Motivational-Inspirational-Historical-Educational-Political-Enjoyable
Promoting "God's Holy Values and American Freedoms"!
"Daily Motivations"
"The way to succeed is to double your error rate." -- Thomas J. Watson
"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is." -- Yogi Berra
You get the best efforts from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within. -- Bob Nelson
"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)
And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. (Hebrews 10:19)
In Old Testament times the Israelites worshipped God in a tabernacle, which pictured God's holiness and His separation from sinful mankind. Any priest who entered God's tabernacle first had to sacrifice an animal on the Brazen Altar to atone for sin. Next was the Laver in which the priest washed his hands and feet before he appeared before the Lord---once again a symbol of our need for cleansing from sin.
The tabernacle had three sections: the large area of service, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies.
The Holy of Holies was the place where God's presence resided. It was hidden from view by a curtain so heavy that it took four men to move it. Only the High Priest was allowed to enter this place---and only once a year---to offer sacrifices for his own sins and the sins of the people. If anyone else tried, God would strike him dead.
Why was the place of God's presence in the tabernacle hidden from view? Because God is so holy that no one can look upon His glory and live. No one can approach our holy God without a sacrifice of blood to atone for sin.
This was the reason for Jesus, the Lamb of God, and His sacrifice on the cross. The only thing that can satisfy the judgment of sin demanded by God's holiness is the shedding of pure, innocent blood. And only Jesus' blood met this high standard.
Your View of God Really Matters …
Thank God that He has made you holy by the blood of Jesus. Resolve to follow Him today, allowing Him to make you holy.
"The Patriot Post"
"The Constitution, which at any time exists 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People, is sacredly obligatory upon all." -- George Washington
"Every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue; or in any manner affecting the value of the different species of property, presents a new harvest to those who watch the change and can trace its consequences; a harvest reared not by themselves but by the toils and cares of the great body of their fellow citizens. This is a state of things in which it may be said with some truth that laws are made for the few not for the many." -- Federalist No. 62
"The prosperity of commerce is now perceived and acknowledged by all enlightened statesmen to be the most useful as well as the most productive source of national wealth, and has accordingly become a primary object of its political cares." -- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 12
Re: The Left
"Political fraud and scientific swindle can be measured by collapsing 'science.' The University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit in Britain was regarded as the leader in climate research and the fount of raw data on which the science was based until leaked e-mails between researchers revealed evidence of doctoring of data and manipulation of evidence. The director of the research unit, professor Phil Jones, was regarded as an archbishop in the Church of Global Warming. He was pressured to resign in the wake of the scandal. Now he has conceded to an interviewer from the BBC that based on the evidence in his findings, the globe might have been warmer in medieval times. If so, the notion that fluctuations in earthly temperatures are man-made is rendered just that, a man-made notion. The learned professor told his interviewer that for the past 15 years there has been no 'statistically significant' warming. ... Terry Mills, a professor of applied statistics at Britain's Loughborough University, looks at the U.N. panel's data and applies a little skepticism. 'The earth,' he told London's Daily Mail, 'has gone through warming spells like these at least twice before in the last thousand years.' The global-warming hysteria, on which the Obama administration wants to base enormous new tax burdens, is just about as reliable as the weather hysteria presented nightly on your favorite television channel." --Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden
Opinion in Brief
"This column was scoffing at global warming back when global warming was still cool. But even we have been surprised at the extent of the past three months' 'meltdown' of global warmism, to use the metaphor that everyone seems to have settled on. As we've written on various occasions, we didn't know enough about the substance of the underlying science to make a judgment about it. But we know enough about science itself to recognize that the popular rendition of global warmism -- dogmatic, doctrinaire and scornful of skepticism -- is not the least bit scientific. The revelations in the Climategate emails show that these attitudes were common among actual scientists, not just the popularizers of their work. Still, we would not have gone so far as to say that global warming was just a hoax. Surely there was some actual science to back it, even if there was a lot less certainty than was claimed. Now, though, we're wondering if this was too charitable a view." --Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto
The Last Word
"[S]ome 80 conservative leaders, including the heads of some of the nation's most influential groups of the right, gather[ed] to sign a document that has been more than a year in the making called the Mount Vernon Statement. For those of us seeking to pass on our conservative values and ideals to our children, this new document reinvigorates the old -- but not outdated -- concepts behind the founding of our country. According to Alfred Regnery, publisher of the American Spectator and a member of the Conservative Action Project, the workgroup behind the Mount Vernon Statement, its purpose is to articulate the common core values of all facets of the conservative movement. ... Importantly, the Mount Vernon Statement is not geared to any election or candidate or specific piece of legislation. 'We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding,' the Statement begins. 'Through the Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law. They sought to secure national independence, provide for economic opportunity, establish true religious liberty and maintain a flourishing society of republican self-government. These principles define us as a country and inspire us as a people.' ... Visitors to www.themountvernonstatement.com and the Web sites of the various organizations supporting the project are invited to sign the Statement online and to use it as a blueprint going forward for activism and policymaking. It's meant to go viral as a creed, of sorts, for modern day conservative believers. Amen to that." --columnist Marybeth Hicks
"NRTWC"
Naional Right To Work Committee
http://www.nrtwc.org/
"The Web"
America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don’t Let Freedom Slip Away.
by Kitty Werthmann
http://www.examiner.com/x-25060-Fort-Worth-Christianity--Culture-Examiner~y2009m11d29-America-Truly-is-the-Greatest-Country-in-the-World--Dont-Let-Freedom-Slip-Away
This article may be long, but it is worth it because if we won't learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. Praise God for those who are willing to teach us from their experiences. This is a story by Kitty Werthmann, a woman from Austria who believes America is truly the greatest country in the world, and does not want us to lose our freedoms the way other people lost theirs.
The full 63-minute story is available on CD for $15 or $12 with purchase of another item at Realityzone.com
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What I am about to tell you is something you’ve probably never heard or will ever read in history books.
I believe that I am an eyewitness to history. I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history. We elected him by a landslide – 98% of the vote. I’ve never read that in any American publications. Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force. In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25% inflation and 25% bank loan interest rates.
Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to house begging for food. Not that they didn’t want to work; there simply weren’t any jobs. My mother was a Christian woman and believed in helping people in need. Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people – about 30 daily.
The Communist Party and the National Socialist Party were fighting each other. Blocks and blocks of cities like Vienna, Linz, and Graz were destroyed. The people became desperate and petitioned the government to let them decide what kind of government they wanted.
We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany, where Hitler had been in power since 1933. We had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living. Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group -- Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone was happy. We wanted the same way of life in Austria . We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family. Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back. Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler.
We were overjoyed, and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades. The new government opened up big field kitchens and everyone was fed.
After the election, German officials were appointed, and like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order. Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed. The government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service.
Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women. Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home. An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn’t support his family. Many women in the teaching profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they previously had been required to give up for marriage.
Hitler Targets Education – Eliminates Religious Instruction for Children:
Our education was nationalized. I attended a very good public school. The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler’s picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn’t pray or have religion anymore. Instead, we sang “Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles,” and had physical education.
Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum. They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail. The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination. The rest of the day we had sports. As time went along, we loved it. Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free. We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had.
My mother was very unhappy. When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent. I told her she couldn’t do that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful. There was a very good curriculum, but hardly any fun – no sports, and no political indoctrination. I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it. Every once in a while, on holidays, I went home. I would go back to my old friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing. Their loose lifestyle was very alarming to me. They lived without religion. By that time unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler. It seemed strange to me that our society changed so suddenly. As time went along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn’t exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy.
Equal Rights Hits Home:
In 1939, the war started and a food bank was established. All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps. At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn’t work, you didn’t get a ration card, and if you didn’t have a card, you starved to death. Women who stayed home to raise their families didn’t have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men.
Soon after this, the draft was implemented. It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps. During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys. They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal corps. After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines. When I go back to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat. Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack. I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service.
Hitler Restructured the Family Through Daycare:
When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers. You could take your children ages 4 weeks to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, 7 days a week, under the total care of the government. The state raised a whole generation of children. There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology. By this time, no one talked about equal rights. We knew we had been had.
Health Care and Small Business Suffer Under Government Controls:
Before Hitler, we had very good medical care. Many American doctors trained at the University of Vienna . After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone. Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything. When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full. If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn. There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine. Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries.
As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80% of our income. Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a household. We had big programs for families. All day care and education were free. High schools were taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized. Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing.
We had another agency designed to monitor business. My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables. Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar. He couldn’t meet all the demands. Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control.
We had consumer protection. We were told how to shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished. We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers. The agents would go to the farms, count the live-stock, then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.
“Mercy Killing” Redefined:
In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps . The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated. So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded. When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work. I knew one, named Vincent, very well. He was a janitor of the school. One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van. I asked my superior where they were going. She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write. The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months. They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness.
As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death. The villagers were not fooled. We suspected what was happening. Those people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months. We called this euthanasia.
The Final Steps - Gun Laws:
Next came gun registration. People were getting injured by guns. Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns. Most citizens were law abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms. Not long after-wards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily.
No more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away. We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up.
Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria . Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.
After World War II, Russian troops occupied Austria. Women were raped, preteen to elderly. The press never wrote about this either. When the Soviets left in 1955, they took everything that they could, dismantling whole factories in the process. They sawed down whole orchards of fruit, and what they couldn’t destroy, they burned. We called it The Burned Earth. Most of the population barricaded themselves in their houses. Women hid in their cellars for 6 weeks as the troops mobilized. Those who couldn’t, paid the price. There is a monument in Vienna today, dedicated to those women who were massacred by the Russians. This is an eye witness account.
It’s true….those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity. America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don’t Let Freedom Slip Away.
After America, There is No Place to Run.
Senate, Obama spar over health plan's pet projects
By ALAN FRAM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100313/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_overhaul_special_deals
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says he wants projects helping specific states yanked from the health care bill Congress is writing. Democratic senators, being senators, beg to differ.
The Senate-approved health measure lawmakers hope to send to Obama soon would steer $600 million over the next decade to Vermont in added federal payments for Medicaid and nearly as much to Massachusetts.
Connecticut would get $100 million to build a hospital. About 800,000 Florida seniors could keep certain Medicare benefits. Asbestos-disease victims in tiny Libby, Mont., and some coal miners with black lung disease or their widows would get help, and there are prizes for Louisiana, the Dakotas and more states.
"We're going to do what we have to do to get a bill out of the House and Senate," said James Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. As for Obama's wish list of deletions: "We'll certainly keep it in mind as we pull together a final bill."
That tepid salute underscores the prickliness with which many senators have greeted what they consider Obama's meddling in their business and raises questions about how successful the president will be in erasing the special projects from final legislation.
It also highlights a spat between a White House and Senate, dominated by the same party, that the president has ignited just as he needs to garner support to finally push his No. 1 legislative goal to passage over monolithic Republican opposition and nervous Democrats.
Obama's proposal to eliminate state-specific items comes with polls finding heightened public opposition to backroom political deals. Republicans have been happy to fan that discontent. Many Democrats, particularly House moderates facing tight re-election battles this fall, are eager to dissociate themselves from such spending.
The president wants votes from House Democrats "who were deeply offended by those provisions in the Senate bill," said Sheryl Skolnick, who analyzes federal health legislation for CRT Capital Group of Stamford, Conn. "Clearly the math was, 'I gain more in the House by taking out those provisions than I lose in the Senate.'"
Obama has railed against the "ugly process" of cutting special deals, but the president and his top advisers were prime players in negotiations on the agreements to win votes and push the legislation forward.
Republicans say Obama's push to remove deals for states won't help. Because every Democratic senator voted for that chamber's bill and all its special provisions, even voting later to remove them leaves those Democrats in a pickle, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters Friday.
"They will have then voted for them before they voted against them," McConnell said of the bill's projects, an echo of the line that 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry uttered that proved politically damaging.
Obama came out with a summary last month of the nearly $1 trillion health overhaul legislation he wants. It specifically eliminates $100 million in extra Medicaid money the Senate bill provided solely to Nebraska to help win support from that state's Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson. The so-called Cornhusker Kickback drew such widespread scorn that even Nelson favors repealing it.
Obama also proposed changes in the Senate bill that, without mentioning it, deleted extra Medicaid money for Massachusetts and Vermont, the Florida Medicare exemption and some money for Michigan, according to White House officials.
Days later, at Obama's nationally televised meeting with bipartisan leaders on health care, his 2008 presidential rival, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., criticized the Senate bill for exempting 800,000 Florida seniors from cuts in the privately run Medicare Advantage program. Obama surprised him by agreeing, and that tone has carried over as the White House and top congressional Democrats labor to complete a compromise health package.
"We've made it clear to the Senate that the president's position in the final legislation should not contain provisions that favor a single state or a single district differently than others," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said this week.
There are exceptions. The White House says $300 million for Louisiana, which helped win support from moderate Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., should survive because of that state's struggle to rebound from its 2005 pummeling by Hurricane Katrina.
Even so, Obama's targeting of state projects is going over poorly in the Senate.
Take Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who helped win extra Medicaid money for his state in the Senate health bill.
Vermont is one of several states that have already boosted the benefits they provide to many poor people. All states would get added federal financing for a nationwide Medicaid expansion under the Senate bill. But states such as Vermont - already providing more generous benefits - say they're being shortchanged and don't want Obama taking that money away.
"What I told Harry Reid is that Vermont does the right thing, and I don't want Vermont to be penalized for doing the right thing," Leahy said.
The White House asked lawmakers to delete $100 million to build a public hospital in Connecticut inserted by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. But the money will remain in the final bill, according to people familiar with Democratic negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose the unannounced decision. Less certain is the fate of other money the White House wants eliminated for Montana.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., put a provision in the Senate health bill allowing many of the 2,900 residents of Libby to qualify for Medicare benefits. Some of them have asbestos-related diseases from a now shuttered mine.
"It simply doesn't make sense to ignore this obligation, or victims of these disasters," Baucus said.
Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., won a Senate provision making it easier for longtime coal miners or miners' widows to get compensation for black lung disease.
The Senate bill also has extra money for hospitals and doctors in North and South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.
Associated Press writers Erica Werner and Charles Babington contributed to this report.
Atty. Gen. Holder failed to disclose legal briefs to senators
His inaction regarding a handful of briefs to the Supreme Court prior to his confirmation is raising criticism from Republicans. The attorney general says it was an oversight.
Reporting from Washington
By David G. Savage
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-holder-briefs13-2010mar13,0,7267748.story
Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. gave more ammunition to his critics Friday, admitting he had failed to tell a Senate committee about half a dozen briefs to the Supreme Court that he had signed, including two involving a terrorism dispute.
Holder's aides said the failure to mention the briefs last year before his confirmation was an oversight and a mistake.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, called it an "extremely serious matter" that would trigger sharp criticism when Holder is due to be questioned March 23.
"The attorney general, as with all nominees, has a duty of candor. . . . It is simply unacceptable that briefs in such significant cases were not provided to the committee so they could be discussed during his confirmation hearing," Sessions said.
Holder has run into a drumbeat of Republican criticism since he announced in November that he had decided to move the admitted Sept. 11 plotters, including self-proclaimed mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, from military custody at Guantanamo Bay to be tried in a federal civilian court in Manhattan. The attorney general said this trial would demonstrate the nation's commitment to the rule of law.
His Republican critics said these foreign terrorism suspects did not deserve to be tried in a civilian court with all the rights of Americans. More recently, the Obama administration has backed away from Holder's plan, but has not decided where the men will be tried.
The six briefs to the Supreme Court were not Holder's work alone. In every instance, he was one of a group of prominent lawyers or ex-judges who signed a friend-of-the-court brief.
One urged the justices to overturn a Texas murder conviction because prosecutors had excluded African Americans from the jury. The high court did just that.
A second urged the justices to stop police investigators from steering around the Miranda warnings by persuading suspects to confess before they were told of their right to remain silent. Again, the Supreme Court agreed.
Twice, Holder signed briefs along with former Atty. Gen. Janet Reno in the case of accused "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla. Though he was an American citizen who was arrested in Chicago, the Bush administration maintained it could hold him indefinitely in a military brig as an enemy combatant. Reno and Holder argued that an American citizen had a right to be charged with a crime and tried in federal court.
Two lower courts agreed with the Bush administration, but when Padilla lodged an appeal in the Supreme Court in 2006, the administration reversed course. Padilla was sent to trial in a federal court in Florida, where he was convicted for supporting terrorists and imprisoned.
Just a typical Obama appointee
Rick Moran
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/03/just_a_typical_obama_appointee.html
President Obama's pick to oversee export controls at the Commerce Department, Eric Hirschhorn, seems a typical Obama appointee; well connected, smooth talking, a former lobbyist - and a guy with ethical problems:
Mr. Hirschhorn's financial disclosure form lists more than two dozen recent law clients, including railroad company Pan Am Systems Inc., telecommunications manufacturer TranSwitch Corp. and Philip Morris. But three clients in particular appear to have strong interests in activities at the Commerce Department.
According to the ethics form, Mr. Hirschhorn provided legal services for the company previously known as DHL Holdings, a U.S.-based unit of the international shipping company. Last year, DHL agreed to pay $9.4 million to settle a federal investigation into shipments to Iran, Sudan and Syria.
Under the settlement, the company also agreed to comprehensive audits this year and next year in compliance with export laws to be sent for review to the Commerce Department.
Two other recent clients of Mr. Hirschhorn's are TLG Electronics and United Sources Industrial Enterprises, both of Hong Kong. They've been placed on the Commerce Department's "entity list" of companies subject to strict export licensing rules.
According to government records, both companies were put on the list because of suspected ties to Dubai-based Mayrow General Trading, a company that federal officials tied to manufactured parts found in improvised explosive devices (IEDs), roadside bombs used in Iraq.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke singled out Mayrow in a speech last fall on export controls, saying that through work with the United Arab Emirates, "we successfully targeted Mayrow General Trading, which was forwarding U.S.-made goods to Iran that ended up in bombs in Iraq."
Administration officials said Mr. Hirschhorn's work for TLG and United Source began after the companies were placed on the entity list.
Ed Lasky:
With the vast resources available to the US government, couldn't they do the same vetting job that a newspaper that has been gushing red ink does? In a world of lawyers , was there not a better candidate with "cleaner hands"?
Let me get this straight; Obama came into office pledging not to hire lobbyists. He then hires this Hirschhorn fellow - a lobbyist - who not only represented firms placed on our terrorist watch list of companies doing business with Iran, but did so after they were targeted?
It helps that Hirschhorn contributed personally or through his family to many Democrats - including Barack Obama. Rewarding friends - even if they break the law - seems to be a pattern with this administration.
Something we'll just have to put up with until Congress puts its foot down. Senator Shelby has had this guy's nomination on hold for a while but it he can't do so forever. And the president is in no hurry to withdraw Hirschhorn's nomination.
In the end, he will probably be confirmed. And one more Obama appointee who appears to be ethically challenged will take their place in the most honest and transparent administration in history.
The Cuba I Saw
By Megan Smith
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/03/the_cuba_i_saw.html
Interested in seeing Barack Obama's dreams for the U.S. in real time? Pack some toilet paper, Tylenol, and towels. Then hop a plane to Cuba. Just ninety miles off Florida's coast, Obama's ideas are alive and kicking.
In fact, visiting Cuba today may be more meaningful than ever before. Touring the country of 11 million lets you see everything the far left "knows" is right, just, and good for all of us.
Step out at Havana's José Martà airport to throngs of Cubans. The people -- warm and welcoming -- meet friends and relatives at the airport. Hundreds wait for arrivals. Though the government boasts 3.4% unemployment, judging by airport greeters and others hanging around town, those stats are questionable.
Cuba has two currencies: the CUCs (Cuban Convertible Pesos, pronounced "kooks"), which buy the good stuff, and the Cuban peso: fairly worthless. Cubans are paid in pesos. Twenty-five pesos equal one CUC. It's nearly impossible to earn enough pesos to purchase the number of CUCs needed to buy better items. So Cuba's black market is thriving.
Billboards featuring Fidel and his murderous pal Che Guevara are everywhere.
"Vive la Revolución" and "Siempre la Revolución" signs abound, too. Never mind that the Revolution happened 51 years ago, or that Cuba's been trapped in a time warp and state of decay ever since. The Revolution was Castro's finest moment. And he will never let you forget it. There are no promos for anyone else...except Hugo Chávez. Advertising private enterprise is banned.
Cuba has a centralized government. People vote for municipal officials (neighborhood folks) every two and a half years to represent them in Congress. The Castros are never on a ballot. And, in the Obama spirit, Castro's ideas reign supreme regardless of needs or opinions.
In 1997, Fidel, born Catholic, allowed Pope John Paul into Cuba. Touched by his visit, the dictator rewrote the Constitution, reinstating religion. Lucky Castro rediscovered his roots; if not, no one could practice religion today. Cuba is all about Castro all the time.
Cuba is an antique car-collector's dream...except that Cubans aren't collecting 1940s and 1950s vehicles -- they're driving them. New cars? A few. But generally, oldies must do. Licenses? Interesting. Socialists say everyone's the same. So why link someone's status to license color? Brown plates, for example, signal a government VIP, blue an inspector-controlled vehicle.
Here's something on Obama's wish list: the civilian security system. In Cuba, it's called the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, or the CDR. Billed initially as an extra security force, "a collective system of revolutionary vigilance," it puts at least one government spy in the neighborhood. And those spies monitor everything. Even an extra bag of groceries is suspect.
Obama's mandatory national service? Alive and well in Cuba. Eighteen-year-olds complete military or social service. (Many believe that this is additional indoctrination.) Those not attending higher education serve two years, while the rest serve only one. In this communal "utopia," there's plenty of discrimination.
Of course, there's free health care, which Cubans (and Michael Moore) are programmed to hype to Americans. They tell you that Fidel brought universal health care. Sounds terrific, right? All services free? Docs earning 250 pesos a month, yet working nonstop? What could be better?
Well...remember that Tylenol? It's a donation to Cuba. Cuba's health care has "minor" glitches like no medicines. There aren't over-the-counter or prescription drugs, vitamins, or supplies like diabetic strips. There's inferior training, doctor shortages, rationed care, and a lack of equipment. (A few years ago, Havana -- a city of 2 ½ million -- had only one MRI machine.) The hospitals are in terrible shape, and the system is economically draining. Actually, some with money might get better care, but they pay under the table.
Cuba boasts the ultimate jobs bill: Everyone's guaranteed work. Of course, it's government employment -- there is almost nothing else. Jobs pay about $250 a month, which won't cover basics. (Many Cubans rely on remittances from U.S. relations to survive.) There's no incentive, nothing really works -- try the toilets -- and innovation is squashed. The government dictates hours...they're long. A taxi driver I met works from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. most days but still can't make ends meet.
Fired for wrongdoing or company politics? It's over. No severance, no recommendation, and probably not another job. But hey, who's complaining? It's socialism and it's fair, even when it's not.
Government entitlements are plentiful, however. Each person, employed or not, gets the same "benefits," including that fabulous health coverage and a monthly ration book for food and more. Of course, nothing is sufficient, so everyone is deprived. But with handouts galore, many stay unemployed.
Cuba got a shot of financial reality when Russia stopped footing its bills in the '90s. Suddenly, to quote Margaret Thatcher, they'd "run out of other people's money." Castro added a tiny private sector, turning Cuba socialist instead of communist. Today, Cuba's entrepreneurs are artisans, in-home restaurateurs, and small shop owners. They are heavily taxed and highly regulated, but it's an improvement.
Of course, Cuba bans freedom of speech and the press, something Obama, Axelrod, Pelosi, Reid, and Durbin would celebrate. In fact, speak against the government and disappear: effective. Dissent is outlawed. (Obama and Pelosi, eat your hearts out.)
Obama would rejoice because Fox News is not in Cuba. In fact, only snippets from an Obama favorite -- CNN -- are aired for tourists. Cubans access five state-controlled channels -- everything is censored.
And the internet is controlled. (Obama wants this, too?) The higher-ups get some online privileges; others don't.
Remember the towels? They are giveaways, too. Towels are in short supply. And the toilet paper? Don't ask. Here's a famous Cuban saying: When there's a toilet paper shortage, you know the socialists are coming.
But what Cubans lack in towels and toilet paper, they have in Castro's long speeches. Before his illness, Castro often spoke incoherently for eight to twelve hours to crowds of 50,000. Luckily, he, like Obama and Axelrod, understood astroturfing. Castro "hired" audiences, paying them in food, money, jobs, and more to show up and cheer.
Washington will be pleased to know that there are few overweight Cubans. (No financial drain there.) Of course, it's because they lack food. (Only the elderly, sick, and kids under seven are allowed milk.)
Housing? When Fidel "spread the wealth" in the '50s and '60s, he seized vacated homes of the rich, who fled. In his uncorrupt and crony-less way, his friends were given good homes. Most others shared tight quarters (2,000-ish square feet) with about twelve more people. Same today, but buildings are crumbling. There's peeling paint, broken windows, and cracked doors everywhere. No money for repairs. But who's complaining? Housing is free!
It's almost impossible for Cubans to travel inside or outside their country. The government won't let them. It's easy to see why people risk their lives to escape to U.S. shores. Cuba is the world's largest prison.
So if Barack Obama and his DNC succeed in making their dreams for the United States a reality, here's some advice: Head to the grocery and stack up on toilet paper. Then hang on real tight -- it's going to be one rough ride.
Megan Smith is the pen name for a Chicago area writer who just returned from Cuba.
"The e-mail Bag"
How’s This For Nostalgia?
http://www.name-n-shame.co.uk/nostalgia.htm
Vigilante writes ...
A friend sent me this by email so I thought I would publish it as a reminder of how things used to be when England was a good place to live - the days when bureaucrats were not constantly interfering with our lives.
Remember any of these?
When all schoolgirls wore ugly gym slips?
When it took five minutes for the TV to warm up?
When nearly everyone's Mum was at home when the kids got back from school?
When nobody owned a thoroughbred dog?
When three old pence was decent pocket money?
When you'd scrabble in a muddy gutter to retrieve a penny?
When all your male teachers wore ties and female teachers had their hair done every day?
When washing powder had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box?
When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents?
When they threatened to keep kids back a year if they failed? And they did!
When being sent to the headmaster's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited you when you got home?
Remember playing cricket in the street with no adults dictating the rules of the game?
Remember when stuff from the shop came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger?
When a Ford Zephyr was everyone's dream car?
When no-one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked?
With all our progress, don't you wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savour the slower pace, and share it with the children of today?
Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! But we survived because their love was greater than the threat. . .as well as summers filled with bike rides, games of rounders, Hula Hoops, bowling and visits to the pool, as well as sucking sherbet powder through a liquorice straw.
Didn't it feel good just to go back and say, 'Yes, I remember that'? Remember the perfect age is somewhere between old enough to know better and too young to care.
If you know someone who can still remember the Coronation, Mr Pastry, 6.5 Special, The Army Game , Sunday Night at the London Palladium, Emergency Ward 10, the Lone Ranger, Hancock's Half Hour, Trigger and Sergeant Bilko, tell them to visit this website for a bit of nostalgia.
They may even remember ...
Sweet cigarettes
Coffee bars with table side jukeboxes.
Blackjacks and bubblegum.
The days when home milk was delivered in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers.
Telephone numbers began with a word prefix...(Mayfair 3489). And party lines.
Andy Pandy.
Hi-Fi's & 45 RPM records.
Green Shield Stamps.
Comptometers.
Scalextric.
Do you remember the time when:
decisions were made by going 'eeny-meeny-miney-mo'?
'Race issue' meant arguing about who ran the fastest?
Catching tiddlers could happily occupy an entire day?
It wasn't odd to have two or three 'Best Friends'?
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was 'chickenpox'?
Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a catapult?
Saturday morning television wasn't 30-minute commercials for action figures?
Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles
The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team
Cigarette cards in the spokes transformed any pushbike into a motorcycle
Taking drugs meant swallowing orange-flavoured chewable aspirin
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon
If you can remember most or all of these, then you have really lived.
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