Awesome!
Rush Limbaugh's speech at CPAC was absolutely awesome. Most inspiring!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Tea Parties!
Lots of reports coming in from tea parties across the country today. Hundreds turned out in most of the cities, many in spite of pouring rain and freezing temps.
Michelle Malkin has a photo album of several of the events here.
There's one scheduled on the Plaza tomorrow, 10 am at JC Nichols Fountain...marching to Claire McCaskill's office a mile away. I was planning to attend, but the weatherman says windy, very cold and snowing, and I already have a very sore throat, so I fear I will have to pass. I'm sure there will be more opportunities.
Revolution is brewing!
Michelle Malkin has a photo album of several of the events here.
There's one scheduled on the Plaza tomorrow, 10 am at JC Nichols Fountain...marching to Claire McCaskill's office a mile away. I was planning to attend, but the weatherman says windy, very cold and snowing, and I already have a very sore throat, so I fear I will have to pass. I'm sure there will be more opportunities.
Revolution is brewing!
Celestial Show
This month, the planet Venus is shining at a very bright level. Tonight, the new moon is a sharp little crescent. And, tonight the moon and Venus are in close proximity, a very cool sight , indeed!
If you live in one of those areas where trees or man-made structures obscure the western sky, here's the way it looked at about 7:15 p.m., MST.
Not a masterpiece photo, but a fair representatiion.
Editorial Roundup
After reading Prelutsky's excellent article (linked in Sam's post below), I was browsing around Townhall a bit, and came across two other outstanding pieces, by Charles Krauthammer and Thomas Sowell. Then a quick trip to Drudge Report led me to another, by Larry Kudlow.
Each of three pieces is linked at its author's name above. I give each 5 stars.
Each of three pieces is linked at its author's name above. I give each 5 stars.
Saving Mexico
Given my close proximity to Mexico, my fondness of that beautiful country and the Mexican people, I recently expressed some opinions on the drug violence along and near our border. I made it clear that I have no sympathy for people who nudge, nudge, wink, wink enjoy a little pot, but do not inhale. My point being that drug consumption, no matter how small, fuels the violence.
April replied that the solution may be to legalize pot. Today, Burt Prelutsky greatly enlarged upon her remarks, here.
Read it all. Makes a lot of sense.
We must stop the drug related violence. Nothing else has worked.
Given my close proximity to Mexico, my fondness of that beautiful country and the Mexican people, I recently expressed some opinions on the drug violence along and near our border. I made it clear that I have no sympathy for people who nudge, nudge, wink, wink enjoy a little pot, but do not inhale. My point being that drug consumption, no matter how small, fuels the violence.
April replied that the solution may be to legalize pot. Today, Burt Prelutsky greatly enlarged upon her remarks, here.
Read it all. Makes a lot of sense.
We must stop the drug related violence. Nothing else has worked.
More from the Side Effects People
On Fox News Channel this morning, Megan Kelly laughed about and disagreed with the attempt of Maine lawmakers to prohibit the use of plastic bags in retail stores.
Joanna and I wondered how those cloth bags will look after a few more trips to the store, being soiled in innumerable ways. After being dragged across the checkout counters in every place from Wal-Mart to the produce market or fish market. How about those sackers in grocery stores who will have to handle these grungy things? How many germs and viruses wil be spread by these sure-to-become-filthy cloth bags?
But.... those precious landfills will be spared!
Once again we are bowing to the side effects and ignoring the greater good from the use of clean, sanitary plastic bags! And, as Megan noted, excellent, free waste basket liners.
On Fox News Channel this morning, Megan Kelly laughed about and disagreed with the attempt of Maine lawmakers to prohibit the use of plastic bags in retail stores.
Joanna and I wondered how those cloth bags will look after a few more trips to the store, being soiled in innumerable ways. After being dragged across the checkout counters in every place from Wal-Mart to the produce market or fish market. How about those sackers in grocery stores who will have to handle these grungy things? How many germs and viruses wil be spread by these sure-to-become-filthy cloth bags?
But.... those precious landfills will be spared!
Once again we are bowing to the side effects and ignoring the greater good from the use of clean, sanitary plastic bags! And, as Megan noted, excellent, free waste basket liners.
Growing Old
The Good, The Bad, and, well, you know!
We know the problems of aging. But most of the problems we know about are physical! Compared to the way I looked at 30, at 80, I look like crap. I resent the loss of strength and agility. Makes it hard to earn a living and leads to things like suddenly falling on your butt in the shower.
And there is the accumulation of a lifetime of mishaps. I still have trouble with that forefinger I stuck in a running lawnmower thirty years ago!
There are things like memory loss, but I wonder if that is not the product of just learning to ignore life's trivia. With the Dow averages dropping below 7,000, am I supposed to obsess with where I left my car keys? And sometimes it is downright entertaining. This morning, preparing for an early doctor's appointment, I showered, shampoo'd, and (following my mother's advice of so many years ago) made sure I had clean underwear and socks. Five minutes before heading out the door, I stroked my chin and discovered I had forgotten to shave! Ever try to shave when you're in a hurry and can't quit laughing at yourself?
But there is the good side to aging. For example, the "I told you so" factor. I grew up a country kid during the depression. I remember sitting around while the "men folk" discussed things. These simple men, with little formal education but a wealth of logic and practical experience, deplored what Franklin Roosevelt was doing to our country. I grew to despise FDR.
The press was so in love with him, they never, NEVER showed a picture of him in a wheelchair or being lifted in or out of his limo - that nasty cigarette holder clenched in his teeth.
I was working at a gas station for $14.00 a week in 1945 when Roosevelt died. All around me were mourning. Not me. I was actually relieved that the old fool was finally out of the Oval Office.
Years passed and among other things, the government erected a magnificient monument to the guy, in Washington. He has been glorified to no end.
But, at last, thinking people have begun to speak up, and FDR's New Deal is at last revealed to be the cause which turned a recession into the tragic depression.
I had to wait until I was 80, but I got the joy of hearing that.
The Good, The Bad, and, well, you know!
We know the problems of aging. But most of the problems we know about are physical! Compared to the way I looked at 30, at 80, I look like crap. I resent the loss of strength and agility. Makes it hard to earn a living and leads to things like suddenly falling on your butt in the shower.
And there is the accumulation of a lifetime of mishaps. I still have trouble with that forefinger I stuck in a running lawnmower thirty years ago!
There are things like memory loss, but I wonder if that is not the product of just learning to ignore life's trivia. With the Dow averages dropping below 7,000, am I supposed to obsess with where I left my car keys? And sometimes it is downright entertaining. This morning, preparing for an early doctor's appointment, I showered, shampoo'd, and (following my mother's advice of so many years ago) made sure I had clean underwear and socks. Five minutes before heading out the door, I stroked my chin and discovered I had forgotten to shave! Ever try to shave when you're in a hurry and can't quit laughing at yourself?
But there is the good side to aging. For example, the "I told you so" factor. I grew up a country kid during the depression. I remember sitting around while the "men folk" discussed things. These simple men, with little formal education but a wealth of logic and practical experience, deplored what Franklin Roosevelt was doing to our country. I grew to despise FDR.
The press was so in love with him, they never, NEVER showed a picture of him in a wheelchair or being lifted in or out of his limo - that nasty cigarette holder clenched in his teeth.
I was working at a gas station for $14.00 a week in 1945 when Roosevelt died. All around me were mourning. Not me. I was actually relieved that the old fool was finally out of the Oval Office.
Years passed and among other things, the government erected a magnificient monument to the guy, in Washington. He has been glorified to no end.
But, at last, thinking people have begun to speak up, and FDR's New Deal is at last revealed to be the cause which turned a recession into the tragic depression.
I had to wait until I was 80, but I got the joy of hearing that.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Quote of the Day
When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect. ~Adlai Stevenson
Note: I'm not sure which Adlai Stevenson...there have been four, all Democrats. My, how times have changed.
Note: I'm not sure which Adlai Stevenson...there have been four, all Democrats. My, how times have changed.
Condemn them, for they know exactly what they do
I keep hearing good Christian conservatives say that they are praying for Obama and the Democrats - praying that God will grant them wisdom to realize the error of their ways. This idea is fundamentally flawed.
While it isn't likely that there are any Einstein intellects among the governing class, neither are they simpletons. These are not people who are simply unwise, making innocent mistakes. These are people with an agenda. They do not lack wisdom, they lack conscience.
Millions of people turned out to vote for Barack Obama, nearly all inspired by his message of hope and change. The vast majority of these people are basically good, moral people, who sincerely believed that they were doing something magical for the future of our country. They believed this because they were led to believe this with flowery, though non-specific, speeches and prose-like, but empty, rhetoric. I know a number of staunch Obama supporters (worshippers would be a more apt description) and I am a curious person. I wanted to know what they saw in this man - what they hoped he would change (certainly he never gave them any concrete information on this front). Overwhelmingly, they pointed to statements that led them to believe that he would heal the deep rifts in our society. I was told that he would find the middle ground, that he would bring us all together in grand compromise on the divisive issues such as abortion and the wars. Tired of the bickering in Washington and their own feelings of powerlessness, they flocked to a man who presented himself as a blank slate upon which they could paint their dreams. While this is frighteningly naive, it should do much to restore our basic faith in human nature and the fundamental goodness of the common man.
If the voters were guilty of gullibility, the Democrats, led by The Messiah, are guilty of much, much worse. Obama's blank slate was an intentional front used in a cold, calculating manner to achieve exactly the results it produced. There was never any reality to his image, never any desire to unite. The man is a narcissist, obsessed with power and controlling others. His entire life, to anyone who has taken the time to objectively examine it, has been carefully orchestrated to elevate him to a position where he is best able to advance his agenda of fundamentally altering America. He believes in socialistic philosophies and abhors a nation in which those of ability, drive and purpose have more than those with little motivation and less determination. His goal is, and always has been, to equalize our country. As Karl Marx wrote, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."
Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Dodd, Frank, et al are liars. Flat out, unapologetic liars. They will say anything to further their cause, with absolutely no intention of ever keeping their promises. In the name of "fairness" they will steal from anyone, present or future. In their lust for power they will joyously adopt any measure that will stifle the opposition, regardless of the consequences. There is an evil in these people that terrifies me. They are willfully advancing their pet causes, knowing full well that those causes are the antithesis of what this country is supposed to embody. In direct, flagrant violation of our Constitution, they are pursuing a complete makeover of our representative Republic, turning away from freedom and liberty on every front toward a future of failure, misery and abject poverty. And as they incrementally strip us of ever more of our liberties, they assail anyone who dares criticize them as racists, bigots and ingrates.
We have seen this act before, and we have seen that no good can possibly come of it. Now we face the challenge of trying to rouse those around us to action when they have slumbered complacently for decades. It is the solemn duty of every freedom loving American to sound the alarm, to stand up and say, "No more!" The very foundation of our nation is at stake. For those of you given to prayer, do not waste it on the perpetrators of evil; rather, pray for the soul of our nation. Pray that your neighbors start paying attention before it is too late. For the love of all that is good in this land, and there is much, pray that they fail.
While it isn't likely that there are any Einstein intellects among the governing class, neither are they simpletons. These are not people who are simply unwise, making innocent mistakes. These are people with an agenda. They do not lack wisdom, they lack conscience.
Millions of people turned out to vote for Barack Obama, nearly all inspired by his message of hope and change. The vast majority of these people are basically good, moral people, who sincerely believed that they were doing something magical for the future of our country. They believed this because they were led to believe this with flowery, though non-specific, speeches and prose-like, but empty, rhetoric. I know a number of staunch Obama supporters (worshippers would be a more apt description) and I am a curious person. I wanted to know what they saw in this man - what they hoped he would change (certainly he never gave them any concrete information on this front). Overwhelmingly, they pointed to statements that led them to believe that he would heal the deep rifts in our society. I was told that he would find the middle ground, that he would bring us all together in grand compromise on the divisive issues such as abortion and the wars. Tired of the bickering in Washington and their own feelings of powerlessness, they flocked to a man who presented himself as a blank slate upon which they could paint their dreams. While this is frighteningly naive, it should do much to restore our basic faith in human nature and the fundamental goodness of the common man.
If the voters were guilty of gullibility, the Democrats, led by The Messiah, are guilty of much, much worse. Obama's blank slate was an intentional front used in a cold, calculating manner to achieve exactly the results it produced. There was never any reality to his image, never any desire to unite. The man is a narcissist, obsessed with power and controlling others. His entire life, to anyone who has taken the time to objectively examine it, has been carefully orchestrated to elevate him to a position where he is best able to advance his agenda of fundamentally altering America. He believes in socialistic philosophies and abhors a nation in which those of ability, drive and purpose have more than those with little motivation and less determination. His goal is, and always has been, to equalize our country. As Karl Marx wrote, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."
Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Dodd, Frank, et al are liars. Flat out, unapologetic liars. They will say anything to further their cause, with absolutely no intention of ever keeping their promises. In the name of "fairness" they will steal from anyone, present or future. In their lust for power they will joyously adopt any measure that will stifle the opposition, regardless of the consequences. There is an evil in these people that terrifies me. They are willfully advancing their pet causes, knowing full well that those causes are the antithesis of what this country is supposed to embody. In direct, flagrant violation of our Constitution, they are pursuing a complete makeover of our representative Republic, turning away from freedom and liberty on every front toward a future of failure, misery and abject poverty. And as they incrementally strip us of ever more of our liberties, they assail anyone who dares criticize them as racists, bigots and ingrates.
We have seen this act before, and we have seen that no good can possibly come of it. Now we face the challenge of trying to rouse those around us to action when they have slumbered complacently for decades. It is the solemn duty of every freedom loving American to sound the alarm, to stand up and say, "No more!" The very foundation of our nation is at stake. For those of you given to prayer, do not waste it on the perpetrators of evil; rather, pray for the soul of our nation. Pray that your neighbors start paying attention before it is too late. For the love of all that is good in this land, and there is much, pray that they fail.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Score one for the good guys!
From Fox News:
It's a start!
Hundreds Arrested in Cross-Country Campaign Against Drug Cartel
Federal authorities have arrested more than 750 people across the country in what they describe as "the largest and hardest hitting" operation to ever target the "the very violent and dangerously powerful" drug cartel known as Sinaloa.
The cartel is being blamed for much of the violence erupting along the U.S.-Mexican border, according to officials familiar with the operation.
U.S. officials said Wednesday that the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and divisions of the Department of Homeland Security have spent two years investigating and arresting people associated with the Sinaloa cartel — which they say has been smuggling drugs, laundering millions of dollars obtained illegally and fueling a wave of violence along the Southern border.
It's a start!
Robert "KKK" Byrd not pleased with The Messiah
From Politico:
He may be ancient, but apparently he's not brain dead. Read the whole thing.
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), the longest serving Democratic senator, is criticizing President Obama’s appointment of White House “czars” to oversee federal policy, saying these executive positions amount to a power grab by the executive branch.
In a letter to Obama on Wednesday, Byrd complained about Obama’s decision to create White House offices on health reform, urban affairs policy, and energy and climate change. Byrd said such positions “can threaten the Constitutional system of checks and balances. At the worst, White House staff have taken direction and control of programmatic areas that are the statutory responsibility of Senate-confirmed officials.”
[snip]
Byrd also wants Obama to limit claims of executive privilege while also ensuring that thes White House czars don’t have authority over Cabinet officers confirmed by the Senate.
“As presidential assistants and advisers, these White House staffers are not accountable for their actions to the Congress, to cabinet officials, and to virtually anyone but the president,” Byrd wrote. “They rarely testify before congressional committees, and often shield the information and decision-making process behind the assertion of executive privilege. In too many instances, White House staff have been allowed to inhibit openness and transparency, and reduce accountability.”
He may be ancient, but apparently he's not brain dead. Read the whole thing.
Sales of “Atlas Shrugged” Soar in the Face of Economic Crisis
From the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights:
Atlas will shrug.
Sales of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” have almost tripled over the first seven weeks of this year compared with sales for the same period in 2008. This continues a strong trend after bookstore sales reached an all-time annual high in 2008 of about 200,000 copies sold.
“Americans are flocking to buy and read ‘Atlas Shrugged’ because there are uncanny similarities between the plot-line of the book and the events of our day” said Yaron Brook, Executive Director at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. “Americans are rightfully concerned about the economic crisis and government’s increasing intervention and attempts to control the economy. Ayn Rand understood and identified the deeper causes of the crisis we’re facing, and she offered, in ‘Atlas Shrugged,’ a principled and practical solution consistent with American values."
Atlas will shrug.
Fox Fact Checks The One
And finds him seriously less than factual. Surprise!
Fact Check: Obama's Words on Home Aid Ring Hollow
Obama glossed over a number of complex realities in delivering his speech to Congress and a nation hungry for economic salvation.There's LOTS more...here.
President Barack Obama knows Americans are unhappy that the government could rescue people who bought mansions beyond their means.But his assurance Tuesday night that only the deserving will get help rang hollow.
Even officials in his administration, many supporters of the plan in Congress and the Federal Reserve chairman expect some of that money will go to people who used lousy judgment.
The president skipped over several complex economic circumstances in his speech to Congress -- and may have started an international debate among trivia lovers and auto buffs over what country invented the car.
A look at some of his assertions:
OBAMA: "We have launched a housing plan that will help responsible families facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly payments and refinance their mortgages. It's a plan that won't help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford, but it will help millions of Americans who are struggling with declining home values."
THE FACTS: If the administration has come up with a way to ensure money only goes to those who got in honest trouble, it hasn't said so.
Defending the program Tuesday at a Senate hearing, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said it's important to save those who made bad calls, for the greater good. He likened it to calling the fire department to put out a blaze caused by someone smoking in bed.
"I think the smart way to deal with a situation like that is to put out the fire, save him from his own consequences of his own action but then, going forward, enact penalties and set tougher rules about smoking in bed."
Similarly, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. suggested this month it's not likely aid will be denied to all homeowners who overstated their income or assets to get a mortgage they couldn't afford.
"I think it's just simply impractical to try to do a forensic analysis of each and every one of these delinquent loans," Sheila Bair told National Public Radio.
More Dirty Tricks
I watched the Obama/Jindal presentations last night and I wish I hadn't. These things should never be broadcast, as they are a cheat and a fraud. Better to wait and read the analysis of thoughtful observers. (April did a pretty good job, herself!) Obama spouted all sorts of figures, none of which are verifiable. The public largely does not realize that... the analyzers will.
Obama was paraded in a magnificent setting - a thousand cheering people, superb communications technology. His video was flawless. His audio was perfect. When he made a point favorable to his Dem buddies, the audio was jacked and you heard all the screaming Dems. The video showed a pooly lit shot of the Republicans, from behind, so it was hard to tell that they were all silently in their seats, protesting. All you heard were the cheers.
As Obama entered and later left the hall, struggling through a crowd of ass-kissing congressmen, you could hear what he was saying, even though no mikes were in sight.
Then came Governor Jindal. That remote broadcast must surely have been set up by David Axelrod. Instead of having him at his desk, appearing as what he is, the Chief Executive of a major state, they set up the mikes in a hallway. They had him come walking down the hall, like he was some kind of a delivery guy who had come in the back door. The video was horrible. The sound was unbelievable. Sixty years ago, I daily carried a homemade amplifier down the street in a small New Mexico town, plugged in at the doorway of a drug store, and did a stand up man-on-the-street broadcast with better audio than they gave Governor Jindal.
The volume was so low he sounded weak and ineffective. As auto-gain devices in the broadcast networks tried to compensate, they brought up a hum, induced, no doubt, by wiring in the old Governor's Mansion. Something kept chopping up the audio. It sounded to me like a limiter amplifier, trying to bring up the gain, and repeatedly overdriving itself and chopping the sound in mid-word.
It was a brilliantly successful effort to totally discredit Governor Jindal's message. As a former broadcaster, it made me furious.
Then, Fox News Channel analyzed, and I must say that I have about had it with Fox. (I am just surprised they did not have that phony Ph.D. Marc Lamont Hill there to tell us all about it!) Brit Hume acknowledged the unfairness of the two settings. No one mentioned the terrible technical quality. That pin-head Juan Williams totally bought the effects of the effort to diminish Governor Jindal and proceeded to trash him. Bret Baier conducted the whole thing about like the students trying their first shot at broadcasting on our local university broadcast station.
Never mind what was said... the unfairness of the presentation made me so mad I couldn't sleep.
I watched the Obama/Jindal presentations last night and I wish I hadn't. These things should never be broadcast, as they are a cheat and a fraud. Better to wait and read the analysis of thoughtful observers. (April did a pretty good job, herself!) Obama spouted all sorts of figures, none of which are verifiable. The public largely does not realize that... the analyzers will.
Obama was paraded in a magnificent setting - a thousand cheering people, superb communications technology. His video was flawless. His audio was perfect. When he made a point favorable to his Dem buddies, the audio was jacked and you heard all the screaming Dems. The video showed a pooly lit shot of the Republicans, from behind, so it was hard to tell that they were all silently in their seats, protesting. All you heard were the cheers.
As Obama entered and later left the hall, struggling through a crowd of ass-kissing congressmen, you could hear what he was saying, even though no mikes were in sight.
Then came Governor Jindal. That remote broadcast must surely have been set up by David Axelrod. Instead of having him at his desk, appearing as what he is, the Chief Executive of a major state, they set up the mikes in a hallway. They had him come walking down the hall, like he was some kind of a delivery guy who had come in the back door. The video was horrible. The sound was unbelievable. Sixty years ago, I daily carried a homemade amplifier down the street in a small New Mexico town, plugged in at the doorway of a drug store, and did a stand up man-on-the-street broadcast with better audio than they gave Governor Jindal.
The volume was so low he sounded weak and ineffective. As auto-gain devices in the broadcast networks tried to compensate, they brought up a hum, induced, no doubt, by wiring in the old Governor's Mansion. Something kept chopping up the audio. It sounded to me like a limiter amplifier, trying to bring up the gain, and repeatedly overdriving itself and chopping the sound in mid-word.
It was a brilliantly successful effort to totally discredit Governor Jindal's message. As a former broadcaster, it made me furious.
Then, Fox News Channel analyzed, and I must say that I have about had it with Fox. (I am just surprised they did not have that phony Ph.D. Marc Lamont Hill there to tell us all about it!) Brit Hume acknowledged the unfairness of the two settings. No one mentioned the terrible technical quality. That pin-head Juan Williams totally bought the effects of the effort to diminish Governor Jindal and proceeded to trash him. Bret Baier conducted the whole thing about like the students trying their first shot at broadcasting on our local university broadcast station.
Never mind what was said... the unfairness of the presentation made me so mad I couldn't sleep.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Jindal's Response
Great moment in history...first black president. We applaud the progress.
My parents had it tough, too, but they got off their butts and made their own way. They taught me to be responsible. Americans can do anything...we are awesome. We're in a time of challenge, lots of problems. Republicans want to fix this stuff, too. We want to hear good ideas from either party. We want to be strong partners, but we don't believe that government is the solution.
Katrina showed us that relying on government is not a great idea. Government regulations would not allow volunteers to help during Katrina. Our strength is not our government, it's our citizens.
Washington must lead, but not by raising taxes and amassing power. They must empower you, the citizen. Cut taxes for small business, tax credits for home buyers...Democrats think they know better than you do how to spend your money. They are spending money on their pet projects. Their legislation will not grow the economy, only the government. They are spending money we don't have on things we don't need. It's irresponsible.
We've cut taxes six times in my state, often with bipartisan support. If we can do it, they could, too. Gas prices are going to go back up, and Dems aren't doing the right things to make us energy independent.
No American should have to worry about losing health coverage. But no government run health care. Doctors should make the decisions, not bureaucrats.
Every child should have the best possible education. We have a scholarship program here to help parents send their children to private schools.
We must be ethical and transparent. Louisiana used to be half under water, other half under indictment...not any more. We must never see passage of another trillion dollar spending bill.
This is not the time to cut defense and war budgets. We must defeat our enemies.
We appreciate Obama's message of hope. Their view of the proper role of government is wrong - we believe in strengthening Americans, small business. Republicans lost their way, lost your trust, and now they want to earn it back. We will fight for conservative principles.
The president warned that we are facing a crisis that we may not be able to reverse. Don't let anyone tell you that America can't beat any adversity. We are confident in the future. We have the best citizens, the most resources, the greatest military, in the history of the world. Americans can do anything.
My parents had it tough, too, but they got off their butts and made their own way. They taught me to be responsible. Americans can do anything...we are awesome. We're in a time of challenge, lots of problems. Republicans want to fix this stuff, too. We want to hear good ideas from either party. We want to be strong partners, but we don't believe that government is the solution.
Katrina showed us that relying on government is not a great idea. Government regulations would not allow volunteers to help during Katrina. Our strength is not our government, it's our citizens.
Washington must lead, but not by raising taxes and amassing power. They must empower you, the citizen. Cut taxes for small business, tax credits for home buyers...Democrats think they know better than you do how to spend your money. They are spending money on their pet projects. Their legislation will not grow the economy, only the government. They are spending money we don't have on things we don't need. It's irresponsible.
We've cut taxes six times in my state, often with bipartisan support. If we can do it, they could, too. Gas prices are going to go back up, and Dems aren't doing the right things to make us energy independent.
No American should have to worry about losing health coverage. But no government run health care. Doctors should make the decisions, not bureaucrats.
Every child should have the best possible education. We have a scholarship program here to help parents send their children to private schools.
We must be ethical and transparent. Louisiana used to be half under water, other half under indictment...not any more. We must never see passage of another trillion dollar spending bill.
This is not the time to cut defense and war budgets. We must defeat our enemies.
We appreciate Obama's message of hope. Their view of the proper role of government is wrong - we believe in strengthening Americans, small business. Republicans lost their way, lost your trust, and now they want to earn it back. We will fight for conservative principles.
The president warned that we are facing a crisis that we may not be able to reverse. Don't let anyone tell you that America can't beat any adversity. We are confident in the future. We have the best citizens, the most resources, the greatest military, in the history of the world. Americans can do anything.
Thoughts on The Speech
"Violet! You're turning violet, Violet!" Sorry...that's all I could think of when Mrs. Messiah came in...
Nancy Pelosi looks like she's on crack. Wild-eyed, freakish woman.
Enter The Messiah. If it were raining, he'd drown...that haughty, nose in the air attitude of his really pisses me off. Jesse Jackson, Jr. didn't exactly look thrilled to see him...heh.
And the Great Orator speaks. Hillary looks bored to tears. Official introduction from Nazi Pelosi...more mechanical clapping...we're having some fun now.Kinda cheesy for Michelle to refuse to rise when recognized, isn't it? Thought there was protocol about these things...
He looks like crap. Dark circles under his eyes, coloring doesn't look right. We will recover, we will emerge stronger than before...ok, got the obligatory optimism out of the way. Gag...sounds like his typical campaign speeches...waiting for hope and change. We import more oil today than ever before...but I wouldn't dream of drilling for our own. Hypocritical ass...talking about spending too much...what a crock. Blaming bankers for doing what congress mandated they do.
Now is the time! We are the ones we've been waiting for! Remember Berlin? Instant replay.
Hyping the fabulous stimulus bill, and how saintly they were for passing it. And blaming everything on the horrors they inherited. Now we're saving or creating 3.5 million jobs...wasn't it 4 million last time? 95% of Americans will receive a tax cut....woo hoo! $13 a week! Biden, the amazing stimulus czar...we can trust Joe! Nobody does it like Joe! (Thank God!!)
The porkulus is just the first step...I'm going to spend MUCH more than that! We have to restart lending...flow of credit is lifeblood of economy, blah, blah, blah...we'll restart lending by stealing more of your tax dollars to guarantee more bad loans to more worthless people. And we're going to bail out the deadbeats and make you pay their bad mortgages. Full force of American government will be breathing down the necks of every bank in this country...that'll teach 'em! We're still going to bail 'em out, but we're going to be mean to them while we do it! We're going to remove all incentive to produce, take away all rewards for a job well done, destroy their very will to live! And, boy, is it gonna cost you!
We're not going to screw this up like Bush did. We're gonna solve the problem by redistributing your wealth! But don't worry, the economy will, slowly, recover in spite of us.
We're going to impose massive new regulations to completely strangle free enterprise.
I'm going to submit a new budget in a few days...but I don't think of it as a budget, but as a blueprint for socializing the nation. We will all have to sacrifice, because I can't possibly deal with all the problems out there and still accomplish my narrow agenda of screwing up your health care and further wrecking your kids' schools. I will be the great equalizer...we will all have nothing when I'm finished!
Oh, and don't forget energy. I'm gonna really mess that up, too. I'm gonna make it impossible for anyone in this country to afford to move. We're gonna use solar panels to change the world. We're going to spend uncountable fortunes on technologies that don't work. Wind, solar, biofuel, clean coal, and lots more CAFE standards.
Automakers...while we're doing everything in our power to make it impossible for you to do business, we'll be looking over your shoulder, and throwing billions of dollars at you.
Our healthcare industry sucks. They aren't doing anything right. Lucky for you, I know how to fix it. We've practically fixed it already, by providing SCHIP funds for middle class families who could have afforded it on their own, and we're insuring those older kids, too, the 30-somethings. We'll pay for it by being more efficient. Those computerized records will just clean the whole thing up. Let there be no doubt...I will destroy your healthcare system this year.
Now let's talk about education. We're going to grab your babies and begin their indoctrination at ever earlier ages. We will take your tax dollars to pay tuition for morons who don't want to be in college and will do nothing but party once they get there. We aren't going to let kids drop out of high school...because I said so. If you will become one of my brownshirts, I will pay your way. Parents, you suck. You aren't raising your kids right. Watch how Michelle and I are doing it...you'll catch on eventually.
Now, about that massive debt that I'm foisting off on those kids I want to educate...we're gonna fix that, too. Even thought we inherited this awful, terrible, unforgivable deficit...and everything in our entire country sucks really bad right now, we're gonna cut those deficits. We are gonna quit spending money on unnecessary things like the wars and national defense. We're gonna get rid of our nukes so that we'll be an easy mark for our enemies. We're going to tax the life out of business and those who have the ability to create jobs. I'm going to take their money and give it to the brothers in the 'hood. Medicare and Social Security are in my sights, too. I haven't figured out how to suck the life out of them yet, but I will.
I'm going to gets our troops out of Iraq, whether they're ready or not. And I'm going to make our allies take care of Afghanistan (yeah, right!). We just love the troops! But we're not going to let them finish the mission. I'm muttering a bunch of platitudes now, about how well I'm going to take care of the military, but I don't really mean any of it. If I did, I wouldn't be letting all those Gitmo bad guys go. And, oh, yeah, we don't torture like Bush did.
We're showing the world that a new era of spineless ignorance has come to America. We aren't going to be any less pushy than former administrations, we still want to tell everyone else how to run their countries. The difference is, when they tell us to stick it, we'll tuck our tails and whine.
The whole world is watching us right now. And they are seeing how weak and ineffective we are. We're going to ignore all the international crises in favor of our socialistic agenda. Hope! Change!
Let's talk about that little town in Kansas...you know, the one where 10,000 people died during the campaign? Well, they rock. And let's talk about old, crappy school buildings. The people who occupy them know how to ask for handouts....apparently they aren't as good as the Greensberg, KS folks, who are rebuilding their decimated town on their own.
More hope, more change. Don't forget, I won! Now, a final reminder of just how terrible everything is, and what a huge task I have before me trying to fix everything that's been done wrong these 233 years. Ok...that should keep 'em all on the hook for a few more months.
Nancy Pelosi looks like she's on crack. Wild-eyed, freakish woman.
Enter The Messiah. If it were raining, he'd drown...that haughty, nose in the air attitude of his really pisses me off. Jesse Jackson, Jr. didn't exactly look thrilled to see him...heh.
And the Great Orator speaks. Hillary looks bored to tears. Official introduction from Nazi Pelosi...more mechanical clapping...we're having some fun now.Kinda cheesy for Michelle to refuse to rise when recognized, isn't it? Thought there was protocol about these things...
He looks like crap. Dark circles under his eyes, coloring doesn't look right. We will recover, we will emerge stronger than before...ok, got the obligatory optimism out of the way. Gag...sounds like his typical campaign speeches...waiting for hope and change. We import more oil today than ever before...but I wouldn't dream of drilling for our own. Hypocritical ass...talking about spending too much...what a crock. Blaming bankers for doing what congress mandated they do.
Now is the time! We are the ones we've been waiting for! Remember Berlin? Instant replay.
Hyping the fabulous stimulus bill, and how saintly they were for passing it. And blaming everything on the horrors they inherited. Now we're saving or creating 3.5 million jobs...wasn't it 4 million last time? 95% of Americans will receive a tax cut....woo hoo! $13 a week! Biden, the amazing stimulus czar...we can trust Joe! Nobody does it like Joe! (Thank God!!)
The porkulus is just the first step...I'm going to spend MUCH more than that! We have to restart lending...flow of credit is lifeblood of economy, blah, blah, blah...we'll restart lending by stealing more of your tax dollars to guarantee more bad loans to more worthless people. And we're going to bail out the deadbeats and make you pay their bad mortgages. Full force of American government will be breathing down the necks of every bank in this country...that'll teach 'em! We're still going to bail 'em out, but we're going to be mean to them while we do it! We're going to remove all incentive to produce, take away all rewards for a job well done, destroy their very will to live! And, boy, is it gonna cost you!
We're not going to screw this up like Bush did. We're gonna solve the problem by redistributing your wealth! But don't worry, the economy will, slowly, recover in spite of us.
We're going to impose massive new regulations to completely strangle free enterprise.
I'm going to submit a new budget in a few days...but I don't think of it as a budget, but as a blueprint for socializing the nation. We will all have to sacrifice, because I can't possibly deal with all the problems out there and still accomplish my narrow agenda of screwing up your health care and further wrecking your kids' schools. I will be the great equalizer...we will all have nothing when I'm finished!
Oh, and don't forget energy. I'm gonna really mess that up, too. I'm gonna make it impossible for anyone in this country to afford to move. We're gonna use solar panels to change the world. We're going to spend uncountable fortunes on technologies that don't work. Wind, solar, biofuel, clean coal, and lots more CAFE standards.
Automakers...while we're doing everything in our power to make it impossible for you to do business, we'll be looking over your shoulder, and throwing billions of dollars at you.
Our healthcare industry sucks. They aren't doing anything right. Lucky for you, I know how to fix it. We've practically fixed it already, by providing SCHIP funds for middle class families who could have afforded it on their own, and we're insuring those older kids, too, the 30-somethings. We'll pay for it by being more efficient. Those computerized records will just clean the whole thing up. Let there be no doubt...I will destroy your healthcare system this year.
Now let's talk about education. We're going to grab your babies and begin their indoctrination at ever earlier ages. We will take your tax dollars to pay tuition for morons who don't want to be in college and will do nothing but party once they get there. We aren't going to let kids drop out of high school...because I said so. If you will become one of my brownshirts, I will pay your way. Parents, you suck. You aren't raising your kids right. Watch how Michelle and I are doing it...you'll catch on eventually.
Now, about that massive debt that I'm foisting off on those kids I want to educate...we're gonna fix that, too. Even thought we inherited this awful, terrible, unforgivable deficit...and everything in our entire country sucks really bad right now, we're gonna cut those deficits. We are gonna quit spending money on unnecessary things like the wars and national defense. We're gonna get rid of our nukes so that we'll be an easy mark for our enemies. We're going to tax the life out of business and those who have the ability to create jobs. I'm going to take their money and give it to the brothers in the 'hood. Medicare and Social Security are in my sights, too. I haven't figured out how to suck the life out of them yet, but I will.
I'm going to gets our troops out of Iraq, whether they're ready or not. And I'm going to make our allies take care of Afghanistan (yeah, right!). We just love the troops! But we're not going to let them finish the mission. I'm muttering a bunch of platitudes now, about how well I'm going to take care of the military, but I don't really mean any of it. If I did, I wouldn't be letting all those Gitmo bad guys go. And, oh, yeah, we don't torture like Bush did.
We're showing the world that a new era of spineless ignorance has come to America. We aren't going to be any less pushy than former administrations, we still want to tell everyone else how to run their countries. The difference is, when they tell us to stick it, we'll tuck our tails and whine.
The whole world is watching us right now. And they are seeing how weak and ineffective we are. We're going to ignore all the international crises in favor of our socialistic agenda. Hope! Change!
Let's talk about that little town in Kansas...you know, the one where 10,000 people died during the campaign? Well, they rock. And let's talk about old, crappy school buildings. The people who occupy them know how to ask for handouts....apparently they aren't as good as the Greensberg, KS folks, who are rebuilding their decimated town on their own.
More hope, more change. Don't forget, I won! Now, a final reminder of just how terrible everything is, and what a huge task I have before me trying to fix everything that's been done wrong these 233 years. Ok...that should keep 'em all on the hook for a few more months.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Column of the Month!
As you may know I'm a writer and editor for my school paper. And one of the fringe benefits is that I get a column, and I can write whatever I want. So here you go.
Bye, Bye, American Pie
People once said there’s no such thing as a free lunch. These people obviously didn’t live in the year 2009.
No longer does the phrase “You get what you deserve” apply. Why should it? Our government will bail us out, regardless of how lazy, greedy, and unproductive we are. (They’ve proven that, lately.)
I’m not exaggerating. The next proposed handout-- excuse me, Mortgage Relief plan-- will provide “relief” (free money) to the unemployed. However, the people working multiple jobs in order to just keep their house will get nothing.
There are some rich people out there whom we all envy for what they have. Why should it matter if they’ve worked nonstop their entire lives in order to build their business from the ground up? They should have to share their profits, right? It’s not fair, is it? The single mother sitting at home collecting welfare checks for her four screaming children should have as much as those rich folk have, shouldn’t she?
Or do you think maybe this woman could’ve made better choices in her life?
Exhibit A: Nadya Suleman, a California woman, recently gave birth to octuplets conceived by in vitro fertilisation. Soon she will take the fatherless babies home to her parents’ three bedroom house where they will live off of government money with their other six siblings. It will be impossible for all fourteen of this woman’s children to receive adequate care, but Nadya is looking into buying a million dollar house with her welfare money.
Exhibit B: Peggy Joseph, a Florida voter, is ready to enjoy the benefits of a government that will give her everything she wants: “I never thought this day would ever happen. I won’t have to work on putting gas in my car. I won’t have to work on paying my mortgage. You know. If I help him (referring to Obama), he’s gonna help me.”
No comment.
It’s sad to see laziness rewarded when such an overwhelming majority of people are suffering so much just to get by. Many of my coworkers at Sears are there because they can’t survive on income from their main job anymore. They work hours I can’t even imagine, when meanwhile some bum who’s “too good” to go flip burgers at McDonald’s is sitting at home, enjoying a beer and a joint paid for by our tax dollars.
Of course there are special circumstances in which people require special assistance, like disability. I have no objection to that whatsoever. But when the only disability the recipient suffers is stupidity, I draw the line.
I guess I don’t need to worry about going to college. The government’s got my back... right?
Bye, Bye, American Pie
People once said there’s no such thing as a free lunch. These people obviously didn’t live in the year 2009.
No longer does the phrase “You get what you deserve” apply. Why should it? Our government will bail us out, regardless of how lazy, greedy, and unproductive we are. (They’ve proven that, lately.)
I’m not exaggerating. The next proposed handout-- excuse me, Mortgage Relief plan-- will provide “relief” (free money) to the unemployed. However, the people working multiple jobs in order to just keep their house will get nothing.
There are some rich people out there whom we all envy for what they have. Why should it matter if they’ve worked nonstop their entire lives in order to build their business from the ground up? They should have to share their profits, right? It’s not fair, is it? The single mother sitting at home collecting welfare checks for her four screaming children should have as much as those rich folk have, shouldn’t she?
Or do you think maybe this woman could’ve made better choices in her life?
Exhibit A: Nadya Suleman, a California woman, recently gave birth to octuplets conceived by in vitro fertilisation. Soon she will take the fatherless babies home to her parents’ three bedroom house where they will live off of government money with their other six siblings. It will be impossible for all fourteen of this woman’s children to receive adequate care, but Nadya is looking into buying a million dollar house with her welfare money.
Exhibit B: Peggy Joseph, a Florida voter, is ready to enjoy the benefits of a government that will give her everything she wants: “I never thought this day would ever happen. I won’t have to work on putting gas in my car. I won’t have to work on paying my mortgage. You know. If I help him (referring to Obama), he’s gonna help me.”
No comment.
It’s sad to see laziness rewarded when such an overwhelming majority of people are suffering so much just to get by. Many of my coworkers at Sears are there because they can’t survive on income from their main job anymore. They work hours I can’t even imagine, when meanwhile some bum who’s “too good” to go flip burgers at McDonald’s is sitting at home, enjoying a beer and a joint paid for by our tax dollars.
Of course there are special circumstances in which people require special assistance, like disability. I have no objection to that whatsoever. But when the only disability the recipient suffers is stupidity, I draw the line.
I guess I don’t need to worry about going to college. The government’s got my back... right?
Hope's Expiration
From Investor's Business Daily:
Read the rest here.
Economy: In confirming that he will let the Bush tax cuts expire, President Obama is discarding proven economic medicine. He is also bringing the discredited welfare state back to life, bigger than ever.
Obama's certainly is a new kind of presidency. Gone are the days when a president could look Congress and the American people in the eye and make a declaration like this: "We have worked to give the American people a smaller, less bureaucratic government in Washington. And we have to give the American people one that lives within its means. The era of big government is over."
But whoever said Barack Obama was Ronald Reagan? In fact, those were the words of one William Jefferson Clinton during his State of the Union address of 1996.
At the time, Clinton was preparing for a re-election campaign that would rely heavily on reform of one of the most unpopular federal government programs ever devised: welfare. He would claim in that re-election campaign that his first term as president proved him to be that rare thing: a Democrat with fiscal sanity. And in November of that year, the voters would believe him.
Now we are faced with a new president whose mission seems to be to prove that Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were both wrong. Reaganesque across-the-board tax cuts on income and investment, as this thinking goes, have only gotten us into an unprecedented global financial crisis (begging the question of how they did so much good for so long before finally making the sky fall).
Yet faced with this, the supposed risk of global depression, the federal government should go full steam astern, back to the wasteful, corrupt — and corrupting — practices that Democrat Bill Clinton got re-elected helping to end.
Read the rest here.
This Date In History
From William J. Bennett's The American Patriot's Almanac:
On the morning of February 19, 1945, some 70,000 U.S. Marines began to swarm onto a tiny island in the northwest Pacific called Iwo Jima -- a name that means "Sulfur Island" in Japanese. Twenty-one thousand Japanese defenders lay waiting for them, burrowed into volcanic rock in hundreds of underground fortifications.
The Japanese plan was simple: fight to the death. The goal of each defender: kill ten Americans before being killed.
On the southern tip of the island stood Mount Suribachi, a 550-foot volcano. From its flanks, Japanese guns could crisscross Iwo Jima with deadly fire.
With bullets and shells screeching around them, wave after wave of Marines hit the beach. "I just didn't see how anybody could live through such heavy barrages," one officer remembered. The Americans rarely saw their hidden enemy, while the Japanese had every U.S. soldier in their sights. The Marines fought forward, inch by inch.
On the morning of February 23, 1945, U.S. troops all over the island were elated by the sight of a small American flag flying atop Mount Suribachi -- the Marines had gained the summit. Later that afternoon, five Marines and a Navy hospital corpsman raised a larger flag.
By the time the fighting finally ended, some 6,800 Americans had died capturing Iwo Jima's eight square miles. More than 21,000 Japanese were dead.
On the morning of February 19, 1945, some 70,000 U.S. Marines began to swarm onto a tiny island in the northwest Pacific called Iwo Jima -- a name that means "Sulfur Island" in Japanese. Twenty-one thousand Japanese defenders lay waiting for them, burrowed into volcanic rock in hundreds of underground fortifications.
The Japanese plan was simple: fight to the death. The goal of each defender: kill ten Americans before being killed.
On the southern tip of the island stood Mount Suribachi, a 550-foot volcano. From its flanks, Japanese guns could crisscross Iwo Jima with deadly fire.
With bullets and shells screeching around them, wave after wave of Marines hit the beach. "I just didn't see how anybody could live through such heavy barrages," one officer remembered. The Americans rarely saw their hidden enemy, while the Japanese had every U.S. soldier in their sights. The Marines fought forward, inch by inch.
On the morning of February 23, 1945, U.S. troops all over the island were elated by the sight of a small American flag flying atop Mount Suribachi -- the Marines had gained the summit. Later that afternoon, five Marines and a Navy hospital corpsman raised a larger flag.
By the time the fighting finally ended, some 6,800 Americans had died capturing Iwo Jima's eight square miles. More than 21,000 Japanese were dead.
Today a giant bronze statue near Arlington National Cemetary, outside of Washington, D.C., depicts one of the most famous images from American history: the Marines raising the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi. The Marine Corps War Memorial is dedicated to all Marines who have given their lives in defense of the United States. An inscription on its base reads: "Uncommon Valor was a Common Virtue."
The protests begin
The right has finally had enough.
A string of protests have been occurring across our great land - some in unlikely places such as Seattle and Denver. I missed the one here in my hometown last Saturday, but somewhere between 500 and 750 people showed up to voice their discontent with the state of the State - a slide show is available at the link.
More are popping up across the country, in D.C., Chicago, St. Louis, Ft. Worth, Orlando, and, this coming Saturday, in Kansas City, MO. I plan to attend and will post pictures. Here are the details as posted on facebook:
Grab a few dozen friends and show up! It's time to stand up for our country, while we can still recognize it.
A string of protests have been occurring across our great land - some in unlikely places such as Seattle and Denver. I missed the one here in my hometown last Saturday, but somewhere between 500 and 750 people showed up to voice their discontent with the state of the State - a slide show is available at the link.
More are popping up across the country, in D.C., Chicago, St. Louis, Ft. Worth, Orlando, and, this coming Saturday, in Kansas City, MO. I plan to attend and will post pictures. Here are the details as posted on facebook:
Kansas City Tea Party - Sponsored by Blind Mule
Come One, Come All to the Walk A Mile In MY Responsible Shoes Tea Party.
Bring Your Signs and Your Tea
Join Responsible Americans in peaceful protest aginst the Congressional Theft Act 2009 and the Swindle Us Mortgage Bail Out
Where To Meet: J.C. Nichols Fountain, 47th and J.C. Nichols Parkway K.C.MO.
1Mile Walk To: Senator Claire McCaskill (D) K.C. Office 4141 Pennsylvania Ave. K.C.MO.
Grab a few dozen friends and show up! It's time to stand up for our country, while we can still recognize it.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Happy birthday, General Washington
George Washington was born February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Here's a quote from William J. Bennett's The American Patriot's Almanac for today:
We could sure use you today, sir.
At times it was Washington's character alone that seemed to hold the fledgling United States together. He bacame a symbol of what Americans were struggling for, risking his life and fortune to lead his countrymen to liberty.
During one battle of the Revolution, at Monmouth in New Jersey, the American troops were in confused flight and on the verge of destruction when General Washington appeared on the field. Soldiers stopped in their tracks and stared as the tall, blue-coated figure spurred his horse up and down the line, halting the retreat. The young Marquis de Lafayette remembered the sight for the rest of his life, how Washington rode "all along the lines amid the shouts of the soldiers, cheering them by his voice and example and restoring to our standard the fortunes of the fight. I thought then, as now, that never had I beheld so superb a man."
The general turned his army around. The fighting raged until sundown, and that night the British took the chance to slip away. Washington's very presence had stopped a rout and turned the tide of the battle.
It was not the only time. Again and again, Americans turned to Washington. He was, as biographer James Flexner called him, the "indispensable man" of the American founding. Without George Washington, there may never have been a United States.
We could sure use you today, sir.
About those approval ratings...
Obama's approval ratings are still hovering at around 60%, and I finally figured out why.
Jason Lewis is a talk radio guy from Minneapolis-St. Paul. If you're a regular Rush listener, you've probably heard Jason sitting in for Rush from time to time. I did, and really liked what I heard, so I looked Jason up online and found that he made podcasts of his local show available for free download. I've been a regular listener ever since.
Tonight, listening to one of Jason's shows from last week, I heard a call that suddenly made it all click in my feeble little mind. A guy who does collections for a living called in to Jason's show (can you even imagine a worse job to have right now? Better than no job at all, I suppose, but only barely), and said that he is encountering lots of people who are behind on their bills, but not worried about it in the least....because they're waiting for their stimulus checks. They think that they will be getting $5,000 checks in the mail any day now. Mr. Collector tries to tell them that no such check is forthcoming, but they refuse to believe him. When he says, "Ok, but can you do anything about this debt before you get your check?" - they tell him they did do something...they voted.
Sound familiar? Remember this lady?
I'm guessing there are, literally, millions of Peggy Josephs out there, just waiting for The One to hand them mountains of cash on a silver platter. They will not be pleased when they find out that their mountain of cash will, in reality, be approximately $65 a month for their family. It's sad, really, to think that there are so many naive fools in this country who are about to have their dreams shattered by cold, hard reality and the worst economy most of them have ever seen in their lives. Not only will they not get their mountains of cash, the cash they do have is about to become virtually worthless as the market is flooded with newly printed dollars and inflation begins to take over.
It's not looking good in the short term, folks. We are going to have massive civil unrest in the next couple of years as the dependents of the nanny state find themselves worse off than they were before their hero took office. The most tragic part of the story is that it is going to take the (near?) destruction of this wonderful country for them to learn the lesson we tried so hard to teach them before the election. Sometimes it sucks to be right.
Jason Lewis is a talk radio guy from Minneapolis-St. Paul. If you're a regular Rush listener, you've probably heard Jason sitting in for Rush from time to time. I did, and really liked what I heard, so I looked Jason up online and found that he made podcasts of his local show available for free download. I've been a regular listener ever since.
Tonight, listening to one of Jason's shows from last week, I heard a call that suddenly made it all click in my feeble little mind. A guy who does collections for a living called in to Jason's show (can you even imagine a worse job to have right now? Better than no job at all, I suppose, but only barely), and said that he is encountering lots of people who are behind on their bills, but not worried about it in the least....because they're waiting for their stimulus checks. They think that they will be getting $5,000 checks in the mail any day now. Mr. Collector tries to tell them that no such check is forthcoming, but they refuse to believe him. When he says, "Ok, but can you do anything about this debt before you get your check?" - they tell him they did do something...they voted.
Sound familiar? Remember this lady?
I'm guessing there are, literally, millions of Peggy Josephs out there, just waiting for The One to hand them mountains of cash on a silver platter. They will not be pleased when they find out that their mountain of cash will, in reality, be approximately $65 a month for their family. It's sad, really, to think that there are so many naive fools in this country who are about to have their dreams shattered by cold, hard reality and the worst economy most of them have ever seen in their lives. Not only will they not get their mountains of cash, the cash they do have is about to become virtually worthless as the market is flooded with newly printed dollars and inflation begins to take over.
It's not looking good in the short term, folks. We are going to have massive civil unrest in the next couple of years as the dependents of the nanny state find themselves worse off than they were before their hero took office. The most tragic part of the story is that it is going to take the (near?) destruction of this wonderful country for them to learn the lesson we tried so hard to teach them before the election. Sometimes it sucks to be right.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
How NOT to fix the economy
Obama has announced that he intends to continue his pattern of doing exactly the wrong thing in response to every problematic situation. The target this time? The budget. He plans to cut the deficit in half over the next four years, an idea which I would, in principle, be solidly behind. But, alas, even here I cannot support Dear Leader. He will cut the deficit by raising taxes on "the rich" and business and cutting defense expenditures. Now that's sure to create jobs! For terrorists.....
Just fabulous. Not only will we lose the war and kill jobs, we will also destroy the health care industry and further annihilate our economy with a bunch of bogus global warming crap. It's difficult to imagine anyone finding a way to be more wrong in their approach to running a country. This guy is going to completely destroy this nation.
The Washington Post has a lot more details, if you can stomach them, here.
President Obama is putting the finishing touches on an ambitious first budget that seeks to cut the federal deficit in half over the next four years, primarily by raising taxes on business and the wealthy and by slashing spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, administration officials said.
In addition to tackling a deficit swollen by the $787 billion stimulus package and other efforts to ease the nation's economic crisis, the budget blueprint will press aggressively for progress on the domestic agenda Obama outlined during the presidential campaign. This would include key changes to environmental policies and a major expansion of health coverage that Obama hopes to enact later this year.
Just fabulous. Not only will we lose the war and kill jobs, we will also destroy the health care industry and further annihilate our economy with a bunch of bogus global warming crap. It's difficult to imagine anyone finding a way to be more wrong in their approach to running a country. This guy is going to completely destroy this nation.
The Washington Post has a lot more details, if you can stomach them, here.
Report from the border
A Mexican drug runner, on the U.S. side of the border, was driving a pickup truck loaded with 1,500 pounds of marijuana. When a Border patrol agent confronted him, he ran over the agent! Happily a second BP agent shot the guy. First agent is okay. Drug runner is in an El Paso, TX hospital. This was the 20th Border Patrol agent accosted this year. (It's only February!) Haven't heard if the BP shooter will be arrested.
Two Mexican law enforcement officers are murdered by drug cartel operatives . The Juarez, MX Chief of Police is told if he does not resign immediately, they will kill two more of his officers every 48 hours. He could not do this to his men. He resigned.
Two more Mexican journalists who wrote about the violence in Juarez fled to El Paso seeking asylum. One said, If I were in Juarez today, I would be dead.
Hey, Barack... forget about Afghanistan. We need those 17,000 troops in El Paso, TX.
A Mexican drug runner, on the U.S. side of the border, was driving a pickup truck loaded with 1,500 pounds of marijuana. When a Border patrol agent confronted him, he ran over the agent! Happily a second BP agent shot the guy. First agent is okay. Drug runner is in an El Paso, TX hospital. This was the 20th Border Patrol agent accosted this year. (It's only February!) Haven't heard if the BP shooter will be arrested.
Two Mexican law enforcement officers are murdered by drug cartel operatives . The Juarez, MX Chief of Police is told if he does not resign immediately, they will kill two more of his officers every 48 hours. He could not do this to his men. He resigned.
Two more Mexican journalists who wrote about the violence in Juarez fled to El Paso seeking asylum. One said, If I were in Juarez today, I would be dead.
Hey, Barack... forget about Afghanistan. We need those 17,000 troops in El Paso, TX.
Goodbye GM, Goodbye Chrysler
Cal Thomas had a good column the other day - he headlined it "Time for GM & Chrysler to go". Thomas named a number of one-time U.S. built cars whose makers went under.
At the onset of the depression, my Dad owned a big Graham-Paige, which he later used to build a saw mill for cutting firewood on the farm.
He worked me hard enough that I had to shed my heavy coat on that cool, fall day, ca. 1938!
Later, I remember my brother-in-law driving a car called a Whippet.
In 1958, an auto dealer friend ran a Kansas City Plymouth dealership. On the wall behind his desk he had a large poster with the pictures of two dozen or more already extinct American automobiles. Little did he, or I know that one day we could add his Plymouth to the picture.
If the above two of the Big Three quit, parts suppliers here and abroad will jump up and say they have all the parts you need for your Chevy or your Dodge. Mechanics from coast to coast will be ready and able to do any necessary repairs.
Companies come and go and are replaced by better ones. So, when your Chevy completely wears out, there'll be something else to drive to the levee. (But, it won't be a Merry Oldsmobile.)
Cal Thomas had a good column the other day - he headlined it "Time for GM & Chrysler to go". Thomas named a number of one-time U.S. built cars whose makers went under.
At the onset of the depression, my Dad owned a big Graham-Paige, which he later used to build a saw mill for cutting firewood on the farm.
He worked me hard enough that I had to shed my heavy coat on that cool, fall day, ca. 1938!
Later, I remember my brother-in-law driving a car called a Whippet.
In 1958, an auto dealer friend ran a Kansas City Plymouth dealership. On the wall behind his desk he had a large poster with the pictures of two dozen or more already extinct American automobiles. Little did he, or I know that one day we could add his Plymouth to the picture.
If the above two of the Big Three quit, parts suppliers here and abroad will jump up and say they have all the parts you need for your Chevy or your Dodge. Mechanics from coast to coast will be ready and able to do any necessary repairs.
Companies come and go and are replaced by better ones. So, when your Chevy completely wears out, there'll be something else to drive to the levee. (But, it won't be a Merry Oldsmobile.)
Friday, February 20, 2009
Be careful what you ask for
The results of a study of the Guantanamo Bay prison have been released, and I suspect they don't reflect what Obama wanted to hear.
After all the years of grousing about how horrible the United States is for torturing these prisoners, it's rather ironic that the prison is suddenly just a swell place now that the Dims are in power. You can read the rest here.
The Pentagon says the Guantanamo Bay prison meets the standard for humane treatment laid out in the Geneva Conventions, according to a report for President Barack Obama, who has ordered the terrorist detention center closed within a year.
[snip]
The 85-page report by Adm. Patrick M. Walsh, the Navy's second in command, was written in response to Obama's Jan. 22 executive order to close the facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba within a year.
As a presidential candidate, Obama criticized the detention center that human rights groups and many in the international community widely condemned for harsh treatment of prisoners during the Bush administration. The military has defended its actions, saying prisoners have been treated humanely since the center was set up after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The report found the camp to be in compliance with the Geneva Conventions Common Article 3, the international rules that require the humane treatment of prisoners taken in unconventional armed conflicts, like the war on terrorism. The camp's controversial force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strikes was also found to be compliant with the Geneva guidelines, a second government official confirmed.
After all the years of grousing about how horrible the United States is for torturing these prisoners, it's rather ironic that the prison is suddenly just a swell place now that the Dims are in power. You can read the rest here.
THAT Cartoon
On Wednesday, the New York Post published this cartoon:
Immediately the left began decrying it as a racist shot at Obama. The problem with this is that no one person has claimed responsibility for authoring the stimulus bill (you've heard what's in it....do you blame them?), but it is 100% certain that it was not written by Obama. Others claimed that the cartoon was a sexist attack on Nancy Pelosi. Um, okaaay. Sorry, I just don't see it.
To me, this cartoon combined two current news stories, the much over-hyped Travis the recently deceased chimp, and the just passed stimulus package which, in my opinion, was far too idiotic to blame on a creature as noble as the chimpanzee. I didn't find it particularly amusing, but could certainly understand the artist's motivation in drawing it.
After much hue and cry, the New York Post has issued a response to its detractors:
Wednesday's Page Six cartoon - caricaturing Monday's police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut - has created considerable controversy.
It shows two police officers standing over the chimp's body: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill," one officer says.
It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill.
Period.
But it has been taken as something else - as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism.
This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.
However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past - and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback.
To them, no apology is due.
Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon - even as the opportunists seek to make it something else.
Bravo.
Krauthammer: The Biden Prophecy
Great stuff!
The Biden prophecy has come to pass. Our wacky veep, momentarily inspired, had predicted last October that "it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama." Biden probably had in mind an eve-of-the-apocalypse drama like the Cuban Missile Crisis. Instead, Obama's challenges have come in smaller bites. Some are deliberate threats to U.S. interests, others mere probes to ascertain whether the new president has any spine.Read the rest here.
Preliminary X-rays are not very encouraging.
Israel dodges existential bullet
Shimon Peres has chosen Benjamin Netanyahu to be the next Prime Minister of Israel. Netanyahu will have six weeks to build a governing coalition, and it remains to be seen if that coalition will include the moderate Kadima party.
"Bibi," as he is known by his supporters, is a hard liner, strongly opposed to continuing peace talks with the Palestinians. During the campaign, he vowed to topple Hamas in Gaza if elected. Tzipi Livni's Kadima party is in favor of continuing to work for peace, ceding more Israeli land if necessary.
Netanyahu could feasibly form a coalition without Kadima, by teaming with the third place Yisrael Beiteinu and other religious parties. It remains unclear which path he will follow, but he has ruled out a power sharing arrangement with Livni.
Regardless of the ultimate form of the government, Netanyahu's appointment is a huge victory for Israel's continued survival and a blow to the Obama administration, which supports continued efforts to negotiate a peaceful two-state solution.
More details at the link above.
"Bibi," as he is known by his supporters, is a hard liner, strongly opposed to continuing peace talks with the Palestinians. During the campaign, he vowed to topple Hamas in Gaza if elected. Tzipi Livni's Kadima party is in favor of continuing to work for peace, ceding more Israeli land if necessary.
Netanyahu could feasibly form a coalition without Kadima, by teaming with the third place Yisrael Beiteinu and other religious parties. It remains unclear which path he will follow, but he has ruled out a power sharing arrangement with Livni.
Regardless of the ultimate form of the government, Netanyahu's appointment is a huge victory for Israel's continued survival and a blow to the Obama administration, which supports continued efforts to negotiate a peaceful two-state solution.
More details at the link above.
Evicted!
Under pressure from Russia,
Kyrgyzstan ordered U.S. forces on Friday to depart within six months from an air base key to military operations in Afghanistan, a move complicating plans to send more troops to battle rising Taliban and Al Qaeda violence.Reports are that Uzbekistan will allow non-lethal cargo to pass through their 'stan. What happened to that outpouring of love that we were going to get from the world once we installed Obama as our Dear Leader? The rest of the story is here.
Rewarding the gas guzzlers
Don't misunderstand, I'm a big fan of gas guzzlers. But we've been told for the last few years that we should all be driving hybrids, that big cars and trucks are evil and are destroying the planet, in an obvious attempt to get the guzzlers off the road. The auto makers are hit with increasingly impossible CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards, told that they must constantly increase their defiance of the principals of physics by making a gallon of gas move a vehicle ever-increasing distances. Conserve, conserve, conserve! That's been the battle cry.
Apparently, we're now conserving too much.
Apparently, we're now conserving too much.
Can you say hypocrisy? Read the rest here.Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he wants to consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive rather than how much gasoline they burn — an idea that has angered drivers in some states where it has been proposed.
Gasoline taxes that for nearly half a century have paid for the federal share of highway and bridge construction can no longer be counted on to raise enough money to keep the nation's transportation system moving, LaHood said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"We should look at the vehicular miles program where people are actually clocked on the number of miles that they traveled," the former Illinois Republican lawmaker said.
Most transportation experts see a vehicle miles traveled tax as a long-term solution, but Congress is being urged to move in that direction now by funding pilot projects.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
DeMint to force vote on Fairness Doctrine
Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) plans to offer an amendment next week that will force Democrats to go on the record regarding the Fairness Doctrine.
Should be interesting. Read the rest here.
DeMint, chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, said on Feb. 19 he will offer the Broadcaster Freedom Act as an amendment to the D.C. Voting Rights bill next week. The Broadcaster Freedom Act was introduced by Republican lawmakers last month and prevents the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine.
“I’m glad President Obama finally confirmed his opposition to the Fairness Doctrine, which attacks the right of free speech on talk radio, but many Democrats in Congress are still pushing it,” DeMint said. “With the support of the new administration, now is the time for Congress to take a stand against this kind of censorship. I intend to seek a vote on this amendment next week so every senator is on record: Do you support free speech or do you want to silence voices you disagree with?”
Should be interesting. Read the rest here.
Quote of the Day
Our government has become too responsive to trivial or ephemeral concerns, often at the expense of more important concerns or an erosion of our liberty, and it has made policy priorities more dependent on where TV journalists happen to point their cameras.... As a nation we have lost our sense of tragedy, a recognition that bad things happen to good people. A nation that expects the government to prevent churches from burning, to control the price of bread or gasoline, to secure every job, and to find some villain for every dramatic accident, risks an even larger loss of life and liberty. ~William A. Niskanen, "For a Less Responsive Government," Cato Policy Report, 1996
Will Obama get anything right?
It's almost too incredible for even a cynic like me to believe. Today's news...
While publicly calling it a "negative development," U.S. officials are privately backing Pakistan's "sharia law for peace" deal.
The EPA is expected to begin regulating carbon dioxide, thus hastening our fall into the second Great Depression.
John Kerry is acting as personal postman between Hamas and The Messiah.
Iran is considering face-to-face talks with Obama, assuming, of course, that he meets their demands (does anyone doubt his willingness to do so?). Oh, and the UN now says Iran has enough enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb.
After having just dropped/relaxed/ignored sanctions against Syria, it comes to light that they are building a chemical weapons plant.
And, of course, all of this comes on the heels of the burgeoning revolution spawned by the Democrats race to spend money faster than they can print it (discussed below). All of this in ONE DAY?!
Change we can believe in? I feel like I'm living in a horror movie.
While publicly calling it a "negative development," U.S. officials are privately backing Pakistan's "sharia law for peace" deal.
The EPA is expected to begin regulating carbon dioxide, thus hastening our fall into the second Great Depression.
John Kerry is acting as personal postman between Hamas and The Messiah.
Iran is considering face-to-face talks with Obama, assuming, of course, that he meets their demands (does anyone doubt his willingness to do so?). Oh, and the UN now says Iran has enough enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb.
After having just dropped/relaxed/ignored sanctions against Syria, it comes to light that they are building a chemical weapons plant.
And, of course, all of this comes on the heels of the burgeoning revolution spawned by the Democrats race to spend money faster than they can print it (discussed below). All of this in ONE DAY?!
Change we can believe in? I feel like I'm living in a horror movie.
You say you want a revolution.....
Thirty days. Four weeks and two days. A day short of one month from inauguration day, and already there is talk of revolution...and not just among right wing, obscure bloggers. Glenn Beck is firmly convinced that we are headed for a deep depression followed by revolution, and today, from the trading floor in Chicago, rousing cheers for the idea of a new "tea party" -- throwing derivative securities into Lake Michigan. The video is from a most unlikely source, CNBC, so I can't post it, but you can view it here.
I have to be honest. I find the idea of a second American Revolution somewhat appealing. When I think about all of the bad laws, entitlement programs, incomprehensible tax code and crooked politicians that we need to get rid of to return this country to some semblance of what it was intended to be, it just seems easier to bring the whole thing crashing down and start over. In my heart of hearts, I do not believe it's possible to reverse the course we are on any other way. Even with Reagan at the helm there was negligible progress. The Republican welfare reform of the Clinton years was just eradicated with a single stroke of Obama's pen. With each successive administration the problems grow larger, never smaller. The debt has ballooned to unfathomable levels, and we face the very real possibility of doubling it over the next four years. Where is the breaking point? When do we stand up and say, "NO MORE!"
I think it's close. Closer than it has ever been in history. My daughter and I recently took a beginner's handgun class. The class was taught by a wonderful woman with a list of sharpshooter credentials that was amazing. She told us that she used to teach the class a couple of times a month, maybe once a week, but, since the last election, she is teaching it almost every night of the week, and is booked for more than two months in advance. I read stories regularly about how much gun sales are up, and the media is trying to convince us that it's all people who already owned guns and are buying more, fearing new constraints on our Second Amendment rights. If that's the case, why are there so many people enrolled in a beginner's handgun class? How terrible is it that, in the United States of America, the greatest nation on earth, millions of citizens fear the loss of their rights - or worse - enough to buy and learn to use handguns? The cover story is the fear that guns will be regulated or taxed, and thus much harder to obtain, so we have to get them now. Deep down, I believe most of these people have thought, at least in passing, about the possibility of needing to defend their families in the event of anarchy.
On blogs and forums, commenters advise each other to stock up on survival supplies and ammunition, to be prepared for whatever may come. The fear is palpable. These are not people who would ever, under ordinary circumstances, contemplate violence. They are music producers and investors and housewives and computer programmers who have been paying attention and do not like the change they sense on the horizon. Case in point - just now, while writing this, I received an email from my old hairdresser. The message?
When the citizens of the freest nation in existence feel like that about their government, something has gone badly wrong. And it's becoming increasingly difficult to imagine righting it through peaceful means.
More on Kansas' Gain - The Nation's Loss
Every time I hear the name Kathleen Sebelius I grieve a little bit. To hear that name associated with this liberal Democrat is a bitter pill. I was good friends with the late Keith Sebelius, one-time Kansas State Senator and later Congressman. It was Keith's son, Gary, who gave the Sebelius name to Kathleen, daughter of a Democrat Governor of Ohio.
In the 1960s, Kansas had a Sunday Closing law which forbid the retail sale of much hard goods on Sunday. Merchants who lived in the interior parts of the state loved it. They, and all their competition closed on Sunday, saving one day's operating costs with essentially no loss of business. Customers had to shop on Saturday, or wait until Monday to buy.
Merchants nearer Kansas' borders hated it, especially those in the Kansas City area. When they closed on Sunday, their customers just crossed the state line into Missouri and did their shopping.
The Kansas State Chamber Of Commerce conducted a series of hearings around the state to gather evidence as to the support or opposition to the law on the part of the Kansas business community.
At the time, I was operating a radio station in Salina, Kansas. Since retailer's weekend sales have always been a major source of advertising revenue for small town radio, I felt my ox was being gored by the Sunday closing law. I became very supportive of the Chamber's actions, hoping the law would be overturned. Finally the Chamber sponsored legislation to overturn the law.
Keith Sebelius was Chairman of the Kansas Senate's State and Foreign Affairs Committee. When the Chamber's legislation was introduced, Senator Sebelius killed it in committee. I was furious. The Chamber had expended considerable resources investigating the Sunday Closing Law and a lot of people had participated in their efforts. Now, Sebelius just blew them all off.
I wrote and broadcast a scathing editorial on radio station KLSI, ripping Sebelius for dismissing so much serious effort in such a cavalier manner. A number of broadcast and print media around Kansas picked up and repeated my editorial (which, incidentally, won the Kansas Association of Radio Broadcasters award for the most effective editorial of 1968.) and Sebelius caught a lot of heat.
Keith Sebelius was the most honest, most dedicated and most patriotic political office holder I have ever known. He neither fought me or avoided me over the editorial. He called me and wanted to talk. Today I cannot recall the reason he gave for his actions regarding the Sunday Closing Law, but I know he convinced me that he was sincere in his actions and thought that what he had done was the right thing for him, that man, in that office, to do at the time. Good enough. (The Kansas Sunday Closing Law was later overturned, but I was not a part of that action.)
In 1968, Bob Dole was Kansas' Representative from the First Congressional District. He made the decision to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sentaor Frank Carlson. Keith decided to run for Dole's seat in Congress.
We were very supportive of Keith Sebelius. He was a great Kansan, a great Republican and a great Congressman. Joanna was once part of a delegation of Kansas Young Republicans that traveled to Washington. Congressman Sebelius called her at her Washington hotel and invited her to have dinner with him. At the end of their meal, Keith took each piece of bread left in the basket on their table and tore the bread apart so it could not be served to another customer. "For our Kansas wheat farmers.", he told her.
Congressman Sebelius later presented an award to station KLSI for its efforts to inform the electorate during the 1968 election season. Part of that award included a flag which had flown over the U.S. Capitol. In this photo, we were conducting a little flag raising ceremony in front of our studios. That's Keith in the gray suit to the left, partially obscured, as I raised the flag. The little girl beside him was April. Next to her were staffers Bill Calm, Joanna, Ernie Allen, News Director George Donelly, with the microphone, and other KLSI personnel.
Now I hope future Kansans will remember Keith - not Kathleen - when they hear the name Sebelius.
Every time I hear the name Kathleen Sebelius I grieve a little bit. To hear that name associated with this liberal Democrat is a bitter pill. I was good friends with the late Keith Sebelius, one-time Kansas State Senator and later Congressman. It was Keith's son, Gary, who gave the Sebelius name to Kathleen, daughter of a Democrat Governor of Ohio.
In the 1960s, Kansas had a Sunday Closing law which forbid the retail sale of much hard goods on Sunday. Merchants who lived in the interior parts of the state loved it. They, and all their competition closed on Sunday, saving one day's operating costs with essentially no loss of business. Customers had to shop on Saturday, or wait until Monday to buy.
Merchants nearer Kansas' borders hated it, especially those in the Kansas City area. When they closed on Sunday, their customers just crossed the state line into Missouri and did their shopping.
The Kansas State Chamber Of Commerce conducted a series of hearings around the state to gather evidence as to the support or opposition to the law on the part of the Kansas business community.
At the time, I was operating a radio station in Salina, Kansas. Since retailer's weekend sales have always been a major source of advertising revenue for small town radio, I felt my ox was being gored by the Sunday closing law. I became very supportive of the Chamber's actions, hoping the law would be overturned. Finally the Chamber sponsored legislation to overturn the law.
Keith Sebelius was Chairman of the Kansas Senate's State and Foreign Affairs Committee. When the Chamber's legislation was introduced, Senator Sebelius killed it in committee. I was furious. The Chamber had expended considerable resources investigating the Sunday Closing Law and a lot of people had participated in their efforts. Now, Sebelius just blew them all off.
I wrote and broadcast a scathing editorial on radio station KLSI, ripping Sebelius for dismissing so much serious effort in such a cavalier manner. A number of broadcast and print media around Kansas picked up and repeated my editorial (which, incidentally, won the Kansas Association of Radio Broadcasters award for the most effective editorial of 1968.) and Sebelius caught a lot of heat.
Keith Sebelius was the most honest, most dedicated and most patriotic political office holder I have ever known. He neither fought me or avoided me over the editorial. He called me and wanted to talk. Today I cannot recall the reason he gave for his actions regarding the Sunday Closing Law, but I know he convinced me that he was sincere in his actions and thought that what he had done was the right thing for him, that man, in that office, to do at the time. Good enough. (The Kansas Sunday Closing Law was later overturned, but I was not a part of that action.)
In 1968, Bob Dole was Kansas' Representative from the First Congressional District. He made the decision to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sentaor Frank Carlson. Keith decided to run for Dole's seat in Congress.
We were very supportive of Keith Sebelius. He was a great Kansan, a great Republican and a great Congressman. Joanna was once part of a delegation of Kansas Young Republicans that traveled to Washington. Congressman Sebelius called her at her Washington hotel and invited her to have dinner with him. At the end of their meal, Keith took each piece of bread left in the basket on their table and tore the bread apart so it could not be served to another customer. "For our Kansas wheat farmers.", he told her.
Congressman Sebelius later presented an award to station KLSI for its efforts to inform the electorate during the 1968 election season. Part of that award included a flag which had flown over the U.S. Capitol. In this photo, we were conducting a little flag raising ceremony in front of our studios. That's Keith in the gray suit to the left, partially obscured, as I raised the flag. The little girl beside him was April. Next to her were staffers Bill Calm, Joanna, Ernie Allen, News Director George Donelly, with the microphone, and other KLSI personnel.
Now I hope future Kansans will remember Keith - not Kathleen - when they hear the name Sebelius.
UPDATE: 2/27/09
I found more pictures, this one shows Keith holding the new flag, in a box, before presenting it to me (in the white jacket).
In this last picture, with the flag near the top of the pole, Joanna is completely obscured but April is visible. And, for the first time, our call letter can be seen on the building!
I'm glad I am in all three of these pictures so no one will think I was the photographer! :-)
What is Obama doing to our country???
I firmly believe Obama is trying to bankrupt our country, reduce our military, and cause us to become so weak that any muslim dictator can walk in here and take us over. I am open to argument to the contrary, but it really needs to be a good argument. Talk to me...
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane!
It's a cast iron brick?
I knew the air was dirty in New Jersey, but I had no idea it had come to this.
I knew the air was dirty in New Jersey, but I had no idea it had come to this.
The Federal Aviation Administration says a piece of hot metal that crashed through the roof of a Jersey City business did not come from an airplane.
FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac says investigators examined the metal and determined it is made of cast iron, which is not used in airplanes. She says it's up to local authorities to determine where the object came from.
Owner Al Smith was fork-lifting a sofa onto a wooden storage platform around 10 a.m. at his moving company when he heard a sound he thought was a bomb.
A piece of warm metal the size of a brick came crashing through the roof just steps from where he was standing. It splintered a wooden beam and crashed into a shelf.
Smith tells WCBS radio that no one was injured. He plans buy a lottery ticket, saying it's his lucky day.
He says the metal is about the size of a brick and came crashing through the roof around 10 a.m.Officials at the scene also confirmed to WCBS radio that the metal was too hot to touch for about 30 minutes after crashing through the roof.
Kansas' Gain is Nation's Loss
The news is just breaking that Obama will appoint our fair-haired, lame-brained governor, Kathleen Sebelius, to the position of HHS Secretary. Rather ironic that my father's governor was the original ill-fated choice, now my own appears poised to take the position.
Sebelius has done little for Kansas, and nothing good, but somehow manages to retain surprisingly high approval ratings. I don't claim to understand it...must be one of those "ignorance is bliss" things, and the folks aren't paying attention.
Anyway, here is a link to the story I found...I'm sure there will be many more shortly.
Goodbye, Kathleen, and good riddance.
Sebelius has done little for Kansas, and nothing good, but somehow manages to retain surprisingly high approval ratings. I don't claim to understand it...must be one of those "ignorance is bliss" things, and the folks aren't paying attention.
Anyway, here is a link to the story I found...I'm sure there will be many more shortly.
Goodbye, Kathleen, and good riddance.
Just doodlin'
Hi everybody. Not much to say, lots to be grateful for...
I've been doing some work through my old company. Getting alot of bids and adding a little bit to the price for April, Kenzi and I to enjoy, but... this little bit caused me to be "too high" for most of the bids I was putting out. I thought that Southwest Publishing could get these jobs if I was back on the payroll and didn't have to add my commission to the plant price. I presented it to them and they agreed. So, I started back at good ol' SWP as an International Sales Rep yesterday, 2/17/09. I am a very happy camper. I'm fairly certain April is, too!!! John C.
I've been doing some work through my old company. Getting alot of bids and adding a little bit to the price for April, Kenzi and I to enjoy, but... this little bit caused me to be "too high" for most of the bids I was putting out. I thought that Southwest Publishing could get these jobs if I was back on the payroll and didn't have to add my commission to the plant price. I presented it to them and they agreed. So, I started back at good ol' SWP as an International Sales Rep yesterday, 2/17/09. I am a very happy camper. I'm fairly certain April is, too!!! John C.
Bataan, P.I., 1942
When the U.S. Government told its military, “Sorry, we can’t help you.”
It was Sunday morning when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Less known was that they simultaneously attacked the other major U.S. territory in the Western Pacific, The Philippine Islands.
Douglas MacArthur was the Commanding General in Manila, with about 70,000 troops on hand. He had zero air power. When the Japs attacked, he realized that his presence in Manila would only lead to the total destruction of that city by Japanese bombers. He declared Manila an Open City and moved the American forces to the Bataan peninsula. His command post was moved to Corregidor, a rocky mountain of an island off the peninsula. Corregidor was laced with natural caverns, an impenetrable fortress.
In Washington, in 1942, the American government realized that Britain was about to fall to Germany and decided that saving Europe was more important. Our forces in the Pacific had to be written off. Truth be known, they probably could not have helped if they had wanted to.
On Corregidor General MacArthur had radioed Washington that they were running out of ammunition, and food, and were too weak to hold out much longer, but that he was staying with his troops. Washington convinced him that the best he could do for those troops was to escape and lead the struggle to return. General MacArthur turned the command over to General Jonathon Wainwright, promised the Americans and Filipinos that he would return and slipped aboard a submarine sent to pick him up.
We do not know how long it took MacArthur’s sub to reach Australia. We do know that the return trip took three and one half years. The U.S. military was pitifully small and ill equipped when the Japanese attacked. Japanese forces probably could have invaded and captured Hawaii at that time, and that may have been their goal. To everyone’s surprise, however, the U.S, forces on Bataan fought the Jap conquest to a standstill for four long months. Finally, on April 9, 1942, the Americans surrendered.
The Japanese were overwhelmed by the size of the force they had captured. How do you suddenly feed 70,000 troops? They decided to move the prisoners some 65 miles north to Camp O’Donnell, near Clark Air Field. That move became known as the Bataan Death March.
The March began in April of 1942. I, and most Americans, learned of the atrocities in 1944. In my case, it was when the Chicago Tribune published an interview with Lt. Col. W. E. Dyess, a Bataan survivor, who had escaped from a Japanese prison camp.
Col. Dyess told of seeing an American Army Captain beheaded for having a few Japanese yen in his pocket; of an American Colonel who was flogged until his face was unrecognizable; of laughing and yelling Jap soldiers leaning from the back of speeding trucks to smash their rifle butts against the heads of straggling prisoners; of Jap soldiers rolling unconscious American and Filipino prisoners into the path of Jap army trucks which ran over them. Col. Dyess estimated that six thousand Americans and seventeen thousand Filipino prisoners were murdered on that march. Those figures were later scaled downward, but Col. Dyess may have had the correct numbers.
Four years later I stood on the deck of the U.S. Army transport Gen. O.H. Ernst, anchored between the Bataan peninsula and the island of Corregidor, waiting for a harbor pilot to guide the ship into Manila harbor which was littered with sunken American and Japanese ships and aircraft. Someone pointed to an endless line of dorsal fins in the water below as sharks circled our ship. We sadly realized that on Corregidor, our men and women would have starved. In the water, they would have fed sharks. On the peninsula, they would be murdered by Japs.
Our soldiers on Bataan had largely consisted of peace time troops, ill-trained for combat. Many were National Guard soldiers, who had joined the service to provide a little extra income during the depression. They were armed with World War One weapons. They were sent to the South Pacific when the Japanese War Lords first began saber rattling in 1940 and 1941. They called themselves The Battling Bastards of Bataan and sang, “We’re the Battling Bastards of Bataan, no mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam.... and nobody gives a damn.” Seemingly, no one did.
MacArthur’s return to Bataan had to wait for American manufacturers to build more ships and aircraft and to recruit and train a combat military force. The Japs had penetrated all of the South Pacific and fiercely resisted the Americans in the tropic jungles of New Guinea, and on so many islands, unheard of by Americans until they became the site of staggeringly bloody battles.
Some American military men described the Jap soldiers as first class soldiers in a fourth class army. In the Philippines, I heard first person stories of Jap soldiers with feet rotting inside their boots from gangrene who loaded up with morphine and kept fighting. When they surrendered, often as not they did so with a live grenade in their pockets, which they detonated when surrounded by Americans. No, the Islamists did not invent the suicide bomber. Americans quickly learned, and when they captured Japs they held them at bay with flame throwers and made them strip naked, before taking them into custody.
General MacArthur’s forces first returned to Philippine soil in October, 1944, near the town of Palo on the island of Leyte. The various landing areas were named and marked on maps. Early landing troops erected huge signs; triangular, tent like devices, identifying the segments of beach for the pilots of landing craft to follow. This spot was designated White Beach. My late brother-in-law, Hugh Baker, was with the first forces that landed on Leyte. Almost his entire unit was killed, Hugh being one of only a few that survived unharmed.
It was a beautiful beach. Inland a few hundred yards was a veritable forest of palm trees. Two years later, I wandered that area, as my friends and I searched for a spot on a tree trunk where we could place our hand without covering at least one bullet hole. Such was the fury that once existed on White Beach.
The Philippines consist of 7000 islands. Once Leyte was secured and U.S. forces had a safe place to land incoming war materiel, forces began battling north, toward the island of Luzon, the City of Manila and the Bataan peninsula. They defeated the last Jap forces there on February 16, 1945, four months after landing at White Beach. I especially remember remnants of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division grousing that they had fought through miles of jungle on foot, but, nearing Manila, the mobile 1st Cavalry passed them and rolled into Manila. Headlines around the world proclaimed that the American 1st Cavalry Division had liberated the Philippine capitol.
The pictures below were taken at a Las Cruces, NM Memorial to those who endured the Bataan Death March.
It was Sunday morning when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Less known was that they simultaneously attacked the other major U.S. territory in the Western Pacific, The Philippine Islands.
Douglas MacArthur was the Commanding General in Manila, with about 70,000 troops on hand. He had zero air power. When the Japs attacked, he realized that his presence in Manila would only lead to the total destruction of that city by Japanese bombers. He declared Manila an Open City and moved the American forces to the Bataan peninsula. His command post was moved to Corregidor, a rocky mountain of an island off the peninsula. Corregidor was laced with natural caverns, an impenetrable fortress.
In Washington, in 1942, the American government realized that Britain was about to fall to Germany and decided that saving Europe was more important. Our forces in the Pacific had to be written off. Truth be known, they probably could not have helped if they had wanted to.
On Corregidor General MacArthur had radioed Washington that they were running out of ammunition, and food, and were too weak to hold out much longer, but that he was staying with his troops. Washington convinced him that the best he could do for those troops was to escape and lead the struggle to return. General MacArthur turned the command over to General Jonathon Wainwright, promised the Americans and Filipinos that he would return and slipped aboard a submarine sent to pick him up.
We do not know how long it took MacArthur’s sub to reach Australia. We do know that the return trip took three and one half years. The U.S. military was pitifully small and ill equipped when the Japanese attacked. Japanese forces probably could have invaded and captured Hawaii at that time, and that may have been their goal. To everyone’s surprise, however, the U.S, forces on Bataan fought the Jap conquest to a standstill for four long months. Finally, on April 9, 1942, the Americans surrendered.
The Japanese were overwhelmed by the size of the force they had captured. How do you suddenly feed 70,000 troops? They decided to move the prisoners some 65 miles north to Camp O’Donnell, near Clark Air Field. That move became known as the Bataan Death March.
The March began in April of 1942. I, and most Americans, learned of the atrocities in 1944. In my case, it was when the Chicago Tribune published an interview with Lt. Col. W. E. Dyess, a Bataan survivor, who had escaped from a Japanese prison camp.
Col. Dyess told of seeing an American Army Captain beheaded for having a few Japanese yen in his pocket; of an American Colonel who was flogged until his face was unrecognizable; of laughing and yelling Jap soldiers leaning from the back of speeding trucks to smash their rifle butts against the heads of straggling prisoners; of Jap soldiers rolling unconscious American and Filipino prisoners into the path of Jap army trucks which ran over them. Col. Dyess estimated that six thousand Americans and seventeen thousand Filipino prisoners were murdered on that march. Those figures were later scaled downward, but Col. Dyess may have had the correct numbers.
Four years later I stood on the deck of the U.S. Army transport Gen. O.H. Ernst, anchored between the Bataan peninsula and the island of Corregidor, waiting for a harbor pilot to guide the ship into Manila harbor which was littered with sunken American and Japanese ships and aircraft. Someone pointed to an endless line of dorsal fins in the water below as sharks circled our ship. We sadly realized that on Corregidor, our men and women would have starved. In the water, they would have fed sharks. On the peninsula, they would be murdered by Japs.
Our soldiers on Bataan had largely consisted of peace time troops, ill-trained for combat. Many were National Guard soldiers, who had joined the service to provide a little extra income during the depression. They were armed with World War One weapons. They were sent to the South Pacific when the Japanese War Lords first began saber rattling in 1940 and 1941. They called themselves The Battling Bastards of Bataan and sang, “We’re the Battling Bastards of Bataan, no mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam.... and nobody gives a damn.” Seemingly, no one did.
MacArthur’s return to Bataan had to wait for American manufacturers to build more ships and aircraft and to recruit and train a combat military force. The Japs had penetrated all of the South Pacific and fiercely resisted the Americans in the tropic jungles of New Guinea, and on so many islands, unheard of by Americans until they became the site of staggeringly bloody battles.
Some American military men described the Jap soldiers as first class soldiers in a fourth class army. In the Philippines, I heard first person stories of Jap soldiers with feet rotting inside their boots from gangrene who loaded up with morphine and kept fighting. When they surrendered, often as not they did so with a live grenade in their pockets, which they detonated when surrounded by Americans. No, the Islamists did not invent the suicide bomber. Americans quickly learned, and when they captured Japs they held them at bay with flame throwers and made them strip naked, before taking them into custody.
General MacArthur’s forces first returned to Philippine soil in October, 1944, near the town of Palo on the island of Leyte. The various landing areas were named and marked on maps. Early landing troops erected huge signs; triangular, tent like devices, identifying the segments of beach for the pilots of landing craft to follow. This spot was designated White Beach. My late brother-in-law, Hugh Baker, was with the first forces that landed on Leyte. Almost his entire unit was killed, Hugh being one of only a few that survived unharmed.
It was a beautiful beach. Inland a few hundred yards was a veritable forest of palm trees. Two years later, I wandered that area, as my friends and I searched for a spot on a tree trunk where we could place our hand without covering at least one bullet hole. Such was the fury that once existed on White Beach.
The Philippines consist of 7000 islands. Once Leyte was secured and U.S. forces had a safe place to land incoming war materiel, forces began battling north, toward the island of Luzon, the City of Manila and the Bataan peninsula. They defeated the last Jap forces there on February 16, 1945, four months after landing at White Beach. I especially remember remnants of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division grousing that they had fought through miles of jungle on foot, but, nearing Manila, the mobile 1st Cavalry passed them and rolled into Manila. Headlines around the world proclaimed that the American 1st Cavalry Division had liberated the Philippine capitol.
The pictures below were taken at a Las Cruces, NM Memorial to those who endured the Bataan Death March.
The footprints on this walkway were made by actual survivors of the Death March. Each step reflects an incredible story of bravery under unimaginable duress.
Rudy Tellez was one of those honorable men, pictured here in 2003.
Click images to enlarge.
Monday, February 16, 2009
This Date In History: An Invitation
While I certainly don't want to ask anything of him that he doesn't want to do, I sincerely hope that my father will share his wisdom on this particular piece of history in a subsequent post. It is a story we must never forget.
February 16, 1945: American troops recaptured the Bataan Peninsula in the Phillipines almost three years after the infamous Bataan Death March.
February 16, 1945: American troops recaptured the Bataan Peninsula in the Phillipines almost three years after the infamous Bataan Death March.
If you thought Ayn Rand was prescient...
She didn't have much on Socrates. The American Thinker has a very thought provoking piece up today - How Democracies Become Tyrannies. Long, but worth the read.
I found it more than a little disturbing. How is it possible that things which apparently have been known and discussed for nearly 2,400 years go completely unnoticed? We warn ourselves with quaint little sayings like "those who forget history are doomed to repeat it," then proceed to do precisely that. How I wish I had memory banks like a computer, and would never forget anything I read!
Whatever else we allow to be taken from us, we cannot give up our Second Amendment rights.
I found it more than a little disturbing. How is it possible that things which apparently have been known and discussed for nearly 2,400 years go completely unnoticed? We warn ourselves with quaint little sayings like "those who forget history are doomed to repeat it," then proceed to do precisely that. How I wish I had memory banks like a computer, and would never forget anything I read!
Whatever else we allow to be taken from us, we cannot give up our Second Amendment rights.
What happens when a red state gets a blue governor?
Kansas is finding out...the hard way. Breaking news reports that the state has suspended all income tax refunds and may not be able to make payroll. State GOP leaders say legislation has passed to correct the budget deficit, but Governor Sebelius has not yet signed it - she was probably too busy being vetted to be Obama's ill-fated HHS Secretary. Details are a bit sketchy, and I am more than a bit catty on this one...read the real story here.
For the record, I owe Kansas a pretty sizable chunk of cash this year. Haven't paid it yet, so I guess I'm at least partly to blame. Good.
For the record, I owe Kansas a pretty sizable chunk of cash this year. Haven't paid it yet, so I guess I'm at least partly to blame. Good.
Global Warming? Global Cooling? Brink of Catastrophe?
http://townhall.com/columnists/GeorgeWill/2009/02/16/the_law_of_doomsaying
http://townhall.com/columnists/GeorgeWill/2009/02/16/the_law_of_doomsaying
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Chavez cleared to be dictator for life
By a margin of 54% to 46%. Goodbye, Venezuela. It was nice knowing you.
The Real Catastrophe
Bradley R. Schiller, writing for the Wall Street Journal, believes Obama's rhetoric is the real catastrophe.
Read the whole thing at the link above.
President Barack Obama has turned fearmongering into an art form. He has repeatedly raised the specter of another Great Depression. First, he did so to win votes in the November election. He has done so again recently to sway congressional votes for his stimulus package.
In his remarks, every gloomy statistic on the economy becomes a harbinger of doom. As he tells it, today's economy is the worst since the Great Depression. Without his Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he says, the economy will fall back into that abyss and may never recover.
This fearmongering may be good politics, but it is bad history and bad economics.
[snip]
Mr. Obama's analogies to the Great Depression are not only historically inaccurate, they're also dangerous. Repeated warnings from the White House about a coming economic apocalypse aren't likely to raise consumer and investor expectations for the future. In fact, they have contributed to the continuing decline in consumer confidence that is restraining a spending pickup. Beyond that, fearmongering can trigger a political stampede to embrace a "recovery" package that delivers a lot less than it promises. A more cool-headed assessment of the economy's woes might produce better policies.
Read the whole thing at the link above.
So, how bad could it be?
This is America, right? The land of the free and brave, the land of plenty where even the poor have more than the wealthy in many countries. We'll bounce back from this economic downturn in six months, right? Maybe.
Peter Schiff thinks there's a good chance that we won't, at least not if we continue on our present course.
Now I sincerely hope he's just paranoid.
Peter Schiff thinks there's a good chance that we won't, at least not if we continue on our present course.
Now I sincerely hope he's just paranoid.
Bait and Switch Strong; Economy, not so much
The White House began a concerted campaign to lower expectations for the stimulus bill on the Sunday morning news shows today, Reuters reports. No surprise, of course - this is becoming a predictable pattern for the new administration - build up wild expectations to reach the desired goal, then immediately set about deflating them.
One section of the article caught my eye. Recall that Obama plans to sign the monstrosity into law in Denver on Tuesday:
Why? Why would Axelrod feel the need to "make it clear" that they would sit on their hands until "after Tuesday?" What is the relevance? Perhaps the comment is taken out of context, but I can't help but wonder what union boosting poison lurks in the 1,100 pages of garbage that is about to become the law of the land.
For the record, I sincerely hope that I'm just paranoid.
One section of the article caught my eye. Recall that Obama plans to sign the monstrosity into law in Denver on Tuesday:
Obama faces a new potential flashpoint next week when two Detroit automakers, General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC, must reach agreements with the United Auto Workers labor union to restructure themselves.
Talks between GM and the union broke down on Saturday. Chrysler's negotiations with the UAW are also deadlocked.
Axelrod made it clear the White House would not intervene in the situation until after Tuesday.
Why? Why would Axelrod feel the need to "make it clear" that they would sit on their hands until "after Tuesday?" What is the relevance? Perhaps the comment is taken out of context, but I can't help but wonder what union boosting poison lurks in the 1,100 pages of garbage that is about to become the law of the land.
For the record, I sincerely hope that I'm just paranoid.
Change the mullahs can believe in?
American Thinker has a post up quoting Gateway Pundit, quoting Geostrategy Direct, which indicates that Obama has abandoned U.S. policy of sanctioning companies that aid Iran's nuclear and missile program. Geostrategy Direct is an open source intel newsletter available to subscribers only, so no link to the original item is available, though it is quoted extensively in the Gateway Pundit article, linked above.
The article contains a wealth of information, including a claim that we will be returning an ambassador to Syria, the first since 2005 after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and alleges that Obama has been engaging these rogue states covertly since well before the election in November.
It's pretty disturbing stuff...rather than quoting it here, read the whole thing from the source.
I dislike squishy sources and alarmist thinking, but this has a very strong ring of truth to it, given the recent decision by the new administration to waive sanctions against Syria.
The article contains a wealth of information, including a claim that we will be returning an ambassador to Syria, the first since 2005 after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and alleges that Obama has been engaging these rogue states covertly since well before the election in November.
It's pretty disturbing stuff...rather than quoting it here, read the whole thing from the source.
I dislike squishy sources and alarmist thinking, but this has a very strong ring of truth to it, given the recent decision by the new administration to waive sanctions against Syria.
Through the Looking Glass
Now I know how Alice felt. Just when I thought things couldn't get any crazier, I find this.
To quote Melanie Phillips, "America, what have you done?"
Putin Warns US About Socialism
Russian Prime Minister Vladamir Putin has said the US should take a lesson from the pages of Russian history and not exercise “excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence”.
“In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute,” Putin said during a speech at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.”
Sounding more like Barry Goldwater than the former head of the KGB, Putin said, “Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors, and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.”
Putin also cautioned the US against using military Keynesianism to lift its economy out of recession, saying, “in the longer run, militarization won’t solve the problem but will rather quell it temporarily. What it will do is squeeze huge financial and other resources from the economy instead of finding better and wiser uses for them.” Putin’s comments come in sharp contrast to Russia’s own military buildup and expansion.
Putin also echoed the words of conservative maverick Ron Paul when he said, “we must assess the real situation and write off all hopeless debts and ‘bad’ assets. True, this will be an extremely painful and unpleasant process. Far from everyone can accept such measures, fearing for their capitalization, bonuses, or reputation. However, we would ‘conserve’ and prolong the crisis, unless we clean up our balance sheets.”
“The time for enlightenment has come. We must calmly, and without gloating, assess the root causes of this situation and try to peek into the future.”
To quote Melanie Phillips, "America, what have you done?"
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