President Obama is presenting another proposal following another likewise rejected American national health care plans: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/summary-presidents-proposal.pdf.
May I propose President Obama and all liberal Democrats on Capitol Hill to review the State of New York’s comparative plan to ObamaCare? It too, is an appallingly, luxuriously priced, and failed healthcare system. According to the LA Times, the State of New York has already tried some of the issues as proposed by ObamaCare, and Capitol Hill Democrats: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/newsletter/la-na-health-insurance21-2010feb21,0,4685325,full.story.
These report states, “Two decades ago, New York passed a law requiring insurers to accept all applicants, even those with pre-existing conditions. Now, premiums in the state are the highest in the nation by some estimates.”
Further, the LA Times asserts, “Since 2001, the average premiums for a health plan on the individual market in New York has nearly tripled, according to the state Insurance Department. In some counties, it is impossible to buy an individual plan for less than $12,000 a year.” On this issue, it appears factual that President Obama is manipulating the established evidence. Obama has no knowledge as to the price tag of ObamaCare by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), yet demanding Americans to buy his proposed product. Uh! Uh! Uh! How sad! How egotistical are Obama’s and Capitol Hill Democrats’ political demands?
New Yorkers should be permitted to purchase and indulge for their own selected plans, as they choose. Polls show a large majority of Americans continue to say “NO” to ObamaCare plans. Why does this continuous burning issue continue to blaze ? When will President Obama and Capitol Hill Democrats awaken to the voices of Americans?
President Obama and Capitol Hill Democrats should not be compelling American taxpayers to suffer the irritation of a tried and failed national health care plan by cramming ObamaCare “down our throats”, and into our pocketbooks and/or bank accounts.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
ConservativeChristianRepublican-Report - 20100223
Motivational-Inspirational-Historical-Educational-Political-Enjoyable
Promoting "God's Holy Values and American Freedoms"!
"Daily Motivations"
"Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good." -- Malcolm Gladwell
"Well done is better than well said." -- Benjamin Franklin
"The praise that comes from love does not make us vain, but more humble." -- James M. Barrie
"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)
Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. (Matthew 4:19 -- NASB)
Like many people, I have never found witnessing to come naturally and easily. By nature I'm a shy, reserved person; initiating conversations with strangers is sometimes difficult for me. Even sharing the greatest news ever announced - that "God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16) - is not always easy for me.
So it might seem incongruous that God called a shy young man to launch an evangelistic ministry on the campus of UCLA, a ministry which would become Campus Crusade for Christ International. Witnessing, and training laypeople to witness, is our primary calling. I don't even know if evangelism is my spiritual gift.
What I do know is that God has made it crystal clear in His Word that every Christian is to "go and make disciples of all the nations, ... teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you..." (Matthew 28:19-20).
I've tried to be obedient to this command, and God has honored my obedience. God has transformed my personal witness from one of shy hesitancy to one of confident initiative.
If you're thinking that "it may work for someone else, but not for me," you're not alone. But if He can do it for me, He can do it for you, too.
Your View of God Really Matters …
Are you following Jesus? Are you learning to fish for lost souls? If not, why not? Are you afraid? Maybe you need to be trained. Today, take the next step in learning to fish. Keep following Jesus.
"The Patriot Post"
"The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men." --Alexander Hamilton
Insight
"A man's most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe." --Greek playwright Euripides (485-406 B.C.)
"The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency. It proceeds from not knowing what is going on in other people's minds." --British journalist Walter Bagehot (1826-1877)
Upright
"The bigger the government, the less I do for myself, for my family and for my community. That is why we Americans give more charity and devote more time to volunteering than Europeans do. The European knows: The government, the state, will take care of me, my children, my parents, my neighbors and my community. I don't have to do anything. The bigger question in many Europeans' lives is, 'How much vacation time will I have and where will I spend that vacation?' That is what happens when the state gets bigger -- you become smaller." --radio talk-show host Dennis Prager
"Many people ask me whether the Democrats are in as much trouble as they were in 1994. The numbers suggest they are in much deeper trouble, at least at this moment." --political analyst Michael Barone
"When the president directed that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other al Qaeda plotters of Sept. 11 be tried in a civilian court in Manhattan, [our] enemies knew they had the president's number for once and all. Now, with even stalwarts in his own party denouncing a civilian trial in Manhattan as the nut-ball idea of the year, he's looking for a smart solution, a way to look tough in retreat. He should take the trial to San Francisco, where the flame that warms the cult burns brightest, and where surely no one would object." --Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden
"[E]verything the president proposes means more debt, which at the level this guy's spending means, at some point down the road, either higher taxes or total societal collapse." --columnist Mark Steyn
"Americans are not victims who need handouts. Americans need the freedom to flourish. And until our president realizes this, he, and America, will lose out." --National Review editor Kathryn Lopez
"We must present a clear choice: stay the course of progressive liberalism, which moves away from popular consent, the rule of law, and constitutional government, and toward a failed, undemocratic, and illiberal form of statism; or correct course in an effort to restore the conditions of liberty and renew the bedrock principles and constitutional wisdom that are the roots of America's continuing greatness." --Heritage Foundation scholar Matthew Spalding
"America's future is clear: Unless we start cutting spending and take control of entitlement programs, our children will go broke making good on our promises. ... The government can never spend its way out of recession. It can only get out of the way, through lower tax rates and less costly regulation, and allow private business to grow again." --columnist Rich Tucker
Dezinformatsia
Repent for the end is near: "If health care doesn't pass, because this budget assumes health care will pass, that's yet another $150 billion that would be tacked on to the deficit." --NBC's Chuck Todd regurgitating the BIG LIE that paying out more government dollars on "health care" is going to save money
Hoping for ObamaCare: "The president outlines a number of measures to reduce the deficit, over $1 trillion worth. But ... perhaps the most surprising, the budget assumes a savings of $150 billion over the next 10 years from health care reform, legislation that is at the very best -- at the most optimistic -- on life support on Capitol Hill right now." --ABC's Jake Tapper (The best and most optimistic would be for ObamaCare to be in the morgue.)
Blame the GOP: "Republicans should know that their partisanship means they are rejecting medical security that is available in most countries of the world for its citizens. Shame on them!" --White House press corpse reporter Helen Thomas
"Tea-party people are libertarians, and on the state level, they are organizing around the notion of using the 10th Amendment (which affirms state's rights) to overturn health-care legislation -- should it still pass by some miracle. It's hard to take their rhetoric seriously. Where else could they go in the world to be freer? It reminds me of the slogan shouted at antiwar protesters, 'America, love it or leave it.'" --Newsweek's Eleanor Clift (You first.)
Poor guy: "If the president of Toyota has big headaches, well, so too, does the president of the United States, putting together a budget in an economic downturn with more than 15 million Americans out of work." --CBS's Katie Couric
Bully pulpit could have a whole new meaning: "[Obama] needs one or two [Republican] votes in the Senate to get anything passed. That's the political reality. But he needs to, perhaps, bully Republicans into doing that, rather than doing this careful walk around them." --Newsweek's Katie Connolly
"The Web"
Newt Gingrich CPAC 2010 Speech Pt 1 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTJ2BLAH910
Newt Gingrich CPAC 2010 Speech Pt 2 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3te9U43SiLQ&feature=related
Newt Gingrich CPAC 2010 Speech Pt 3 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6HBpd3T3Nc&feature=related
Very Good Thoughts on Life
http://wendyusuallywanders.wordpress.com/2008/02/19/very-good-thoughts-on-life/
I walked into the grocery store not particularly interested in buying groceries. I wasn’t hungry. The pain of losing my husband of 57 years was still too raw. And this grocery store held so many sweet memories.
He often came with me and almost every time he’d pretend to go off and look for something special. I knew what he was up to. I’d always spot him walking down the aisle with the three yellow roses in his hands.
He knew I loved yellow roses. With a heart filled with grief, I only wanted to buy my few items and leave, but even grocery shopping was different since he had passed on.
Shopping for one took time, a little more thought than it had for two.
Standing by the meat, I searched for the perfect small steak and remembered how he had loved his steak.
Suddenly a woman came beside me. She was blonde, slim and lovely in a soft green pantsuit. I watched as she picked up a large package of T-bones, dropped them in her basket.. hesitated, and then put them back. She turned to go and once again reached for the pack of steaks.
She saw me watching her and she smiled. ‘My husband loves T-bones, but honestly, at these prices, I don’t know.’
I swallowed the emotion down my throat and met her pale blue eyes.
‘My husband passed away eight days ago,’ I told her. Glancing at the package in her hands, I fought to control the tremble in my voice. ‘Buy him the steaks. And cherish every moment you have together.’
She shook her head and I saw the emotion in her eyes as she placed the package in her basket and wheeled away.
I turned and pushed my cart across the length of the store to the dairy products. There I stood, trying to decide which size milk I should buy. A Quart, I finally decided and moved on to the ice cream. If nothing else, I could always fix myself an ice cream cone.
I placed the ice cream in my cart and looked down the aisle toward the front. I saw first the green suit, then recognized the pretty lady coming towards me. In her arms she carried a package. On her face was the brightest smile! I had ever seen. I would swear a soft halo encircled her blonde hair as she kept walking toward me, her eyes holding mine.
As she came closer, I saw what she held and tears began misting in my eyes. ‘These are for you,’ she said and placed three beautiful long stemmed yellow roses in my arms. ‘When you go through the line, they will know these are paid for.’ She leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on my cheek, then smiled again. I wanted to tell her what she’d done, what the roses meant, but still unable to speak, I watched as she walked away as tears clouded my vision.
I looked down at the beautiful roses nestled in the green tissue wrapping and found it almost unreal. How did she know? Suddenly the answer seemed so clear. I wasn’t alone.
Oh, you haven’t forgotten me, have you? I whispered, with tears in my eyes. He was still with me, and she was his angel.
Every day be thankful for what you have and who you are.
This is a simple request. If you appreciate life, send this to your friends, including the person that sent it to you.
Even though I clutch my blanket and growl when the alarm rings. Thank you, Lord, that I can hear. There are many who are deaf.
Even though I keep my eyes closed against the morning light as long as possible. Thank you, Lord , that I can see. Many are blind.
Even though I huddle in my bed and put off rising. Thank you, Lord, that I have the strength to rise. There are many who are bedridden.
Even though the first hour of my day is hectic, when socks are lost, toast is burned, tempers are short, and my children are so loud.
Thank you, Lord, for my family. There are many who are lonely.
Even though our breakfast table never looks like the picture in magazines and the menu is at times unbalanced.
Thank you, Lord, for the food we have. There are many who are hungry.
Even though the routine of my job often is monotonous. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to work. There are many who have no job.
Even though I grumble and bemoan my fate from day to day and wish my circumstances were not so modest.
Thank you, Lord, for life.
Pass this on to the friends you know. It might help a bit to make this world a better place to live, right? A friend is someone we turn to when our spirits need a lift. A friend is someone to treasure.
For friendship is a gift. A friend is someone who fills our lives with Beauty, Joy and Grace and makes the world we live in a better and happier place.
YOU ARE MY FRIEND!
God bless you and yours.
Morning Bell: The White House Learned Nothing from Massachusetts
http://blog.heritage..org/2010/02/22/morning-bell-the-white-house-learned-nothing-from-massachusetts/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
In July of this year, the American people were mostly undecided about Obamacare: equal numbers opposed and supported the health care bills that the White House was shepherding through Congress. But then August happened and informed Americans turned out at townhalls across the country to express their strong disapproval of Obamacare. The larger American public noticed and pluralities of the American people began to oppose Obamacare. The White House concluded they had a “communications problem” so they scheduled a prime time speech in front of a rare Joint Session of Congress. But the President’s speech arrogantly dismissed the concerns of the American people and after a brief uptick in support (from the low 40s to the mid 40s), opposition to the President’s plan grew.
Then in November, liberals lost governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia as opposition to President Obama’s signature policy priority inched towards 50%. Again the White House concluded that nothing was wrong with their policy agenda and they dismissed their setbacks in two states that had voted for President Barack Obama as local elections with weak candidates. Instead of rethinking their policies and procedures the White House doubled down and pushed for a speedy passage of Obamacare with as little debate as possible. Over the next two months the White House bought support for their health care plan with the Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker Kickback, and big labor tax breaks. And their behind-closed-doors, backroom-deal tactics almost worked … until Massachusetts happened.
Just like in August and November, Sen. Scott Brown’s (R) upset win over Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) took the Obama administration completely by surprise. Again, the White House concluded they had a “communications problem” so this time they scheduled a six-hour health care summit that is supposed to take place at The Blair House, across the street from the White House, this Thursday. But like everything else that has come out of the Obama administration during this health care debate, the President’s effort to “seek common ground” at the summit is completely disingenuous. The New York Times reported this past Friday that the White House is drafting, and will release this morning, a final health care bill they expect Congress to pass quickly. And this bill is specifically designed to pass without any conservative support:
Democratic officials said the president’s proposal was being written so that it could be attached to a budget bill as a way of averting a Republican filibuster in the Senate. The procedure, known as budget reconciliation, would let Democrats advance the bill with a simple majority rather than a 60-vote supermajority.
And a “simple majority” does not mean they need 51 Senators. The nuclear option the White House is now pushing, reconciliation, only requires the Obama administration to muster 50 votes before Vice President Joe Biden can cast a tie breaking vote in favor of a government takeover of health care.
And make no mistake, a government takeover of health care is exactly what Obamacare is. Just last night the White House revealed that one new feature of their legislation will be to give the federal government sweeping new authority to set prices for health insurance. This is on top of the sweeping new authority that Obamacare already grants the federal governemnt to micromanage the coverage details of every single health insurance policy in the country. And since the nuclear option only requires 50 Democratic Senators for passage, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has signaled that an outright government run health insurance company, the public option, will also be included in the final bill.
There is a reason that the longer this health care debate has dragged on, more and more Americans have become solidly against Obamacare: the plan has been exposed as a welfare state takeover of our health care sector that can only be passed by the most partisan and venal tactics. If the President was capable of listening to the American people, and learning from August, November, and Massachusetts, then he would abandon the legislative disasters still pending in the House and Senate and start over. That is what the American people want.
A cautionary tale in healthcare reform
By Noam N. Levey
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/newsletter/la-na-health-insurance21-2010feb21,0,4685325,full.story
Two decades ago, New York passed a law requiring insurers to accept all applicants, even those with preexisting conditions. Now, premiums in the state are the highest in the nation by some estimates.
Reporting from Washington - Spurred by heart-wrenching stories of sick people denied health coverage, the state of New York did what many of President Obama's critics say he should do now -- it passed a relatively simple law requiring insurers to accept all applicants.
Other states have taken similar steps, making narrowly targeted changes instead of trying to overhaul their whole healthcare systems.
But two decades later, New York's experience offers a cautionary tale: Making isolated changes to the complex medical insurance system can have unwelcome consequences.
Premiums in New York are now the highest in the nation by some measures, with individual health coverage costing about $9,000 a year on average. And nearly one in seven New Yorkers still lacks health coverage, a greater proportion than before the law was passed.
The state has become a victim of a dangerous dynamic in insurance markets. Laws allowing consumers to buy insurance at any time often saddle companies with a lot of high-cost customers.
That in turn drives up premiums, pushing away younger, healthier people who are vital to a functioning insurance system.
"You basically can't have a functioning insurance market if people can buy insurance on the way to the hospital," said Mark Hall, a Wake Forest University economist who studied New York's experience.
'Case study'
This issue is now at the heart of one of the biggest fights over Obama's healthcare plan: the so-called mandate requiring Americans to buy insurance -- a requirement that many experts believe is crucial to avoid the problems seen in New York and other states.
"We are sort of a case study of what not to do," said Mark Scherzer, a consumer attorney who helped lead the fight for New York's changes in the early 1990s and is now counsel to New Yorkers for Accessible Health Coverage.
Other states have either abandoned such reforms or been forced to scale them back.
When then-Gov. Mario Cuomo signed New York's insurance law in 1992, many advocates believed the state was charting a path toward affordable, accessible healthcare. Cuomo called the legislation a "forerunner of what we'll [be] seeing nationally."
The law focused on people who did not get health benefits from their employer, forcing them to shop for insurance on their own in what is called the individual market.
To protect these people, state lawmakers approved the "guaranteed issue" provision, which prohibited insurance companies from denying coverage to customers, even those with preexisting conditions.
Such rules became popular in the early 1990s, as states including New Jersey and Washington contended with insurance companies that were denying coverage to people with preexisting health problems.
New York went further, becoming the first state to also include a "pure community rating" requirement that prohibited insurers from varying premiums based on customers' age or health, another common industry practice. Three years later, the state required all HMOs to offer a comprehensive, standardized package of benefits.
The law allowed consumers to buy insurance after they became sick with only a relatively short waiting period. They could also drop it when they no longer needed it.
The New York insurance market did not collapse, as some insurers had warned. But in the ensuing years, more older and sicker New Yorkers bought individual health plans. And premiums shot upward.
Since 2001, the average premiums for a health plan on the individual market in New York has nearly tripled, according to the state Insurance Department. In some counties, it is impossible to buy an individual plan for less than $12,000 a year.
Although New York has higher medical costs than many states, its premiums still outpace other high-cost states.
An informal survey by America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry group, showed that average premiums in New York last year were more than twice those in California and Florida, two other high-cost states.
In New Jersey, which enacted similar insurance rules at the same time as New York, researchers found that the regulations contributed to a 50% decline in enrollment in individual health plans and a two- to threefold increase in premiums.
Kentucky and Washington were forced to roll back their new insurance rules in the 1990s after insurance companies abandoned the state market. In Washington, the three largest insurers simply stopped issuing coverage to individuals.
An exception
Today, New York is one of only a few states that have retained both guaranteed issue and pure community rating rules.
That offers New Yorkers who are sick substantially more protections than consumers in less regulated states such as California, Florida and Texas, where people with cancer or other preexisting conditions are routinely denied coverage.
But with premiums continuing to climb, the market regulations are increasingly becoming an empty promise, said Scherzer, the consumer attorney. "You have to be incredibly sick to make it worthwhile," he said.
Obama and congressional Democrats tried to head off the problem confronting New York by including a requirement in their healthcare legislation that nearly all Americans buy insurance.
This so-called insurance mandate alone would not guarantee lower premiums, many experts concede. Insurance rates in Massachusetts, which included a mandate in its landmark insurance overhaul in 2006, remain relatively high.
But there is broad consensus that a mandate would encourage younger and healthier people to buy insurance, spreading risk more broadly and ultimately helping to restrain the growth of premiums.
New York's largest insurer, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, a division of WellPoint Inc., has calculated that a mandate could bring down premiums 50% to 60%, Empire President Mark Wagar said.
But the mandate has become one of the most controversial elements of congressional Democrats' healthcare bill, and a reason why the bill is so expensive. Most experts believe that if the government requires everyone to buy insurance, it must provide subsidies for low-income consumers.
Now, Republicans and some Democrats are pushing to remove the mandate.
Before they do, they should look north, said Courtney Burke, who directs the Health Policy Research Center at the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, N.Y.
"They could learn from New York's experience," she said. "If you don't have some kind of incentive for people to participate, you are going to have problems."
Cook County a "Dark Pool of Political Corruption"
New study provides insight into 141+ years of political hijinks
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/politics/illinois-corruption-84736672.html
Cook County has been a "dark pool of political corruption" for more than a century, a new study by the University of Illinois at Chicago says.
Nearly 150 employees, politicians and contractors in the nation's second-largest county have been convicted on corruption charges since 1957, according to a report released Thursday by the university and the Better Government Association (.pdf)
The 33-page study gives a history of corruption, starting from 1869 when county commissioners were jailed for rigging a bid to paint City Hall. It also details hiring scandals, including some under Cook County Board President Todd Stroger. Stroger hasn't been charged with any crime.
In the last 36 years, 31 sitting or former Chicago alderman have been convicted of corruption or other crimes. The last was Ike Carothers (29th), who earlier this month plead guilty to charges he accepted gifts in exchange for his votes on zoning issues.
The study says reforms could turn things around, including stricter campaign finance laws and amending a county ethics ordinance.
‘It’s About Jobs, Stupid!’ Says GOP Whip Cantor at CPAC
By Karen Schuberg
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/61646
House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.)
(CNSNews.com) – House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told a packed auditorium on Friday that government jobs overshadow the private sector and that to grow the economy the private sector must be allowed to flourish.
Cantor made his comments at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.
“It’s about jobs, stupid!” said Cantor in his opening remarks. “According to the Department of Labor, today there are over 4 million more Americans working for government than are working in the goods-producing segment of our economy. And these government jobs, they're pretty good jobs.”
Cantor also said, “There are now more union members who work for government than work in the private sector. And they've negotiated some pretty darn good deals for themselves too. Did you know that the average salary in the Department of Education is now over $100,000 a year? Average.”
Cantor said that the key to preserving freedom is in allowing private sector jobs to grow.
“To preserve freedom, we need more individuals who are worried about how high their taxes are and less worried about how rich their government benefits are,” he said.
Growing the economy means balancing the budget, said Cantor, and balancing the budget means decreasing taxes and regulations.
“A smaller Washington will result in a bigger America,” he said. “More jobs and more opportunity for all, for everyone, for ourselves and our children. I look forward to joining alongside you in this fight to reclaim the America that we know.”
Cantor noted that not one Republican voted for the Democrats’ $787 billion economic stimulus bill last year and added that government cannot spend its way out of a recession, any more than an individual can spend his way out of credit card debt.
“Let's face it,” said Cantor, “there is no such thing as a free lunch. Every dollar spent must come out of the private sector,” meaning every tax dollar collected and spent by government is one less dollar spent by individuals in the private sector.
Cantor also said that the Republican Party needed to regain the trust of the American people.
“The people need to see our commitment to enact a reform agenda,” he said. “You know, Thomas Jefferson once advised that in matters of style, swim with the tide. In matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
CPAC is hosted annually by the American Conservative Union Foundation (ACUF) and is co-sponsored by more than 90 other conservative organizations. The CPAC is headquartered at the ACUF and it is the Foundation’s largest annual conference. Last year, CPAC’s attendance was 8,500. Organizers estimate up to 12,000 people will attend this year’s conference, which ends on Saturday, Feb. 20.
Supreme Court Justice Barack Obama?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/18/AR2010021803275.html?sid%3DST2010021803374&sub=AR
(Sketch by David M. Brinley)
Survey
Barack Obama is best suited to be:
President
Senator
Supreme Court Justice
None of the above
view results
This is a non-scientific user poll. Results are not statistically valid and cannot be assumed to reflect the views of Washington Post users as a group or the general population.
By Jeffrey Rosen
He's too detached and cerebral . Too deferential to Congress. Too willing to compromise . And he's too much of a law professor and not enough of a commander in chief, as Sarah Palin recently admonished.
These are some of the qualities for which the president, rightly or wrongly, is criticized. They are also the qualities that make him well suited for another steady job on the federal payroll: Barack Obama, Supreme Court justice.
Think about it. Though Obama has struggled to find his footing in the White House, his education, temperament and experience make him ideally suited to lead the liberal wing of the court, especially at a time when a narrow conservative majority seems increasingly intent on challenging progressive economic reforms for the first time since the New Deal. Obama is clearly eager to take on the four truly conservative justices -- Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- as his State of the Union smackdown suggests. But as president, he's constrained by that pesky separation of powers. So what better way to engage the fight than to join the bench?
It would be unusual, but not difficult, for Obama to get himself on the Supreme Court. He could nominate himself to replace John Paul Stevens, for example, or he could gamble and promise Hillary Rodham Clinton that he won't run for reelection in 2012 in exchange for a pledge of appointment to the next vacancy. And although as president, Obama has seemed haunted by the example of his political hero, Abraham Lincoln, on the Supreme Court he could take up the mantle of the greatest liberal justice of the 20th century, Louis Brandeis, another community organizer with a background in politics. In the end, Obama's legacy on the court might surpass his legacy in the White House.
Obama's academic credentials for the court -- including serving as president of the Harvard Law Review and teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago -- are obvious. But it's his even temperament and low boiling point that seem tailor-made for the court at this polarized moment. Obama's patient courtship of the vain and wavering swing votes in the Senate (such as Joe Lieberman) during the health-care debate, for example, is ideal preparation for courting the vain and wavering swing vote on the court (Justice Anthony Kennedy). And Obama's detached and judicious disposition would equip him to challenge the conservative hothead, Scalia, without descending to his name-calling.
In terms of judicial philosophy, too, Obama is well suited to take on the pro-corporate activism of the conservative justices -- on display in the recent Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, which gutted campaign finance laws and which, according to recent polls, strong national majorities oppose.
In his 2006 book, "The Audacity of Hope," Obama wrote that throughout American history, constitutional values have generally been defined by ground-up political activism rather than imposed from above by judges. From the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, it was liberals in the political arena, not conservatives, who defended judicial restraint in the face of activist conservative justices who tried to strike down progressive regulations, from the income tax to the minimum wage. But Obama questioned whether, more recently, liberals had become too ready to let courts fight their battles for them. "I wondered," he wrote, "if, in our reliance on the courts to vindicate not only our rights but also our values, progressives had lost too much faith in democracy."
Obama's commitment to judicial restraint is at odds with the activism displayed by the Supreme Court in its Citizens United decision, which called into question not only the McCain-Feingold campaign finance act but also decades of other federal laws and Supreme Court precedents restricting the free speech of corporations. In defending the ruling, Chief Justice Roberts said: "We cannot embrace a narrow ground of decision simply because it is narrow; it must also be right." This overconfidence in knowledge of the right answer is something Obama didn't display while teaching in Chicago. His students have attested to his mastery in neutrally presenting opposing points of view without revealing his own.
When Roberts joined the court, he told me and other journalists that he hoped to emulate his greatest predecessor, Chief Justice John Marshall, encouraging his liberal and conservative colleagues to avoid polarizing constitutional disputes by converging around narrow, unanimous opinions decided on technical grounds. Now that Roberts appears to have abandoned that vision in Citizens United, Obama could take on the role of Supreme Court mediator, conciliator and master compromiser that Roberts promised to play but has not yet delivered.
It's surprising but true that the least successful presidents are often the most judicious, while the most successful justices are the most pragmatic. Obama's willingness to compromise and listen to opposing points of view, in other words, may hamper him in overhauling health care -- public option, anyone? -- but would make him an unusually effective leader on the Supreme Court. As Obama recognized on the campaign trail when he cited former chief justice and three-time California governor Earl Warren as his judicial hero, the most effective judicial leaders have been former politicians.
During the presidential campaign, Obama was critical of Roberts's self-description as an "umpire" and his likening of the court's role to simply calling balls and strikes. "We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom," Obama said. "The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African American, or gay, or disabled, or old."
But Warren's success as chief justice came not so much from his ability to empathize with the downtrodden as from his ability to empathize with his colleagues. Because of his political skills, Warren achieved the kind of success that has eluded Roberts: He persuaded a fractious court to reach a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case striking down school segregation, by visiting the wavering justices one by one and persuading them to set aside their doubts. A majority of the justices on the court that decided Brown had a background in electoral politics; no justices on the Roberts court do. In a group of former law professors, prosecutors and trial judges, Obama would look like a political wizard.
There's another distinctive perspective that he would bring to the bench: economic populism. After a long flirtation with the Tim Geithner, pro-Wall Street, "too big to fail" wing of the Democratic Party, Obama has at last thrown in his lot with the view, espoused first by Brandeis and now by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, that huge corporations should be broken up before they threaten another crash. And this view badly needs a stalwart defender on a Supreme Court that seems on the verge of confronting an economically progressive Congress.
On the Roberts court, the liberal and conservative justices share a pro-business orientation, or at least a suspicion of regulation by litigation: Business cases in recent years have made up 40 percent of the court's docket, and, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 79 percent of them are decided by a 7 to 2 majority or greater. None of the current liberal justices, moreover, had a strong record as an economic populist before joining the court. At a time when liberals need a passionate voice to oppose conservative economic judicial activism, Obama seems well prepared to transform the debate.
Louis Brandeis, who served on the high court from 1916 to 1939, offers a good model for Obama. Known as "the people's lawyer," he was an economic populist, criticizing the "curse of bigness" that led oligarchs such as J.P. Morgan to threaten the entire financial system by taking reckless risks with "other people's money" and then to demand government bailouts after their bad bets. But Brandeis opposed bigness in government as well as in the private sector, and during the New Deal he preferred regulations that prevented companies from getting too large in the first place -- such as the Glass-Steagall Act separating commercial from investment banking -- rather than the creation of huge federal bureaucracies to regulate the economy.
On the high court, Brandeis generally stood for judicial restraint, denouncing conservatives for striking down progressive state economic regulations. But he also believed fiercely in the First Amendment and freedom from unreasonable searches. Both a pragmatist and a civil libertarian, he provides a judicial ideal for Obama, whose record resembles his in many respects.
So, could it actually happen? David Gergen, the CNN commentator who served as an adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton, recently reflected on Obama's State of the Union speech in an appearance on Comedy Central's "Colbert Report." Although he praised Obama's intellectual abilities and presidential campaign, he lamented his "detached" and "professorial" attitude once in office. "There was some sense last night when watching Barack Obama and the Supreme Court sitting in front of him, [that] he'd be great on the Supreme Court," Gergen said.
But could Obama get confirmed? As a senator, he voted against the confirmations of Roberts and Alito, and GOP lawmakers might hold that against him in his own confirmation hearing. Yet, although it would be hard for a Brandeis to be confirmed in today's polarized age, Obama might get some deference as a former president, at least from senators who would rather have him on the court than in the White House.
Whether Obama would be bored by the Supreme Court is another question. Justices with presidential ambitions have often chafed at the isolation of the marble palace. For example, William O. Douglas -- who wanted the presidency, according to his friend Tommy Cochran, more than Don Quixote wanted Dulcinea -- never stopped complaining that the court was too removed from the political action. But having seen the frustrations of the White House, perhaps Obama would instead come around to the view of William Howard Taft, who became chief justice after serving as president and decided that leading the court was a far better job than leading the country. The summer vacations are longer, and nothing beats life tenure.
Jeffrey Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University, is the legal affairs editor of the New Republic and the author of "The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America.
"The e-mail Bag"
Letter from Grandpa
John G. is 63 years old and owns a small business. He’s a life-long Republican and sees his dream of retiring next year has all but evaporated. With the stock market crashing and new taxes coming his way, John assumes now that he will work to his dying day.
John has a granddaughter. Ashley is a recent college grad. She drives a flashy hybrid car, wears all the latest fashions, and loves to go out to nightclubs and restaurants. Ashley campaigned hard for Barack Obama. After the election she made sure her grandfather (and all other Republican family members) received a big I told-you-so earful on how the world is going to be a much better place now that her party is taking over.
Having lost both roommates, Ashley recently ran short of cash and cannot pay the rent (again) on her 3 bedroom townhouse. Like she has done many times in the past, she e-mailed her grandfather asking for some financial help.
Here is his reply:
Sweetheart,
I received your request for assistance.
Ashley, you know I love you dearly and I’m sympathetic to your financial plight. Unfortunately, times have changed. With the election of President Obama, your grandmother and I have had to set forth a bold new economic plan of our own…”The Ashley Economic Empowerment Plan.” Let me explain.
Your grandmother and I are life-long, wage-earning tax payers. We have lived a comfortable life, as you know, but we have never had the fancier things like European vacations, luxury cars, etc. We have worked hard and were looking forward to retiring soon. But the plan has changed. Your president is raising our personal and business taxes significantly. He says it is so he can give our hard earned money to other people. Do you know what this means, Ashley? It means less for us, and we must cut back on many business and personal expenses.
You know the wonderful receptionist who worked in my office for more than 23 years? The one who always gave you candy when you came over to visit? I had to let her go last week. I can’t afford to pay her salary and all of the government mandated taxes that go with having employees. Your grandmother will now work 4 days a week to answer phones, take orders and handle the books. We will be closed on Fridays and will lose even more income to the Wal-Mart.
I’m also very sorry to report that your cousin Frank will no longer be working summers in the warehouse. I called him at school this morning. He already knows about it and he’s upset because he will have to give up skydiving and his yearly trip to Greenland to survey the polar bears.
That’s just the business side of things. Some personal economic effects of Obama’s new taxation policies include none other than you. You know very well that over the years your grandmother and I have given you thousands of dollars in cash, tuition assistance, food, housing, clothing, gifts, etc., etc. But by your vote, you have chosen to help others — not at your expense — but at our expense.
If you need money now sweetheart, I recommend you call 202-456-1111. That is the direct phone number for the White House. You yourself told me how foolish it is to vote Republican. You said Mr. Obama is going to be the People’s President, and is going to help every American live a better life. Based on everything you’ve told me, along with all the promises we heard during the campaign, I’m sure Mr. Obama will be happy to transfer some stimulus money into your bank account. Have him call me for the account number which I memorized years ago.
Perhaps you can now understand what I’ve been saying all my life: those who vote for a president should consider the impact on the nation as a whole, and not be just concerned with what they can get for themselves. What Obama supporters don’t seem to realize is all of the money he is redistributing to illegal aliens and non-taxpaying Americans (the so-called “less fortunate”) comes from tax-paying families.
Remember how you told me, “Only the richest of the rich will be affected”? Well guess what, honey? Because we own a business, your grandmother and I are now considered to be the richest of the rich. On paper, it might look that way, but in the real world, we are far from it.
As you said while campaigning for Obama, some people will have to carry more of the burden so all of America can prosper. You understand what that means, right? It means that raising taxes on productive people results in them having less money; less money for everything, including granddaughters.
I’m sorry, Ashley, but the well has run dry. The free lunches are over. I have no money to give you now. So, congratulations on your choice for “change.” For future reference, I encourage you to try and add up the total value of the gifts and cash you have received from us, just since you went off to college, and compare it to what you expect to get from Mr. Obama over the next 4 (or so years. I have not kept track of it, Ashley. It has all truly been the gift of our hearts.
Remember, we love you dearly….but from now on you’ll need to call the number mentioned above. Your “Savior” has the money we would have given to you. Just try and get it from him.
Good luck, sweetheart.
Love,
Grandpa
Promoting "God's Holy Values and American Freedoms"!
"Daily Motivations"
"Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good." -- Malcolm Gladwell
"Well done is better than well said." -- Benjamin Franklin
"The praise that comes from love does not make us vain, but more humble." -- James M. Barrie
"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)
Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. (Matthew 4:19 -- NASB)
Like many people, I have never found witnessing to come naturally and easily. By nature I'm a shy, reserved person; initiating conversations with strangers is sometimes difficult for me. Even sharing the greatest news ever announced - that "God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16) - is not always easy for me.
So it might seem incongruous that God called a shy young man to launch an evangelistic ministry on the campus of UCLA, a ministry which would become Campus Crusade for Christ International. Witnessing, and training laypeople to witness, is our primary calling. I don't even know if evangelism is my spiritual gift.
What I do know is that God has made it crystal clear in His Word that every Christian is to "go and make disciples of all the nations, ... teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you..." (Matthew 28:19-20).
I've tried to be obedient to this command, and God has honored my obedience. God has transformed my personal witness from one of shy hesitancy to one of confident initiative.
If you're thinking that "it may work for someone else, but not for me," you're not alone. But if He can do it for me, He can do it for you, too.
Your View of God Really Matters …
Are you following Jesus? Are you learning to fish for lost souls? If not, why not? Are you afraid? Maybe you need to be trained. Today, take the next step in learning to fish. Keep following Jesus.
"The Patriot Post"
"The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men." --Alexander Hamilton
Insight
"A man's most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe." --Greek playwright Euripides (485-406 B.C.)
"The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency. It proceeds from not knowing what is going on in other people's minds." --British journalist Walter Bagehot (1826-1877)
Upright
"The bigger the government, the less I do for myself, for my family and for my community. That is why we Americans give more charity and devote more time to volunteering than Europeans do. The European knows: The government, the state, will take care of me, my children, my parents, my neighbors and my community. I don't have to do anything. The bigger question in many Europeans' lives is, 'How much vacation time will I have and where will I spend that vacation?' That is what happens when the state gets bigger -- you become smaller." --radio talk-show host Dennis Prager
"Many people ask me whether the Democrats are in as much trouble as they were in 1994. The numbers suggest they are in much deeper trouble, at least at this moment." --political analyst Michael Barone
"When the president directed that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other al Qaeda plotters of Sept. 11 be tried in a civilian court in Manhattan, [our] enemies knew they had the president's number for once and all. Now, with even stalwarts in his own party denouncing a civilian trial in Manhattan as the nut-ball idea of the year, he's looking for a smart solution, a way to look tough in retreat. He should take the trial to San Francisco, where the flame that warms the cult burns brightest, and where surely no one would object." --Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden
"[E]verything the president proposes means more debt, which at the level this guy's spending means, at some point down the road, either higher taxes or total societal collapse." --columnist Mark Steyn
"Americans are not victims who need handouts. Americans need the freedom to flourish. And until our president realizes this, he, and America, will lose out." --National Review editor Kathryn Lopez
"We must present a clear choice: stay the course of progressive liberalism, which moves away from popular consent, the rule of law, and constitutional government, and toward a failed, undemocratic, and illiberal form of statism; or correct course in an effort to restore the conditions of liberty and renew the bedrock principles and constitutional wisdom that are the roots of America's continuing greatness." --Heritage Foundation scholar Matthew Spalding
"America's future is clear: Unless we start cutting spending and take control of entitlement programs, our children will go broke making good on our promises. ... The government can never spend its way out of recession. It can only get out of the way, through lower tax rates and less costly regulation, and allow private business to grow again." --columnist Rich Tucker
Dezinformatsia
Repent for the end is near: "If health care doesn't pass, because this budget assumes health care will pass, that's yet another $150 billion that would be tacked on to the deficit." --NBC's Chuck Todd regurgitating the BIG LIE that paying out more government dollars on "health care" is going to save money
Hoping for ObamaCare: "The president outlines a number of measures to reduce the deficit, over $1 trillion worth. But ... perhaps the most surprising, the budget assumes a savings of $150 billion over the next 10 years from health care reform, legislation that is at the very best -- at the most optimistic -- on life support on Capitol Hill right now." --ABC's Jake Tapper (The best and most optimistic would be for ObamaCare to be in the morgue.)
Blame the GOP: "Republicans should know that their partisanship means they are rejecting medical security that is available in most countries of the world for its citizens. Shame on them!" --White House press corpse reporter Helen Thomas
"Tea-party people are libertarians, and on the state level, they are organizing around the notion of using the 10th Amendment (which affirms state's rights) to overturn health-care legislation -- should it still pass by some miracle. It's hard to take their rhetoric seriously. Where else could they go in the world to be freer? It reminds me of the slogan shouted at antiwar protesters, 'America, love it or leave it.'" --Newsweek's Eleanor Clift (You first.)
Poor guy: "If the president of Toyota has big headaches, well, so too, does the president of the United States, putting together a budget in an economic downturn with more than 15 million Americans out of work." --CBS's Katie Couric
Bully pulpit could have a whole new meaning: "[Obama] needs one or two [Republican] votes in the Senate to get anything passed. That's the political reality. But he needs to, perhaps, bully Republicans into doing that, rather than doing this careful walk around them." --Newsweek's Katie Connolly
"The Web"
Newt Gingrich CPAC 2010 Speech Pt 1 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTJ2BLAH910
Newt Gingrich CPAC 2010 Speech Pt 2 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3te9U43SiLQ&feature=related
Newt Gingrich CPAC 2010 Speech Pt 3 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6HBpd3T3Nc&feature=related
Very Good Thoughts on Life
http://wendyusuallywanders.wordpress.com/2008/02/19/very-good-thoughts-on-life/
I walked into the grocery store not particularly interested in buying groceries. I wasn’t hungry. The pain of losing my husband of 57 years was still too raw. And this grocery store held so many sweet memories.
He often came with me and almost every time he’d pretend to go off and look for something special. I knew what he was up to. I’d always spot him walking down the aisle with the three yellow roses in his hands.
He knew I loved yellow roses. With a heart filled with grief, I only wanted to buy my few items and leave, but even grocery shopping was different since he had passed on.
Shopping for one took time, a little more thought than it had for two.
Standing by the meat, I searched for the perfect small steak and remembered how he had loved his steak.
Suddenly a woman came beside me. She was blonde, slim and lovely in a soft green pantsuit. I watched as she picked up a large package of T-bones, dropped them in her basket.. hesitated, and then put them back. She turned to go and once again reached for the pack of steaks.
She saw me watching her and she smiled. ‘My husband loves T-bones, but honestly, at these prices, I don’t know.’
I swallowed the emotion down my throat and met her pale blue eyes.
‘My husband passed away eight days ago,’ I told her. Glancing at the package in her hands, I fought to control the tremble in my voice. ‘Buy him the steaks. And cherish every moment you have together.’
She shook her head and I saw the emotion in her eyes as she placed the package in her basket and wheeled away.
I turned and pushed my cart across the length of the store to the dairy products. There I stood, trying to decide which size milk I should buy. A Quart, I finally decided and moved on to the ice cream. If nothing else, I could always fix myself an ice cream cone.
I placed the ice cream in my cart and looked down the aisle toward the front. I saw first the green suit, then recognized the pretty lady coming towards me. In her arms she carried a package. On her face was the brightest smile! I had ever seen. I would swear a soft halo encircled her blonde hair as she kept walking toward me, her eyes holding mine.
As she came closer, I saw what she held and tears began misting in my eyes. ‘These are for you,’ she said and placed three beautiful long stemmed yellow roses in my arms. ‘When you go through the line, they will know these are paid for.’ She leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on my cheek, then smiled again. I wanted to tell her what she’d done, what the roses meant, but still unable to speak, I watched as she walked away as tears clouded my vision.
I looked down at the beautiful roses nestled in the green tissue wrapping and found it almost unreal. How did she know? Suddenly the answer seemed so clear. I wasn’t alone.
Oh, you haven’t forgotten me, have you? I whispered, with tears in my eyes. He was still with me, and she was his angel.
Every day be thankful for what you have and who you are.
This is a simple request. If you appreciate life, send this to your friends, including the person that sent it to you.
Even though I clutch my blanket and growl when the alarm rings. Thank you, Lord, that I can hear. There are many who are deaf.
Even though I keep my eyes closed against the morning light as long as possible. Thank you, Lord , that I can see. Many are blind.
Even though I huddle in my bed and put off rising. Thank you, Lord, that I have the strength to rise. There are many who are bedridden.
Even though the first hour of my day is hectic, when socks are lost, toast is burned, tempers are short, and my children are so loud.
Thank you, Lord, for my family. There are many who are lonely.
Even though our breakfast table never looks like the picture in magazines and the menu is at times unbalanced.
Thank you, Lord, for the food we have. There are many who are hungry.
Even though the routine of my job often is monotonous. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to work. There are many who have no job.
Even though I grumble and bemoan my fate from day to day and wish my circumstances were not so modest.
Thank you, Lord, for life.
Pass this on to the friends you know. It might help a bit to make this world a better place to live, right? A friend is someone we turn to when our spirits need a lift. A friend is someone to treasure.
For friendship is a gift. A friend is someone who fills our lives with Beauty, Joy and Grace and makes the world we live in a better and happier place.
YOU ARE MY FRIEND!
God bless you and yours.
Morning Bell: The White House Learned Nothing from Massachusetts
http://blog.heritage..org/2010/02/22/morning-bell-the-white-house-learned-nothing-from-massachusetts/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
In July of this year, the American people were mostly undecided about Obamacare: equal numbers opposed and supported the health care bills that the White House was shepherding through Congress. But then August happened and informed Americans turned out at townhalls across the country to express their strong disapproval of Obamacare. The larger American public noticed and pluralities of the American people began to oppose Obamacare. The White House concluded they had a “communications problem” so they scheduled a prime time speech in front of a rare Joint Session of Congress. But the President’s speech arrogantly dismissed the concerns of the American people and after a brief uptick in support (from the low 40s to the mid 40s), opposition to the President’s plan grew.
Then in November, liberals lost governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia as opposition to President Obama’s signature policy priority inched towards 50%. Again the White House concluded that nothing was wrong with their policy agenda and they dismissed their setbacks in two states that had voted for President Barack Obama as local elections with weak candidates. Instead of rethinking their policies and procedures the White House doubled down and pushed for a speedy passage of Obamacare with as little debate as possible. Over the next two months the White House bought support for their health care plan with the Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker Kickback, and big labor tax breaks. And their behind-closed-doors, backroom-deal tactics almost worked … until Massachusetts happened.
Just like in August and November, Sen. Scott Brown’s (R) upset win over Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) took the Obama administration completely by surprise. Again, the White House concluded they had a “communications problem” so this time they scheduled a six-hour health care summit that is supposed to take place at The Blair House, across the street from the White House, this Thursday. But like everything else that has come out of the Obama administration during this health care debate, the President’s effort to “seek common ground” at the summit is completely disingenuous. The New York Times reported this past Friday that the White House is drafting, and will release this morning, a final health care bill they expect Congress to pass quickly. And this bill is specifically designed to pass without any conservative support:
Democratic officials said the president’s proposal was being written so that it could be attached to a budget bill as a way of averting a Republican filibuster in the Senate. The procedure, known as budget reconciliation, would let Democrats advance the bill with a simple majority rather than a 60-vote supermajority.
And a “simple majority” does not mean they need 51 Senators. The nuclear option the White House is now pushing, reconciliation, only requires the Obama administration to muster 50 votes before Vice President Joe Biden can cast a tie breaking vote in favor of a government takeover of health care.
And make no mistake, a government takeover of health care is exactly what Obamacare is. Just last night the White House revealed that one new feature of their legislation will be to give the federal government sweeping new authority to set prices for health insurance. This is on top of the sweeping new authority that Obamacare already grants the federal governemnt to micromanage the coverage details of every single health insurance policy in the country. And since the nuclear option only requires 50 Democratic Senators for passage, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has signaled that an outright government run health insurance company, the public option, will also be included in the final bill.
There is a reason that the longer this health care debate has dragged on, more and more Americans have become solidly against Obamacare: the plan has been exposed as a welfare state takeover of our health care sector that can only be passed by the most partisan and venal tactics. If the President was capable of listening to the American people, and learning from August, November, and Massachusetts, then he would abandon the legislative disasters still pending in the House and Senate and start over. That is what the American people want.
A cautionary tale in healthcare reform
By Noam N. Levey
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/newsletter/la-na-health-insurance21-2010feb21,0,4685325,full.story
Two decades ago, New York passed a law requiring insurers to accept all applicants, even those with preexisting conditions. Now, premiums in the state are the highest in the nation by some estimates.
Reporting from Washington - Spurred by heart-wrenching stories of sick people denied health coverage, the state of New York did what many of President Obama's critics say he should do now -- it passed a relatively simple law requiring insurers to accept all applicants.
Other states have taken similar steps, making narrowly targeted changes instead of trying to overhaul their whole healthcare systems.
But two decades later, New York's experience offers a cautionary tale: Making isolated changes to the complex medical insurance system can have unwelcome consequences.
Premiums in New York are now the highest in the nation by some measures, with individual health coverage costing about $9,000 a year on average. And nearly one in seven New Yorkers still lacks health coverage, a greater proportion than before the law was passed.
The state has become a victim of a dangerous dynamic in insurance markets. Laws allowing consumers to buy insurance at any time often saddle companies with a lot of high-cost customers.
That in turn drives up premiums, pushing away younger, healthier people who are vital to a functioning insurance system.
"You basically can't have a functioning insurance market if people can buy insurance on the way to the hospital," said Mark Hall, a Wake Forest University economist who studied New York's experience.
'Case study'
This issue is now at the heart of one of the biggest fights over Obama's healthcare plan: the so-called mandate requiring Americans to buy insurance -- a requirement that many experts believe is crucial to avoid the problems seen in New York and other states.
"We are sort of a case study of what not to do," said Mark Scherzer, a consumer attorney who helped lead the fight for New York's changes in the early 1990s and is now counsel to New Yorkers for Accessible Health Coverage.
Other states have either abandoned such reforms or been forced to scale them back.
When then-Gov. Mario Cuomo signed New York's insurance law in 1992, many advocates believed the state was charting a path toward affordable, accessible healthcare. Cuomo called the legislation a "forerunner of what we'll [be] seeing nationally."
The law focused on people who did not get health benefits from their employer, forcing them to shop for insurance on their own in what is called the individual market.
To protect these people, state lawmakers approved the "guaranteed issue" provision, which prohibited insurance companies from denying coverage to customers, even those with preexisting conditions.
Such rules became popular in the early 1990s, as states including New Jersey and Washington contended with insurance companies that were denying coverage to people with preexisting health problems.
New York went further, becoming the first state to also include a "pure community rating" requirement that prohibited insurers from varying premiums based on customers' age or health, another common industry practice. Three years later, the state required all HMOs to offer a comprehensive, standardized package of benefits.
The law allowed consumers to buy insurance after they became sick with only a relatively short waiting period. They could also drop it when they no longer needed it.
The New York insurance market did not collapse, as some insurers had warned. But in the ensuing years, more older and sicker New Yorkers bought individual health plans. And premiums shot upward.
Since 2001, the average premiums for a health plan on the individual market in New York has nearly tripled, according to the state Insurance Department. In some counties, it is impossible to buy an individual plan for less than $12,000 a year.
Although New York has higher medical costs than many states, its premiums still outpace other high-cost states.
An informal survey by America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry group, showed that average premiums in New York last year were more than twice those in California and Florida, two other high-cost states.
In New Jersey, which enacted similar insurance rules at the same time as New York, researchers found that the regulations contributed to a 50% decline in enrollment in individual health plans and a two- to threefold increase in premiums.
Kentucky and Washington were forced to roll back their new insurance rules in the 1990s after insurance companies abandoned the state market. In Washington, the three largest insurers simply stopped issuing coverage to individuals.
An exception
Today, New York is one of only a few states that have retained both guaranteed issue and pure community rating rules.
That offers New Yorkers who are sick substantially more protections than consumers in less regulated states such as California, Florida and Texas, where people with cancer or other preexisting conditions are routinely denied coverage.
But with premiums continuing to climb, the market regulations are increasingly becoming an empty promise, said Scherzer, the consumer attorney. "You have to be incredibly sick to make it worthwhile," he said.
Obama and congressional Democrats tried to head off the problem confronting New York by including a requirement in their healthcare legislation that nearly all Americans buy insurance.
This so-called insurance mandate alone would not guarantee lower premiums, many experts concede. Insurance rates in Massachusetts, which included a mandate in its landmark insurance overhaul in 2006, remain relatively high.
But there is broad consensus that a mandate would encourage younger and healthier people to buy insurance, spreading risk more broadly and ultimately helping to restrain the growth of premiums.
New York's largest insurer, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, a division of WellPoint Inc., has calculated that a mandate could bring down premiums 50% to 60%, Empire President Mark Wagar said.
But the mandate has become one of the most controversial elements of congressional Democrats' healthcare bill, and a reason why the bill is so expensive. Most experts believe that if the government requires everyone to buy insurance, it must provide subsidies for low-income consumers.
Now, Republicans and some Democrats are pushing to remove the mandate.
Before they do, they should look north, said Courtney Burke, who directs the Health Policy Research Center at the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, N.Y.
"They could learn from New York's experience," she said. "If you don't have some kind of incentive for people to participate, you are going to have problems."
Cook County a "Dark Pool of Political Corruption"
New study provides insight into 141+ years of political hijinks
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/politics/illinois-corruption-84736672.html
Cook County has been a "dark pool of political corruption" for more than a century, a new study by the University of Illinois at Chicago says.
Nearly 150 employees, politicians and contractors in the nation's second-largest county have been convicted on corruption charges since 1957, according to a report released Thursday by the university and the Better Government Association (.pdf)
The 33-page study gives a history of corruption, starting from 1869 when county commissioners were jailed for rigging a bid to paint City Hall. It also details hiring scandals, including some under Cook County Board President Todd Stroger. Stroger hasn't been charged with any crime.
In the last 36 years, 31 sitting or former Chicago alderman have been convicted of corruption or other crimes. The last was Ike Carothers (29th), who earlier this month plead guilty to charges he accepted gifts in exchange for his votes on zoning issues.
The study says reforms could turn things around, including stricter campaign finance laws and amending a county ethics ordinance.
‘It’s About Jobs, Stupid!’ Says GOP Whip Cantor at CPAC
By Karen Schuberg
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/61646
House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.)
(CNSNews.com) – House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told a packed auditorium on Friday that government jobs overshadow the private sector and that to grow the economy the private sector must be allowed to flourish.
Cantor made his comments at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.
“It’s about jobs, stupid!” said Cantor in his opening remarks. “According to the Department of Labor, today there are over 4 million more Americans working for government than are working in the goods-producing segment of our economy. And these government jobs, they're pretty good jobs.”
Cantor also said, “There are now more union members who work for government than work in the private sector. And they've negotiated some pretty darn good deals for themselves too. Did you know that the average salary in the Department of Education is now over $100,000 a year? Average.”
Cantor said that the key to preserving freedom is in allowing private sector jobs to grow.
“To preserve freedom, we need more individuals who are worried about how high their taxes are and less worried about how rich their government benefits are,” he said.
Growing the economy means balancing the budget, said Cantor, and balancing the budget means decreasing taxes and regulations.
“A smaller Washington will result in a bigger America,” he said. “More jobs and more opportunity for all, for everyone, for ourselves and our children. I look forward to joining alongside you in this fight to reclaim the America that we know.”
Cantor noted that not one Republican voted for the Democrats’ $787 billion economic stimulus bill last year and added that government cannot spend its way out of a recession, any more than an individual can spend his way out of credit card debt.
“Let's face it,” said Cantor, “there is no such thing as a free lunch. Every dollar spent must come out of the private sector,” meaning every tax dollar collected and spent by government is one less dollar spent by individuals in the private sector.
Cantor also said that the Republican Party needed to regain the trust of the American people.
“The people need to see our commitment to enact a reform agenda,” he said. “You know, Thomas Jefferson once advised that in matters of style, swim with the tide. In matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
CPAC is hosted annually by the American Conservative Union Foundation (ACUF) and is co-sponsored by more than 90 other conservative organizations. The CPAC is headquartered at the ACUF and it is the Foundation’s largest annual conference. Last year, CPAC’s attendance was 8,500. Organizers estimate up to 12,000 people will attend this year’s conference, which ends on Saturday, Feb. 20.
Supreme Court Justice Barack Obama?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/18/AR2010021803275.html?sid%3DST2010021803374&sub=AR
(Sketch by David M. Brinley)
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By Jeffrey Rosen
He's too detached and cerebral . Too deferential to Congress. Too willing to compromise . And he's too much of a law professor and not enough of a commander in chief, as Sarah Palin recently admonished.
These are some of the qualities for which the president, rightly or wrongly, is criticized. They are also the qualities that make him well suited for another steady job on the federal payroll: Barack Obama, Supreme Court justice.
Think about it. Though Obama has struggled to find his footing in the White House, his education, temperament and experience make him ideally suited to lead the liberal wing of the court, especially at a time when a narrow conservative majority seems increasingly intent on challenging progressive economic reforms for the first time since the New Deal. Obama is clearly eager to take on the four truly conservative justices -- Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- as his State of the Union smackdown suggests. But as president, he's constrained by that pesky separation of powers. So what better way to engage the fight than to join the bench?
It would be unusual, but not difficult, for Obama to get himself on the Supreme Court. He could nominate himself to replace John Paul Stevens, for example, or he could gamble and promise Hillary Rodham Clinton that he won't run for reelection in 2012 in exchange for a pledge of appointment to the next vacancy. And although as president, Obama has seemed haunted by the example of his political hero, Abraham Lincoln, on the Supreme Court he could take up the mantle of the greatest liberal justice of the 20th century, Louis Brandeis, another community organizer with a background in politics. In the end, Obama's legacy on the court might surpass his legacy in the White House.
Obama's academic credentials for the court -- including serving as president of the Harvard Law Review and teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago -- are obvious. But it's his even temperament and low boiling point that seem tailor-made for the court at this polarized moment. Obama's patient courtship of the vain and wavering swing votes in the Senate (such as Joe Lieberman) during the health-care debate, for example, is ideal preparation for courting the vain and wavering swing vote on the court (Justice Anthony Kennedy). And Obama's detached and judicious disposition would equip him to challenge the conservative hothead, Scalia, without descending to his name-calling.
In terms of judicial philosophy, too, Obama is well suited to take on the pro-corporate activism of the conservative justices -- on display in the recent Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, which gutted campaign finance laws and which, according to recent polls, strong national majorities oppose.
In his 2006 book, "The Audacity of Hope," Obama wrote that throughout American history, constitutional values have generally been defined by ground-up political activism rather than imposed from above by judges. From the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, it was liberals in the political arena, not conservatives, who defended judicial restraint in the face of activist conservative justices who tried to strike down progressive regulations, from the income tax to the minimum wage. But Obama questioned whether, more recently, liberals had become too ready to let courts fight their battles for them. "I wondered," he wrote, "if, in our reliance on the courts to vindicate not only our rights but also our values, progressives had lost too much faith in democracy."
Obama's commitment to judicial restraint is at odds with the activism displayed by the Supreme Court in its Citizens United decision, which called into question not only the McCain-Feingold campaign finance act but also decades of other federal laws and Supreme Court precedents restricting the free speech of corporations. In defending the ruling, Chief Justice Roberts said: "We cannot embrace a narrow ground of decision simply because it is narrow; it must also be right." This overconfidence in knowledge of the right answer is something Obama didn't display while teaching in Chicago. His students have attested to his mastery in neutrally presenting opposing points of view without revealing his own.
When Roberts joined the court, he told me and other journalists that he hoped to emulate his greatest predecessor, Chief Justice John Marshall, encouraging his liberal and conservative colleagues to avoid polarizing constitutional disputes by converging around narrow, unanimous opinions decided on technical grounds. Now that Roberts appears to have abandoned that vision in Citizens United, Obama could take on the role of Supreme Court mediator, conciliator and master compromiser that Roberts promised to play but has not yet delivered.
It's surprising but true that the least successful presidents are often the most judicious, while the most successful justices are the most pragmatic. Obama's willingness to compromise and listen to opposing points of view, in other words, may hamper him in overhauling health care -- public option, anyone? -- but would make him an unusually effective leader on the Supreme Court. As Obama recognized on the campaign trail when he cited former chief justice and three-time California governor Earl Warren as his judicial hero, the most effective judicial leaders have been former politicians.
During the presidential campaign, Obama was critical of Roberts's self-description as an "umpire" and his likening of the court's role to simply calling balls and strikes. "We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom," Obama said. "The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African American, or gay, or disabled, or old."
But Warren's success as chief justice came not so much from his ability to empathize with the downtrodden as from his ability to empathize with his colleagues. Because of his political skills, Warren achieved the kind of success that has eluded Roberts: He persuaded a fractious court to reach a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case striking down school segregation, by visiting the wavering justices one by one and persuading them to set aside their doubts. A majority of the justices on the court that decided Brown had a background in electoral politics; no justices on the Roberts court do. In a group of former law professors, prosecutors and trial judges, Obama would look like a political wizard.
There's another distinctive perspective that he would bring to the bench: economic populism. After a long flirtation with the Tim Geithner, pro-Wall Street, "too big to fail" wing of the Democratic Party, Obama has at last thrown in his lot with the view, espoused first by Brandeis and now by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, that huge corporations should be broken up before they threaten another crash. And this view badly needs a stalwart defender on a Supreme Court that seems on the verge of confronting an economically progressive Congress.
On the Roberts court, the liberal and conservative justices share a pro-business orientation, or at least a suspicion of regulation by litigation: Business cases in recent years have made up 40 percent of the court's docket, and, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 79 percent of them are decided by a 7 to 2 majority or greater. None of the current liberal justices, moreover, had a strong record as an economic populist before joining the court. At a time when liberals need a passionate voice to oppose conservative economic judicial activism, Obama seems well prepared to transform the debate.
Louis Brandeis, who served on the high court from 1916 to 1939, offers a good model for Obama. Known as "the people's lawyer," he was an economic populist, criticizing the "curse of bigness" that led oligarchs such as J.P. Morgan to threaten the entire financial system by taking reckless risks with "other people's money" and then to demand government bailouts after their bad bets. But Brandeis opposed bigness in government as well as in the private sector, and during the New Deal he preferred regulations that prevented companies from getting too large in the first place -- such as the Glass-Steagall Act separating commercial from investment banking -- rather than the creation of huge federal bureaucracies to regulate the economy.
On the high court, Brandeis generally stood for judicial restraint, denouncing conservatives for striking down progressive state economic regulations. But he also believed fiercely in the First Amendment and freedom from unreasonable searches. Both a pragmatist and a civil libertarian, he provides a judicial ideal for Obama, whose record resembles his in many respects.
So, could it actually happen? David Gergen, the CNN commentator who served as an adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton, recently reflected on Obama's State of the Union speech in an appearance on Comedy Central's "Colbert Report." Although he praised Obama's intellectual abilities and presidential campaign, he lamented his "detached" and "professorial" attitude once in office. "There was some sense last night when watching Barack Obama and the Supreme Court sitting in front of him, [that] he'd be great on the Supreme Court," Gergen said.
But could Obama get confirmed? As a senator, he voted against the confirmations of Roberts and Alito, and GOP lawmakers might hold that against him in his own confirmation hearing. Yet, although it would be hard for a Brandeis to be confirmed in today's polarized age, Obama might get some deference as a former president, at least from senators who would rather have him on the court than in the White House.
Whether Obama would be bored by the Supreme Court is another question. Justices with presidential ambitions have often chafed at the isolation of the marble palace. For example, William O. Douglas -- who wanted the presidency, according to his friend Tommy Cochran, more than Don Quixote wanted Dulcinea -- never stopped complaining that the court was too removed from the political action. But having seen the frustrations of the White House, perhaps Obama would instead come around to the view of William Howard Taft, who became chief justice after serving as president and decided that leading the court was a far better job than leading the country. The summer vacations are longer, and nothing beats life tenure.
Jeffrey Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University, is the legal affairs editor of the New Republic and the author of "The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America.
"The e-mail Bag"
Letter from Grandpa
John G. is 63 years old and owns a small business. He’s a life-long Republican and sees his dream of retiring next year has all but evaporated. With the stock market crashing and new taxes coming his way, John assumes now that he will work to his dying day.
John has a granddaughter. Ashley is a recent college grad. She drives a flashy hybrid car, wears all the latest fashions, and loves to go out to nightclubs and restaurants. Ashley campaigned hard for Barack Obama. After the election she made sure her grandfather (and all other Republican family members) received a big I told-you-so earful on how the world is going to be a much better place now that her party is taking over.
Having lost both roommates, Ashley recently ran short of cash and cannot pay the rent (again) on her 3 bedroom townhouse. Like she has done many times in the past, she e-mailed her grandfather asking for some financial help.
Here is his reply:
Sweetheart,
I received your request for assistance.
Ashley, you know I love you dearly and I’m sympathetic to your financial plight. Unfortunately, times have changed. With the election of President Obama, your grandmother and I have had to set forth a bold new economic plan of our own…”The Ashley Economic Empowerment Plan.” Let me explain.
Your grandmother and I are life-long, wage-earning tax payers. We have lived a comfortable life, as you know, but we have never had the fancier things like European vacations, luxury cars, etc. We have worked hard and were looking forward to retiring soon. But the plan has changed. Your president is raising our personal and business taxes significantly. He says it is so he can give our hard earned money to other people. Do you know what this means, Ashley? It means less for us, and we must cut back on many business and personal expenses.
You know the wonderful receptionist who worked in my office for more than 23 years? The one who always gave you candy when you came over to visit? I had to let her go last week. I can’t afford to pay her salary and all of the government mandated taxes that go with having employees. Your grandmother will now work 4 days a week to answer phones, take orders and handle the books. We will be closed on Fridays and will lose even more income to the Wal-Mart.
I’m also very sorry to report that your cousin Frank will no longer be working summers in the warehouse. I called him at school this morning. He already knows about it and he’s upset because he will have to give up skydiving and his yearly trip to Greenland to survey the polar bears.
That’s just the business side of things. Some personal economic effects of Obama’s new taxation policies include none other than you. You know very well that over the years your grandmother and I have given you thousands of dollars in cash, tuition assistance, food, housing, clothing, gifts, etc., etc. But by your vote, you have chosen to help others — not at your expense — but at our expense.
If you need money now sweetheart, I recommend you call 202-456-1111. That is the direct phone number for the White House. You yourself told me how foolish it is to vote Republican. You said Mr. Obama is going to be the People’s President, and is going to help every American live a better life. Based on everything you’ve told me, along with all the promises we heard during the campaign, I’m sure Mr. Obama will be happy to transfer some stimulus money into your bank account. Have him call me for the account number which I memorized years ago.
Perhaps you can now understand what I’ve been saying all my life: those who vote for a president should consider the impact on the nation as a whole, and not be just concerned with what they can get for themselves. What Obama supporters don’t seem to realize is all of the money he is redistributing to illegal aliens and non-taxpaying Americans (the so-called “less fortunate”) comes from tax-paying families.
Remember how you told me, “Only the richest of the rich will be affected”? Well guess what, honey? Because we own a business, your grandmother and I are now considered to be the richest of the rich. On paper, it might look that way, but in the real world, we are far from it.
As you said while campaigning for Obama, some people will have to carry more of the burden so all of America can prosper. You understand what that means, right? It means that raising taxes on productive people results in them having less money; less money for everything, including granddaughters.
I’m sorry, Ashley, but the well has run dry. The free lunches are over. I have no money to give you now. So, congratulations on your choice for “change.” For future reference, I encourage you to try and add up the total value of the gifts and cash you have received from us, just since you went off to college, and compare it to what you expect to get from Mr. Obama over the next 4 (or so years. I have not kept track of it, Ashley. It has all truly been the gift of our hearts.
Remember, we love you dearly….but from now on you’ll need to call the number mentioned above. Your “Savior” has the money we would have given to you. Just try and get it from him.
Good luck, sweetheart.
Love,
Grandpa
Monday, February 22, 2010
ConservativeChristianRepublican-Report - 20100222
Motivational-Inspirational-Historical-Educational-Political-Enjoyable
Promoting "God's Holy Values and American Freedoms"!
"Daily Motivations"
212° the extra degree
http://www.the212movie.com/?SRC=DI1110&utm_source=Walk+the+Talk+Master+List&utm_campaign=f574a89d74-DI_1_1_10&utm_medium=email
"In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high." -- Henry David Thoreau
"The one who asks questions doesn't lose his way." -- African Proverb
Courage is fear holding on a minute longer. -- George S. Patton
"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)
The Father and I are one. (John 10:30)
Theologians have called God's triune nature the Trinity. The members of the Trinity are involved with everything together, yet they also have distinct roles. This is hinted at in the first chapter in the Bible. Genesis 1:26 reads, "Let us make people in our image" (emphasis added). The plural pronouns "us" and "our" mean that more than one person was involved. Who else but God was present during creation? No one. Therefore, the Trinity in its simplest terms means one God manifested in three persons with three distinctive roles.
God the Father is first in the Trinity. In general, He orchestrates action. For example, He sent to earth God the Son, Jesus, and bestowed His authority upon Him.
God the Son is the second person of the Trinity. Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human. He is the cornerstone and head of the worldwide Church. Jesus now sits at the right hand of God the Father interceding for His Church.
God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is our Comforter. As the "active arm" of God on earth, He lives within believers and guides us into all truth. He convicts us of sin and helps us know God and His will.
Yet God is still one. It is difficult for us, with our limited comprehension, to understand how God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are distinct personalities, co-equal, yet one at the same time. Because we are finite our best efforts to understand this relationship fall far short.
Your View of God Really Matters …
Describe one way you personally relate to each Person of the triune Godhead.
"The Patriot Post"
"The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men." --Alexander Hamilton
F-22 Raptor
Editorial Exegesis
"Last week the Russian air force celebrated the maiden flight of the Sukhoi T-50, Moscow's version of the American F-22 Raptor stealth fighter. We have shut down the F-22 production line, viewing it as an unaffordable and unnecessary extravagance. We mention this in light of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's statement that President Obama's proposed freeze on discretionary domestic programs should also cover defense expenditures. Unfortunately, our enemies aren't freezing their defense budgets. ... Defense is not a discretionary budget item. It's a constitutional imperative and one of the reasons we have a government. The greatest social service a government can perform for its people is to keep them alive and free. 'Everybody has to make a sacrifice,' Pelosi [said], shortly before Obama announced his proposed discretionary spending freeze in his State of the Union address. By everybody, she evidently was excluding herself; the speaker's interest in Air Force jets does not extend beyond the ones that fly her and her family around. Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Judicial Watch show that Pelosi has incurred expenses of $2.1 million for her use of Air Force jets the past two years. Then there's the matter of the $101,000 tab taxpayers picked up over that period for 'in-flight services,' including a selection of top-shelf booze. ... Pelosi has used Air Force aircraft to travel back to her district at average cost of $28,210.51 per flight. ... We suggest that since everybody has to make a sacrifice, it not come at the expense of the U.S. military. We can't build any more Raptors, but we can use Air Force jets as sky taxis for politicians who consider themselves too important to fly commercial." --Investor's Business Daily
Insight
"A man's most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe." --Greek playwright Euripides (485-406 B.C.)
"The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency. It proceeds from not knowing what is going on in other people's minds." --British journalist Walter Bagehot (1826-1877)
Upright
"The bigger the government, the less I do for myself, for my family and for my community. That is why we Americans give more charity and devote more time to volunteering than Europeans do. The European knows: The government, the state, will take care of me, my children, my parents, my neighbors and my community. I don't have to do anything. The bigger question in many Europeans' lives is, 'How much vacation time will I have and where will I spend that vacation?' That is what happens when the state gets bigger -- you become smaller." --radio talk-show host Dennis Prager
"Many people ask me whether the Democrats are in as much trouble as they were in 1994. The numbers suggest they are in much deeper trouble, at least at this moment." --political analyst Michael Barone
"When the president directed that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other al Qaeda plotters of Sept. 11 be tried in a civilian court in Manhattan, [our] enemies knew they had the president's number for once and all. Now, with even stalwarts in his own party denouncing a civilian trial in Manhattan as the nut-ball idea of the year, he's looking for a smart solution, a way to look tough in retreat. He should take the trial to San Francisco, where the flame that warms the cult burns brightest, and where surely no one would object." --Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden
"[E]verything the president proposes means more debt, which at the level this guy's spending means, at some point down the road, either higher taxes or total societal collapse." --columnist Mark Steyn
"Americans are not victims who need handouts. Americans need the freedom to flourish. And until our president realizes this, he, and America, will lose out." --National Review editor Kathryn Lopez
"We must present a clear choice: stay the course of progressive liberalism, which moves away from popular consent, the rule of law, and constitutional government, and toward a failed, undemocratic, and illiberal form of statism; or correct course in an effort to restore the conditions of liberty and renew the bedrock principles and constitutional wisdom that are the roots of America's continuing greatness." --Heritage Foundation scholar Matthew Spalding
"America's future is clear: Unless we start cutting spending and take control of entitlement programs, our children will go broke making good on our promises. ... The government can never spend its way out of recession. It can only get out of the way, through lower tax rates and less costly regulation, and allow private business to grow again." --columnist Rich Tucker
Dezinformatsia
Repent for the end is near: "If health care doesn't pass, because this budget assumes health care will pass, that's yet another $150 billion that would be tacked on to the deficit." --NBC's Chuck Todd regurgitating the BIG LIE that paying out more government dollars on "health care" is going to save money
Hoping for ObamaCare: "The president outlines a number of measures to reduce the deficit, over $1 trillion worth. But ... perhaps the most surprising, the budget assumes a savings of $150 billion over the next 10 years from health care reform, legislation that is at the very best -- at the most optimistic -- on life support on Capitol Hill right now." --ABC's Jake Tapper (The best and most optimistic would be for ObamaCare to be in the morgue.)
Blame the GOP: "Republicans should know that their partisanship means they are rejecting medical security that is available in most countries of the world for its citizens. Shame on them!" --White House press corpse reporter Helen Thomas
"Tea-party people are libertarians, and on the state level, they are organizing around the notion of using the 10th Amendment (which affirms state's rights) to overturn health-care legislation -- should it still pass by some miracle. It's hard to take their rhetoric seriously. Where else could they go in the world to be freer? It reminds me of the slogan shouted at antiwar protesters, 'America, love it or leave it.'" --Newsweek's Eleanor Clift (You first.)
Poor guy: "If the president of Toyota has big headaches, well, so too, does the president of the United States, putting together a budget in an economic downturn with more than 15 million Americans out of work." --CBS's Katie Couric
Bully pulpit could have a whole new meaning: "[Obama] needs one or two [Republican] votes in the Senate to get anything passed. That's the political reality. But he needs to, perhaps, bully Republicans into doing that, rather than doing this careful walk around them." --Newsweek's Katie Connolly
"The Web"
Glenn Beck Delivers Keynote Speech To Enthusiastic CPAC
Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/02/20/glenn-beck-delivers-keynote-address-enthusiastic-cpac
What the Tea Party Movement Must Never Forget
http://www.americanvision.org/article/what-the-tea-party-movement-must-never-forget/
by Gary DeMar
What is government? When this question is asked, most people respond by equating government solely to a centralized civil State. Even our language reflects the confusion: “Government? It’s in Washington,” or “The government will take care of its citizens through its many programs.” Both of these statements reflect a misunderstanding of the true nature of government. They portray the idea that the only governing institution is a political one. Historically, however, the term “government” was always qualified in some way, unlike our present-day definitions.
Our educational system reflects the same confusion. A generation ago, high school classes dealing with state government were given the title “Civics.” The emphasis was on the function of government in civil matters. This is no longer the case. Before World War I, textbooks dealing with national government were qualified with the title “Civil.” An example of this can be seen in a textbook used in 1903: Elements of Civil Government. According to its author, “The family... Is a form of government, established for the good of children themselves, and the first government that each of us must obey.”[1] The book continues by defining five areas of civil government: “the township or civil district, the village or the city, the county, the State, and the United States.” [2] The term “government” as the older educational definition indicates, is broader than the State. Textbook writers were aware that there were personal (self), family, church, school, and civil governments, each having a legitimate realm of authority. Civil government was seen as only one government among many.
To deny the validity of the many governments and the responsibilities that each has under God, would be to deny the authority that belongs to each of them in the realm of their activity. If we as individuals neglect our personal governing duties, then we can expect the state to assume the role of all other legitimate governments and claim to be the sole government, while labeling all others as counterfeits. Therefore, to see the state as the only governing institution “is destructive of liberty and of life.”[3]
The concept of the multiplicity of governments was as old as our country, because the principles were extracted from biblical principles. Noah Webster’s definition of government in his American Dictionary of the English Language (1828) reflects the biblical concept of the diversity of governmental authority. Webster defined government in this way: “Direction; regulation. ‘These precepts will serve for the government of our conduct.’ Control; restraint. ‘Men are apt to neglect the government of their temper and passions.’”
While Noah Webster defined government in terms of personal self-control, most modern definitions largely limit government to the realm of institutions, especially civil or statist governments. This is made evident by the fact that the definition for civil government is placed first in modern dictionaries. Nowhere are self- and family governments even listed. For example, Webster’s New World Dictionary (1972) defines government as “The exercise of authority over a state, district, organization, institution, etc.”
Noah Webster, in the older definition, even goes on to include family government as part of the complete definition before he deals with the government of an individual civil government at the state or national level. He defines family government as: “The exercise of authority by a parent or householder. ‘Children are often ruined by a neglect of government in parents.’” According to the Bible, it is the duty of parents to govern in the home: “And fathers, do not provoke your children to anger; but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). It is not the duty of a civil government to interfere with the affairs of the family. Too often, however, parents neglect their God-given duty to raise their children in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord.” When this happens, we can expect the State to take an increasingly dominant role in family affairs. Such a role is to the detriment of the family. The State on many occasions has even claimed ownership of children.
If generations continue to be indoctrinated with the modern definition of “government,” they will neglect their own personal, family, church, and local governing duties. They will believe that these responsibilities are outside their area of authority and jurisdiction. Each generation will become more dependent on the “benevolent” State for care and security. We are beginning to see such a trend. “Today, most Americans have lost their faith in Christ as Savior, and they expect civil government to be their savior. They have no desire for the responsibilities of self-government, and so they say to politicians, ‘Do thou rule over us.’ Instead of Jesus Christ as their good shepherd, they elect politicians to be their shepherds on a program of socialistic security for all.”[4]
Government begins with the individual and extends outward to include all institutions. Presently, however, most Americans are unaware of the varied nature of government. The civil sphere of government has assumed responsibility to be the government. It is sad that many Americans are thankful that Washington has relieved them from what they believe is the heavy burden of governing themselves, their families, churches, and schools. If the people of the United States do not once again establish self-, family, church, local, state, and national governments and limit them in power and authority, our nation is doomed.
Conde Pallen’s “utopian” novel Crucible Island depicts what happens when the God of the Bible is rejected and the State becomes God. Man looks for a substitute provider so “the individual should have no thought, desire, or object other than the public welfare, of which the State is the creator and the inviolable guardian. As soon as the child is capable of learning, he is taught the Socialist catechism, whose first questions run as follows”:
Q. By whom were you begotten?
A. By the sovereign State.
Q. Why were you begotten?
A. That I might know, love, and serve the Sovereign State always.
Q. What is the sovereign State?
A. The sovereign State is humanity in composite and perfect being.
Q. Why is the State supreme?
A. The State is supreme because it is my Creator and Conserver in which I am and move and have my being and without which I am nothing.
Q. What is the individual?
A. The individual is only a part of the whole, and made for the whole, and finds his complete and perfect expression in the sovereign State. Individuals are made for cooperation only, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth.[5]
The central focus of all realms of government is the regenerating work of Jesus Christ. Institutions and civil governments are made up of people who are governed by the condition of their hearts. If the heart is in rebellion against God, we can expect undisciplined and ungovernable people. If the heart has been made new in Christ, we can expect a people who will govern their lives according to the governing principles of Scripture. A. A. Hodge speaks of the essence of the new heart, regeneration, as consisting of “the implantation of a new governing principle of life—from the fact that it is a ‘new birth’ [John 3:3], a ‘new creation’ [2 Cor. 5:17], wrought by the mighty power of God in execution of his eternal purpose of salvation, and that it is as necessary for the most moral and amiable as for the morally abandoned.”[6]
Army translator program an invitation to jihadists?
Ft. Jackson 5 inquiry blows lid off program offering Muslims quick path to citizenship
By Drew Zahn
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=125618
Fort Jackson NCO Club and dining room
Five Muslim soldiers under investigation for plotting to poison the food supply at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, according to CBN News, are part of a military program that offers foreign nationals a quick path to U.S. citizenship in exchange for even just a single day of active duty.
The ability to receive expedited American citizenship from within the Army, speculates CBN Military Correspondent Chuck Holton, "must present a tempting opportunity for jihadi extremists with ulterior motives."
As WND reported, CBN News maintains that just before Christmas, five soldiers who were part of the Arabic translation program at Fort Jackson were investigated after they were allegedly overheard discussing plans to poison food at the base.
Army Criminal Investigation Division spokesman Christopher Gray has further revealed to CBN reporter Erick Stakelbeck that the "Fort Jackson Five" were part of a small unit at the base called 09 Lima, a part of the Civilian Acquired Skills program, which welcomes into the military non-U.S. citizens who speak Arabic, Dari, Pashto or other needed languages.
One of the program's directors, Lt. Col Frank Deminth, explains that these recruits are then placed into an expedited citizenship program, "once they serve one day of honorable active duty."
According to an American Forces Press Service report, "The 09L program began in February 2003 when the assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs was tasked with recruiting native speakers to assist U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan with interpretations, translations, cultural familiarity and an understanding of the nuances of body language."
"Commanders in the field have said that the 09 Lima program has been very successful and has helped to improve the performanceof their units," boasted Deminth in a video posted on YouTube. "The 09 Lima soldier brings with him the ability to communicate with the local populace and saves both American and local lives."
But Patrick Poole, a counterterrorism specialist and adviser to the U.S. government and law enforcement, cautions that the military must stop dismissing warnings of jihadist infiltration.
Poole told the Washington
Times that "public affairs and equal opportunity officials" are too often trumping sound intelligence and demonstrating a "professional ignorance" of domestic terrorism.
"My colleagues and I have been warning of jihadist threats – both external and internal – for several years," Poole told CBN News. "The Pentagon has entirely ignored us, and the Ft. Hood report released last month is evidence of the culture of willful blindness that wants to pretend this threat doesn't exist. Regardless of how the Ft. Jackson incident is resolved, it demonstrates that this threat is not going away."
At Fort Jackson, 09 Lima recruits are taught English, American customs and military culture as a sort of pre-basic training.
Clayton Leishman, program manager, told the Association of the United States Army last summer that the 34 recruits then in the program had scored a 50 but below 80 on the English Comprehension examination, but with up to 24 weeks of individually programmed courses, the soldiers are prepared for basic training.
Capt. Dwayne Wade, company commander, said, "They learn basic military skills, but nothing that deals with a weapon. They have classes in cultural awareness, customs and courtesies, equal opportunity. We have PT every morning, mainly stretching."
Army spokesman Christopher Garver reportedly told CBN News the five 09 Lima soldiers questioned two months ago are not currently in custody, and CBS News reports that three of the five soldiers have now been cleared.
"While the investigation continues, there is currently no credible evidence to substantiate the allegations," spokeswoman Julia Simpkins told Associated Press. "At no time was there any danger to the Fort Jackson community."
Fort Jackson is the largest and most active Initial Entry Training Center in the U.S. Army, training 50 percent of all soldiers and 80 percent of the women entering the Army each year. It's food service reportedly includes 13 dining halls and serves about 40,000 hot meals on the base daily.
Red Shirt Friday...
Last week, while traveling to Chicago on business, I noticed a Marine sergeant traveling with a folded flag, but did not put two and two together.
After we boarded our flight, I turned to the sergeant, who'd been invited to sit in First Class (across from me), and inquired if he was heading home.
No, he responded.
Heading out I asked?
No. I'm escorting a soldier home.
Going to pick him up?
No. He is with me right now. He was killed in Iraq , I'm taking him home to his family.
The realization of what he had been asked to do hit me like a punch to the gut. It was an honor for him. He told me that, although he didn't know the soldier, he had delivered the news of his passing to the soldier's family and felt as if he knew them after many conversations in so few days.
I turned back to him, extended my hand, and said, Thank you. Thank you for doing what you do so my family and I can do what we do.
Upon landing in Chicago the pilot stopped short of the gate and made the following announcement over the intercom.
'Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to note that we have had the honor of having Sergeant Steeley of the United States Marine Corps join us on this flight. He is escorting a fallen comrade back home to his family. I ask that you please remain in your seats when we open the forward door to allow Sergeant Steeley to deplane and receive his fellow soldier. We will then turn off the seat belt sign.'
Without a sound, all went as requested. I noticed the sergeant saluting the casket as it was brought off the plane, and his action made me realize that I am proud to be an American.
So here's a public Thank You to our military Men and Women for what you do so we can live the way we do.
Red Fridays.
Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the "silent majority". We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers. We are not organized, boisterous or overbearing.
Many Americans, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of America supports our troops. Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday -- and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that .. every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar, will wear something red.
By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers. If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, coworkers, friends, and family, it will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once 'silent' majority is on their side more than ever, certainly more than the media lets on.
The first thing a soldier says when asked 'What can we do to make things better for you is, 'We need your support and your prayers.' Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example, and wear something red every Friday.
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you;
Jesus Christ and the American Soldier.
One died for your soul; the other for your freedom .
Hope Rides Alone
Letter from Sgt.Eddie Jeffers:
I stare out into the darkness from my post, and I watch the city burn to the ground. I smell the familiar smells, I walk through the familiar rubble, and I look at the frightened faces that watch me pass down the streets of their neighborhoods. My nerves hardly rest; my hands are steady on a device that has been given to me from my government for the purpose of taking the lives of others.
I sweat, and I am tired. My back aches from the loads I carry. Young American boys look to me to direct them in a manner that will someday allow them to see their families again...and yet, I too, am just a boy....my age not but a few years more than that of the ones I lead. I am stressed, I am scared, and I am paranoid...because death is everywhere. It waits for me, it calls to me from around street corners and windows, and it is always there.
There are the demons that follow me, and tempt me into thoughts and actions that are not my own...but that are necessary for survival. I've made compromises with my humanity. And I am not alone in this. Miles from me are my brethren in this world, who walk in the same streets...who feel the same things, whether they admit to it or not.
And to think, I volunteered for this...
And I am ignorant to the rest of the world...or so I thought.
But even thousands of miles away, in Ramadi, Iraq, the cries and screams and complaints of the ungrateful reach me. In a year, I will be thrust back into society from a life and mentality that doesn't fit your average man. And then, I will be alone. And then, I will walk down the streets of America, and see the yellow ribbon stickers on the cars of the same people who compare our President to Hitler.
I will watch the television and watch the Cindy Sheehans, and the Al Frankens, and the rest of the ignorant sheep of America spout off their mouths about a subject they know nothing about. It is their right, however, and it is a right that is defended by hundreds of thousands of boys and girls scattered across the world, far from home. I use the word boys and girls, because that's what they are. In the Army, the average age of the infantryman is nineteen years old. The average rank of soldiers killed in action is Private First Class.
People like Cindy Sheehan are ignorant. Not just to this war, but to the results of their idiotic ramblings, or at least I hope they are. They don't realize its effects on this war. In this war, there are no Geneva Conventions, no cease fires. Medics and Chaplains are not spared from the enemy's brutality because it's against the rules. I can only imagine the horrors a military Chaplain would experience at the hands of the enemy. The enemy slinks in the shadows and fights a coward’s war against us. It is effective though, as many men and women have died since the start of this war. And the memory of their service to America is tainted by the inconsiderate remarks on our nation's news outlets. And every day, the enemy changes...only now, the enemy is becoming something new. The enemy is transitioning from the Muslim extremists to Americans. The enemy is becoming the very people whom we defend with our lives. And they do not realize it. But in denouncing our actions, denouncing our leaders, denouncing the war we live and fight, they are isolating the military from society...and they are becoming our enemy.
Democrats and peace activists like to toss the word "quagmire" around and compare this war to Vietnam. In a way they are right, this war is becoming like Vietnam. Not the actual war, but in the isolation of country and military. America is not a nation at war; they are a nation with its military at war. Like it or not, we are here, some of us for our second, or third times; some even for their fourth and so on. Americans are so concerned now with politics, that it is interfering with our war.
Terrorists cut the heads off of American citizens on the internet...and there is no outrage, but an American soldier kills an Iraqi in the midst of battle, and there are investigations, and sometimes soldiers are even jailed...for doing their job.
It is absolutely sickening to me to think our country has come to this. Why are we so obsessed with the bad news? Why will people stop at nothing to be against this war, no matter how much evidence of the good we've done is thrown in their face? When is the last time CNN or MSNBC or CBS reported the opening of schools and hospitals in Iraq? Or the leaders of terror cells being detained or killed? It's all happening, but people will not let up their hatred of President Bush. They will ignore the good news, because it just might show people that Bush was right.
America has lost its will to fight. It has lost its will to defend what is right and just in the world. The crazy thing of it all is that the American people have not even been asked to sacrifice a single thing. It’s not like World War II, where people rationed food and turned in cars to be made into metal for tanks. The American people have not been asked to sacrifice anything. Unless you are in the military or the family member of a servicemember, its life as usual...the war doesn't affect you.
But it affects us. And when it is over and the troops come home and they try to piece together what's left of them after their service...where will the detractors be then? Where will the Cindy Sheehans be to comfort and talk to soldiers and help them sort out the last couple years of their lives, most of which have been spent dodging death and wading through the deaths of their friends? They will be where they always are, somewhere far away, where the horrors of the world can't touch them. Somewhere where they can complain about things they will never experience in their lifetime; things that the young men and women of America have willingly taken upon their shoulders.
We are the hope of the Iraqi people. They want what everyone else wants in life: safety, security, somewhere to call home. They want a country that is safe to raise their children in. Not a place where their children will be abducted, raped and murdered if they do not comply with the terrorists demands. They want to live on, rebuild and prosper. And America has given them the opportunity, but only if we stay true to the cause and see it to its end. But the country must unite in this endeavor...we cannot place the burden on our military alone. We must all stand up and fight, whether in uniform or not. And supporting us is more than sticking yellow ribbon stickers on your cars. It's supporting our President, our troops and our cause.
Right now, the burden is all on the American soldiers. Right now, hope rides alone. But it can change, it must change. Because there is only failure and darkness ahead for us as a country, as a people, if it doesn't.
Let's stop all the political nonsense, let's stop all the bickering, let's stop all the bad news and let's stand and fight! Isn't that what America is about anyway?
Sergeant Eddie Jeffers is a US Army Infantryman serving in Ramadi, Iraq.
Since writing this Sgt Jeffers has paid the ultimate price in service of his country.
Obama to tout housing help Friday in Las Vegas
By BEN FELLER
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100219/D9DV7SS00.html
LAS VEGAS (AP) - President Barack Obama is unveiling $1.5 billion in housing help, a boost timed to his appearance in the city with the worst foreclosure crisis in the nation.
Obama's move, detailed by aides in advance of his town hall here Friday, is the latest by a White House determined to show it is helping families rebound from a deep recession. The downturn is taking an election-year toll on Obama's party as voter frustration builds.
Obama was to announce that housing finance agencies in the five hardest-hit states in the housing crisis will receive $1.5 billion to help spur local solutions to the problem. Those five are Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada.
The policy wrinkle comes during a two-day Western trip with different agendas for the president. He will be back in town-hall mode, a venue that aides say allows him to connect with people and distance himself from the messy process of Washington governing.
The president is also out to help vulnerable senators protect their seats and, in turn, gain as much legislative leverage as he can.
At the town hall and a business speech he will be lending his support to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a top 2010 election target of Republicans.
Obama's political involvement comes as the Democrats' command of the Senate grows shakier, jeopardizing the president's agenda. The tide of change that Obama rode to office is threatening to slam against his own party.
The first day of the trip was all politics. Obama campaigned Thursday for Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado in Denver, then held a $1 million fundraiser for Democrats in Las Vegas.
Reid is one of Obama's allies, despite a flap over the president's tendency to refer to Las Vegas as a symbol of imprudent spending, which has the city's mayor fuming at the president.
For Obama, slowing the foreclosure rate is a key step in the recovery of the overall economy. Millions of people have lost their homes because they couldn't afford the mortgages anymore, and millions lost jobs because of the associated slowdown in new home building.
Reid's state leads the nation in home foreclosures; Las Vegas was the metro area with the highest foreclosure rate in January, with one in every 82 homes receiving such a filing.
The money for the new rescue effort will come from the $700 billion financial industry bailout program, according to a senior administration official who spoke anonymously Thursday night because the formal announcement had not been made.
Economic issues, such as unemployment or reduced income, are expected to be the main catalysts for foreclosures this year. Initially, subprime mortgages were mostly the culprit, but homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are the fastest growing group of foreclosures.
Obama will cap his Las Vegas trip with a speech to the city's Chamber of Commerce before returning to Washington later Friday.
NO NURSING HOME FOR US
http://www.city-data.com/forum/other-topics/528254-hey-no-nursing-home-us.html
No nursing home for us. We are checking into the Holiday Inn!
With the average cost for a nursing home care costing $188.00 per day, there is a better way when we get old & feeble.
We have already checked on reservations at the Holiday Inn. For a combined long term stay discount and senior discount, it's $49.23 per night.
That leaves $138.77 a day for: Breakfast, lunch and dinner in any restaurant we want, or room service, laundry, gratuities and special TV movies. Plus, they provide a swimming pool, a workout room, a lounge and washer-dryer, etc. Most have free toothpaste and razors, and all have free shampoo and soap.
$5 worth of tips a day will have the entire staff scrambling to help you.
They treat you like a customer, not a patient.
There is a city bus stop out front, and seniors ride free. The handicap bus will also pick you up (if you fake a decent limp).
To meet other nice people, call a church bus on Sundays.
For a change of scenery, take the airport shuttle bus and eat at one of the nice restaurants there. While you're at the airport, fly somewhere. Otherwise, the cash keeps building up.
It takes months to get into decent nursing homes. Holiday Inn will take your reservation today. And you are not stuck in one place forever, you can move from Inn to Inn, or even from city to city. Want to see Hawaii ? They have a Holiday Inn there too.
TV broken? Light bulbs need changing? Need a mattress replaced? No problem. They fix everything, and apologize for the inconvenience.
The Inn has a night security person and daily room service. The maid checks to see if you are ok. If not, they will call the undertaker or an ambulance. If you fall and break a hip, Medicare will pay for the hip, and Holiday Inn will upgrade you to a suite for the rest of your life.
And no worries about visits from family. They will always be glad to find you, and probably check in for a few days mini-vacation.
The grand kids can use the pool. What more can you ask for?
So, when we reach that golden age, We'll face it with a grin.
"The e-mail Bag"
NOMINATED THE BEST JOKE OF THE YEAR
http://www.sodahead.com/fun/wednesday-joke-lol/blog-252657/
A Russian arrives in New York City as a new immigrant to the United States . He stops the first person he sees walking down the street and says, "Thank you Mr. American for letting me into this country, giving me housing, food stamps, free medical care, and a free education!"
The passerby says, "You are mistaken, I am a Mexican." The man goes on and encounters another passerby. "Thank you for having such a beautiful country here in America ."
The person says, "I not American, I Vietnamese."
The new arrival walks farther, and the next person he sees he stops, shakes his hand, and says, “Thank you for wonderful America !”
That person puts up his hand and says, "I am from Middle East . I am not American."
He finally sees a nice lady and asks, "Are you an American?"
She says, "No, I am from Africa ."
Puzzled, he asks her, "Where are all the Americans?"
The African lady checks her watch and says, "Probably at work."
Promoting "God's Holy Values and American Freedoms"!
"Daily Motivations"
212° the extra degree
http://www.the212movie.com/?SRC=DI1110&utm_source=Walk+the+Talk+Master+List&utm_campaign=f574a89d74-DI_1_1_10&utm_medium=email
"In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high." -- Henry David Thoreau
"The one who asks questions doesn't lose his way." -- African Proverb
Courage is fear holding on a minute longer. -- George S. Patton
"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)
The Father and I are one. (John 10:30)
Theologians have called God's triune nature the Trinity. The members of the Trinity are involved with everything together, yet they also have distinct roles. This is hinted at in the first chapter in the Bible. Genesis 1:26 reads, "Let us make people in our image" (emphasis added). The plural pronouns "us" and "our" mean that more than one person was involved. Who else but God was present during creation? No one. Therefore, the Trinity in its simplest terms means one God manifested in three persons with three distinctive roles.
God the Father is first in the Trinity. In general, He orchestrates action. For example, He sent to earth God the Son, Jesus, and bestowed His authority upon Him.
God the Son is the second person of the Trinity. Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human. He is the cornerstone and head of the worldwide Church. Jesus now sits at the right hand of God the Father interceding for His Church.
God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is our Comforter. As the "active arm" of God on earth, He lives within believers and guides us into all truth. He convicts us of sin and helps us know God and His will.
Yet God is still one. It is difficult for us, with our limited comprehension, to understand how God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are distinct personalities, co-equal, yet one at the same time. Because we are finite our best efforts to understand this relationship fall far short.
Your View of God Really Matters …
Describe one way you personally relate to each Person of the triune Godhead.
"The Patriot Post"
"The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men." --Alexander Hamilton
F-22 Raptor
Editorial Exegesis
"Last week the Russian air force celebrated the maiden flight of the Sukhoi T-50, Moscow's version of the American F-22 Raptor stealth fighter. We have shut down the F-22 production line, viewing it as an unaffordable and unnecessary extravagance. We mention this in light of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's statement that President Obama's proposed freeze on discretionary domestic programs should also cover defense expenditures. Unfortunately, our enemies aren't freezing their defense budgets. ... Defense is not a discretionary budget item. It's a constitutional imperative and one of the reasons we have a government. The greatest social service a government can perform for its people is to keep them alive and free. 'Everybody has to make a sacrifice,' Pelosi [said], shortly before Obama announced his proposed discretionary spending freeze in his State of the Union address. By everybody, she evidently was excluding herself; the speaker's interest in Air Force jets does not extend beyond the ones that fly her and her family around. Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Judicial Watch show that Pelosi has incurred expenses of $2.1 million for her use of Air Force jets the past two years. Then there's the matter of the $101,000 tab taxpayers picked up over that period for 'in-flight services,' including a selection of top-shelf booze. ... Pelosi has used Air Force aircraft to travel back to her district at average cost of $28,210.51 per flight. ... We suggest that since everybody has to make a sacrifice, it not come at the expense of the U.S. military. We can't build any more Raptors, but we can use Air Force jets as sky taxis for politicians who consider themselves too important to fly commercial." --Investor's Business Daily
Insight
"A man's most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe." --Greek playwright Euripides (485-406 B.C.)
"The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency. It proceeds from not knowing what is going on in other people's minds." --British journalist Walter Bagehot (1826-1877)
Upright
"The bigger the government, the less I do for myself, for my family and for my community. That is why we Americans give more charity and devote more time to volunteering than Europeans do. The European knows: The government, the state, will take care of me, my children, my parents, my neighbors and my community. I don't have to do anything. The bigger question in many Europeans' lives is, 'How much vacation time will I have and where will I spend that vacation?' That is what happens when the state gets bigger -- you become smaller." --radio talk-show host Dennis Prager
"Many people ask me whether the Democrats are in as much trouble as they were in 1994. The numbers suggest they are in much deeper trouble, at least at this moment." --political analyst Michael Barone
"When the president directed that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other al Qaeda plotters of Sept. 11 be tried in a civilian court in Manhattan, [our] enemies knew they had the president's number for once and all. Now, with even stalwarts in his own party denouncing a civilian trial in Manhattan as the nut-ball idea of the year, he's looking for a smart solution, a way to look tough in retreat. He should take the trial to San Francisco, where the flame that warms the cult burns brightest, and where surely no one would object." --Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden
"[E]verything the president proposes means more debt, which at the level this guy's spending means, at some point down the road, either higher taxes or total societal collapse." --columnist Mark Steyn
"Americans are not victims who need handouts. Americans need the freedom to flourish. And until our president realizes this, he, and America, will lose out." --National Review editor Kathryn Lopez
"We must present a clear choice: stay the course of progressive liberalism, which moves away from popular consent, the rule of law, and constitutional government, and toward a failed, undemocratic, and illiberal form of statism; or correct course in an effort to restore the conditions of liberty and renew the bedrock principles and constitutional wisdom that are the roots of America's continuing greatness." --Heritage Foundation scholar Matthew Spalding
"America's future is clear: Unless we start cutting spending and take control of entitlement programs, our children will go broke making good on our promises. ... The government can never spend its way out of recession. It can only get out of the way, through lower tax rates and less costly regulation, and allow private business to grow again." --columnist Rich Tucker
Dezinformatsia
Repent for the end is near: "If health care doesn't pass, because this budget assumes health care will pass, that's yet another $150 billion that would be tacked on to the deficit." --NBC's Chuck Todd regurgitating the BIG LIE that paying out more government dollars on "health care" is going to save money
Hoping for ObamaCare: "The president outlines a number of measures to reduce the deficit, over $1 trillion worth. But ... perhaps the most surprising, the budget assumes a savings of $150 billion over the next 10 years from health care reform, legislation that is at the very best -- at the most optimistic -- on life support on Capitol Hill right now." --ABC's Jake Tapper (The best and most optimistic would be for ObamaCare to be in the morgue.)
Blame the GOP: "Republicans should know that their partisanship means they are rejecting medical security that is available in most countries of the world for its citizens. Shame on them!" --White House press corpse reporter Helen Thomas
"Tea-party people are libertarians, and on the state level, they are organizing around the notion of using the 10th Amendment (which affirms state's rights) to overturn health-care legislation -- should it still pass by some miracle. It's hard to take their rhetoric seriously. Where else could they go in the world to be freer? It reminds me of the slogan shouted at antiwar protesters, 'America, love it or leave it.'" --Newsweek's Eleanor Clift (You first.)
Poor guy: "If the president of Toyota has big headaches, well, so too, does the president of the United States, putting together a budget in an economic downturn with more than 15 million Americans out of work." --CBS's Katie Couric
Bully pulpit could have a whole new meaning: "[Obama] needs one or two [Republican] votes in the Senate to get anything passed. That's the political reality. But he needs to, perhaps, bully Republicans into doing that, rather than doing this careful walk around them." --Newsweek's Katie Connolly
"The Web"
Glenn Beck Delivers Keynote Speech To Enthusiastic CPAC
Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/02/20/glenn-beck-delivers-keynote-address-enthusiastic-cpac
What the Tea Party Movement Must Never Forget
http://www.americanvision.org/article/what-the-tea-party-movement-must-never-forget/
by Gary DeMar
What is government? When this question is asked, most people respond by equating government solely to a centralized civil State. Even our language reflects the confusion: “Government? It’s in Washington,” or “The government will take care of its citizens through its many programs.” Both of these statements reflect a misunderstanding of the true nature of government. They portray the idea that the only governing institution is a political one. Historically, however, the term “government” was always qualified in some way, unlike our present-day definitions.
Our educational system reflects the same confusion. A generation ago, high school classes dealing with state government were given the title “Civics.” The emphasis was on the function of government in civil matters. This is no longer the case. Before World War I, textbooks dealing with national government were qualified with the title “Civil.” An example of this can be seen in a textbook used in 1903: Elements of Civil Government. According to its author, “The family... Is a form of government, established for the good of children themselves, and the first government that each of us must obey.”[1] The book continues by defining five areas of civil government: “the township or civil district, the village or the city, the county, the State, and the United States.” [2] The term “government” as the older educational definition indicates, is broader than the State. Textbook writers were aware that there were personal (self), family, church, school, and civil governments, each having a legitimate realm of authority. Civil government was seen as only one government among many.
To deny the validity of the many governments and the responsibilities that each has under God, would be to deny the authority that belongs to each of them in the realm of their activity. If we as individuals neglect our personal governing duties, then we can expect the state to assume the role of all other legitimate governments and claim to be the sole government, while labeling all others as counterfeits. Therefore, to see the state as the only governing institution “is destructive of liberty and of life.”[3]
The concept of the multiplicity of governments was as old as our country, because the principles were extracted from biblical principles. Noah Webster’s definition of government in his American Dictionary of the English Language (1828) reflects the biblical concept of the diversity of governmental authority. Webster defined government in this way: “Direction; regulation. ‘These precepts will serve for the government of our conduct.’ Control; restraint. ‘Men are apt to neglect the government of their temper and passions.’”
While Noah Webster defined government in terms of personal self-control, most modern definitions largely limit government to the realm of institutions, especially civil or statist governments. This is made evident by the fact that the definition for civil government is placed first in modern dictionaries. Nowhere are self- and family governments even listed. For example, Webster’s New World Dictionary (1972) defines government as “The exercise of authority over a state, district, organization, institution, etc.”
Noah Webster, in the older definition, even goes on to include family government as part of the complete definition before he deals with the government of an individual civil government at the state or national level. He defines family government as: “The exercise of authority by a parent or householder. ‘Children are often ruined by a neglect of government in parents.’” According to the Bible, it is the duty of parents to govern in the home: “And fathers, do not provoke your children to anger; but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). It is not the duty of a civil government to interfere with the affairs of the family. Too often, however, parents neglect their God-given duty to raise their children in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord.” When this happens, we can expect the State to take an increasingly dominant role in family affairs. Such a role is to the detriment of the family. The State on many occasions has even claimed ownership of children.
If generations continue to be indoctrinated with the modern definition of “government,” they will neglect their own personal, family, church, and local governing duties. They will believe that these responsibilities are outside their area of authority and jurisdiction. Each generation will become more dependent on the “benevolent” State for care and security. We are beginning to see such a trend. “Today, most Americans have lost their faith in Christ as Savior, and they expect civil government to be their savior. They have no desire for the responsibilities of self-government, and so they say to politicians, ‘Do thou rule over us.’ Instead of Jesus Christ as their good shepherd, they elect politicians to be their shepherds on a program of socialistic security for all.”[4]
Government begins with the individual and extends outward to include all institutions. Presently, however, most Americans are unaware of the varied nature of government. The civil sphere of government has assumed responsibility to be the government. It is sad that many Americans are thankful that Washington has relieved them from what they believe is the heavy burden of governing themselves, their families, churches, and schools. If the people of the United States do not once again establish self-, family, church, local, state, and national governments and limit them in power and authority, our nation is doomed.
Conde Pallen’s “utopian” novel Crucible Island depicts what happens when the God of the Bible is rejected and the State becomes God. Man looks for a substitute provider so “the individual should have no thought, desire, or object other than the public welfare, of which the State is the creator and the inviolable guardian. As soon as the child is capable of learning, he is taught the Socialist catechism, whose first questions run as follows”:
Q. By whom were you begotten?
A. By the sovereign State.
Q. Why were you begotten?
A. That I might know, love, and serve the Sovereign State always.
Q. What is the sovereign State?
A. The sovereign State is humanity in composite and perfect being.
Q. Why is the State supreme?
A. The State is supreme because it is my Creator and Conserver in which I am and move and have my being and without which I am nothing.
Q. What is the individual?
A. The individual is only a part of the whole, and made for the whole, and finds his complete and perfect expression in the sovereign State. Individuals are made for cooperation only, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth.[5]
The central focus of all realms of government is the regenerating work of Jesus Christ. Institutions and civil governments are made up of people who are governed by the condition of their hearts. If the heart is in rebellion against God, we can expect undisciplined and ungovernable people. If the heart has been made new in Christ, we can expect a people who will govern their lives according to the governing principles of Scripture. A. A. Hodge speaks of the essence of the new heart, regeneration, as consisting of “the implantation of a new governing principle of life—from the fact that it is a ‘new birth’ [John 3:3], a ‘new creation’ [2 Cor. 5:17], wrought by the mighty power of God in execution of his eternal purpose of salvation, and that it is as necessary for the most moral and amiable as for the morally abandoned.”[6]
Army translator program an invitation to jihadists?
Ft. Jackson 5 inquiry blows lid off program offering Muslims quick path to citizenship
By Drew Zahn
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=125618
Fort Jackson NCO Club and dining room
Five Muslim soldiers under investigation for plotting to poison the food supply at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, according to CBN News, are part of a military program that offers foreign nationals a quick path to U.S. citizenship in exchange for even just a single day of active duty.
The ability to receive expedited American citizenship from within the Army, speculates CBN Military Correspondent Chuck Holton, "must present a tempting opportunity for jihadi extremists with ulterior motives."
As WND reported, CBN News maintains that just before Christmas, five soldiers who were part of the Arabic translation program at Fort Jackson were investigated after they were allegedly overheard discussing plans to poison food at the base.
Army Criminal Investigation Division spokesman Christopher Gray has further revealed to CBN reporter Erick Stakelbeck that the "Fort Jackson Five" were part of a small unit at the base called 09 Lima, a part of the Civilian Acquired Skills program, which welcomes into the military non-U.S. citizens who speak Arabic, Dari, Pashto or other needed languages.
One of the program's directors, Lt. Col Frank Deminth, explains that these recruits are then placed into an expedited citizenship program, "once they serve one day of honorable active duty."
According to an American Forces Press Service report, "The 09L program began in February 2003 when the assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs was tasked with recruiting native speakers to assist U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan with interpretations, translations, cultural familiarity and an understanding of the nuances of body language."
"Commanders in the field have said that the 09 Lima program has been very successful and has helped to improve the performanceof their units," boasted Deminth in a video posted on YouTube. "The 09 Lima soldier brings with him the ability to communicate with the local populace and saves both American and local lives."
But Patrick Poole, a counterterrorism specialist and adviser to the U.S. government and law enforcement, cautions that the military must stop dismissing warnings of jihadist infiltration.
Poole told the Washington
Times that "public affairs and equal opportunity officials" are too often trumping sound intelligence and demonstrating a "professional ignorance" of domestic terrorism.
"My colleagues and I have been warning of jihadist threats – both external and internal – for several years," Poole told CBN News. "The Pentagon has entirely ignored us, and the Ft. Hood report released last month is evidence of the culture of willful blindness that wants to pretend this threat doesn't exist. Regardless of how the Ft. Jackson incident is resolved, it demonstrates that this threat is not going away."
At Fort Jackson, 09 Lima recruits are taught English, American customs and military culture as a sort of pre-basic training.
Clayton Leishman, program manager, told the Association of the United States Army last summer that the 34 recruits then in the program had scored a 50 but below 80 on the English Comprehension examination, but with up to 24 weeks of individually programmed courses, the soldiers are prepared for basic training.
Capt. Dwayne Wade, company commander, said, "They learn basic military skills, but nothing that deals with a weapon. They have classes in cultural awareness, customs and courtesies, equal opportunity. We have PT every morning, mainly stretching."
Army spokesman Christopher Garver reportedly told CBN News the five 09 Lima soldiers questioned two months ago are not currently in custody, and CBS News reports that three of the five soldiers have now been cleared.
"While the investigation continues, there is currently no credible evidence to substantiate the allegations," spokeswoman Julia Simpkins told Associated Press. "At no time was there any danger to the Fort Jackson community."
Fort Jackson is the largest and most active Initial Entry Training Center in the U.S. Army, training 50 percent of all soldiers and 80 percent of the women entering the Army each year. It's food service reportedly includes 13 dining halls and serves about 40,000 hot meals on the base daily.
Red Shirt Friday...
Last week, while traveling to Chicago on business, I noticed a Marine sergeant traveling with a folded flag, but did not put two and two together.
After we boarded our flight, I turned to the sergeant, who'd been invited to sit in First Class (across from me), and inquired if he was heading home.
No, he responded.
Heading out I asked?
No. I'm escorting a soldier home.
Going to pick him up?
No. He is with me right now. He was killed in Iraq , I'm taking him home to his family.
The realization of what he had been asked to do hit me like a punch to the gut. It was an honor for him. He told me that, although he didn't know the soldier, he had delivered the news of his passing to the soldier's family and felt as if he knew them after many conversations in so few days.
I turned back to him, extended my hand, and said, Thank you. Thank you for doing what you do so my family and I can do what we do.
Upon landing in Chicago the pilot stopped short of the gate and made the following announcement over the intercom.
'Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to note that we have had the honor of having Sergeant Steeley of the United States Marine Corps join us on this flight. He is escorting a fallen comrade back home to his family. I ask that you please remain in your seats when we open the forward door to allow Sergeant Steeley to deplane and receive his fellow soldier. We will then turn off the seat belt sign.'
Without a sound, all went as requested. I noticed the sergeant saluting the casket as it was brought off the plane, and his action made me realize that I am proud to be an American.
So here's a public Thank You to our military Men and Women for what you do so we can live the way we do.
Red Fridays.
Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the "silent majority". We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers. We are not organized, boisterous or overbearing.
Many Americans, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of America supports our troops. Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday -- and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that .. every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar, will wear something red.
By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers. If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, coworkers, friends, and family, it will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once 'silent' majority is on their side more than ever, certainly more than the media lets on.
The first thing a soldier says when asked 'What can we do to make things better for you is, 'We need your support and your prayers.' Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example, and wear something red every Friday.
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you;
Jesus Christ and the American Soldier.
One died for your soul; the other for your freedom .
Hope Rides Alone
Letter from Sgt.Eddie Jeffers:
I stare out into the darkness from my post, and I watch the city burn to the ground. I smell the familiar smells, I walk through the familiar rubble, and I look at the frightened faces that watch me pass down the streets of their neighborhoods. My nerves hardly rest; my hands are steady on a device that has been given to me from my government for the purpose of taking the lives of others.
I sweat, and I am tired. My back aches from the loads I carry. Young American boys look to me to direct them in a manner that will someday allow them to see their families again...and yet, I too, am just a boy....my age not but a few years more than that of the ones I lead. I am stressed, I am scared, and I am paranoid...because death is everywhere. It waits for me, it calls to me from around street corners and windows, and it is always there.
There are the demons that follow me, and tempt me into thoughts and actions that are not my own...but that are necessary for survival. I've made compromises with my humanity. And I am not alone in this. Miles from me are my brethren in this world, who walk in the same streets...who feel the same things, whether they admit to it or not.
And to think, I volunteered for this...
And I am ignorant to the rest of the world...or so I thought.
But even thousands of miles away, in Ramadi, Iraq, the cries and screams and complaints of the ungrateful reach me. In a year, I will be thrust back into society from a life and mentality that doesn't fit your average man. And then, I will be alone. And then, I will walk down the streets of America, and see the yellow ribbon stickers on the cars of the same people who compare our President to Hitler.
I will watch the television and watch the Cindy Sheehans, and the Al Frankens, and the rest of the ignorant sheep of America spout off their mouths about a subject they know nothing about. It is their right, however, and it is a right that is defended by hundreds of thousands of boys and girls scattered across the world, far from home. I use the word boys and girls, because that's what they are. In the Army, the average age of the infantryman is nineteen years old. The average rank of soldiers killed in action is Private First Class.
People like Cindy Sheehan are ignorant. Not just to this war, but to the results of their idiotic ramblings, or at least I hope they are. They don't realize its effects on this war. In this war, there are no Geneva Conventions, no cease fires. Medics and Chaplains are not spared from the enemy's brutality because it's against the rules. I can only imagine the horrors a military Chaplain would experience at the hands of the enemy. The enemy slinks in the shadows and fights a coward’s war against us. It is effective though, as many men and women have died since the start of this war. And the memory of their service to America is tainted by the inconsiderate remarks on our nation's news outlets. And every day, the enemy changes...only now, the enemy is becoming something new. The enemy is transitioning from the Muslim extremists to Americans. The enemy is becoming the very people whom we defend with our lives. And they do not realize it. But in denouncing our actions, denouncing our leaders, denouncing the war we live and fight, they are isolating the military from society...and they are becoming our enemy.
Democrats and peace activists like to toss the word "quagmire" around and compare this war to Vietnam. In a way they are right, this war is becoming like Vietnam. Not the actual war, but in the isolation of country and military. America is not a nation at war; they are a nation with its military at war. Like it or not, we are here, some of us for our second, or third times; some even for their fourth and so on. Americans are so concerned now with politics, that it is interfering with our war.
Terrorists cut the heads off of American citizens on the internet...and there is no outrage, but an American soldier kills an Iraqi in the midst of battle, and there are investigations, and sometimes soldiers are even jailed...for doing their job.
It is absolutely sickening to me to think our country has come to this. Why are we so obsessed with the bad news? Why will people stop at nothing to be against this war, no matter how much evidence of the good we've done is thrown in their face? When is the last time CNN or MSNBC or CBS reported the opening of schools and hospitals in Iraq? Or the leaders of terror cells being detained or killed? It's all happening, but people will not let up their hatred of President Bush. They will ignore the good news, because it just might show people that Bush was right.
America has lost its will to fight. It has lost its will to defend what is right and just in the world. The crazy thing of it all is that the American people have not even been asked to sacrifice a single thing. It’s not like World War II, where people rationed food and turned in cars to be made into metal for tanks. The American people have not been asked to sacrifice anything. Unless you are in the military or the family member of a servicemember, its life as usual...the war doesn't affect you.
But it affects us. And when it is over and the troops come home and they try to piece together what's left of them after their service...where will the detractors be then? Where will the Cindy Sheehans be to comfort and talk to soldiers and help them sort out the last couple years of their lives, most of which have been spent dodging death and wading through the deaths of their friends? They will be where they always are, somewhere far away, where the horrors of the world can't touch them. Somewhere where they can complain about things they will never experience in their lifetime; things that the young men and women of America have willingly taken upon their shoulders.
We are the hope of the Iraqi people. They want what everyone else wants in life: safety, security, somewhere to call home. They want a country that is safe to raise their children in. Not a place where their children will be abducted, raped and murdered if they do not comply with the terrorists demands. They want to live on, rebuild and prosper. And America has given them the opportunity, but only if we stay true to the cause and see it to its end. But the country must unite in this endeavor...we cannot place the burden on our military alone. We must all stand up and fight, whether in uniform or not. And supporting us is more than sticking yellow ribbon stickers on your cars. It's supporting our President, our troops and our cause.
Right now, the burden is all on the American soldiers. Right now, hope rides alone. But it can change, it must change. Because there is only failure and darkness ahead for us as a country, as a people, if it doesn't.
Let's stop all the political nonsense, let's stop all the bickering, let's stop all the bad news and let's stand and fight! Isn't that what America is about anyway?
Sergeant Eddie Jeffers is a US Army Infantryman serving in Ramadi, Iraq.
Since writing this Sgt Jeffers has paid the ultimate price in service of his country.
Obama to tout housing help Friday in Las Vegas
By BEN FELLER
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100219/D9DV7SS00.html
LAS VEGAS (AP) - President Barack Obama is unveiling $1.5 billion in housing help, a boost timed to his appearance in the city with the worst foreclosure crisis in the nation.
Obama's move, detailed by aides in advance of his town hall here Friday, is the latest by a White House determined to show it is helping families rebound from a deep recession. The downturn is taking an election-year toll on Obama's party as voter frustration builds.
Obama was to announce that housing finance agencies in the five hardest-hit states in the housing crisis will receive $1.5 billion to help spur local solutions to the problem. Those five are Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada.
The policy wrinkle comes during a two-day Western trip with different agendas for the president. He will be back in town-hall mode, a venue that aides say allows him to connect with people and distance himself from the messy process of Washington governing.
The president is also out to help vulnerable senators protect their seats and, in turn, gain as much legislative leverage as he can.
At the town hall and a business speech he will be lending his support to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a top 2010 election target of Republicans.
Obama's political involvement comes as the Democrats' command of the Senate grows shakier, jeopardizing the president's agenda. The tide of change that Obama rode to office is threatening to slam against his own party.
The first day of the trip was all politics. Obama campaigned Thursday for Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado in Denver, then held a $1 million fundraiser for Democrats in Las Vegas.
Reid is one of Obama's allies, despite a flap over the president's tendency to refer to Las Vegas as a symbol of imprudent spending, which has the city's mayor fuming at the president.
For Obama, slowing the foreclosure rate is a key step in the recovery of the overall economy. Millions of people have lost their homes because they couldn't afford the mortgages anymore, and millions lost jobs because of the associated slowdown in new home building.
Reid's state leads the nation in home foreclosures; Las Vegas was the metro area with the highest foreclosure rate in January, with one in every 82 homes receiving such a filing.
The money for the new rescue effort will come from the $700 billion financial industry bailout program, according to a senior administration official who spoke anonymously Thursday night because the formal announcement had not been made.
Economic issues, such as unemployment or reduced income, are expected to be the main catalysts for foreclosures this year. Initially, subprime mortgages were mostly the culprit, but homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are the fastest growing group of foreclosures.
Obama will cap his Las Vegas trip with a speech to the city's Chamber of Commerce before returning to Washington later Friday.
NO NURSING HOME FOR US
http://www.city-data.com/forum/other-topics/528254-hey-no-nursing-home-us.html
No nursing home for us. We are checking into the Holiday Inn!
With the average cost for a nursing home care costing $188.00 per day, there is a better way when we get old & feeble.
We have already checked on reservations at the Holiday Inn. For a combined long term stay discount and senior discount, it's $49.23 per night.
That leaves $138.77 a day for: Breakfast, lunch and dinner in any restaurant we want, or room service, laundry, gratuities and special TV movies. Plus, they provide a swimming pool, a workout room, a lounge and washer-dryer, etc. Most have free toothpaste and razors, and all have free shampoo and soap.
$5 worth of tips a day will have the entire staff scrambling to help you.
They treat you like a customer, not a patient.
There is a city bus stop out front, and seniors ride free. The handicap bus will also pick you up (if you fake a decent limp).
To meet other nice people, call a church bus on Sundays.
For a change of scenery, take the airport shuttle bus and eat at one of the nice restaurants there. While you're at the airport, fly somewhere. Otherwise, the cash keeps building up.
It takes months to get into decent nursing homes. Holiday Inn will take your reservation today. And you are not stuck in one place forever, you can move from Inn to Inn, or even from city to city. Want to see Hawaii ? They have a Holiday Inn there too.
TV broken? Light bulbs need changing? Need a mattress replaced? No problem. They fix everything, and apologize for the inconvenience.
The Inn has a night security person and daily room service. The maid checks to see if you are ok. If not, they will call the undertaker or an ambulance. If you fall and break a hip, Medicare will pay for the hip, and Holiday Inn will upgrade you to a suite for the rest of your life.
And no worries about visits from family. They will always be glad to find you, and probably check in for a few days mini-vacation.
The grand kids can use the pool. What more can you ask for?
So, when we reach that golden age, We'll face it with a grin.
"The e-mail Bag"
NOMINATED THE BEST JOKE OF THE YEAR
http://www.sodahead.com/fun/wednesday-joke-lol/blog-252657/
A Russian arrives in New York City as a new immigrant to the United States . He stops the first person he sees walking down the street and says, "Thank you Mr. American for letting me into this country, giving me housing, food stamps, free medical care, and a free education!"
The passerby says, "You are mistaken, I am a Mexican." The man goes on and encounters another passerby. "Thank you for having such a beautiful country here in America ."
The person says, "I not American, I Vietnamese."
The new arrival walks farther, and the next person he sees he stops, shakes his hand, and says, “Thank you for wonderful America !”
That person puts up his hand and says, "I am from Middle East . I am not American."
He finally sees a nice lady and asks, "Are you an American?"
She says, "No, I am from Africa ."
Puzzled, he asks her, "Where are all the Americans?"
The African lady checks her watch and says, "Probably at work."
Friday, February 19, 2010
ConservativeChristianRepublican-Report - 20100219
Motivational-Inspirational-Historical-Educational-Political-Enjoyable
Promoting "God's Holy Values and American Freedoms"!
"Daily Motivations"
"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do." -- Andrew Carnegie
"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." -- Henry Ford
What you love is a sign from your higher self of what you are to do. -- Sanaya Roman
"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)
But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, He will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)
At the conclusion of one of my lectures in Portland, Oregon, a man came rushing down the aisle. "This is the greatest thing I have ever heard in my life!" he began. "Today I have been liberated!"
This man was a prosperous business executive who sat on twelve boards of various Christian organizations. He exclaimed, "I have been trying to serve God so diligently that I practically ignored my business and my family. I have been trying to serve God in the energy of the flesh. I understand now why I have been so miserable."
We all want to live the supernatural life. We desire to think supernaturally, to plan supernaturally, to pray supernaturally, to love supernaturally, and to let our lives in every way be living proof of the supernatural power of God. Why, then, do we too often fail? Why do we keep returning to the futile limitations of the sinful nature?
The answer is in our refusal to yield to the person and filling of the Holy Spirit. Instead, we are filled with worldliness which I believe is at the root of virtually all Christian failure. It is absolutely essential that we learn to let God live supernaturally within us.
No wonder so many have come to me over the years, expressing amazement at how different their lives became with this discovery.
No more prolonged spiritual emptiness! No more of the frustration of empty religion! No more of the despair of trying to live the Christian life through self-effort..
Your View of God Really Matters …
Have you been liberated? Do you experience joy, or is each a day a burden? Are you internally at peace, or in turmoil? The key to living the Christian life is not mere moral discipline. It is to allow God's Spirit to live through you, each and every moment.
"The Patriot Post"
"Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason." --Benjamin Franklin
2010 State of the Union
Opinion in Brief
"The Constitution requires that the president 'from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union.' But it doesn't mandate the modern pageant of pomp, circumstance, and phony promises we suffer through every year. In fact, for most of the Republic's first century, the SOTU was a modest, informational affair. Presidents sent the written address to Congress, to be read aloud by a clerk. That was thanks to President Jefferson, who thought delivering the speech before Congress assembled smacked too much of a king's 'Speech from the Throne.' When the power-hungry Woodrow Wilson overturned the Jeffersonian tradition in 1913, one senator cursed the revival of 'the old Federalistic custom of speeches from the throne,' calling it a 'cheap and tawdry imitation of English royalty..' The speech only got worse from there, especially after the advent of television and LBJ's decision to move the address to prime time. That sealed the SOTU's transformation into the modern ritual, in which the president stands at the front of the House chamber making exorbitant promises that would shame a carny barker, while congresscritters stand and clap like members of the Supreme Soviet cheering a Brezhnev speech." --columnist Gene Healy, vice president at the Cato Institute
Government
"The central fact of the [State of the Union] speech was the contradiction at its heart. It repeatedly asserted that Washington is the answer to everything. At the same time it painted a picture of Washington as a sick and broken place. It was a speech that argued against itself: You need us to heal you. Don't trust us, we think of no one but ourselves. The people are good but need guidance -- from Washington. The middle class is anxious, and its fears can be soothed -- by Washington. Washington can 'make sure consumers ... have the information they need to make financial decisions.' Washington must 'make investments,' 'create' jobs, increase 'production' and 'efficiency.' At the same time Washington is a place 'where every day is Election Day,' where all is a 'perpetual campaign' and the great sport is to 'embarrass your opponents' and lob 'schoolyard taunts..' Why would anyone have faith in that thing to help anyone do anything?" --columnist Peggy Noonan
Political Futures
"If President Obama took any lesson from his party's recent drubbing in Massachusetts, and its decline in the polls, it seems to be that he should keep doing what he's been doing, only with a little more humility, and a touch more bipartisanship. That's our reading of [Wednesday] night's lengthy State of the Union address, which mostly repackaged the President's first-year agenda in more modest political wrapping. ... On health care, Mr. Obama offered a Willy Loman-esque soliloquy on his year-long effort, as if his bill's underlying virtues and his own hard work haven't been truly appreciated by the American public. He showed no particular willingness to compromise, save for a claim that he was open to other ideas. ... Mr. Obama's economic pitch also differed little from last year, when the jobless rate was 7.2%. He offered a spirited defense of the stimulus, though the jobless rate is now 10%, and he promised more of the same this year, especially on 'green jobs.' ... [H]e couldn't resist more banker baiting, and he promised that he's determined to see tax rates rise for millions of Americans next year when the Bush rates are set to expire. He also pushed more exports while saying he'll raise taxes on some of our biggest exporters, otherwise known as multinationals that 'ship our jobs overseas.' Mr. Obama believes he can conjure jobs and a durable expansion from the private sector while waging political war on its animal spirits. It can't be done. This reflects a larger problem, which is his belief that economic growth springs mainly from the genius of government." --The Wall Street Journal
For the Record
"There are more loopholes in President Obama's proposed 'spending freeze' than in an Olympic volleyball net. Gargantuan government entitlements (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) are exempt. A half-trillion in unspent stimulus money is exempt. Foreign aid is exempt. The Democrats' proposed $154 billion jobs bill (Stimulus II) is exempt. Pet federal education programs will be exempt (including $4 billion for the White House 'Race to the Top' standards initiative and an additional $1.35 billion he just requested in the 2011 budget). Green jobs spending will be exempt. (Obama proposed $10 billion in new clean energy spending earlier this month.) Electorally driven tax-credit expansions will be exempt. The health care takeover plan is not included. As even The New York Times reported, the 'estimated $250 billion in savings over 10 years would be less than 3 percent of the roughly $9 trillion in additional deficits the government is expected to accumulate over that time.' Which amounts to a molecule in a drop of the ocean of red ink in which American taxpayers have been drowning." --columnist Michelle Malkin
Re: The Left
"Critics of [the Supreme Court's recent] decision [on campaign-finance reform], like censors throughout history, worried that freedom of speech would have bad consequences. 'It gives the special interest lobbyists new leverage to spend millions on advertising to persuade elected officials to vote their way -- or to punish those who don't,' Obama warned. 'Any public servant who has the courage to stand up to the special interests and stand up for the American people can find himself or herself under assault come election time.' It was a bit rich for Obama to bemoan the influence of 'special interests' the same week Massachusetts voters expressed their anger over bailouts he enthusiastically supported, the week after he cut a deal that exempted union members from a tax everyone else would have to pay, around the same time he was bragging about a spending binge that has stimulated lobbying more than the economy and in the midst of his attempt to salvage health care legislation backed by big corporations. In any case, democracy is a clash of interests, which we call 'special' when we don't like the policies they support, and the election-time 'assault' of Obama's nightmares is nothing more than public criticism of politicians. Obama and other supporters of restrictions on political speech believe voters can't handle clashing versions of the truth, that they need to be shielded, in the name of democracy, from messages that would otherwise mesmerize them into doing the bidding of 'powerful interests.' The Framers thought otherwise, and that's why we have the First Amendment." --columnist Jacob Sullum
Liberty
"[Those on] the left complain about the bind in which they find themselves. They can spare 4o votes on any House vote, and they have a Senate majority, but they can't get anything done. It's as if a genius schemed against them to thwart their efforts and require impossibly large majorities to accomplish something. ... But our founders didn't set out to frustrate any specific people. They were concerned with one big question: how does one prevent a republic from degenerating into tyranny, as all historical republics had? ... In Federalist 51 [James Madison] writes: 'It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part. ... If a majority be united by a common interest, the rights of the minority will be insecure.' ... Our constitutional system of government works -- but it works to protect liberty, not allow those who want to get their agenda passed and get it passed yesterday to run roughshod over the minority. Madison warned of such a system, writing, 'In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature.' ... More often than not, divided government has been the rule. Thus left and right are both stymied by the Constitution, which was designed to frustrate change in favor of freedom. America is ungovernable because the founders never intended the lives of Americans to be governed from the federal capitol." --columnist Adam Graham
The Gipper
"Conservatism is the antithesis of the kind of ideological fanaticism that has brought so much horror and destruction to the world.. The common sense and common decency of ordinary men and women, working out their own lives in their own way -- this is the heart of American conservatism today. Conservative wisdom and principles are derived from willingness to learn, not just from what is going on now, but from what has happened before." --Ronald Reagan
Faith & Family
"Pop quiz: What billion-dollar multinational receives hundreds of millions in tax dollars even though it is enormously profitable? If your thoughts turned to defense contractors, you would be right about the purpose -- killing -- but wrong about the recipient. The answer, in fact, is Planned Parenthood. According to its most recent annual report, in fiscal 2008, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the nation's largest abortion provider, had annual revenue of more than $1 billion. Of this, about 34 percent was made up of government grants. In other words, almost $350 million of American taxpayer dollars supported the work of Planned Parenthood from October 2007 to September 2008. And, according to tax records from the same time period, this 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization had a net income $85 million greater than its expenses. That looks suspiciously like a profit.... The enterprise of abortion in America is big business. It turns a profit, and for the American taxpayer, the bailout of a financial behemoth -- one engaged in an activity most Americans find troubling -- is obviously unnecessary. Even without pondering such moral questions as 'When does life begin?' and 'What is happening in a woman's body that abortion stops?' the fact that this billion-dollar industry needs no tax support should be enough to stop taxpayer handouts." --Jeanne Monahan of the Family Research Council
The Last Word
"Obama is addicted to utilizing language that he has carefully tailored or perverted to obfuscate the truth. In other words, he uses double talk on a routine basis. In order to understand what Obama truly tells us when he speaks to us, it is necessary to grab our Little Orphan Annie Decoder Ring and decipher precisely what he means when he uses his pet phrases. This, then, is a list of his favorite linguistic flourishes -- and just what he means when he uses them: 'Hope and change': Socialism at home, surrender abroad. ... 'False choice': A very real choice Obama wants to pretend doesn't exist. ... 'Deficit reduction': Deficit increases. Obama suggests that he will cut the rate at which the deficit is growing -- something he has never actually achieved -- and acts as though this is actual deficit reduction. ... 'Let me be clear': Let me lie to you. 'Make no mistake': See 'let me be clear.' ... 'This isn't about me': This is completely about me. ... 'Reaching out to the other side of the aisle': Totally rejecting all ideas from anyone outside the Obama-approved bubble. Then suggesting that subsequent political impasses are their fault, and that they ought to bend down and grab their ankles to establish a new tone in Washington. 'Failed policies of the past': Don't blame me! Blame Bush! ... 'Tax cut': Redistribution of money from those who pay a disproportionate amount of taxes to those who pay none. ... Watch for these phrases while marveling at Obama's supposed rhetorical brilliance. They shouldn't be taken at face value, because Obama isn't a master of pure artistry of the English language -- he's a master at manipulation above all." --columnist Ben Shapiro
"The Web"
Is 'stimulus' creating more jobs - or more debt?
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=901650
A budget analyst says the one-year anniversary of President Obama's economic "stimulus" package is yet another reminder that government cannot create new wealth, only redistribute it.
A CBS/New York Times poll released last week found that only six percent of Americans believe the stimulus created jobs. However, in his annual report to President Obama on the progress of the stimulus, Vice President Joe Biden claimed that the package has saved or created approximately two-million jobs, even though only half of the funds have been distributed.
Tad DeHaven, a budget analyst at the Cato Institute, argues that the stimulus has only created government jobs and debt.
"This is the problem with these politically orchestrated, big-government spending programs -- all the prognostications coming from the economic advisers in the White House have been employing models that are designed to tell the administration what they want to hear," the budget analyst notes.
"That is, if you spend a dollar of taxpayer money or borrow a dollar out of the economy, then you're going to get economic growth; you're going to get jobs. And unfortunately they're running into the reality that the government can't just wave a magic wand and create something without doing some sort of damage in the process."
DeHaven says the economy remains sluggish due in part to the fact that small business owners, investors, and entrepreneurs are reluctant to hire and invest because they are concerned about the big-government agenda in Washington.
Pro-jihadist Rashad Hussain: Obama appointee's connection to Soros
J.C. Arenas
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/02/projihadist_rashad_hussain_oba.html
The controversy involving Rashad Hussain, the president's appointee to serve as Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference, is just getting started. The turmoil caused by Hussain's appointment centers around comments he purportedly made in defense of Sami Al-Arian, a convicted terrorist and former leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Now, questions are rightfully being raised as to how a terrorist sympathizer has risen to such a position within the president's administration.
A quick look into Hussain reveals that he has the background of a typical Obama administration official: Ivy League education, career in public service, and an added bonus, a connection to the Soros family.
In 2003, Hussain was named a Fellow to the Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation:
RASHAD HUSSAIN was born in 1978. He earned his JD from Yale University and his MPA from Harvard University. His parents are naturalized citizens from India and live in Plano, Texas. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, he holds bachelor's degrees with highest distinction in both philosophy and political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which he completed in two years. He received highest honors for his philosophy thesis, "Assessing the Theistic Implications of Big Bang Cosmological Theory." Rashad also holds an MA from Harvard University in Near Eastern languages and civilizations. He finds his heritage central to his identity as a Muslim American and his career goals, especially in light of events in recent history. Rashad has worked extensively on Capitol Hill, both as an intern in the office of former House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt during the summer of 2000 and as a legislative aide on the House Judiciary Committee, where he worked for a year and a half between his time at Harvard University and Yale University. Rashad sees his varied academic interests converging and feels that his study of international affairs, law, and security can form a salient combination for addressing many contemporary legal and public policy issues. He finished a clerkship for Judge Damon Keith on the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Detroit, MI and was a Trial Attorney at the US Department of Justice. Now he is deputy associate counsel to President Barack Obama.
Paul Soros is the elder brother of George Soros, the anti-capitalist billionaire who drives the Democrat Party--and an early supporter of Barack Obama.
Surprised at this revelation?
I'm not.
We must understand that the president and his radical minions didn't randomly meet each other while using public transportation. They are all members of an increasing network of radical individuals whom share a common belief system and they're working together for a common purpose; to fundamentally change America.
If you find one radical, you will find a connection to another.
Rubio Speech Draws Standing Ovations at CPAC
http://newsmax.com/InsideCover/rubio-speech-cpac-crist/2010/02/18/id/350228
Marco Rubio, the 38-year-old son of Cuban immigrants and candidate for an open Senate seat in Florida, brought the house down with a powerful speech on American exceptionalism before thousands of conservatives, according to The Washington Post.
In the opening address at the three-day Conservative Political Action Committee conference in Washington, Rubio delivered a fiery assault on President Obama's economic policies and his administration's handling of national security.
"They are using this downturn as cover, not to fix America but to try and change America, to fundamentally redefine the role of government in our lives and the role of America in the world," Rubio said. "The good news is it didn't take long for the American people to figure this out."
The crowd repeatedly interrupted Rubio's speech with standing ovations. The former Florida House speaker has become a darling of the conservative "tea party" movement during his underdog primary campaign against Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, R, for the Senate, and this speech served as his debut on the national stage, according to the Post.
"Every time somebody starts yelling 'Marco,' I'm afraid they are going to be yelling 'Polo,' " Rubio said with a smile, "and that would ruin the speech."
He drew rousing applause and shouts of "Amen!" when he criticized Obama's record on national security.
"We will do whatever it takes, for however long it takes, to defeat radical Islamic terrorism," Rubio said. "We will punish their allies like Iran. We will stand with our allies like Israel. We will target and we will destroy terrorist cells and the leaders of those cells. The ones that survive, we will capture them. We will get useful information from them.
Rubio has risen from obscurity to become a darling of conservative Republicans nationally, exciting a crowd Thursday during his most important speech yet in his effort to defeat Gov. Charlie Crist.
Rubio's warm reception is the culmination of his rise since last summer — when he had little money and drove himself to small Republican gatherings around Florida amid pressure from the party establishment to give up on his Senate hopes. By contrast, Crist was raising nearly $13 for every $1 Rubio raised, had an enormous lead in the polls and was quickly endorsed by top Washington Republicans.
It's a different story now. On Thursday, Rubio was the keynote speaker at the what's considered the most important gathering of conservative activists in the country. People booed when Crist's name was mentioned. Crist was not at the conference.
The 2010 elections will be a referendum on "the very identity of our nation," and the politics of old won't work, Rubio said.
"A long list of early establishment endorsements will not spare you a primary, clever one-line slogans are not going to spare you the need to discuss policy issues in detail, and old, tired political attacks that worked once in the past aren't going to get you elected," Rubio said.
The month before they entered the race, a Quinnipiac poll showed 54 percent of Republican voters supported Crist compared with 8 percent for Rubio. Last month, a Quinnipiac poll showed 47 percent supported Rubio, while 44 percent supported Crist.
Rubio eliminated the lead with a message based on sticking to core Republican principles. He has also criticized Crist's support of the $787 billion federal stimulus package before Congress passed it. The image of Crist hugging Obama at a rally to promote the plan nearly every Washington Republican fought has been used repeatedly in the campaign.
While he didn't mention Crist by name, he distinguished himself from the governor who is known for working with Democrats.
"What people want are leaders who come here to Washington, D.C., and stand up to the big government agenda and not be coopted by it," Rubio said. "If the goal is not to fix America, but to change America, then they want leaders who are going to come up here and fight it every step of the way."
Crist's campaign once virtually ignored Rubio but now criticizes him daily, saying his record, including budget earmarks he approved of while serving as House speaker, isn't as conservative as Rubio says.
U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek is the leading Democrat seeking the seat now held by Sen. George LeMieux, whom Crist appointed to fill Mel Martinez' unexpired term.
Before the speech, Rubio was warmly received at a reception for American Conservative Union Foundation board members and conference VIPs. Robert Savino, a New York City lawyer, offered to help Rubio's campaign and said he was exactly what the country needed.
"The first thing I like about him is his commitment to ideas," Savino said. "You get the sense from him that it's not just about politics, it's about ideas."
MORE FACTS AND FIGURES TO MAKE YOU MAD
By Neal Boortz
http://boortz.com/nealz_nuze/2010/02/more-facts-and-figures-to-make.html
I know all of this may be getting a bit dull, folks. But this is your money and your grandchildren's futures we are talking about. So here are a few tidbits to gnaw on, thanks to the Wall Street Journal:
When the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, the debt held by the public was 36.2% of GDP. It rose to 40.2% the next year. This year it will be about 63.6%, next year 68.6%, then 77% of GDP in 2020. And the Obama administration's budget estimates 218% in 2050.
The deficit in 2007 was $160 billion. In the next year the Pelosi-Reid Congress took it up to $458 billion, and when President Obama came into office in 2009 it hit $1.4 trillion. The current 2010 projected deficit is $1.6 trillion, which will lead to a tripling of our national debt from 2008 to 2020.
The Washington Post's Robert Samuelson calculated that to fund all the future deficit expenditures would require taxes to increase "by roughly 50 percent from the average 1970-2009 tax burden." A 50% tax increase would become a permanent part of a declining America, just as such tax increases have become a permanent part of declining European countries.
President Obama will have added more debt in his first two years in office than George W. Bush did in eight years. In his first 15 months, Mr. Obama will have raised the debt burden as a percentage of GDP by more than President Reagan did in all of his eight years.
The national debt will rise to more than double GDP, and once it gets close to 100%, there will be "a dramatic slowing of economic growth by at least one percentage point a year," since people will expect higher taxes, higher interest rates and no visible resolution of the enormous and unsustainable deficits that have come to pass. That is according to Michael Boskin, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under the first President Bush.
Over the past year alone, the amount the U.S. government owes its lenders has grown to more than half the country's entire economic output, or gross domestic product.
Duke lacrosse accuser charged with attempted murder, arson
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/7068705/
Durham, N.C. — Durham police late Wednesday arrested the woman who four years ago falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of raping her.
Crystal Mangum assaulted her boyfriend, set his clothes on fire in a bathtub and threatened to stab him, investigators said.
WATCH VIDEO
Duke lacrosse accuser arrested
She was in the Durham County jail under a $1 million bondMangum, 33, has been appointed a public defender and is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 22.
Police charged her with attempted first-degree murder, five counts of arson, assault and battery, communicating threats, three counts of misdemeanor child abuse, injury to personal property, identity theft and resisting a public officer.
Shortly after 11:30 p.m., police received a 911 call about a domestic dispute at 2220 Lincoln St. Authorities said they believe the call came from one of the three children inside the house.
When officers arrived, they found Mangum and her boyfriend, Milton Walker, 33, fighting. According to police documents, Mangum scratched, punched and threw objects at Walker and told him, "I'm going to stab you, (expletive)!"
She then went into a bathroom and set his clothes on fire in the bathtub, police said. Officers called the fire department to put out the flames. No one was injured.
Milton was not charged, police said. The three children inside the house, ages 3, 9 and 10, were not injured.
Officers said Mangum gave them a fake name, "Marella Mangum," and age, prompting the identity theft charge. She also resisted the officers who responded to the scene, according to police documents. She has been ordered to have no contact with Walker.
Mangum – who penned her memoir, "Last Dance for Grace," in 2008 – was a student at North Carolina Central University in 2006 and also worked as an exotic dancer when she performed at the now-infamous Duke lacrosse party.
It was there, she claimed, that three white members of the team trapped her inside a bathroom and raped and sexually assaulted her.
The three players were indicted on rape and other charges on the basis of her allegations and were eventually exonerated after North Carolina's attorney general dismissed the charges.
The case ultimately cost former Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong his job and he was later disbarred. He also spent a night in jail for lying to a Superior Court judge.
Several players in the Duke lacrosse case, including Duke Unviersity and the North Carolina Attorney General's Office, declined to comment on the case.
Nifong could not be reached for comment.
"My heart goes out to her," Joseph Cheshire, who represented one of the accused lacrosse players. "Mostly, I worry about her children."
Authorities say the children are in the care of other family members.
"We hope that the courts will adjudicate this case with fairness and without bias," Vincent Clark, Mangum's publisher, said in a statement. "Nevertheless, we support Crystal in her effort o heal from abuse and past injustices,"
Obama's federal government can weatherize your home for only $57,362 each
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/02/obama-stimulus-weatherization.html
Who could forget the $5 billion in Obama administration stimulus money that was going to rapidly create nearly 90,000 green jobs across the country in these tough economic times and make so many thousands of homes all snuggy and warm and energy-efficient these very snowy days?
Well, a new report due out this morning will show the $5-billion program is so riddled with drafts that so far it's weatherized only about 9,000 homes.
Based on the initial Obama-Biden program promise that it would create 87,000 new jobs its first year, that would be about 10 jobs for each home weatherized so far. Makes for pretty crowded doorways.
ABC News reports that the General Accountability Office will declare today that the Energy Department has fallen woefully behind -- about 98.5% behind -- the 593,000 homes it initially predicted would be weatherized in the Recovery Act's very first, very chilly year.
(UPDATE 12:22 p.m. An Energy spokeswoman disputes the independent GAO numbers as outdated and conclusions as inaccurate. Full statement below.)
The Energy Department is run by Steven Chu, like President Obama a Nobel Prize winner. You'll never guess what the federal government blames for the lack of significant progress.
RED tape.
Not duct tape. Not weatherstripping. But that infamous RED tape. In the form of, well, forms.
It seems that the Pelosi-Reid stimulus plan that was so quickly cobbled together and....
...was supposed to immediately pump so much money into the sagging economy last year included an 80-year-old legal provision requiring all federally funded projects to pay a prevailing wage to workers.
But what's a prevailing wage for weatherization, you ask?
Who knows?
So the Energy Department asked the Labor Department, which set out to calculate what a prevailing weatherization wage is in every single one of the more than 3,000 counties across these United States.
There were some other things to figure out. It seems the law also requires some kind of National Trust for Historic Preservation review for most homes before any contracts could be estimated to be negotiated to be signed to be let to be begun. And states like Michigan have two people assigned to such tasks.
So, good luck speeding up that work.
The Energy folks did tell ABC they've so far spent 522-million Recovery Act dollars on the program. So, let's see, about 9,100 homes divided into that chunk of stimulation change to believe in is -- gee! -- about $57,362 worth of very expensive weatherstripping for each home fixed up so far.
Seems believable for a federal program.
(Energy GAO reaction: "The GAO report cites figures from September 2009 -- almost five months out of date. Since then, we have resolved Davis-Bacon wage issues in all 50 states, clarified how states should handle historic preservation and worked with states to resolve any remaining barriers. As a result, by the end of 2009, our programs had weatherized about 124,000 homes in total, and we are on track to weatherize more than 250,000 this year. In fact, since September 2009, we have tripled the pace of Recovery Act funded home weatherization. The report also erroneously implies that our goal was to weatherize 593,000 homes in 2009. That is wrong. The goal has been to weatherize that number by March 2012, and we are on track to meet that goal.")
-- Andrew Malcolm
"The e-mail Bag"
"Tax his land, Tax his bed, Tax the table, At which he's fed."
Tax his land, Tax his bed, Tax the table At which he's fed.
Tax his tractor, Tax his mule, and Teach him taxes Are the rule.
Tax his cow, Tax his goat, Tax his pants, Tax his coat.
Tax his ties, Tax his shirt, Tax his work, Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he Tries to think.
Tax his cigars, Tax his beers, If he cries, then Tax his tears.
Tax his car, Tax his gas, Find other ways To tax his ass
Tax all he has Then let him know That you won't be done Till he has no dough.
When he screams and hollers, Then tax him some more, Tax him till He's good and sore.
Then tax his coffin, Tax his grave, Tax the sod in Which he's laid.
Put these words upon his tomb, “Taxes drove me to my doom..."
When he's gone, Do not relax, It’s time to apply The inheritance tax.
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax, CDL license, Tax Cigarette, Tax Corporate Income Tax, Dog License Tax, Excise Taxes, Federal Income Tax, Federal Unemployment Tax, Fishing License, Tax Food, License Tax, Fuel Permit Tax, Gasoline Tax, Gross Receipts Tax, Hunting License Tax, Inheritance Tax, Inventory Tax, IRS Interest Charges.
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax, Luxury Taxes, Marriage License Tax, Medicare Tax,
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax, Real Estate Tax, Service Charge Tax, Social Security Tax, Road Usage Tax, Sales Tax, Recreational Vehicle Tax, School Tax, State Income Tax, State Unemployment Tax, Telephone Federal Excise Tax, Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax, Telephone Federal State and Local Surcharge Taxes, Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax, Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax, Telephone State and Local Tax Telephone Usage Charge Tax, Utility Taxes, Vehicle License Registration Tax, Vehicle Sales Tax Watercraft.
Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax, Workers Compensation Tax
STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
Promoting "God's Holy Values and American Freedoms"!
"Daily Motivations"
"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do." -- Andrew Carnegie
"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." -- Henry Ford
What you love is a sign from your higher self of what you are to do. -- Sanaya Roman
"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)
But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, He will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)
At the conclusion of one of my lectures in Portland, Oregon, a man came rushing down the aisle. "This is the greatest thing I have ever heard in my life!" he began. "Today I have been liberated!"
This man was a prosperous business executive who sat on twelve boards of various Christian organizations. He exclaimed, "I have been trying to serve God so diligently that I practically ignored my business and my family. I have been trying to serve God in the energy of the flesh. I understand now why I have been so miserable."
We all want to live the supernatural life. We desire to think supernaturally, to plan supernaturally, to pray supernaturally, to love supernaturally, and to let our lives in every way be living proof of the supernatural power of God. Why, then, do we too often fail? Why do we keep returning to the futile limitations of the sinful nature?
The answer is in our refusal to yield to the person and filling of the Holy Spirit. Instead, we are filled with worldliness which I believe is at the root of virtually all Christian failure. It is absolutely essential that we learn to let God live supernaturally within us.
No wonder so many have come to me over the years, expressing amazement at how different their lives became with this discovery.
No more prolonged spiritual emptiness! No more of the frustration of empty religion! No more of the despair of trying to live the Christian life through self-effort..
Your View of God Really Matters …
Have you been liberated? Do you experience joy, or is each a day a burden? Are you internally at peace, or in turmoil? The key to living the Christian life is not mere moral discipline. It is to allow God's Spirit to live through you, each and every moment.
"The Patriot Post"
"Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason." --Benjamin Franklin
2010 State of the Union
Opinion in Brief
"The Constitution requires that the president 'from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union.' But it doesn't mandate the modern pageant of pomp, circumstance, and phony promises we suffer through every year. In fact, for most of the Republic's first century, the SOTU was a modest, informational affair. Presidents sent the written address to Congress, to be read aloud by a clerk. That was thanks to President Jefferson, who thought delivering the speech before Congress assembled smacked too much of a king's 'Speech from the Throne.' When the power-hungry Woodrow Wilson overturned the Jeffersonian tradition in 1913, one senator cursed the revival of 'the old Federalistic custom of speeches from the throne,' calling it a 'cheap and tawdry imitation of English royalty..' The speech only got worse from there, especially after the advent of television and LBJ's decision to move the address to prime time. That sealed the SOTU's transformation into the modern ritual, in which the president stands at the front of the House chamber making exorbitant promises that would shame a carny barker, while congresscritters stand and clap like members of the Supreme Soviet cheering a Brezhnev speech." --columnist Gene Healy, vice president at the Cato Institute
Government
"The central fact of the [State of the Union] speech was the contradiction at its heart. It repeatedly asserted that Washington is the answer to everything. At the same time it painted a picture of Washington as a sick and broken place. It was a speech that argued against itself: You need us to heal you. Don't trust us, we think of no one but ourselves. The people are good but need guidance -- from Washington. The middle class is anxious, and its fears can be soothed -- by Washington. Washington can 'make sure consumers ... have the information they need to make financial decisions.' Washington must 'make investments,' 'create' jobs, increase 'production' and 'efficiency.' At the same time Washington is a place 'where every day is Election Day,' where all is a 'perpetual campaign' and the great sport is to 'embarrass your opponents' and lob 'schoolyard taunts..' Why would anyone have faith in that thing to help anyone do anything?" --columnist Peggy Noonan
Political Futures
"If President Obama took any lesson from his party's recent drubbing in Massachusetts, and its decline in the polls, it seems to be that he should keep doing what he's been doing, only with a little more humility, and a touch more bipartisanship. That's our reading of [Wednesday] night's lengthy State of the Union address, which mostly repackaged the President's first-year agenda in more modest political wrapping. ... On health care, Mr. Obama offered a Willy Loman-esque soliloquy on his year-long effort, as if his bill's underlying virtues and his own hard work haven't been truly appreciated by the American public. He showed no particular willingness to compromise, save for a claim that he was open to other ideas. ... Mr. Obama's economic pitch also differed little from last year, when the jobless rate was 7.2%. He offered a spirited defense of the stimulus, though the jobless rate is now 10%, and he promised more of the same this year, especially on 'green jobs.' ... [H]e couldn't resist more banker baiting, and he promised that he's determined to see tax rates rise for millions of Americans next year when the Bush rates are set to expire. He also pushed more exports while saying he'll raise taxes on some of our biggest exporters, otherwise known as multinationals that 'ship our jobs overseas.' Mr. Obama believes he can conjure jobs and a durable expansion from the private sector while waging political war on its animal spirits. It can't be done. This reflects a larger problem, which is his belief that economic growth springs mainly from the genius of government." --The Wall Street Journal
For the Record
"There are more loopholes in President Obama's proposed 'spending freeze' than in an Olympic volleyball net. Gargantuan government entitlements (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) are exempt. A half-trillion in unspent stimulus money is exempt. Foreign aid is exempt. The Democrats' proposed $154 billion jobs bill (Stimulus II) is exempt. Pet federal education programs will be exempt (including $4 billion for the White House 'Race to the Top' standards initiative and an additional $1.35 billion he just requested in the 2011 budget). Green jobs spending will be exempt. (Obama proposed $10 billion in new clean energy spending earlier this month.) Electorally driven tax-credit expansions will be exempt. The health care takeover plan is not included. As even The New York Times reported, the 'estimated $250 billion in savings over 10 years would be less than 3 percent of the roughly $9 trillion in additional deficits the government is expected to accumulate over that time.' Which amounts to a molecule in a drop of the ocean of red ink in which American taxpayers have been drowning." --columnist Michelle Malkin
Re: The Left
"Critics of [the Supreme Court's recent] decision [on campaign-finance reform], like censors throughout history, worried that freedom of speech would have bad consequences. 'It gives the special interest lobbyists new leverage to spend millions on advertising to persuade elected officials to vote their way -- or to punish those who don't,' Obama warned. 'Any public servant who has the courage to stand up to the special interests and stand up for the American people can find himself or herself under assault come election time.' It was a bit rich for Obama to bemoan the influence of 'special interests' the same week Massachusetts voters expressed their anger over bailouts he enthusiastically supported, the week after he cut a deal that exempted union members from a tax everyone else would have to pay, around the same time he was bragging about a spending binge that has stimulated lobbying more than the economy and in the midst of his attempt to salvage health care legislation backed by big corporations. In any case, democracy is a clash of interests, which we call 'special' when we don't like the policies they support, and the election-time 'assault' of Obama's nightmares is nothing more than public criticism of politicians. Obama and other supporters of restrictions on political speech believe voters can't handle clashing versions of the truth, that they need to be shielded, in the name of democracy, from messages that would otherwise mesmerize them into doing the bidding of 'powerful interests.' The Framers thought otherwise, and that's why we have the First Amendment." --columnist Jacob Sullum
Liberty
"[Those on] the left complain about the bind in which they find themselves. They can spare 4o votes on any House vote, and they have a Senate majority, but they can't get anything done. It's as if a genius schemed against them to thwart their efforts and require impossibly large majorities to accomplish something. ... But our founders didn't set out to frustrate any specific people. They were concerned with one big question: how does one prevent a republic from degenerating into tyranny, as all historical republics had? ... In Federalist 51 [James Madison] writes: 'It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part. ... If a majority be united by a common interest, the rights of the minority will be insecure.' ... Our constitutional system of government works -- but it works to protect liberty, not allow those who want to get their agenda passed and get it passed yesterday to run roughshod over the minority. Madison warned of such a system, writing, 'In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature.' ... More often than not, divided government has been the rule. Thus left and right are both stymied by the Constitution, which was designed to frustrate change in favor of freedom. America is ungovernable because the founders never intended the lives of Americans to be governed from the federal capitol." --columnist Adam Graham
The Gipper
"Conservatism is the antithesis of the kind of ideological fanaticism that has brought so much horror and destruction to the world.. The common sense and common decency of ordinary men and women, working out their own lives in their own way -- this is the heart of American conservatism today. Conservative wisdom and principles are derived from willingness to learn, not just from what is going on now, but from what has happened before." --Ronald Reagan
Faith & Family
"Pop quiz: What billion-dollar multinational receives hundreds of millions in tax dollars even though it is enormously profitable? If your thoughts turned to defense contractors, you would be right about the purpose -- killing -- but wrong about the recipient. The answer, in fact, is Planned Parenthood. According to its most recent annual report, in fiscal 2008, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the nation's largest abortion provider, had annual revenue of more than $1 billion. Of this, about 34 percent was made up of government grants. In other words, almost $350 million of American taxpayer dollars supported the work of Planned Parenthood from October 2007 to September 2008. And, according to tax records from the same time period, this 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization had a net income $85 million greater than its expenses. That looks suspiciously like a profit.... The enterprise of abortion in America is big business. It turns a profit, and for the American taxpayer, the bailout of a financial behemoth -- one engaged in an activity most Americans find troubling -- is obviously unnecessary. Even without pondering such moral questions as 'When does life begin?' and 'What is happening in a woman's body that abortion stops?' the fact that this billion-dollar industry needs no tax support should be enough to stop taxpayer handouts." --Jeanne Monahan of the Family Research Council
The Last Word
"Obama is addicted to utilizing language that he has carefully tailored or perverted to obfuscate the truth. In other words, he uses double talk on a routine basis. In order to understand what Obama truly tells us when he speaks to us, it is necessary to grab our Little Orphan Annie Decoder Ring and decipher precisely what he means when he uses his pet phrases. This, then, is a list of his favorite linguistic flourishes -- and just what he means when he uses them: 'Hope and change': Socialism at home, surrender abroad. ... 'False choice': A very real choice Obama wants to pretend doesn't exist. ... 'Deficit reduction': Deficit increases. Obama suggests that he will cut the rate at which the deficit is growing -- something he has never actually achieved -- and acts as though this is actual deficit reduction. ... 'Let me be clear': Let me lie to you. 'Make no mistake': See 'let me be clear.' ... 'This isn't about me': This is completely about me. ... 'Reaching out to the other side of the aisle': Totally rejecting all ideas from anyone outside the Obama-approved bubble. Then suggesting that subsequent political impasses are their fault, and that they ought to bend down and grab their ankles to establish a new tone in Washington. 'Failed policies of the past': Don't blame me! Blame Bush! ... 'Tax cut': Redistribution of money from those who pay a disproportionate amount of taxes to those who pay none. ... Watch for these phrases while marveling at Obama's supposed rhetorical brilliance. They shouldn't be taken at face value, because Obama isn't a master of pure artistry of the English language -- he's a master at manipulation above all." --columnist Ben Shapiro
"The Web"
Is 'stimulus' creating more jobs - or more debt?
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=901650
A budget analyst says the one-year anniversary of President Obama's economic "stimulus" package is yet another reminder that government cannot create new wealth, only redistribute it.
A CBS/New York Times poll released last week found that only six percent of Americans believe the stimulus created jobs. However, in his annual report to President Obama on the progress of the stimulus, Vice President Joe Biden claimed that the package has saved or created approximately two-million jobs, even though only half of the funds have been distributed.
Tad DeHaven, a budget analyst at the Cato Institute, argues that the stimulus has only created government jobs and debt.
"This is the problem with these politically orchestrated, big-government spending programs -- all the prognostications coming from the economic advisers in the White House have been employing models that are designed to tell the administration what they want to hear," the budget analyst notes.
"That is, if you spend a dollar of taxpayer money or borrow a dollar out of the economy, then you're going to get economic growth; you're going to get jobs. And unfortunately they're running into the reality that the government can't just wave a magic wand and create something without doing some sort of damage in the process."
DeHaven says the economy remains sluggish due in part to the fact that small business owners, investors, and entrepreneurs are reluctant to hire and invest because they are concerned about the big-government agenda in Washington.
Pro-jihadist Rashad Hussain: Obama appointee's connection to Soros
J.C. Arenas
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/02/projihadist_rashad_hussain_oba.html
The controversy involving Rashad Hussain, the president's appointee to serve as Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference, is just getting started. The turmoil caused by Hussain's appointment centers around comments he purportedly made in defense of Sami Al-Arian, a convicted terrorist and former leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Now, questions are rightfully being raised as to how a terrorist sympathizer has risen to such a position within the president's administration.
A quick look into Hussain reveals that he has the background of a typical Obama administration official: Ivy League education, career in public service, and an added bonus, a connection to the Soros family.
In 2003, Hussain was named a Fellow to the Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation:
RASHAD HUSSAIN was born in 1978. He earned his JD from Yale University and his MPA from Harvard University. His parents are naturalized citizens from India and live in Plano, Texas. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, he holds bachelor's degrees with highest distinction in both philosophy and political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which he completed in two years. He received highest honors for his philosophy thesis, "Assessing the Theistic Implications of Big Bang Cosmological Theory." Rashad also holds an MA from Harvard University in Near Eastern languages and civilizations. He finds his heritage central to his identity as a Muslim American and his career goals, especially in light of events in recent history. Rashad has worked extensively on Capitol Hill, both as an intern in the office of former House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt during the summer of 2000 and as a legislative aide on the House Judiciary Committee, where he worked for a year and a half between his time at Harvard University and Yale University. Rashad sees his varied academic interests converging and feels that his study of international affairs, law, and security can form a salient combination for addressing many contemporary legal and public policy issues. He finished a clerkship for Judge Damon Keith on the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Detroit, MI and was a Trial Attorney at the US Department of Justice. Now he is deputy associate counsel to President Barack Obama.
Paul Soros is the elder brother of George Soros, the anti-capitalist billionaire who drives the Democrat Party--and an early supporter of Barack Obama.
Surprised at this revelation?
I'm not.
We must understand that the president and his radical minions didn't randomly meet each other while using public transportation. They are all members of an increasing network of radical individuals whom share a common belief system and they're working together for a common purpose; to fundamentally change America.
If you find one radical, you will find a connection to another.
Rubio Speech Draws Standing Ovations at CPAC
http://newsmax.com/InsideCover/rubio-speech-cpac-crist/2010/02/18/id/350228
Marco Rubio, the 38-year-old son of Cuban immigrants and candidate for an open Senate seat in Florida, brought the house down with a powerful speech on American exceptionalism before thousands of conservatives, according to The Washington Post.
In the opening address at the three-day Conservative Political Action Committee conference in Washington, Rubio delivered a fiery assault on President Obama's economic policies and his administration's handling of national security.
"They are using this downturn as cover, not to fix America but to try and change America, to fundamentally redefine the role of government in our lives and the role of America in the world," Rubio said. "The good news is it didn't take long for the American people to figure this out."
The crowd repeatedly interrupted Rubio's speech with standing ovations. The former Florida House speaker has become a darling of the conservative "tea party" movement during his underdog primary campaign against Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, R, for the Senate, and this speech served as his debut on the national stage, according to the Post.
"Every time somebody starts yelling 'Marco,' I'm afraid they are going to be yelling 'Polo,' " Rubio said with a smile, "and that would ruin the speech."
He drew rousing applause and shouts of "Amen!" when he criticized Obama's record on national security.
"We will do whatever it takes, for however long it takes, to defeat radical Islamic terrorism," Rubio said. "We will punish their allies like Iran. We will stand with our allies like Israel. We will target and we will destroy terrorist cells and the leaders of those cells. The ones that survive, we will capture them. We will get useful information from them.
Rubio has risen from obscurity to become a darling of conservative Republicans nationally, exciting a crowd Thursday during his most important speech yet in his effort to defeat Gov. Charlie Crist.
Rubio's warm reception is the culmination of his rise since last summer — when he had little money and drove himself to small Republican gatherings around Florida amid pressure from the party establishment to give up on his Senate hopes. By contrast, Crist was raising nearly $13 for every $1 Rubio raised, had an enormous lead in the polls and was quickly endorsed by top Washington Republicans.
It's a different story now. On Thursday, Rubio was the keynote speaker at the what's considered the most important gathering of conservative activists in the country. People booed when Crist's name was mentioned. Crist was not at the conference.
The 2010 elections will be a referendum on "the very identity of our nation," and the politics of old won't work, Rubio said.
"A long list of early establishment endorsements will not spare you a primary, clever one-line slogans are not going to spare you the need to discuss policy issues in detail, and old, tired political attacks that worked once in the past aren't going to get you elected," Rubio said.
The month before they entered the race, a Quinnipiac poll showed 54 percent of Republican voters supported Crist compared with 8 percent for Rubio. Last month, a Quinnipiac poll showed 47 percent supported Rubio, while 44 percent supported Crist.
Rubio eliminated the lead with a message based on sticking to core Republican principles. He has also criticized Crist's support of the $787 billion federal stimulus package before Congress passed it. The image of Crist hugging Obama at a rally to promote the plan nearly every Washington Republican fought has been used repeatedly in the campaign.
While he didn't mention Crist by name, he distinguished himself from the governor who is known for working with Democrats.
"What people want are leaders who come here to Washington, D.C., and stand up to the big government agenda and not be coopted by it," Rubio said. "If the goal is not to fix America, but to change America, then they want leaders who are going to come up here and fight it every step of the way."
Crist's campaign once virtually ignored Rubio but now criticizes him daily, saying his record, including budget earmarks he approved of while serving as House speaker, isn't as conservative as Rubio says.
U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek is the leading Democrat seeking the seat now held by Sen. George LeMieux, whom Crist appointed to fill Mel Martinez' unexpired term.
Before the speech, Rubio was warmly received at a reception for American Conservative Union Foundation board members and conference VIPs. Robert Savino, a New York City lawyer, offered to help Rubio's campaign and said he was exactly what the country needed.
"The first thing I like about him is his commitment to ideas," Savino said. "You get the sense from him that it's not just about politics, it's about ideas."
MORE FACTS AND FIGURES TO MAKE YOU MAD
By Neal Boortz
http://boortz.com/nealz_nuze/2010/02/more-facts-and-figures-to-make.html
I know all of this may be getting a bit dull, folks. But this is your money and your grandchildren's futures we are talking about. So here are a few tidbits to gnaw on, thanks to the Wall Street Journal:
When the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, the debt held by the public was 36.2% of GDP. It rose to 40.2% the next year. This year it will be about 63.6%, next year 68.6%, then 77% of GDP in 2020. And the Obama administration's budget estimates 218% in 2050.
The deficit in 2007 was $160 billion. In the next year the Pelosi-Reid Congress took it up to $458 billion, and when President Obama came into office in 2009 it hit $1.4 trillion. The current 2010 projected deficit is $1.6 trillion, which will lead to a tripling of our national debt from 2008 to 2020.
The Washington Post's Robert Samuelson calculated that to fund all the future deficit expenditures would require taxes to increase "by roughly 50 percent from the average 1970-2009 tax burden." A 50% tax increase would become a permanent part of a declining America, just as such tax increases have become a permanent part of declining European countries.
President Obama will have added more debt in his first two years in office than George W. Bush did in eight years. In his first 15 months, Mr. Obama will have raised the debt burden as a percentage of GDP by more than President Reagan did in all of his eight years.
The national debt will rise to more than double GDP, and once it gets close to 100%, there will be "a dramatic slowing of economic growth by at least one percentage point a year," since people will expect higher taxes, higher interest rates and no visible resolution of the enormous and unsustainable deficits that have come to pass. That is according to Michael Boskin, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under the first President Bush.
Over the past year alone, the amount the U.S. government owes its lenders has grown to more than half the country's entire economic output, or gross domestic product.
Duke lacrosse accuser charged with attempted murder, arson
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/7068705/
Durham, N.C. — Durham police late Wednesday arrested the woman who four years ago falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of raping her.
Crystal Mangum assaulted her boyfriend, set his clothes on fire in a bathtub and threatened to stab him, investigators said.
WATCH VIDEO
Duke lacrosse accuser arrested
She was in the Durham County jail under a $1 million bondMangum, 33, has been appointed a public defender and is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 22.
Police charged her with attempted first-degree murder, five counts of arson, assault and battery, communicating threats, three counts of misdemeanor child abuse, injury to personal property, identity theft and resisting a public officer.
Shortly after 11:30 p.m., police received a 911 call about a domestic dispute at 2220 Lincoln St. Authorities said they believe the call came from one of the three children inside the house.
When officers arrived, they found Mangum and her boyfriend, Milton Walker, 33, fighting. According to police documents, Mangum scratched, punched and threw objects at Walker and told him, "I'm going to stab you, (expletive)!"
She then went into a bathroom and set his clothes on fire in the bathtub, police said. Officers called the fire department to put out the flames. No one was injured.
Milton was not charged, police said. The three children inside the house, ages 3, 9 and 10, were not injured.
Officers said Mangum gave them a fake name, "Marella Mangum," and age, prompting the identity theft charge. She also resisted the officers who responded to the scene, according to police documents. She has been ordered to have no contact with Walker.
Mangum – who penned her memoir, "Last Dance for Grace," in 2008 – was a student at North Carolina Central University in 2006 and also worked as an exotic dancer when she performed at the now-infamous Duke lacrosse party.
It was there, she claimed, that three white members of the team trapped her inside a bathroom and raped and sexually assaulted her.
The three players were indicted on rape and other charges on the basis of her allegations and were eventually exonerated after North Carolina's attorney general dismissed the charges.
The case ultimately cost former Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong his job and he was later disbarred. He also spent a night in jail for lying to a Superior Court judge.
Several players in the Duke lacrosse case, including Duke Unviersity and the North Carolina Attorney General's Office, declined to comment on the case.
Nifong could not be reached for comment.
"My heart goes out to her," Joseph Cheshire, who represented one of the accused lacrosse players. "Mostly, I worry about her children."
Authorities say the children are in the care of other family members.
"We hope that the courts will adjudicate this case with fairness and without bias," Vincent Clark, Mangum's publisher, said in a statement. "Nevertheless, we support Crystal in her effort o heal from abuse and past injustices,"
Obama's federal government can weatherize your home for only $57,362 each
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/02/obama-stimulus-weatherization.html
Who could forget the $5 billion in Obama administration stimulus money that was going to rapidly create nearly 90,000 green jobs across the country in these tough economic times and make so many thousands of homes all snuggy and warm and energy-efficient these very snowy days?
Well, a new report due out this morning will show the $5-billion program is so riddled with drafts that so far it's weatherized only about 9,000 homes.
Based on the initial Obama-Biden program promise that it would create 87,000 new jobs its first year, that would be about 10 jobs for each home weatherized so far. Makes for pretty crowded doorways.
ABC News reports that the General Accountability Office will declare today that the Energy Department has fallen woefully behind -- about 98.5% behind -- the 593,000 homes it initially predicted would be weatherized in the Recovery Act's very first, very chilly year.
(UPDATE 12:22 p.m. An Energy spokeswoman disputes the independent GAO numbers as outdated and conclusions as inaccurate. Full statement below.)
The Energy Department is run by Steven Chu, like President Obama a Nobel Prize winner. You'll never guess what the federal government blames for the lack of significant progress.
RED tape.
Not duct tape. Not weatherstripping. But that infamous RED tape. In the form of, well, forms.
It seems that the Pelosi-Reid stimulus plan that was so quickly cobbled together and....
...was supposed to immediately pump so much money into the sagging economy last year included an 80-year-old legal provision requiring all federally funded projects to pay a prevailing wage to workers.
But what's a prevailing wage for weatherization, you ask?
Who knows?
So the Energy Department asked the Labor Department, which set out to calculate what a prevailing weatherization wage is in every single one of the more than 3,000 counties across these United States.
There were some other things to figure out. It seems the law also requires some kind of National Trust for Historic Preservation review for most homes before any contracts could be estimated to be negotiated to be signed to be let to be begun. And states like Michigan have two people assigned to such tasks.
So, good luck speeding up that work.
The Energy folks did tell ABC they've so far spent 522-million Recovery Act dollars on the program. So, let's see, about 9,100 homes divided into that chunk of stimulation change to believe in is -- gee! -- about $57,362 worth of very expensive weatherstripping for each home fixed up so far.
Seems believable for a federal program.
(Energy GAO reaction: "The GAO report cites figures from September 2009 -- almost five months out of date. Since then, we have resolved Davis-Bacon wage issues in all 50 states, clarified how states should handle historic preservation and worked with states to resolve any remaining barriers. As a result, by the end of 2009, our programs had weatherized about 124,000 homes in total, and we are on track to weatherize more than 250,000 this year. In fact, since September 2009, we have tripled the pace of Recovery Act funded home weatherization. The report also erroneously implies that our goal was to weatherize 593,000 homes in 2009. That is wrong. The goal has been to weatherize that number by March 2012, and we are on track to meet that goal.")
-- Andrew Malcolm
"The e-mail Bag"
"Tax his land, Tax his bed, Tax the table, At which he's fed."
Tax his land, Tax his bed, Tax the table At which he's fed.
Tax his tractor, Tax his mule, and Teach him taxes Are the rule.
Tax his cow, Tax his goat, Tax his pants, Tax his coat.
Tax his ties, Tax his shirt, Tax his work, Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he Tries to think.
Tax his cigars, Tax his beers, If he cries, then Tax his tears.
Tax his car, Tax his gas, Find other ways To tax his ass
Tax all he has Then let him know That you won't be done Till he has no dough.
When he screams and hollers, Then tax him some more, Tax him till He's good and sore.
Then tax his coffin, Tax his grave, Tax the sod in Which he's laid.
Put these words upon his tomb, “Taxes drove me to my doom..."
When he's gone, Do not relax, It’s time to apply The inheritance tax.
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax, CDL license, Tax Cigarette, Tax Corporate Income Tax, Dog License Tax, Excise Taxes, Federal Income Tax, Federal Unemployment Tax, Fishing License, Tax Food, License Tax, Fuel Permit Tax, Gasoline Tax, Gross Receipts Tax, Hunting License Tax, Inheritance Tax, Inventory Tax, IRS Interest Charges.
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax, Luxury Taxes, Marriage License Tax, Medicare Tax,
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax, Real Estate Tax, Service Charge Tax, Social Security Tax, Road Usage Tax, Sales Tax, Recreational Vehicle Tax, School Tax, State Income Tax, State Unemployment Tax, Telephone Federal Excise Tax, Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax, Telephone Federal State and Local Surcharge Taxes, Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax, Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax, Telephone State and Local Tax Telephone Usage Charge Tax, Utility Taxes, Vehicle License Registration Tax, Vehicle Sales Tax Watercraft.
Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax, Workers Compensation Tax
STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
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