Hey everyone believe it or not I just got my computer set up in my new place today. This moving thing is annoying. I'll probably be moving again in a few months. I'm not looking forward to that. Well let me catch up on a few stories I've missed in the last couple of weeks.
Minnesota Recount: It looks like Franken may have had some votes counted twice. Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak issued a statement saying, “The Franken campaign wants to simply accept the double counts; however, once those ballots are put in the pile, as the Franken campaign wants, they are part of the count. To protect the right of every voter in Minnesota, we are asking the Supreme Court to straighten out the problem of including both duplicate ballots and original ballots in the final recount number.”
There are around 200 ballots that have been counted twice according to the Coleman camp. "Talking about instances when a ballot couldn't be run through a voting machine, requiring a duplicate to be made, the Coleman campaign said the ballot should be counted only if an original could be matched with its copy." Right now it looks like Franken will win this election by less than 100 votes. Coleman is planning a suit to get the double counted ballots tossed out.
So Democrats are trying to steal the election. Is it just me or do Democrats accuse Republicans of doing things there never did only to turn around and do the thing they accused Republicans of doing? Stealing elections for example. This isn't rocket science if you there is a proceedure for what happens when a ballot can't be run though a voting machine. They are supposed to be marked. The fact that none of the ballots were marked and you know that around 200 (I believe 192 is the exact number) couldn't be run through the voting machine means that there must be duplicate ballots. It appears that number is 192. If you can't match the original ballot with it's copy then the vote shouldn't count because it is most likely a duplicate. Just don't try to explain that to a liberal or their head might explode.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/12/15/1715571.aspx
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/36372934.html
Blago makes Senate apointment:
The soon to be impeached Democrat governor of Illinois appointed former State Attorney General Roland Burris. Burris if the Senate agrees to seat him something Harry Reid as said he will not do, would be the only African American member of the Senate. So in essence Blago has played the race card on his own party. He has forced Harry Reid to either seat Burris or to refuse to seat what would be the only minority member of the U.S. Senate. "The choice of Burris to be Obama's replacement is being backed my the African American community. U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush forcefully backed Blagojevich's decision on the basis of race, warning the public not to "lynch" Blagojevich's Senate pick, who is black." "This is a matter of national importance," Rush said. "There are no African-Americans in the Senate, and I don't think that anyone, any U.S. senator who's sitting in the Senate right now wants to go on record to deny one African-American for being seated in the U.S. Senate. ... And so I intend to take that argument to the Congressional Black Caucus."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/30/rep-rush-invokes-race-defending-blagojevich-senate-appointment/
Israel Invades Gaza:
I'm days behind on this story if you want however Patriot Room has kept up with it since the begining.
http://patriotroom.com/article/israel-starts-offensive--operation--cast-lead-
go there for great coverage of this story. So far they have 165 Updates on this story.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
I have alot going on right now so I've decided to take a break from blogging until after Christmas possibly New Year's. There doesn't seem to be much news right now. If there are any big stories I will most likely put up a post. Outside of any big events I probably won't be blogging much between now and Jan 2nd. See you next year!
Obama Lied, Emanuel Discuss Senate Seat With Blagojevich
According to the Chicago Sun Times Barack Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel had direct talks with the Governor about appointing Valerie Jarrett to the Senate.
"Emanuel talked with the governor in the days following the Nov. 4 election and pressed early on for the appointment of Valerie Jarrett to the post, sources with knowledge of the conversations told the Sun-Times. There was no indication from sources that Emanuel brokered a deal, however."
"Sources with knowledge of the investigation said Blagojevich told his aides about the calls with Emanuel and sometimes gave them directions afterward. Sources said that early on, Emanuel pushed for the appointment of Jarrett to the governor and his staff and asked that it be done by a certain date."
"After Jarrett took herself out of the running in mid-November, Emanuel submitted a list of suitable names to the governor's camp that didn't include her name."
This accusation was met with a strong denial from the Obama camp. However we should know for sure soon enough, "At least some of the conversations between Emanuel and Blagojevich were likely caught on tape, sources said."
So why did Obama deny that anyone had spoken to the governor about this seat? Anyone with a brain knows that of course there would be some discussion between a Senator and the man who would appoint his replacement. Makes me wonder what is on those tapes.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1337789,CST-NWS-rahm18good.article
"Emanuel talked with the governor in the days following the Nov. 4 election and pressed early on for the appointment of Valerie Jarrett to the post, sources with knowledge of the conversations told the Sun-Times. There was no indication from sources that Emanuel brokered a deal, however."
"Sources with knowledge of the investigation said Blagojevich told his aides about the calls with Emanuel and sometimes gave them directions afterward. Sources said that early on, Emanuel pushed for the appointment of Jarrett to the governor and his staff and asked that it be done by a certain date."
"After Jarrett took herself out of the running in mid-November, Emanuel submitted a list of suitable names to the governor's camp that didn't include her name."
This accusation was met with a strong denial from the Obama camp. However we should know for sure soon enough, "At least some of the conversations between Emanuel and Blagojevich were likely caught on tape, sources said."
So why did Obama deny that anyone had spoken to the governor about this seat? Anyone with a brain knows that of course there would be some discussion between a Senator and the man who would appoint his replacement. Makes me wonder what is on those tapes.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1337789,CST-NWS-rahm18good.article
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Action Notice: Liberal Blogger Mugged
From Conservatism Today
http://www.conservatismtoday.com/my_weblog/
Mike Ganzeveld, one of the two main bloggers on the Iowa Liberal (http://iowaliberal.com) was mugged at an ATM in Fort Dodge, Iowa at the end of last month. He wound up with a broken hand, which is healing, but worse, some serious damage to one of his eyes. He has medical insurance which will cover most of the cost of the retinal reattachment surgery he's facing -- and he'll go blind in that eye if he doesn't have it -- but as a result of his injuries, he's out of work for the time being.
His blogging partner, Jeromy Brown, has put up the article The Fix-Mike’s-Retina Donation Post…Extravaganza! (http://iowaliberal.com/?p=2262) with a PayPal link in which readers can donate to help Mike with his expenses.
My friend Dana Pico of Common Sense Political Thought is asking bloggers and readers (on both the left and the right) to help if they are able and so inclined.
I have always encouraged private charity over government intervention. And I especially like to give in cases where someone needs help through no fault of their own. This is a great opportunity for conservatives who talk the talk on private charity to walk the walk, and show our generosity.
That being said, it is also an opportunity to withhold good from someone whose views you disagree with.
If you've been reading me much, I think you know what I'll be doing.
http://www.conservatismtoday.com/my_weblog/
Mike Ganzeveld, one of the two main bloggers on the Iowa Liberal (http://iowaliberal.com) was mugged at an ATM in Fort Dodge, Iowa at the end of last month. He wound up with a broken hand, which is healing, but worse, some serious damage to one of his eyes. He has medical insurance which will cover most of the cost of the retinal reattachment surgery he's facing -- and he'll go blind in that eye if he doesn't have it -- but as a result of his injuries, he's out of work for the time being.
His blogging partner, Jeromy Brown, has put up the article The Fix-Mike’s-Retina Donation Post…Extravaganza! (http://iowaliberal.com/?p=2262) with a PayPal link in which readers can donate to help Mike with his expenses.
My friend Dana Pico of Common Sense Political Thought is asking bloggers and readers (on both the left and the right) to help if they are able and so inclined.
I have always encouraged private charity over government intervention. And I especially like to give in cases where someone needs help through no fault of their own. This is a great opportunity for conservatives who talk the talk on private charity to walk the walk, and show our generosity.
That being said, it is also an opportunity to withhold good from someone whose views you disagree with.
If you've been reading me much, I think you know what I'll be doing.
Young America's Foundation releases top ten abuses on campus
Banned conservative speakers, stolen votes, assaults on religious liberty, gay English classes, and forbidden Thanksgiving & Christmas celebrations
Political correctness ran amuck in our nation’s school system this past year, and Young America’s Foundation has once again compiled our “best of the worst” academic abuses for 2008. From “free speech zones” to transgendered speakers at military academies, the following list may make you both laugh and cry in the same breath. That probably isn’t too surprising, however, since we are talking about academia after all…
1. The free speech “zone.” A student at Yuba College in California was sent an ultimatum by the school’s president: discontinue handing out gospel booklets or face disciplinary action and possibly expulsion. That’s right—gospel booklets. Ryan Dozier, the 20-year-old student, had the audacity to distribute Christian literature without a school permit, which restricts free speech to an hour each Tuesday and Thursday. Yuba College even directs students to where on campus they are allowed to exhibit free speech. In this case, it’s the school theater. Campus police threatened to arrest Ryan if he didn’t comply with the “free speech zone,” oblivious to the fact that students don’t need permission to exercise the First Amendment’s free speech and religious clauses.
This as got to be my favorite. One free speech zone twice a week for an hour a day. This is honestly just scary. Ryan Doizer is the Vice President of Christian in Action at the college. I guess the university thinks it's O.K. to have a group named Christians in Action as long as they don't actually take any action. This is their club webpage http://www.yccd.edu/yuba/campuslife/viewclub.php?id=4
2. Transgendered activists in, pro-life speakers out. Liberal administrators at the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic institution in Minnesota, censored the appearance of prominent pro-life speaker Star Parker because campus officials felt “uncomfortable” and “disturbed” by previous conservative speakers at the school. The University’s mission statement claims it values “the pursuit of truth,” “diversity,” and “meaningful dialogue.” Except, not really—or better yet, as long as the said “pursuit” doesn’t offend leftist predilections. Meanwhile, within the past year, the same school hosted Al Franken, the bombastic liberal comedian, and Debra Davis, a transgendered activist who believes God is a black lesbian. Realizing they had a public relations disaster on their hands, the head honchos at St. Thomas eventually reversed the ban on Star Parker.
"Uncomfortable and disturbed?" The only thing that disturbs me is our nation's universities limiting points of view on campuses because the other side to them is disturbing. I think their side is disturbing but I've never tried to keep someone from giving their opinion. I have no problem with debating however apparently liberals do.
3. A new meaning of Duty, Honor, Country. Cadets at West Point, the nation’s foremost military academy, must maintain disciplined, selfless behavior—a precursor to the standards graduates are expected to uphold and reinforce once commissioned as military officers. So how does leftist instructor Judy Rosenstein of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership encourage cadets to appreciate the military’s code of conduct? By hosting a transgendered speaker in class, of course! “Allyson” Robinson, a West Point grad him-, er, herself, switched genders after leaving the Army. Upon returning to West Point as a guest speaker, “Mrs.” Robinson found it “worrisome” that the student composition seemed more socially conservative than when “she” was a student. Perhaps West Point’s leadership should confine speaker invitations to those whose behavior, if emulated, would not get cadets booted from the academy, much less the Army.
This was just a stupid move. West Point should sue itself.
4. 2008’s stolen election? Columbia University recently polled students on whether or not they would support the return of the Navy’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) to campus after a 40-year absence. Columbia claimed the referendum lost by 39 votes. However, the University inexplicably closed the online poll at different times for different students and discarded more than 1,900 votes out of the 4,905 cast. To boot, the university showcased its “anti-fraud” measures, revealing they caught one person who purportedly voted 276 times! So much for secure, front-end identification control. In the end, 1,502 “valid” NAYs trumped the 1,463 AYEs. Does anyone else smell some anti-military electioneering rats?
When it comes to stealing elections looks like Minnesota wasn't the only place liberals were trying it in 2008. Columbia University, the school who gave us Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmendijad as a guest speaker, disqualified more than 1900 votes in a student pool on letting the ROTC back on campus. The ROTC lost by 39 votes. How about holding another election of course we would need to have election monitors present since you screwed up the last one so bad. Or the administration could do the right thing and give it's students to choice of whether or not to take the course by letting our military onto it's campus.
5. When English class turns gay. Heads turned when Deerfield High School in Deerfield, Illinois required this book as part of an Advanced Placement English literature course: Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. The book is laced with graphic sexual content, much of it too inflammatory to print here—although there are “milder” exchanges fit to report, such as one character pleading with his sexual partner to “infect” and “make [him] bleed.” Supporters of Angels in America say the book is useful because it depicts “forgiveness, kindness, and compassion,” as if HIV-positive sodomy is the best way to promote empathy to minors.
Never read it never will.
6. You can’t pray here! The First Amendment, is it a bestowed right given from above and protected by our government or a meaningless, antiquated concept to be disposed of? If you’re the folks at the College of Alameda in California, you’d pick the latter. How else do you explain their threatening to expel a student who prayed on campus? It all started when a student, Kandy Kyriacou, visited her professor to give her a Christmas gift. But when Kandy saw that her teacher was ill, she offered to pray for her. The professor agreed. That’s when Derek Piazza, another professor, walked in and freaked out that a prayer—gasp, a prayer—was occurring on college premises. “You can’t be doing that in here,” Piazza purportedly barked. Kandy received a retroactive “intent to suspend” letter from the administration, claiming that she was guilty of “disruptive or insulting behavior” and “persistent abuse of” college employees. Further infractions would result in expulsion, the letter read.
"disruptive or insulting behavior" Persistent abuse of college employees" Apparently praying for someone is the same as telling a professor to go F themselves. Don't pray for me I might lose my job and you'll be expelled! This is without a doubt religious bigotry. You know the kind the left is always accusing us of.
7. Hey, that feather cap is racist. For decades, kindergarten classes in the Claremont district of California have celebrated Thanksgiving by dressing up as Pilgrims and Indians and sharing a feast. Harmless, eh? Apparently not. In a letter to her daughter’s elementary school teacher, Michelle Raheja, an English professor at University of California-Riverside, fumed that such activities are “dehumanizing” and serve as a “racist stereotype.” In fact, Ms. Raheja whined that the Thanksgiving costume party is comparable to parading children around as “slaves” and “Jews.” The school district capitulated, and now the toddlers are prohibited from wearing “their hand-made bonnets, headdresses and fringed vests.”
Beat you too this one America's Foundation. Read My post The War on Thanksgiving for more information on this one. http://thenewconservatives.blogspot.com/2008/11/war-on-thanksgiving.html
8. Ho, ho, forgetaboutit! Who’s offended by Christmas decorations? All the white liberals who celebrate Kwanza? Must be. Florida Gulf Coast University’s president, Wilson Bradshaw, sent holiday festivities packing because he didn’t know “how best to observe the season in ways that honor and respect all traditions.” Holiday décor wasn’t the only thing to go, under Mr. Bradshaw. The school’s greeting card contest got tossed as well. Cheer up, says, the President—Christmas merriment was replaced with an “ugly sweater competition.” Mr. Bradshaw ultimately had a change of heart, after his embarrassing attempt at censorship became public.
Yep bullies will back down if you get in their face.
9. Leftist factions compete on who is more multicultural. When eco-fanatics at UC-Berkeley illegally saddled themselves in trees on campus and hurled urine and feces to block the construction of a multi-million dollar athletic facility, probably the last thing they expected was to be called racists. Yet the school’s chancellor, Robert Birgeneau, labeled them just that, saying the environmental radicals were impeding the completion of a new athletic facility designed to attract “minority student athletes.” Puzzled that the chancellor played the race card on them, the tree dwellers argued that “three of the final four” protesters were “Latinos” and the very first hijacker was a “Native American.” One of the Berkeley zealots, who goes by the name “Running Wolf,” said that Mr. Birgenaeau attempted “to pit colored against colored.”
It's always about race with these people. Why is the athletic facility only attracting minority student athletes, don't white people pay sports anymore. This of course left the protesters using the always successful, we're not racist we had protesters that were minorities. Kinda like the I have a black friend argument.
10. Who knew? Universal health care is actually a non partisan issue. Administrators at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota—the nation’s largest Catholic women’s college—unexpectedly blocked young conservatives on campus from hosting Bay Buchanan, a popular conservative commentator and U.S. Treasurer under President Reagan. College officials deemed Ms. Buchanan’s remarks on “Feminism and the 2008 Election” too politically charged, citing concerns about the school’s tax status. Those same “concerns,” mind you, didn’t prohibit the school from sponsoring programs that push for universal healthcare and minimum wage increases or hosting Frank Kroncke, an anti-war radical who is reliving the Vietnam days. But Bay Buchanan? Well, she’s partisan, according to St. Catherine’s administration.
All conservatives are partisan all liberals are mainstream. This is the way liberals think. They never consider themselves partisan because they never talk to anyone who disagrees with them. Everytime I talk to a liberal they always say I don't anyone whose conservative. The truth is they probably know several closet conservatives. I've found many conservatives are scared to speak their values openly because the left will paint them as a racist, a bigot, a sexist, or a bigoted racist sexist.
My two Cents added @11:21pm 12/16/08
Political correctness ran amuck in our nation’s school system this past year, and Young America’s Foundation has once again compiled our “best of the worst” academic abuses for 2008. From “free speech zones” to transgendered speakers at military academies, the following list may make you both laugh and cry in the same breath. That probably isn’t too surprising, however, since we are talking about academia after all…
1. The free speech “zone.” A student at Yuba College in California was sent an ultimatum by the school’s president: discontinue handing out gospel booklets or face disciplinary action and possibly expulsion. That’s right—gospel booklets. Ryan Dozier, the 20-year-old student, had the audacity to distribute Christian literature without a school permit, which restricts free speech to an hour each Tuesday and Thursday. Yuba College even directs students to where on campus they are allowed to exhibit free speech. In this case, it’s the school theater. Campus police threatened to arrest Ryan if he didn’t comply with the “free speech zone,” oblivious to the fact that students don’t need permission to exercise the First Amendment’s free speech and religious clauses.
This as got to be my favorite. One free speech zone twice a week for an hour a day. This is honestly just scary. Ryan Doizer is the Vice President of Christian in Action at the college. I guess the university thinks it's O.K. to have a group named Christians in Action as long as they don't actually take any action. This is their club webpage http://www.yccd.edu/yuba/campuslife/viewclub.php?id=4
2. Transgendered activists in, pro-life speakers out. Liberal administrators at the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic institution in Minnesota, censored the appearance of prominent pro-life speaker Star Parker because campus officials felt “uncomfortable” and “disturbed” by previous conservative speakers at the school. The University’s mission statement claims it values “the pursuit of truth,” “diversity,” and “meaningful dialogue.” Except, not really—or better yet, as long as the said “pursuit” doesn’t offend leftist predilections. Meanwhile, within the past year, the same school hosted Al Franken, the bombastic liberal comedian, and Debra Davis, a transgendered activist who believes God is a black lesbian. Realizing they had a public relations disaster on their hands, the head honchos at St. Thomas eventually reversed the ban on Star Parker.
"Uncomfortable and disturbed?" The only thing that disturbs me is our nation's universities limiting points of view on campuses because the other side to them is disturbing. I think their side is disturbing but I've never tried to keep someone from giving their opinion. I have no problem with debating however apparently liberals do.
3. A new meaning of Duty, Honor, Country. Cadets at West Point, the nation’s foremost military academy, must maintain disciplined, selfless behavior—a precursor to the standards graduates are expected to uphold and reinforce once commissioned as military officers. So how does leftist instructor Judy Rosenstein of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership encourage cadets to appreciate the military’s code of conduct? By hosting a transgendered speaker in class, of course! “Allyson” Robinson, a West Point grad him-, er, herself, switched genders after leaving the Army. Upon returning to West Point as a guest speaker, “Mrs.” Robinson found it “worrisome” that the student composition seemed more socially conservative than when “she” was a student. Perhaps West Point’s leadership should confine speaker invitations to those whose behavior, if emulated, would not get cadets booted from the academy, much less the Army.
This was just a stupid move. West Point should sue itself.
4. 2008’s stolen election? Columbia University recently polled students on whether or not they would support the return of the Navy’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) to campus after a 40-year absence. Columbia claimed the referendum lost by 39 votes. However, the University inexplicably closed the online poll at different times for different students and discarded more than 1,900 votes out of the 4,905 cast. To boot, the university showcased its “anti-fraud” measures, revealing they caught one person who purportedly voted 276 times! So much for secure, front-end identification control. In the end, 1,502 “valid” NAYs trumped the 1,463 AYEs. Does anyone else smell some anti-military electioneering rats?
When it comes to stealing elections looks like Minnesota wasn't the only place liberals were trying it in 2008. Columbia University, the school who gave us Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmendijad as a guest speaker, disqualified more than 1900 votes in a student pool on letting the ROTC back on campus. The ROTC lost by 39 votes. How about holding another election of course we would need to have election monitors present since you screwed up the last one so bad. Or the administration could do the right thing and give it's students to choice of whether or not to take the course by letting our military onto it's campus.
5. When English class turns gay. Heads turned when Deerfield High School in Deerfield, Illinois required this book as part of an Advanced Placement English literature course: Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. The book is laced with graphic sexual content, much of it too inflammatory to print here—although there are “milder” exchanges fit to report, such as one character pleading with his sexual partner to “infect” and “make [him] bleed.” Supporters of Angels in America say the book is useful because it depicts “forgiveness, kindness, and compassion,” as if HIV-positive sodomy is the best way to promote empathy to minors.
Never read it never will.
6. You can’t pray here! The First Amendment, is it a bestowed right given from above and protected by our government or a meaningless, antiquated concept to be disposed of? If you’re the folks at the College of Alameda in California, you’d pick the latter. How else do you explain their threatening to expel a student who prayed on campus? It all started when a student, Kandy Kyriacou, visited her professor to give her a Christmas gift. But when Kandy saw that her teacher was ill, she offered to pray for her. The professor agreed. That’s when Derek Piazza, another professor, walked in and freaked out that a prayer—gasp, a prayer—was occurring on college premises. “You can’t be doing that in here,” Piazza purportedly barked. Kandy received a retroactive “intent to suspend” letter from the administration, claiming that she was guilty of “disruptive or insulting behavior” and “persistent abuse of” college employees. Further infractions would result in expulsion, the letter read.
"disruptive or insulting behavior" Persistent abuse of college employees" Apparently praying for someone is the same as telling a professor to go F themselves. Don't pray for me I might lose my job and you'll be expelled! This is without a doubt religious bigotry. You know the kind the left is always accusing us of.
7. Hey, that feather cap is racist. For decades, kindergarten classes in the Claremont district of California have celebrated Thanksgiving by dressing up as Pilgrims and Indians and sharing a feast. Harmless, eh? Apparently not. In a letter to her daughter’s elementary school teacher, Michelle Raheja, an English professor at University of California-Riverside, fumed that such activities are “dehumanizing” and serve as a “racist stereotype.” In fact, Ms. Raheja whined that the Thanksgiving costume party is comparable to parading children around as “slaves” and “Jews.” The school district capitulated, and now the toddlers are prohibited from wearing “their hand-made bonnets, headdresses and fringed vests.”
Beat you too this one America's Foundation. Read My post The War on Thanksgiving for more information on this one. http://thenewconservatives.blogspot.com/2008/11/war-on-thanksgiving.html
8. Ho, ho, forgetaboutit! Who’s offended by Christmas decorations? All the white liberals who celebrate Kwanza? Must be. Florida Gulf Coast University’s president, Wilson Bradshaw, sent holiday festivities packing because he didn’t know “how best to observe the season in ways that honor and respect all traditions.” Holiday décor wasn’t the only thing to go, under Mr. Bradshaw. The school’s greeting card contest got tossed as well. Cheer up, says, the President—Christmas merriment was replaced with an “ugly sweater competition.” Mr. Bradshaw ultimately had a change of heart, after his embarrassing attempt at censorship became public.
Yep bullies will back down if you get in their face.
9. Leftist factions compete on who is more multicultural. When eco-fanatics at UC-Berkeley illegally saddled themselves in trees on campus and hurled urine and feces to block the construction of a multi-million dollar athletic facility, probably the last thing they expected was to be called racists. Yet the school’s chancellor, Robert Birgeneau, labeled them just that, saying the environmental radicals were impeding the completion of a new athletic facility designed to attract “minority student athletes.” Puzzled that the chancellor played the race card on them, the tree dwellers argued that “three of the final four” protesters were “Latinos” and the very first hijacker was a “Native American.” One of the Berkeley zealots, who goes by the name “Running Wolf,” said that Mr. Birgenaeau attempted “to pit colored against colored.”
It's always about race with these people. Why is the athletic facility only attracting minority student athletes, don't white people pay sports anymore. This of course left the protesters using the always successful, we're not racist we had protesters that were minorities. Kinda like the I have a black friend argument.
10. Who knew? Universal health care is actually a non partisan issue. Administrators at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota—the nation’s largest Catholic women’s college—unexpectedly blocked young conservatives on campus from hosting Bay Buchanan, a popular conservative commentator and U.S. Treasurer under President Reagan. College officials deemed Ms. Buchanan’s remarks on “Feminism and the 2008 Election” too politically charged, citing concerns about the school’s tax status. Those same “concerns,” mind you, didn’t prohibit the school from sponsoring programs that push for universal healthcare and minimum wage increases or hosting Frank Kroncke, an anti-war radical who is reliving the Vietnam days. But Bay Buchanan? Well, she’s partisan, according to St. Catherine’s administration.
All conservatives are partisan all liberals are mainstream. This is the way liberals think. They never consider themselves partisan because they never talk to anyone who disagrees with them. Everytime I talk to a liberal they always say I don't anyone whose conservative. The truth is they probably know several closet conservatives. I've found many conservatives are scared to speak their values openly because the left will paint them as a racist, a bigot, a sexist, or a bigoted racist sexist.
My two Cents added @11:21pm 12/16/08
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Arsonist burns Wasilla Bible Church
It appears the fire at Wasilla Bible Church where Sara Palin attends was arson. Palin apologized to one of the pastors if her run as VP in any way caused the arson. The church has over 1,000 members.
Despite the fire there will still be a Church service this Sunday 11:15am. The service will be held at Wasilla middle school. The Pastor tried to put things in perspective. "I've had a lot worst calls at night," Pastor Larry Kroon said. "When one of your parishioners dies or loses a child, it's a whole different thing than the building's on fire." The pastor then reminded the reporter that a buliding doesn't make up a church the people do. "Chose faith, live with hope and keep caring about people," he said. "That's what we'll do."
http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=9516339
I don't know who set fire to Palin's Church, but if it's not a democrat I'll eat my shoes. I guess this is the liberal defination of tolerance. You agree with us or we set fire to your church. I'm glad these nutcases don't know where I go to church.
Despite the fire there will still be a Church service this Sunday 11:15am. The service will be held at Wasilla middle school. The Pastor tried to put things in perspective. "I've had a lot worst calls at night," Pastor Larry Kroon said. "When one of your parishioners dies or loses a child, it's a whole different thing than the building's on fire." The pastor then reminded the reporter that a buliding doesn't make up a church the people do. "Chose faith, live with hope and keep caring about people," he said. "That's what we'll do."
http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=9516339
I don't know who set fire to Palin's Church, but if it's not a democrat I'll eat my shoes. I guess this is the liberal defination of tolerance. You agree with us or we set fire to your church. I'm glad these nutcases don't know where I go to church.
McCain says Republicans being too hard on Obama.
When asked about statements made by Mike Duncan, the Republican National Committee chair, criticizing the way Obama has dealt with the Rod Blogojevich scandal McCain said, "I think that the Obama campaign should and will give all information necessary. You know, in all due respect to the Republican National Committee and anybody — right now, I think we should try to be working constructively together, not only on an issue such as this, but on the economy stimulus package, reforms that are necessary. And so, I don't know all the details of the relationship between President-elect Obama's campaign or his people and the governor of Illinois, but I have some confidence that all the information will come out. It always does, it seems to me." Obama should and will give all information necessary. Since when? McCain just lost a Presidential race to Obama in part because Obama did not explain details of his relationships with some of his associates. So now I'm supposed to believe that Obama will explain the details of this relationship, I don't think so. The video below was just released this morning. I believe these were the type of actions McCain was speaking of.
The truth is I always thought conservatives that were against McCain were a little off the wall. I mean I knew he wasn't a perfect Republican, but who is? Even Reagan made mistakes. However after reading this quote I now understand why conservatives had a hard time swallowing his nomination. He just threw his own party under the bus for no reason. Why? Because he wants to be able to get along with the democrats in the senate and help them pass legislation. In theory that sounds great, but in practice it's going to be a disaster. McCain will most likely be pushing much of the democrats agenda which will include universal healthcare, bailouts of industries, and raising taxes on the wealthy. All these things in theory work perfectly, however in practice they'll be a disaster.
Universal healthcare will cause major strain on the government. No one will pay for healthcare if they can get it for free so the cost of this program will be enormous. However it will be quoted as being much less because the Dems won't take into account the number of people that have health insurance that will drop it to take advantage of the government program. I have talked to people who say they would drop their health insurance and take the free government healthcare. Why should they have to pay for healthcare if no one else does?
Bailing out industries in trouble sounds great too. You give the industry money to stay in business thus saving millions of jobs right? Wrong! They tried this with the auto industry in Britian in the 60's it didn't work then, and it won't work now. http://patriotroom.com/britain-bailed-out-its-automakers-once-they-no-longer-exist/ These industries are in trouble because they either are not producing a good product or they have union contact and they cannot live up to those contracts without going out of business. So if you give them money they'll be back it may be six months, a year, or maybe even five years, but they'll be back asking for more money. After these industries take all the money the government is willing to give them they will go out of business. Seems to me we could save alot of tax dollars by just letting them die.
Finally raising taxes on the wealthy. Most people thinks this is a good idea because they don't understand what it means. They think it will only affect those people that makes millions of dollars a year. What it actually means is taxing anyone who owns their own business. So if you own a business and someone raises your taxes you have to find a way to cut costs. The biggest expense for a business is labor. So first the employer starts cutting hours to try and save money. Eventually the employer is forced to lay people off. This not only means more people in the line at the unemployment office it means the same amount of work as to be done in less time with less people. Therefore you end up with an inferior product that people don't want to buy. When people don't buy the product you end up with less money coming in to your business, so your forced to lay off more people. Eventually the employer goes out of business.
Right now the Republican Party does not have a leader. As much as she might try Palin can't lead the party from Alaska. It's now obvious that McCain will not be the leader of this Party. I know people like Newt Gingrich, but I don't think he's the right guy to lead the party although he definatly should be an advisor to the leaders. There's a list of possible future leaders of the Republican Party here.
http://thenewconservatives.blogspot.com/2008/11/future-of-republican-party.html
If you want to add your own in the comments section feel free.
digg it:
http://digg.com/political_opinion/McCain_Stabs_Republicans_in_the_Back
The truth is I always thought conservatives that were against McCain were a little off the wall. I mean I knew he wasn't a perfect Republican, but who is? Even Reagan made mistakes. However after reading this quote I now understand why conservatives had a hard time swallowing his nomination. He just threw his own party under the bus for no reason. Why? Because he wants to be able to get along with the democrats in the senate and help them pass legislation. In theory that sounds great, but in practice it's going to be a disaster. McCain will most likely be pushing much of the democrats agenda which will include universal healthcare, bailouts of industries, and raising taxes on the wealthy. All these things in theory work perfectly, however in practice they'll be a disaster.
Universal healthcare will cause major strain on the government. No one will pay for healthcare if they can get it for free so the cost of this program will be enormous. However it will be quoted as being much less because the Dems won't take into account the number of people that have health insurance that will drop it to take advantage of the government program. I have talked to people who say they would drop their health insurance and take the free government healthcare. Why should they have to pay for healthcare if no one else does?
Bailing out industries in trouble sounds great too. You give the industry money to stay in business thus saving millions of jobs right? Wrong! They tried this with the auto industry in Britian in the 60's it didn't work then, and it won't work now. http://patriotroom.com/britain-bailed-out-its-automakers-once-they-no-longer-exist/ These industries are in trouble because they either are not producing a good product or they have union contact and they cannot live up to those contracts without going out of business. So if you give them money they'll be back it may be six months, a year, or maybe even five years, but they'll be back asking for more money. After these industries take all the money the government is willing to give them they will go out of business. Seems to me we could save alot of tax dollars by just letting them die.
Finally raising taxes on the wealthy. Most people thinks this is a good idea because they don't understand what it means. They think it will only affect those people that makes millions of dollars a year. What it actually means is taxing anyone who owns their own business. So if you own a business and someone raises your taxes you have to find a way to cut costs. The biggest expense for a business is labor. So first the employer starts cutting hours to try and save money. Eventually the employer is forced to lay people off. This not only means more people in the line at the unemployment office it means the same amount of work as to be done in less time with less people. Therefore you end up with an inferior product that people don't want to buy. When people don't buy the product you end up with less money coming in to your business, so your forced to lay off more people. Eventually the employer goes out of business.
Right now the Republican Party does not have a leader. As much as she might try Palin can't lead the party from Alaska. It's now obvious that McCain will not be the leader of this Party. I know people like Newt Gingrich, but I don't think he's the right guy to lead the party although he definatly should be an advisor to the leaders. There's a list of possible future leaders of the Republican Party here.
http://thenewconservatives.blogspot.com/2008/11/future-of-republican-party.html
If you want to add your own in the comments section feel free.
digg it:
http://digg.com/political_opinion/McCain_Stabs_Republicans_in_the_Back
Leadership: Academic Elitism vs Principled Wisdom
From: http://www.conservatismtoday.com/my_weblog/
President-elect Barack Obama swiftly revealed the direction his team would take, as the Washington Post noted last Sunday:
All told, of Obama's top 35 appointments so far, 22 have degrees from an Ivy League school, MIT, Stanford, the University of Chicago or one of the top British universities...
While Obama's picks have been lauded for their ethnic and ideological mix, they lack diversity in one regard: They are almost exclusively products of the nation's elite institutions and generally share a more intellectual outlook than is often the norm in government. Their erudition has already begun to set a new tone in the capital, cheering Obama's supporters and serving as a clarion call to other academics. Yale law professor Dan Kahan said several of his colleagues are for the first time considering leaving their perches for Washington...
Absent-Minded Professors
Just what America needs, huh? A bunch of pointy-headed theorists who have never accomplished anything outside of Planet Academia, rushing to Washington to tell inhabitants of the real world how we can solve all our problems.
We tried this "best and brightest" approach under Kennedy. As the article notes, that's how we got mired in Vietnam. We had our own President Egghead with Jimmy Carter. He was always the smartest man in the room, and usually the least able to decide what course of action would be best to take.
High intelligence and even higher education is not a prerequisite for leadership - it is a warning signal. More often than not, these types suffer from Absent-minded Professor Syndrome - great genius in the laboratory or the classroom, but an inability to locate their car keys and an empty place where their common sense should be.
Dangerous Geniuses
Occasionally you find a highly-intelligent, highly-educated person who is not totally incapable of completing normal tasks successfully. Someone who can shoot hoops and smoke a cigarette at the same time. Someone like Barack Obama. Their education tells them that they have all the answers. Their high intelligence tells them that they are the only person who can save America from itself.
This is dangerous. Once this conclusion is reached (and I believe it already has been) it's all over. These people might have good intentions. They might make the trains run on time for awhile. But soon no policy, no law, no relationship becomes as important as maintaining power. Mistakes will be made, laws will be broken and ignored, preachers and grandmothers will get thrown under the bus.
This doesn't just go for liberals, either. One of my favorite theoreticians ever is Newt Gingrich, and he suffered from the same problem. For a short period of time, he accomplished great things. But his belief in his own greatness caused him to make mistakes, break rules of ethics and throw people under the bus. Until the bus made a detour and ran him over. Since he's gone back to working as a theoretician, he's been doing great things again. But he should never be President.
Wise, Principled Leadership - The Reagan Legacy
If extreme intelligence and high educational achievement are not positive character traits in leaders, what is? Wisdom, based on timeless principles of individual liberty. Reasonable intelligence mixed with common sense and love for that which is good. A high sense of personal morality.
The article notes that my political hero, Ronald Reagan, graduated from tiny Eureka College. Certainly he was an intelligent man; you don't save multiple lives as a teenage lifeguard, become a top sports announcer, become a household name as an actor, become President of an actors union, become governor of the largest state in the nation, and then become President of the United States without intelligence. Being one of the best in the world at whatever you choose to be doing at any given time takes some smarts. But his intelligence and education were not uncommon.
As President, he would nod off during meetings when advisors talked about missile throw-weights. The minutia didn't interest him. Pointy-headed academics didn't interest him. He was interested in the big picture.
He believed that insuring personal freedom was the greatest goal of government. He knew that socialist utopianism doesn't solve problems, that government planners don't solve problems, they exacerbate them. And he knew these things because he knew all about the existence of evil.
And because he knew about evil, he knew what Soviet communism was. He learned this as President of the Screen Actors Guild, when he had to carry a gun with him to cross picket lines and when he had to battle Soviet infiltrators in the film industry. And because he knew evil, he knew that the Soviet Union would someday crumble from within. He knew that if America ever applied the right types of pressure, it would crumble sooner.
The academics laughed at the "ignorant cowboy" when he said the following in June of 1982 to the British Parliament. None of the great minds with their fancy degrees knew what Reagan knew: That the Soviet Union was doomed because it was evil, if free men and women would just shine their light upon it.
We're approaching the end of a bloody century plagued by a terrible political invention -- totalitarianism. Optimism comes less easily today, not because democracy is less vigorous, but because democracy's enemies have refined their instruments of repression. Yet optimism is in order, because day by day democracy is proving itself to be a not-at-all-fragile flower. From Stettin on the Baltic to Varna on the Black Sea, the regimes planted by totalitarianism have had more than 30 years to establish their legitimacy. But none -- not one regime -- has yet been able to risk free elections. Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root....
(t)he gift of vision, the willingness to see the future based on the experience of the past. It is this sense of history, this understanding of the past that I want to talk with you about today, for it is in remembering what we share of the past that our two nations can make common cause for the future...
History teaches the dangers of government that overreaches -- political control taking precedence over free economic growth, secret police, mindless bureaucracy, all combining to stifle individual excellence and personal freedom.
President Reagan then predicts the future:
Historians looking back at our time will note the consistent restraint and peaceful intentions of the West. They will note that it was the democracies who refused to use the threat of their nuclear monopoly in the forties and early fifties for territorial or imperial gain. Had that nuclear monopoly been in the hands of the Communist world, the map of Europe -- indeed, the world -- would look very different today... At the same time we see totalitarian forces in the world who seek subversion and conflict around the globe to further their barbarous assault on the human spirit. What, then, is our course? Must civilization perish in a hail of fiery atoms? Must freedom wither in a quiet, deadening accommodation with totalitarian evil?In an ironic sense Karl Marx was right. We are witnessing today a great revolutionary crisis, a crisis where the demands of the economic order are conflicting directly with those of the political order. But the crisis is happening not in the free, non-Marxist West, but in the home of Marxist-Leninism, the Soviet Union.
It is the Soviet Union that runs against the tide of history by denying human freedom and human dignity to its citizens. It also is in deep economic difficulty. The rate of growth in the national product has been steadily declining since the fifties and is less than half of what it was then. The dimensions of this failure are astounding: A country which employs one-fifth of its population in agriculture is unable to feed its own people...
I have discussed on other occasions, including my address on May 9th, the elements of Western policies toward the Soviet Union to safeguard our interests and protect the peace. What I am describing now is a plan and a hope for the long term -- the march of freedom and democracy which will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash-heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people.
He went further in his Evil Empire speech in 1983.
So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride -- the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil...
Whittaker Chambers, the man whose own religious conversion made him a witness to one of the terrible traumas of our time, the Hiss-Chambers case, wrote that the crisis of the Western World exists to the degree in which the West is indifferent to God, the degree to which it collaborates in communism's attempt to make man stand alone without God. And then he said, for Marxism-Leninism is actually the second oldest faith, first proclaimed in the Garden of Eden with the words of temptation, "Ye shall be as gods."
The Western world can answer this challenge, he wrote, "but only provided that its faith in God and the freedom He enjoins is as great as communism's faith in Man."
I believe we shall rise to the challenge. I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now are being written. I believe this because the source of our strength in the quest for human freedom is not material, but spiritual. And because it knows no limitation, it must terrify and ultimately triumph over those who would enslave their fellow man.
We forget what leadership based on the wisdom of conservative, small government principles looks like, because we haven't seen it on a national scale since Reagan left office. We'll need to see it again following four years of Barack Obama and his fellow academic elites.
President-elect Barack Obama swiftly revealed the direction his team would take, as the Washington Post noted last Sunday:
All told, of Obama's top 35 appointments so far, 22 have degrees from an Ivy League school, MIT, Stanford, the University of Chicago or one of the top British universities...
While Obama's picks have been lauded for their ethnic and ideological mix, they lack diversity in one regard: They are almost exclusively products of the nation's elite institutions and generally share a more intellectual outlook than is often the norm in government. Their erudition has already begun to set a new tone in the capital, cheering Obama's supporters and serving as a clarion call to other academics. Yale law professor Dan Kahan said several of his colleagues are for the first time considering leaving their perches for Washington...
Absent-Minded Professors
Just what America needs, huh? A bunch of pointy-headed theorists who have never accomplished anything outside of Planet Academia, rushing to Washington to tell inhabitants of the real world how we can solve all our problems.
We tried this "best and brightest" approach under Kennedy. As the article notes, that's how we got mired in Vietnam. We had our own President Egghead with Jimmy Carter. He was always the smartest man in the room, and usually the least able to decide what course of action would be best to take.
High intelligence and even higher education is not a prerequisite for leadership - it is a warning signal. More often than not, these types suffer from Absent-minded Professor Syndrome - great genius in the laboratory or the classroom, but an inability to locate their car keys and an empty place where their common sense should be.
Dangerous Geniuses
Occasionally you find a highly-intelligent, highly-educated person who is not totally incapable of completing normal tasks successfully. Someone who can shoot hoops and smoke a cigarette at the same time. Someone like Barack Obama. Their education tells them that they have all the answers. Their high intelligence tells them that they are the only person who can save America from itself.
This is dangerous. Once this conclusion is reached (and I believe it already has been) it's all over. These people might have good intentions. They might make the trains run on time for awhile. But soon no policy, no law, no relationship becomes as important as maintaining power. Mistakes will be made, laws will be broken and ignored, preachers and grandmothers will get thrown under the bus.
This doesn't just go for liberals, either. One of my favorite theoreticians ever is Newt Gingrich, and he suffered from the same problem. For a short period of time, he accomplished great things. But his belief in his own greatness caused him to make mistakes, break rules of ethics and throw people under the bus. Until the bus made a detour and ran him over. Since he's gone back to working as a theoretician, he's been doing great things again. But he should never be President.
Wise, Principled Leadership - The Reagan Legacy
If extreme intelligence and high educational achievement are not positive character traits in leaders, what is? Wisdom, based on timeless principles of individual liberty. Reasonable intelligence mixed with common sense and love for that which is good. A high sense of personal morality.
The article notes that my political hero, Ronald Reagan, graduated from tiny Eureka College. Certainly he was an intelligent man; you don't save multiple lives as a teenage lifeguard, become a top sports announcer, become a household name as an actor, become President of an actors union, become governor of the largest state in the nation, and then become President of the United States without intelligence. Being one of the best in the world at whatever you choose to be doing at any given time takes some smarts. But his intelligence and education were not uncommon.
As President, he would nod off during meetings when advisors talked about missile throw-weights. The minutia didn't interest him. Pointy-headed academics didn't interest him. He was interested in the big picture.
He believed that insuring personal freedom was the greatest goal of government. He knew that socialist utopianism doesn't solve problems, that government planners don't solve problems, they exacerbate them. And he knew these things because he knew all about the existence of evil.
And because he knew about evil, he knew what Soviet communism was. He learned this as President of the Screen Actors Guild, when he had to carry a gun with him to cross picket lines and when he had to battle Soviet infiltrators in the film industry. And because he knew evil, he knew that the Soviet Union would someday crumble from within. He knew that if America ever applied the right types of pressure, it would crumble sooner.
The academics laughed at the "ignorant cowboy" when he said the following in June of 1982 to the British Parliament. None of the great minds with their fancy degrees knew what Reagan knew: That the Soviet Union was doomed because it was evil, if free men and women would just shine their light upon it.
We're approaching the end of a bloody century plagued by a terrible political invention -- totalitarianism. Optimism comes less easily today, not because democracy is less vigorous, but because democracy's enemies have refined their instruments of repression. Yet optimism is in order, because day by day democracy is proving itself to be a not-at-all-fragile flower. From Stettin on the Baltic to Varna on the Black Sea, the regimes planted by totalitarianism have had more than 30 years to establish their legitimacy. But none -- not one regime -- has yet been able to risk free elections. Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root....
(t)he gift of vision, the willingness to see the future based on the experience of the past. It is this sense of history, this understanding of the past that I want to talk with you about today, for it is in remembering what we share of the past that our two nations can make common cause for the future...
History teaches the dangers of government that overreaches -- political control taking precedence over free economic growth, secret police, mindless bureaucracy, all combining to stifle individual excellence and personal freedom.
President Reagan then predicts the future:
Historians looking back at our time will note the consistent restraint and peaceful intentions of the West. They will note that it was the democracies who refused to use the threat of their nuclear monopoly in the forties and early fifties for territorial or imperial gain. Had that nuclear monopoly been in the hands of the Communist world, the map of Europe -- indeed, the world -- would look very different today... At the same time we see totalitarian forces in the world who seek subversion and conflict around the globe to further their barbarous assault on the human spirit. What, then, is our course? Must civilization perish in a hail of fiery atoms? Must freedom wither in a quiet, deadening accommodation with totalitarian evil?In an ironic sense Karl Marx was right. We are witnessing today a great revolutionary crisis, a crisis where the demands of the economic order are conflicting directly with those of the political order. But the crisis is happening not in the free, non-Marxist West, but in the home of Marxist-Leninism, the Soviet Union.
It is the Soviet Union that runs against the tide of history by denying human freedom and human dignity to its citizens. It also is in deep economic difficulty. The rate of growth in the national product has been steadily declining since the fifties and is less than half of what it was then. The dimensions of this failure are astounding: A country which employs one-fifth of its population in agriculture is unable to feed its own people...
I have discussed on other occasions, including my address on May 9th, the elements of Western policies toward the Soviet Union to safeguard our interests and protect the peace. What I am describing now is a plan and a hope for the long term -- the march of freedom and democracy which will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash-heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people.
He went further in his Evil Empire speech in 1983.
So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride -- the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil...
Whittaker Chambers, the man whose own religious conversion made him a witness to one of the terrible traumas of our time, the Hiss-Chambers case, wrote that the crisis of the Western World exists to the degree in which the West is indifferent to God, the degree to which it collaborates in communism's attempt to make man stand alone without God. And then he said, for Marxism-Leninism is actually the second oldest faith, first proclaimed in the Garden of Eden with the words of temptation, "Ye shall be as gods."
The Western world can answer this challenge, he wrote, "but only provided that its faith in God and the freedom He enjoins is as great as communism's faith in Man."
I believe we shall rise to the challenge. I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now are being written. I believe this because the source of our strength in the quest for human freedom is not material, but spiritual. And because it knows no limitation, it must terrify and ultimately triumph over those who would enslave their fellow man.
We forget what leadership based on the wisdom of conservative, small government principles looks like, because we haven't seen it on a national scale since Reagan left office. We'll need to see it again following four years of Barack Obama and his fellow academic elites.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!
If you feel like leaving birthday wishes use the comments section. If you want to give me a present click the yellow Donate Button at the top right of the screen.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Blago just Wanted the Same Treatment for his wife as Obama got for Michelle?
From http://www.conservatismtoday.com/my_weblog/
In light of allegations that the governor of Illinois was ready to auction off Barack Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder, does any major media organization feel like they examined the political culture that Obama came from sufficiently? Do the New York Times, theWashington Post, the major networks, the newsweeklies, the cable networks, etc. — do they feel that they really gave their readers and viewers a good sense of how Chicago politics works, and how that place shaped Obama?
Don't Stanley Kurtz and David Freddoso, among others, deserve an apology from their critics?
I never heard word one about Chicago politics leading up to this election. That's kind of how I knew the media fix was in. But that's a stupid question, of course they wouldn't report on the political culture of Chicago. They were too busy vetting whether or not Trig was really Sarah Palin's son.
America made a mistake in electing someone from the Chicago political culture to the highest office in the country. Was it a grave mistake? Is there any other kind? America can't handle the truth.
Hat tip to Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise.
In light of allegations that the governor of Illinois was ready to auction off Barack Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder, does any major media organization feel like they examined the political culture that Obama came from sufficiently? Do the New York Times, theWashington Post, the major networks, the newsweeklies, the cable networks, etc. — do they feel that they really gave their readers and viewers a good sense of how Chicago politics works, and how that place shaped Obama?
Don't Stanley Kurtz and David Freddoso, among others, deserve an apology from their critics?
I never heard word one about Chicago politics leading up to this election. That's kind of how I knew the media fix was in. But that's a stupid question, of course they wouldn't report on the political culture of Chicago. They were too busy vetting whether or not Trig was really Sarah Palin's son.
America made a mistake in electing someone from the Chicago political culture to the highest office in the country. Was it a grave mistake? Is there any other kind? America can't handle the truth.
Hat tip to Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise.
L.A. Times: The Democrat Culture of Corruption
From http://patriotroom.com/
Sorry Barry, your big win last month turned Washington into a one Party town. Now, it’s all about the Democrats. And the Libs at the L.A.Times are beginning to eat their own.
The arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich on Tuesday marked the latest in a series of scandals involving Democratic politicians — an ironic turn for a party that won control of Congress in 2006 in part by saying it would end a “culture of corruption” under Republican leadership. . . .
The corruption charges against Blagojevich come as one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress, Rep. Charles B. Rangel of New York, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is under investigation by a House ethics panel. . . .
Democratic Rep. William J. Jefferson of Louisiana is awaiting trial on charges of bribery, money laundering and misusing his congressional office. He has pleaded not guilty. On Saturday, Jefferson was ousted from his House seat in a runoff election.
Earlier this year, Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York resigned after revelations that he was a regular customer of an elite call-girl ring.
And Democrats were . . . wait for it . . . shocked about this whole Blagojevich Yard Sale of the Senate Seat.
The allegations against Blagojevich — including that he solicited favors to influence his decision about who should replace Obama in the Senate — were shocking to Democrats.
“It straightened my hair,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.).
And the Times breaks the bad news - the Republicans could actually win back some seats in 2010 as a result of scandals like these. But the Democrats are confident, because they have made ethics reform a top priority. Hmmmm. Ethics reform for whom?
The political risk for Democrats is that voters will be as repulsed by the ethics problems as they were by the scandals that contributed to the defeat of former GOP Reps. Tom DeLay of Texas, Bob Ney of Ohio, Mark Foley of Florida and others.
Democrats won those and other House seats in districts that had been reliably Republican, and the party made ethics an issue in the 2006 elections that delivered control of Congress to Democrats.
But Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), chairman of the committee responsible for helping elect Democrats to the House, said he thought the political damage would be limited to those engaged in wrongdoing because the party leadership had made ethics reform a priority.
So the GOP ads for 2010 show Blago, Rangel, Jefferson, and Spitzer all doing the perp walk with the word Corruption slamming down on top. Then show Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Reid, Pelosi, and Obama recklessly throwing taxpayer money at the Big 3 automakers, the unions, and every other poorly managed business with political connections to Washington.
Works for me.
Sorry Barry, your big win last month turned Washington into a one Party town. Now, it’s all about the Democrats. And the Libs at the L.A.Times are beginning to eat their own.
The arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich on Tuesday marked the latest in a series of scandals involving Democratic politicians — an ironic turn for a party that won control of Congress in 2006 in part by saying it would end a “culture of corruption” under Republican leadership. . . .
The corruption charges against Blagojevich come as one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress, Rep. Charles B. Rangel of New York, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is under investigation by a House ethics panel. . . .
Democratic Rep. William J. Jefferson of Louisiana is awaiting trial on charges of bribery, money laundering and misusing his congressional office. He has pleaded not guilty. On Saturday, Jefferson was ousted from his House seat in a runoff election.
Earlier this year, Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York resigned after revelations that he was a regular customer of an elite call-girl ring.
And Democrats were . . . wait for it . . . shocked about this whole Blagojevich Yard Sale of the Senate Seat.
The allegations against Blagojevich — including that he solicited favors to influence his decision about who should replace Obama in the Senate — were shocking to Democrats.
“It straightened my hair,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.).
And the Times breaks the bad news - the Republicans could actually win back some seats in 2010 as a result of scandals like these. But the Democrats are confident, because they have made ethics reform a top priority. Hmmmm. Ethics reform for whom?
The political risk for Democrats is that voters will be as repulsed by the ethics problems as they were by the scandals that contributed to the defeat of former GOP Reps. Tom DeLay of Texas, Bob Ney of Ohio, Mark Foley of Florida and others.
Democrats won those and other House seats in districts that had been reliably Republican, and the party made ethics an issue in the 2006 elections that delivered control of Congress to Democrats.
But Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), chairman of the committee responsible for helping elect Democrats to the House, said he thought the political damage would be limited to those engaged in wrongdoing because the party leadership had made ethics reform a priority.
So the GOP ads for 2010 show Blago, Rangel, Jefferson, and Spitzer all doing the perp walk with the word Corruption slamming down on top. Then show Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Reid, Pelosi, and Obama recklessly throwing taxpayer money at the Big 3 automakers, the unions, and every other poorly managed business with political connections to Washington.
Works for me.
Lullabys for Terrorist
Military interrogators have often blasted music at detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. According to the British law group Reprieve, these are among the songs they have used most frequently:
• "Enter Sandman," Metallica.
• "Bodies," Drowning Pool.
• "Shoot to Thrill," AC/DC.
• "Hell's Bells," AC/DC.
• "I Love You," from the "Barney and Friends" children's TV show.
• "Born in the USA," Bruce Springsteen.
• "Babylon," David Gray.
• "White America," Eminem.
• "Sesame Street," theme song from the children's TV show.
Other bands and artists whose music has been frequently played at U.S. detention sites: Aerosmith, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Don McLean, Lil' Kim, Limp Bizkit, Meat Loaf, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tupac Shakur.
You know I've been saying we weren't torturing this guys since GITMO opened, but now knowing their forced to listen to the Barney I'm convinced. No wonder these guys are committing suicide. On the other hand, I say we send the purple dinosaur to GITMO and have him do some interrogations. We'd have Osama, his deputy, and the rest of Al-Qaeda rolled up in a week. God bless America!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,464685,00.html
• "Enter Sandman," Metallica.
• "Bodies," Drowning Pool.
• "Shoot to Thrill," AC/DC.
• "Hell's Bells," AC/DC.
• "I Love You," from the "Barney and Friends" children's TV show.
• "Born in the USA," Bruce Springsteen.
• "Babylon," David Gray.
• "White America," Eminem.
• "Sesame Street," theme song from the children's TV show.
Other bands and artists whose music has been frequently played at U.S. detention sites: Aerosmith, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Don McLean, Lil' Kim, Limp Bizkit, Meat Loaf, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tupac Shakur.
You know I've been saying we weren't torturing this guys since GITMO opened, but now knowing their forced to listen to the Barney I'm convinced. No wonder these guys are committing suicide. On the other hand, I say we send the purple dinosaur to GITMO and have him do some interrogations. We'd have Osama, his deputy, and the rest of Al-Qaeda rolled up in a week. God bless America!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,464685,00.html
Wurzelbacher appalled by McCain, says Palin is the "real deal."
Joe the Plumber told Glenn Beck that he felt "dirty" after spending time with McCain on the campaign trail. The thing that really upset Wurzelbacher was the $700 million bailout. Speaking about McCain Wurzelbacher said, "I asked him some pretty direct questions. Some of the answers you guys are gonna receive — they appalled me, absolutely. I was angry. In fact, I wanted to get off the bus after I talked to him."
The reason he stuck with McCain is the reason alot of conservatives stuck with McCain, "honestly, because the thought of Barack Obama as president scares me even more."
However when asked about Palin he said, "Sarah Palin is absolutely the real deal."
This as come has no surprise to many conservatives who had a hard time swallowing the McCain nomination. Many only jumped on board after he chose Palin as his VP. However even after that McCain made a fatal mistake. He kept talking! The more he said the more liberal he sounded. Many conservatives did not trust him on issues such as Abortion, Immigration, or Marriage. All staples of the Republican platmore. Add on to that he continuly discussed the threat of global warming, something many conservatives beleive to be a hoax. He even made the mistake of calling himself a liberal Republican in the video below. You pile an economic meltdown on top of that and you end up with the thumping McCain got on Election Day.
The reason he stuck with McCain is the reason alot of conservatives stuck with McCain, "honestly, because the thought of Barack Obama as president scares me even more."
However when asked about Palin he said, "Sarah Palin is absolutely the real deal."
This as come has no surprise to many conservatives who had a hard time swallowing the McCain nomination. Many only jumped on board after he chose Palin as his VP. However even after that McCain made a fatal mistake. He kept talking! The more he said the more liberal he sounded. Many conservatives did not trust him on issues such as Abortion, Immigration, or Marriage. All staples of the Republican platmore. Add on to that he continuly discussed the threat of global warming, something many conservatives beleive to be a hoax. He even made the mistake of calling himself a liberal Republican in the video below. You pile an economic meltdown on top of that and you end up with the thumping McCain got on Election Day.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Selling the Senate Seat Not Even the Worst Thing Blagojevich did.
Everyone in the country knows this moron tried to sell Obama's Senate seat so I won't go into detail about that. However did you know that's probably not the worst thing he's done. It appears these "pay to play" schemes have been going on since the Governor took office.
He tried to force the owners of the Chicago tribune to fire it's editorial board by threatening to withhold $100 million in state funds for the sale of Wrigely Field. My personal favorite is when he threatened to withhold eight million dollars in funding for a children's hospital if he did not get a donation from their executives. The hospital released a statement saying, "Children's Memorial is very disappointed that the $8 million in Illinois funding that the pediatric providers of Illinois believed would enable them to care for Illinois' neediest children has been tied to an alleged pay-to-play scheme," the statement reads. "Neither Children's Memorial nor any of its personnel participated in such a scheme. If such allegations are true, Children's Memorial, pediatric physicians and the children of Illinois have been victimized."
This guy is a first class jerk. He tried to extort money from a Children's Hospital! How low can you go? I hope they put him in with the general populations he's just a thug in a suit.
He tried to force the owners of the Chicago tribune to fire it's editorial board by threatening to withhold $100 million in state funds for the sale of Wrigely Field. My personal favorite is when he threatened to withhold eight million dollars in funding for a children's hospital if he did not get a donation from their executives. The hospital released a statement saying, "Children's Memorial is very disappointed that the $8 million in Illinois funding that the pediatric providers of Illinois believed would enable them to care for Illinois' neediest children has been tied to an alleged pay-to-play scheme," the statement reads. "Neither Children's Memorial nor any of its personnel participated in such a scheme. If such allegations are true, Children's Memorial, pediatric physicians and the children of Illinois have been victimized."
This guy is a first class jerk. He tried to extort money from a Children's Hospital! How low can you go? I hope they put him in with the general populations he's just a thug in a suit.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Bob Hope: Democrats = Zombies
Found this on a website called the Jungle Hut.
http://jungle-hut.blogspot.com/2008/12/saturday-morning-cartoon.html
http://jungle-hut.blogspot.com/2008/12/saturday-morning-cartoon.html
Washington Post: Now that gas prices are low let's triple the Gas Tax.
From the Washington Post
"Congress should enact a steep, inflation-indexed hike in gas taxes, one big enough to alter consumer incentives and habits permanently. This would take back some of the de facto economic stimulus consumers have received from the recent drop in gas prices, and it would be a hard sell politically. But surely voters can understand that, even if Congress were to triple the tax to 55.2 cents, gas would still be cheaper, in real terms, than it was in 2005. The increase could be rebated through the income tax system."
What a great idea! Tripling the gas tax in a recession. Come on guys we don't need food or heat this winter. What we need is to pay higher taxes to stop global warming. If a few people in the Northeast freeze to death because they can't afford heat, so what? We're saving the planet here?
"This would take back some of the de facto economic stimulus consumers have received from the recent drop in gas prices, and it would be a hard sell politically."
De facto economic stimulus? So because gas prices have gone down and consumers have benefited they should be punished? So basically what your saying is, "These consumers aren't suffering as much as they should be. Let's raise taxes to show them they aren't entitled to relief from high prices."
However they are entitled to welfare, healthcare, and unemployment benefits. Is anyone else confused by this line of thinking.
The article refers to lower gas prices as a "Golden Opportunity." O.K. genius what happens when the prices start to go back up? Somehow I doubt the liberals first suggestion will be to cut the gas tax. Even if we did cut the gas tax it wouldn't be even close to being back to it's current level. Of course I'm sure that would be fine with liberals since their "saving the planet."
"Congress should enact a steep, inflation-indexed hike in gas taxes, one big enough to alter consumer incentives and habits permanently. This would take back some of the de facto economic stimulus consumers have received from the recent drop in gas prices, and it would be a hard sell politically. But surely voters can understand that, even if Congress were to triple the tax to 55.2 cents, gas would still be cheaper, in real terms, than it was in 2005. The increase could be rebated through the income tax system."
What a great idea! Tripling the gas tax in a recession. Come on guys we don't need food or heat this winter. What we need is to pay higher taxes to stop global warming. If a few people in the Northeast freeze to death because they can't afford heat, so what? We're saving the planet here?
"This would take back some of the de facto economic stimulus consumers have received from the recent drop in gas prices, and it would be a hard sell politically."
De facto economic stimulus? So because gas prices have gone down and consumers have benefited they should be punished? So basically what your saying is, "These consumers aren't suffering as much as they should be. Let's raise taxes to show them they aren't entitled to relief from high prices."
However they are entitled to welfare, healthcare, and unemployment benefits. Is anyone else confused by this line of thinking.
The article refers to lower gas prices as a "Golden Opportunity." O.K. genius what happens when the prices start to go back up? Somehow I doubt the liberals first suggestion will be to cut the gas tax. Even if we did cut the gas tax it wouldn't be even close to being back to it's current level. Of course I'm sure that would be fine with liberals since their "saving the planet."
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Planned Parenthood in action
This is an undercover video where a college students posing as a 13 year old girl goes for an abortion. She tells the "nurse" that her boyfriend is 31. Under State Law the "nurse" is required to report this to the police. Instead she tells the girl how to cover up the crime and directs her to an out of state facility.
If this was just one nurse in one Planned Parenthood it would still be bad. However it's more than that I've heard and seen stories about this for years now. If a 13 year old girl is pregnant by a 31 year old man there is a good chance it's a teacher or a relative. By not reporting these crimes to the police Planned Parenthood allows this person to continue raping children. I'm sure the nurse thinks she's doing the right thing and has probably been trained to do this. Which makes it even more disturbing. I wonder how many rapist take their victims to Planned Parenthood for an abortion or the morning after pill every day? Scary thought isn't it?
If this was just one nurse in one Planned Parenthood it would still be bad. However it's more than that I've heard and seen stories about this for years now. If a 13 year old girl is pregnant by a 31 year old man there is a good chance it's a teacher or a relative. By not reporting these crimes to the police Planned Parenthood allows this person to continue raping children. I'm sure the nurse thinks she's doing the right thing and has probably been trained to do this. Which makes it even more disturbing. I wonder how many rapist take their victims to Planned Parenthood for an abortion or the morning after pill every day? Scary thought isn't it?
Millions of Drunken Obama Kool-Aid Drinkers Expected to Invade Washington D.C. for Inauguration Week. Here's an idea... Let's Extend Bar-Time to 5am
From Conservatism Today
http://www.conservatismtoday.com/my_weblog/
Take millions of people, already hopped-up on hallucinatory visions of hope and change. Add in lots of booze, and leave the bars open all week long, with alcohol prohibited for just two hours per day.
What could go wrong?
Hoping to tap in to an inaugural bonanza, the D.C. Council Tuesday night voted in favor of extending last call to 5 a.m. and allow bars and restaurants to serve food around the clock during inauguration week.
Millions of visitors are expected to descend on the city to celebrate Barack Obama's presidential swearing-in on Jan. 20. The council hopes to accommodate the throng by allowing licensed restaurants and taverns to serve drinks later and to keep their doors open 24 hours a day for the whole week.
Sounds perfectly reasonable.
Council member Jim Graham, Ward 1 Democrat, who introduced the bill, said the measure will allow the city's entertainment industry to "engage fully" in inauguration week, which includes Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 19.
Mr. Graham said the measure also will encourage celebrations that are safely indoors. He pointed to the boisterous revelers on election night as an example for the city to try to avoid.
"On election night there were just throngs of people who were pouring into the street, and I think people may be safer celebrating inside than be wandering the streets," he said.
Yes, I can see how this would allow people to "engage fully" in the festivities. Has anyone studied the effects of combining Obama Kool-Aid with other mind-altering drugs? No need, D.C. will soon become one big laboratory.
The Democrat council member makes a good point. People would be much safer inside than they would be wandering the streets. One question: How exactly does he intend to keep these people inside? They have to leave eventually, no?
Now, I am against the legislation of closing times for bars to begin with. I believe it is highly discriminatory against people with odd working hours and/or sleeping habits. That being said, if ever there were a time when you want to cling to existing laws, I think this might be one of them. There must be some other reason all these Dems are behind this...
Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, a Democrat, said at a press conference on Monday that the bill would allow the city to cash in on a lot of extra revenue.
Mr. Graham agreed.
"It's not a principal factor behind the legislation, but given these economic times it is a factor," he said. "There are certainly concerns regarding city revenue, and with the inauguration there's definitely a lot to be had," he said.
Ah, yes. Money. Show a Democrat a way to gouge taxpayers to the fullest, and they'll implement it. Public safety be damned.
I suppose I could think of worse things than the idea of gathering a couple million of the biggest leftists in the country in one spot for a week, letting the booze flow like a faucet, and sitting back and watching it all play out. Of course, conservatives will end up saving the day when the National Guard gets called in.
http://www.conservatismtoday.com/my_weblog/
Take millions of people, already hopped-up on hallucinatory visions of hope and change. Add in lots of booze, and leave the bars open all week long, with alcohol prohibited for just two hours per day.
What could go wrong?
Hoping to tap in to an inaugural bonanza, the D.C. Council Tuesday night voted in favor of extending last call to 5 a.m. and allow bars and restaurants to serve food around the clock during inauguration week.
Millions of visitors are expected to descend on the city to celebrate Barack Obama's presidential swearing-in on Jan. 20. The council hopes to accommodate the throng by allowing licensed restaurants and taverns to serve drinks later and to keep their doors open 24 hours a day for the whole week.
Sounds perfectly reasonable.
Council member Jim Graham, Ward 1 Democrat, who introduced the bill, said the measure will allow the city's entertainment industry to "engage fully" in inauguration week, which includes Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 19.
Mr. Graham said the measure also will encourage celebrations that are safely indoors. He pointed to the boisterous revelers on election night as an example for the city to try to avoid.
"On election night there were just throngs of people who were pouring into the street, and I think people may be safer celebrating inside than be wandering the streets," he said.
Yes, I can see how this would allow people to "engage fully" in the festivities. Has anyone studied the effects of combining Obama Kool-Aid with other mind-altering drugs? No need, D.C. will soon become one big laboratory.
The Democrat council member makes a good point. People would be much safer inside than they would be wandering the streets. One question: How exactly does he intend to keep these people inside? They have to leave eventually, no?
Now, I am against the legislation of closing times for bars to begin with. I believe it is highly discriminatory against people with odd working hours and/or sleeping habits. That being said, if ever there were a time when you want to cling to existing laws, I think this might be one of them. There must be some other reason all these Dems are behind this...
Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, a Democrat, said at a press conference on Monday that the bill would allow the city to cash in on a lot of extra revenue.
Mr. Graham agreed.
"It's not a principal factor behind the legislation, but given these economic times it is a factor," he said. "There are certainly concerns regarding city revenue, and with the inauguration there's definitely a lot to be had," he said.
Ah, yes. Money. Show a Democrat a way to gouge taxpayers to the fullest, and they'll implement it. Public safety be damned.
I suppose I could think of worse things than the idea of gathering a couple million of the biggest leftists in the country in one spot for a week, letting the booze flow like a faucet, and sitting back and watching it all play out. Of course, conservatives will end up saving the day when the National Guard gets called in.
Plaxico Burress on gun safety
Just saw this video over at Little Green Footballs. I'm still laughing.
Friday, December 5, 2008
$1 gas?
Found this at foxnews.com.
Oil prices hit four-year lows Friday as employers cut the highest number of jobs in 34 years. The continuing decline in prices is so dramatic and so sudden that it is raising the prospect that gas prices could soon fall below $1 a gallon.
The worst jobs data in 34 years on Friday just added more fuel to the deepening global recession as U.S. employers slashed a far worse-than-expected 533,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate rose to a 15-year high of 6.7 percent.
A gallon of gasoline can be had for 50 cents less than it cost just last month, and people are starting to talk about $1 gas.
Granted, gas prices are a long way off from that magic number last seen in March 1999when prices were at 97 cents a gallon, according to motor club AAA. Prices at the pump fell 1.6 cents overnight to $1.773 nationally, according to AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.
But consider what has happened since July 11 when a barrel of oil hit a record $147.27 and a gallon of gas was $4.117 on July 17. In less than five months, oil has fallen 72 percent.
Just this week, in which the National Bureau of Economic Research determined that the U.S. is in recession, oil has fallen 25 percent.
On Friday, light, sweet crude for January delivery settled at $40.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down by nearly $3 per barrel. Prices fell as low at $40.50, levels last seen in December 2004.
Gasoline futures for January delivery tumbled to 90 cents.
For gas prices to get close to a $1, oil prices probably would need to fall another $10 a barrel — something that would have been impossible to fathom during the first part of this year as oil prices soared near $150 per barrel.
"Just seeing that '1' up there is just hard to imagine," said Kevin Keating, 65, an attorney as he filled up his Volvo S60 at a station in Phoenix that advertised prices at $1.67. "Wasn't that long ago that we worried about the '4' being up there."
Prices in New York City are well above the national averages, but still well off their highs of nearly $5 this summer.
"When gas prices are OK, we make a little profit," said Mamady Kourouma, 36, a cab driver from Guinea who paid $2.41 a gallon at a station in Chelsea.
With wages stagnant, home prices plummeting and foreclosure rated soaring, dollar-a-gallon gas may help mom fill up in the family minivan and cab drivers in New York City, but prices that low also would truly speak to how rotten the economy has become.
"The economy at that point worldwide would be in a serious, serious deterioration," said Geoff Sundstrom, spokesman for AAA.
Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service, said Thursday on his blog that retail prices could fetch $1.25 a gallon soon in parts of the Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.
Already, some parts of the country are seeing prices around that level. The Web site gasbuddy.com, where motorists can post local gas prices, motorists can fill up for $1.29 in Neelyville, Mo., a village of about 500 people near the Arkansas state line.
The jobs number suggests that demand for gasoline, which has been running well below year-ago levels even with the cheaper prices in the last several weeks, will fall even more in early 2009 as work-related driving plummets, said Kloza.
"I believe that January 2009 will represent the most 'challenging' and ugly economic month of my lifetime, and my first memory is of Sputnik," Kloza said.
There is plenty of reason to suspect Kloza is right.
Since the start of the recession, the economy has lost 1.9 million jobs, the number of unemployed people has increased by 2.7 million and the jobless rate is up 1.7 percentage points. The meltdown in financial markets has crushed lending, the Detroit 3 are on the brink of bankruptcy without a big government bailout.
Friday's report was much deeper than the 320,000 job cuts economists were forecasting. If there is a plus side it is that the unemployment rate did not climb to the 6.8 percent level economists were expecting.
Kloza does not believe prices will make it to a $1. Gas prices neared a dollar last time on Dec. 18, 2001, three months after the terrorist attacks and the country in its last recession, when prices hit $1.08 a gallon.
Though the weak gasoline prices point how bad the economy is, they also could help it turnaround.
Kloza figures the U.S. gasoline bill at $1.75 per gallon average will be about $20.5 billion this month, down about $16 billion a year ago. Five years ago, the bill was $17.2 billion.
"That could be one important spur to some kind of economic recovery," Sundstrom said.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures tumbled 6.83 cents to settle at 90 cents. Heating oil slid 8.26 cents to $1.4265 a gallon while natural gas for January delivery shed 24.7 cents to sell at $5.77 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, January Brent crude slipped by $2.42 cents to $39.86 on the ICE Futures exchange.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,462905,00.html
Oil prices hit four-year lows Friday as employers cut the highest number of jobs in 34 years. The continuing decline in prices is so dramatic and so sudden that it is raising the prospect that gas prices could soon fall below $1 a gallon.
The worst jobs data in 34 years on Friday just added more fuel to the deepening global recession as U.S. employers slashed a far worse-than-expected 533,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate rose to a 15-year high of 6.7 percent.
A gallon of gasoline can be had for 50 cents less than it cost just last month, and people are starting to talk about $1 gas.
Granted, gas prices are a long way off from that magic number last seen in March 1999when prices were at 97 cents a gallon, according to motor club AAA. Prices at the pump fell 1.6 cents overnight to $1.773 nationally, according to AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.
But consider what has happened since July 11 when a barrel of oil hit a record $147.27 and a gallon of gas was $4.117 on July 17. In less than five months, oil has fallen 72 percent.
Just this week, in which the National Bureau of Economic Research determined that the U.S. is in recession, oil has fallen 25 percent.
On Friday, light, sweet crude for January delivery settled at $40.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down by nearly $3 per barrel. Prices fell as low at $40.50, levels last seen in December 2004.
Gasoline futures for January delivery tumbled to 90 cents.
For gas prices to get close to a $1, oil prices probably would need to fall another $10 a barrel — something that would have been impossible to fathom during the first part of this year as oil prices soared near $150 per barrel.
"Just seeing that '1' up there is just hard to imagine," said Kevin Keating, 65, an attorney as he filled up his Volvo S60 at a station in Phoenix that advertised prices at $1.67. "Wasn't that long ago that we worried about the '4' being up there."
Prices in New York City are well above the national averages, but still well off their highs of nearly $5 this summer.
"When gas prices are OK, we make a little profit," said Mamady Kourouma, 36, a cab driver from Guinea who paid $2.41 a gallon at a station in Chelsea.
With wages stagnant, home prices plummeting and foreclosure rated soaring, dollar-a-gallon gas may help mom fill up in the family minivan and cab drivers in New York City, but prices that low also would truly speak to how rotten the economy has become.
"The economy at that point worldwide would be in a serious, serious deterioration," said Geoff Sundstrom, spokesman for AAA.
Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service, said Thursday on his blog that retail prices could fetch $1.25 a gallon soon in parts of the Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.
Already, some parts of the country are seeing prices around that level. The Web site gasbuddy.com, where motorists can post local gas prices, motorists can fill up for $1.29 in Neelyville, Mo., a village of about 500 people near the Arkansas state line.
The jobs number suggests that demand for gasoline, which has been running well below year-ago levels even with the cheaper prices in the last several weeks, will fall even more in early 2009 as work-related driving plummets, said Kloza.
"I believe that January 2009 will represent the most 'challenging' and ugly economic month of my lifetime, and my first memory is of Sputnik," Kloza said.
There is plenty of reason to suspect Kloza is right.
Since the start of the recession, the economy has lost 1.9 million jobs, the number of unemployed people has increased by 2.7 million and the jobless rate is up 1.7 percentage points. The meltdown in financial markets has crushed lending, the Detroit 3 are on the brink of bankruptcy without a big government bailout.
Friday's report was much deeper than the 320,000 job cuts economists were forecasting. If there is a plus side it is that the unemployment rate did not climb to the 6.8 percent level economists were expecting.
Kloza does not believe prices will make it to a $1. Gas prices neared a dollar last time on Dec. 18, 2001, three months after the terrorist attacks and the country in its last recession, when prices hit $1.08 a gallon.
Though the weak gasoline prices point how bad the economy is, they also could help it turnaround.
Kloza figures the U.S. gasoline bill at $1.75 per gallon average will be about $20.5 billion this month, down about $16 billion a year ago. Five years ago, the bill was $17.2 billion.
"That could be one important spur to some kind of economic recovery," Sundstrom said.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures tumbled 6.83 cents to settle at 90 cents. Heating oil slid 8.26 cents to $1.4265 a gallon while natural gas for January delivery shed 24.7 cents to sell at $5.77 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, January Brent crude slipped by $2.42 cents to $39.86 on the ICE Futures exchange.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,462905,00.html
O.J. Guilty
O.J. Simpson will spend at least the next nine years of his life behind bars for his role in a robbery in a hotel room in Vegas. Simpson tried to explain and apologize for his actions in the same breath saying, "I didn't mean to steal anything from anybody ... I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all of it."
However it looks like O.J. drew the wrong judge for leniency. Judge Glass is described has "a no-nonsense judge known for tough sentences." Simpson could face has many has 33 years in prison. Which would effectively be the rest of his life. However he's up for parole in nine. As for parole don't count on it. "The prosecutor also said that because the crimes were considered violent felonies, Simpson and Stewart will not be eligible for good-behavior credits to lessen their sentences. He did not expect them to be immediately released when they do seek parole.
So why was this prosecutor able to convict the NFL legend. To put it simply he had it on tape. "Jurors who heard 13 days of testimony said after the verdict that they were convinced of Simpson's guilt because of audio recordings that were secretly made of the robbery at the Palace Station casino hotel."
"District Attorney David Roger revealed that Simpson and Stewart had both been offered plea agreements during the trial that would have resulted in lesser sentences. He would not provide details." I remember Simpson's attorney saying something to the affect of "Mr. Simpson has great faith in the jury system."
While O.J. may now have less faith in that system it helped Ron Goldman's family
the man O.J. was acquitted of murdering in 94 along with his Nicole Brown Simpson) regain some of theirs. "We are thrilled, and it's a bittersweet moment,"Fred Goldman said. "It was satisfying seeing him in shackles like he belongs. After sentencing was over, the Goldmans left the courtroom and Kim threw her arms around her father and wept." The Goldman's even took some credit for Simpson's plight stating that their "relentless pursuit" of his assets "pushed him over the edge."
Nicole Brown Simpson's sister, Denise Brown, released a statement from her family referring to the date her sister and Ron Goldman were killed, "Allowing wealth, power and control to consume himself, he made a horrific choice on June 12, 1994, which has spiraled into where he is today," the statement said.
This seems like a fitting end to the saga that has been O.J. Simpson. Since the murder trail in 1994 in which many people believe he got away with two murders. He has been in trouble several times. Mostly Domestic disputes and I believe at least one case of road rage. However it appears that the O.J. Simpson saga has finally come to an end with this conviction.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3747669
Recount over, Coleman still leads
The Recount in Minnesota is over, at least the recounting part any is anyway. Coleman is up by 192 votes. However there are still 133 missing ballots from Minneapolis. Coleman started the recount with a 215 vote lead. So even with all of Franken's deceit he only made up 23 votes. However there are 6657 challenged ballots. Coleman challenged 3,376 ballots and Franken challenged 3,281. However from my experience has a poll watcher this election I seriously doubt this election will be swung by challenged ballots. Anyone can make a challenge for any reason including no reason. I feel sure most of these challenges fall under the category of for no reason.
With what I am now calling a Republican victory in Minnesota and Saxby's big win in Georgia. The Republicans will have 42 seats in the U.S. Senate. This should help us keep the Democrats in check since we will be able to sustain a filibuster if it's necessary. Also remember that the out of power party usually picks up seats in the Presidents first midterm. Also I believe 2012 is supposed to be a good year for Republicans in the Senate meaning were challenging for more seats than were defending. So it's possible that we could take the senate back in 2012. I figure we'll also pick up seats in the House in 2010. Whether or not we pick up more in 2012 will depend on how Obama does as President.
2012 Conservatism Strikes Back
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/35607614.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUX
With what I am now calling a Republican victory in Minnesota and Saxby's big win in Georgia. The Republicans will have 42 seats in the U.S. Senate. This should help us keep the Democrats in check since we will be able to sustain a filibuster if it's necessary. Also remember that the out of power party usually picks up seats in the Presidents first midterm. Also I believe 2012 is supposed to be a good year for Republicans in the Senate meaning were challenging for more seats than were defending. So it's possible that we could take the senate back in 2012. I figure we'll also pick up seats in the House in 2010. Whether or not we pick up more in 2012 will depend on how Obama does as President.
2012 Conservatism Strikes Back
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/35607614.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUX
The Case for Boise State
Sorry guys I have to go off-topic every once in a while to talk about my other passion college football. In this case America's underdogs may be screwed out of a chance to play in a BCS game. I'm not saying Boise should be playing for the national title. Although if there was a eight team playoff they should be in that.
The Boise State Broncos are 12-0. Their competition for the final BCS birth is 10-2 Ohio State. Boise plays in a weak conference, but they did go to Oregon (14) and win 37-32. That was the only game this year Boise did not win by double digits. eight times they held their opponents to 10 points or less. They average 39.4 points a game. Lets not forget Oregon blasted Oregon State 65-38 last Saturday. Oregon State would have gone to the Rose bowl with a win. Instead Oregon State finishes third in the Pac 10 behind Oregon and USC.
Ohio State had two chances to make a BCS bowl this year. The third game of the year against USC in which they were dominated 35-3. The score doesn't show how badly they were beaten. They changed quarterbacks after the game. Later in the season they were given another shot to make a BCS game against Penn State. A win there would've given them the Big ten title and a trip to the Rose Bowl. They lost 13-6 at home. This time with their new quarterback Terrell Pryor. It seems obvious to me that Ohio State's offense can't handle top notch defenses no matter who the quarterback is. However Ohio State has beaten two teams in the top 25 this season, Michigan State (21) and Northwestern (22).
It seems to me that a school that has already failed twice to earn a trip to a BCS game shouldn't be allowed to have a third bite at the apple. Everyone outside of Ohio knows Ohio State will be dominated by any of their potential challengers. As far as I'm concerned Boise State will give Texas or Oklahoma a much better game and it will certainly be more interesting than watching Ohio State go run, run, pass, punt for sixty minutes.
I know that Boise State hasn't played anyone outside of Oregon all year, but that's because no one has the guts to put them on the schedule. Even if they did it would be a one shot deal. None of these big schools are going to risk their season on taking a trip to Boise to play on the blue turf. The truth is Ohio State has two quality wins to Boise's one. However Boise has no losses and Ohio State has two. Plus Boise Dominated the teams they played this year. The Oregon game was the only game they played that was really competitive. However I have watched the Broncos on a few occasions this season I have seen that they never take a play off no matter what the score is. Boise is capable of beating any team that makes the mistake of lining up in front of them. I hope the BCS selection committee gives them the chance to prove me right by placing them in a BCS game Sunday at 8pm on FOX.
The Boise State Broncos are 12-0. Their competition for the final BCS birth is 10-2 Ohio State. Boise plays in a weak conference, but they did go to Oregon (14) and win 37-32. That was the only game this year Boise did not win by double digits. eight times they held their opponents to 10 points or less. They average 39.4 points a game. Lets not forget Oregon blasted Oregon State 65-38 last Saturday. Oregon State would have gone to the Rose bowl with a win. Instead Oregon State finishes third in the Pac 10 behind Oregon and USC.
Ohio State had two chances to make a BCS bowl this year. The third game of the year against USC in which they were dominated 35-3. The score doesn't show how badly they were beaten. They changed quarterbacks after the game. Later in the season they were given another shot to make a BCS game against Penn State. A win there would've given them the Big ten title and a trip to the Rose Bowl. They lost 13-6 at home. This time with their new quarterback Terrell Pryor. It seems obvious to me that Ohio State's offense can't handle top notch defenses no matter who the quarterback is. However Ohio State has beaten two teams in the top 25 this season, Michigan State (21) and Northwestern (22).
It seems to me that a school that has already failed twice to earn a trip to a BCS game shouldn't be allowed to have a third bite at the apple. Everyone outside of Ohio knows Ohio State will be dominated by any of their potential challengers. As far as I'm concerned Boise State will give Texas or Oklahoma a much better game and it will certainly be more interesting than watching Ohio State go run, run, pass, punt for sixty minutes.
I know that Boise State hasn't played anyone outside of Oregon all year, but that's because no one has the guts to put them on the schedule. Even if they did it would be a one shot deal. None of these big schools are going to risk their season on taking a trip to Boise to play on the blue turf. The truth is Ohio State has two quality wins to Boise's one. However Boise has no losses and Ohio State has two. Plus Boise Dominated the teams they played this year. The Oregon game was the only game they played that was really competitive. However I have watched the Broncos on a few occasions this season I have seen that they never take a play off no matter what the score is. Boise is capable of beating any team that makes the mistake of lining up in front of them. I hope the BCS selection committee gives them the chance to prove me right by placing them in a BCS game Sunday at 8pm on FOX.
Back in Business
Wow has it really been over a week since my last post. Sorry about that. Like I said I was on vacation for awhile. I'm going to put up at least two new post today (not counting this one.) I've already started on one of them. Well I better get back to work.
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