Donations - Who should you give to?

Received this email today, haven't fact checked it, but decided to pass it along anyway. Many years ago I was an independent auditor and performed audits on a number of non-profit organizations. The out-of-line administrative costs and other waste at most of these organizations, especially the Federal anti-poverty agencies, turned my stomach.

While in the Army at Ft Gordon, Ga. in the 60's, I was on CQ one cold winter night when I received a call from a distraught lady looking for her husband who was a sergeant in my Company. I happened to know that the soldier had been taken to the emergency room the previous day and was not available at the time. The lady was crying and stated that she was in a phone booth and that she and her 3 young children had just arrived at their new home to find her husband not their and the door locked. While she stayed on the line, I called the Red Cross and was told that they could not help, that they did not go into that part of town.

I next called the Salvation Army. They told me that they would be there within 1/2 hour. I told the lady and asked her to call me when she was settled. She called me about an hour later and thanked me. She said the Salvation Army rep had arrived, got them inside out of the cold, had the heat turned on and provided food and blankets for her and the children. The next day she was able to see her husband at the hospital.

Another story relates to my brother who was in the Navy during WWII. He told me that the Red Cross got all the publicity, but it was the Salvation Army that always showed up.

I don't know if anything has improved at the Red Cross, but my donations have gone to the Salvation Army ever since my early years. Now for the email:

As you open your pockets for the next natural disaster, keep these facts in mind:

The American Red Cross President and CEO Marsha J. Evans salary for the year was $651,957 plus expenses

The United Way President Brian Gallagher receives a $375,000 base salary along with numerous expense benefits. They give to illegals I will not give to them.

UNICEF CEO Caryl M. Stern receives $1,200,000 per year (100k per month) plus all expenses including a ROLLS ROYCE. Less than 5 cents of your donated dollar goes to the cause.

The Salvation Army's Commissioner Todd Bassett receives a salary of only $13,000 per year (plus housing) for managing this $2 billion dollar organization. 96 percent of donated dollars go to the cause.

The American Legion National Commander receives a $0.00 zero salary. Your donations go to help Veterans and their families and youth!

No further comment is necessary.

Please share this with everyone you can.

Palin to Keynote Tea Party Rally in Iowa

Sarah is a maverick and I would not count her out.

Excerpt: In the latest indication that her sights are still set on a presidential run, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has accepted an invitation to keynote a Tea Party rally in Waukee, Iowa, on Sept. 3, RealClearPolitics has learned.

The Labor Day weekend visit to the nation's first voting state comes after Palin indicated during an appearance on Fox News earlier this month that she would make her decision about whether to launch a campaign in August or September.

All signs now point to September as the month when Palin would throw her hat into the ring, as logistical concerns ranging from fundraising to getting her name on the ballot in various states would likely preclude further delay.

Many prominent political analysts and Republican operatives have expressed skepticism that Palin is seriously considering a presidential bid, since she has not taken many of the steps that candidates traditionally take before jumping into the race, such as signing early-state consultants, contacting key powerbrokers and boosting their travel schedules.

But Palin has a long history of shunning the Republican Party machinery and taking an unconventional approach to campaigns -- a mind-set that appears to have been in play throughout the past several months.

Palin's latest appearance in Iowa will come just two days after "The Undefeated," a documentary film spotlighting her accomplishments in Alaska, will be released on Pay-Per-View and video-on-demand. In the film, Palin is portrayed as a continual thorn in the Republican establishment's side. And it is the GOP, rather than the Democratic Party, that garners the better part of the movie's scorn.

Read full Real Clear Politics article here

New NASA Data Blow Gaping Hole In Global Warming Alarmism

Another source of scientific information refuting global warming and CO2 alarmists. The EPA must be reined in before it destroys our energy industry and overall economy.

Excerpt: NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth's atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed.

Study co-author Dr. Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and U.S. Science Team Leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA's Aqua satellite, reports that real-world data from NASA's Terra satellite contradict multiple assumptions fed into alarmist computer models.

"The satellite observations suggest there is much more energy lost to space during and after warming than the climate models show," Spencer said in a July 26 University of Alabama press release. "There is a huge discrepancy between the data and the forecasts that is especially big over the oceans."

When objective NASA satellite data, reported in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, show a "huge discrepancy" between alarmist climate models and real-world facts, climate scientists, the media and our elected officials would be wise to take notice. Whether or not they do so will tell us a great deal about how honest the purveyors of global warming alarmism truly are.

Read full Forbes report here.

Gov't Welfare Widens The Wealth Gap

Anyone that thinks these programs are to lift the recipients out of poverty are just fooling themselves. For some Democrats it may be a "feel good" exercise, but these programs are all about preserving voting blocks and gaining power and control over a huge segment of the populace. A poll today shows that 46% of Americans think that most members of Congress are corrupt. Thinking they vote for these programs for political reasons is not much of a stretch.

Excerpt: Starting in 1964, when President Johnson launched the War on Poverty, a well-intentioned crusade to end poverty, the U.S. has spent an estimated $16 trillion trying to help the less well-off.

LBJ and other well-meaning Democratic politicians at the time also hoped that the burgeoning welfare state would make people more self-sufficient, a noble goal. It didn't work.

Today, some 44 million Americans are on food stamps. In 2007, it was 26 million. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner recently boasted that U.S. issues more than 80 million checks a month. But while the U.S. has more than 70 means-tested welfare programs, the poverty rate today is higher than it was in the late 1960s.

How can that be? "(M)ost anti-poverty/welfare spending erodes work and marriage," wrote Robert Rector, a Heritage Foundation economist, in a recent report. "As a result ... low-income Americans are less capable of self-support than when the War on Poverty began."

The most recent leg down in minority wealth is due almost entirely to America's massive housing market intervention — funded by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, overseen by HUD and pushed by influential Democrats. It has only made things worse.

Starting with President Clinton, the federal government coerced banks into making loans to uncreditworthy minority borrowers to boost homeownership.

The implicit subsidy in this arrangement was itself a form of welfare. When the housing market tanked, it was inevitable that those mostly minority households would have higher delinquency and default rates, and lose much of their wealth. That's what happened.

The road to hell, it's said, is paved with good intentions. But sometimes it's paved with taxpayers' money.

Read full Investors.com article here.

Are you kidding me - We are fed up!

Democrats Oppose Obama-U.N. Gun Control Treaty

Good news for those worrying about the UN overruling our Constitution regarding gun rights.

Excerpt: Twelve Democratic senators have joined 45 Republicans in a fast growing movement to halt progress on an Obama-backed United Nations effort that could bring international gun control into the United States and slap America's gun owners with severe restrictions.

In his letter, Moran wrote, "Our country's sovereignty and the Second Amendment rights of American citizens must not be infringed upon by the United Nations," Moran wrote in the letter. "Today, the Senate sends a powerful message to the Obama Administration: an Arms Trade Treaty that does not protect ownership of civilian firearms will fail in the Senate. Our firearm freedoms are not negotiable."

The emergence of strong Democratic resistance comes as the president is trying to deal with fallout from liberal Democrats upset that he has opened the door to major changes in Social Security and Medicare as part of the debt ceiling crisis.

The U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, which the Bush administration had opposed, would regulate with the international trade of arms. It would cover the trading of conventional firearms likes those used by collectors and sportsmen and women. [Read NRA Boss: Obama's Gone in 2012.]

The goal of the treaty is to come up with internationally recognized rules governing the trade of guns and ammo. The United States is the world's largest exporter of arms.

Tester's letter concludes, "As members of the United States Senate, it is our constitutional responsibility to advise and consent on the ratification of the United Nation's Arms Trade Treaty. Before we could support ratification, we must have assurances that our concerns are adequately addressed and that the Treaty will not in any way impede upon the Constitutional rights of American gun owners. Anything short of this commitment would be unacceptable.

Read full US News article here.

Job Killing Government Regulations

There is an article in one of the major Washington newspapers today citing a poll that shows Obama's job approval rating dropping among blacks and liberals. It also shows that the Republicans in Congress are even worse off. The theme seems to be that those in Washington are "dithering" away at the debt ceiling while millions of people are out of work, unable to pay their mortgages or feed their children properly. They believe, and rightly so, that the emphasis should be on jobs, jobs, jobs.

Unfortunately, there is a belief among many that all the government has to do is wave a magic wand or pass another 2000 page bill, and jobs will materialize out of thin air. What many do not realize is that those bills give birth to multitudinous, business stifling, regulations and that "Government is the problem".

Jobs are not easy to create, but are easy to destroy. The hundreds of regulations coming out of Obama's administrative branch daily, especially from the EPA, are making it more and more difficult to start or maintain a business. Money that use to be targeted for expansion and the creation of jobs, is now being used to file paperwork, hire lawyers and set up computer systems to monitor anything the the EPA and the government thinks needs to be monitored. This silliness is exemplified by the number of young people's lemonade stands that have been shut down for failure to abide by the FDA edicts. We need to elect people who will work to eliminate as much government as possible and return it to its Constitutional boundaries.

David Light
Pawleys Island, SC

Broken Budgets: States In Economic Crisis

This site maintained by the Associated Press gives deficit/surplus information by State and drills down to the problem areas. Broken budgets: States in economic crisis

Debt Crisis Ad Banned by Networks

Debt Ceiling Crisis Misnomer

When is a ceiling not a ceiling and when is a crisis not a crisis?

The media and our politicians in Washington, both Democrat and Republican, are having a field day discussing the impending "crisis" that will ensue if the debt "ceiling" is not raised. Of course, as the Democrats would have it, the debt ceiling is the problem. On the other side, spending is the problem. Spending has never been much of a problem for Republicans either until the Tea Party came on the scene and elected Republicans, with some fiscal sensibilities, to the House of Representatives.

To answer the question "when is a ceiling not a ceiling", you have to go to what has happened since the first ceiling of $11.5 billion was set in 1917. During WWII, they seem to have lost count as to the number of times it was raised, but since 1962 the debt "ceiling" has been raised 74 times. Warren Buffett says we should do away with the ceiling which is an "artificial limit" and “all it does is slow down a process and divert people’s energy, causes people to posture. It doesn’t really make any sense,” Moody's Investor Service, one of the agencies that is threatening to downgrade the US bond rating, strongly agrees. Obviously the "ceiling" is a misnomer and means absolutely nothing. The real problem, as with many families, is that the government is living beyond its means. Our Representatives, Senators and President pass legislation that costs taxpayers billions and even trillions of dollars with no regard for our rising debt. Every household wishes they could do the same.

Our top politicians are currently working behind closed doors with the President to come up with a solution to our current "crisis". What has leaked out can only be what Buffett would call "posturing". Both Republicans and Democrats talk about trillions of dollars in spending cuts, conveniently, over the next ten years. Sounds good until you realize they are not talking about actual cuts in spending, they are talking about reducing "increases" in spending, none of which will balance our budget and start to reduce our dependency on China as a benefactor to our Treasury.

It is interesting to note, that we hit the current debt ceiling of $14.294 Trillion, sometime around May 17th of this year. Using bookkeeping techniques and delaying payment to government employees' pension funds, Treasury Secretary Geithner now has established August 2nd as the critical date. At that time portions of the Federal Government will have to be shut down. Some in government, the President included, will try to frighten Social Security, Medicare and Veteran's benefits receivers into thinking they are first in line for cutbacks. If I were in charge, the UN, foreign aid, the EPA, the Department of Education, ObamaCare, High Speed Rail and the Energy Department would have more to worry about.

Currently, because of the slanted MSM coverage, Republicans are being blamed for the current "crisis". What has actually happened? For two years, the Democrats, while they were in charge of both houses of Congress and the Presidency, and spending was going through the roof, failed to pass even one budget. This is in violation of the Congressional Budget Act. The budget set forth this year by President Obama was a joke which increased spending and taxes to such an extreme that it garnered zero votes in the Democrat controlled Senate. The Senate has not proposed a budget of its own.

However, the Republican House has met its Congressional Budget Act responsibilities earlier by passing what is known as the "Ryan" budget. The Senate refused to take up the bill and refused to debate two other bills proposed by Republican Senators. To raise the debt "ceiling" and avert the current "crisis", the Republican House has passed the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, which intends to cut actual spending, place a cap on the debt ceiling and create a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. Harry Reid, Democrat leader of the Senate has refused to bring this legislation to the floor for consideration. Instead the Democrats are insisting on the closed door sessions with the President and the Gang of Six to come up with a compromise.

The Republicans have put it out there on the table where it can be dissected by all. What do we get from the Democrats? The President came out with a "plan" back in April. When asked what effect it would have, Congressional Budget Office director Doug Elmendorf replied with a devastating “We don’t estimate speeches.” You can’t assign numbers to air.

Dave Light
Pawleys Island, SC

Home Depot Co-Founder: 'I'm Not Sure Obama Would Understand Anything That I'd Say'

The problem is that Obama has no business experience, doesn't understand what is needed to spur job growth and has no intention to learn. His whole background is the antithesis of the capitalist system. Bernie Marcus, co-founder of the Home Depot flatly states that Home Depot would not exist today, if they had tried to start up under current anti-business government regulations.

Excerpt: In a discussion about the current moribund job climate, Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus discusses the situation today contrasted with when he first started up the retail giant in 1978. Remarkably, the darkest days of Jimmy Carter were brighter than today's despair under the failed Obama presidency.

IBD: What's the single biggest impediment to job growth today?

Marcus: The U.S. government. Having built a small business into a big one, I can tell you that today the impediments that the government imposes are impossible to deal with. Home Depot would never have succeeded if we'd tried to start it today. Every day you see rules and regulations from a group of Washington bureaucrats who know nothing about running a business. And I mean every day. It's become stifling.

If you're a small businessman, the only way to deal with it is to work harder, put in more hours, and let people go. When you consider that something like 70% of the American people work for small businesses, you are talking about a big economic impact.

IBD: President Obama has promised to streamline and eliminate regulations. What's your take?

Marcus: His speeches are wonderful. His output is absolutely, incredibly bad. As he speaks about cutting out regulations, they are now producing thousands of pages of new ones. With just ObamaCare by itself, you have a 2,000 page bill that's probably going end up being 150,000 pages of regulations.
Brutal. Yet sadly, all too true.

IBD: If you could sit down with Obama and talk to him about job creation, what would you say?

Marcus: I'm not sure Obama would understand anything that I'd say, because he's never really worked a day outside the political or legal area. He doesn't know how to make a payroll, he doesn't understand the problems businesses face. I would try to explain that the plight of the businessman is very reactive to Washington. As Washington piles on regulations and mandates, the impact is tremendous. I don't think he's a bad guy. I just think he has no knowledge of this.

IBD: Why don't more businesses speak out?

Marcus: They are frightened to death — frightened that they will have the IRS or SEC on them. In my 50 years in business, I have never seen executives of major companies who were more intimidated by an administration.

Original article on IBD here.

Obama - An Embarrassment

If any other of our presidents
had doubled the National Debt, which
had taken more than two centuries
to accumulate, in one year,
would You have Approved?

If any other of our presidents
had then proposed to Double
the debt again within 10 years,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had criticized a State Law ( Arizona) that
he admitted he never even read,
would you think that he is
just an ignorant hot Head?

If any other of our presidents
joined the country of Mexico and sued a
State in the United States to force that State
to continue to allow Illegal Immigration,
would you question his patriotism
and wonder who's side he was on?

If any other of our presidents
had pronounced the Marine Corps
as if it were the Marine Corpse,
would you think him an Idiot?

If any other of our presidents
had put 87,000 workers out of work
by arbitrarily placing a moratorium on
offshore oil drilling on companies that have
one of the best safety records of any industry
because one foreign company had an accident,
would you have agreed?


If any other of our presidents
had been the first President to need a
teleprompter installed to be able to get through
a press conference, would you have laughed and said
this is more proof of how inept he is on his own and is
really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If any other of our presidents
had spent hundreds of thousands of Dollars
to take his First Lady to a play in NYC,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had reduced your retirement plan holdings
of GM stock by 90% and given the
unions a majority stake in GM,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had made a joke at the expense
of the Special Olympics,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive
and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown
had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had given the Queen of England an
IPod containing videos of his speeches,
would you have thought it to be a
proud moment for America ?

If any other of our presidents
had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia ,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had visited Austria and made reference
to the nonexistent "Austrian language,"
would you have brushed it off
as a minor slip?

If any other of our presidents
had filled his Cabinet and circle of
Advisers with people who cannot seem
to keep current on their Income Taxes,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had stated that there were 57 states in
the United States , wouldn't you have had
second thoughts about his capabilities?

If any other of our presidents
would have flown all the way to Denmark
to make a five minute speech about how the Olympics
would benefit him walking out his front door in his
home town, would you not have thought he was
a self-important, conceited, egotistical jerk?

If any other of our presidents
had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to
"Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador
when it was "The 5th of May" (Cinco de Mayo),
and then continue to flub it when he tried again,
wouldn't you have winced in embarrassment?

If any other of our presidents
had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel
to go plant a single tree on Earth Day,
would you have concluded he's a Hypocrite?

If any other of our presidents'
Administrations had okayed Air Force One
flying low over millions of people followed by
a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing
widespread panic, would you have wondered
whether they actually get what happened on 9-11?

If any other of our presidents
had failed to send relief aid to flood victims
throughout the Midwest, with more people killed
or made homeless than in New Orleans, would you
want it made into a major ongoing Political issue
with claims of racism and incompetence?

If any other of our presidents
had created the positions of 32 Czars
who report directly to him, bypassing
the House and Senate on much of
what is happening in America ,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had ordered the firing of the CEO
of a major corporation, even though he
had no constitutional authority to do so,
would you have approved? 

So, tell me again,
what is it about Obama that
makes him so brilliant and impressive?

Can't think of anything?
Then you'd better start worrying.
He's done all these things in 28 months --
and you have less than 19 months
to come up with an answer.

Every statement and action in this email
is factual and correctly attributable
to Barrack Hussein Obama.
Every bumble is a matter of record
and completely verifiable.

"All it takes for evil to triumph
is for good men to do nothing."

Dr. David Janda explains ObamaCare rationing

Viewers of ‘The Undefeated’ speak out

Excerpt: This past weekend, Stephen Bannon’s documentary on Sarah Palin, “The Undefeated,” debuted in 10 markets: Atlanta, GA; Houston, TX; Dallas, TX; Phoenix, AZ; Denver, CO; Orlando, FL; Kansas City, MO; Indianapolis, IN; Orange, CA; and Oklahoma City, OK. ARC Entertainment, the distributor of the film, affirmed that “through Saturday night the film had a stronger opening than expected with the large markets trending towards weekend per screen averages above $10,000 driven by multiple sold-out runs. The film had accumulated approximately $5,000 per screen through Saturday night. Unique in the theatrical feature world, The Undefeated was rushed to select digital theatres in only 3 weeks, and was marketed almost entirely through social media and grassroots efforts, with virtually no traditional media spend. With the strong initial showing, the film is going to a wider release footprint later this month, with details being announced soon.”

I reached out to attendees via Facebook and Twitter, inviting them to share their thoughts about the film. Here’s what some of them had to say:

“Saw ‘The Undefeated’ in Grapevine, TX, opening night and it was packed. My husband and I had to sit in the front row of the 9:50 showing. I have mixed emotions. I’m saddened by the vicious attacks (montage was almost hard to watch), maddened that the GOP have perpetuated the smear campaign, but through it all I was inspired. I learned so much about her vast executive experience in AK and would be proud to cast my vote for an amazing American, mother, patriot and leader, Sarah Palin. There was thunderous applause at the end of the movie. We’re ready, Sarah. Game on!” — Marisa Marshall

Read additional reviews here.

2006 Senate Vote on Debt Ceiling Increase - All Democrats Voted Against

Hypocrisy and political posturing extraordinaire for the Democrats. What ever happened to voting for the good of the country? It goes with the liberal position that everything that Bush did was wrong, and everything that Obama does is right.

Excerpt: Grouped By Vote Position

YEAs ---52

Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Allen (R-VA)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chafee (R-RI)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
DeWine (R-OH)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Enzi (R-WY)
Frist (R-TN)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Roberts (R-KS)
Santorum (R-PA)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Talent (R-MO)
Thomas (R-WY)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)


NAYs ---48

Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Burns (R-MT)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Carper (D-DE)
Clinton (D-NY)
Coburn (R-OK)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dayton (D-MN)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Ensign (R-NV)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Obama (D-IL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Wyden (D-OR)

See official US Senate website info here.

State Sales Taxes On Internet Companies

My neighbor came to me today with the following thoughts, spurred by the Amazon exodus from California after the state enacted a sales tax on internet companies.  He owns a successful local furniture store in NJ that is suffering from the lack of equal protection under the law.  He dutifully collects sales taxes, his online competitors do not.  This is what he has to say:

The most fair tax is the consumer tax.

States across the nation are being cheated by the enormous consumer trade of online companies.  They have a serious unfair advantage over local businesses.  The real bottom line is, states lose billions in revenue in lost taxes.  The same states then need Federal assistance, which comes from all taxpayers, even those who are not big spenders on non-essential goods.

Let each state collect its fair share of taxes.  They in turn can, hopefully, take care of themselves. This can relieve the Federal government from state aid.  Also local businesses would benefit, which creates jobs.

This is being discussed in several areas, and it should take top priority.

For those internet companies that find this a problem, they should be reminded that all local businesses already have the responsibility to be tax collectors.  It takes time, effort and manpower by all local retail enterprises; why should online companies be exempt?

Tom Kopilak
NJ

Video 'The Undefeated' Trailer Conservatives4Palin

Democrats, not Republicans, In Violation Of The Congressional Budget Act

When Congress, i.e. Democrats, break their own laws, who is there to bring them back in line? The answer is no one, and when you have a President and Democrat Senate that cares more about ideology than the restraints that the law or Constitution puts on them, you have the makings of a dictatorship. You would most likely say that we can always vote them out in the next election. It is not so easy to vote out an incumbent, as witnessed by Reid's re-election last year. They have the bully pulpit and the taxpayers' carrots to wave in front of the unconcerned and under-educated voter. Votes can be bought and our elected Democrats are masters at it.

Excerpt: In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, Judge Michael McConnell, now a law professor at Stanford, addressed the Democrats’ defiance of the Congressional Budget Act:

After sending up a budget in February that would only add to government spending and deficits, President Obama has now come around to the view that “it is a moral imperative to tackle our debt and deficits in a serious way.” Both sides have to make sacrifices, he says. It is time to “eat our peas.” The president’s evident purpose is to put the blame on Republicans for failing to come to an agreement.

But the absence of any written budgetary documents and the closed-door nature of the negotiating sessions make it impossible to tell which side is being “serious” and which side is being intransigent. Instead of specific proposals, scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and open to examination by press and public, we get vague generalities about “trillions” of dollars in supposed savings based on who-knows-what changes in policy.

It is insane to think that tax and spending proposals of this complexity can be negotiated at this level of generality and put into statutory language in a matter of weeks. Didn’t the health-care fiasco teach us anything about the importance of transparent and responsible legislative process?

Wise or foolish, this budgetary game of chicken is contrary to law. In 1974, Congress enacted the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act, which sets specific deadlines and procedures for raising revenue, setting spending priorities, and adjusting the debt limit—all in the sunshine of public scrutiny, with objective evaluation of all plans by the CBO.
…

By April 1, according to the Budget Act, the House and the Senate must either adopt the president’s budget or put forward an alternative. They cannot just hide in the weeds. The House and Senate reports must detail any differences from the president’s budget and explain the “economic assumptions” underlying them. By April 15, Congress must adopt a concurrent resolution embodying a congressional budget. Appropriations bills must stay within this budget or be subject to a point of order.

The House of Representatives complied with the law, passing a budget that would reduce spending by an estimated $5.8 trillion over 10 years (according to the CBO). The Senate has not passed a budget. In fact, the Senate has not passed a budget since 2009.

This defiance of the Budget Act is responsible for the current blamefest in Washington. The law was intended to bring transparency and timeliness to debates over taxing and spending. All proposals are public, and all are scored by the CBO according to the same metric. This makes it difficult for politicians to shift blame. This year, without a genuine presidential budget, or any Senate budget, the negotiations are shrouded in fog. The president may tell press conferences that he proposed $3 trillion in spending reductions, but there is no way to know what that means without a budget.

To give some pertinent examples: We have no way of knowing whether the president’s claimed reduction in deficit spending is based on current spending or on projected spending. The difference is probably about $1.8 trillion over 10 years.

Likewise, we have no way of knowing whether the proposed spending cuts are real. All too often in past budget deals, the “spending cuts” were based on gimmicks, or on promises of future cuts that never actually were made. For example, Congress has promised to pay doctors, hospitals and drug companies less for performing the same services. This never really happens.

The House budget contains a specific proposal for reducing the future cost of Medicare. The administration prefers an expert commission that will supposedly find hundreds of billions of dollars in painless savings from undisclosed changes. A real budget would specify the changes so that the public could compare the two alternatives. …

The Budget Act was designed to force all competing plans to be disclosed publicly and evaluated according to the same baselines and criteria. It is too late to meet the Act’s deadlines, but our leaders could still comply with its spirit.

If the president would put his plan into budgetary language, as the House already has done, and make it available to the CBO, the public could readily see who is being serious in the negotiations. We would know whether we have been offered a bracing helping of peas, or a misleading mess of pottage. As it is, the president has put a covered dish on the table and, thanks to noncompliance with the Budget Act, we do not know what it contains.

Read full Powerline article here.

Ron Paul Ad Re: Debt Ceiling

Our President - A Coil of Rage

Received this email today and thought I'd pass it on.  These are his own words from his own book, assuming he wrote it.

Our President

A Coil of Rage

The character of any man is defined by how he treats his mother as the
years pass .... need I say more about this person below other than there is
no character, no integrity but there is a ton of attitude and arrogance
that defines his shallow past and hollow future ..... I rest my case..

I bought and read Obama's book, Audacity of Hope. It was difficult to read
considering his attitude toward us and everything American. Let me add a
phrase he use to describe his attitude toward whites. He harbors a "COIL OF
RAGE". His words not mine.


THIS IS OUR PRESIDENT -- HE'S RUNNING AGAIN, YOU KNOW! Is anyone out there
awake?

Everyone of voting age should read these two books by him: Don't buy them,
just get them from the library.

From Dreams From My Father:
"I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I
began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites."

From Dreams From My Father :
"I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity
against my mother's race."

From Dreams From My Father:
"There was something about her that made me wary, a little too sure of
herself, maybe and white."

From Dreams From My Father:
"It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your
loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names."

From Dreams From My Father:
"I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my
own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd
packed all the attributes I sought in myself: the attributes of Martin and
Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela."

And FINALLY ............ and most scary:

From Audacity of Hope:
"I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly
direction."

Obama Anti-Debt Raising Poster

Liberalism Killing Rhode Island Towns

This I borrowed from The Old Jarhead.  Hope he doesn't mind, it was too good to pass up.

At the community center, the subsidized lunch for seniors is no longer being served. The pool has been drained. Health screenings have been cancelled. The locks to the building were changed last week, and not even the acting director is allowed inside. The public library has gone dark too, a sign on the door at the top of the stone steps telling patrons to return books elsewhere - indefinitely.

Central Falls, one ofNew England’s most distressed cities, is on the cusp of filing for bankruptcy protection - a relatively rare step for municipalities even in tough financial times. Since 1980, only about 46 cities or towns in the United States have sought such protection, according to James Spiotto, an attorney in Chicago who is an expert in municipal bankruptcies.

Last year, the state took over Central Falls - a city of 19,000 residents with an unadjusted unemployment rate of 15 percent - stripping the mayor of his keys to City Hall and the rest of his authority. That move came after every teacher was fired at the underperforming high school, with most of them rehired later. ... The 1.3-square-mile city north of Providence, where 60 percent of the population is Hispanic, faces $80 million in unfunded pension and benefits obligations and an estimated $25 million in deficits over the next five years. Officials said it was hard hit by a loss in state aid and the fact that expected collections from the Wyatt Detention Facility never materialized. 

(Central Falls. RI is a small community just north of Providence. 20-25 years ago a few central Americans moved into town. Then a trickle. Then a flood. Some of the Central Americans were legal immigrants, most were not. With the influx of the massive population shift to Hispanics came cocaine and cocaine traffickers The legitimate community became compromised and eventually succumbed. The tax base to support the community fell precipitously.

Now Rhode Island is very blue collar. Many blue collar folks are union workers and union workers vote for Democrats. Democrats embrace illegal aliens. The consequence is that the community is now on life support and about to have the plug pulled. The education system collapsed because none of the children speak English. 

The standard joke amongst law enforcement in Massachusetts is that if you stopped anyone from central Falls you likely have a drug dealer of trafficker on your hands.

This is what is now occurring inMassachusetts. First the community of Holyoke, then Lawrence and Chelsea. All Hispanic. To make matters worse we now have large communities of Brazilians. Most illegal, most dependent on public assistance because they are unemployable, simply because they are illegal, have a criminal background or have unsuitable skills for the job market in Massachusetts. 

The malignancy is sweeping many parts of USA. The metastases are spreading everywhere. Think about it. We are losing our country to a foreign invasion without a shot fired. Who do we have to thank? Essentially the democrat party and democrats. Our previous presidents Bush 41 and 43 have blood on their hands as well. They rolled out the unrestrictive welcome mat twenty years ago. Come one, come all, no papers, no problem, they only want the jobs Americans don’t want. Well, that is not the only thing they want. They want everything that you have in your pockets as well. --TC)


Read companion article at Boston.com here.

President Donates $100 Billion to the United Nations Cesspool

The UN has made a mockery of itself by its continuing attempts at a New World Order at the expense of freedom. Its programs are riddled with corruption and, as represented by the climate scandals, dictated by greed. This money is destined for the cesspool that is the UN. It is time the US went it alone and stopped all funding and support for the UN.

Excerpt: The U. S. State Department yesterday announced that the Obama Administration has agreed to contribute $4 billion to the United Nations Global Fund to fight AIDs, Tuberculosis, and Malaria from 2011 to 2013.

The $4 billion represents a 38% increase over the previous U.S. commitment to the fund.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that a total of $11.7 billion has been raised from 40 countries, the European Commission, faith-based organizations, private foundations, and various corporations.

This means that over one-third of the money will come from the pockets of US taxpayers.

These allocations are set forth in a 28 page document as follows:

- Funnel $63 billion to the Global Health Initiative during the next six years
- Make $1 billion annually to education programs
- Give $475 million to the Global Agricultural and Food Security Program’
- Provide $800 million from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation to Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and North Africa. An additional $3.2 billion will be provided by private equity capital sources to these Muslim nations
- Shell out millions more available through USAID for developing tech hubs in Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon, South Africa, and Senegal.
- Dole out $80 million through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation for small to medium enterprises in the Middle East and North Africa.
- Cough up $2.5 billion annually to 90 countries to “strengthen governance and democratic institutions.”
- Make available $30 billion through the Obama’s Climate Change Initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, $100 billion a year will be provided through taxpayer and private resources to deal with the alleged threat of global climate change.

Several candidates have called for the U.S. to sever its relationship with the United Nations. The list includes Dennis Ross, a Republican candidate for Congress from the 12th Congressional District of Florida.

In a statement to The New American, Mr. Ross said:

An organization that allows nations like Iran and Libya to chair committees dedicated to human and women’s rights makes a mockery of both. The UN, like any bureaucracy, must constantly be evaluated and put to the test, and if found lacking, be dismantled. I believe the US government is perfectly capable of conducting bilateral and multilateral relations with other nations on our own. Despots, human rights violators, and tyrants should be confronted, not congratulated.

Such concerns over the U.S. involvement with the UN are not new.

Senator Barry Goldwater was quoted in 1971 by the Congressional Record as saying:

The time has come to recognize the U.N. for the anti-American, anti-freedom organization that it has become. The time has come for us to cut off all financial help, withdraw as a member, and ask the U.N. to find a headquarters location outside the United States that is more in keeping with the philosophy of the majority of voting members, someplace like Moscow or Peking.

Read full Accuracy In Media report here.

FOX News - Allen West on the Debt Ceiling - Obama's Scare Tactics

Executive Order 13575 "RURAL COUNCILS" - Control Of Our Heartland

Ron Paul Submits Bill to Restrict TSA - Enough Is Enough

Palin to Newsweek: 'I Can Win' (Looking More Like A Candidate)

I am not certain that, with the high negative ratings within the Republican party, that Sarah could win even the nomination. I believe that many people don't believe she would have a chance in the general election and, therefore, would not vote for her in the primaries. That being said, her followers are extremely loyal and would be a force in any election.

Excerpt: In a move that signals she may be closer to making a run for the presidency, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said, “I believe I can win a national election.” Palin made her remark in a 4,000-word cover story in Newsweek.

“The people of America are desperate for positive change, and deserving of positive change, to get us off of this wrong track,” she told Newsweek in a long conversation in Iowa after attending the premiere of the documentary about her, “The Undefeated.” “I’m not so egotistical as to believe that it has to be me, or it can only be me, to turn things around,” she said. “But I do believe that I can win.”

She added that her daughter Bristol has made up her mind about her mother running for president. “I think Bristol has made up her mind, and Bristol wants me to run for president,” she said. “But we’re still thinking about it. I’m still thinking about it.”

Paradoxically, one thing that would keep her out of the race is her family. “If it came down to the family just saying, ‘Please, Mom, don’t do this,’ then that would be the deal-killer for me, because your family’s gotta be in it with you,” she told the magazine.

However, she also hinted that her family would not try to dissuade her from entering the race. “My kids know that life isn’t supposed to be easy, and it’s certainly not fair,” she told Newsweek. “And they know that, even on their end, they have to make some sacrifices for the greater good.”

Palin’s husband Todd, who sat in on part of the interview, said, “Do I want her to run?” “It’s up to her. I mean, we’ll discuss it. But she’s definitely qualified to run this country. And she’s got a fire in the belly to serve,” the magazine reported.

Read full Newsmax article here.

Taxes: Obama wants $1 trillion in taxes on top of what he's already signed.

All of a sudden the WSJ is starting to realize that Obama's deficit spending spree was his plan all along to eliminate his Republican opposition. It still could work. For some reason, some people still view him favorably. Let's see how effective the Tea Party can be in the 2012 elections.

Excerpt: So the fondest Washington hopes for a grand debt-limit deal have broken down over taxes. House Speaker John Boehner said late Saturday that he couldn't move ahead with a $4 trillion deal because President Obama was insisting on a $1 trillion tax increase, and the White House quickly denounced House Republicans for scuttling debt reduction and preventing "the very wealthiest and special interests from paying their fair share."

Keep in mind that Mr. Obama has already signed the largest tax increase since 1993. While everyone focuses on the Bush tax rates that expire after 2012, other tax increases are already set to hit the economy thanks to the 2010 Affordable Care Act. As a refresher, here's a non-exhaustive list of ObamaCare's tax increases:

• Starting in 2013, the bill adds an additional 0.9% to the 2.9% Medicare tax for singles who earn more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000.

• For first time, the bill also applies Medicare's 2.9% payroll tax rate to investment income, including dividends, interest income and capital gains. Added to the 0.9% payroll surcharge, that means a 3.8-percentage point tax hike on "the rich." Oh, and these new taxes aren't indexed for inflation, so many middle-class families will soon be considered rich and pay the surcharge as their incomes rise past $250,000 due to tax-bracket creep. Remember how the Alternative Minimum Tax was supposed to apply only to a handful of millionaires?

• Also starting in 2013 is a 2.3% excise tax on medical device manufacturers and importers. That's estimated to raise $20 billion.

• Already underway this year is the new annual fee on "branded" drug makers and importers, which will raise $27 billion.

• Another $15.2 billion will come from raising the floor on allowable medical deductions to 10% of adjusted gross income from 7.5%.

• Starting in 2018, the bill imposes a whopping 40% "excise tax" on high-cost health insurance plans. Though it only applies to two years in the 2010-2019 window of ObamaCare's original budget score, this tax would still raise $32 billion—and much more in future years.

• And don't forget a new annual fee on health insurance providers starting in 2014 and estimated to raise $60 billion. This tax, like many others on this list, will be passed along to consumers in higher health-care costs.

There are numerous other new taxes in the bill, all adding up to some $438 billion in new revenue over 10 years. But even that is understated because by 2019 the annual revenue increase is nearly $90 billion, or $900 billion in the 10 years after that. Yet Mr. Obama wants to add another $1 trillion in new taxes on top of this.

We think this was the President's spend-and-tax plan from the very first. Run up spending and debt in the name of stimulus and health-care reform, then count on Wall Street bond holders and the political establishment to browbeat Republicans into paying for it all. He apparently didn't figure on the rise of the tea party, or 1.9% GDP growth and 9.2% unemployment two years after the recession ended.

Last November Republicans won the House and landslide gains in many states in large part because of the deep unpopularity of the stimulus and ObamaCare. Mr. Boehner has a mandate for spending cuts and repealing the Affordable Care Act. If Republicans instead agree to raise taxes in return for future spending cuts that may or may not happen, they will simply be the tax collectors for Mr. Obama's much expanded entitlement society.

Read full WSJ article here.

Sam Vaknin Ph.D, Israeli Psychologist on Obama

Received this email today. Some time ago I posted an article about Obama's narcissistic tendencies. Thought you might be interested in this person's view.

Dr. Vaknin is an interesting person who he, himself, was diagnosed with NPD, Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Since then he has become somewhat well known as an expert on the subject of narcissism. See his Wikipedia page here.

If you go with the theory that it takes one to know one, then this article is for you.

Dr. Sam Vaknin is an Israeli psychologist. Interesting view on our president.

Dr. Vaknin has written extensively about narcissism.

Dr. Vaknin States "I must confess I was impressed by Obama from the first time I
saw him. At first I was excited to see a black candidate. He looked youthful,am
spoke well, appeared to be confident -- a wholesome presidential package. I was
put off soon, not just because of his shallowness but also because there was an
air of haughtiness in his demeanor that was unsettling.. His posture and
body language were louder than his empty words. Obama's speeches are unlike any
political speech we have heard in American history. Never a politician in this
land had such quasi "religious" impact on so many people.


The fact that Obama is a total incognito with Zero accomplishment, makes this cutout fit
inexplicable infatuation alarming. Obama is not an ordinary man. He is not a
genius. In fact he is quite ignorant on most important subjects."

Dr. Sam Vaknin, the author of the Malignant Self Love believes "Barack Obama
appears to be a narcissist." Vaknin is a world authority on narcissism. He
understands narcissism and describes the inner mind of a narcissist like no
other person. When he talks about narcissism everyone listens. Vaknin says that
Obama's language, posture and demeanor, and the testimonies of his closest,
dearest friends suggest that the man is either a narcissist or he may have
narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).

Narcissists project a grandiose but false image of themselves. Jim Jones, the
charismatic leader of People's Temple, the man who led over 900 of his followers
to cheerfully commit mass suicide and even murder their own children was also a
narcissist. David Koresh, Charles Manson, Joseph Koni, Shoko Asahara, Stalin,
Saddam, Mao, Kim Jong Ill and Adolph Hitler are a few examples of narcissists
of our time. All these men had a tremendous influence over their fanciers. They
created a personality cult around themselves and with their blazing speeches
elevated their admirers, filled their hearts with enthusiasm and instilled in
their minds a new zest for life. They gave them hope! They promised them the
moon, but alas, invariably they brought them to their doom.

When you are a victim of a cult of personality, you don't know it until it is
too late. One determining factor in the development of NPD is childhood abuse
"Obama's early life was decidedly chaotic and replete with traumatic and
mentally bruising dislocations,"says Vaknin. "Mixed-race marriages were even
less common then. His parents went through a divorce when he was an infant two
years old. Obama saw his father only once again, before he died in a car
accident. Then his mother re-married and Obama had to relocate to Indonesia ,
a foreign land with a radically foreign culture, to be raised by a step-father.
At the age of ten, he was whisked off to live with his maternal (white)
grandparents. He saw his mother only intermittently in the following few years
and then she vanished from his life in 1979. "She died of cancer in 1995."

One must never underestimate the manipulative genius of pathological
narcissists. They project such an imposing personality that it overwhelms those
around them Charmed by the charisma of the narcissist, people become like clay
in his hands. They cheerfully do his bidding and delight to be at his service.
The narcissist shapes the world around himself and reduces others in his own
inverted image. He creates a cult of personality. His admirers become his
co-dependents. Narcissists have no interest in things that do not help them to
reach their personal objective. They are focused on one thing alone and that is
power. All other issues are meaningless to them and they do not want to waste
their precious time on trivialities. Anything that does not help them is
beneath them and does not deserve their attention.

If an issue raised in the Senate does not help Obama in one way or another, he
has no interest in it. The "present" vote is a safe vote. No one can criticize
him if things go wrong. Those issues are unworthy by their very nature because
they are not about him.


Obama's election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review led to a
contract and advance to write a book about race relations. The University
of Chicago Law School provided him a lot longer than expected and at the end it
evolved into, guess what? His own autobiography! Instead of writing a scholarly
paper focusing on race relations, for which he had been paid, Obama could not
resist writing about his most sublime self. He entitled the book Dreams from My
Father.

Not surprisingly, Adolph Hitler also wrote his own autobiography when he was
still a nobody. So did Stalin. For a narcissist no subject is as important as
his own self Why would he waste his precious time and genius writing about
insignificant things when he can write about such an august being as himself?

Narcissists are often callous and even ruthless. As the norm, they lack
conscience. This is evident from Obama's lack of interest in his own brother
who lives on only one dollar per month.. A man who lives in luxury, who takes a
private jet to vacation in Hawaii, and who raised nearly half a billion dollars
for his campaign (something unprecedented in history) has no interest in the
plight of his own brother. Why? Because, his brother cannot be used for his
ascent to power A narcissist cares for no one but himself.


This election was like no other in the history of America . The issues were
insignificant compared to what is at stake What can be more dangerous than
having a man bereft of conscience, a serial liar, and one who cannot distinguish
his fantasies from reality as the leader of the free world?


I hate to sound alarmist, but one is a fool if one is not alarmed. Many
politicians are narcissists. They pose no threat to others. They are simply
self serving and selfish. Obama evidences symptoms of pathological narcissism,
which is different from the run-of-the-mill narcissism of a Richard Nixon or a
Bill Clinton for example. To him reality and fantasy are intertwined.

This is a mental health issue, not just a character flaw.
Pathological narcissists are dangerous because they look normal and even
intelligent. It is this disguise that makes them treacherous. Today the
Democrats have placed all their hopes in Obama. But this man could put an end
to their party. The great majority of blacks voted for Obama. Only a fool does
not know that their support for him is racially driven. This is racism, pure
and simple.

The downside of this is that if Obama turns out to be the disaster I predict,
he will cause widespread resentment among the whites. The blacks are unlikely to
give up their support of their man. Cultic mentality is pernicious and
unrelenting. They will dig their heads deeper in the sand and blame Obama's
detractors of racism. This will cause a backlash among the whites. The white
supremacists will take advantage of the discontent and they will receive
widespread support. I predict that in less than four years, racial tensions
will increase to levels never seen since the turbulent 1960's.

Obama will set the clock back decades. America is the bastion of freedom.
The peace of the world depends on the strength of America , and its weakness
translates into the triumph of terrorism and victory of rogue nations.. It is
no wonder that Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez, the Castrists, the Hezbollah, the
Hamas, the lawyers of the Guantanamo terrorists, and virtually all sworn enemies
of America are so thrilled by the prospect of their man in the White House.

Americaï is on the verge of destruction. There is no insanity greater than
electing a pathological narcissist as president

Obama's Budget - Budget Office: “We don’t estimate speeches. You can’t assign numbers to air."

Charles Krauthammer gets it right again. Obama, the Democrats and the MSM are again demonizing the Republicans for not getting anything done on the budget and the debt crisis. Ignoring the fact that for two years the Democrats were in control of the Presidency and both houses of Congress, and not once did they pass a budget nor did they legislate any solution to our mushrooming debt crisis. What hypocrites.

Excerpt: Here we go again. An approaching crisis. A looming deadline. Nervous markets. And then, from the miasma of gridlock, rises our president, calling upon those unruly congressional children to quit squabbling, stop kicking the can down the road, and get serious about debt.

This from the man who:

Ignored the debt problem for two years by kicking the can to a commission.

Promptly ignored the commission’s December 2010 report.

Delivered a State of the Union address in January that didn’t even mention the debt until 35 minutes in.

Delivered in February a budget so embarrassing — it actually increased the deficit — that the Democratic-controlled Senate rejected it 97–0.

Took a budget mulligan with his April 13 debt-plan speech. Asked in Congress how this new “budget framework” would affect the actual federal budget, Congressional Budget Office director Doug Elmendorf replied with a devastating “We don’t estimate speeches.” You can’t assign numbers to air.

It’s no mystery what is needed. First, entitlement reform that changes the inflation measure, introduces means testing, then syncs the (lower) Medicare eligibility age with Social Security’s and indexes them both to longevity. And second, real tax reform, both corporate and individual, that eliminates myriad loopholes in return for lower tax rates for everyone.

That’s real debt reduction. Yet even now, we don’t know where the president stands on any of this. Until we do, I’ll follow the Elmendorf Rule: We don’t estimate speeches. Let’s see if Obama can suspend his 2012 electioneering long enough to keep the economy from going over the debt cliff.

Read full Krauthammer report here.

Welcome To The Nanny State Nation Video

New EPA rules to devastate coal industry

As Obama said, under his policies, electricity rates would necessarily sky-rocket.

Excerpt: The coal industry is crying foul over new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations which they say will be among the most be costly rules ever imposed by the agency on coal-fueled power plants.

The result, industry insiders say: substantially higher electricity rates and massive job loss.

“The EPA is ignoring the cumulative economic damage new regulations will cause,” said Steve Miller, president and CEO of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE). “America’s coal-fueled electric industry has been doing its part for the environment and the economy, but our industry needs adequate time to install clean coal technologies to comply with new regulations. Unfortunately, EPA doesn’t seem to care.”

Thursday the EPA announced that they have finalized additional Clean Air Act provisions, collectively known as “The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule” to ostensibly “reduce air pollution and attain clean air standards,” by requiring coal companies in 27 states to slash emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide by 73 percent and 54 percent, respectively, from 2005 levels by 2014.

An analysis ACCCE released earlier this month by the National Economic Research Associates (NERA) used government data to examine the combined impacts of today’s rule and another EPA electricity regulation, the “Utility MACT” Rule. According to NERA’s examination, the EPA’s actions would cause a net job loss of over 1.4 million job-years by 2020.

Further, NERA found that electricity rates would increase over 23 percent in coal-reliant areas and that though the EPA might claim the regulations will create jobs, NERA predicted that for every job created four will be lost.

Read full Daily Caller article here.

SC Governor Nikki Haley signs Voter ID bill into law

Again, sanity rules in SC. Democrats say there is no proof that voter fraud exists and they intend to keep it that way. When identification measures are non-existent to gain access to the voter booths, it is impossible to prove fraud. There is plenty of evidence that ACORN was able to register hundreds of fictitious voters in the last election, so it is only reasonable to extend this to the voting booth. We must tighten our control to insure that there are no "hanging chads" in the next election. This is a great step forward.

Excerpt: With music pumping, Gov. Nikki Haley signed into law Wednesday a bill requiring S.C. voters to show a photo ID, such as a driver’s license, to cast a ballot.

Currently, voters only must show a voter registration card, which does not have a photo.
“If you can show a picture to buy Sudafed, if you can show a picture to get on an airplane, you should be able to show a picture ID to (vote),” Haley said during the signing ceremony, surrounded by supporters and lawmakers who pushed the bill.

Joe Dugan, chairman of the Myrtle Beach Tea Party, made the drive to see the signing and celebrate. “If we don’t have integrity at the ballot box, we don’t have it anywhere.”
But Democrats and bill opponents say the law will suppress turnout by likely Democratic voters, including the poor and African-Americans, who are less likely to have photo IDs or transportation to get one.

It also could hinder students from voting, they say. The law, which still must win approval from the U.S. Justice Department, does not recognize student IDs as a valid form of identification for voting.

Assuming it wins Justice Department approval, future voters will have to show a South Carolina driver’s license, other photo ID issued by the state Department of Motor Vehicle, a military ID or a passport.

Read full article here.

Florida governor signs welfare drug-screen measure

It appears the Florida legislature and Governor are doing what needs to be done to bring some sanity to the disbursement of taxpayer dollars to those in "need". Of course 5 Democrats came out immediately calling it "downright unconstitutional". Since when have Democrats ever cared about the Constitution?

Excerpt: Saying it is "unfair for Florida taxpayers to subsidize drug addiction," Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday signed legislation requiring adults applying for welfare assistance to undergo drug screening.

"It's the right thing for taxpayers," Scott said after signing the measure. "It's the right thing for citizens of this state that need public assistance. We don't want to waste tax dollars. And also, we want to give people an incentive to not use drugs."

Under the law, which takes effect on July 1, the Florida Department of Children and Family Services will be required to conduct the drug tests on adults applying to the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. The aid recipients would be responsible for the cost of the screening, which they would recoup in their assistance if they qualify. Those who fail the required drug testing may designate another individual to receive the benefits on behalf of their children.

Read full CNN article here.

Obama Quote Regarding Raising Debt Limit

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies.

"Increasing America ’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.” - U.S. Sen. Barack H. Obama, March 2006

Economic Freedom & Quality of Life

Thaddeus McCotter on Guitar

Carbon Dioxide Myth

Professor Ian Plimer could not have said it better!
If you've read his book you will agree, this is a good summary.

Are you sitting down?

Okay, here's the bombshell. The volcanic eruption in Iceland, since its first spewing of volcanic ash has, in just FOUR DAYS, NEGATED EVERY SINGLE EFFORT you have made in the past five years to control CO2emissions on our planet – all of you.
Of course you know about this evil carbon dioxide that we are trying to suppress – it’s that vital chemical compound that every plant requires to live and grow, and to synthesize into oxygen for us humans, and all animal life.

I know, it's very disheartening to realize that all of the carbon emission savings you have accomplished while suffering the inconvenience and expense of: driving Prius hybrids, buying fabric grocery bags, sitting up till midnight to finish your kid's "The Green Revolution" science project, throwing out all of your non-green cleaning supplies, using only two squares of toilet paper, putting a brick in your toilet tank reservoir, selling your SUV and speedboat, vacationing at home instead of abroad, nearly getting hit every day on your bicycle, replacing all of your 50 cents light bulbs with $10.00 light bulbs...well, all of those things you have done have all gone down the tubes in just four days.

The volcanic ash emitted into the Earth's atmosphere in just four days - yes - FOUR DAYS ONLY by that volcano in Iceland, has totally erased every single effort you have made to reduce the evil beast, carbon. And there are around 200 active volcanoes on the planet spewing out this crud any one time - EVERY DAY.

I don't really want to rain on your parade too much, but I should mention that when the volcano Mt Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1991, it spewed out more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire human race had emitted in its entire YEARS on earth. Yes folks, Mt Pinatubo was active for over one year – think about it.

Of course I shouldn't spoil this touchy-feely tree-hugging moment and mention the effect of solar and cosmic activity and the well-recognized 800-year global heating and cooling cycle, which keep happening, despite our completely insignificant efforts to affect climate change.

And I do wish I had a silver lining to this volcanic ash cloud but the fact of the matter is that the brush fire season across the western USA and Australia this year alone will negate your efforts to reduce carbon in our world for the next two to three years. And it happens every year.

Just remember that your government just tried to impose a whopping new carbon tax on you on the basis of the bogus “human-caused” climate change scenario.

Hey, isn’t it interesting how they don’t mention “Global Warming” any more, but just “Climate Change” - you know why? It’s because the planet has COOLED by 0.7 degrees in the past century and these global warming bull artists got caught with their pants down.

And just keep in mind that you might yet have an Emissions Trading Scheme – that whopping new tax – imposed on you, that will achieve absolutely nothing except make you poorer. It won’t stop any volcanoes from erupting, that’s for sure.

But hey, relax, give the world a hug and have a nice day!

PS: I wonder if Iceland is buying carbon offsets?

God Bless America - Observations

Received an email today directing me to an article on a blog site that discussed the origin of the song "God Bless America". In 1940, Irving Berlin and Kate Smith, patriots that they were, dedicated all proceeds from the song to the Boy Scouts of America.

There was also a clip from the movie "You're In The Army Now" with Kate Smith singing "God Bless America" on the radio while our soldiers were in harms way. Our emotions ran high as my wife and I listened and remembered back to our younger years.

It made me wonder how many of our children and children's children feel the same way we do about God and Country.

We live in a different world from when we were young. Progressives have infiltrated the base of our American society and have systematically eroded the core values of our founding fathers. The Constitution is a living document to be interpreted any way the liberal establishment wants. God and religion no longer have a place in our schools and government and are looked down upon by many as irrelevant. Much of the population believes that they are "entitled" to the fruits of others' labor. Those in power enact burdensome legislation while exempting themselves from their effect. Laws, such as those relating to immigration and voter intimidation, are selectively enforced to affect political goals.

Where has all this gotten us?

Billions of dollars have been spent since the formation of the Department of Education and we are falling further and further behind other countries in teaching our children.

Our economy is on the ropes because of overspending on "entitlements" and government programs that encouraged, and still encourage, home mortgages that people can ill afford. We have a welfare system that has succeeded in creating millions of single parent homes and doomed generations to poverty. Our elected leaders, Clinton, Sanford, Spitzer, Ensign, Schwarzenegger, and Weiner, just to name a few, have failed to exhibit the high standards we should demand of our government officials.

Our unofficial open borders policy has cheapened the prize that was once citizenship in the United States of America. Many of those that illegally flood over our border to the South refuse to learn the language and assimilate into the culture and, in the process, become a drain on the American economy. Illegal drugs have become necessities for many Americans and have enriched and strengthened the drug cartels in Mexico and other South American countries to an extent that violence runs rampant near our border and is steadily creeping Northward.

Violent teen mobs are running rampant in Chicago, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Atlanta and Las Vegas, bikers rioted in Myrtle Beach, copper tubing is being stolen from church air conditioners in Florida and union demonstrators are trashing the statehouse in Wisconsin. Civility and the rule of law are a thing of the past.

Marginalization of religion and the family, growing dependency on government and governmental control of every facet of our lives is not working. We need to rediscover what our founding fathers created, a Judeo-Christian nation with limited government and a citizenry that is free to achieve its destiny.

God Bless America!