ConservativeChristianRepublican-Report - 20100215

Motivational-Inspirational-Historical-Educational-Political-Enjoyable
Promoting "God's Holy Values and American Freedoms"!



A Short History of Presidents Day

Presidents Day (also referred to as Presidents' Day) has its roots in one of the oldest American holiday observances: George Washington's Birthday.

In 1796, the final year of George Washington's adminstration, Americans chose to honor their beloved president by celebrating his birthday in all thirteen states. They did not all mark the same day, however. In the year of 1731 when Washington was born, the colonies had used a Julian calendar. According to that calendar, Washington was born on February 11, 1731. Some two decades later, however, Britain and her colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar. This new calendar moved dates 11 days forward. Thus, under the Gregorian calendar, Washington's birthday fell on February 22.

By the early 1800s, Washington's Birthday had become a common observance, but an official date still had not been adopted. Some towns observed February 11, while others set aside February 22 to honor America's Founding Father. Finally, in 1879,Congress declared Washington's Birthday a federal holiday. The legislation that made Washington's Birthday a national holiday also stipulated that it was to be observed on February 22, the anniversary of his birth according to the calendar now in use.

Washington's Birthday continued to be observed on February 22 throughout much of the 20th century. Then, in 1968, Congress passed the Monday Holiday Act. This act moved certain federal holidays from fixed dates to the Monday following those dates in order to create more three-day weekends. Under the Monday Holiday Act, the official observance of Washington's Birthday was moved to the third Monday of February. The change began with the 1971 calendar and continues to this day.

So how did Washington's Birthday come to be known as Presidents Day?

Washington shared the month of February with another notable U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln. Following Lincoln's 1865 assassination, many chose to observe Lincoln's birthday -- February 12th -- as well as Washington's. In the years to come, a number of states made Lincoln's birthday a state holiday. Unlike Washington's birthday, however, Lincoln's birthday never became a federal holiday.

Urban legend claims that at the time the observance of Washington's Birthday was moved to the third Monday of February, then-President Richard Nixon hoped to consolidate observances of both Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays into a single federal holiday. According to legend, Nixon issued a presidential proclamation dubbing the third Monday of February "Presidents Day" in honor of all U.S. Presidents.

In fact, Nixon
issued an executive order on February 11, 1971, proclaiming the third Monday of February a holiday. That order, however, referred to the holiday as nothing other than Washington's Birthday. Claims that Nixon had changed the holiday to the more generic Presidents Day apparently stemmed from an inaccurate newspaper account.

Nonetheless, in the final decades of the 20th century, an increasing number of people embraced the term "Presidents Day." Some states have even adopted Presidents Day as a state holiday in lieu of Washington's Birthday. Still, the federal holiday on the third Monday of February legally remains "Washington's Birthday" to this day.



"Daily Motivations"

"The most powerful element in advertising is the truth." -- William Bernbach

"Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test." -- William James

"Most of the successful people I've known are the ones who do more listening than talking." -- Bernard M. Baruch



"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)

The Lord directs the steps of the Godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. (Psalm 37:23)

Miriam Booth - a beautiful, brilliant, cultured woman - daughter of the Salvation Army founder, began her Christian work with great promise. She had unusual success. Before long, however, disease struck and brought her to the point of death. A friend visiting her one day said is seemed a pity that a woman so capable should be hindered by illness from doing the Lord's work. "It is great to do the Lord's work," she replied with gentle grace, "but it is greater to do the Lord's will."

The one who is clothed with the righteousness, the goodness of Christ, can have the absolute assurance that his steps, one by one, moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day, are directed by the Lord.

In addition, even our "stops" are directed by the Lord. He knows when we need to slow down, to wait on Him. As a Christian leader once said, after several weeks of being bedridden: "I needed to be flat on my back so that the only way I could look was up."

Finding the will of God has been difficult for many people - for most of us at one time or another. But the truth remains that He promises to give wisdom to any who ask, and we have that privilege when we belong to Him by virtue of having received the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior.

Your View of God Really Matters …

Are you facing a crossroad in your life? Wait on Him. Prayerfully lay the decision before Him. Now demonstrate faith by thanking God that He will make the way clear.



"The Patriot Post"

"To say that the United States should be answerable for twenty-five millions of dollars without knowing whether the ways and means can be provided, and without knowing whether those who are to succeed us will think with us on the subject, would be rash and unjustifiable." -- James Madison



Editorial Exegesis

"[Barack] Obama's touted spending freeze for some domestic agencies is the politics of gesture. It would apply to only 17% of the budget, and these programs have already had a 22% increase in their annual appropriations in the past two years, and another 25% increase including stimulus. As for the deficit, CBO shows that over the first three years of the Obama Presidency, 2009-2011, the federal government will borrow an estimated $3.7 trillion. That is more than the entire accumulated national debt for the first 225 years of U.S. history. By 2019, the interest payments on this debt will be larger than the budget for education, roads and all other nondefense discretionary spending. If this borrowing were financing defense investments or tax rate reductions to spur the U.S. economy, we wouldn't be worried. But most of this money is going to transfer payments to individuals, or subsidies to home buyers and inefficient businesses that do little for wealth creation. As it always does, CBO forecasts that deficits will decline in the later years of its 10-year budget window. But this forecast depends on assumptions about Congress so fanciful that James Cameron couldn't make them up. ... If the President and his party really are serious, they can do more than promise a spending freeze after 2012. They can stop spending more now: Drop the health-care bill, cancel the unspent stimulus spending from last year, kill the $150 billion new stimulus that has already passed the House, and bar all repaid bailout cash from being re-spent. Everything else is marketing." --The Wall Street Journal



Upright

"The problem is not the 'crises' Obama inherited. It's the ones he's creating. He has lived in such a socialist policy shell all his life that he doesn't have a clue that he's on a different planet than most of us. If he were just slightly less narcissistic, he might be able to figure this out. But ... no matter what adjustments he promises to make following the Boston Massacre, he still intends to govern like a socialist. He only wants to do a better job of figuring out how to do it less visibly, hoping we won't 'get it' before it's too late." --columnist David Limbaugh

"An across-the-board tax cut is the fairest pro-growth message of them all. Lower tax rates for everybody. Get out of the box of rich people and class warfare. ... Republicans must now be bold and fight for across-the-board tax relief, for families, individuals and businesses, along with smaller government, fewer services and across-the-board spending cuts." --economist Larry Kudlow

"The President could wait months before deciding to give a general the troops he asked for to fight the war in Afghanistan but there was never to be enough time for the health care bill to be exposed in the light of day to the usual Congressional hearings and debate. Moreover, despite all the haste, the health care program would not actually go into effect until after the 2012 presidential election. In other words, the public was not supposed to find out whether the government's takeover of medical care actually made things better or worse until after it was too late." --economist Thomas Sowell

"The result in Massachusetts last Tuesday showed that for yet another segment of the population which has had the opportunity to express itself at the ballot box, Obama's policies have diminished from a lack of resonance to active dissonance. Obama can tinker with the political shop all he wants, but to misquote my neighbor James Carville: It's the policies, stupid." --political analyst Rich Galen

"As even Massachusetts demonstrated ... most Americans believe Americans know how to solve their problems through initiative, limited government and hard work, not through the nanny state." --American Spectator editor R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.

"There is a simple way to get corporate money out of politics: get the government out of our lives and economic affairs. If government has no favors to sell, no one will spend money trying to win them." --columnist John Stossel



Dezinformatsia

Head in the sand: "Last spring, the polls said people wanted health care reform. They even wanted the public option. ... One third of that majority is on a government health program. I'm on Medicare. People who've been in the military are on a government health program. And yet the Republicans were able the make the idea that being on a government health program is terrible. How absurd." --retired ABC newsman Sam Donaldson

Surely, you can't be serious: "Instead of loudly fighting back, the president tried to bring Republicans into the fold, and it backfired.... On health care reform, instead of telling Americans exactly what he wanted in a health care bill, President Obama left it up to lawmakers. Republicans used the president's strategy to create fear and confusion among voters." --CNN's Carol Costello

We can hope: "Do you think maybe one term is enough?" --ABC's Diane Sawyer to Barack Obama (No, it's one term too many.)

Elitism: "Absolutely amazing poll results from CNN today about the $787 stimulus package: nearly three out of four Americans think the money has been wasted. On second thought, they may be right: it's been wasted on them. ... This is yet further evidence that Americans are flagrantly ill-informed ..... and, for those watching Fox News, misinformed." --Time mag's Joe Klein

Non Compos Mentis: "This is a Supreme Court-sanctioned murder of what little actual democracy is left in this democracy. It is government of the people by the corporations for the corporations. It is the Dark Ages. It is our Dred Scott. ... Be prepared, then, for the ban on same-sex marriage, on abortion, on evolution, on separation of church and state .... for racial and religious profiling, because you've got to blame somebody for all the reductions in domestic spending and civil liberties, just to make sure the agitators against the United Corporate States of America are kept unheard." --MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, hosting his show funded by a giant media corporation, yet reviling the Supreme Court's ruling that corporations have a free speech right to participate in elections



Village Idiots

Talking point screw-up: "[T]he Recovery Act the president passed has created more than -- or saved more than 2 million jobs." --White House adviser David Axelrod on Sunday

"The Recovery Act saved thousands and thousands of jobs.." --White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, also on Sunday

"Just last quarter, we finally saw the first positive economic job growth in more than a year, largely as a result of the recovery plan that's put money back into our economy, that saved or created 1.5 million jobs." --White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, again on Sunday

Think what you like: "I think the American people want health care reform.... [They] really do want us to do something about this." --former DNC Chief Howard Dean

Leftist "tolerance": "Just as we do not tolerate private racial beliefs that adversely affect African-Americans in the commercial arena, even if such beliefs are based on religious views, we should similarly not tolerate private beliefs about sexual orientation and gender identity that adversely affect LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] people." --Chai Feldblum, an openly lesbian Law Professor at Georgetown University and Obama's nominee for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in a legal journal in 2006

Blame game: "Democrats would not be playing the blame game with one another for the loss or for the health care debacle if they had only pointed fingers at those (or in this case, the one) who put Americans (and most of the world) in the predicament we're in: George W. Bush." --Clintonista James Carville



Short Cuts

"Some conservative Beltway analysts are cheering Obama's fiscal freeze follies as a step in the right direction, a rhetorical victory and a 'good start.' Pardon me for not joining in the standing ovation for the latest performance of White House kabuki theater. Praising the president for carrying on the charade of budget reform because a few piddling cuts are real is like complimenting the Naked Emperor's fingernails: So he didn't have any clothes. At least his cuticles were real. It's a start!" --columnist Michelle Malkin

"At best, the administration's spending-freeze proposal is akin to going on a monthlong binge in Vegas and then sleeping off the hangover." --Cato Institute senior fellow Dan Mitchell

"Once again, the people have spoken, and this time they quoted what Dick Cheney said to Pat Leahy. Less than two weeks ago, The New York Times said that so much as a 'tighter-than-expected' victory for Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley would incite 'soul-searching among Democrats nationally,' which sent Times readers scurrying to their dictionaries to look up this strange new word, 'soul.'" --columnist Ann Coulter

"ABC News found that Trijicon, which makes rifle scopes for the military, stamps references to Bible verses on its equipment. The defense contractor subsequently announced that it will voluntarily stop stamping these references on combat rifle sights. These sights are used in Iraq and Afghanistan -- sometimes to train Muslims, sometimes to shoot them. According to ABC News, this is very important. If a Muslim were to see this code on the side of a rifle and then look up the verse in one of the many Bibles you can easily find in Muslim countries, then that Muslim might become indoctrinated with Christianity and then ... chaos or something. Or maybe we just worry that the mere knowledge of a reference to the Bible in those countries will cause all Muslims in the Middle East to panic and randomly shoot each other in the faces...." --columnist Frank J. Fleming



"FRC"

Please sign the petition to President Obama and the Congressional Leadership to make permanent and increase the child tax credit - and let parents decide how to spend the money they earn!

When It Comes to Child Care, Why Won't the President Let Parents Decide?

When Congress passed tax relief for families in 2001 and 2003, some Members of Congress insisted the tax cuts be staggered and temporary, resulting in a large scheduled tax hike in 2011.

If these cuts are not made permanent,next year American families will face one of the largest tax increases in history. On average, taxes would increase $1,800 per taxpayer, and 48 million married couples will face an average hike of $3,007, with many paying more than if they merely cohabited. A family of four earning $40,000 would see a tax increase of over $2,300. If the President's tax relief is allowed to expire at the end of 2010, Americans will pay about $280 billion more in taxes each year.

Instead of addressing this problem, President Obama's recently submitted budget includes a proposal that seeks to increase the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit. The proposal is limited only to families making less than $115,000 a year. To be clear, this is not an expansion of the Child Tax Credit, but an attempt to use the tax code for social engineering.

The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit is for families where (a.) both parents work, (b.) there is only one parent and that parent is working, or (c.) one parent is working and the other is in school. Households where a parent stays at home to care for children get no break. This not only steers funds to government-approved daycare facilities, but also discriminates against families that have two working parents who might otherwise choose to have one parent stay home with the children.

In fairness to all, the President should first make permanent the Child Tax Credit, and then go further by increasing the credit to $5,000 for all households. This would let families decide how to spend the money they earn -- money that might even convince a parent to stay at home to care for their kids, which is the optimal environment for any child.

Please sign the petition asking Congress to empower parents to make the decisions that are best for their child. Increase the Child Tax Credit and make it permanent for all families!

Thank you for taking action today and God bless you.

Please sign the petition to President Obama and the Congressional Leadership to make permanent and increase the child tax credit - and let parents decide how to spend the money they earn!

Sincerely,

Tony Perkins
President

P.S. Please forward this email to at least one friend.



"Web"

Christian Group Pledges to Help Challenge NC Prayer Ruling

http://www.crnewswire.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=siteContent.default&objectID=20654

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - A Christian group is pledging at least $100,000 from individual donors to help challenge a ruling stopping prayer at Forsyth County Commission meetings.

The North Carolina Partnership for Religious Liberty announced Thursday that they will offer their help to restore prayer at Forsyth County Commission meetings. The Middle District Court of North Carolina ruled in January that prayer in the name of any religious deity before government meetings is unconstitutional.

"Since the court's judgment and the order of the 28th, the amount of concern and the willingness to participate has been extraordinary." said North Carolina Partnership for Religious Liberty Member Steve Corts.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit in 2007 on behalf of two people who opposed Christian-themed prayers at the meetings. Monday was the first county commission meeting since the court decided in favor of the ACLU.The Alliance Defense Fund is backing the county's defense financially, but will not pay judgments awarded to the ACLU should the county ultimately lose. The new financial backing of the North Carolina Partnership for Religious Liberty will aid in any any fines or judegments.

"The case of Joyner and Blackmon vs. Forsyth County has great significance for the matter of religious liberty in Forsyth, in North Carolina and in our nation." Corts said.

Forsyth County Commissioner Gloria Whisenhunt says there's no reason to change such a long tradition.

"We have a policy in place. We are extremely inclusive, we've never denied any faith and I just think it's very important that we appeal and make a statement that we think this is a matter of freedom." Whisenhunt said.

The Forsyth County Commission will vote on whether they will appeal the ruling at its Feb. 22 meeting. With a split board, Commission Chairman Dave Plyler would have the deciding vote.



Friday Morning at the Pentagon

By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY

McClatchy Newspapers

http://familiesofamericanmilitary.org/2009/05/friday-morning-at-the-pentagon/

Over the last 12 months, 1,042 soldiers, Marines, sailors and Air Force personnel have given their lives in the terrible duty that is war. Thousands more have come home on stretchers, horribly wounded and facing months or years in military hospitals.

This week, I’m turning my space over to a good friend and former roommate, Army Lt. Col. Robert Bateman, who recently completed a year long tour of duty in Iraq and is now back at the Pentagon. Here’s Lt. Col. Bateman’s account of a little-known ceremony that fills the halls of the Army corridor of the Pentagon with cheers, applause and many tears every Friday morning. It first appeared on May 17 on the Weblog of media critic and pundit Eric Alterman at the Media Matters for America Website.

“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 outer most of the five rings of the Pentagon and it is closest to the entrance to the building. This clapping is low, sustained, and 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 wilders, 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, walk ing 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.

These are our men, broken in body they may be, but they are our brothers, and we welcome them home. This parade has gone on, every single Friday, all year long, for more than four years.

Did you know that? The media hasn’t yet told the story. And probably never will.



N.J. Gov. Christie Freezes Spending

With State's Budget In 'Shambles,' New Governor Slices Into School Surpluses, NJ Transit Subsidies; Dems Furious

Reporting Christine Sloan TRENTON (CBS) ―

Gov. Chris Christie being sworn in.

http://wcbstv.com/local/governor.christie.freezes.2.1487727.html

The snow isn't the only thing that's causing a chill in the Garden State.

Calling New Jersey's budget a "shambles," Gov. Chris Christie announced Thursday he is immediately freezing all state spending.

Saying New Jersey is on the verge of bankruptcy, Christie declared a fiscal emergency, announcing drastic cuts. Among them, aid to school districts that have excess surpluses.

"Today we are going to act swiftly to fix problems too long ignored. Today I begin to do what I promised the people of New Jersey I would do," Christie said.

The move had Democrats in an uproar, angry the governor used his executive powers instead of working with the Legislature.

"What that's going to mean is that those school districts without that money are going to be raising property taxes in the upcoming year to make up for that shortfall," said Assemblyman John Wisniewski, D-19th District.

The governor also cut state subsidies to New Jersey Transit, saying it needs to become fiscally efficient.

"Revisit its rich union contracts," Christie said. "And they may also have to consider service reductions or fare increases."

"It's really foolish. It undermines not only the environment but our economy because people need transit to get to work," said Jeff Tittel of the Sierra Club.

But one tax group applauded the governor.

"Yes it's going to be difficult to make some of these choices as were highlighted today, but education, health care and these things tend to be sacred cow and they need to be taken out of that category," said Jerry Cantrell of the Taxpayers' Association of New Jersey.

Fellow Republicans said some school districts have been abusing the money they get and it's about time a governor called them on it.

"I think the record indicates that there are a number of school districts that have been overspending, misappropriating," said Assemblyman Joe Mallone, R-30th District.

The governor said he doesn't anticipate schools cutting programs or jobs right now, but sources within the administration said there are no guarantees for the next fiscal year.

Christie warned lawmakers that next year's budget may include even harsher cuts in spending and aid.



John Murtha: Requiem for a Corruptocrat

by Michelle Malkin

http://townhall.com/columnists/MichelleMalkin/2010/02/12/john_murtha_requiem_for_a_corruptocrat?page=full&comments=true

We are not supposed to speak ill of the dead. But those whom the deceased viciously smeared and humiliated deserve to be defended. Entrenched Democratic Rep. John Murtha passed away on Feb. 8 after a botched gallbladder surgery. He has been hailed as a "military advocate" (Associated Press) and "one of the greatest patriots ever to serve in Congress" (former Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr.). These obsequious obituaries leave out inconvenient truths:

John "Jack" Murtha was an unrepentant smear merchant and corruptocrat to the bitter end.

In May 2006, during an MSNBC TV show appearance that Marines and their families will never forget or forgive, Murtha accused U.S. troops of wantonly killing some two dozen civilians, including children, in the terrorist stronghold of Haditha, Iraq. Bellowed Murtha: "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood." Murtha publicly indicted the Marines before military investigations had been completed. His remarks opened military-bashing floodgates around the world.

In the wake of Murtha's reckless blabbing, MSNBC executioner Keith Olbermann accused the Haditha Marines of "willful targeted brutality." The Nation magazine claimed that "members of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment perpetrated a massacre." The New York Times dubbed Haditha the "defining atrocity" of the Iraq war. International papers piled on with Vietnam-era "My Lai" allusions. Murtha cold-bloodedly sat back and enjoyed the ride while the Marines were left twisting in the wind.

By 2008, seven of the Marines charged in the incident had been exonerated or had charges against them dropped. Lt. Andrew Grayson was acquitted. Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum, Capt. Lucas McConnell, Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz and Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani all had their cases dismissed. Sgt. Frank Wuterich, the last of the Marines facing charges, awaits a long, dragged-out trial this year.

Murtha, the so-called "military advocate," went to his deathbed refusing to apologize or retract the attacks on the Haditha Marines (several of whom unsuccessfully sued him for libel to restore their honor). Decent people would call this intransigent treachery. Murtha's friends apparently consider it great patriotism.

The ego-bloated, big-mouthed lawmaker treated his own constituents with trademark contempt. During his last congressional campaign, he mocked voters in his district as bigots. "There's no question that western Pennsylvania is a racist area," he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Responding to mounting criticism on both sides of the aisle about his logrolling orgies on the Hill, he sniffed: "If I'm corrupt, it's because I take care of my district."

First, foremost and forever, Jack Murtha took care of Jack Murtha. The glowing encomiums from his liberal colleagues have glossed over the 19-term Democrat's defining moment of political self-service. In 1980, Murtha was an unindicted co-conspirator in a massive bribery probe -- in which undercover FBI agents videotaped Murtha entertaining a $50,000 bribe from agents posing as emissaries for Arab sheiks trying to enter our country illegally. From transcripts of those conversations published by the late newspaper columnist Jack Anderson, Murtha's true colors shined:

"I want to deal with you guys awhile before I make any transactions at all, period. … After we've done some business, well, then I might change my mind. …"

"I'm going to tell you this. If anybody can do it -- I'm not B.S.-ing you fellows -- I can get it done my way," he boasted. "There's no question about it."

Murtha worried not about his integrity or how his constituents might be harmed, but about getting ratted out:

"All at once," he said, "some dumb (expletive deleted) would go start talking eight years from now about this whole thing and say (expletive deleted), this happened. Then in order to get immunity so he doesn't go to jail, he starts talking and fingering people. So the (S.O.B.) falls apart."

"You give us the banks where you want the money deposited," offered one of the bagmen.

"All right," agreed Murtha. "How much money we talking about?"

"Well, you tell me."

By the time of his death, Murtha had been caught intervening on behalf of a law-breaking Pennsylvania company convicted of selling military equipment parts illegally overseas; had steered unprecedented billions in federal earmarks to friends, family and donors; had earned multiple "most corrupt in Congress" designations from both the left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the right-leaning Judicial Watch; and had remained intimately tied to PMA Group, a former lobbying firm under federal investigation, and Kuchera Industries, a defense contractor also under federal investigation.

From his character assassination of innocents to his insatiable appetite for pork and power, Jack Murtha embodied everything that is wrong with Washington. If only the culture of corruption he serviced could be buried six feet under with him.



Closing the New Frontier

By Charles Krauthammer

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/02/12/closing_the_new_frontier_100276.html

WASHINGTON -- "We have an agreement until 2012 that Russia will be responsible for this," says Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian space agency, about ferrying astronauts from other countries into low-Earth orbit. "But after that? Excuse me, but the prices should be absolutely different then!"

The Russians may be new at capitalism but they know how it works. When you have a monopoly, you charge monopoly prices. Within months, Russia will have a monopoly on rides into space.

By the end of this year, there will be no shuttle, no U.S. manned space program, no way for us to get into space. We're not talking about Mars or the moon here. We're talking about low-Earth orbit, which the U.S. has dominated for nearly half a century and from which it is now retiring with nary a whimper.

Our absence from low-Earth orbit was meant to last a few years, the interval between the retirement of the fatally fragile space shuttle and its replacement with the Constellation program (Ares booster, Orion capsule, Altair lunar lander) to take astronauts more cheaply and safely back to space.

But the Obama 2011 budget kills Constellation. Instead, we shall have nothing. For the first time since John Glenn flew in 1962, the U.S. will have no access of its own for humans into space -- and no prospect of getting there in the foreseeable future.

Of course, the administration presents the abdication as a great leap forward: Launching humans will now be turned over to the private sector, while NASA's efforts will be directed toward landing on Mars.

This is nonsense. It would be swell for private companies to take over launching astronauts. But they cannot do it. It's too expensive. It's too experimental. And the safety standards for actually getting people up and down reliably are just unreachably high.

Sure, decades from now there will be a robust private space-travel industry. But that is a long time. In the interim, space will be owned by Russia and then China. The president waxes seriously nationalist at the thought of China or India surpassing us in speculative "clean energy." Yet he is quite prepared to gratuitously give up our spectacular lead in human space exploration.

As for Mars, more nonsense. Mars is just too far away. And how do you get there without the stepping stones of Ares and Orion? If we can't afford an Ares rocket to get us into orbit and to the moon, how long will it take to develop a revolutionary new propulsion system that will take us not a quarter-million miles but 35 million miles?

To say nothing of the effects of long-term weightlessness, of long-term cosmic ray exposure, and of the intolerable risk to astronaut safety involved in any Mars trip -- six months of contingencies versus three days for a moon trip.

Of course, the whole Mars project as substitute for the moon is simply a ruse. It's like the classic bait-and-switch for high-tech military spending: Kill the doable in the name of some distant sophisticated alternative, which either never gets developed or is simply killed later in the name of yet another, even more sophisticated alternative of the further future. A classic example is the B-1 bomber, which was canceled in the 1970s in favor of the over-the-horizon B-2 stealth bomber, which was then killed in the 1990s after a production run of only 21 (instead of 132) in the name of post-Cold War obsolescence.

Moreover, there is the question of seriousness. When John F. Kennedy pledged to go to the moon, he meant it. He had an intense personal commitment to the enterprise. He delivered speeches remembered to this day. He dedicated astronomical sums to make it happen.

At the peak of the Apollo program, NASA was consuming almost 4 percent of the federal budget, which in terms of the 2011 budget is about $150 billion. Today the manned space program will die for want of $3 billion a year -- 1/300th of last year's stimulus package with its endless make-work projects that will leave not a trace on the national consciousness.

As for President Obama's commitment to beyond-lunar space: Has he given a single speech, devoted an iota of political capital to it?

Obama's NASA budget perfectly captures the difference in spirit between Kennedy's liberalism and Obama's. Kennedy's was an expansive, bold, outward-looking summons. Obama's is a constricted inward-looking call to retreat.

Fifty years ago, Kennedy opened the New Frontier. Obama has just shut it.



Ahmadinejad: Iran Now 'Nuclear State'

http://newsmax.com/Newsfront/Iran-Nuclear/2010/02/11/id/349618?s=al&promo_code=9727-1

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed Thursday that Iran has produced its first batch of uranium enriched to a higher level, saying his country will not be bullied by the West into curtailing its nuclear program a day after the U.S. imposed new sanctions.

Ahmadinejad reiterated to hundreds of thousands of cheering Iranians on the anniversary of the 1979 foundation of the Islamic republic that the country was now a "nuclear state," an announcement he's made before. He insisted that Iran had no intention of building nuclear weapons.

It was not clear how much enriched material had actually been produced just two days after the process was announced to have started.

David Albright of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security said that any 20-percent enriched uranium produced just a few days after the start of the process would be "a tiny amount."

The United States and some of its allies accuse Tehran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to build nuclear weapons but Tehran denies the charge, saying the program is just geared toward generating electricity.

"I want to announce with a loud voice here that the first package of 20 percent fuel was produced and provided to the scientists," he said.

Enriching uranium produces fuel for a nuclear power plants but can also be used to create material for atomic weapons if enriched further to 90 percent or more.

"We have the capability to enrich uranium more than 20 percent or 80 percent but we don't enrich (to this level) because we don't need it," he said in a speech broadcast live on state television.

Iran announced Tuesday it was beginning the process of enriching its uranium stockpile to a higher level. The international community reacted by discussing the imposition of new U.N. sanctions.

The U.S. Treasury Department went ahead on Wednesday and froze the assets in U.S. jurisdictions of a Revolutionary Guard general and four subsidiaries of a construction firm he runs for their alleged involvement in producing and spreading weapons of mass destruction.

Tehran has said it wants to further enrich the uranium — which is still substantially below the 90 percent plus level used in the fissile core of nuclear warheads — as a part of a plan to fuel its research reactor that provides medical isotopes to hundreds of thousands of Iranians undergoing cancer treatment.

But the West says Tehran is not capable of turning the material into the fuel rods needed by the reactor. Instead it fears that Iran wants to enrich the uranium to make nuclear weapons.

Ahmadinejad restated Iran's position that it was not seeking to build nuclear weapons.

"When we say we do not manufacture the bomb, we mean it, and we do not believe in manufacturing a bomb," he told the crowd. "If we wanted to manufacture a bomb, we would announce it."

"We told them the Iranian nation will never give in to bullying and illogical remarks," Ahmadinejad added.

Western powers blame Tehran for rejecting an internationally endorsed plan to defuse the situation by having Iran export its low enriched uranium for enrichment abroad and returned as fuel rods for the Tehran reactor.

Iran, in turn, asserts it had no choice but to start enriching to higher levels because its suggested changes to the international plan were rejected.

The president said Iran will triple the production of its low-enriched uranium in the future but didn't elaborate.

"God willing, daily production (of low enriched uranium) will be tripled," he said.

A confidential document from the U.N. nuclear agency shared Wednesday with The Associated Press said Iran's initial effort at higher enrichment is modest, using only a small amount of feedstock and a fraction of its capacities.



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Where Is Al Gore?

http://my.gardenguides.com/forums/topic/65541

Summer's almost arrived in South Dakota and Wyoming! We can see the deer moving around. Yep, won't be long now.