DISCOVERY STS 133 Roll out from the VAB

A truly fabulous picture from Cape Canaveral, FL's Kennedy Space Centre.

Obama & the Philipine Flag Fiasco

Remember when people talked about how stupid W was?  How he couldn't, wouldn't be able to do anything right.  Then came Team Obama...who have insulted our closest allies.  First by giving Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of UK a set of DVD's that he can't play, and then by giving Queen  Elisabeth an iPod with Obama's speeches on it...now comes this via GatewayPundit via YahooNews: 

The U.S. government said Sunday it made an “honest mistake” when it displayed an inverted Philippine flag — which wrongfully signified that the Southeast Asian nation was in a state of war — in a meeting hosted by President Barack Obama.


The Philippine flag was displayed upside down behind President Benigno Aquino III when leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations met Obama in New York on Friday.

“This was an honest mistake,” U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Rebecca Thompson said in a statement, adding, “the U.S. treasures its close relationship and close partnership with the Philippines.”

What a bunch of morons.  This administration is supposed to be filled  with smart people, and yet they keep continually doing stupid shit!  It's not that difficult a thing to do.  But, none of these dolts seem to be able to do a simple Google search to find out even the most basic information.

UPDATE:  The Obama Administration is claiming it was an honest mistake (?) that they displayed the Philipine flag upside down.

"This was an honest mistake," U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Rebecca Thompson said in a statement, adding, "the U.S. treasures its close relationship and close partnership with the Philippines."

In the Philipines, displaying the flag upside daown signifies tha the island nation is in a state of war.  This is from an administration that is/was supposed to bring us "smart diplomacy."  Yeah right...bunch of morons.

Lorreta Sanchez Gets Pass From MSM

It's amazing just how racist the Democratic Party really is.  Loretta Sanchez , a Congresswoman from California's 47th district recently said on Univision:

"The Vietnamese and the Republicans are trying to take away this seat from us."

If a Republican had said this, the MSM would be literally crucifying him.  But because it's a liberal Democrat this won't ever be covered by any of the liberal propaganda networks.  This story has only moved onto Politico.com this morning and has since been bumped as being unimportant enough to stay in it's banner position.  

“The Vietnamese and the Republicans are, with an intensity, trying to take this seat from which we have done so much for our community — to take this seat and give it to this Van Tran, who is very anti-immigrant and very anti-Hispanic,” Sanchez, 50, said in an interview that aired nationally Sept. 19 on Jorge Ramos’ political talk show "Al Punto."

Left Coast Rebel has this to say:  

Isn't it shocking when the mask of inclusiveness and multiculturalism is lifted and the face of collectivism is revealed by members of the ruling class? Even better, isn't it amazing when one that uses the race card as an unyielding bludgeoning tool actually is proved a racist?

Here is her opponent, Van Tran.  Had Tran said something about taking away this seat from Hispanics you can bet your sweet....that the MSM would have instigated a firestorm that would see him dropping out of the race.

 
What this all boils down to is that it's ok to be a racist if you're liberal...but if you lean anywhere to the right, you should be publicly castigated and flogged.

Bill Maher: Americans Are Stupid

From NewsBusters.com a great video of Bill Maher saying Americans are stupid for opposing ObamaCare.



AMY HOLMES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: In point of fact, Democrats did talk about healthcare endlessly. President Obama went out on the stump talking about, "Pass this bill, pass this bill." Bill Clinton said once it was passed it would become popular. Bill Clinton now, he confesses that he made a mistake, that it has not become more popular.

BILL MAHER, HOST: It's been kicked in for two days...
HOLMES: It's become less popular, and here's why.
MAHER: ...and most of it doesn't kick in till 2014. Could we wait till people see it before we can judge whether it's popular?
HOLMES: You're asking why...
(AUDIENCE APPLAUSE)
MAHER: Please, sorry.
HOLMES: But you're asking why Democrats are not campaigning on this. Because in the next 40 days with a bill that is hugely unpopular, it's not good for their re-election process.
MAHER: It would be popular if they would talk about it. They could have, if they could stand up for what they believe they could have passed Medicare for all. That's what they should have done. What they should have said is insurance companies have a million other things to insure. They insure your car and your house and if it rains and there's a flood and an earthquake and Betty Grable's legs and a million other things. They don't need to also insure life. Life should be off the table.
HOLMES: They talked endlessly about it and their agenda was rejected by the American people, that's a simple fact.
MAHER: Because they're stupid.
ANDREW BREITBART: So you're, you're officially not a Libertarian anymore, right? I mean, this position...
MAHER: Well..
BREITBART: ...has run so far from the Libertarian position. Is this, so you admit that you have more of a, you know, European socialist leaning perspective on this issue?
(AUDIENCE LAUGHTER)
BREITBART: Why is that funny?
MAHER: I'm, I'm not afraid, it's not, I'm not afraid to say European socialism works.

Gee Bill, I suspect that you'll begin to see a drop in your ratings...Americans don't like to be called stupid and generally tune  out those who call them so...

The Tea Party: Brewing Up A Movement

By the staff reporters of the Knoxville News-Sentinel: 

A Mere Pimple on the Trunk of the Elephant

By Tony Blankley

Entitlement reform has become a leading issue in this year's Republican primaries. I don't mean the kind of entitlement reform associated with Medicare or Social Security. I'm referring to the Republican Party's establishment figures and their exaggerated sense of political entitlement.

The most recent example is in Delaware, where despite being outspent 32 to 1, insurgent candidate Christine O'Donnell trumped nine-term GOP Congressman Michael Castle by 65 percent to 35 percent for the GOP Senate nomination.

Castle, who has spent a lifetime as a political incumbent, responded to this humiliating loss with conduct unbecoming a gentleman. Instead of graciously acknowledging defeat and closing ranks with his party's nominee, Castle trashed her. Sniping from his website, Castle attacked O'Donnell as untrustworthy and unfit for office.


By trying to ensure that O'Donnell loses the election, Castle undermines his own party's prospects for a Senate takeover in November. So strong is his sense of entitlement to the Senate nomination that Castle feels justified in being disloyal to the very party he has spent his adult life serving.

If it were only a personal matter, it would be sad to see this once respected politician end his political legacy embittered because the voters foiled his Senate ambitions. But Castle is not the only Delaware GOP establishment figure trying to torpedo the party's nominee. State Party Chairman Tom Ross has lodged a complaint against the O'Donnell campaign and the Tea Party Express for improper coordination. It is as though the insiders see the Republican Party as their private fiefdom.

Nor is the Delaware GOP an aberration. Embattled Republican moderates around the country seem to feel justified in taking actions that could keep Democrats in office rather than lose GOP sinecures to which they feel personally entitled....

read the whole thing.
___________________________

This is what is wrong with this country.  Politicians have gotten the idea that they OWN the political positions that they have been voted into for (sometimes) decades...they are entitled to those positions only because VOTERS have chosen them time after time.  Pehaps it's time to sweep all career politicians out of office and replace them wholesale. 

It's not just an issue for the GOP...this past fall, after Ted Kennedy died, his senate seat was often referred to as the "Kennedy Seat".  Martha Coakley lost her bid to win that seat in the special election partly because she felt she, as a Democrat, who was annointed by her party, was "entitled" to hold that seat for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
The time has come to sweep away politicians who have held office for any length of time.  We need to put  people into office who won't become career politicians, but who will enter the publica arena only for the length of time needed for them to accomplish what they were initially elected to office for in the first place.

Remember November

Are You Better Off Now Than You Were 4 Years Ago?

I'm not.  My wife can't find a full time job since she was laid off two and a half years ago.  I only just started back working in a cabinet shop three weeks ago.  We're perpetually behind on all of our bills and the worry of being evicted is always there.

In 2006, the Democratic Party took control of Congress and did nothing to the economy except to make it worse.  Of course big government Republicans who controlled the GOP at the time were, and are still, merely "Democrat Lite."   But, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid systematically set out to create the economic chaos that we have  now by refusing to do anything about Freddie Mac and Fannie May. 

Democrats fought every Republican effort to clean up the impending Fannie-Freddie catastrophe with their standard class-warfare rhetoric and racist sliming. The Democrats had a field day fighting off Republican attempts to reform Fannie-Freddie before it brought the mortgage business to full-blown crisis. Then, when the whole thing exploded in all our faces — bringing the cascading collapse to banks and every other industry in America — the Democrats turned right around in the blink of an eye and wagged their dirty little fingers at Republicans as though none of the citizenry would be the wiser. The Democrats weren’t worried. They presumed that once they got control of the Congress, they could bury their own malfeasance and incompetence under the rug of majority rule. And that is precisely what they have done. No investigations. No hearings. Democrat rulers think the public is still in the dark ages — before the internet.

In the four years since the Democratic Party has been in control of Congress, they have systematically waged economic warfare against business by implementing ruinous regulations.  Furthermore,

They have used their majority status to ram through mountains of anti-business, regulatory legalese that literally shackles the recovery they disingenuously proclaim. Even as Democrats have run around the country all summer like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off, yelling “Recovery!” at the top of their little lungs, the recovery isn’t happening on Main Street and they are the very reason why it isn’t. They won election with their crass gospel of envy, bashing the job creators at every turn and then shake their heads with wonder at why these same small businesses have the life too scared out of them to hire people.

These Democrats openly admit they haven’t even read the bills they’ve passed and then ponder why the citizenry is upset with them. They act as though the U.S. Constitution is nothing more than a doormat that they can step upon as they enter the halls of taxpayer-funded, personal enrichment. They’ve turned the words “public servant” into a synonym for lying thief.[ed see Charlie Rangel & Maxine Waters]
Ever since wresting control of Congress, the Democrat rulers have done all in their power to finagle their way to bureaucratic tyranny, all the while blaming the out-of-power Republicans for having the temerity to say “No,” as strongly as their puny numbers will allow them.

It's time for a change and change we need.  Vote every single incumbent out of office.  Vote in fiscally conservative candidates who won't spend money the government doesn't have and will begin to roll back both the size of the federal and state bureaucracies as well as the scope of government intervention in business.  Candidates who will end ALL government bailouts of the private sector.  Any business "too big to fail" is too big to suceed, and must be permitted to collapse else we will enter a perpetuall cycle of shoring them up...with our great grand childrens money.

Breibart Forces Liberal Demonstrators To Slink Away

Here's video of how to deal with liberals...who don't actually understand those ideals that they espouse. 

MSM Finally Wising Up?

This is almost a "holy shit" moment...here is Chris Mathews (his speech "sends a chill down my leg" fame) actually CRITISING Barack Obama...



Via Newsbusters.com

The Fix

There recently was an article in the St. Petersburg , Fl. Times. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on: "How Would You Fix the Economy?" I think this guy nailed it!

Dear Mr. President,
Please find below my suggestion for fixing America 's economy. Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan.

 

You can call it the "Patriotic Retirement Plan": 
There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following

 

stipulations:

1. They MUST retire. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.
2. They MUST buy a new AMERICAN Car. Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.
3. They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed.

 David Otterson, Largo

It can't get any easier than that!


P.S. If more money is needed, have all members in Congress pay their taxes...Mr. President, while you're at it, make Congress retire on Social Security and Medicare. I'll bet both programs would be fixed pronto!

An Obituary

Here's a dedicated obituary:

Is Obama's Honeymoon Over?

A reader sent me the following:

You know the honeymoon is over when the comedians start in...


The liberals are asking us to give Obama time. We agree . . . and think 25 to life would be appropriate.
--Jay Leno

America needs Obama-care like Nancy Pelosi needs a Halloween mask.
--Jay Leno

Q: Have you heard about McDonald's' new Obama Value Meal?
A: Order anything you like and the guy behind you has to pay for it.
--Conan O'Brien

Q: What does Barack Obama call lunch with a convicted felon?
A: A fund raiser.
--Jay Leno

Q: What's the difference between Obama's cabinet and a penitentiary?
A: One is filled with tax evaders, blackmailers, and threats to society. The other is for housing prisoners.
--David Letterman


Q: If Nancy Pelosi and Obama were on a boat in the middle of the ocean and it started to sink, who would be saved?
A: America !
--Jimmy Fallon

Q: What's the difference between Obama and his dog, Bo?
A: Bo has papers.
--Jimmy Kimmel

Q: What was the most positive result of the "Cash for Clunkers" program?
A: It took 95% of the Obama bumper stickers off the road.
--David Letterman

Ben Franklin On The Constitution

Monday, September 17, 1787,  on the last day of the Constitutional Convention. The senior delegate from Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin, one of the very few Americans who had any international reputation, desired to give a short speech to the members of the Convention before they signed the final draft of the new Constitution. Too ill to actually give the speech himself, he asked another Pennsylvanian delegate, James Wilson deliver the speech. It is now considered to be a masterpiece.


The following is as reported in Madison's notes on the Convention for Monday, September 17, 1787.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mr. President
I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as most sects in Religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far error. Steele a Protestant in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only difference between our Churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrines is, the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong. But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain french lady, who in a dispute with her sister, said "I don't know how it happens, Sister but I meet with no body but myself, that's always in the right — Il n'y a que moi qui a toujours raison."

In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the Builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us in returning to our Constituents were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partizans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects & great advantages resulting naturally in our favor among foreign Nations as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity. Much of the strength & efficiency of any Government in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends, on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of the Government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its Governors. I hope therefore that for our own sakes as a part of the people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution (if approved by Congress & confirmed by the Conventions) wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts & endeavors to the means of having it well administred.

On the whole, Sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.

Perhaps it's time for our  political "elites" to reread both the Constitution and the Federalist Papers as well as those arguments against it...because those men and women who dwell inside "The Beltway" have forgotten what the Constitution is about.  Re-elect NO ONE!

Remember November

Operation Market-Garden

Today marks the 66th anniversay of the start of "Operation Market-Garden", Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, the 1st Vicount Alamein's failed attempt to seize bridges over the lower Rhein River in Holland.  It was a bold attempt but doomed to failure by the diletory prosecution of the British XXX Corps as it attempted to link up with the XVIII Airborn Corps and the 1st Airborn Army in a 50 mile long corridor that had  3 major river crossings and 5 minor ones.

The operation plan's strategic context required the seizure of bridges across the Maas (Meuse River) and two arms of the Rhine (the Waal and the Lower Rhine) as well as several smaller canals and tributaries. Crossing the Lower Rhine would allow the Allies to outflank the Siegfried Line and encircle the Ruhr, Germany's industrial heartland. It made large-scale use of airborne forces whose tactical objectives were to secure a series of bridges over the main rivers of the German-occupied Netherlands and allow a rapid advance by armoured units into Northern Germany.

The plan was doomed to failure as the dependence upon a single road, one that could easily be cut (and was by ColGen Kurt Student's First Parachute Army for a short time).  The Dutch had a contingency plan that would have used lighter forces (armoured car regiments, cavalry and mechanized infantry units) rather than the heavy armoured force that was the British XXX Corps.

The plan was two-fold, an airborne assault on the three major and 5 minor river crossings, 1st Airborne Army under the command of LtGen Lewis Brererton, while direct control of the battle was placed in the hands of LtGen Frederick "Boy" Browning (British). The First Allied Airborne Army consisted of
U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps

• U.S. 17th Airborne Division (reserve)
• U.S. 82nd Airborne Division (committed to M-G)
• U.S. 101st Airborne Division (committed to M-G)
• U.S. 13th Airborne Division (in 1945)

British I Airborne Corps

• British 1st Airborne Division (committed to M-G)
• British 6th Airborne Division (reorganizing after Normandy)
• 52nd (Lowland) Division (Air Transportable) (elements committed to M-G)
• British 1st Special Air Service Brigade
• Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade. (committed to M-G)
• French 1st Parachute Chasseur Regiment
• French 2nd Parachute Chasseur Regiment S.A.S
• French 3rd Parachute Chasseur Regiment S.A.S

IX Troop Carrier Command USAAF
38 Group Transport Command RAF
46 Group Transport Command RAF

What was conceived as a brilliant idea...soon collapsed in poor planning as the British were forced to land as much as 12 miles from it's targeted bridge in Arnhem.  They eventually took the bridge and actually held control of it's northern approaches for four long days.  The destruction of the bridge at Son, and the inability to gain control of the bridge at Nijmegin until after the link up with the XXX Corps doomed the British  force in Arnhem/Oosterbeek.   The British 1st Airborne Division suffered 80% casualties of the roughly 10,000 men committed to battle, 8,000 were either killed, wounded or captured, one of the highest casualty rates of any allied unit in the war. 

Market Garden was a risky plan that required a willingness to gamble at the tactical, small-unit level. Unfortunately, the detailed planning and leadership required at that level was not always present. The 1st Airborne Division, the least experienced working as a whole division was given the most difficult distant objective. XXX Corps was also criticized for its "inability" to keep to the operation's timetable although the delay at Son was caused by a bridge demolition and the delay at Nijmegen (having made up time, compensating for the delay while a Bailey Bridge was built at Son) was caused by Gavin's failure to capture the bridges on the first day. Its lead unit, the Guards Armoured Division, was led by a commander (Allan Adair) whom Montgomery had sought to remove prior to D-Day. This action was blocked due to Adair's popularity. Gavin regretted giving his division's most important tasks (Groesbeek ridge and Nijmegen) to the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment rather than his best regiment, Tucker's 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

Obama Administration "Tenured Dilletants"?

The Obama Administration are a "bunch of tenured dilletants who have never had  to meet a payroll" ????

So says the founder of Home Depot.

Part I:



Part II



Part III:

America Rising

Here's a message:

Democrats



Republicans:



Neither party is listening...and it's time to clean house.


Remember November!

Let Them Eat Cake

by

J P Bender

The quotation, as attributed to Marie Antoinette, was claimed to have been uttered during one of the famines that occurred in France during the reign of her husband Louis XVI. Upon being alerted that the people were suffering due to widespread bread shortages, the Queen is said to have replied,

Enfin je me rappelai le pis-aller d’une grande princesse à qui l’on disait que les paysans n’avaient pas de pain, et qui répondit : Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.

Finally as I recall, the last resort of a great Queen who was told that the peasants had no bread, and who responded: "Let them eat brioche."

Today, in modern day France, Michelle Obama thinks being America’s First Lady is ‘hell’, according to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who revealed it in a wildly indiscreet book.

Since February 2008, Miss Bruni has been married to the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy. Miss Bruni, the divulges that Mrs. Obama replied when asked about her position as the U.S. president’s wife: ‘Don’t ask! It’s hell. I can’t stand it!’

Within three hours of learning of the book, a spokesperson for Michelle Obama was denying a book's claim that first lady Michelle Obama told Carla Bruni that life in the White House is “hell.”

Some hell - every White House is a bit defensive about presidential vacations and President Obama's staff is no exception. This is Mr. Obama's 11th vacation since taking office. As of today, he has spent all or part of 43 days on "vacation" away from the White House. He has also made 14 visits to Camp David spanning all or part of 32 days. It brings his total time away to all or part of 74 days.

Let’s not forget the lavish vacation in Spain recently with Mrs. Obama and her entourage that cost the U.S. taxpayers almost a million dollars. So how many days have you spent on vacation since Obama took office? Now don’t get confused with the terminology – being laid off without a job, is not the same as being on vacation.

If memory serves me correct, Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI lost their jobs over her comments.

Be sure to attuned the first phase of the ceremony – on November 2nd.



American Health Care Statistic: Pre ObamaCare

Percentage of men and women who survived a cancer five years after diagnosis:

U.S. 65%
England 46%
Canada 42%

Percentage of patients diagnosed with diabetes who received treatment within six months:
U.S. 93%
England 15%
Canada 43%

Percentage of seniors needing hip replacement who received it within six months:
U.S. 90%
England 15%
Canada 43%

Percentage referred to a medical specialist who see one within one month:
U.S. 77%
England 40%
Canada 43%

Number of MRI scanners (a prime diagnostic tool) per million people
U.S. 71
England 14
Canada 18
(These are the actual numbers of machines available for use, per 1 million people-population)

Percentage of seniors (65+), with low income, who say they are in “excellent health”:
U.S. 12%
England 2%
Canada 6%

If ObamaCare isn't repealed, withing 10 years, we'll reach parity with Canada, and within 20, parity with the UK...really rather sad.  After all, the new head of Medicare is a great fan of the UK health care system.  So much so, that he wants to institute health care rationing here in the US.  But then, we'll see that any way  with ObamaCare.  After all, 57% of all health insurance plans DON'T meet the miminum guidelines of ObamaCare to remain outside of the governmentally mandate  plans pools.  So much for keeping your health insurance if you like it.

The Latest on Obama & his Cabinet

Mr. Obama recently appointed two "devout Muslims" to positions high within the Department of Homeland Security.   Mr. Obama appointed Arif Alikhan, a "devout Muslim", as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development.  Addtionally, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano swore-in Kareem Shora, another "devout Muslim," who was born in Damascus, Syria, as ADC National Executive Director as a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC).

But here's the kicker,  when was the last time and American was appointed to a high government position and then identified as either a devout Catholic, a devout Jew or a devout Protestant?

I'm not sure I'm comfortable with "devout Muslims" being appointed to critical Homeland Security positions?  After all, wasn't it "Devout Muslim men" that flew four planes into U.S. buildings or the ground 9 years ago? Wasn't it a "devout Muslim man" who shot and killed 13 at Fort Hood, Texas?

Checked this on Snopes.com and its TRUE!

Washington Spent $800,000 of Economic Stimulus on African Genital-Washing Program

Here is an excellent lesson in why we need to kick out EVERYONE presently in Congress.  All emphasis is mine:

(CNSNews.com) – The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), spent $823,200 of economic stimulus funds in 2009 on a study by a UCLA research team to teach uncircumcised African men how to wash their genitals after having sex.

The genitalia-washing program is part of a larger $12-million UCLA study examining how to better encourage Africans to undergo voluntary HIV testing and counseling – however, only the penis-washing study received money from the 2009 economic stimulus law. The washing portion of the study is set to end in 2011.

“NIH Announces the Availability of Recovery Act Funds for Competitive Revision Applications,” the grant abstract states. “We propose to evaluate the feasibility of a post-coital genital hygiene study among men unwilling to be circumcised in Orange Farm, South Africa.”

Because AIDS researchers have been unsuccessful in convincing most adult African men to undergo circumcision, the UCLA study proposes to determine whether researchers can develop an after-sex genitalia-washing regimen that they can then convince uncircumcised African men to follow.

“The aim of the proposed feasibility study is to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a post-coital male genital hygiene procedure, which participants will be asked to practice immediately post-coitus or at least 12 hours after,” reads the abstract.

Entitled “Community-Based HIV VCT: South Africa,” the name of the broader umbrella project, the program plans to test how well received the penis-washing regimen is among South African men.

If most of the men in the study wash their genitals after sex, are willing to do so after the study ends, and report that their partners accept the regimen, the researchers will develop another study to see if the “penile cleansing procedure” actually works to prevent HIV infections.

“If we find that men are able to practice consistent washing practices after sex, we will plan to test whether this might protect men from becoming HIV infected in a later study,” the grant says.

The study’s lead investigator Dr. Thomas J. Coates was the fourth highest-funded researcher in the country in 2002 and is currently conducting HIV research on three continents.

CNSNews.com asked both Coates and NIMH the following question: “The Census Bureau says the median household income in the United States is $52,000. How would you explain to the average American mom and dad -- who make $52,000 per year -- that taxing them to pay for this grant was justified?”

Coates, who was unavailable for comment, directed CNSNews.com to ask grant-related questions of his assistant, Darya Freedman, who did not respond.

The NIMH also declined to respond to CNSNews.com’s question.

We borrowed money, that our grand children will have to pay back, to spend it teaching African men how to was their dicks...this is an excellent example of just what is wrong with Congress.  These stupid bastards just don't have a clue about what's important for our country...and this isn't it.  It's time to dump the entire lot of them and start over.

A reader who requests anonymity sends this: 

This country needs a non violent political revolution, the best (only) way to do it (peacefully/bloodless) is take the money away from DC by a giant mass tax revolt (hold or don't pay taxes) by a majority of Americans, pull the rug out from under them, cut off their lifeblood (our money) and kill the over-bloated self important, not for the people political monster Washington has become.. Join the revolution, Downsize DC!

REMEMBER NOVEMBER!

The Trouble With Congress is...

Reason.TV: 9-12 Gathering in Washington, DC

From Reason.TV:  The 9-12 gathering yesterday in Washington DC

What The Tea Party Is All About

Here's a short video on what the Tea Party is really about:

9/11...

Video by James Likeks on 9/11

Excerpts from his live blogging...

Tue 11 Sep 01 08:07

• Saw the first tower collapse from the Promenade across the river in Brooklyn. Fine white and pale yellow ash everywhere. Lower Manhattan covered in smoke with ash still drifting down.
• Military jets overhead every five minutes or so.
• Lower span of Brooklyn Bridge jammed with people walking out of the city, many covered with white ash. Ghosts. The Living Dead. BQE empty except for convoys of emergency vehicles.
• Sirens in all directions. Ferry ships emerging from the smoke heading to the Brooklyn shore riding low in the water fully loaded.
• This is monstrous.
• Deaths in the thousands in New York.
• My body is trembling with sorrow and rage. I saw the first tower fall. Everyone in it would have been killed. This, all this, must be stopped. Those who have done this must be wiped out to the last.
• War with whom?
• Any and all terrorist organizations, foreign or domestic, must now be brought to a swift and complete halt no matter where they are located.
• I watched this happen. The enormity of it cannot be communicated. Vile and bestial.
• We need to destroy any and all capacity of anyone living anywhere to do anything like this ever again. There were thousands in those buildings. Thousands.
• There is no justice swift enough or sure enough.
• All that we have must be brought forward and used without restraint. This is an act of war beyond Pearl Harbor.
• Military jets overhead again.
• More ash on the street. I am cooled down. Way down.
• This is pure evil. [READ THE WHOLE THING!]

 I was on my 2nd day of work in a new job working in a very small cabinet shop in Lyndell, PA, called L.W. Crossan, Cabinetmaker.  It's the only job I've ever had that I actually looked forward to a 35 mile commute...because  I learned something new every single day I worked there.  Unfortunately, after 9/11 we lost a number of clients due to the financial stress that followed the destruction of the Towers.  But I look very fondly upon the few months I worked for Larry.

The Forgotten Man

A new painting by John McNaughton

How To Take Apart A Jeep, In 2 Minutes

8 GI's break down a WWII Willy's Jeep and put it back together in 4 minutes!

What Obama Really Wanted to Say...

Here's what Mr. Obama really wanted to say in Cleveland the other day...

Fact Checking ObamaCare

AP finally does it's job and has begun to take a closer look at a few of the claims that Mr. Obama made at this news conference this week. Here's how those claims stand up against the facts.

OBAMA: Said he never expected to extend insurance coverage to an additional 31 million people “for free.“ He added that ”we’ve made huge progress” if medical inflation could be brought down to the level of overall inflation, or somewhere slightly above that

THE FACTS: Those claims may be supported in the fine print of the plan he pitched to Congress and a skeptical public months ago. But they were rarely heard back then. “My proposal would bring down the cost of health care for millions — families, businesses and the federal government,” he declared in March.

Last August he predicted: “The American people are going to be glad that we acted to change an unsustainable system so that more people have coverage, we’re bending the cost curve, and we’re getting insurance reforms.”

On Friday, he conceded: “Bending the cost curve on health care is hard to do.” The goal: “Slowly bring down those costs.”

The White House contends that although health care costs will rise when most of the changes take hold in 2014 and coverage is extended to the uninsured, costs will go down over the longer term as controls kick in.

___

OBAMA: “We took every idea out there about how to reduce or at least slow the costs of health care over time.”

THE FACTS: One idea that most experts believe would do the most to control health costs — directly taxing health benefits — was missing in Obama’s plan. Opposition from unions and others was too great, and Obama himself had campaigned against the idea.

Some of the major cost controllers that did make it into the law — including a tax on high-value insurance plans — don’t start until 2018. That tax was watered down and delayed, and other cost-control approaches also softened after opposition from hospitals and other interest groups.

Health spending already accounts for about 17 percent of the economy and is projected to grow to nearly 20 percent in 2019.

___

OBAMA: “So these policies of cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans, of stripping away regulations that protect consumers, running up a record surplus to a record deficit — those policies finally culminated in the worst financial crisis we’ve had since the Great Depression.”

THE FACTS: The president probably meant the broader economic crisis and not the meltdown of the financial industry when he talked about the “financial crisis.” True enough, George W. Bush entered office with a $236 billion budget surplus in 2001, and in January 2009, before Obama was sworn into office, the Congressional Budget Office projected the deficit for the fiscal year 2009 to be $1.2 trillion.

But the surpluses the government foresaw in 2001 were based on a bubble economy that was bound to burst. And the deficit Obama inherited was only partly from Bush’s fiscal policies.
Mostly it was a result of a recession that sapped tax revenues, increased the costs of safety net programs and demanded more government spending to stimulate the economy. As recently as 2007, the budget deficit was just $161.5 billion. The current annual deficit is now an estimated $1.5 trillion

____________

OBAMA: Asked how he can lecture Afghan President Hamid Karzai about corruption when it’s fueled in part by U.S. aid dollars, Obama said: “I’ve said to my national security team … Let’s be consistent in terms of how we operate across agencies. Let’s make sure that our efforts there are not seen as somehow giving a wink and a nod to corruption.”

THE FACTS: While acknowledging the situation is messy, Obama seemed to minimize it.

“Are there going to be occasions where we look and see that some of our folks on the ground have made compromises with people who are known to have engaged in corruption?” he asked. “You know, we’re reviewing all that constantly and there may be occasions where that happens.”

The United States spends more than $100 billion annually in Afghanistan, the world’s second-poorest nation and one of the most corrupt. U.S. officials acknowledge that a significant percentage of the U.S. bankroll enriches shady characters even as it may finance worthy projects, or is stolen outright.

The CIA has paid Afghan warlords and power brokers for years, relying on them as informants and as leverage in the country’s internal ethnic and tribal squabbles. Intelligence officials say payouts are cheap insurance, but development officials and diplomats say the money supports a culture of bribery.

Obama pledged to keep up pressure on Karzai. The Afghan leader recently intervened to free a presidential aide arrested on suspicion of soliciting a bribe. U.S. investigators played a central role in fingering the aide.

Obama Backpeddles On ObamaCare Cost Increases

Here's video of Mr. Obama backpeddling when trying to answer a question posed by Jake Tapper in the press conference the other day.

Anti-Obama Video Costs Coach His Job

Here's a video by a guy in Tennessee...it cost him his job as a middle school coach but it shows a hell of a lot of creativity.  

Bryan Glover, now the former head football coach of Grasslands Middle School in Franklin, Tenn., doesn’t appreciate the job President Barack Obama is doing, and he wants everyone to know it. Through the majesty of song, Glover voiced his displeasure with the Obama Administration.

Unfortunately, Glover claims that same song is what caused his termination.

You see, Glover decided to send everyone in his address book an email containing a link to this song, and those contacts included faculty and parents of students at the school. There’s talk that Glover violated something in the school’s thick rulebook, or that his song contains racial underpinnings.

He's started a website;  http://www.holdingahammer.com/

Obama's Protectors

It's a Meltdown!

Hope, It's Fading...

US Treasurey...

Chris Christie Nails The Teachers Union

The sitting governor of New Jersey, in a show of brilliance, hammers down a rude teacher, then proceeds to answer her question by showing how the NJ NEA is to blame for teacher layoffs.

Virginia Congressman Admits Unbalanced Budgets Will Continue...

Virginia Congressman, Tom Perriello (D-VA) admits on camera that the only way to keep Congress from stealing, will be to have a balanced budget amendment.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned up here (in Washington) and I didn’t really need to come up here to learn it, is the only way to get Congress to balance the budget is to give them no choice, and the only way to keep them out of the cookie jar is to give them no choice, which is why – whether it’s balanced budget acts or pay as you go legislation or any of that – is the only thing. If you don’t tie our hands, we will keep stealing”

Here's the video:

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/virginia-congressman-admits-if-you-dont-tie-our-hands-we-will-keep-stealing-102466389.html#ixzz0zAHB9UKI

The New Stamp Act

Congresswoman Chaka Fattah [D-PA2], has introduced the modern Stamp Act for America.  This Act, called the H.R. 4646: Debt Free America Act would,

Debt Free America Act - States as purposes of this Act the raising of sufficient revenue from a fee on transactions to eliminate the national debt within seven years and the phasing out of the individual income tax. Amends the Internal Revenue Code to impose a 1% fee, offset by a corresponding nonrefundable income tax credit, on transactions that use a payment instrument, including any check, cash, credit card, transfer of stock, bonds, or other financial instrument. Defines "transaction" to include retail and wholesale sales, purchases of intermediate goods, and financial and intangible transactions. Establishes in the legislative branch the Bipartisan Task Force for Responsible Fiscal Action to review the fiscal imbalance of the federal government and make recommendations to improve such imbalance. Provides for expedited consideration by Congress of Task Force recommendations. Repeals after 2017 the individual income tax, refundable and nonrefundable personal tax credits, and the alternative minimum tax (AMT) on individuals. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to: (1) prioritize the repayment of the national debt to protect the fiscal stability of the United States; and (2) study and report to Congress on the implementation of this Act.

A fee is merely a tax by another name.  The original Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament to pay off the debt incured in the series of wars known in America as the "French & Indian Wars."  It was a tax on every transaction and would have required a stamp...here is the modern Stamp Act.  The Tea Party was held in Boston Harbour to destroy tea...now we have a new Tea Party...perhaps it's time for us to act once more.   Vote in Congressmen, Legislators, Delegates, etc, who will act responsibly and not spend money we don't have. 

Remember November!

Obama Want's To Talk About Me

If Barack Obama wanted to be an honest politician...and actually tell the truth about himself he would say something like this: 

“I was constantly reminded of my difficult childhood as I was attending the most elite school in the State of Hawaii, being raised by my grandmother, a Republican bank vice president…


“Then, at the 2000 Democratic National Convention, my credit card was declined when I tried to rent a car. It wasn’t easy getting by on a $60,000 state Senator’s salary, so I did what any American would do. I found a wealthy businessman named Robert Blackwell to put me on a $8,000 per month legal retainer, and then I earmarked $320,000 in state funds for his business to hold ping pong tournaments.

“I want all Americans, and especially struggling state legislators, to have the same opportunities I did. Therefore, there’s going to be more spending. Oh, and a tax increase, so you can pay for it.”

This is why I don't trust this man.  He tries to pass himself off as a child of working parents (or mom) but in fact, he is a child of priviledge and nothing but.

GMA George Asks About His Tan?

Is this the best George Stephanopoulos  can do?  Ask about a tan?



Here are the facts...

The FY2008 budget allocated $3.1 trillion in spending, an increase of over $300 billion from the previous year. It makes more political than fiscal sense in that the FY2008 budget was passed by a Democratic Congress, which means that Obama and Nancy Pelosi will find it a little difficult to argue that it’s somehow inadequate. It still would outstrip revenues by around $600 billion, but that’s less than half of the projected deficit for FY2011 — if Democrats ever get around to proposing a budget for that fiscal year, which starts in 23 days. It’s a good pre-emption effort by Boehner and a way to focus on the real problem in the economy, which is not a lack of government spending or interventions

While that's better than what Congress has been doing...it certainly isn't enough.  We, as a nation must stop spending money we don't have.

Draining The Swamp?

When Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, was swept into power in 2006 as Speaker of the House of Representatives she promised to "Drain the Swamp" of corruption...yet here is a member of her caucus stealing money and giving it to members of her family...

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) apparently asked the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation to send scholarship checks directly to her two grandsons and two great-nephews, rather than to their colleges.


Johnson has insisted repeatedly that she left scholarship decisions to aides.

But two letters she sent the foundation from 2006 undermine claims that she wasn’t involved in obtaining $31,000 for her relatives and two other ineligible recipients.

Well Nancy, when are you going to indict this member of YOUR swamp?

Tea Party Tracker

Here is a great resonse to the Tea Party Tracker...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel?

Back in January, I received a tip from a source who said that Rahm Emanuel would be out of the White House by Christmas.  So, I wrote a post saying so.  I received a bit of email saying that, well, idiot was about the nicest thing...here's the post  "Rahm On The Way Out?"

Just the other day, I saw a link on Instapundit saying that Richard Daley, the Mayor of Chicago, would retire at the end of his term and that Mr. Emanuel would then run for mayor...hhhhmmm...perhaps my source was right.

If Obama were a Christian …

I received this from a daily reader of our blog.

Posted: August 24, 2010

By

Mychal Massie

In the aftermath of Obama's unsolicited, controversial dictates over the Ground Zero mosque debate, White House image-makers are now trying to convince the public he is a devout Christian. Specific to that point, he may not be a Muslim, but I'm convinced he isn't a Christian, either.

As evidence of his devoutness, the White House has entered into evidence that he allegedly prays every day. Let me be clear – praying every day no more makes one a Christian than walking across a stream makes one a fisherman.
A true Christian, i.e., a born-again believer, is a person who has put his faith and trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ – including His sacrificial death on the cross as propitiation/payment for our sins, His crucifixion and resurrection and the understanding that this same Jesus will, at a time appointed return to gather unto Himself His own.

Simply believing there is a God or "god" doesn't make one a Christian. The New Testament tells us, in James 2:19, that the very "demons also believe and tremble." In the Book of Job we have record of God addressing Satan (Job 1:6-12). Ergo, if Satan and the demons are acknowledged as knowing God exists from first-person experience – just believing there is a God simply places a person among a legion of not so pleasant beings.

My point being – prayer and belief sans confession, repentance and acceptance of Christ in one's heart is hot air. Being a "good person" doesn't make one a Christian either, nor does being an outwardly religious person. Being a Christian, devout or otherwise, is more than that – it placing our eternal life in the hands of One we have not seen, based on a faith that many scorn (John 3:1-21, Ephesians 2:8-10, Romans 3:21-28, Hebrews 11:1-3).

Neither do good works make one a Christian. John Gotti and Al Capone did many good works within their communities, and still others convicted of heinous crimes are said to have seemed like good persons. The mark of a true Christian is love for others and obedience to God's word. That doesn't mean acceptance of others' sinful and aberrant behavior – it means love enough for the person committing same not to want to see them perish.
A true believer is a child of God, a part of God's family and one who has been given new life in Christ Jesus. Intellectuality has no place with God; self-anointed "christianship" is a falsehood.

Some will no doubt spew forth the plaintive wail of false teachers and those whose hearts have been hardened, and rail "judge not, less [I] be judged." But that, too, is most frequently misapplied. I'm not judging by appearance – I'm judging according to "life" and what biblically based, Christ-like attributes Obama displays. What one thing has he done or said since taking office that can be unequivocally said to be the words/actions of Christ in man?

Scriptures tell us that by our works we shall be known (Matthew 7:15-20). Where is Obama's fruit? I think it can be reasonably argued that, if he were a Christian following after Jesus, there would be no questions about his faith. If his actions were Christ-like, people wouldn't question whether or not he is a Muslim.

This isn't about color or race. There are many persons of color in very public capacities that do not have these questions swirling around them.

America is in need of truly godly leaders – and the fact that we are lacking same is evidenced by the condition our country finds itself in today. America is rapidly becoming a place where Christians need not apply. The country is the recipient of what the church is producing. If Obama had spent 20 years under a truly God-fearing, Bible-preaching, Christ-filled pastor, would we today have these questions? Obviously, we cannot say with absolute certainty that wouldn't be the case – but I submit the chances greatly favor that we wouldn't.

A true Christian is more concerned about the eternal benefits of service than about endorsing behaviors and teachings that are antithetical to the God of Scripture. God doesn't care what color a person is, nor whether you are a man, woman or child – He cares that we accept His Son, lead others to Him, and live Christ-centered lives that make others want to be like "that" which they see in us.

Specific to that point, I see nothing in Obama I want to be like.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mychal Massie is chairman of the National Leadership Network of Black Conservatives-Project 21 – a conservative black think tank located in Washington, D.C. He was recognized as the 2008 Conservative Man of the Year by the Conservative Party of Suffolk County, N.Y. He is a nationally recognized political activist, pundit and columnist. He has appeared on Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, NBC, Comcast Cable and talk radio programming nationwide. A former self-employed business owner of more than 30 years, Massie can be followed on Twitter and Facebook.

Obama's Labour Day Speech, Excerpts

Here are some excerpts from Mr. Obama's speech on Monday...and the about being a "dog" either.

• "But there are some folks in Washington who see things differently. (Boos.) You know what I’m talking about. (Applause.) When it comes to just about everything we’ve done to strengthen our middle class, to rebuild our economy, almost every Republican in Congress says no. (Boos.) Even on things we usually agree on, they say no. If I said the sky was blue, they say no. (Laughter and applause.) If I said fish live in the sea, they’d say no. (Laughter.)"
• "Now, anybody who thinks that we can move this economy forward with just a few folks at the top doing well, hoping that it’s going to trickle down to working people who are running faster and faster just to keep up, you’ll never see it. (Applause.) If that’s what you’re waiting for, you should stop waiting, because it’s never happened in our history. That’s not how America was built. It wasn’t built with a bunch of folks at the top doing well and everybody else scrambling. We didn’t become the most prosperous country in the world just by rewarding greed and recklessness.
• "I mean, I personally think “Yes we can” is more inspiring than “No we can’t.” (Applause.) To steal a line from our old friend Ted Kennedy: What is it about working men and women that they find so offensive? (Laughter.)"
• "Look, the bottom line is this: These guys, they just don’t want to give up on that economic philosophy that they have been peddling for most of the last decade. You know that philosophy — you cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires; you cut all the rules and regulations for special interests; and then you just cut working folks loose — you cut them loose to fend for themselves".

 Nothing has changed, he's still punching at those who actually create wealth...and want's to take it away and give it to those who won't. 

Al Sharpton & Jessie Jackson

Al and Jessie sharing their dream...

Great 1st Day...

I had a great first day at my new job.  I actually feel like I accomplished something.  That's not something that I ever felt doing restaurant work.  That always seemed like SSDD...

Obama Want's Government Run "Bank"

Mr. Obama called for a government run "bank" to gather funds, both public and private, to pay for the $50,000,000,000.00 2nd Stimulus Package.  That package is to pay for inftrastructure improvements.  A government run "bank" sounds more like another massive slush fund.  I suspect that it would be used to pay off yet more unions, and supporters of the Democratic Party.  Nothing the government does is ever on time or under budget, or terribly effective or efficient either.  If the $1,000,000,000,000.00 original "Stimulus Package" coulnd't get the the economy back on track...how much of a chance does $50 Billion?  Slim and none...on the other hand, it would pay off political supporters before they Democratic Party loses control of the House of Representatives and, possibly, the Senate. 

The White House did not offer a price tag for the full measure or say how many jobs it would create. If Congress simply reauthorized the expired transportation bill and accounted for inflation, the new measure would cost about $350 billion over the next six years. But Mr. Obama wants to “front-load” the new bill with an additional $50 billion in initial investment to generate jobs, and vowed it would be “fully paid for.” The White House is proposing to offset the $50 billion by eliminating tax breaks and subsidies for the oil and gas industry...[The plan by] Representative Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut.  Ms. DeLauro’s plan would create an infrastructure bank that would be part of the United States Treasury, where it would attract money from institutional investors, then channel the funds to projects selected by a panel. The program, which would make loans much like the World Bank, would finance projects with the potential to transform whole regions, or even the national economy, the way the interstate highway system and the first transcontinental railway once did.

I'm deeply reasurred that such a "bank" would be just as efficient as both the US Postal Service (losing a billion dollars per month) and AmTrack (losing 12 billion per year).  In other words, just like the original stimulus package, this would be yet another method of Congressional corruption.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were both set up like this and when Sen's  Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) with Rep Barney Frank (D-MA5) forced them to give loans to people who couldn't pay back those home loans...that precipitated this recession.  We don't need another pseudo-governmental organization to screw up the economy even more.  Especially when it won't be funded by spending cuts to compesate it's establishment.

Obama's Speech

"They talk to me like a dog..."

WAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Now, he wants to spend another $50,000,000,000.00 on infrastructure...but then they were supposed to spend $150,000,000,000.00 from the stimulus package on infrastructure...what happened to that money?  I guess it went down the sewer just like the rest of it did.  Is this spending going to be offset by cuts elsewhere?  Or are we just going to borrow MORE money we don't have, and make our great-great grandchildren pay for it.  Mr. Obama, this sort of Keynesian economics just doesn't work.  Didn't you understand when your economic advisor, Christine Romer, admitted as much in her farewell speech?  I guess not.  This is what happens when you have a president who has never actually had to make a payroll, much less actually live on a budget.  

"It's easy to be liberal when you're spending other people's money," Margret Thatcher.

But it's not going to be much longer when the money runs out...what do we do then?  Who will bail us out?  This insane spending spree must stop now.

UPDATE:  Here's the video clip,,,



From the comments on Ann Alhouse's blog,

Fen said...

DHOTUS: “...powerful interests that have been setting the agenda in Washington for a long time, and they’re not always happy with me. They talk about me like a dog. That’s not in my prepared remarks, but it’s true.”

The Diversity Hire, overwhelmed by a workload he was never prepared for, desperately returns to casting himself as a Victim of Those Racists. But his race-card has been maxed out. So, "like a dog" will just have to stand in.

During these instances (and there will be many more to come, increasing in frequency and intensity) it is not considered wise to approach the Diversity Hire with any expectation of proof for these vile accusations. They are known to snap and lash out. And file an EEO complaint the next day.

Better to scratch them behind their ears and make cooing noises. Then give them a pat on the head and say "good boy!" in reassuring tones.

[...]

I see why Obama reached for the dog simile - he's been treated like one his entire life. He invited it, traded off of it, and at some point forgot that the path to the Presidency would one day involve the responsibilities of a President.

Time for Barack to go back on vacation?
9/6/10 8:20 PM

Signs of the Times?

I couldn't resist posting this picture from Legal Insurrection:

Wow, if the Democrats/Obama have lost Prius owners...the end is nigh...

My favorite is the "Sign of the Easily Fooled"...LOL

Congress Eddie Bernice Caught Lying

Anderson Cooper catches Congresswoman Eddie Bernice (D-TX) in a big fat lie.

Recovery Summer? Where?

I don't know about you, but I don't think that this has been the recovery summer we were promised by our political elite in Washington...as a matter of fact, things have gotten worse.   More and more people have stopped looking for work (though I've never been able to figure out when the "guv'ment" knows) because there's none to be had.  Unemployment has increased from 9.5% to 9.6%. 

For one thing, the so-called underemployment rate, which includes workers who are working part-time but who want full-time work, increased from 16.5 percent to 16.7 percent. During our supposed “Recovery Summer,” we have lost 283,000 jobs (54,000 in June, 171,000 in July, and 54,000 in August). And for August, the employment-population ratio — the percentage of Americans with jobs — was 58.5 percent. We haven’t seen figures this low in nearly three decades. As Henry Olson of the American Enterprise Institute points out, “Since the start of this summer, nearly 400,000 Americans have entered the labor force, but only 130,000 have found jobs. … America’s adult population has risen by 2 million people since [August 2009], but the number of adults with jobs has dropped by 180,000. The unemployment rate declined slightly despite these numbers, from 9.7 percent to 9.6 percent, because over 2.3 million people have left the labor force entirely, so discouraged they are no longer even looking for work. ”

So, not only has the economy lost jobs, but a couple of million more people have entered the adult work force...some recovery. 

“The jobs lost in the 2000-2001 recession don’t seem to have ever come back. The percentage of people in the workforce stabilized, but never recovered. This time, it looks like the re-employment picture will be even worse. . . . The Boomers are not retiring. Their workforce participation rate is well above forecast. Have you looked at your 401(k)?” Understandable, but of course that means fewer new jobs will open up.

Even Christina Romer admitted that the stimulus package that was supposed to keep unemployment below 8%...has failed miserably. 

She had no idea how bad the economic collapse would be. She still doesn't understand exactly why it was so bad. The response to the collapse was inadequate. And she doesn't have much of an idea about how to fix things.


What she did have was a binder full of scary descriptions and warnings, offered with a perma-smile and singsong delivery: "Terrible recession. . . . Incredibly searing. . . . Dramatically below trend. . . . Suffering terribly. . . . Risk of making high unemployment permanent. . . . Economic nightmare."
...
Romer had predicted that Obama's stimulus package would keep the unemployment rate at 8 percent or less; it is now 9.5 percent. One of her bosses, Vice President Biden, told Democrats in January that "you're going to see, come the spring, net increase in jobs every month." The economy lost 350,000 jobs in June and July.

 Thus...the Obama Administration really has no clue on what to do...except spend ever more money we don't have...I have a novel idea:  STOP SPENDING MONEY WE DON'T HAVE!  Balance the budget.  Reduce the size and scope of government and end the over regulation of our economy.  Top down economies inevitably fail...even the Chinese have stopped doing that, but your home-grown socialist just don't understand that.

Why The GOP Will Screw Up Next Year...

This is why I have no faith in the GOP leadership inside the Washington DC beltway.  Here's a bit from Instapundit...the bold is exactly why I don't think that the GOP has what it takes to turn this country around.  In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the leadership of the party in Congress IS PART OF THE PROBLEM!

UNEMPLOYMENT: “The jobs lost in the 2000-2001 recession don’t seem to have ever come back. The percentage of people in the workforce stabilized, but never recovered. This time, it looks like the re-employment picture will be even worse. . . . The Boomers are not retiring. Their workforce participation rate is well above forecast. Have you looked at your 401(k)?” Understandable, but of course that means fewer new jobs will open up.


Plus, from the comments: “The USA is increasingly not a good place to do business. We need a stiff broom. I worry that the GOP won’t do what it takes.” So do I. I was on Hugh Hewitt’s show last night, and he said that when he talks to Beltway GOP insiders he’s amazed at how out of touch they are. They’re not even sure about passing a ban on earmarks if they take the majority, much less more significant change. If they get the majority back, and blow it, they’ll be looking at a third-party challenge in 2012, and not just at the Presidential level.

The so called "elite leaders" of the party are actively blocking the necessary reforms that we as a nation need in order to remain economically viable.  Perhaps it's time to form that 3rd party and cast aside the corrupt GOP leadership.

Barack Obama Has Awakened A Sleeping Nation

This was originally published in the Aspen Times Weekly, dated February 28, 2010, and passed around the 'net for several weeks.  When the author was contacted and asked if he had indeed written this column, his reply was:

Yes, indeed, I did write that. Thanks for your compliments.


Regards,

Gary Hubbell, Broker/Owner
United Country Colorado Brokers
Hotchkiss, CO 81419

So, here's a good read.

By

Gary Hubbell

Barack Obama is the best thing that has happened to America in the last 100 years. Truly, he is the savior of America's future.

Despite the fact that he has some of the lowest approval ratings among recent presidents, history will see Barack Obama as the source of America 's resurrection. Barack Obama has plunged the country into levels of debt that we could not have previously imagined; his efforts to nationalize health care have been met with fierce resistance nationwide; TARP bailouts and stimulus spending have shown little positive effect on the national economy; unemployment is unacceptably high and looks to remain that way for most of a decade; legacy entitlement programs have ballooned to unsustainable levels, and there is a seething anger in the populace.

That's why Barack Obama is such a good thing for America . Here's why.

Obama is the symbol of a creeping liberalism that has infected our society like a cancer for the last 100 years. Just as Hitler is the face of fascism, Obama will go down in history as the face of unchecked liberalism. The cancer metastasized to the point where it could no longer be ignored.

Average Americans who have quietly gone about their lives, earning a paycheck, contributing to their favorite charities, going to high school football games on Friday night, spending their weekends at the beach or on hunting trips - they've gotten off the fence. They've woken up. There is a level of political activism in this country that we haven't seen since the American Revolution, and Barack Obama has been the catalyst that has sparked a restructuring of the American political and social consciousness.

Think of the crap we've slowly learned to tolerate over the past 50 years as liberalism sought to re-structure theAmerica that was the symbol of freedom and liberty to all the people of the world. Immigration laws were ignored on the basis of compassion. Welfare policies encouraged irresponsibility, the fracturing of families, and a cycle of generations of dependency. Debt was regarded as a tonic to lubricate the economy. Our children left school having been taught that they are exceptional and special, while great numbers of them cannot perform basic functions of mathematics and literacy. Legislators decided that people could not be trusted to defend their own homes, and stripped citizens of their rights to own firearms. Productive members of society have been penalized with a heavy burden of taxes in order to support legions of do-nothings who loll around, reveling in their addictions, obesity, indolence, ignorance and "disabilities." Criminals have been arrested and re-arrested, coddled and set free to pillage the citizenry yet again. Lawyers routinely extort fortunes from doctors, contractors and business people with dubious torts.

We slowly learned to tolerate these outrages, shaking our heads in disbelief, and we went on with our lives.

But Barack Obama has ripped the lid off a seething cauldron of dissatisfaction and unrest.
A former Communist is given a paid government position in the White House as an advisor to the president. Auto companies are taken over by the government, and the auto workers' union - whose contracts are completely insupportable in any economic sense - is rewarded with a stake in the company. Government bails out Wall Street investment bankers and insurance companies, who pay their executives outrageous bonuses as thanks for the public support. Terrorists are read their Miranda rights and given free lawyers. And, despite overwhelming public disapproval, Barack Obama has pushed forward with a health care plan that would re-structure one-sixth of the American economy.

Literally millions of Americans have had enough. They're organizing, they're studying the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, they're reading history and case law, they're showing up at rallies and meetings, and a slew of conservative candidates are throwing their hats into the ring. Is there a revolution brewing? Yes, in the sense that there is a keen awareness that our priorities and sensibilities must be radically re-structured. Will it be a violent revolution? No. It will be done through the interpretation of the original document that has guided us for 220 "FANTASTIC" years--- the Constitution. Just as the pendulum swung to embrace political correctness and liberalism, there will be a backlash, a complete repudiation of a hundred years of nonsense. A hundred years from now, history will perceive the year 2010 as the time when America got back on the right track. And for that, we can thank Barack Hussein Obama.
Gary Hubbell is a hunter, rancher, and former hunting and fly-fishing guide. Gary works as a Colorado ranch real estate broker. He can be reached through his website, aspenranchrealestate.com