In short, Obama had massive campaign debt coming off of his failed bid to challenge Bobby Rush for a seat in Congress. Smarting from that loss, Obama needed money, so he turned to Yesse Yehudah. What’s so strange about this is that Yehudah is a Republican — so why would he raise money for Obama? What the article below does not say is that, magically, 10 people who work for Yehudah and have never given money to any elected official before - AND WHO COULD NOT AFFORD TO MAKE $1,000 donations - all made $1,000 donations to Obama simultaneously. As if someone else made the donations for all of them, in their names, with money that came from somewhere else.
The quid pro quo on this is simple: Obama took a $10,000 bribe from Yehudah for using his position in the state senate to throw a $75,000 grant to Yehudah’s nonprofit organization.
Friday, October 31, 2008
The Best Senator Money Can Buy
Don't Lose Faith
Yesterday I reminded two conservative friends that it would be stupid to buy the media hype and give up this close to the election, thinking all is lost and being too depressed to go punch the chad. Happily one replied, "Are, you crazy?" (I get that a lot) "No way I won't vote." But it is easy to get discouraged, what with 7 out of 10 news stories being about how either John McCain is George Bush, or how Barrack Obama is Jesus Christ.
You can see what they're doing. It's like Microsoft is hyping Vista, or Al Gore hyping Global Climate: there is the hope that they can get so many people on the bandwagon that it won't matter that the climate is cooling or that the operating system is a yawn.
I don't think they can sell this New Coke:
"The original bandwagon theory is that people don't want to miss the party," said Samuel Popkin, a political scientist at the University of California at San Diego and the author of “The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns.”
"There will be somebody in the end who says, 'I don't want to vote for him because he's black, but McCain's going to lose so I'll vote for him to tell my grandkids I did,'" Popkin said.
But, he added: "I think what's more likely is if you see a poll that says people in your congressional district have changed, you're going to say, 'What's going on?' ... If you read in the paper [that] Obama's crowds are bigger than ever, his lead is growing, you think, 'I better double check. What have I missed? What's new that I didn't know?’”
I'm thinking that the more people who look into the candidates the better. Sooner or later you have to notice that the One has never really accomplished anything. He calls for a transformation of America into the Country With a Heart. He says he's going to take care of everybody. But ask the Kenyan school he promised to help, ask his slum-residing aunt, or his impoverished half-brother how much Obama helps people. Obama talks a good game, but he's never really helped when it was his job to help. Go back to the Chicago slums he community-activized; how much better off are those residents today? Obama's slum-lord friends and mentors were the big winners there.
I say go ahead and look into Obama, the candidate. With all the ink and pixels out there, there is a gaping hole where the list of accomplishments should be. Newt said it best, "I don't know of a single thing Obama's done except talk and write."
Thursday, October 30, 2008
It's OK to Vote for Palin
"People ask me why I'm going to vote for McCain rather than Obama. It's because I prefer disaster to catastrophe."I don't think I'd term it 'disaster', but I take his point. McCain isn't perfect, but consider at the alternative. I'm going to call mine a vote for Sarah.
-Thomas Sowell
Listen to the Sowell interviews here.
Abu Ghadiyain
Remember that raid into Syria? It's a little bold to cross borders with force, even when you've got cause. Good news though:
An Al Qaeda coordinator in Syria who was wanted for sending operatives, weapons and cash into Iraq was captured during a U.S. strike, but it was not clear whether or not he survived, a senior U.S. military official told FOX News.
Abu Ghadiyain, the target of Sunday's Special Operations raid in Sukkariyeh --about 4-5 miles away from Syria's border with Iraq, was at one point in the custody of U.S. forces, the official said. However, another U.S. official from a separate agency said Monday that latest intelligence shows Ghadiyain was killed.
It's good to know that Bush is doing all he can to leave office with the most stable Iraq possible. I suspect he is guarding against the prospect of a new administration letting Iraq slide into anarchy, civil war, or, even worse, Iranian control. So-long Abu, say hi to Elvis for me.
In other military news: mechanical pack-drones, is there anything they can't do?
Best bit: pack-drone on ice at about 1:30. I have trouble shaking the feeling that inside this thing are two very athletic guys with kazoos.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Sitcoms
Obama apparently doesn't know his Black sitcoms:
“If Senator McCain is elected, we’ll have another president who wants to privatize part of your Social Security. Could you imagine if you had your Social Security invested in the stock market these last two weeks, these last two months? You wouldn’t need Social Security. You’d be having a — like, what was it, Sanford and Son. `I’m coming Weezie!”
Michelle Malkin says that Weezie was on The Jeffersons, but I think she may have it wrong too. I mean, does this look right to you?:
An Obama Defector
Wendy Button, an Obama speech writer, sees the light:
...The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn’t “a real plumber,” and “They’re fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager,” and the patronizing, “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber.”
Having worked in politics, I know that absolutely none of this is on the level. This back and forth is posturing, a charade, and a political game. These lines are what I refer to as “hooker lines”—a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they’re reporting meaningful news.
As the nation slouches toward disaster, the level of political discourse is unworthy of this moment in history. We have Republicans raising Ayers and Democrats fostering ageism with “erratic” and jokes about Depends. Sexism. Racism. Ageism and maybe some Socialism have all made their ugly cameos in election 2008. It’s not inspiring. Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”
And on Sarah Palin, the National Honor Society member, who the Obamanauts try to paint as stupid:
...Governor Palin and I don’t agree on a lot of things, mostly social issues. But I have grown to appreciate the Governor. I was one of those initial skeptics and would laugh at the pictures. Not anymore. When someone takes on a corrupt political machine and a sitting governor, that is not done by someone with a low I.Q. or a moral core made of tissue paper. When someone fights her way to get scholarships and work her way through college even in a jagged line, that shows determination and humility you can’t learn from reading Reinhold Niebuhr. When a mother brings her son with special needs onto the national stage with love, honesty, and pride, that gives hope to families like mine as my older brother lives with a mental disability. And when someone can sit on a stage during the Sarah Palin rap on Saturday Night Live, put her hands in the air and watch someone in a moose costume get shot—that’s a sign of both humor and humanity.
Has she made mistakes? Of course, she’s human too. But the attention paid to her mistakes has been unprecedented compared to Senator Obama’s “57 states” remarks or Senator Biden using a version of the Samuel Johnson quote, “There’s nothing like a hanging in the morning to focus a man’s thoughts.”
I doubt there will be much coverage of this defection. That's the bad news. The good news is that some Democrats are able to see through the deception.
Keeping Busy
What will you do for a living if the unthinkable transpires and we end up with four years of Change? Me, I say when life gives you lemons, use a strip of copper and a galvanized nail to make a simple battery capable of powering a small transistor radio for hours of fun.
Not being one to complain just because the world is going down in flames all around him, I decided to keep busy by redesigning several government seals. Some will need changing, and some whole new agencies will be springing up. Face it - big government needs big government seals:
Will this sort of thing get me in good with our new insect overlords? I don't know, so I'm also learning to ferment wine in prison toilets. Call it my fall-back career. When life gives you lemons, try to score some raisin-bread and make toilet wine.
OK, one more:
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Redistribution
(clickabiggen)***Update: You know what really bothers me about this? Not the fact that the Obamas eat well, not the fact that foolish people believe his promises of a tax cut when it's they who will have to tighten their belts, and no, not the Iranian caviar. What bothers me is a lobster appetizer for a lobster dinner. What? "I'll have the lobster, oh, honey what goes well with lobster? oh yes, and some more lobster please."
A Prayer
guest post, by Richard Burroughs
When I was in high school oh so many years ago, to pass our civics class we had to not only pass the exams but we had to memorize and recite to the class, The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address. At the time I hated it, at least the recitation part, but I am so thankful because those words live with me today.
When Abraham Lincoln scribbled the Gettysburg address on the back of an envelope on his way to visit the battlefield of one of the bloodiest engagements of the Civil War he began, Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether that nation or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. It’s interesting – he didn’t say a nation dedicated to the proposition that the government shall make men equal. He specifically wrote, the proposition that all men are created equal. From that point on, how you apply your equality is your individual liberty. It is, and always has been, what has made this nation great - opportunity.
I also find it interesting that if you were to change two words the Gettysburg address it could well apply to our situation today. Eleven score and twelve years ago . . . Now we are engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. The citizens of this nation have been under siege from the left for a long time now and never more so than in this election season. I find it curious that one side of the current debate continuously points to a “divided nation” as they heap scorn and ridicule on certain segments of the population and then seek to lay blame for the situation on same. Ask the Obama candidate a question that he doesn’t like and prepare to be labeled a racist. Mention that much of his promised economic policy is socialism, which it is, and you engage in hate speech. By his own words, if we do not agree with him we are bitter clingers.
The very idea that people who do not agree with the left have “divided the nation” is a canard, a specious claim that is easily refuted by an examination of our nation’s history. With the exception of WW II one would be hard pressed to point to a time when the nation was not divided. You will find unanimity on some specific issues but they would make for a short list. The results of past presidential elections reveal only a handful of presidents that have been elected by a landslide. I don’t know whether these landslides reflect unity across the nation or abjection of the opposing candidate. The point is this, opposing viewpoints are not the exception but the rule and political elections, particularly presidential elections, have never been a stage for decorum.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Promote the general Welfare . . .? If you read the rest of the Constitution or the writings from the time, you’ll find the Founding Fathers not only encouraged but expected business and individuals to thrive and be successful. They did mean that the government had a role to play in promoting an environment where commerce and free trade could flourish. However, our Founding Fathers certainly did not mean that the government should create a welfare state where everyone or anyone gets to stay home and wait for the government to send them a check. They did not mean that the government should provide “free” health care for everyone. They never intended to take the fruits of one man’s labor with the intention of redistributing those fruits to others who had not earned it. Yet today, that is exactly the stark contrast from which we have to choose.
Nothing epitomizes this contrast more sharply than “Joe the Plumber.” On one hand I find it amusing the way the left reports this story. “You know, Joe isn’t his real name, it is Joseph and that’s his middle name.” “You know, Joe doesn’t have a plumbing license.” “You know, Joe has a lien on his property for unpaid back taxes and he doesn’t even know it.” On the other hand I find it frightening the way the left obfuscates this story and continues to try to destroy Joe. The story isn’t about Joe the Plumber, the story is about Barack Obama’s answer to a simple question asked by Joe. And to Barack’s credit he answered it truthfully. He told Joe that he intends to take his wealth and spread it around. To Barack’s discredit, he couldn’t wait until the next day to mock and ridicule Joe the Plumber asking his supporters, “How many plumber’s do you know making $250,000 a year?” His running mate, Joe Biden, was piling on asking the same question. They both laughed at this question which incited their supporters to hilarity. But at no time did Joe mention how much money he makes as a plumber, Joe said he wanted to buy a business that makes $250,000 a year and rightfully wanted to know what the implication of Obama’s tax plan would mean to him.
What we need to remember is this; I am Joe the plumber, you are Joe the plumber, we are all Joe the plumber. Barack Obama and Joe Biden, by their very words, hold nothing but contempt for the Joe the plumbers of this nation. Obama has told us flat out what he intends to do to all of us. I don’t know about you, but as for me, I’m going to take him at his word. He laid out his economic plan to redistribute wealth, one of the planks in Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, and I believe he intends to do just that. Embracing Marxism so we can all be poor equally is not the hope and change I am looking for and is certainly not the Blessings of Liberty laid out in our Constitution. Thanks, but no thanks.
In a few short days, on November 4, we will cast our vote for a new president. Lest we forget, November 4 will also be the 29th anniversary since the Iranians stormed our embassy in Tehran and held 52 US diplomats hostage for the next 444 days. I’m going to take Joe Biden at his word on something else. During the primaries he said that Barack Obama doesn’t have the experience to lead this nation. He reconfirmed that last week when he guaranteed an international crisis within the first six months of an Obama administration to ostensibly “test him”. We need to be aware how our enemies love to “test us” when they sense weakness in an inexperienced novice at the helm of our nation; John Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis, Jimmy Carter and the Iranian Hostage Crisis, Barack Obama and the ??? Crisis, apparently Joe Biden knows of four or five scenarios. Considering this, I’m not sure how an Obama presidency provides for the common defense particularly when he has told us that he would drastically reduce defense spending to pay for his welfare programs.
I don’t know how we could have arrived at this point (although I have my own ideas) but here we are. Eleven score and twelve years of generations before us have secured the Blessings of Liberty to themselves and their Posterity, i.e. us. And here we are with a choice to continue that rich tradition or forego the Blessings of Liberty and usher in an ideology that is the complete opposite to the ideals that were held by our Founding Fathers. And if we do, what is it that we will leave to our posterity?
What is that ideology? When Barack quotes from Karl Marx and Saul Alinsky, a devotee of Marx, I have to believe he is a Marxist. The economic policy he has espoused is pure socialism, what I like to call Marxism-Lite. It has been tried and failed or left wanting throughout history. Yet there are many who believe it is time for a “change” here in America. Really? What is it our country has been called for all these generations, that shining beacon of light on the hill, and much more. Where is it that the people of the world have turned to escape oppression and tyranny? America. Where do they turn when all else has failed? America. Are we really this close to turning away from our destiny? Don’t get me wrong, I too believe some change is needed in Washington, but not this. This is an ideology that is foreign to this nation and I for one reject it.
I'm not exactly what you would call a religious person - you won't see me in church on Sunday morning, I forget to say my prayers before I eat and go to bed, but I have never forgotten my faith in God. And I have never forgotten how to pray. This prayer has been on lips every day this summer. It is on my lips almost continuously this autumn. I’d like to share it with you because I do believe that if we are sincere our prayers will be answered – or if you wish, call it the power of positive thinking. You know the prayer. I know you’ve said it before and I suspect you know the words by heart. For me at least, there has never been a better time to hold these words close and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone speak these words more beautifully than Martina McBride.
God bless you. God bless us all. And most importantly, God bless America.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Obama Opens Up His Game
This headline put me on alert:
Obama promises to restore 'higher purpose'
I was beginning to think that Hope, Progress, and Change was all he was about. Scary to see the man is as multifaceted as advertised... He may be one baby-kiss away from destroying the universe with the harmonic convergence of his followers' sighs.Remember this when he presidentialy listens to both sides, looks off into the distance, and, for our own good, because it pleases and sparkles, shuts down all opposition radio stations. Hugo Chavez will shed a tear of admiration.
The article, by the way takes a page from Al Gore's play book -- refer to your desired outcome as a fait accompli:
With a comfortable lead in state and national polls, Obama is....The idea being that a small percentage of the readers will be ill-informed or stupid enough to accept your contention as the truth. (or, as the Obamanauts write it: Truth)
Sunday, October 26, 2008
What Are You Going As?
I knew I had seen him somewhere before. And speaking of Halloween, has anyone else noticed invisible mouses getting into their Halloween candy? I got a 75 pound bag of Dum-Dums at Sams Club and there's like 3 left. Correction: 2 left.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Missile Kittah
It's obviously true; the infidels have giant kittahs, trainedto knock our missiles from the sky.
***Update:
Wait a minute... that's us. Watching us... watching us.....watching us.... Oh, no. Infinity!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Code
Tell you what:
“There’s a tendency in Pennsylvania for the polls to change dramatically in the final days,” says John Brabender, a top Republican political consultant based in Pittsburgh.
"There they go again," said an unnamed, and possibly nonexistent Obama spokesperson, " 'Polls change dramatically' is code for 'black'! They're doing it again. They're trying to divide us racially. And what's this 'final days'? Isn't that an obvious assertion that 'the Black candidate's wife is a shrew'?"
Obviously they're on to us. Time to change the code.
Signs Stolen
You may have seen this response to vandals who stole this man's McCain/Palin sign. It's OK, as far as it goes, but what will he do if they come back a second or third time?
I recommend more of the same: just give them Civics lessons until they just can't take it anymore. Should they fail to learn their lesson, I suggest the Articles of Confederation next. Or maybe make them assess the advantages and disadvantages of Federalism. They're bound to crack sooner or later. How's it go?: "Yes We Can, Unless you make us study treaties and tariffs"
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Pigeons Arrested
plotting a coo?Iranian security forces have arrested two suspected 'spy pigeons' near the Natanz nuclear facility. One of the pigeons was caught near a rose water production plant in the city of Kashan in Isfahan province, the Etemad Melli newspaper reported. It said that some metal rings and "invisible" strings were attached to the bird, suggesting that it might have been somehow communicating what it had seen with the equipment it was carrying.
"Early this month, a black pigeon was caught bearing a blue-coated metal ring, with invisible strings," a source told the newspaper....
.......Last year, Iran issued a formal protest over the use of espionage by the United States to produce a key intelligence report on the country's controversial nuclear programme.
It is also highly suspicious of Israel, whose extensive intelligence activities are not known to include the use of pigeons.
Related: Reports of sheep "listening in" on cell phone conversations haveincreased. "It's really getting irritating," says Ali, a young shepherd, "What
I say on the phone is none of their business."
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Republicans Are Hateful and Crude
The Democrats are refined. Here's John Kerry demonstrating sophistication and nuance:
Kerry tried to relay to the audience what it is like to face the press corps' inquiries.
"I don't know if any of you know what it's like. I do, obviously," he said. "I've been asked all of those brilliant questions that were repeated this year."
"Barack got asked the famous boxers or briefs question," Kerry went on. "I was tempted to say commando."
The senator said Obama successfully parried that question but that John McCain, the GOP nominee, had some problems.
"Then they asked McCain and McCain said, ‘Depends,'" Kerry said to lots of laughter from the crowd.
Lots of respectful laughter, sure. It's because you're such a classy guy, John.
Just think, he could have been our president.
Good News
Via NRO, a Military Times article that confirms what I suspected:
A poll by the Military Times newspaper group suggests that there is overwhelming support for John McCain among U.S. troops in every branch of the armed forces by a nearly 3-1 margin.
According to the poll, 68 percent of active-duty and retired servicemen and women support McCain, while 23 percent support Barack Obama. The numbers are nearly identical among officers and enlisted troops.
I have a McCain/Palin bumper sticker that I don't put on my truck because I mainly work on military installations. I suppose I could, but political expression has always been a subdued thing on base. This poll does ring true though. Good news.
Now speaking of working... I better go.
Social Commentary
I might have found away around Amazon comment censorship... I noticed awhile back that there seemed to be far fewer comments on Nancy Pelosi's newest book (does anyone still remember its name?) than there once were. I had to wonder if Amazon was deleting offensive comments only, or all negative comments. I wanted to leave a comment for Nancy, on this book that hadn't really read, but why extend the effort if someone's going to come along and delete it? Then it struck me: if I put a political message in an obscure nook, or cranny, it stood a much better chance of survival. So, at least for today, the above picture is a user image for the Macbook. I'll see how long it lasts.
Monday, October 20, 2008
News de la Weird
Developing Democracies: Candidates for local office in Brazil can either register under their own names or make them up, and in the October election this year, three candidates chose "Barack Obama" (none won), and others registered under "Bill Clinton," "Jorge Bushi" and "Chico Bin Laden," but more than 200 offered themselves under the name of the country's popular president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. [Daily Telegraph (London), 10-1-08]news of the weird
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Economic Growth Through Taxation
(click image to embiggen) If you listen to the Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself), the problem is that damned old Bush and McCain have been lavishing tax cuts on those corporations, and keeping your money from you. They need to be taxed more. They hardly pay any taxes at all, right?
Well, guess what the US corporate tax rate is as compared to the rest of the world? OK you've already peeked at the map so you know: it's one of the highest; greater than 50%.
Now, if you were the CEO of a big new corporation, and you suspected tough times were coming, where do you think you'd like to locate? Put it another way: can you find Ireland, that fast growing firecracker technology mecca, on this map? Even if you've got the map reading skills of a Miss America contestant, you can. (hint: it's green)
[Ireland] changed dramatically in the mid 1990s as the result of a prodigious economic boom, known as the "Celtic Tiger" (as in "tiger economy"). This was led by a surge in inward investment in high end industries in services, and lower taxation levels. From 2002, this was augmented by low interest rates set by the European Central Bank which encourage private sector consumption. In July 2006, a survey undertaken by Bank of Ireland Private Banking showed that, of the top 8 leading OECD nations, the Republic of Ireland was ranked the second wealthiest per capita country in the world, showing an average wealth per head of nearly €150,000 (~ $190,000).
What? The people are doing well? Second only to Japan? How can they do well if the blood-sucking corporations are only paying a 12% tax?
Obama doesn't like to admit that we've already got one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, but when confronted with it once, he said that because of loopholes, none of them really pay the full rate. Of course, he wants to close those loopholes; he's said as much.
So close the loopholes, and punish the job-shippers. Right. But what do we do when we want a corporation to locate in a certain area? How do we get companies to move into a technology corridor? Just put up a sign and hope they notice? Invite them? No. We lower the local taxes for corporations who move to that area. And lowering just the local taxes gets companies to relocate. We already know this is how the world works. But somehow Barack Obama thinks he can create new jobs by increasing taxes on US corporations.
So put away your map reading skills and take out your math arsenal. Ready? OK, which is more: 1.) a 12.5 % tax on a big corporation that supplies jobs and their associated taxes, OR, B.) a 50% tax on a corporation that isn't there?
Don't buy the silly hype that your money is being kept from you by a few fabulously rich bastards. Obama's socialist revolution could take all their money and nothing would change for you. We all do well in a strong, growing economy. I don't know what it will take to correct this financial crisis, but whatever it takes, and however long it takes, we want big businesses, medium businesses, and small businesses to be comfortable with our tax structure. Squeeze them too much, and those who can leave, will.
And get a clue: If you have a wonderful feast on your plate, it matters not one little bit what the guy in the next room has got. What does it matter if he's got a golden fork? What matters to you is what's on your plate. Don't let the slick empty suit manipulate you by playing on your envy.
Watch It
Ten minutes, and yes I know, most of us can wash
the car and make love twice in ten minutes, but
this is worth it. Wash the car next week.
the car and make love twice in ten minutes, but
this is worth it. Wash the car next week.
Spinning It the Best He Can
Pete Yost is doing the best he can in an article on Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac regulation:
WASHINGTON – Freddie Mac secretly paid a Republican consulting firm $2 million to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, Fannie Mae, three years before the government took control to prevent their collapse.
Sounds bad for the Republicans, huh? What you have to understand that FanFred targeted Republicans because they already had the Democrats in their pocket. They had to target Republicans because only Republicans pushed for their regulation.
Yost tries to minimize McCain's part in this whole drama by pointing out that Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, or his lobbying firm has taken more than $2 million from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dating to 2000. Unmentioned is the fact that almost every lobbing firm was employed by FanFred up until the collapse. It's a stretch to try to assign retroactive guilt to McCain for hiring Davis now.
Despite the spin, Yost doesn't outright lie though. He concedes that McCain was a cosponsor of the legislation. And he includes the only thing you really need to know about the effort to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:
The political backdrop to the debate "was like bizarre-o-world," said the second of three people familiar with the program. "The Republicans were pro-regulation and the Democrats were against it; it was upside down."
Sen. Richard Shelby, the committee chairman at the time, underscored that in a statement Wednesday, saying that with Democrats already on their side, it was not surprising that Freddie Mac and Freddie Mae went after Republicans. "Unfortunately," said Shelby, R-Ala., "efforts then to derail reform were successful."
Yes, sadly they got the few Republicans they needed. John McCain wasn't among them though. He wore the white hat through the whole affair. Why he's not trumpeting the fact is beyond me.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Curious Timing
It seems the FBI investigation is right on time. First it leaks out that the FBI is investigating ACORN, then pow!! ACORN computers start getting stolen. What are the chances that we're now going to see ACORN "victimized" by cyber-terrorists, who break in without setting off the alarms, wipe the hard drives, then disappear without a trace? Lets hope McCain wins, because if Obama is elected, these crimes will never get solved. I mean, how big of a priority could it be for an Obama administration: he "barely knows what ACORN is, never heard of them actually, what is it some kind of oak tree preservation society?"
An ACORN employee reports the break-in to police.Hang On Joe
See what happens when you ask a socialist to hold the ladder? He kicks it out from under you and 'liberates for the People' your new pipe wrench. Clickabiggen to embiggen. Half paint, half photoshop, what? you thought I was going to paint all those bricks?
Friday, October 17, 2008
Well, Duh
Another lesson they'll never learn from:
HONOLULU (AP) - Hawaii is dropping the only state universal child health care program in the country just seven months after it launched.
Gov. Linda Lingle's administration cited budget shortfalls and other available health care options for eliminating funding for the program. A state official said families were dropping private coverage so their children would be eligible for the subsidized plan.
"People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free," said Dr. Kenny Fink, the administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services. "I don't believe that was the intent of the program."
More Obama Speech Suppression
Call out the NAACP! A McCain sign has been spotted!
I've been here a time or two. Nice buffet on Sundays. But I never suspected they were capable of such a great injustice. They actually put out a campaign sign:
The Colony South Hotel & Conference Center in Clinton Maryland has hosted fundraisers for Barack Obama, held a prayer breakfast for a local Democrat, hosted a meeting for the African American Democratic club and hosted a home foreclosure program for Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer. But now that they had the audacity to put up a McCain-Palin campaign sign on their front lawn they are being threatened with an angry response from Obama supporters. (h/t Big Dog)
The act has enraged so many Obama supporters that even the NAACP has weighed in on the issue. Other Democrat activists are stirring talk of a boycott with explicit reference to shutting the hotel out of consideration as host for future political conferences; a strong arm tactic that has severe financial repercussions so close to Washington DC.
I'm trying to imagine getting upset about an Obama sign. Apart from government property, where might one be out of place? Where, and under what circumstances, might one be an insult? Sorry, I can't imagine it.
But the Followers are all in a tither because a local businessman supports what they consider the wrong candidate. This speech must be stopped!
Fortunately there is a hospital next door, ready to treat anyone who might be struck with an attack of the vapors.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Average Joe
Look out, they're going after Joe now. Well, duh. Of course they are. The Obama campaign is not of the people; they're not for blue collar. Just ask Joe.
All the media concern about his license, and his income is cute, but I've noticed nobody is answering (or probably even remembers) Joe's concern. He was thinking of owning his own company one day, and possibly buying an existing business. He wondered what the incentive to become successful is if Obama is going to 'spread his money around' once it happens.
Joe is in exactly the situation I was (minus Obama) 25 years ago. I had become skilled at repairing electronics and specialized industrial equipment, but I wasn't happy making other people wealthy and I wondered if I could go out on my own. I knew one or two guys who had done it but it was still a scary move.
Working against me was:
- Money. How much did I have to save before I would be safe from running out. What would happen if I did? Would anyone extend a new business credit?
- Customers. Could I sell myself to them. I had no faith that I could.
- Regulations and Taxes. Would I find out that I forgot to get some license or pay some tax and lose everything?
- Parts. Would the suppliers sell to me?
- Law suits. How much insurance did I need, and would I lose it if I got sued?
- Competition. I worked for people who would jump through hoops to take work away from people they didn't like. And if I left them, I'd be on that list. Would they take every customer I got?
- Uniforms. Tools. Vehicles. Business cards. Invoices. Phone lines. Wouldn't customers expect me to be 100% as professional looking as the big companies?
- Help. Who could I get to help me when the job was too big for one person to handle?
On the up side, there was:
- No bosses. I would no longer have to work for someone else.
- Vast riches, possibly. Potentially having them name elementary schools after me. Maybe I'd become so successful that I could wear a crown in everyday life and no one would remark upon it.
- Or moderate riches. Maybe just becoming successful doing something I really enjoyed.
I'm really glad I did. I have been successful. And I've made as much money as I wanted to, doing what I enjoy. I could probably have made more but once I found my groove, I was happy with just doing what I do. I have employed others but I found I didn't like being a boss any more than I enjoyed having one.
You look at Joe's situation today and he's got it even worse. I'm sure he's got all the concerns I did, and probably many more. But on top of that, he has to wonder if after all his work, one day, should a miracle happen and he really becomes successful, will the government take most of it away from him? Would Obama take so much that it just wasn't worth it to Joe? He might.
Just look at Obama's history. Socialism seems to be the one common thread. Forget William Ayer's terrorism. The man is, was, and most likely always will be a socialist. This is the guy who trusted Obama with the Annenberg Foundation money:
I began teaching when I was 20 years old in a small freedom school affiliated with the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The year was 1965, and I’d been arrested in a demonstration. Jailed for ten days, I met several activists who were finding ways to link teaching and education with deep and fundamental social change. They were following Dewey and DuBois, King and Helen Keller who wrote: “We can’t have education without revolution. We have tried peace education for 1,900 years and it has failed. Let us try revolution and see what it will do now.”
I walked out of jail and into my first teaching position—and from that day until this I’ve thought of myself as a teacher, but I’ve also understood teaching as a project intimately connected with social justice. After all, the fundamental message of the teacher is this: you can change your life—whoever you are, wherever you’ve been, whatever you’ve done, another world is possible. As students and teachers begin to see themselves as linked to one another, as tied to history and capable of collective action, the fundamental message of teaching shifts slightly, and becomes broader, more generous: we must change ourselves as we come together to change the world. Teaching invites transformations, it urges revolutions small and large. La educacion es revolucion!
I taught at first in something like a Simoncito—called Head Start—and eventually taught at every level in barrios and prisons and insurgent projects across the United States. I learned then that education is never neutral. It always has a value, a position, a politics. Education either reinforces or challenges the existing social order, and school is always a contested space – what should be taught? In what way? Toward what end? By and for whom? At bottom, it involves a struggle over the essential questions: what does it mean to be a human being living in a human society?
And look at the others in Obama's past. See any unabashed capitalists? Only Rezko, and it's not really capitalism when you steal.
No Joe, your concerns aren't unfounded. It sounds like you've got the same spark I had many years ago. And it's really a great thing to act upon it. I hope you do. And I hope that, on top of all the brutally tough work, you aren't also burdened with a government that has forgotten how important that spark has been for this country.
Sheesh, sorry this got so long.. kind of got away from me. I'll end with a Joe quote:
When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things.
-Joe Namath
Hope that doen't change.
Unemployed Scientists Prove Dog Likes Beer
"After carefully scrutinizing the data and witnessing a replication of the experiment at Dr. Rogers' house, I am confident that these findings are solid," Wilson said. "That dog loves beer."
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Tax Day
The news goes on without me today. It's April 15 for those of us who couldn't bear the thought of doing taxes in the Spring, and so filed for a six month extension. (and are finding out Fall taxes are a drag too)
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Joe Biden Goes Dorian Gray on Us
WaPo says he might be getting Botox:
Barry Cohen, a Rockville plastic surgeon, is more blunt. "He clearly has had Botox," the doctor, a Republican, told us. "The lines are gone on his forehead. There is no way makeup or surgery could do that."
I say leave him alone. He's trying to keep up with Sarah, which we all know he can't do. Anyway, let him re-tighten the old face another few times and if he ever really looks good, we'll start calling him a tramp.
Course, could be he's just changing his appearance in order to vote twice. Maybe he's joined ACORN. Speaking of which: they've caught one of them casting a ballot in Ohio. Any guesses as to who he voted for?
Monday, October 13, 2008
Stock Market Respite
They do this to sucker you back in... Up 725 at this point. (me: I've been slowly getting back in... slowly)
There's nothing to stop it from tanking tomorrow but it's nice that it took a break from augering into the ground.
BTW- Oregon Guy is doing a pretty good job of explaining this situation. [caution: carrots are involved] Also, see his earlier posts.
Shameless
George Jetson wishes he had a pen like this. The thing has a cradle, you park the pen there to charge and download your notes to the computer. Pretty cool, but it also makes an audio recording of what was going on when you took your notes, and... if you touch areas of text with the pen in playback, it plays back what was being said when you wrote that particular word down. No, really.
OK, and it gets weirder: you can even sketch a crude keyboard, then tap the keys to play piano notes. I know it sounds nutso, but it's true. We got one for lumberkid a few weeks back and she's actually using it in school. Anyway, there's an Amazon link down there, if you're interested... yeah, so this was an advertisement. Actually, I've been set up as an Amazon associate for awhile - up till now though, there wasn't anything I felt like promoting. (and also, the main reason I signed up was so that I could order things through the link and thereby get a discount.... still don't know if they'll do that though because I haven't tried yet)
So also, if you go through the link and end up buying a Segway or something, unimaginable riches rain down on me and showgirls start hanging out at the lumber camp again. OK, maybe no showgirls, and maybe the government takes the unimaginable riches.
You're going to increase my taxes, aren't you?
So Obama tells this plumber that, I don't want to punish your success, I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance at success too. I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for it....
There it is in a nutshell: spread the wealth around. Never mind that "everybody who is behind you" already has a chance at success. In fact, anybody who wants to replace wax rings on toilets, or dig up septic tanks, can be successful. But Obama isn't talking about spreading the work around, just the wealth. No, you go ahead and unclog that sewer line, we just want the profit.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Sowing Seeds of Hatred
WASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and veteran of the civil rights movement, says the negative tone of the Republican presidential campaign reminds him of the hateful atmosphere that segregationist Gov. George Wallace fostered in Alabama in the 1960s.
In a statement issued Saturday, Lewis [Rep. John Lewis, Georgia Democrat] said McCain and running mate Sarah Palin were "sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse." He noted that Wallace also ran for president.
When asked if he had communicated his concerns to the McCain campaign, Lewis replied, "Certainly, we spray painted it on the walls of the RNC Headquarters just before we burned it down."
Side note for those keeping track: George Wallace was a Democrat
Saturday, October 11, 2008
How Low Can You Go?
"This low, for now. So someone fetch me a shovel!"***Update:
What's wrong with Tim Robbins? I realize I was disparaging him without saying why he deserves sparage. So I used the evil search engine and found the very words that turned me against him. Tim Robbins at the National Press Club:
For all of the ugliness and tragedy of 9-11, there was a brief period afterward where I held a great hope, in the midst of the tears and shocked faces of New Yorkers, in the midst of the lethal air we breathed as we worked at Ground Zero, in the midst of my children's terror at being so close to this crime against humanity, in the midst of all this, I held on to a glimmer of hope in the naive assumption that something good could come out of it.
I imagined our leaders seizing upon this moment of unity in America, this moment when no one wanted to talk about Democrat versus Republican, white versus black, or any of the other ridiculous divisions that dominate our public discourse. I imagined our leaders going on television telling the citizens that although we all want to be at Ground Zero, we can't, but there is work that is needed to be done all over America. Our help is needed at community centers to tutor children, to teach them to read. Our work is needed at old-age homes to visit the lonely and infirmed; in gutted neighborhoods to rebuild housing and clean up parks, and convert abandoned lots to baseball fields. I imagined leadership that would take this incredible energy, this generosity of spirit and create a new unity in America born out of the chaos and tragedy of 9/11, a new unity that would send a message to terrorists everywhere: If you attack us, we will become stronger, cleaner, better educated, and more unified. You will strengthen our commitment to justice and democracy by your inhumane attacks on us.
And he goes on to whimper his disappointment. "Ah but it wasn't to be. I love the country, well, some of the trees at any rate, but the animate objects all disappoint me...." Like that.
I first read this crapulence on a Saturday shortly after he spewed it. And I remember it because I was hurrying through the news, hopping links, checking mail, busy clicker that I am. And I only read this because there was an extra half hour thrown into our plans for the evening. Why? Because one of the kids involved was going to be late getting back from... drum roll.... the nursing home. Yeah Tim, the nursing home, visiting the "infirmed". Which is what people do. No, not what rich actors do. What real people do. Then of course, I realized that the problem was that we weren't writing to Mr Robbins to inform him of our activities.
Sure, Tim Robbins could volunteer someplace himself. Upon his arrival he might notice that there were people already there. People who had been there, doing service -- not there awaiting his theoretical arrival, with his actors sleeves rolled up and ready to hypothetically pitch in.
Nah, Tim doesn't value service to the extent that he would actually do something. His contribution is pretty much whining about how other people don't pitch in. (in much the same way he doesn't)
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