February 27, 2009

Playing The Game

Well, at least he's telling the truth about this one!

Protector Of The Image

In a recent press conference, White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs said, "There are no earmarks" in the stimulus bill.

Gibbs is known for dogged determination and complete dedication to the candidate for whom he is working. He is also known for being willing to do whatever it takes to get his candidate elected and maintain his reputation as long as he’s in his employ.
Robert Gibbs Biography

....I'm a protector of the image."
WSJ.com

Well, I guess that explains that whopper about there being no earmarks in the stimulus package.

February 25, 2009

Liar, Liar?


In President Obama's Address to Congress, last night, he said:

I know there are some in this chamber and watching at home who are skeptical of whether this plan will work. I understand that skepticism. Here in Washington, we've all seen how quickly good intentions can turn into broken promises and wasteful spending. And with a plan of this scale comes enormous responsibility to get it right.

That is why I have asked Vice President Biden to lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort — because nobody messes with Joe.

HUH??

Nobody messes with Joe?

Where'd he get that information, and I wonder what he meant?

That statement keeps bouncing around in my mind, stirring up a memory of another statement I've heard before.

Hmmm...let me think.

Oh, I know..."Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job!"

I wonder if Obama's statement will come back to bite him in the gluteus maximus, like Bush's did to him?

Read Obama's Address to Congress.

Try to keep this phrase from taking over your thoughts as you read: "Liar, liar, pants on fire."

I tried, but it didn't work.

February 24, 2009

For Bill And Roxie



Bill and Roxie..I hope you enjoy this song. It's one of my favorites, and it always reminds me of the two of you.

February 23, 2009

Red vs Blue Financial Crisis PSA: Rock Bottom



I found this on someone else's blog..who found it on someone else's blog. It's good for a smile, and reminds me of the old cliché about truth often being said in jest.

February 22, 2009

Just How Bad Is It?



Are things really as bad as people are saying they are?

Have you given any thought to what would happen to your neighborhood if things get to the point where law enforcement will not even respond when called?

How long would you continue to live in such an environment? Worse, what if your options were such that, because of unemployment, or other life circumstances, you had no choice but to stay there, living your life in fear?

Think about it..from moment to moment, night and day..nothing but fear, and despair.

There are people who think that that kind of thing just doesn't happen, that it won't happen. Not here. Not in this country. But it does, and whether you want to believe it or not, it is going to become a more common occurrence as time goes by.

This particular neighborhood is in Detroit, and I'm sure there are other neighborhoods, in other cities, where the same thing is happening.

I don't know how we have allowed things to come to this, but worse, now we have allowed ourselves to become even more vulnerable.

It's a sad day in America..with many more to come. I hope it's not too late to turn things around.

At least, do all that you can do, to be prepared.

February 20, 2009

Another Deranged Rant

I'm doing something that I've never done before on this blog, but I'd like for you to see why I have seriously considered not blogging anymore.

Usually, I get these deranged rants in emails, with phony screen names, and no way to reply, but this was posted this evening in comments of a post that I did months ago, and was sent from a computer at California Polytechnic State University

It is full of vitriolic hatred, and outrage..at me, and all Americans who don't believe the same deluded lies that they believe. In fact, this person said: Seriously, you're either stupid or just evil! It's people like you that are destroying our country, and it's people like you that make me ashamed to be an American.

I can't include the sentences preceding that statement, because this person has a filthy mouth, but you can read the rest of the rant in comments after this post: You Ain't Gonna Like Losing

I can't tell if the commenter is male or female--with a cute little name like "Jade" it is hard to tell--but it's easy to see that Jade is the one with his/her head in the sand.

It really is a dangerous world we live in, in more ways than one.

February 19, 2009

Life Is Short...


An elderly man lay dying in his bed. While suffering the agonies of impending death, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite pierogi with fried onions wafting up the stairs.

He gathered his remaining strength, and lifted himself from the bed. Gripping the railing with both hands, he crawled downstairs.

Downstairs, he leaned against the door frame, gazing into the kitchen, where if not for death's agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven, for there, spread out upon waxed paper on the kitchen table were hundreds of his favorite pierogi.

Was it heaven? Or was it one final act of love from his wife of sixty years, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man?

He threw himself towards the table, landing on his knees in a crumpled posture. His parched lips parted, the wondrous taste of the pierogi was already in his mouth. With a trembling hand he reached up to the edge of the table, when suddenly he was smacked with a wooden spoon by his wife.

"Back off!" she said. "Those are for the funeral."

We do survive every moment, after all, except the last one.
~John Updike

February 17, 2009

Signed, Sealed, Delivered...It's Ours


Well, the Stimulus Package was finally signed today.

You know, that very urgent, If We Don't Do This Right Now This Very Minute The Entire Nation Will Be Overcome With Catastrophe Beyond Our Worst Nightmares, package?


The package that was so urgent that no one got to read it, or know what was in it before voting on it?

The package that was so urgent, but had to wait until the President flew to Chicago to take his wife out to their favorite place for a sentimental Valentine's evening...and then on to a couple of other places to talk to the citizens about how important it was, for the well-being of everything that we hold near and dear, and how much they, themselves, would be helped by it?


Yeah, that package.

The one that can honestly be called a Surprise Package, because it will be found to be full of surprises when everyone finally gets around to reading what's in it.


For more outrageous news, read this: One Last Chance to Stop the Bailouts

February 14, 2009

The Big Bamboozle


“... I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth. This was the moment — this was the time — when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideals.”

Yeah, I know that was his speech after winning (?) enough electoral votes to assure his nomination for the presidency. Unfortunately, he convinced enough misguided people of what he was saying, that they voted for him..expecting, of course that he would keep all those promises of hope and change.

Really, though, he should have saved that speech for now, after the stimulus package was rammed down the throats of the American tax payer..you know we who work for a living, taking care of our responsibilities, and not expecting others to give us everything we want?

Why now? Well, because I'm sure that now a lot of those people who voted him into office, are going to start realizing that he did not tell the truth, especially when he talked so much about transparency, and working for the good of all of the people.

Maybe, he could have put that speech to better use in trying to convince everyone that putting through a stimulus package, which was concocted behind, closed, locked doors, and not allowed to be read by anyone who actually voted on it, is the very thing that is going to bring peace and prosperity to us all.

All it is going to bring to us, is more division, more resentment and anger, and more debt than can ever be paid, putting a burden on generations to come.

Hope and change? Transparency? How about hypocrisy? How about dishonesty, deceit, and deception?

I think that generations from now, that we will look back and tell our children that this was the moment when our country got sold out, when we lost hope of ever again being able to believe in what was good, and right, and honorable..that this was the moment of the beginning of the end of our once great nation.


One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. The bamboozle has captured us. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
~Carl Sagan~

February 11, 2009

Obama Answers Student at Fort Myers Town Hall Meeting

Hey, kid...he's just a man. That's all.

Other words fail me.

Enough To Make You Sick



As if we didn't have enough problems, already, now we have to worry about this.

I know a lot of people without any kind of health insurance, and even those who do have it, sometimes have a lot of complaints about health care; even so, I think that with all the faults, we still have about as good as it gets when it comes to being able to at least obtain help when we need it.

I know, personally, a lot of good people who are going to suffer dire consequences as a result of what is about to transpire.

Who knows how long it will be until someone you know is denied life saving procedures, or even medication, because of age, or other restrictions?

Is this part of the hope and change that was promised, and everyone clamored for? Well, there's going to be plenty of changes, but not much hope that I can see.

February 09, 2009

Politicization Of The National Census


Resisting the Politicization of the National Census

By William Warren

If controlling the executive branch and maintaining a majority in both houses of Congress was not already enough power, President Obama is now poised to expand his sphere of authority to engulf the Census Bureau as well.

According to a recent article in CQ Politics, President Obama's administration will be keeping the as-yet-unnamed director of the Census Bureau on a tight leash and under a watchful eye. Adding an extra layer of significance to this is the fact that the next national head-counting—performed every 10 years—is scheduled for 2010.

As the article explains, a senior White House official stated last Thursday that the director will “work closely with” the Obama administration—rather than reporting solely to the Commerce Secretary.

This story comes on the heels of an even more troubling report the previous day that the Census Bureau director would “report directly to” the Obama administration and completely bypass the Commerce Secretary. Apparently, the White House officials toned down the rhetoric after Republicans “accused the White House of attempting to gain advantage in the politically delicate process of counting Americans and of violating the law by circumventing the Commerce secretary.”

Although “working closely with” the White House may not be as foreboding as “reporting directly to” the White House, the overarching trend is the same: Barack Obama is attempting to seize control over the Census process. And seizing control is exactly how this ought to be viewed.

Any effort on behalf of any presidential administration to politicize the census and stage a political power grab needs be met with steadfast resistance. As Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA), the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, remarked:

“Any attempt by the Obama administration to circumvent the census process for their political benefit will be met with fierce opposition as this ill-conceived proposal undermines a constitutionally obligated process that speaks to the very heart of our democracy.”

As Rep. Issa further explains, such calculated circumvention of the Department of Commerce would mark a profound reversal of Title 13 of the U.S. Code. As it states, Census Bureau is to be administered “within, and under the jurisdiction of, the Department of Commerce”—not the White House.

Moreover, the administration's plans would specifically put White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in a decision-making position with regards to Census Bureau activity. As Rep. Issa challenged:

“This implies that President Obama intends on getting a count to his liking. It borders on overt political corruption.”

There is a clear reason why the Census Bureau is constitutionally and legally detached from partisan politics. The need for such a deliberate separation was articulated by Rep. Issa and Representative Patrick McHenry (R-NC) in a recent letter to Obama. As it reads:

“The constitutionally mandated decennial census needs to be fair, accurate and trusted. By circumventing the secretary of Commerce's oversight of the Census Bureau and handing it directly to a political operative such as Mr. Emanuel, you are severely jeopardizing the fairness and accuracy of the 2010 census.”

Yielding control of the Census to a partisan, self-interested presidential administration—overseen by the even more partisan Mr. Emanuel—is a recipe for disaster and an invitation for limitless corruption. The census determines a whole host of politically sensitive matters including, but not limited to, the allocation of electoral votes to individual states, the allocation representatives to individual states, and the dispersal of federal money to certain regions of the country.

State-by-state Gerrymandering and congressional redistricting all rely on census data. Moreover, the funding of a wide range of Government programs is also determined from the results of the count. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

If such authority and responsibility is tainted by the corrupted self-interest inherent in Washington politics, the little trust Americans had in their government would surely dwindle to nothing.

There is no question that the Census process should be firmly off-limits to politics. The firewall of separation that has guarded the delicate head-counting process from potential corruption must not be breached at this time.

Barack Obama has promised transparency time and time again. Allowing him and Rahm Emanuel to dictate the activities of the Census Bureau would equate to nothing less than a veiled totalitarian power-grab and be yet another step away from the “hope and change” the Obama campaign so misleadingly promised the American people.

William Warren is a contributing editor of ALG News Bureau.

I don't know about you, but from what I can tell, there is much more here, than meets the eye.

Barack Obama seizing control over the Census process? My thinking is, that we haven't seen the half of it!

Would "ominous" be too strong a word to describe the events we can expect in the not too distant future?

I don't think so.

February 07, 2009

DeMint Fights Against Religious Discrimination in Stimulus Bill



It would be really interesting to see what else is in the stimulus package. I wonder if this particular one was whittled out, in order to streamline it enough to pass? Probably, not.

What a major, major mistake our country has made in allowing us to be turned over to those whom have not a clue about what we are really all about.

All I can say is, "God help us, all."

At the moment we are still allowed to say such things, but who knows how much longer we will have that privilege, and freedom?

February 06, 2009

STIMULUS : "It's Not A Game!" OBAMA Scolds Congress & Critics



Hmmm..watching this, and listening to his words, echoes of other words come to mind: "Community Action Organizer" -- and especially when he says that he found 'this National Debt, doubled,wrapped in a big bow waiting for me, as I stepped into the Oval Office' I think of these words: "The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn)"

What has that to do with anything? Well, if you recall, that organization was part and parcel of bringing on the financial fiasco that we now find ourselves in. They bullied financial institutions into granting loans for mortgages to people they knew could not afford them, and had no way of paying for them.

That, and the other shenanigans they pulled to get what they wanted, when they wanted it.

Acorn is earmarked for a big hunk of the stimulus package--something like 5 billion dollars. Yes, that is 'billion' with a 'b.'

Here's an excerpt from a 2008 article written by Stanley Kurtz in National Review Online:
According to Stern, Acorn’s radical agenda sometimes shifts toward “undisguised authoritarian socialism.” Fully aware of its living-wage campaign’s tendency to drive businesses out of cities, Acorn hopes to force companies that want to move to obtain “exit visas.” “How much longer before Acorn calls for exit visas for wealthy or middle-class individuals before they can leave a city?” asks Stern, adding, “This is the road to serfdom indeed."

You'll find the whole article interesting.

It looks like President Obama is still trying to use his community organizing tactics in trying to force this on the American tax payer whether we like it or not..because, after all, as he and Nancy Pelosi have both said, "I won."

If this stimulus package were a book, it could be titled, "Dreams of Obama."






February 02, 2009

H.R. 645-FEMA Detention Centers


I've been trying to post a video about Fema Concentration Camps in the U.S., but for some reason, it, and the text of this post will not publish together.

I will post it separately, because I think it is very interesting, and you'll find it below this post.

I've been reading about these camps for quite some time, at least for a couple of years, including debates about whether or not they actually exist--so, I guess I was a little shocked when I came across the video about Fema Concentration Camps.

I had intended to post the following article, which others are posting, too, and while researching a few facts, just happened upon the video.

Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, D-Fla., has introduced to the House of Representatives a new bill, H.R. 645, calling for the secretary of homeland security to establish no fewer than six national emergency centers for corralling civilians on military installations.

The proposed bill, which has received little mainstream media attention, appears designed to create the type of detention center that those concerned about use of the military in domestic affairs fear could be used as concentration camps for political dissidents, such as occurred in Nazi Germany.

The bill also appears to expand the president's emergency power, much as the executive order signed by President Bush on May 9, 2007, that, as WND reported, gave the president the authority to declare an emergency and take over the direction of all federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments without even consulting Congress.

Read the rest of it here.

Okay..I know there will be a lot of nay-sayers out there, ready to ridicule, and call names like "fear mongerer," but so be it; there are just as many, if not more, with sense enough to believe that it does not bode well.

No doubt, in another time, and another place, there were many who did not heed warning of what was about to befall them, thinking that it just could not happen in their civilized world...but it did.


Reading back over what I have just written reminds me of this quote by American philosopher George Santayana (1863-1952) : "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

FEMA Camp Footage (Concentration Camps in USA)