Monday, April 30, 2012

IRS - Who did I miss?

I just received my tax return for 2011 back from the IRS. Puzzles me!!!

The question is, “How many dependents do you claim?”

I guess it was because of my response to the question: "List all dependents?"

I replied:

"12 million illegal immigrants;
"3 million crack heads;
"42 million unemployed people on food stamps,
"2 million people in over 243 prisons;
"Half of Mexico; and 535 persons in the U.S. House and Senate."
Evidently, this was NOT an acceptable answer.

I KEEP ASKING MYSELF, WHO DID I MISS? 

Sheriff Arpaio: ‘I’ll Put up More Tents’ If Supreme Court Upholds Arizona Immigration Law

What, no A/C, flush toilets or spring mattresses? Reminds me fondly of my early training time in the Army.


Excerpt: “I didn’t see any problem, other than the fact that some activists and politicians in Washington (don’t) like me enforcing the illegal immigration law,” Arpaio said. 


“And by the way, if they think that it will overcrowd the jails, I’m not concerned,” Arpaio said. “I got room in the tents. I got plenty of room. “I’ll put more tents up,” Arpaio said. “So that should never be an excuse (that) you can’t house these people.” 

Read full CNS article here.

Muslim Brotherhood's jihad against the U.S.

Go to source here.

Wind Farms cause global warming?

Found this interesting tidbit today: 


Researchers at the State University of New York at Albany analysed the satellite data of areas around large wind farms in Texas, where four of the world’s largest farms are located, over the period 2003 to 2011. 


The results, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, showed a warming trend of up to 0.72 degrees Celsius per decade in areas over the farms, compared with nearby regions without the farms. 


 “We attribute this warming primarily to wind farms,” the study said. The temperature change could be due to the effects of the energy expelled by farms and the movement and turbulence generated by turbine rotors, it said.

Read the full article here.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Hundreds rally to back hard-line Arizona sheriff

If the government spent as much money going after illegals as it does suing states and law enforcement, we would not have an illegal problem. As always, Obama and his Alinsky cohorts are fighting on the wrong side of the field in order to retain power and create class and race warfare here in the U.S.


Excerpt: As many as 200 activists, some chanting "go Joe, go Joe," rallied in Arizona on Saturday to support Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is facing a federal racial-profiling probe for his police sweeps against illegal immigrants. 


"Sheriff Joe is one of the very few guys who will enforce the immigration laws across this nation," said Randy Hatch, who used a megaphone to rally supporters of Arpaio at a park in this northeast Phoenix valley city. "Every constitution and country that has ever existed has had to have sovereign borders," he said to cheers from the crowd, some clutching placards reading "Sheriff Joe keeps us safe" and "illegal is illegal." 


Arpaio has also been under fire for his treatment of prisoners in his jails. Last month, a federal appeals court noted that a requirement that inmates wear pink underwear may be unconstitutional when applied to those not convicted of a crime. 


The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals took up the policy in reinstating a lawsuit against Arpaio and Maricopa County by the estate of a mentally ill man who died of heart problems in 2001, weeks after being forcibly dressed in the underwear. 


Supporters, though, said Arpaio's tough treatment of detainees worked. "He doesn't want you to return so it's not going to be a pleasant experience " said Mark Renner, 50, who said he had served time in the Maricopa County jail system. 

Read full Yahoo News article here.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Test of Fire: Election 2012 (Official HD Version - Catholic)

Rural kids, parents angry about Labor Dept. rule banning farm chores

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis
Control, control, control. How do we get this increasingly intrusive government out of our lives? Obama and his minions are doing everything that they can to destroy the work ethic in this country. Increasing food stamps and letting them be used to purchase anything, moving millions of unemployed onto disability, promoting the Occupy protests against Capitalism: all these tell me that Obama is out for change, but not the change that we believe in, but the change he and his radical socialist left believes in. Issa states that the Obama administration is the most corrupt he has ever seen and it is well funded by the slush funds created by the stimulus and Obamacare. 


We have a fight on our hands and it is time for the tea party to reactivate and show the far left that we are taking back our Constitutional Republic and that "we are not going to take it anymore". 


Government training as a substitute for 4H, regulating family farming; sounds a little Hitleresque to me. Excerpt: A proposal from the Obama administration to prevent children from doing farm chores has drawn plenty of criticism from rural-district members of Congress. But now it’s attracting barbs from farm kids themselves. 


The Department of Labor is poised to put the finishing touches on a rule that would apply child-labor laws to children working on family farms, prohibiting them from performing a list of jobs on their own families’ land.


Under the rules, children under 18 could no longer work “in the storing, marketing and transporting of farm product raw materials.” 


“Prohibited places of employment,” a Department press release read, “would include country grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, stockyards, livestock exchanges and livestock auctions.”


The new regulations, first proposed August 31 by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, would also revoke the government’s approval of safety training and certification taught by independent groups like 4-H and FFA, replacing them instead with a 90-hour federal government training course. 


“What would be more of a blow,” he said, “is not teaching our kids the values of working on a farm.” 


“Losing that work-ethic — it’s so hard to pick this up later in life,” Clark said. “There’s other ways to learn how to farm, but it’s so hard. You can learn so much more working on the farm when you’re 12, 13, 14 years old.” 


It’s something Kansas Republican Senator Jerry Moran believes simply shouldn’t happen. 


During a March 14 hearing, Moran blasted Hilda Solis for getting between rural parents and their children. 


“The consequences of the things that you put in your regulations lack common sense,” Moran said.


 “And in my view, if the federal government can regulate the kind of relationship between parents and their children on their own family’s farm, there is almost nothing off-limits in which we see the federal government intruding in a way of life.” 


The Department of Labor did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Read full Daily Caller article here.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Obama creating a nation of lazy, good-for-nothing mooches

An interesting fact in this article is the transfer of the unemployed into permanent disability. This in effect lessens the available worker base and makes Obama's unemployment stats look better. Also this vast increase in food stamps and disability add to the voter base that are dependent on the government. The longer they remain on the dole, the less likely they will ever go back to work. The Democrats depend on this to retain control of our government and our lives.


Excerpt: Food stamps are being used everywhere from cruise ships to casinos. There’s even a YouTube video showing how widely-accepted EBT (food stamp) cards are for non-necessities. Now, more people than ever have turned to the government program: The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday that 45 million people in 2011 received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, a 70% increase from 2007. It said the number of people receiving the benefits, commonly known as food stamps, would continue growing until 2014. 


 If the economy is getting better, why the expectation that more people will be requiring food stamps? Shouldn’t this have at least leveled-off if the jobs situation has stabilized? The CBO apparently sees an economy in decline for almost another two years. 


While food stamps could arguably be for those not necessarily lazy, those opting for disability instead of a job is getting out-of-hand [emphasis added]: 


A record 5.4 million workers and their dependents have signed up to collect federal disability checks since President Obama took office, according to the latest official government data, as discouraged workers increasingly give up looking for jobs and take advantage of the federal program. 


The number equates to 6% of the active workforce going on disability – a record ratio. 


Having the long-term unemployed go on to Social Security Disability is certainly better for the incumbent President and Democrat Senate. It falsely lowers the unemployment rate by taking those people permanently out of the work force.


Another negative impact is that Social Security is being drained even faster by folks who would otherwise be able to work. 


The relaxation of eligibility rules and Obama’s failed economy is accelerating the demise of the senior entitlement program by turning it into a permanent unemployment benefit. 

Read full article here.

Teacher makes a difference

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.


Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.


It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.


That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual. 


On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. 'Really?' she heard whispered. 'I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!' and, 'I didn't know others liked me so much,' were most of the comments.


No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.


Several years later, one of the students was killed in
Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.


The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.


As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. 'Were you Mark's math teacher?' he asked. She nodded: 'yes.' Then he said: 'Mark talked about you a lot.'


After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.


'We want to show you something,' his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket 'They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.'


Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.


'Thank you so much for doing that,' Mark's mother said. 'As you can see, Mark treasured it.'


All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, 'I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home.'


Chuck's wife said, 'Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.'


'I have mine too,' Marilyn said. 'It's in my diary'


Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. 'I carry this with me at all times,' Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: 'I think we all saved our lists'


That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.


The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.


So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.

Monday, April 23, 2012

If I Wanted America To Fail

An $8 billion trick? Toying with Medicare to fix election

Obama's definition of transparency, hide everything you can. Use of taxpayer funds for cover-up and re-election purposes should be illegal, but Congress, even if it holds hearings, will end up doing nothing, just like the Issa hearings relating to Holder. Congressional oversight is a joke and will not get any better until term limits for Congress are initiated.


Excerpt: Call it President Obama’s Committee for the Re-Election of the President — a political slush fund at the Health and Human Services Department. Only this isn’t some little fund from shadowy private sources; this is taxpayer money, redirected to help Obama win another term. A massive amount of it, too — $8.3 billion. Yes, that’s billion, with a B.


Here is how it works.


The most oppressive aspects of the ObamaCare law don’t kick in until after the 2012 election, when the president will no longer be answerable to voters. More “flexibility,” he recently explained to the Russians. Postponing the pain: The administration is temporarily restoring funds to Medicare Advantage so seniors don’t lose coverage before the election.


But certain voters would surely notice one highly painful part of the law before then — namely, the way it guts the popular Medicare Advantage program. For years, 12 million seniors have relied on these policies, a more market-oriented alternative to traditional Medicare, without the aggravating gaps in coverage. But as part of its hundreds of billions in Medicare cuts, the Obama one-size-fits-all plan slashes reimbursement rates for Medicare Advantage starting next year — herding many seniors back into the government-run program. 


Under federal “open-enrollment” guidelines, seniors must pick their Medicare coverage program for next year by the end of this year — which means they should be finding out before Election Day.


Nothing is more politically volatile than monkeying with the health insurance of seniors, who aren’t too keen on confusing upheavals in their health care and are the most diligent voters in the land. This could make the Tea Party look like a tea party. Making matters even more politically dangerous for Obama is that open enrollment begins Oct. 15, less than three weeks before voters go to the polls. It’s hard to imagine a bigger electoral disaster for a president than seniors in crucial states like Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio discovering that he’s taken away their beloved Medicare Advantage just weeks before an election. This political ticking time bomb could become the biggest “October Surprise” in US political history.


But the administration’s devised a way to postpone the pain one more year, getting Obama past his last election; it plans to spend $8 billion to temporarily restore Medicare Advantage funds so that seniors in key markets don’t lose their trusted insurance program in the middle of Obama’s re-election bid.


A Government Accounting Office report released this morning shows, quite starkly, that there simply is no experiment being conducted, just money being spent. Understandably, the GAO recommends that HHS cancel the project. 


Congress should immediately launch an investigation into this unprecedented misuse of taxpayer money and violation of the public trust, which certainly presses the boundaries of legality and very well may breach them. If he’s not stopped, Obama will spend $8 billion in taxpayer funds for a scheme to mask the debilitating effects on seniors of his signature piece of legislation just long enough to get himself re-elected.


Now that is some serious audacity.

Read full NYPost article here.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Barack Obama Part I – Religion and prayer

Read my Examiner.com article here.

Friday, April 20, 2012

If I had a dog

In My Seat - A Pilot's Story from Sept 10th - 11th

Illinois Bishop: Obama's path similar to Hitler's and Stalin's


He said it, I didn't. Might have thought it though.

Excerpt:
According to Jenky, the new Health and Human Services (HHS) contraception mandate has put the country on a dangerous path for religious freedom.

“[N]o Catholic institution, under any circumstance, can ever cooperate with the intrinsic evil of killing innocent human life in the womb,” he explained.

“No Catholic ministry — and yes, Mr. President, for Catholics our schools and hospitals are ministries — can remain faithful to the Lordship of the Risen Christ and to his glorious Gospel of Life if they are forced to pay for abortions,” Jenky went on to say.

Jenkey said that the church has survived thousands of years of persecution and will survive Obama and the recent HHS mandate, but it will require Catholics to stand for their beliefs — “heroic Catholicism, not casual Catholicism.”

“The church survived barbarian invasions. The church survived wave after wave of Jihads. The church survived the age of revolution,” Jenkey said. “The church survived Nazism and communism. And in the power of the resurrection, the church will survive the hatred of Hollywood, the malice of the media and the mendacious wickedness of the abortion industry.”

“The church will survive the entrenched corruption and sheer incompetence of our Illinois state government, and even the calculated disdain of the president of the United States, his appointed bureaucrats in HHS and of the current majority of the federal Senate,” he continued. “May God have mercy on the souls of those politicians who pretend to be Catholic in church, but in their public lives, rather like Judas Iscariot, betray Jesus Christ by how they vote and how they willingly cooperate with intrinsic evil.”

Jenkey recalled in detail other leaders that have “tried to force Christians to huddle and hide,” including Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.

“Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services and health care,” he said. “In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama — with his radical, pro abortion and extreme secularist agenda — now seems intent on following a similar path.”

See video and read full article here.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

California's loony schools - History out, alternative sex in


Have a recurring discussion with my neighbor who disagrees with my postings on homosexuality and other sexual proclivities that are not in the mainstream. It usually comes down to the point that he believes they were born that way. My view is that some were and some were not. Those that were not were directed that way through abuse when they were young or were indoctrinated somewhere along the line.

Working in NYC, for awhile in the fashion industry, I worked with many gays, most of whom were the nicest people you would want to meet. My angst is not with those that function normally, but with those that push it in your face. I would have the same problem with heterosexuals flaunting their sexuality in public. A little bit prudish, maybe.

This brings us to California. Let's get back to teaching the basics that prepare the students for the job market and get rid of the curriculum that is a thinly veiled advertisement for alternative lifestyles. What can these pinheads in California be thinking?

Excerpt:
One recent development was the launch of the Stop SB48 coalition.

It is to seek the repeal of SB 48, described as a controversial mandate that requires positive portrayals of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons in public school social studies and history classes. It has been widely criticized for shifting the focus from achievements and historical milestones to individuals’ sexuality.

SB48 is one of many sexual indoctrination laws in the law, critics said.

Others cited by Thomasson’s group:

SB 543, signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2010, “allows school staff to remove children ages 12 and up from government schools and taken off-campus for counseling sessions, without parental permission or involvement. The purpose is to permit pro-homosexuality teachers and administrators to remove sexually confused children in 6th grade and up from campus and take them to pro-homosexuality counselors who will encourage them to embrace the homosexual lifestyle.”

ACR 82, approved by the California Legislature in 2010, “creates de facto ‘morality-free zones’ at participating schools (pre-kindergarten through public universities). Schools that become official ‘Discrimination-Free Zones’ will ‘enact procedures’ (including mandatory counseling) against students from pre-kindergarten on up who are accused of ‘hate,’ ‘intolerance,’ or ‘discrimination’.” What is the hate? Peacefully speaking or writing against the unnatural lifestyles choices of homosexuality and bisexuality.

SB 572, signed by Schwarzenegger in 2009, establishes “Harvey Milk Day” in K-12 California public schools and community colleges. In classrooms, schools and school districts that participate, children will now be taught to admire the life and values of late homosexual activist and teen predator Harvey Milk of San Francisco the month of May.

SB 777, signed by Schwarzenegger in 2007, prohibits all public school instruction and every school activity from “promoting a discriminatory bias” against (effectively requiring positive depictions of) transsexuality, bisexuality and homosexuality to schoolchildren as young as five years old. SB 777 means children will be taught their “gender” is a matter of choice.

AB 394, signed by Schwarzenegger in 2007, effectively promotes transsexual, bisexual and homosexual indoctrination of students, parents and teachers via “anti-harassment” and “anti-discrimination” materials, to be publicized in classrooms and assemblies, posted on walls, incorporated into curricula on school websites, and distributed in handouts to take home.
SB 71, signed by Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 and implemented in 2008 through the new “sexual health” standards approved by appointees of Schwarzenegger and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, teaches children as young as 5th grade that any consensual sexual behavior is “safe” as long as you “protect” yourself with a condom, and teaches children that homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality is “normal.”

AB 1785, signed by Davis in 2000, required the California State Board of Education to alter the state curriculum frameworks to include and require “human relations education” for children in K-12 public schools, with the aim of “fostering an appreciation of the diversity of California’s population and discouraging the development of discriminatory attitudes and practices,” according to the state legislative counsel’s digest.

AB 537, signed by Davis in 1999, permits teachers and students to openly proclaim and display their homosexuality, bisexuality or transsexuality, even permitting cross-dressing teachers, school employees and student on campus, in classrooms, and in restrooms.

SB 48 takes the state even a step beyond its demand that students in public schools every year honor Harvey Milk, a homosexual activist and reported sexual predator, as well as an advocate for Jim Jones, leader of the massacred hundreds in Jonestown, Guyana.

In honoring Milk, schools are advocating for the acceptance of what Milk sought: the entire homosexual, bisexual and cross-dressing agenda; a refusal to acknowledge sexually transmitted diseases spread by the behavior; his behavior as “a sexual predator of teenage boys, most of them runaways with drug problems”; advocacy for multiple sexual relationships at one time; and “lying to get ahead”; according to SaveCalifornia.com.

Read full article here.

IQ can be enhanced


This is encouraging news for those of you who want to work to increase your intelligence or give your children a better chance in life. Perhaps this could be a Godsend for children with learning disabilities.

Excerpt:
Psychologists have long regarded intelligence as coming in two flavors: crystallized intelligence, the treasure trove of stored-up information and how-to knowledge (the sort of thing tested on “Jeopardy!” or put to use when you ride a bicycle); and fluid intelligence. Crystallized intelligence grows as you age; fluid intelligence has long been known to peak in early adulthood, around college age, and then to decline gradually. And unlike physical conditioning, which can transform 98-pound weaklings into hunks, fluid intelligence has always been considered impervious to training.

That, after all, is the premise of I.Q. tests, or at least the portion that measures fluid intelligence: we can test you now and predict all sorts of things in the future, because fluid intelligence supposedly sets in early and is fairly immutable. While parents, teachers and others play an essential role in establishing an environment in which a child’s intellect can grow, even Tiger Mothers generally expect only higher grades will come from their children’s diligence — not better brains.

How, then, could watching black cats in a haunted house possibly increase something as profound as fluid intelligence? Because the deceptively simple game, it turns out, targets the most elemental of cognitive skills: “working” memory. What long-term memory is to crystallized intelligence, working memory is to fluid intelligence. Working memory is more than just the ability to remember a telephone number long enough to dial it; it’s the capacity to manipulate the information you’re holding in your head — to add or subtract those numbers, place them in reverse order or sort them from high to low. Understanding a metaphor or an analogy is equally dependent on working memory; you can’t follow even a simple statement like “See Jane run” if you can’t put together how “see” and “Jane” connect with “run.” Without it, you can’t make sense of anything.

Read lengthy NYT article here.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The Occupy, MoveOn.org, SEIU, AFL-CIO, DNC Street Mobs Start Spring Training


Van Jones and the labor unions, many believe with the full support of President Obama, are following the Alinsky playbook, fomenting civil unrest to tear down our Capitalist system in favor of Socialism.

Excerpt:
Rejoice, those of you who believe that democracy is about making clear and honest choices. Clear steps toward transparency and accountability may have begun.

All pretenses that the hibernating Occupy movement is a self-sustaining, independent primal scream against – well, no one is really sure – are over. Like it or not, Occupy is now being officially fronted by a coalition of organized, disciplined, well-financed progressive advocacy groups proclaiming themselves The 99% Spring. Their announced goal is to unleash 100,000 enraged activists trained in civil disobedience onto America’s streets. The demonstrators will profess to be non-violent, but will inevitably be flanked by others who are not.

It’s going to be a long, hot summer as these shock troops and their fellow travelers seek to extract a bloody price if they don’t get what they want. The good news is that these organizations and the leftist politicians they support will not be able to disavow the actions of the people they draw into the streets once things turn ugly.

The 99% Spring website features a stunning agitprop video, complete with musical accompaniment by none other than Bruce Springsteen. Take a moment to watch the video to see how skillfully they manipulate imagery and emotions. Joseph Goebbels would be proud. Then look at the long list of supporting organizations and the coordinating messages on each sponsoring organization’s website. Here is a partial tally; can you spot the pattern?

MoveOn.org, The Ruckus Society, Progressive Democrats of America, International Brotherhood of the Teamsters, Service Employees International Union, United Auto Workers, AFL-CIO, Greenpeace, United Steel Workers, National Education Association, Communications Workers of America, Rainforest Action Network, American Federation of Teachers, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.

Every one of these groups has now openly declared class warfare, and they intend to fight this war not at the ballot box, but on the streets.

Why are these special interest groups going all-in? Because they understand that our country is approaching a tipping point. Four more years on our current trajectory and there will be no turning back. When an electoral majority owes its daily bread to the government – and doesn’t care where that bread came from – democracy enters a fiscal death spiral.

If America has any second thoughts about saying a final farewell to its roots as a constitutionally limited republic of strictly enumerated powers, this is our last chance. Unless we radically change course we will be irrevocably committing to a future as a European-style social democracy where equality of outcome trumps liberty, redistribution of wealth replaces private property, and entitlements supplant opportunity. And that is precisely what the Occupiers want.

Read full Forbes article here.

Happy Tax Day

Allen West not backing down from calling Dems "communists"

Obama Stimulus Dollars Funded Soros Empire


This is a fairly extensive report on the extent that George Soros is using Obama and the U.S. Taxpayers to extend his empire and control over the world economy. This report names the organizations that Soros has his tentacles in and their contribution to the progressive movement and their support of Obama. The free flow of billions of taxpayer dollars to these organizations are directly connected to a "fundamental change" of our capitalist society to a socialist government controlled state. Reading through this report explains why a great portion of the American population is completely in the dark as to what is going on. It is a well organized, well financed onslaught on our economy and Constitutional government.

A "fundamental change" in our freedom and way of life will be a reality if Obama is re-elected in November. This is a change you do not want!

Excerpt:
Newly recently released tax documents reveal how billionaire “philanthropist” George Soros expanded his U.S.-based empire by using funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the Obama stimulus. Soros and Obama worked hand-in-glove through the stimulus, which has been called the largest single partisan wealth transfer in American history.

In 2010, tax records show that Soros, a convicted inside trader with extensive knowledge of the American financial system and government policies under Obama, deployed grantees from his Open Society Foundations1 to lobby for and acquire federal contracts for job training, green energy, and community redevelopment programs. By gaining control over those resources, Soros advanced his agenda for “green economics,” open borders, and increased government handouts. In short, he grew his empire, which includes much of the “progressive” movement in the U.S., as the federal government and Obama’s political constituencies grew in power and influence.

This report analyzes George Soros’s grants to organizations in 2010. The records show massive coordination of non-profit networks in the states and nationally. Four powerful organizations and coalitions — The STAR Coalition, The Gamaliel Foundation, the Apollo Alliance, and Green for All — are given detailed scrutiny in this regard, with the involvement of Van Jones getting special mention. Jones is the former Obama “Green Jobs Czar” fired after information about his communist past surfaced through the work of anti-communist blogger Trevor Loudon and then-Fox News personality Glenn Beck. The lobbying power of such efforts ensured that stimulus funds flowed from taxpayers into union coffers and into the hands of other activists who had been instrumental in putting President Obama into office.

This report, “Obama Stimulus Dollars Funded Soros Empire,” includes an analysis of how Soros-funded organizations and networks operate, the strategies used to steer stimulus money to special interest lobbies, and an explanation of how taxpayers were forced to subsidize the “progressive” movement in the U.S. However, only Congress, with its investigative powers, can get to the bottom of how this money was spent and into whose coffers it ultimately ended up.

Make the Road taps into government funding to maximize the flow of taxpayer money to their clients. From their website:

Make the Road by Walking is excited to announce the expansion of our Healthcare Advocacy Services. As a new lead agency with the Department of Health’s Facilitated Enrollment Program, Make the Road’s Health Team is equipped to help complete and submit applications for people eligible for Medicaid and other government health insurance programs for children and adults, as well as guide and support applicants throughout the process. Says new health advocate Josefina Davila, “We are here to ensure that all uninsured, eligible community members have access to affordable health care programs.

Under the Obama administration, funding for such “navigation” of benefits has grown exponentially. In other words, taxpayers are being forced to subsidize organizations that use their resources to radically oppose American sovereignty and the rights of legal voters.

The final autopsy of his influence over the Recovery Act remains to be done. The work, in fact, has barely started.

As economists and others evaluate the effects of the Recovery Act, Congress should examine its political influence and motivations through subsidies for the “progressive” movement funded by Soros. Congress should take a closer look at his 2010 efforts to steer Recovery Act funding to organizations that sow racial, ethnic, and economic discord among Americans, or which hijack public control over government decision-making and place it in the hands of special interests.

Read full report here.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Why the Left Doesn’t Care About Voter Fraud


There is absolutely no reason for Eric Holder's Justice Dept. to try to delay voter photo ID laws except for the obvious answer: Obama and the Democrat Congress need the extra (illegal) votes in November.

Excerpt:
Except, of course, that wasn’t the point. O’Keefe wasn’t voting fraudulently; he was showing the public how easy it would be for someone with bad motives to vote fraudulently. And the DOJ knew that – it would take a full-on fool not to understand that point.

But the DOJ has no interest in that point. It is far more interested in leaving loopholes for voter fraud than in filling in those gaps.

Their stated motive for opposing voter ID is that increases the possibility of racial bias. As the Associated Press recently reported, “Liberal groups have said the requirements are the product of Republican-controlled state governments and are aimed at disenfranchising people who tend to vote Democratic – African-Americans, Hispanics, people of low-income and college students.” The Justice Department, in attempting to stop the implement of Texas’ new voter ID law, cited the same rationale, explaining that “Hispanic voters in Texas are more than twice as likely than non-Hispanic voters to lack a driver’s license or personal state-issued photo ID.”
Why this should be true is anyone’s guess. It is certainly not due to institutional racism – if it were, then the state would be sued on a regular basis for violating the Civil Rights Act. There are two forms of photo-issued ID in Texas: driver’s licenses and simple identification cards. Both are available through simple applications. Voters must register to vote. Why shouldn’t they also have to register to receive an ID beforehand?

And it isn’t expensive to get an ID, either. An original driver’s license in Texas costs $16; a six-year extension costs $25. A photo ID costs $6. It costs less that a decent Carl’s Jr. meal to register for identification.

But the cost isn’t the real issue. The only people disenfranchised by voter ID requirements are those who cannot obtain a voter ID – namely, illegal immigrants, felons, and others who should not be voting. And these are precisely the sorts of folks that Democrats love to register. In 2008, a full one-third of voters registered by ACORN and their affiliate, Project Vote, were fraudulent. Voter fraud has tainted presidential primaries in Iowa and Texas; Hillary Clinton supporters asserted, with significant evidence, that the Obama campaign regularly utilized fraudulent voting to impact results.

The American people are losing faith in the electoral process – especially when voter registration drives are run by lobbying groups with a very specific agenda. The leading voter registration drives largely spring from the bowels of the SEIU or the American Federation of Teachers. The unions are interested in registering voters – but they’re only interested in registering a particular kind of voter. That’s their prerogative. And it’s our prerogative to ensure that every American who votes isn’t cancelled out by someone voting illegally.

Read full article here.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Corzine Steals Billions Sans Charges, Errant Whale Watcher Faces Prison


Government has gotten so big and powerful that it cannot be controlled. Special interests buy their way in, self important legislators buy their tenure with taxpayers money and the Justice Department bows to the political wishes of the President and his cohorts. Corzine, a member of the Senate's old boys/girls club, who obviously lied to Congress, will, possibly never be accused of a crime; while punishment of a "commoner", for a lie about whistling, goes forward at breakneck speed. It is time that our Federal Government got whittled down in size and term limits for Congress be established.

Excerpt:
Justice may be blind, but who works overtime to make it deaf, dumb, and stupid?

Which would you imagine might attract more aggressive enforcement from the Justice Department: the theft of $1.2 billion from supposedly segregated customer brokerage funds, or lying about an alleged incident of whistling to attract the attention of a whale so that whale watchers could get a better peep? If you said the latter, then you appreciate the extent to which federal law enforcement priorities have run off the rails.

We know for a fact that enormous sums of money legally off limits have disappeared into the maw of disgraced Senator John Corzine's gambling counterparties, all of whom seem to have taken the oath of omerta. We know that Corzine personally asked employees at MF Global, the financial firm he headed until recently, to transfer the funds. We know that his underlings balked at signing false statements attesting the transfers to be legal. So how is it that the man ultimately responsible for this brazen theft and spectacular bankruptcy gets away with performing a perfunctory Sergeant Schultz "I know nothing" routine in front of his old Senate buddies, after which he is left free to walk out the door without handcuffs?

Meanwhile, marine biologist and whale watching ship captain Nancy Black faces 20 years in prison, not for "harassing" whales (which believe it or not is a crime), but because she has been charged with lying to Justice Department prosecutors investing allegations that some of her crew members whistled at a whale to keep it hanging around their boats.

You can't make this stuff up.

Who has set the priorities at the Justice Department that is allowing this to happen, and why? How can an SEC that can't catch a Bernie Madoff before he blows himself up or nail a guy like John Corzine after his hand, arm, neck, and head are caught in the cookie jar be expected to professionally, effectively, and impartially enforce the thousands of regulations inflicted on the rest of us?

But woe to anyone who messes with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's rules on harassing marine mammals. Or runs afoul of the Environmental Protection Agency when their backyard is declared a wetland. Or gets in a Davis Bacon labor dispute with a powerful union. Or fails to file accurate Affirmative Action Plan paperwork. Yet it seems that if you‘ve got the right Washington connections you can pick your clients' pockets and even burn the economy to the ground without suffering any consequences.

This is more than just justice gone awry. It is the systematic destruction of the rule of law and its replacement by shameless cronyism.

Read full article here.

Star Parker: Obama's reelection message - blatantly false and irrelevant


It is a shame that Obama is able, with the help of the MSM, to divert attention from the humongous economic issues of the day and steer the discourse toward a bogus non-issue he created. Thomas Jefferson said "The government you elect is the government you deserve".

Excerpt:
Give credit where credit is due. President Obama has laid out the core message of his reelection campaign. It is a message whose claims are blatantly false and whose point is irrelevant to what is of greatest challenges we face. Yet it appears to be working.

In his speech at Florida Atlantic University last Tuesday, the president discussed what he called "the defining issue of our time" -- namely, that America is not fair.

We suffer today, he says, from "a shrinking number of people who are doing really, really well, but a growing number who are struggling to get by." We are not a nation (the president never tells us if we ever were) where "everybody gets a fair shot and everybody does a fair share, and everybody plays by the same set of rules."

Excuse me for pointing out the irony of hearing from our nation's first black president the suggestion that America may no longer be a nation where dreams can be realized or where someone can come out of nowhere and make it.

But if America is unfair today, it is because politicians and government have the power to do exactly what it is that Mr. Obama wants to do -- seize control of the wealth of some and redistribute it to whomever they choose. The Bible that I read every day calls this theft.

At a time when Americans are looking for answers to restart our sputtering economy, our president chooses to use his time complaining about the wealthiest not paying sufficient taxes.

Of course, the president's real problem is that his policies have failed so he has to change the subject. He told us that the almost $900 billion in stimulus spending passed in 2009 would revive our economy and reduce unemployment to 6 percent. Three years later, unemployment stands at 8.2 percent.

There is no evidence that Obama has a clue about what why we are not on the path to recovery. But, unfortunately, he does have a clue about how to tap into the worst instincts of people in order to garner political support. Sadly, he hopes to reap the political dividends of inspiring blame and envy.

Read The Examiner article here.

Why America is Devolving Towards Absolute Government Control


Socialists and Communists have, for decades, had one thing in mind for the United States and the world, the creation of a New World Order with the elimination of capitalism and ownership of private property, and total governmental control. The original article in the Canadian Free Press is an eye opener as to the progress that has been made it their pursuit. I have included a few teasers for you here but I recommend that you read the full article.

Excerpt:
The relentless encroachment of socialism upon America’s economic, cultural and governmental landscape is like a bad dream to most red-blooded Americans. When society changes it can seem like the ineluctable drift of evolution or chance. But in the case of America’s ongoing continued expansion of government powers, spiking taxes, and shrinking military, it’s all part of a planned elitist push into socialism. And one need not believe in secret conspiracies when contemplating this shift. In fact, for those paying attention, it was all outlined long ago by the Fabian Socialist society, and other groups such as the Frankfurt School, as explained below.

I. Basic Socialism: History & Dogma

Socialism is a European phenomenon, beginning after the French Revolution with writers from Paris and London forming the core. The definition of socialism is: “a centrally planned economy in which the government controls all means of production.”

A. Vladimir Lenin’s ad hoc Socialism

B. Karl Marx’s Vision: Revolution

So Marx’s main interest in writing was to foment revolution, because without the collapse of capitalism, the promised paradise of total government control would never have room to occur. Knowing this, American leftists have long done whatever they could, in small and large ways to help birth the revolution upon American soil.

II. Congressional Record January 10, 1963

On January 10, 1963, Florida US Representative Albert Sydney Herlong, Jr gave a speech outlining what he believed to be the 45 methods communists were using to take over America. Ponder the staggering number of these goals already achieved, much to our mortal damage

III. Frankfurt School

IV. Fabian Society: Slow Conquering Socialism

Conclusion

America is infiltrated by Marxists active so long in undermining our institutions and ideals that socialism is now in our collective DNA. They seek an end to private property, representative democracy and rule of law. But once America has turned over leadership to committed liberals, who will be left to protect the world from takeover by globalists intent on universal tyranny? Unfortunately, the question answers itself.

Read full Canadian Free Press article here.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Crossroads knocks Obama in coal states with new radio ad



A conservative super-PAC will spend $175,000 on radio ads to knock President Obama on coal regulations in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The ad by American Crossroads, a Republican-aligned group founded by Karl Rove, uses clips from a news interview with Cecil Roberts, the president of the United Mine Workers of America, disparaging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Read full article here.

The Shocking Truth About Unemployment In America


If the MSM started reporting rather than promoting Obama, maybe the general population would be informed and be better able to make rational decisions about the future of our country. Anyone paying attention knows that the government statistics are rigged, but the uninformed "Jaywalkers" have very little in the way of facts to mar their adoration of "The One". This country is in deep trouble, and 4 more years with "The One" will seal it's fate. The Socialistic direction Obama is taking us in and the already insurmountable debt that he is creating, will doom us to being a second rate nation going the way of the PIIGS, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain.

Excerpt:
The mainstream media is not telling you the truth about unemployment in the United States. The percentage of working age Americans that are employed is not increasing. In March 2010, 58.5 percent of all working age Americans had a job. In March 2012, 58.5 percent of all working age Americans had a job. So if the employment rate is exactly the same as it was two years ago, then how in the world can the Obama administration claim that things have gotten significantly better since then? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the official unemployment rate in the United States was 9.8 percent in March 2010 and it declined to 8.2 percent in March 2012. So how is this possible if the percentage of working age Americans that have jobs hasn't moved? Well, what they do is they claim that there are millions upon millions of Americans that have "left the labor force". In other words, they claim that there are millions upon millions of unemployed Americans that don't want jobs anymore. Of course that is a total farce, but the mainstream media and most Americans are buying it. They actually believe that the unemployment rate is going down. But the truth is that the unemployment crisis in America has not subsided. In fact, we are pretty much exactly where we were two years ago, and things are about to get a whole lot worse.

If you want to know the shocking truth about unemployment in America, all you need to do is to look at one chart. The chart posted below shows the change in the employment-population ratio over the past few years. What the employment-population ratio measures is the percentage of working age Americans that actually have jobs. As you can see, it fell dramatically during 2008 and 2009, and since then it has been hovering between 58 and 59 percent...




So there has been no employment recovery, and this is very odd because the employment-population ratio always bounces back after a recession.

The chart posted below shows how the employment-population ratio has changed since the late 1940s. The shaded areas represent recessions. Please take note that after every single recession (other than the current one) the employment-population ratio has always bounced back substantially.


During the most recent recession, the employment-population ratio fell farther than it had during any other recession in the post-World War II era.

If these were normal economic times, it would have been reasonable to expect a huge surge in hiring by now.

But we have not seen that.

Instead, the employment rate in the United States has been remarkably flat for more than two years.

So Barack Obama should not even begin to say anything at all about a "recovery" until the employment rate at least breaks the 59 percent barrier.

Read full report here.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Random Thoughts by Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell's random thoughts include having people from the private sector give commencement addresses at colleges rather than career politicians; welfare largesse to losers increases their hostility to society; runaway taxes are the price we pay for being gullible; high taxes create a hostile business climate that sends jobs overseas; and politicians' "spread the wealth" means "concentrate the power".

Excerpt:
Random thoughts on the passing scene:

How long do politicians have to keep on promising heaven and delivering hell before people catch on, and stop getting swept away by rhetoric?

Why should being in a professional sport exempt anyone from prosecution for advocating deliberate violence? Recent revelations of such advocacy of violence by an NFL coach should lead to his banishment for life by the NFL, and criminal prosecution by the authorities. If you are serious about reducing violence, you have to be serious about punishing those who advocate it.

Have you noticed that what modest economic improvements we have seen occurred during the much-lamented "gridlock" in Washington? Nor is this unusual. If you check back through history, doing nothing has a far better track record than that of politicians intervening in the economy.

With all the talk about people paying their "fair share" of income taxes, why do nearly half the people in this country pay no income taxes at all? Is that their "fair share"? Or is creating more recipients of government handouts, at no cost to themselves, simply a strategy to gain more votes?

Some people are puzzled by the fact that so much that is said and done by politicians seems remote from reality. But reality is not what gets politicians elected. Appearances, rhetoric and emotions are what get them elected. Reality is what the voters and taxpayers are left to deal with, as a result of electing them.

Read full article here.

Why the President should be fired


This article lists a number of reasons to fire Obama in November, but I have reprinted a couple here. The most important reason is the possible appointment of two Supreme Court Justices in his second term. That will change the court for years to come and destroy our Constitution.

Excerpt:
President Obama believes that the U.S. Constitution is flawed, and despite his oath to protect and defend it, he has consistently ignored it. Almost immediately after taking office, he assumed power not granted to him by the Constitution. He took control over the auto industry. He picked GM’s board of directors. He cancelled debt owed to bond holders and gave that money to labor unions instead. He, through his people, decided which dealerships would close and which would remain open. Most of those that were closed, not surprisingly, were owned by Republican supporters.

Obama’s vision of the future of America is for the country to fit nicely into global governance (scroll to page 3 and read as much as you can stand) designed by the U.N., and to obey whatever decisions the international community may decide. This vision rejects American exceptionalism, free-market capitalism, property rights, and individual freedom. Obama has made great strides toward this vision during his first term. Should he be re-elected, there is nothing to slow his imposition of this vision on the nation.

This vision alone is sufficient reason to fire the President in November.

During the next four years, the President is likely to appoint two Supreme Court Justices. If Obama is President, the nation will get Justices who share Obama’s world-view. Their view will be the majority on the Supreme Court. Decisions such as the current battle over ObamaCare will automatically go against the Constitution, in favor of the Progressive vision of government control of everything.

Their decisions would guide the nation for a generation or more.

On the other hand, should Obama get fired next November, new Supreme Court Justices would be more likely to respect and support the Constitution. There is no doubt that the Progressive “One Worlders” will continue their fight to gain control of everything. Those who cherish their individual freedom, their property rights, their opportunity to go start a business, must get involved as never before. Without a doubt, the upcoming election in November is the most import election in a lifetime. The future of the United States is at stake.

Whether Obama’s opponent in the election is perfect or not is of little concern. What is important is that he is not Obama, and he will not advance Obama’s views. Tea Parties, 9/12, and property rights groups must activate their memberships and plan now to get as many people as possible to the polls. Labor unions and other Obama supporters are gearing up to win. Those who love and respect the Constitution must do the same.

This President and his administration must be fired!

Read full Canadian Free Press article here.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Lame Excuse: Holder's DOJ Says Evidence of Voter Fraud is Manufactured


Liberals have no interest in fair elections since this is only one of a number of ways they intend to win the election for Obama and a number of Democrat Congressmen.

Excerpt:
Desperate to prove that voter ID should not be presented in order to obtain a ballot, the DOJ fired back at O’Keefe and Project Veritas today, with a DOJ official telling tried-and-true media ally Talking Points Memo, “It’s no coincidence that these so-called examples of rampant voter fraud consistently turn out to be manufactured ones.”

This is nonsensical. Obviously this wasn’t an actual case of voter fraud—O’Keefe and Project Veritas didn’t want to break the law. And obviously the situation is manufactured—it’s the only way to show that voter fraud is easy and plausible, since we presumably don’t know when voter fraud takes place. That, in fact, is the point of the video: that voter fraud in this way is virtually undetectable and bears almost zero risk.

But the DOJ isn’t interested in the real point of the video. They know full well that voter fraud is simple when nobody has to show identification. They just don’t care, since they’re happy to watch political allies take advantage of the loopholes.

Read full report here.

US Attorney General Eric Holder's Ballot to Vote Offered to Total Stranger

One of many reasons that Obama has a chance to steal the 2012 election.

Excerpt:
In a new video (below) provided to Breitbart.com, James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas demonstrates why Holder should stop attacking voter ID laws--by walking into Holder’s voting precinct and showing the world that anyone can obtain Eric Holder’s primary ballot. Literally.

The video shows a young man entering a Washington, DC polling place at 3401 Nebraska Avenue, NW, on primary day of this year--April 3, 2012--and giving Holder’s name and address. The poll worker promptly offers the young man Holder’s ballot to vote.

The young man then suggests that he should show his ID; the poll worker, in compliance with DC law, states: “You don’t need it. It’s all right. As long as you’re in here, you’re on our list, and that’s who you say you are, you’re okay.”

The young man replies: “I would feel more comfortable if I just had my ID. Is it alright if I go get it?" The poll worker agrees.

"I’ll be back Faster than you can say Furious,” the young man jokes on his way out, in a reference to the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal that has plagued Holder’s Department of Justice.

Holder has maintained that voter fraud is not a major problem in the United States, and that voter ID would not curb voter fraud in any case.



Read full report here.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Van Jones group plans American’s “Arab Spring” revolt

I wonder how many of the union rank and file know that their dues are being spent to bring down our capitalist system, and if they do know, how many agree with an American "Arab Spring". It is time that "right to work" laws are adopted throughout the 50 states to free workers from the stranglehold that the radical union leaders have on them.

President Obama wanted Van Jones in his administration. I guess since Jones was forced to resign, Obama assigned him this task to organize the "Occupy" protests, continuing the class warfare that Obama started and believes will get him reelected.

Article by Paul Bedard in The Examiner:
An Egypt-styled “Arab Spring,” which has put radicals in charge of the government, will be launched in the United States this spring with a war on “corporate power, Wall Street greed and the political corruption of the 1 percent,” according to the group headed by former Obama green aide Van Jones.

“They’re really not going to like the 99 percent Spring,” said Rebuild the Dream in an organizing email Friday.

Comparing the collection of protests last year that are symbolized by the 99 percent campaign and Occupy movement, to those of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., the group said that “we were all inspired by the protesters of the Arab Spring who stood up to totalitarian governments, and inspired the Occupy movement here in America.”

The plan for now is to hold protest training sessions around the nation next week. Over 900 are scheduled so far.

Once ready, the group and dozens of others, notably MoveOn.org and labor unions, will launch the “99 Percent Spring” offensive against government and financial centers.

“We're at a crossroads as a country. In recent years, millions have lost their jobs, homes have been foreclosed, and an unconscionable number of children live in poverty. We have to stand up to the people who caused of all this and confront the rampant greed and deliberate manipulation of our democracy and our economy by a tiny minority in the 1%,” said Caroline Murray, of Rebuild the Dream Innovation Fund, in the organizing email

Read original The Examiner article here.

Michael Savage: How Obama fixed 2012 election

The Rebirth of Birthers?

The main question is and always has been, why doesn't Obama release his records? I would, and all his predecessors have, so why not Obama?

Excerpt:
New evidence, however, has reignited conservative interest in Obama's birth certificate. Conservative icon Sherriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona, at the behest of a petition presented by the Surprise, Arizona Tea Party organization, organized a "cold case posse" and completed a six-month examination of the released birth certificate in order to determine its authenticity. The results are in, Joe says, and they point to the document being a fake.

Skilled as Sherriff Joe's team undoubtedly is in identifying forged documents, last month offered interesting substantiation of the team's findings. Renowned skeptic of global warming theories Lord Christopher Monckton, who has experience investigating high-level fraud as a policy adviser under Margaret Thatcher, has given the claim added veracity.

According to World Net Daily, Monckton said that "it appears that the document was cobbled together in layers, pointing to evidence that three date stamps and a registrar's stamp were superimposed on it from another document." If there were a single, original document to verify the president's Hawaiian birth, why "go to all that trouble, he reasoned."

Monckton's conclusion? "My assessment is that they are right to be worried... That document is not genuine."

This conclusion glaringly lacks ambiguity. And if Monckton is correct, we should be beyond worried. We should be outraged, and we should demand justice for the betrayal of the American people's trust.

Mockton's testimony is a bombshell. It is a credible voice suggesting that the image on the White House website, offered to the American people in good faith, was presented as an accurate depiction of Obama's birth certificate, and for whatever reason, it is not. This is forgery, a crime in itself, but it is the reason for the possible forgery -- fraud -- that keeps the media and lawmakers from running with this amazing story.

Anyone calling Obama's birth certificate into question will have to entertain the notion that perhaps the forgery was made because the president does not have legal proof of his American birth. And anyone carrying that message will have the stink of "right-wing birther" on him, and he will be swiftly devoured by the attack dogs in the media and marginalized. So in a way, I don't blame conservative lawmakers and pundits for treading lightly around the issue.

Read full American Thinker article here.

President Obama and the Constitution

Read my post on Examiner.com here.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Obama Politicizes Augusta National and The Masters

The last sentence in this article relating that President Obama thinks the administration should play a larger role in our lives, points directly to the differences between the liberal/progressive/Democrats and Republican/Conservatives. The first want to control our lives and the latter want the freedom to act for themselves.

This is a little hypocritical of Obama since he didn't seem to speak out when, in 2009, the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs hosted a Pre-Inaugural Reception for him.

It also didn't stop him from nominating Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, who resigned from the all women club, the Belizean Grove, during her confirmation hearings.

It is obvious that Obama is using this as a campaign tool to increase his standing among women leading up to the November election. Many people have belonged to single gender organizations in their past, such as fraternities and sororities, and have not been irreparably damaged. Let the boys be boys and keep politics out of the granddaddy of all golf tournaments, the Masters.

Excerpt:
The White House’s spokesman said Thursday that the president believes that a golf club in Augusta, Ga., 551 miles from the White House, should change its membership rules and admit women as members.

The golf club in question is the Augusta National Golf Club, which is hosting the high-profile Masters tournament this week.

“It is obviously up to the club to decide, but his personal opinion is that women should be admitted to the club,” Obama’s spokesman, Jay Carney, said in response to a question from a reporter.

The private club does not invite women to be members. Feminist groups are pressuring the club, and its corporate sponsors, to change its long-standing rule.

However, Obama is trying to bolster support with feminist groups, partly because he’s trying to maximize favorable turnout among women in the November election.

Obama “believes Augusta should admit women. We’re kinda long past the time when women should be excluded from anything,” Carney said.

The new announcement reflects Obama’s view that the administration should play a larger role in the nation’s economy and civil society

Read Daily Caller article here.

Project Glass: Google Begins Testing Its Augmented-Reality Glasses

Computer technology is progressing at an ever increasing rate.

Excerpt:
If you venture into a coffee shop in the coming months and see someone with a pair of futuristic glasses that look like a prop from “Star Trek,” don’t worry. It’s probably just a Google employee testing the company’s new augmented-reality glasses.

On Wednesday, Google gave people a clearer picture of its secret initiative called Project Glass. The glasses are the company’s first venture into wearable computing.

The glasses are not yet for sale. Google will, however, be testing them in public.

A video released by Google on Wednesday, which can be seen below, showed potential uses for Project Glass. A man wanders around the streets of New York City, communicating with friends, seeing maps and information, and snapping pictures. It concludes with him video-chatting with a girlfriend as the sun sets over the city. All of this is seen through the augmented-reality glasses.

Read full NYT article here.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

ARPAIO TO DOJ: “I WILL NOT SURRENDER MY OFFICE TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT”

It is good to see someone stand up for his principles. Support Sheriff Joe against the oppressive "Chicago" Federal Justice machine.

Excerpt:
(Phoenix, AZ) A series of meetings between representatives for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the U.S. Department of Justice were slated to begin tomorrow to discuss ways to resolve allegations of racial profiling by Sheriff’s employees.

But hours before the first meeting, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Roy Austin of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division called Arpaio’s attorneys with an ultimatum. Austin stated that it was absolutely mandatory for the Sheriff’s Office to agree to have an outside monitor otherwise there is no reason for further meetings.

Appointment of an outside monitor essentially usurps the powers and duties of an elected Sheriff and transfers them to a person or group of persons selected by the federal government. Every policy decision, every operation, every new program in the jails and in enforcement, virtually everything would have to be approved by the monitor, nullifying the authority of the elected Sheriff and eviscerating the will of the citizens of Maricopa County.

“I am the constitutionally and legitimately elected Sheriff and I absolutely refuse to surrender my responsibility to the federal government. And so to the Obama administration, who is attempting to strong arm me into submission only for its political gain, I say, ‘This will not happen, not on my watch!’”

Read full article here.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Cato's Michael F. Cannon Discusses ObamaCare's Individual Mandate

DHS To Grant Illegal Aliens “Unlawful Presence Waivers”

Congress has passed a law that Obama doesn't like, so he has decided not to enforce the law as it relates to those illegals that have relatives who are citizens. What part of the word "illegal" doesn't Obama understand? He probably knows what the word means, but in this election year he has to lock in the Hispanic vote and that takes precedence over any silly old law.

Excerpt:
n its quest to implement stealth amnesty, the Obama Administration is working behind the scenes to halt the deportation of certain illegal immigrants by granting them “unlawful presence waivers.”

The new measure would apply to illegal aliens who are relatives of American citizens. Here is how it would work, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announcement posted in today’s Federal Register, the daily journal of the U.S. government; the agency will grant “unlawful presence waivers” to illegal aliens who can prove they have a relative that’s a U.S. citizen.

Currently such aliens must return to their native country and request a waiver of inadmissibility in an existing overseas immigrant visa process. In other words, they must enter the U.S. legally as thousands of foreigners do on a yearly basis. Besides the obvious security issues, changing this would be like rewarding bad behavior in a child. It doesn’t make sense.

But the system often causes U.S. citizens to be separated for extended periods from their immediate relatives,” according to the DHS. The proposed changes, first announced in January, will significantly reduce the length of time U.S. citizens are separated from their loved ones while required to remain outside the United States during the current visa processing system.

The administration also claims that relaxing the rule will also “create efficiencies for both the U.S. government and most applicants.” How exactly is not listed in the Federal Register announcement, which gives the public 60 days to comment. That’s only a formality since the DHS has indicated that the change is pretty much a done deal.

This appears to be part of the Obama Administration’s bigger plan to blow off Congress by using its executive powers to grant illegal immigrants backdoor amnesty. The plan has been in the works for years and in 2010 Texas’s largest newspaper published an exposé about a then-secret DHS initiative that systematically cancelled pending deportations. The remarkable program stunned the legal profession and baffled immigration attorneys who said the government bounced their clients’ deportation even when expulsion was virtually guaranteed.

Read full Judicial Watch report here.

Appeals court fires back at Obama's comments on health care case

This does need clarification since Obama seems to have his own view of the Constitution and the separation of powers. Why would there be a need for the Court if they couldn't strike down laws that they determine to be Unconstitutional? I guess if the Supreme Court doesn't do what he wants, he will just have to go around them and do it himself, just like he promised to do with what he considers a "do nothing" Congress.

Excerpt:
In the escalating battle between the administration and the judiciary, a federal appeals court apparently is calling the president's bluff -- ordering the Justice Department to answer by Thursday whether the Obama Administration believes that the courts have the right to strike down a federal law, according to a lawyer who was in the courtroom.

The order, by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, appears to be in direct response to the president's comments yesterday about the Supreme Court's review of the health care law. Mr. Obama all but threw down the gauntlet with the justices, saying he was "confident" the Court would not "take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress."

Overturning a law of course would not be unprecedented -- since the Supreme Court since 1803 has asserted the power to strike down laws it interprets as unconstitutional. The three-judge appellate court appears to be asking the administration to admit that basic premise -- despite the president's remarks that implied the contrary. The panel ordered the Justice Department to submit a three-page, single-spaced letter by noon Thursday addressing whether the Executive Branch believes courts have such power, the lawyer said.

The panel is hearing a separate challenge to the health care law by physician-owned hospitals. The issue arose when a lawyer for the Justice Department began arguing before the judges. Appeals Court Judge Jerry Smith immediately interrupted, asking if DOJ agreed that the judiciary could strike down an unconstitutional law.

The DOJ lawyer, Dana Lydia Kaersvang, answered yes -- and mentioned Marbury v. Madison, the landmark case that firmly established the principle of judicial review more than 200 years ago, according to the lawyer in the courtroom.

Smith then became "very stern," the source said, suggesting it wasn't clear whether the president believes such a right exists.

In asking for the letter, Smith said: "I want to be sure you're telling us that the attorney general and the Department of Justice do recognize the authority of the federal courts, through unelected judges, to strike acts of Congress or portions thereof in appropriate cases."

Read full CBS News report here.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Progressive Indoctrination in California’s Colleges

California colleges don't appear to be great choices for your children if you want them to learn to think. The teachings of Saul Alinsky, the Communist Party, and Hitler appear to be in full effect there.

Excerpt:
The analysis begins from a nonpolitical fact: Numerous studies of both the UC system and of higher education nationwide demonstrate that students who graduate from college are increasingly ignorant of history and literature. They are unfamiliar with the principles of American constitutional government. And they are bereft of the skills necessary to comprehend serious books and effectively marshal evidence and argument in written work.

This decline in the quality of education coincides with a profound transformation of the college curriculum. None of the nine general campuses in the UC system requires students to study the history and institutions of the United States. None requires students to study Western civilization, and on seven of the nine UC campuses, including Berkeley, a survey course in Western civilization is not even offered. In several English departments one can graduate without taking a course in Shakespeare. In many political science departments majors need not take a course in American politics.

Moreover, the evidence suggests that the hollowing of the curriculum stems from too many professors’ preference for promoting a partisan political agenda.

National studies by Stanley Rothman in 1999, and by Neil Gross and Solon Simmons in 2007, have shown that universities’ leftward tilt has become severe. And a 2005 study by Daniel Klein and Andrew Western in Academic Questions (a NAS publication) shows this is certainly true in California. For example, Democrats outnumbered Republicans four to one on University of California, Berkeley, professional school faculties; in the social sciences the ratio was approximately 21 to one.

The same 2005 study revealed that the Berkeley sociology department faculty was home to 17 Democrats and no Republicans. The political science department included 28 Democrats and two Republicans. The English department had 29 Democrats and one Republican; and the history department had 31 Democrats and one Republican.

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