Thousands Protest Obama Initiatives and Government Spending

By Emma Brown, James Hohmann and Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, September 13, 2009

Tens of thousands of conservative protesters, many complaining that the nation is racing toward socialism, massed outside the U.S. Capitol on Saturday, angrily denouncing President Obama's health-care plan and other initiatives as threats to the Constitution.

The crowd -- loud, animated and sprawling -- gathered at the West Front of the Capitol after a march along Pennsylvania Avenue NW from Freedom Plaza. Invocations of God and former president Ronald Reagan by an array of speakers drew loud cheers that echoed across the Mall. On a windy, overcast afternoon, hundreds of yellow "Don't Tread on Me" flags flapped in the breeze.

Here's What the British Press Reported

2009-09-13T22:03:00.000-07:00

A million march to US Capitol to protest against 'Obama the socialist'

By David Gardner

As many as one million people flooded into Washington for a massive rally organised by conservatives claiming that President Obama is driving America towards socialism.

The size of the crowd - by far the biggest protest since the president took office in January - shocked the White House.

Demonstrators massed outside Capitol Hill after marching down Pennsylvania Avenue waving placards and chanting 'Enough, enough.'

My Letter to Brad, September 13, 2009

2009-09-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

Thank you for contacting Brad
The following information was received by our office.

09/13/2009 03:31

What issue you feel strongly about: Health Care

Your message:
Dear Brad: Why not try these ideas FIRST before meddling with the healthcare coverage of over 250,000,000 people for the benefit of those 30,000,000 and 17,000,000 illegals? 1) Open up competition for health insurance companies to cross state boundaries. It's rather stupid and anti-American to keep them from competing with one another. 2) Tort reform: make it law that the loser of a lawsuit has to pay all expenses! That will eliminate half of those frivolous bullshit cases. 3) Go back to non-profit health insurance companies -- take away the incentive to deny claims. What do you say about these ideas?? Sincerely, Jim Locke PS: Please do NOT send me the letter that you care about what I think. If you cared, you'd answer the questions.

A Bitch Like You

2009-09-11T13:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a story about an inter-action between an elderly woman and an antiwar protester in a D.C. airport. There were protesters on the train platform handing out pamphlets, on the evils of America. I politely declined to take one.

The elderly woman was behind me getting off the escalator and a young (20-ish) female protester offered her a pamphlet, which she politely declined. The young protester put her hand on the old woman's shoulder as a gesture of friendship and in a very soft voice the young lady said, "Lady, don't you care about the children of Iraq?"

The old woman looked up at her and said, "Honey, my father died in France during World War II, I lost my husband in Korea, and a son in Vietnam. All three died so a bitch like you could have the right to stand here and badmouth our country. If you touch me again, I'll stick this umbrella up your ass and open it."
************************************************************

My mother's brother died on the beach at Normandy in the D-Day invasion to free France. My father and his two brothers were all in different theaters: Dad in Europe, Uncle Bill in Africa, and Uncle Core in the Pacific. What did my grandparents do for those 3-4 years their sons were in harm's way and had no way to communicate with them?

Mom lost her brother, my Grandmother lost her son, I lost an Uncle... for what? So these fucking politicians could give our country away to illegals and the lazy?

I guess so.

Kareoke President

2009-09-10T23:41:00.000-07:00

Obama to give speech on financial crisis Monday [the day after a segment on 60 minutes]

So reads a headline on Reuter's. So BO is going back to the tried and proven way that he has a gift for (and those are HIS words.) He's reading words from teleprompters! The sad thing is he actually believes the shit he's dealing. For God's sake (and America's) listen to what he has said and then see what he's done. He was going for 'transparency' in government; he was going to post bills for 5 days before he signed them -- but first Congress had to pass that Stimulus bill in record time so he could sign the thing before anyone read any of the literally thousands of pork projects. Democrats had been saving up the whole time the Republicans were in the majority, only now they had the power!! The fucking mainstream media (MSM) did not, has not, and will not go against this guy nor his fellow hacks.

Van Jones? Just another radical Barry has surrounded himself with. This guy is a piece of work and the country will get no help from the media to save our collective ass.

My last thought for this entry is that I'm pissed at Congressman Wilson for apologizing. He was accurately portraying the bottom line. On July 16, an amendment by Rep. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) that would have required use of the SAVE [Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements] program to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving the affordable premium credits was defeated by the Democrat-controlled House Ways and Means Committee. Technically, Barry is right -- but even HE knows it's misleading and therefore a lie by deception.

From someone more articulate...

2009-09-07T00:46:00.001-07:00

A few of BO's arguments taken on:

You want to punish insurance companies? Make them compete.

As Adam Smith observed, whenever two businessmen meet, "the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." That's why we need a third, fourth and 45th competing insurance company that will undercut them by offering better service at a lower price.

Tiny little France and Germany have more competition among health insurers than the U.S. does right now. Amazingly, both of these socialist countries have less state regulation of health insurance than we do, and you can buy health insurance across regional lines -- unlike in the U.S., where a federal law allows states to ban interstate commerce in health insurance.

U.S. health insurance companies are often imperious, unresponsive consumer hellholes because they're a partial monopoly, protected from competition by government regulation. In some states, one big insurer will control 80 percent of the market. (Guess which party these big insurance companies favor? Big companies love big government.) That's what single-payer health care is: "Single payer" means "single provider."
(1) National health care will punish the insurance companies.

You could fix 90 percent of the problems with health insurance by ending the federal law allowing states to ban health insurance sales across state lines. But when John McCain called for ending the ban during the 2008 presidential campaign, he was attacked by Joe Biden……..

(2) National health care will "increase competition and keep insurance companies honest" -- as President Barack Obama has said.

Government-provided health care isn't a competitor; it's a monopoly product paid for by the taxpayer. Consumers may be able to "choose" whether they take the service -- at least at first -- but every single one of us will be forced to buy it, under penalty of prison for tax evasion. It's like a new cable plan with a "yes" box, but no "no" box.

But what most people don't know -- including the president, apparently -- with certain narrow exceptions, competing with the post office is prohibited by law.

(3) Insurance companies are denying legitimate claims because they are "villains."

Obama denounced the insurance companies in the New York Times, saying: "A man lost his health coverage in the middle of chemotherapy because the insurance company discovered that he had gallstones, which he hadn't known about when he applied for his policy. Because his treatment was delayed, he died." The president was quick to pick up this meme and it has become part of his health care reform stump speech and at his town halls. The only problem with his narrative is that Otto Raddatz received his treatment and lived another 3 years. According to the meeting transcripts found at

http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090616/transcript_20090616_oi.pdf

If only customers had a choice! But we don't because of government regulation of health insurance.

(4) National health care will give Americans "basic consumer protections that will finally hold insurance companies accountable" -- as Barack Obama claimed in his op/ed in the Times.

You want to protect consumers? Do it the same way we protect consumers of dry cleaning, hamburgers and electricians: Give them the power to tell their insurance companies, "I'm taking my business elsewhere."

(5) Government intervention is the only way to provide coverage for pre-existing conditions.

The only reason most "pre-existing" conditions aren't already covered is because of government regulations that shrink the insurance market to a microscopic size, which leads to fewer options in health insurance and a lot more uninsured people than would exist in a free market.

The free market has produced a dizzying array of insurance products in areas other than health. Even insurance companies have "reinsurance" policies to cover catastrophic events occurring on the properties they insure, such as nuclear accidents, earthquakes and Michael Moore dropping in for a visit and breaking the couch.

If we had a free market in health insurance, it would be inexpensive and easy to buy insurance for "pre-existing" conditions before they exist, … and health insurance even when you don't have a job. The vast majority of "pre-existing" conditions that currently exist in a cramped, limited, heavily regulated insurance market would be "covered" conditions under a free market in health insurance.

Another way to accomplish some of the reform is to go back to non-profit insurance companies.

Gallup Poll results and comments

2009-08-31T21:49:00.000-07:00

August 20, 2009
Congress’ Job Approval Ratings Grow More Polarized
Democrats approve; Republicans and independents increasingly disapprove
by Lydia Saad

PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup polling conducted in the first few days of Congress' August recess -- a time when many members of Congress were preparing to meet their constituents in town hall meetings back in their districts -- finds public approval of Congress on par with the lowest reading since February, a month after the 111th Congress convened. Thirty-one percent of Americans in Gallup's Aug. 6-9 survey approve of the job Congress is doing while 62% disapprove.

Congress' latest job approval score is similar to where the reading stood in February, when 31% approved and 61% disapproved. The percentage approving climbed to 39% in March and remained within a few points of that number through May, but has since fallen back to the low 30s.

On a longer-term basis, the current rating of Congress is only slightly worse than the average rating Gallup has recorded over the prior two decades. From 1988 through 2008, approval of Congress averaged 36% and disapproval 55%. The average approval rating of Congress thus far in 2009 (32%) is somewhat better than those seen in the early '90s and is similar to those measured in the first few years of the Republican majority in Congress in 1995 and 1996. It is substantially worse than those recorded from 1998 through 2004, when (even before the 9/11 attacks in 2001) approval was consistently greater than 40%.

Partisan Breach

Sharp partisan differences are evident in Americans' ratings of Congress. A majority of Democrats approve of the job Congress is doing, but much larger majorities of Republicans and independents disapprove.

In Gallup polling each month since March, at least half of Democrats have approved of the job the Democratic-led Congress is doing, including 55% in the latest survey. Approval among independents has typically been closer to 30%, although it dropped to 24% in July and to 22% in August. Positive evaluations of Congress by Republicans have been sparse, exceeding 20% only once; but the current 13% is the lowest yet.

Such partisan differences may seem normal, but they are actually a sharp departure from 2007-2008 when, despite the presence of a Democratic majority in both the U.S. House and Senate, Democrats were not much more positive than Republicans about the job Congress was doing. This may have reflected Democratic frustration with the lack of congressional action on the Iraq war as well as on immigration and other issues of concern to Democrats.

By contrast, during most of the Republican-led Congress from 2000 to 2006, Republicans' approval of Congress was substantially higher than Democrats'.

Bottom Line

The 111th Congress, led by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, appears to be meeting the expectations of most rank-and-file Democrats, earning a 55% job approval rating from Democrats nationwide in early August. In turn, Democratic support has kept Congress' overall rating above 30% thus far in 2009 -- a respectable level in the history of congressional approval ratings. No doubt the transition from a Republican presidential administration to a Democratic one has helped improve Democratic satisfaction with the job Congress is doing.

At the same time, the 22% approval rating of Congress from independents is little improved over last year, and not much better than the meager 13% rating from Republicans. And the descent in approval among independents and Republicans since March suggests that the same legislative activity in recent months that is satisfying to the Democratic base (including healthcare reform) may be draining support for Congress elsewhere.

The Liberal Lion

2009-08-30T10:29:00.000-07:00

The married Ted Kennedy was driving a car down the road. Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign aide was his companion when he drove off a bridge into the water. He said he tried several times to rescue her but could not. Failing, he swam back to shore and checked back into his hotel, and a short time later lodged a noise complaint with the desk clerk. The people in the room next to his were partying and it was interfering with his sleep. Then he asked the desk clerk for the time.

According to the Aug. 4, 1969 edition of Newsweek, that clerk, Russell E. Peachey, told Kennedy it was 2:25 a.m., then asked, "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"No, thank you," Kennedy replied.

Stolen Thoughts

2009-08-29T01:34:00.000-07:00

Thinking that others will be fair with us if we're nice to them is like thinking the bull won't attack you if you're a vegetarian.

More Socialized Medicine... er.. "Health Insurance Reform" Remarks

2009-08-28T11:44:00.000-07:00

The only people that lack health insurance are, by definition, people under 65, over 21, and who make more than poverty because those three groups are all covered by existing programs. Some people don't apply, but they're all covered.

Congresswoman Betsy Markey of Colorado, a Democrat, strong supporter of this bill, told her town hall meeting there's going to be some people who are going to give up some things honestly for this health care reform to work, but we will do this because we're are Americans. And she spoke about the cuts in Medicare that are coming.

Regarding the h/c bill Obama says, "I don't have any cuts in benefits. There's nothing here that says I won't cover cancer or I won't cover heart disease. But there is something in the bill that says that you have to cut $500 billion out of Medicare over 10 years." Gingrich listed cuts he would make in Medicare for his plan of reform. Obama says, "We'll set up a commission that will make the decision as to what to cut, and Congress will have a very limited window to modify it or override it, effectively no way of doing it." [Oh... so there actually WILL be a panel which decides when treatment to get is warranted (live) or when it's not (death.) He's just not going to be on it. And it's listed in both the Senate and House versions even before you get to page 100 in either bill!]

He also says, "We're going to cut reimbursement rates to hospitals." Ok, so hospitals will not get as much money from their number one purchaser. And they're going to be able to keep all the professional staff they have to provide care? The call buttons will get answered a bit slower? Lab tests will still be done accurately and timely? The wait in X-ray won't be as long? Your mom won't lie in her own urine and feces for more than she already has?!? The bills will still be as accurate as they are now? Payments to providers will be timely as well??

In the words of Earl Pitts, Uhmerican -- "WAKE UP, AMERICA!" This latest attempt at government take-over will worsen the delivery of the world's best health care deliverers! Note what I said -- it's the deliverers that I mention not the way it's delivered now. Other systems in 'freer' markets, i.e. Singapore, Brunei, et.al. have better delivery but most of their people are TRAINED IN THE UNITED STATES! They do it cheaper and more efficiently because they've learned what NOT to do here and other countries. By the way, NONE of them are scrambling to implement socialized medicine.

_______________________________
One more thought....

There is an advertisement from the League of American Voters which is not favorable to Obama's health care reform -- the 1500 page document which started off as health care reform and is now labeled as health "insurance" reform. The ABC and NBC major networks have said they will not air the ad: In October 2008 ABC refused to air an Alliance for Climate Protection ad criticizing "big oil" for "spending hundreds of millions of dollars" on lobbyists and ads to "block clean energy." The ad shows a picture of the Capitol Dome for about 1 second so ABC's excuse was:[Per our Guidelines, national buildings may be used in advertising provided the depictions are incidental to the advertiser’s promotion of the product or service. Given the messages and themes of this commercial, the image of the Capital building is not incidental to this advertising. Please replace the image with one that is not of another national building or monument. Thank you.] Oh, wait... we're on to health care... sorry 'bout that. Here's what ABC says about that: 'CNN refused to carry an ad during an Obama speech because it "suggests that Obama is pro-life."' Oh... again, my apologies... HERE'S what ABC said about the anti-health care ad: "The ABC Television Network has a long-standing policy that we do not sell time for advertising that presents a partisan position on a controversial public issue," spokeswoman Susan Sewell writes. "Just to be clear, this is a policy for the entire network, not just ABC News."

Whew! I'm glad she got that out. They probably wouldn't have aired it last June when the hour-long prime time 'interview' with Obama and a live audience introducing and explaining possible health care reform.

Is there someone who really doesn't think this is political bias? Is there someone who vehemently denies media bias? Joe! JOE!! Say it ain't so, Joe!!!!

2009-08-27T22:40:00.000-07:00

"VA's backlog of claims and appeals was more than 905,000 as of July 18, according to VA statistics. That represents an INCREASE of some 15% from last year.

"VA's backlog includes over 732,000 YET UNPROCESSED CLAIMS -- of which about 20% had been PENDING BEYOND 180 days -- and approximately 173,000 appeals awaiting decisions."

VFW Magazine, Sep 2009, page 10.

Furthermore, USPS - bankrupt, Medicare - bankrupt, Medicaid - bankrupt, Social Security - bankrupting.... I can hardly wait until they take over the rest of health care!

Random Thoughts Today

2009-08-27T16:17:00.000-07:00

MIT Professor Richard Lindzen’s peer reviewed work states “we now know that the effect of CO2 on temperature is small, we know why..."

Never let a good crisis go to waste is the Democrats next campaign slogan.

_____________________________

Ok, I'll help pay for the uninsured's insurance. But they're gonna have to turn in their cell phones, plasma tvs, cable or satellite connections, computers, and gold chains... knowudimsayin. Oh yeah, it'll be illegal for them to participate in the tax invented exclusively exploiting the poor --- state lotteries.

_____________________________

What care would Teddy have received under this proposed plan? As a "common man" (born into aristocracy, obviously never knew hunger) Ted would have presented in the ER with headaches. The nurse would interview the 'headache in bed 5' and find out just how severe these headaches were. Having a current history of alcohol abuse and type II diabetes his A1C would have been around 20% so we'd know this guy was non-compliant and an abuser. Since he's never had a job it's probably safe to say he's a malingerer after a prescription. "Goddamn, I'm sick of these people using the system to get their drugs but I'd rather write 'em one than see them again tomorrow."

By the time the prescription was used up the tumors would have been causing some loss of vision and a bunch of other symptoms. There would not have been time to go to his 'summer estate' and enjoy his final days knowing everything had been done.

_____________________________

Popsicles are a really good invention.

_____________________________

Why is it that since I'm a home owner I pay property taxes to educate children who live in apartments and don't pay them? Nah, I don't buy that they pay them through their rent, they only pay part of them.

_____________________________

The End (today)

Personal Thank You From Brad

2009-08-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

Last evening I got another personal response from Brad Sherman, my representative in Congress. It looks pretty important with the scanned in pieces from his office letterhead informing all who receive it a listing of Brad's committees, so I've got THAT going for me now.

Here is the text of Brad's letter thanking me for my comments about an important policy issue, and letting me know how much he appreciates hearing from me, followed by a commercial. (He uses the 'return' key too much, I think):

Dear Mr. Locke:

Thank you very much for contacting me. I appreciate you 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.

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.

Sarah's Death Panel Comment

2009-08-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

SP is taking a lot of heat because she used a phrase in one of her remarks on BO's .... uh... hi, uh.. ever-changing, ever-revised-once-people-read-it-and-mention, his... views on health care in America and where he wants it to be -- America, that is.

Actually, Sarah is saying things that free thinkers are coming up with. BO's plan is to get people talking about what HE thinks his health care "reform" will provide for The Sheeple. Sarah's plan is to talk about what his health care "reform" will actually do to the health care delivery system as we know it. And as a health care worker for some 40 years, please indulge me while I provide one hourly worker's viewpoint and observations.

I remember when DRGs were introduced by some think tankers from an Ivy League school. Diagnostic Related Groups were the initial foray into socialized medicine. It's exactly when the patients ceased to exist and became diagnoses. He was no longer Mr. Harris in 310-1 with cholecystectomy and choledocolithotomy, with daily charges, charges for each dressing change, use more-pay more, physician-driven actual health care delivery.

It became the gall bladder in 310... -----(comments heard in administrative offices: “and he had stones? Great, we can bump him into the next DRG. A simple gall bladder operation will get only $4378” (I'm making these numbers up but you'll get the idea) “but if he had gallstones we'll get $5139. We'll get that because we're a "rural" health care delivery establishment in an area of less than 100,000 people. Now, if we were in a metropolitan area of over 100,000 we would get $6293!”-----

It doesn't matter if the patient is hospitalized for 2 days or 7, they're still going to get the same dollar amount. The record keeping gets a bit tedious for the hospital because now they keep dollars per bed ratios per physician. If the lengths of stay exceed what the administration wants, the doc gets a letter… or more often a “visit in the lounge.” Oh, those pesky patients demanding treatment! They’re just a necessary evil in the scheme of things – just like voters are to politicians.

Remember when hospitals became smoke-free environments about 20 years ago? (Rightfully so, and I am a former smoker.) There were signs posted in various health-care facilities saying things like, "We're phasing in a non-smoking environment for the health of our patients!" "We care about your health so we're eliminating smoking!" The real reason is the US Government was going to withhold Medicare funds from any facility that permitted smoking, the those guys are the NUMBER ONE HEALTHCARE INCOME PRODUCERS for all hospitals.

The rural vs. metropolitan "reimbursements?" You probably have experienced costs in a large city compared with a small city. Well, the DRGs take that into account, by golly. That's how a little podunk hospital in Marietta, Ohio gets a lot of money. They have small town expenses but they're considered a metropolitan area because of Parkersburg, WV being nearby.

My former mother-in-law passed away years ago and I helped get the paperwork organized from those final weeks. The primary cause of death was breast cancer. Up until the last few weeks she was getting chemotherapy on an out patient basis. I vividly recall some of the crap on the bills for just one of the times she went in to get a dose of chemo. How is it done? The drug was injected directly into a vein and given there were no complications like an anaphylactic response she was released to go home for the puking part. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? Well, the government is involved so here we go.

There were separate charges for:
medication preparation (drawing it into the syringe)
injection site preparation (wiping the arm with an alcohol sponge)
venipuncture (sticking the needle in)
aspiration (making sure it’s in the right spot)
medication delivery (pushing the plunger of the syringe)
site dressing (wiping the blood off and putting a band-aid on)
bio-hazardous waste disposal (throwing out the syringe and needle)

Physicians and Surgeons sent staff to dozens of meetings and classes to learn how to get more out of the system, how to codify diagnoses to wring the maximum payment for each visit. Now it’s time to give Sarah’s comments a view:

The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Isn't not paying for something like passing judgment? Isn't not paying for healthcare the practice of medicine?

Sarah's comments are not so out of line, huh?

Nine Trillion

2009-08-21T23:39:00.000-07:00

How much is $9,000,000,000,000? If you had a stack of $1000 (one thousand) dollar bills it would be nearly 700 miles high.

Nine trillion seconds is going on 300,000 years.

This guy has been the President for just over 7 months. I am literally shaking my head in disbelief at him. He finally admits his brief Presidency will result in a staggering debt of a "little" over nine trillion dollars. I remember reading a quote perhaps falsely attributed to Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois, "A billion here, a billion there... pretty soon it adds up to some serious money."

BO promised no earmarks -- and his first 'stimulus' bill contained EIGHT THOUSAND pork barrel projects the Democrats had been saving up while the Republican majority fucked us.

The Republicans had control of the House, the Senate, the Executive branch, and the Supremes. I guess abandoning every principle in the platform was supposed to help America. Actually, they abandoned every principle and every living breathing United States citizen in a stupid, foolhardy, rancid, idiotic, shallow, and I-don't-know-what-else attempt to "keep" control. Congress currently has a 62% DISAPPROVAL rating, which is down from 82% a year ago. Yet we re-elected 98% of them in the last election. Why? BECAUSE IT'S NOT "MY GUY" IT'S "YOUR GUY" that's the problem! Here's a newsflash, folks - IT'S ALL OF THEM! GET THEM THE FUCK OUT OF THERE! PUT REAL, TRUE, HONEST STATESMEN IN THERE.

Fucking Robert "Shakey" Byrd has spent more of my money than Boxer and Feinstein combined yet I don't get a chance to send that piece of shit back to West Virginia. The Bureau of Public Debt is in Parkersburg, WV. They handle all the savings bonds and keep track of how much the government owes. They do this in West Virginia -- the 49th Ranked Educational state -- above only Nevada (and Washington, DC.) To their credit 50% of the students qualify for reduced-price lunches ... so they've got THAT going for them... which is nice.

I want something. I want a say in how my money gets allocated and spent by someone other than MY representative. I want a vote in my state, but I also want a vote in another state of my choosing. I would look at Senafuckintor Byrd and say what they say when you leave Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles.

Sayonara, muchacho.

Everyone Knew Her As Nancy

2009-08-20T10:02:00.000-07:00

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's home district includes San Francisco. Star-Kist Tuna's headquarters are in San Francisco, Pelosi's home district. Star-Kist is owned by Del Monte Foods and is a major contributor to Pelosi. Star-Kist is the major employer in American Samoa employing 75% of the Samoan workforce.

Paul Pelosi, Nancy 's husband, owns $17 million dollars of Star-Kist stock. In January 2007 when the minimum wage was increased from $5.15 to $7.25, American Samoa was exempted from the increase. This would make obvious price discrepancies between products. When the huge bailout bill was passed, an earmark was added to the final bill adding $33 million dollars for an 'economic development credit in American Samoa.'

Now, as far as a comment goes: SNOPES writes she could find no "direct" evidence one way or the other on the above. Sounds like a non-denial non-denial non-admission non-Republican answer.

SNOPES also writes this story is a "mixture of true and false" statements. In other words, this story is basically true or rather, it's a smoking gun. We all know how the left and the right differ on smoking guns.

Prior to 2007, the U.S. territories of Northern Marianas and American Samoa were exempt from federal minimum wage standards; instead, a committee appointed by the U.S. Department of Labor established the minimum wage standards in those territories. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 (H.R. 2), introduced to Congress in January of that year, sought to revise U.S. federal minimum wage standards, including the gradual rising of the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour.

Samoa is represented by a Democrat, Del. Eni F.H. Faleomavaega.

Faleomavaega's campaign coffers have been well stocked by the tuna industry that dominates his island economy. StarKist owns one of the largest canneries on the island, and Del Monte Foods, StarKist's parent company, is based in San Francisco, which Pelosi represents.

Speaker Pelosi was the Congressional leader of the party that sponsored H.R. 2 (214 of the bill's 222 cosponsors were Democrats), and it is true that Del Monte Foods' San Francisco headquarters are located within the boundaries of the California district she represents in Congress. Democrats maintained that Speaker Pelosi did not work on the details of the bill, and that the exemption for American Samoa was created at the behest of the island's Congressional delegate: A spokesman for Pelosi said the bill excluded American Samoa at the request of nonvoting Delegate Eni Faleomavaega, a Democrat who represents the Pacific island territories in the House did indeed strongly advocate that American Samoa be allowed to retain its exemption from federal minimum wage standards:
Faleomavaega had an epiphany: A "decrease in production or departure of one or both of the two canneries in American Samoa could devastate the local economy, resulting in massive layoffs and insurmountable financial difficulties," he said.

[HERE'S THE BIG STUFF, FOLKS!!] He went on to say "The truth is the global tuna industry is so competitive that it is no longer possible for the federal government to demand mainland minimum wage rates for American Samoa without causing the collapse of our economy and making us welfare wards of the federal government."
*****READ THAT AGAIN AND THINK ABOUT IT ***** [What that says is an accurate microcosm of our Great Society LBJ beefed up. To paraphrase Faleomavaega, ‘why not let the market decide wages and prices, because if we interfere with a minimum wage, prices will go up, employers won't be able to afford to hire more people, business will drop, more people will be on welfare, etc.’ He wants a FREE MARKET ECONOMY for American Samoa!

I can hear Nancy and the rest of the left saying, “but it’s different for us.”

Yeah, reet.

Don't Take My Word For It

2009-08-16T22:53:00.000-07:00

Overhauling health-care system tops agenda at annual meeting of Canada's doctors

By Jennifer Graham (CP) – 1 day ago

SASKATOON — The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country's health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it.

Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds that physicians from across the country - who will gather in Saskatoon on Sunday for their annual meeting - recognize that changes must be made.

"We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Doing said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"We know that there must be change," she said. "We're all running flat out, we're all just trying to stay ahead of the immediate day-to-day demands."

The pitch for change at the conference is to start with a presentation from Dr. Robert Ouellet, the current president of the CMA, who has said there's a critical need to make Canada's health-care system patient-centred. He will present details from his fact-finding trip to Europe in January, where he met with health groups in England, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands and France.

His thoughts on the issue are already clear. Ouellet has been saying since his return that "a health-care revolution has passed us by," that it's possible to make wait lists disappear while maintaining universal coverage and "that competition should be welcomed, not feared."

In other words, Ouellet believes there could be a role for private health-care delivery within the public system.

He has also said the Canadian system could be restructured to focus on patients if hospitals and other health-care institutions received funding based on the patients they treat, instead of an annual, lump-sum budget. This "activity-based funding" would be an incentive to provide more efficient care, he has said.

Doig says she doesn't know what a proposed "blueprint" toward patient-centred care might look like when the meeting wraps up Wednesday. She'd like to emerge with clear directions about where the association should focus efforts to direct change over the next few years. She also wants to see short-term, medium-term and long-term goals laid out.

"A short-term achievable goal would be to accelerate the process of getting electronic medical records into physicians' offices," she said. "That's one I think ought to be a priority and ought to be achievable."

A long-term goal would be getting health systems "talking to each other," so information can be quickly shared to help patients.

Doig, who has had a full-time family practice in Saskatoon for 30 years, acknowledges that when physicians have talked about changing the health-care system in the past, they've been accused of wanting an American-style structure. She insists that's not the case.

"It's not about choosing between an American system or a Canadian system," said Doig. "The whole thing is about looking at what other people do."

"That's called looking at the evidence, looking at how care is delivered and how care is paid for all around us (and) then saying 'Well, OK, that's good information. How do we make all of that work in the Canadian context? What do the Canadian people want?' "

Doig says there are some "very good things" about Canada's health-care system, but she points out that many people have stories about times when things didn't go well for them or their family.

"(Canadians) have to understand that the system that we have right now - if it keeps on going without change - is not sustainable," said Doig.

"They have to look at the evidence that's being presented and will be presented at (the meeting) and realize what Canada's doctors are trying to tell you, that you can get better care than what you're getting and we all have to participate in the discussion around how do we do that and of course how do we pay for it."

Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Wish I'd Said That

2009-08-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

Re: the actor from India who complained about being detained at a US airport>>>>"Shahrukh Khan's troubles were "yet another example of American paranoia post-9/11", director Kabir Khan said. "It saddens me to say this but I don't think the US will ever be cured of Islamophobia."

DK's response: We'll be cured of "Islamophobia" just as soon as the Islamofascists are cured of not-blowing-up-innocent-people-ophobia.

Followers of the "religion of peace" seem to have an incurable need to kill everyone not Islamic, or even other Islamofascists who aren't the right sect of Islamofascist. When they're cured of that, we'll probably be a little less "Islamophobic."

And don't give us the "it's all racist" crap either. You don't see us going after Buddhists or Shinto people do you? And when was the last great Hindu attack we foiled? Not exactly white Catholic types, are they?

Tell you what India. As soon as you make peace with Pakistan, we'll stop worrying about the Islamofascists.

BTW, didn't Mumbai teach you anything?

Real Sicko

2009-08-16T03:30:00.000-07:00

Did you know paying for your own health care is unlawful in Canada? Check this out:
http://www.freemarketcure.com/brainsurgery.php

Yeah, yeah.. it's just one story, one patient, one situation. It's one situation too many. The politicians are squawking that not everyone has health insurance! They're right, they don't have health insurance -- but they have access to health care. We spend billions on health care for those without insurance. Medicare is fucked, broken, full of fraud, and near bankrupt.... but the Democrats think the government will do a better job by taking over the whole system? Health care was actually headed in the right direction before DRGs came into the picture. Diagnostic Related Groups, thought up by some liberals at some Ivy League school no doubt. Remember when Blue Cross/Blue Shield was not-for-profit? Things ran pretty smoothly. Here's a thought -- before the government takes our health care system hostage, why not revert the insurance companies to not-for-profit? HEY!!!!!! If you're listening in Washington, give this a shot, willya? Why subject all of us to the torture of a single payer system in the hands of the same folks who dish out food stamps?

Brad Sherman, my Congressman (person)

2009-08-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

My Congressman is Brad Sherman. He's a nerd, always was always will be. He'll never be cool but sometimes he looks as though he's thinking he is. I've never met the guy and if his responses to my letters are anything like him I'm glad I've never met him. He would really piss me off in person. Once I called his office to find out how he was going to vote on a particular bill. The chickie who answered the phone said she couldn't speak on behalf of the Congressman and said she didn't know how he was going to vote. Fuck you, Brad.

Check this out: I sent an email asking if Congress was serious about buying those jets when the rest of the US is in the tank. His emailed response came about 10 days later. (10 days to click "reply" is a bit too long. In fact, there's got to be a machine that automatically sends the response.) It's a very polite response and even includes a little commercial-- Notice how they hit the return key a lot to spread it out --

Dear Mr. Locke:

Thank you very much for contacting me. I appreciate you 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.

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 like the Social Security Administration or Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. 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.

HEY, BRAD!!!! What the fuck?!?!?!? What about the airplanes?!?!? Is it any wonder you guys have a single digit approval rating?

Plagerism

2009-08-09T18:29:00.000-07:00

All right, all right... here is a little bit of plagerism onaccounta (that's a Beaver Cleaver word).. onaccounta these folks say it better than I can. Here's one such passage:

Abridged letter from Troy Clarke, President of General Motors - followed by a response from our son, Gregory Knox: Dear Employee, Next week, Congress and the current Administration will determine whether to provide immediate support to the domestic auto industry to help it through one of the most difficult economic times in our nation's history. Your elected officials must hear from all of us now on why this support is critical to our continuing the progress we began prior to the global financial crisis.....................As an employee, you have a lot at stake and continue to be one of our most effective and passionate voices. I know GM can count on you to have your voice heard. Thank you for your urgent action and ongoing support. Troy Clarke President General Motors North America

QUOTE
From Gregory Knox, In response to your request to call legislators and ask for a bailout for the United States automakers please consider the following, and please also pass this onto Troy Clark, the president of General Motors North America for me. You are both infected with the same entitlement mentality that has bred like cancerous germs in UAW halls for the last countless decades, and whose plague is now sweeping the nation, awaiting our new "messiah" to wave his magical wand and make all our problems go away, while at the same time allowing our once great nation to keep "living the dream". The dream is over! The dream that we can ignore the consumer for years while management myopically focuses on its personal rewards packages at the same time that our factories have been filled with the worlds most overpaid, arrogant, ignorant and laziest entitlement minded "laborers" without paying the price for these atrocities and that still the masses will line up to buy our products Don't tell me I'm wrong. Don't accuse me of not knowing of what I speak. I have called on Ford, GM, Chrysler, TRW, Delphi, Kelsey Hayes, American Axle and countless other automotive OEM's and Tier ones for 3 decades now throughout the Midwest and what I've seen over the years in these union shops can only be described as disgusting. Mr Clark, the president of General Motors, states: There is widespread sentiment in this country, our government and especially in the media that the current crisis is completely the result of bad management. It is not. You're right, it's not JUST management, how about the electricians who walk around the plants like lords in feudal times, making people wait on them for countless hours while they drag ass so they can come in on the weekend and make double and triple time for a job they easily could have done within their normal 40 hour week How about the line workers who threaten newbies with all kinds of scare tactics for putting out too many parts on a shift and for being too productive (mustn't expose the lazy bums who have been getting overpaid for decades for their horrific underproduction, must we?!?) Do you really not know about this stuff?!? How about this great sentiment abridged from Mr. Clarke's sad plea: over the last few years we have closed the quality and efficiency gaps with our competitors. What the hell has Detroit been doing for the last 40 years?!? Did we really JUST wake up to the gaps in quality and efficiency between us and them? The K car vs. the Accord? The Pinto vs. the Civic?!? Do I need to go on? We are living through the inevitable outcome of the actions of the United States auto industry for decades. Time to pay for your sins, Detroit . I attended an economic summit last week where a brilliant economist, Alan Beaulieu surprised the crowd when he said he would not have given the banks a penny of "bailout money". Yes, he said, this would cause short term problems, but despite what people like George Bush and Troy Clark would have us believe, the sun would in fact rise the next day and something else would happen. Where there had been greedy and sloppy banks, new efficient ones would pop up. That is how a free market system works. It does work if we would let it work! But for some reason we are now deciding that the rest of the world is right and that capitalism doesn't work; that we need the government to step in and "save us". Save us, hell we're nationalizing and unfortunately too many of this once fine nation's citizens don't even have a clue that this is what's really happening but they sure can tell you the stats on their favorite sports teams yeah THAT'S important. Does it occur to ANYONE that the "competition" has been producing vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for decades now in this country?... How can that be??? Let's see - - Fuel efficient - Listening to customers - Investing in the proper tooling and automation for the long haul - Not being too complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr W Edwards Deming 4 decades ago - Ever increased productivity through quality, lean and six sigma plans - Treating vendors like strategic partners, rather than like "the enemy" - Efficient front and back offices - Non union environment - Again, I could go on and on, but I really wouldn't be telling anyone anything they really don't already know in their hearts I have six children, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of wanting someone to bail you out of a mess that you have gotten yourself into. My children do this on a weekly, if not daily basis, as I did at their age. I do for them what my parents did for me (one of their greatest gifts, by the way). I make them stand on their own two feet and accept the consequences of their actions and work them through. Radical concept, huh? Am I there for them in the wings? Of course but only until such time as they need to be fully on their own as adults I don't want to oversimplify a complex situation, but there certainly are unmistakable parallels here between the proper role of parenting and government. Detroit and the United States need to pay for their sins. Bad news people, it's coming whether we like it or not. The newly elected Messiah really doesn't have a magic wand big enough to "make it all go away" I laughed as I heard Obama "reeling it back in" almost immediately after the vote count was tallied "we might not do it in a year or in four"! Where was that kind of talk when he was RUNNING for the office Stop trying to put off the inevitable! That house in Florida really isn't worth $750,000! People who jump across a border really don't deserve free health care benefits! That job driving that forklift for the big 3 really isn't worth $85,000 a year! That couple whose combined income is less than $50,000 really shouldn't be living in that $485,000 home! Let the market correct itself people, it will. Yes it will be painful, but it's gonna be painful either way, and the bright side of my proposal is that on the other side of it is a nation that appreciates what is has and doesn't live beyond its means and gets back to basics and redevelops the work ethic that made it the greatest nation in the history of the world and probably turns back to God. Sorry, don't cut my head off. I'm just the messenger sharing with you the "bad news" Gregory J Knox President Knox Machinery, Inc. Franklin, Ohio 45005

HERE'S A RESPONSE TO KNOX:
This letter by Knox infuriates me because I am the owner of a Bobcat 843 that was made with union labor in '81. Present status, still running with over 30,000 hours. I have put in one or two hydraulic pumps, replaced the outside Timken wheel bearings on all four wheels, and replaced the mechanical fuel pump with an electric supply pump. Total cost: About 1,600 to 2,000 dollars. I still use it about an hour every day.

I have also owned a JI Case tractor that went for 23,000 hours without touching the motor. Finally decided to drop the oil pan and replace the rod and main bearings. Turned out I didn't need to. The bearings were as smooth as a baby's behind. I put 3,000 more hours on the tractor before I salvaged it for parts.

My conclusion: Mr. Knox thinks his dream will stay alive if the working man will work for next to nothing. Mr. Knox doesn't say one thing about all the hell created by deregulating various sectors of our economy. Mr. Knox doesn't say one thing about our enormous trade deficits that were created by our disastrous trade agreements and our never ending gluttonous quest for more oil. No, Mr. Knox thinks that if we extend a proper and good hatred towards the working man and our "newly elected Messiah" we will soon find our pot of gold. Sorry, my mistake Mr. Knox, your pot of gold.

HERE'S MY RESPONSE TO THE RESPONSE: Gosh, sir, our never ending gluttonous quest for more oil? Talk to your fellow dems about not being permitted to harvest the oil when we find it. Talk to them about not allowing any company to build more refineries. Talk to them about giving "stimulus money" to oil companies to build just one more, and to use AMERICAN oil to refine our gasoline. (Think of the dry ice we'll have, too! It's a by-product of making gasoline.) You think it's happenstance that companies outsourced jobs? They did it to get away from paying ludicrous wages for 60% productivity. Have you ever hired an illegal Mexican to work on projects? They work all fucking day! It's not that he wants to pay "next to nothing" as you insist. No, he just wants to pay a fair wage for a fair day's work. The market will dictate what that fair wage is if allowed; not a minimum wage law... or a union. We are way past the point of needing unions in this world. When is the last time you went to a "working man" or a poor man to get a job? Nope, you always go to the owner of the company, the one who's taken the risk, the one who's put up his own money to make something, the one who's taking an idea a step further than thinking about it, or... dare I say it... the one with money to pay you!! Kiss the employer's ass, Mr. Dissenter. You need him, he doesn't need you. It's just like your union.. you need them they don't need you. Notice how when you go on strike the union officials still get paid?

Whew! :-)

After a week in Sin City

2009-08-08T11:55:00.001-07:00

After a week in Sin City what is going on? Well, unemployment is down to a mere 9.4% -- no, the press "reports" unemployment "fell" a tenth of a percentage point. Wow. And I thought we were in trouble. Whew! I sure am glad that stimulus package went through as quick as it did through those Evelyn Woods scholars! BO said if it wasn't passed, America would "never recover." Yep, we would "never recover" if that stimulus package including literally thousands of corrupt projects wasn't passed. Never is a long time, dontchaknow. Now he's hitting us with the "healthcare" crisis saying we will never have another chance to pass it. Pay close attention to what these guys are saying. Sometimes they will say 40 million Americans are without "coverage" or "insurance." Well, of COURSE they have healthCARE! They can go to any number of Emergency Rooms and hospitals, get healthcare, and not pay a single dime! YOU and I pay for them! Illegals get healthcare out the wazoo. We transplant them. The fiasco in the Carolinas a few years ago where the wrong blood type organ was put into the little girl who subsequently died? She was here illegally to get transplanted. Pregnant females wait at the border until they're in labor, then cross to deliver their "anchor" babies. We've got to get rid of that clause. Illegals are just the most in-your-face and blatant example of how the US is mortgaging the future at the speed of light. They populate our welfare rolls, our schools, our hospitals, and our prisons. Send them home. We need to release tens of thousands of prisoners in California -- send the illegals home. Put them on planes and take them home under armed jet escort.

Up to now the United States has aided and sent aid to millions and millions of peoples throughout the world, at all times. The only land we asked for in return was enough to bury our dead.

If we continue to give away our children's children's fortune we will be the ones asking for help.

Logic Stolen From An Unnamed Source but if you ask...

2009-07-24T09:08:00.000-07:00

The whole idea of insurance is to insure against catastrophes: You buy insurance in case your house burns down -- not so you can force other people in your plan to pay for your maid. You buy car insurance in case you're in a major accident, not so everyone in the plan shares the cost of gas.

Just as people use vastly different amounts of gasoline, they also use vastly different amounts of medical care -- especially when an appointment with a highly trained physician costs less than a manicure.

Insurance plans that force everyone in the plan to pay for everyone else's Viagra and anti-anxiety pills are already completely unfair to people who rarely go to the doctor. It's like being forced to share gas bills with a long-haul trucker or a restaurant bill with Michael Moore. On the other hand, it's a great deal for any lonely hypochondriacs in the plan.

Question

2009-07-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

Hey, aren't the guys that get the $200 haircuts the same ones pissed at a $20 co-pay to visit the doctor?

"Wolf!"

2009-07-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

Apparently, someone told the Boy Who Cried Wolf, aka B. Hussein Obama that he's done it one too many times. He told Congress in January that if they didn't pass his stimulus package the US would "never recover" from the economic condition. He actually said "never recover." Well, we saw how that worked. Where are those shovel-ready tasks and jobs? Where are all the orange barrels from the fed's programs putting people back to work?

So, now he wants health care "reform" within 3 weeks... from Congress?!? You gotta be shitting me! The only thing they've done that fast is deny they're to blame, or blame someone else. Maybe they're a bit smarter than he is and realize that while BO banters about "50 million" without 'health insurance' there are 250,000,000 that are ok with theirs.

Obama: This Healthcare Reform is "not about me"....

2009-07-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

Obama came out with a statement that his health care package is "not about him" but about blah, blah, blah. It's been my experience that when someone says it's not about such and such, it's about such and such.

It's not about him? Elected with zero experience, this guy didn't and still doesn't have a clue. And because he's eloquent behind teleprompters the People are bamboozled. He's a nice guy and I'd love to hang out with him, go bowling, get a pizza, shoot the shit, etc. However, it's as plain as day he has no idea about economics, capitalism, business ownership, leadership, governing, or any of the ideals that made America great. That's because he has never participated in it, he has just learned about it in school and from reading.

And it's for sure he's read stuff not in the mainstream. From Ayers to Wright he's read about corruption, greed, inequality, and misinterpretations of the US way of life. He learned about rebellion and sociological intervention. He learned about the US system and what it could do for him, and he has used it in magnificent fashion. From the Chicago Tribune:

****By Mike Dorning
June 16, 2007

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Two days before Father’s Day, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama ......

The Illinois senator, who as a child had little contact with his African father except occasional letters, drew on his own life story as he spoke, describing the difficulties of growing up without a father. He noted that, without support from his father, he and his mother at times turned to food stamps to make ends meet… ****

In fact, he has in a massive way attempted to expand the welfare state of the US, and make as many as possible dependent on the government for their very existence. A word to the lemmings:
Folks, the government doesn't create revenue, jobs, or goods. It's the people that have money and use sweat equity to build businesses that produce. They are the ones that provide jobs, financial growth, goods and services. They are the ones that provide the tax revenues to the government now. If this draining of our resources continues, if we continue to see the government trying to be all things to all people, then very soon the United States will cease to exist as a powerful nation willing and able to provide support wherever and whenever necessary to the world. We cannot rely on the 'wealthy' to fund the government and expect them to continue to produce if the incentive to work is removed! In the extreme: why do businesses pay tax anyway? All they do is add it to the cost of their product or service, so in the end the consumer pays it.

We cannot continue to expand our welfare state. It's absolutely true that we have run out of money. Obama is literally printing money to fund these schemes which have no basis in fundamental laws of economics or business. Folks, I have to agree: it IS all about him. And we need to get him out of there.

2009-07-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

July 19, 2009
Well, my friend Paul sent me this email. It's the 20th time I've received it but I don't get tired of it. I get pissed when I read it, but I don't get tired of it.
Some folks get pissed because they think some of the restrictions he puts on prisoners are cruel and unusual punishment. They say he 'racially profiles' and incarcerates 'too many Latinos.' We need a survey to see how many white Anglo-Saxon residents are here illegally. We need another survey to find out how many African-Americans there are here illegally. How about Poles? Swedes? Danish? Latvians? Aussies?
Me? I get pissed because this guy knows how to keep a punitive environment and at the same time offers real incentive no matter how tasks are approached. The prisoners haven't been given a "time out," they've been convicted of breaking the law. They should be punished.
I think every thing this guy does regarding illegals and his prisoners is spot on and the way our entire jail and prison systems should be run. It is an outstanding example of ingenuity and commitment to one's community, too. This guy doesn't blog about it, he acts on it.
You all remember Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona , who painted the jail cells pink and made the inmates wear pink prison garb. Well.........

Maricopa County was spending approx.. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.

The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dog s off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.
The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him. Cost us $78.

The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.

I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand.

He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the holidays and plant it later. We have six trees in our yard from the prison.

Yup, he was re-elected last year with 83% of the vote.
Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of Sheriff.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio (in Arizona ) who created the 'Tent City Jail':
**He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.
**He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. **Took away their weights.
**Cut off all but 'G' movies.
**He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.
**Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.

**He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails, so he hooked up the cable TV again.....BUT only let in the Disney channel and the Weather channel.
**When asked why the weather channel, he replied, "So they will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs."

**He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value.

**When the inmates complained, he told them, "This isn't The Ritz/Carlton...... If you don't like it, don't come back."

With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees just set a new record), the Associated Press reports: About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued
pink boxer shorts.

On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside the week before.

Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their PINK SOCKS.

"It feels like we are in a furnace," said James Zanzot, an inmate who has lived in the TENTS for 1 year. "It's inhumane."

Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates, "It's 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to wear full battle gear, but they didn't commit any crimes, so shut your mouths!"

Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers' money and enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves.

2009-07-15T03:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my venue. Welcome to where I can freely (I hope) express my comments to stories on the internet about people, places, things and events. I read about anything that comes along but especially political stuff, our society, where we've been and where I think we're headed. I look forward to your opinions and comments as long as they aren't hurtful or disrespectful. (Please note that since it's my blog I decide what isn't hurtful or disrespectful.) Also, it won't take you long to figure out I'm mostly conservative in stuff and you may consider me fanatical. One thing you'll note is I will not hold your opinions against you personally and I would appreciate the same in return.